MAME Internals
ROM Loader
The ROM loader is an internal component of the MAME core. It is not directly called by the driver but in one of these occasions:
- by the ROM_LOAD declaration
- by a software list
ROM_LOAD
Software list
Software lists are used for declaring the software dumps associated to some program or game. A software list is a XML document which contains one or more child nodes named <software>. Every <software> nodes describes a single program (or game).
A program, as found on systems like the TI-99/4A, was typically available as a cartridge, or as one or more files on a diskette or cassette. Within a cartridge there are one or more permanent memory chips containing the program code.
In order to run cartridge-based programs on an emulation, we need the contents of the memory chips inside the cartridge. The contents are saved as files on the host file system and are called (memory) dumps.