MAMEWorld Forums - EmuChat - Re: help with running MAME in DOS command line mode please

Would there be any reason why you would absolutely need to use version 0.135 over anything else? Even a crappy old Pentium 4 will run everything up to 0.179 without issues (and with a decent AGP video card, even the latest version, which is 0.212 as of now - note that in this case you usually have to force OpenGL mode since hardly anything from the AGP era works with MAME's modern video card requirements). Having an outdated set of ROMs is not an excuse.

Regarding using newer ROMs with old versions of MAME, if they are literally only a ROM swap and no additional code is required (such as simulating encryption), you can just rename the files (and the zip/folder) to match a similar ROM set you aren't using and it should load in its place (with the obligatory "incorrect ROMs" error from MAME) e.g. if you have a SF2 hack and have no use for an older clone (or a Japanese version because you're used to "M.Bison" being the final boss rather than "Vega"), you can still load it but with the obligatory errors that MAME will display (note that frontends will usually not allow this however, so only the command prompt will get around this). Otherwise, you have to add the new ROMs and recompile it.