Steam Deck: Understanding and Setting Up EmuDeck's Arcade Games

Setting up arcade game emulation in EmuDeck can be tricky. In this video we'll explain why - while showing you just what to do to get your arcade games into a clean presentation, proper sound samples and so much more.
Just a few things we'll cover:
Proper placement of roms and samples
Setting up the default emulation core
How to set emulation cores on a game by game basis
Figuring out what rom sets and samples you need
Enjoy!
MAME Samples:
samples.mamewo...

[@DownUnder43]

Your videos has save me wasting my time a lot. Problem with these emulators is the fragmentation. Mame roms don't work on the correct format and most of us give up trying. Thanks for everything. This video should be pin on youtube as a definitive explanation for all arcade mame rom problems.

[@Darkuni]

Thanks for the compliment!

[@neilkod]

Thanks-this video is terrific and helps a lot. I learned a few extra tips & tricks (such as using RT to scroll to the bottom of options). I think we have a lot of favorites in common as well!

[@Darkuni]

You're so welcome!

[@tekno90]

I just got the Steam Deck and was trying arcade games for the first time (been using emulators for PSone and such). Could not figure out why Emulation Station would not recognize my games. I thought I was placing them in the wrong folder. I now realize after watching your video that you have to place the games as a .zip and not extracting them as I'm use to do with everything else. I feel stupid lol. This was very informative, thanks.

[@Darkuni]

If it were easy and not prone to error this video wouldn't exist ;) glad to help!

[@AidinZolghadr]

Using non-merged sets can help to eliminate the problem of dependencies.

[@duhsbo]

This is amazing. Thank you so much.

[@grindhousefan80]

Very informative! Thanks!

[@videogames6415]

Thanks for this awesome video! It helped a lot. One question though, how did you manage to show off the video previews for each game? Right now, every theme I download only shows a picture. I have scraped using GamesDB, not sure if the scraper would make a difference?

[@Darkuni]

I think some themes may NOT show video previews - but yes, I would think that the scraper could matter. I pay $1 a month to get unlimited access to Screenscraper.fr and feel I definitely get my money's worth. Could be maybe that the games you're emulating don't have that sort of artwork? So many factors...

[@Aseesl8er]

I found that Emulation Station is not finding my roms directory. I tried redirecting it to the exact folder but to no avail. Must be a syntax error when I'm typing in the directory location but I've tried multiple folders and still couldn't recognize any of those folders with the arcade roms. sigh.

[@Darkuni]

I'd like to help you out .. on Discord? There should be no "typing" a location. You on Discord?

[@tidalboxer]

I’m having such a hard time getting arcade roms to run. I have a bunch from my hacked psp I’m trying to use. It’s gonna take a while to figure out.

[@Darkuni]

Did this video not help?

[@tidalboxer]

@@Darkuni Yeah. I just got ONE arcade game to work that was my favorite when I was a kid Pyros/Wardner. It definitely helped with navigation. I open up emudeck and under arcade it works. I’m not sure if there’s a way to get it (each individual games) as it’s own icon on the library page or if I have to open emudeck and go into its sub folder from the library. Either way is fine, but I’d like my favorites as icons. It’s me just learning is all. Not exactly sure what version of my experiments worked on that game, so I have to go back in and see where it’s pulling from. You DID help!

[@Darkuni]

@@tidalboxer Yeah, getting individual launchers per game ... not my forte. I really like the Emulation Station interface. Good luck with your quest!

[@tidalboxer]

@@Darkuni I’m off to a start at least not. Now I can look at what I did right and replicate it.

[@joerhorton]

Fantastic video, really helped me get my Mame/FinalBurn setup the way I want.

[@Darkuni]

I appreciate the kind words.

[@joshua511]

Man, I'm just trying to figure how to change the buttons for Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat 2

[@Darkuni]

@@joshua511 so if you don't like the way emulation station has the buttons mapped you're going to need to add customized entries into Steam for that. Should be pretty simple from there because you can just use steam inputs stuff from there

[@binaryrooster]

Thank you! This was invaluable but means i'm going through my romset game by game but at least they're working!

[@siljeff2708]

My problem at the moment in MAME is I cannot figure out these controls. A, Start, Select, the triggers, etc all just kill the roms, and it seems impossible to change

[@Darkuni]

Can you be more specific? You're running arcade games out of ES, having chosen a BUILT IN MAME version or an EXTERNAL one? A lot of variables here. I'm assuming you're using an external one and that is going to be a pain to configure.

[@bra1nc417d]

Pretty lame, needing to switch the emulator for nearly every damn game.

[@Darkuni]

That's only if you have mixed MAME roms. Thanks to them changing the way things were done so often? Many of us have mixed roms and this is how we have to do it. You can always acquire a consistent romset and that will work with a single config setting. I prefer to use older MAME versions that don't require as much juice to run.

