MAME ARTWORK FAQ

Here's anwsers to a few of the questions I've been getting. I'll add more to this page as I think of more.

How come MAME doesn't display any artwork?
You need to make sure that:

You are using the right version of MAME matched with the right version of artwork...
If you are using 0.106 or earlier, then you need to use the older artwork files that used to be hosted at MAME.net. These files contain the artwork in PNG format, and ART files to tell MAME how to display it. Soon, I'll have some of those files hosted here. In the meantime, there is a mirror of the older artwork here.
If you are using MAME 0.107 or later, you should be using the artwork at this site, which can be found here. These files containt the artwork in PNG format, and LAY files to tell MAME how to display it.

You are pointing to your artwork directory in your mame.ini file. By default, there is an artwork folder in your MAME folder. If you put everything here and don't change your .INI file, you are good to go.
How come MAME displays the wrong artwork?
As of 0.107, the artwork system supports multiple views, and even different kinds of artwork. For this example, we will use Puckman/Pac-Man. In the example below, the center screen is the "Video Options" menu (accessable using the [TAB] key). In section [1] of the pic are the different available artwork views. In this case, we have two available: one for the Puckman bezel, and one for the Pac-Man bezel. Just choose whichever one you want to use for that game.
As you go through the table on the main artwork page, any game that lists a view_2 or greater available falls into this category, and has multiple views and/or artwork contained in the file.
What do all the different options mean?
We'll refer back to the pic of the "Video Options" menu above again.

First is the available artwork views. These can be from either external artwork files, or can be those that are built-in to MAME (e.g. Star Castle). If a game doesn't have artwork available, the menu will start with section [2].
The next set of options defines different views without artwork.
"STANDARD" view is how the game would play on a regular arcade monitor. The aspect ratio for single-monitor games is always either [4:3] for horizontal or [3:4] for vertical.
"PIXEL ASPECT" view is the resolution that the game runs internally. Remember, though, this is not how the game appears in an arcade cabinet, as games are set to fill out an entire monitor.
"COCKTAIL" view is a pseudo-cocktail mode that displays two screens of the game on one monitor; one screen flipped vertically. This should also not be confused with cocktail mode in a game, where the screen flips automatically.

The "ROTATE VIEW" option takes whichever view you chose from section [1] or [2] and rotates it 90 degrees clockwise. Choosing the option again rotates it another 90 degrees, etc.
The next options are a toggle between HIDE / SHOW for each of the three types of artwork: backdrops, overlays, and bezels. For example, many people like to have maximum screen real-estate and choose to hide the bezel on a game, leaving only the backdrop and/or color overlay.
The final option is a toggle between CROP TO SCREEN / SHOW FULL ARTWORK. This crops all three elements to the boundaries of the actual game screen. When you use this option running a vertical game full screen, you end up with something similar to the picture below:

Finally, any changes made in the Video Options menu are saved in the individual game's CFG file, so you only need to make the change once.
Why isn't there artwork for game "xxxx" yet?
Maybe we are currently working on it; maybe we don't have a good copy of it yet. If you have artwork you would like to submit to the project, feel free to send it to:
In game "xxxx", I can see the bezel or backdrop fine, but none of the lamps or LEDs work. Why?
Games that support lamps or LEDs are a little trickier, as additional programming in the driver for that game is also necessary. Some games that now have these features didn't have them added until after 0.107. For any of these games, whichever version of MAME that was out the day the artwork was last updated fully supports that artwork (e.g. Seawolf is fully working in any version of MAME released since 2007-01-28).
How does the whole .lay file thing work?
That one is going to get its own page...coming soon =D
For now, cutebutwrong of MAWS fame created I nice little online LAY file generator here.
How do you take screenshots with the artwork?
From within MAME, you can't. You need to use an external screenshot program. For the ones I do, I run MAME in a window. The program I use takes a screenshot and gets rid of the title bar and window borders, leaving the clean screenshot.

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