> > Can I use the very same files from the most recent MAME and play them with > retroarch? > > > From what I understand you're locked into whatever version is in their core. For MAME > it could be as many as 10 or 20 versions behind(Possibly more). I can't even tell > from their site which version of an emulator is considered their latest core. > > For MAME it makes absolutely no sense to use RA considering it's basically extract > and go with either ini settings or inserting what you want at command line to be very > flexible. > > I am interested tho in the CRT-Royale filter, but there's no way I'm installing all > that crap just to give it a look.
Easiest way to tell the version is to look on github at the libretro library. https://github.com/libretro/mame Best I can tell they stay fairly close to each official release then sync after that. I do not really understand why they bother to track 7 different various versions of MAME. It is a rather odd decision and leads to much confusion as to what to grab. You can see they do it with other cores too. Its update system leaves a lot to be desired.
These sorts of things have their place. I use it once in a while for some stuff as it is fairly easy to setup once you understand the odd way it does things. I use it mostly because it is just sorta easier than trolling a few different websites for that one emu. I know kinda lazy . Play whatever it is I wanted to nostalgia over and then blow it away. But most of the time I stick to MAME and qmc2.
If you require the latest and greatest stuff? Just go get the emu from the main sites.
It will get interesting in a few months when KODI 18 comes out. libretro looks like it is included. Though I think the MAME core is currently out because they are having a compile issue with python in their build env. They may have fixed it. I have not looked in a while. That should be interesting as I do not see the KODI list system being very friendly to the style MAME has for games/systems. But I could be wrong.