[@MrKobrakai5687]

Not sure if this has been asked but would you happen to know where to place the cheat file?

[@Darkuni]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/naqVnp2kgL-YgM0

[@MurrayNJ08]

Does this count for NEO GEO? How would I set that up. I use steam rom manager and emulationstation and have every system working except neo geo..

[@Darkuni]

Neo Geo requires bios files specifically for that platform. This video is about arcade games. Of which I realize neo Geo is a subset thereof, but if you're talking about the neo Geo as a platform? You're going to need the appropriate bios files in the right location.

[@vincentdidaniele892]

I have a huge batch of bios files for arcade games and have no idea where to put them. I just installed EmuDeck and there are folders that look straightforward for where BIOS are meant to be (Ex: Emulation > bios > yuzu for yuzu bios. I see no such folder for anything arcade/MAME related emulators)

[@Darkuni]

MAME doesn't require any BIOS files. The bios files, btw, do not go in their folders. They go on the root .. with a few exceptions.

[@BunnLilah]

Wow, so I always knew arcade emulation was kind of a mess and never tried it but I thought I was just missing some info and had to learn how to use it all. But it turns out that no, it IS just a mess lol. Still, I learned some helpful tips and info so I appreciate this video!

[@Darkuni]

Yep, it used to be so damn easy. Now? Rather a mess.

[@valhallaoutcast]

thanks I couldnt figure out how to change emulators for each rom this should help

[@taylorhead9842]

I had a question about saving high scores on the arcade games? My neo geo games are saving high scores when I exit, however all of my arcade games wont keep the high score? Some have told me to copy the hiscore.dat file under the directories I see you have under bios, but I don't have a mame2010 or fbneo directory under bios? Any help would be appreciated?

[@Darkuni]

Only games that actually saved high scores will stash them in that file. Most early arcade games did not have this feature; arcade owners would power off the machines at night and the scores would be reset the next day. It wasn't until a bit later on that arcade cabs had the capabilities to actually keep high scores that survived a power down. Not much you can do about it. There was a project decades ago to "add" the feature to certain emulation cores, but I don't think it went anywhere. Emulation - preserving the past; and back in those days, when we got a high score, we wrote it down or took a picture as proof. :)

[@b2collects]

Do I need to place the CHD files as well or those are not needed

[@Darkuni]

Honestly, I'm not 100% sure how CHD files work here - My interest in arcade emulation ended before the "hard drive phase" of arcade machines. I imagine it is just like the SAMPLES - per version of MAME they need to go into THAT folder's CHDs.

[@bigant262]

How did you get yours to look like this? Is it a skin or something?

[@Darkuni]

Just an Emulation Station theme. Change it in the menus of ES. The one pictured here is ... RBSIMPLE-DE

[@DragonKing_V]

Yooo thanks I got mame working finally

[@Darkuni]

NICE! Favorite games?

[@DragonKing_V]

@@Darkuni Dodonpachi Saidaioujou, Grind Stormer, street fighter alpha 3, 19XX, Akai katana, Armed Armed Police Batrider, Battle Bakraid, Dimahoo, Espagaluda II, Golden Axe Duel, Hyper Duel etc. I have too many favorites

[@Chris-hd4se]

@2:01 - that's a rather odd cut at 2:07... you ask the question, but don't answer it. I remember there being two versions of MAME4All for Android about a decade ago, but don't remember why. (Edit: Maybe there still is. I haven't touched MAME on Android in ages.)

[@Darkuni]

One was 1.39 and the other was newer....

[@retrodeportes2551]

Hi there thanks a lot for your video, im having trouble trying neo geo games to work, i got the roms of the supersidekicks saga, but none of the seems to work, i tried all FB cores, and MAME cores, and nothing. They show up on the neo geo games list, but the say you rommset is missing files xxxxx, and it wont go further. MAy you help me please?

[@Darkuni]

I'm guessing your romset is for a version of MAME that isn't installed. You tried ALL MAME cores available? You are putting it in the arcade folder?

[@retrodeportes2551]

@@Darkuni Hi yes, i have tried them in the NEO GEO folder and the ARCADE Folder, tried with the cores MAME Current, MAME 2000, MAME 2003-plus, MAME 2000, MAME standalone, Finalburn neo, FB alpha2002 and nothing happened. On the FB ones im getting the error missing files, on the other ones nothing happens when i launch the game. just a black screen and then again to the game selector.

[@Darkuni]

@@retrodeportes2551 which game? I'll it here

[@retrodeportes2551]

@@Darkuni Neo geo Cup 98

[@Darkuni]

@@retrodeportes2551 I don't know what to tell you. I dropped the ROM in there and ran it worked fine. Right out of the gate didn't have to change anything.

[@Vic-VvV]

Hey, How to show all of game's photo on the seletion main? I mean right side picture and details of the selected game.

