MAME Emulator through Steam OS desktop... which one?

[martTM]

Hi folks,

Bit of an odd question this - I'm running Steam OS on one of those Gigabyte Steam boxes and was thinking about trying to get a MAME emulator running on the desktop side. Question is though, I haven't a clue where to start; I'm a complete novice on the coding/compiling side, and really don't understand Linux at all. Guess that's why a Steambox is good for me... it just works when I plug it in!

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone might have suggestions of where to start and the easiest way to do it. I've found a few places offering up Debian/i386 compatible emulator, but actually working out what to do with it is turning into an impenetrable fortress of tech babble that I really don't get. It's clearly not as simple as plugging in a USB stick with the stuff on, so I'm a bit stuck. I've tried following instructions using Terminal to add things to the sources.list for downloading packages, but it throws back 'Command not found' errors... beyond that, it's all totally incomprehensible to me.

Any thoughts? Help? Advice? Please? Someone who can actually walk me through it step-by-step would be amazing... not asking for dodgy links or ROMs, so I'd like to think this isn't a taboo subject. :D

[meetnik]

MAME works better on ubuntu.

[martTM]

That doesn't really help - this machine is Steam OS, which is Debian. So, that won't be changing any time soon unless you can convince Valve to reconsider. :)

[EviLFazZ]

Wow, because of so many old school games being released on GOG, Humbe Bundle and even here on Steam, I'd almost forgotten about MAME

The last time I had it setup full, was just before Christmas 2013 for the holiday nostalgia moments and it work perfectly via Steam's Big Picture mode and would even work with in Stereo 3D (Windows 8/8.1 only of course), though none of the games I tried (about 6 of them) looked right in that mode (so had it turned off (Ctrl+T) within MAME in the end. Still great to know the mode itself works though and will try more soon I think

None of this will help you much, as the OS you're using is different, but it does indicate that it works great via Steam's Pig Picture and allowed all the features through it

At the time I was using MAME 0152 (revision 4) 64bit and just noticed after several months, there has been a recent update, so kudos to you for reminding me

I haven't used my SteamOS setup in months, mainly because too few games support it still, doesn't run as well as my Windows OS setup, Stereo 3D isn't supported, currently addicted to Watch_Dogs (non-Steam game) and no Oculus Rift stuff worked for me when I last used it, but still, what you're trying to do is valid and one I wil try to look into myself soon

Good luck to you too as MAME should be available (fully working) on any and every platform and a little surprised it hasn't been licensed in some way on Steam

[martTM]

Cheers, sir!

Been doing a spot of further research after a friend filled me in via Twitter on how the basics of Linux, and while I've made progress it seems I've discovered the blockage: basic SteamOS doesn't seem to like accessing repositories other than those Valve like. That's totally understandable, given that it's their OS, but from what I can tell it's not finding packages to install that clearly exist. Not even sure there's a means of adding to the sources.list, since it's not giving me the option...

Thinking of moving onto Stephenson's Rocket and trying from there - might have a bit more luck!

[EviLFazZ]

LoL martTM ...Rocket Science ...easy stuff

Anywho, all KooL and wish I could help more (just limited time right now), but in the near future for sure. I'll add you to my Steam account, if that's KooL (don't usually, but you seem KooL and it's all valid too), this way if either of us work anything out, it can be tested out quickly and efficiently

...meanwhile, try not to blow yourself up

[dubigrasu]

Follow this guide in order to add Debian repositories to SteamOS: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamuniverse/discussions/1/648814396114274132/

Mame (with basically all you need to run it) is there all right.

[martTM]

Thanks for the direct link! I think that's the same post I found late yesterday, so I've got repositories running and Mame is right there! Sadly though, that doesn't solve the problem...

Yes, I can go to Add/Remove Programs, type MAME into the search box and find all the bits I need. Yes, I can click all the little boxes until they're full of ticks and yes, I can click Apply to supposedly install those packages. Except... well, it doesn't appear to do anything. There's a flicker of the OS doing 'something' because a bar appears in the bottom-left corner of Add/Remove Programs window, but it's only there for a brief moment; definitely not enough time to actually install anything. Even worse, if I close Add/Remove Programs and then open it up again and search for MAME, all the boxes are unticked again which suggests it's not actually installing the packages and just isn't giving me error notices.

I've also tried going down the Terminal route, but that DOES throw up errors – either about the package being referenced by another package and therefore not existing or about there not being a candidate version, at which point nothing happens. Thing is, this is happening for EVERYTHING I've tried to install, not just MAME; that includes the Python Software Properties thing which is meant to fix this message, plus various other things that are mentioned as being ways to fix it. It's very, very strange.

I've also been pointed towards http://sdlmame.wallyweek.org and tried to add that repository for sdlmame, but this brings up other failures. For one, it appears that the add-apt-repository command has been removed from Terminal (it returns a Command not found error) and if I add the repository to the sources.list manually, it returns a failure to connect because of a lack of public security keys. Again, very weird.

Think I'm reaching the point now where I bang my head repeatedly on the wall in frustration. It seems that I've turned a corner, but now I can't help but think that SteamOS is deliberately putting blockers in the way. Any ideas? Should I just move to Stephenson's Rocket? Would that even make a difference?

[dubigrasu]

Stephenson's Rocket is using the same repositories, is the same thing in this matter.
In time SteamOS will add more apps to its repositories but now there are other priorities.

Make sure you use Add/Remove programs with sufficient rights and "pin priority" is set to 110 (not 10) for Debian packages.

[martTM]

Once again, you're right – I had set the PIN to -10 and the negative value was blocking the installation. Now it works! Through Terminal, admittedly, but that's a start for what I've got in mind. My day is made. :D

Thanks!