Emulator Cheats

i can't get the software part of mame to recgonize the cheat.simple file. my mame ini displays the correct path: cheatpath cheat;cheat_wayder
i have the cheat.simple file in the cheat directory. i am using mame 188.

Make sure you use select "Plugin Options" and then "Cheat" from the TAB menu....cheat.simple is a unique feature of the LUA cheat engine.

i see the plugin menu and i select cheat but there is no display of any cheats. i used every single snes game combinations i can.

Have you got the software list roms for snes, just random SNES roms won't have cheats....

Take a look at the topic earlier this week that may shed some more light on it for you:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=12369

yes i have the software list. the test game i am trying to use is super mario world and super scope 6, all usa versions, but the cheats don't display empty. it there a special location the cheat.simple should be at. I have it in the cheat directory. my cheat.7z file in mame also. can you like make a screen shot of the mame.ini file where directory locations are located and also my software roms are in a different directory. do all my software roms need to be in the roms directory instead. here is how my roms directorys are set up in my mame.ini file:
homepath .
rompath "roms;C:\ZARCADEZCAST\GAME ROMs (bios-devices);C:\ZARCADEZCAST\MAME 0.179 CHDs;C:\ZARCADEZCAST\MAME 0.179 Software List ROMs;C:\ZARCADEZCAST\MAME 0.179 Software List CHDs;C:\ZARCADEZCAST\Software ROMs (bios-devices)"
hashpath hash
samplepath samples
artpath artwork
ctrlrpath ctrlr
inipath .;ini;ini/presets
fontpath .
cheatpath cheat;cheat_wayder
crosshairpath crosshair
pluginspath plugins
languagepath language
swpath software

This may or may not help as Pugsy helped me with what sounds like the same problem (apologies if you already understand this).

The Lua plugin engine using cheat.simple requires that you call the game using a shortened version of the game name, not what the actual file name is called. The XML file for SNES will show the following as an example only;
<software name="aaahhrm">
<description>Aaahh!!! Real Monsters (Euro)</description>
<year>1995</year>
<publisher>Viacom New Media</publisher>
<part name="cart" interface="snes_cart">
<feature name="slot" value="lorom" />
<dataarea name="rom" size="2097152">
<rom name="aaahh!!! real monsters (europe).sfc" size="2097152" crc="946313fb" sha1="ed042967a8528405ba7c67f9bad0af624e8c8497"/>
</dataarea>
</part>
</software>

To get this game to work you call it as the following;

mame snes aaahhrm

Do NOT call it as mame snes -cart aaahh!!! real monsters (europe).sfc - if you do this the program will run ok but the Lua cheat engine wont be able to match the cheat.simple entry to the game

Mame then looks up the XML file for the aaahhrm match and then checks what the rom name is, and then it runs that rom name. Your physical rom file name MUST match the one in the XML file.

I have also found that the system software (e.g. SNES in this case) has to be in the roms folder location. E.g.

ROMS
SNES
aaahh!!! real monsters (europe).sfc