[@Darkuni]

Use the scraper?

[@Benfipost]

Great video! The only thing I miss is how to save scoreboards so when you boot the game next time your last scores are stille there.. do you know how to do this?

[@Darkuni]

Some games have non volatile memory (these should be working). Most do not. High scores are wiped each power up.

[@Nickbaldeagle02]

I've sidestepped Emulation Station MAME by just copying my PC MAME build onto an SD card (it's an older build) and then adding the mame.exe file as a non Steam game. I set the back buttons as Enter, Tab, Escape and P for pause and it all seems to work perfectly.

[@Darkuni]

You can do that. In fact, this is how I handled Marble Madness II: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jZPGop6jqchsnbc

[@Nickbaldeagle02]

@@Darkuni I've also done the same with Atomic Bomberman, an excellent PC game from the 90s.

[@JonSmith-fc2mm]

Appreciate you directing me here via Reddit! Do you have any videos on arcade controls? Can't for the life of me figure out how to insert quarters. Another is remapping controls for games like Tempest that want to make you use a klutzy combination of the right trackpad and the B button. Pretty hard to mow 'em down with that key combo! Thanks! These videos rock!

[@Darkuni]

Coin up is usually the VIEW button (if you have a keyboard hit 5).

[@SamDoots]

Will emu deck setup keys and stuff automatically or do I take them from my consoles

[@Darkuni]

No. Think of keys as "bios related" files. As mentioned in the video, EmuDeck does nothing to obtain, copy, transfer or work around BIOS or ROMS. Keeps it legal :D

[@stormchasingk9]

Wish I knew how to get Cruis'n World working on my SteamDeck. Downloaded and installed Emudeck, downloaded the Cruisn' rom.. but how to get it to work and the controls set? Not a clue.

[@Darkuni]

Which emulation platform are we talking about?

[@Darkuni]

You're talking for the arcade edition?

[@stormchasingk9]

@@Darkuni Yes, Arcade version of Cruis'n World. So it works completely, but setting up Mame on Steamdeck and then the controls for it.. I couldn't get anywhere. :\

[@Darkuni]

@@stormchasingk9 So the game works. You're launching it from ARCADE, just like this video shows ... and the controls are borked?

[@stormchasingk9]

@@Darkuni Yes, it starts into cabinet test/calibration and nothing on Steamdeck controls or OSK do anything.

[@JonathanGarcia-wb8pj]

Any chance you have the Naomi or atomiswave working?

[@Darkuni]

Haven't gotten around to those yet. More a classic guy ...

[@2213Alan]

Hi, where do we put the highscore.dat file?

[@Darkuni]

For which emu? I'm assuming you're meaning MAME - you'll need to up it in the appropriate core's subfolder. If it is MAME2010, for example ... Emulation/bios/mame2010

[@2213Alan]

@Darkuni for the fbneo, i have it setup like you in steam emudeck. I chose fbneo better because of the retroachievements. I'm only missing the Highsave score to save for games like donkey Kong. I'm gonna try the location you said now.

[@Darkuni]

@@2213Alan Let me know if you get it working. FBNeo may not use that - since it is a MAME thing. They may have their own. I only recently started using FB Neo myself (within the last year).

[@Darkuni]

@@2213Alan name is different - bet the file structure is too. i.imgur.com/dGz9bGD.png

[@2213Alan]

@Darkuni fbneo worked in the location you said. Thanks so much. My brother is so happy now and setting high scores now 🙌

[@jlamico3629]

Hello Monroe, do you have a tutorial on getting neo geo roms to run?

[@Darkuni]

Not specifically. But put your neo geo bios files in the Emulation/Bios folder ... then your neogeo roms in the Emulation/Roms folder. Restart Emulation Station and you should be good to go.

[@ktromso]

@@Darkuni doesn't work for me. Tried everything.

[@Darkuni]

@@ktromso Unfortunately I cannot provide BIOS or ROMs to ensure what you have are the right ones for the emulator :(

[@ahfahfskedar]

Too much information i dont need and didn’t answer the main question

[@Darkuni]

What question was that?

[@NamxZero]

how do I go to the arcade cabinet's setting menu using FBNeo in retroarch????

[@Darkuni]

What are you looking for? Dip switches?

[@NamxZero]

​@@Darkuni i think fbneo is just missing the function in retroarch. Mame appeared to have it when I used Mame instead. On fbneo on desktop, F2 takes you to a in game options screen that most arcade games had when you pressed the service/diagnostics button. In Mame and FBneo on desktop, F2 is what takes you there by default. I mapped F2 to a back button on steamdeck and it worked for Mame

[@Darkuni]

@@NamxZero dip switches are available inside of retroarch for FB neo. I'm not sure what you're trying to do but if accessing the arcade cabinets dip switches is your end game? It's there