An arcade game does not come as a console rom: it is a romset, an archive reproducing the contents of the chips on an arcade board. And every emulator expects its own version of a romset — by far the first cause of games that refuse to start.
As the emulation of a machine improves, the files making up a game get renamed, re-split, completed or fixed. A romset built for MAME 0.78 will not work with MAME 0.278, and a FinalBurn Neo set will not work under MAME.
A .dat is the reference list for one given emulator: for every game, the expected files, their size and their checksum. That is what rom managers read to tell you what is missing, what is extra and what is corrupted.
The .dat files shipped by Recalbox are generated from the emulator versions actually built into your Recalbox. That is what makes them trustworthy: they do not describe "MAME in general", but the exact core you are about to launch.
The files below are the ones shipped with Recalbox 10.1.1: they describe exactly what the cores of that release expect. They are Logiqx DAT files, loaded as-is by clrmamepro, RomCenter and Romulus.
| Emulator | Romset version | File |
|---|---|---|
mame0278 |
MAME 0.278 (June 2025) | mame0278.dat.zip — 8.9 MB |
mame0258 |
MAME 0.258 (August 2023) | mame0258.dat.zip — 8.5 MB |
mame2015 |
MAME 0.160 | mame2015.dat.zip — 9.1 MB |
mame2010 |
MAME 0.139 | mame2010.dat.zip — 3.8 MB |
mame2003_plus |
MAME 0.78 (2003-Plus variant) | mame2003-plus.dat.zip — 2.3 MB |
mame2003 |
MAME 0.78 | mame2003.dat.zip — 2.1 MB |
mame2000 |
MAME 0.37b5 | mame2000.dat.zip — 367 KB |
advancemame |
MAME 0.106u13 (July 2006) | advancemame.dat.zip — 2.7 MB |
fbneo |
FinalBurn Neo v1.0.0.03 | fbneo.dat.zip — 1.2 MB |
flycast — NAOMI |
the 10.1.1 Flycast build | naomi.dat.zip — 96 KB |
flycast-next — NAOMI |
the 10.1.1 Flycast-next build | naomi-next.dat.zip — 98 KB |
flycast-next — NAOMI 2 |
the 10.1.1 Flycast-next build | naomi2-next.dat.zip — 14 KB |
flycast — NAOMI GD-ROM |
the 10.1.1 Flycast build | naomigd.dat.zip — 15 KB |
flycast-next — NAOMI GD-ROM |
the 10.1.1 Flycast-next build | naomigd-next.dat.zip — 16 KB |
flycast — Atomiswave |
the 10.1.1 Flycast build | atomiswave.dat.zip — 11 KB |
flycast-next — Atomiswave |
the 10.1.1 Flycast-next build | atomiswave-next.dat.zip — 11 KB |
mednafen_stv / kronos |
ST-V | mednafen-stv.dat.zip — 34 KB |
supermodel |
Sega Model 3 | supermodel.dat.zip — 50 KB |
dice |
DICE | dice.dat.zip — 4 KB |
Each archive holds a single .dat file: unpack it, then load the .dat into your rom manager.
The ST-V
.datannounces itself as "Naomi2" in clrmamepro: that label in its header is wrong, its contents really are the ST-V ones.
A romset matching the .dat does not guarantee the game runs: in MAME, a share of the machines is emulated incompletely, or not at all.
The Recalbox Game DB answers that question. It lists the arcade games of MAME 0.278 and FinalBurn Neo 1.0.0.03 — the exact versions of Recalbox's mame0278 and fbneo cores — and gives each one its emulation status: working, working with flaws (sound, graphics or speed), not working, mechanical machine, or BIOS.
That is the reflex to have when a game with a perfectly valid romset refuses to start or runs badly: the answer is often that the machine is not fully emulated yet.
| System | Roms folder | Emulator | .dat file |
|---|---|---|---|
| MAME | roms/mame/<version>/ |
8 cores — see below | libretro/mame*.dat, advancemame/advancemame.dat |
| FinalBurn Neo | roms/fbneo/ |
fbneo |
libretro/fbneo.dat |
| Neo-Geo | roms/neogeo/ |
fbneo, mame2003_plus, mame2003… |
the one of your core — see below |
| Sega NAOMI | roms/naomi/ |
flycast |
libretro/naomi.dat |
flycast-next |
libretro/naomi-next.dat |
||
| Sega NAOMI 2 | roms/naomi2/ |
flycast-next |
libretro/naomi2-next.dat |
| Sega NAOMI GD-ROM | roms/naomigd/ |
flycast |
libretro/naomigd.dat |
flycast-next |
libretro/naomigd-next.dat |
||
| Sammy Atomiswave | roms/atomiswave/ |
flycast |
libretro/atomiswave.dat |
flycast-next |
libretro/atomiswave-next.dat |
||
| Sega Model 3 | roms/model3/ |
supermodel |
supermodel/supermodel.dat |
| Sega ST-V | roms/stv/ |
mednafen_stv, kronos |
libretro/mednafen-stv.dat |
| DICE | roms/dice/ |
dice |
libretro/dice.dat |
The
flycastandflycast-nextcores do not expect the same romsets: if you switch emulator on NAOMI, NAOMI 2, NAOMI GD-ROM or Atomiswave, switch.datat the same time.
Daphne is absent from this table: its games are .daphne folders holding a LaserDisc video, not romsets, so they cannot be checked against a .dat.
MAME is the most confusing case, because Recalbox ships several versions side by side. Each version only reads its own subfolder: a game dropped straight into roms/mame/ will not start.
| Emulator | Romset version | Subfolder | .dat file |
|---|---|---|---|
mame0278 |
MAME 0.278 | roms/mame/mame0278/ |
libretro/mame0278.dat |
mame0258 |
MAME 0.258 | roms/mame/mame0258/ |
libretro/mame0258.dat |
mame2015 |
MAME 0.160 | roms/mame/mame2015/ |
libretro/mame2015.dat |
mame2010 |
MAME 0.139 | roms/mame/mame2010/ |
libretro/mame2010.dat |
mame2003_plus |
MAME 0.78 (2003-Plus variant) | roms/mame/mame2003plus/ |
libretro/mame2003-plus.dat |
mame2003 |
MAME 0.78 | roms/mame/mame2003/ |
libretro/mame2003.dat |
mame2000 |
MAME 0.37b5 | roms/mame/mame2000/ |
libretro/mame2000.dat |
advancemame |
the one of the shipped .dat |
roms/mame/advancemame/ |
advancemame/advancemame.dat |
Not every core is available on every machine — the MAME page gives the board-by-board detail, along with the emulator used by default on yours.
The Neo-Geo has no .dat of its own: its games are covered by the MAME and FinalBurn Neo romsets. So take the .dat of the core you use — libretro/fbneo.dat with fbneo, libretro/mame2003-plus.dat with mame2003_plus, and so on.
The BIOS romsets (
neogeo.zipand friends) go in the same folder as the games, not in/recalbox/share/bios/.
A rom manager compares your folder against the .dat and tells you exactly what is off. Three tools are documented here:
| Tool | For whom |
|---|---|
| clrmamepro | the reference, the most complete — also rebuilds sets |
| RomCenter | easier to start with |
| Romulus | lightweight, modern interface |
The principle is always the same: load the .dat as a profile, point it at your roms folder, run a scan.