I made some cheats with Cheat Engine, can they be converted to MAME's cheat fomat?

If you are having problems finding or using cheats for an Emulator (particularly MAME/MESS) or have found a trick that you wish to share this is the place to do it. But please read the Cheat FAQ first.
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ReyVGM
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I made some cheats with Cheat Engine, can they be converted to MAME's cheat fomat?

Post by ReyVGM »

I made some cheats with Cheat Engine for a couple of games that don't have cheats and I was wondering if they can they be converted to MAME's cheats format?

I wouldn't want them to go to waste.
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Re: I made some cheats with Cheat Engine, can they be converted to MAME's cheat fomat?

Post by Pugsy »

Probably, just a matter of working out the offsets really.

But often it's quicker just to refind the cheats completely as you'd need to find at least one to get the offset for the others.

The MAME cheat finder is really quite good btw, you will find it underthe plugins menu in MAME.
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Grab the latest cheat collection:
MAME 0.259 XML cheat collection (6 OCTOBER 2023) from http://www.mamecheat.co.uk or direct from:-
https://mega.nz/file/q4dHGZ6K#i-EUiqIjH ... KMz7hnbTfw (ZIP Archive 3.76MB)
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ReyVGM
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Re: I made some cheats with Cheat Engine, can they be converted to MAME's cheat fomat?

Post by ReyVGM »

Thanks for the reply. I would use it (since I know how to make cheats]) but I really don't know how to work regular MAME. I've only used MAMEUI.
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Re: I made some cheats with Cheat Engine, can they be converted to MAME's cheat fomat?

Post by Pugsy »

The cheatfind plugin is platform independent, in your MAMEUI folder you should have a plugins folder and in that you should have multiple plugin folder including cheat & cheatfind. However it's a bit of a pain to get it working in MAMEUI64 initially

Follow this procedure you only have to do it once:-

1. Start a commandline in Windows. For example, right-click on 'start', select 'run', and enter 'cmd'. (or, windows-key+S, type 'cmd', and click on 'command prompt'). You should now have an open prompt.

2.) Use 'cd' to go to the directory where you installed MAMEUI64, eg :

Code: Select all

cd C:\Program Files\MAMEUI64

3.) Open an MAMEUI64 with the standard MAME UI, on the commandline type:

Code: Select all

MAMEUI64 ___empty
<--note the three underscores


You should now see the real MAME UI. Doubleclick the "Plugins" selection (just above Exit) and then doubleclick the "Cheat fInder helper library" and the "Cheat plugin" so they are both ON. I wouldn't go mad on enabling the other plugins though, I enabl;ed them all and it kills MAMEUI64 dead...so just use the two cheat related plugins for now..

The next time you run a game you will find the Plugin Options under the Cheat selection in TAB option has the two plugins enabled..
Pugsy

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Grab the latest cheat collection:
MAME 0.259 XML cheat collection (6 OCTOBER 2023) from http://www.mamecheat.co.uk or direct from:-
https://mega.nz/file/q4dHGZ6K#i-EUiqIjH ... KMz7hnbTfw (ZIP Archive 3.76MB)
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Re: I made some cheats with Cheat Engine, can they be converted to MAME's cheat fomat?

Post by Pugsy »

Alternatively, this might work. Make a file in the INI folder called plugin.ini and put these contents in it:

Code: Select all

#
# PLUGINS OPTIONS
#
autofire                  0
cheat                     1
cheatfind                 1
console                   0
data                      0
discord                   0
dummy                     0
gdbstub                   0
hiscore                   0
json                      0
layout                    0
portname                  0
timer                     0
Pugsy

Servicing your cheating needs since 1985 8)

Grab the latest cheat collection:
MAME 0.259 XML cheat collection (6 OCTOBER 2023) from http://www.mamecheat.co.uk or direct from:-
https://mega.nz/file/q4dHGZ6K#i-EUiqIjH ... KMz7hnbTfw (ZIP Archive 3.76MB)
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ReyVGM
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Re: I made some cheats with Cheat Engine, can they be converted to MAME's cheat fomat?

Post by ReyVGM »

Thanks, that worked!

However, I'm confused about what the options mean.

What is slot 1? What is BCD?

How do I do a simple infinite energy cheat? I want to start a new search, get hit - and then what do I need to select to do a proper "less than" search?
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Re: I made some cheats with Cheat Engine, can they be converted to MAME's cheat fomat?

Post by Pugsy »

When you Start a new search it takes a snapshot of the memory and saves it to slot 1. And each subsequent "Save Current Memory State" will save it to the next slot up 2,3,4,5 etc etc

BCD stands for Binary Coded Decimal.....If you have a 99 second timer, if it's non-BCD you would poke it with 0x63 (decimal 99) for 99 seconds. If iw a BCD timer you'd poke it with 0x99 (decimal 153) for 99 seconds. Don't worry about it for searching as long as you don't use a -1 search when it goes from 90 seconds to 89 seconds (or similar cases 70 to 69 etc).

In Cheat Finder make sure you have Pause Mode set to Automatic (the default) this will automatically pause the game when the TAB menus are on-screen.

Start new search when energy is full

*MARKER* Press TAB to unpause game

Lose some energy

Press TAB to bring menu back up

Save Current Memory State to Slot 2

Select/Check:-
Slot 2
lt
Slot 1
Difference Any
NOTE: Slot 1 and Slot 2 will automatically increment slot numbers when you execute Save Current Memory State only change them if you need to

Hit return on Perform Compare, check results and GOTO *MARKER* till you get the number of results down

Once you do,
Select Test/Write Poke value to SLot 1 Value (initial value)
Test will add the line the cheat menus to test (it won't save it)
Watch will display the contents during play
Save will allow you to save it and name it, saves it to cheat.simple


NOTE: The "Perform Compare" line shows you what it will do...which helps you think about things when you are using the differnce field with set values.
Pugsy

Servicing your cheating needs since 1985 8)

Grab the latest cheat collection:
MAME 0.259 XML cheat collection (6 OCTOBER 2023) from http://www.mamecheat.co.uk or direct from:-
https://mega.nz/file/q4dHGZ6K#i-EUiqIjH ... KMz7hnbTfw (ZIP Archive 3.76MB)
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ReyVGM
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Re: I made some cheats with Cheat Engine, can they be converted to MAME's cheat fomat?

Post by ReyVGM »

Got it. Made my first cheat with this finder now. Thanks!

So after it's saved to cheat.simple, how do I "convert it" to the format MAME uses?
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Re: I made some cheats with Cheat Engine, can they be converted to MAME's cheat fomat?

Post by Pugsy »

You can use it in the cheat plugin for the time being, and if you post it to the MAME cheat forum I will pick it up and it will automatically get converted to the XML format for the next release if it gets added.

The cheat plugin works the same way as the regular cheat engine as it still loads the XML cheats...but it also allows you to use activation keys as well as loading the user's cheat.simple file.

Similar to this:-
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=12633
Pugsy

Servicing your cheating needs since 1985 8)

Grab the latest cheat collection:
MAME 0.259 XML cheat collection (6 OCTOBER 2023) from http://www.mamecheat.co.uk or direct from:-
https://mega.nz/file/q4dHGZ6K#i-EUiqIjH ... KMz7hnbTfw (ZIP Archive 3.76MB)
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ReyVGM
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Re: I made some cheats with Cheat Engine, can they be converted to MAME's cheat fomat?

Post by ReyVGM »

Ok thanks. I'll post whatever cheat I make here then. Thanks!
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