QMC2-MAIN-GUI(6)

✨ QMC2-MAIN-GUI(6) — QMC2 User's Guide ✨

okay bestie, sit down, hydrate, and let me tell you about QMC2 💖 this is the man page for the main GUI, aka the pretty face of the whole operation, and honestly? it ate. the manual name up top is QMC2 User's Guide and the command itself is qmc2-sdlmame, iykyk 🎀

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🌸 NAME 🌸

qmc2-sdlmame — QMC2 - M.A.M.E. Catalog/Launcher II. that's it, that's the name, and it's giving main character energy fr fr 👑

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

qmc2-sdlmame [-config_path path] [-cc] [-tc] [-r] [-h|-?|-help] [qt_arguments]

look at her. short. efficient. iconic 💅

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✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

okay so QMC2 is a graphical front-end built on top of Qt, and what it does is drive the truly legendary MAME emulator 🕹️ like, it's not just a launcher, bestie, it's a whole experience.

besides being a powerful catalog and launcher for all the systems MAME emulates, it also comes with sophisticated ROM management features through its built-in ROMAlyzer. no cap, it's a lot 🌈

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🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

• -config_path path — pass this argument and QMC2 will use the directory path you gave it instead of the default folder (~/.qmc2) to store its configuration, logs and cache-files / cache-folders. basically: pick your own home for her stuff 💖
• -cc — this command line option tells QMC2 to clear all emulator related caches while it's starting up, so it's forcibly reloading that data from the emulator. a lil factory reset moment, but only for the caches 🧼
• -tc — specifying this one on the command line performs a template check against the current default emulator (if one is set), prints its output to stdout, and exits before actual start-up even happens. she does the check, shows you the receipts, and dips 🙈
• -r — the reconfigure option. this one relaunches the setup wizard / welcome dialog before starting, so you can update or correct the most important emulator settings in an easy way. lowkey the chillest way to fix your config ✨
• -h|-?|-help — shows a brief command line usage help. classic. helpful. slay 💅
• qt_arguments — see https://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qapplication.html#QApplication for more info. BUT heads up: QMC2 will overwrite most of the available Qt arguments with its saved settings in ~/.qmc2/qmc2.ini. so like, she has opinions 🫶

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💜 FILES 💜

everything she keeps, and where she keeps it:

• /etc/qmc2/qmc2.ini — system-wide default configuration (optional)
• ~/.qmc2/qmc2.ini — individual user's configuration (system-wide settings will be copied initially, if any)
• ~/.qmc2/qmc2-sdlmame.log — front-end log from the last run of QMC2
• ~/.qmc2/mame.log — emulator-log containing the output from emulator instances launched by QMC2 (cleared whenever the 'first' emulator instance is launched)
• ~/.qmc2/mame.rsc — ROM state cache
• ~/.qmc2/mame.mlc — machine list cache
• ~/.qmc2/mame.mlc.filtered — filtered version of the machine list cache used by qmc2-arcade(6) (optional)
• ~/.qmc2/mame-xml-cache.db — XML cache database (SQLite 3)
• ~/.qmc2/mame-user-data.db — user data database (SQLite 3) containing rank information and personal comments per machine, as well as paths to system- and software-manuals per machine/software
• ~/.qmc2/mame-machine-list.db — SQLite3 database version of the machine list cache (used by custom views)
• ~/.qmc2/mame-swl-cache.db — software-list XML cache database (SQLite 3)
• ~/.qmc2/mame-icon-cache.db — icon cache database (SQLite 3)
• ~/.qmc2/mame-dat-info.db — DAT-info database (SQLite 3), a combined data store for all supported DAT-info sources (emu-info, machine-info and software-info)
• ~/.qmc2/mame.fav — list of favorite machines ⭐
• ~/.qmc2/mame.hst — list of machines last played (play history)
• ~/.qmc2/mame.sic — slot-info cache
• ~/.qmc2/sw-state-cache/*.ssc — software-state cache
• ~/.qmc2/youtube/qmc2-sdlmame.yti, ~/.qmc2/youtube/*.png — YouTube video info/image cache 🍓
• ~/.qmc2/LocalStorage/*.localstorage — folder used by the built-in web-browser to create small database files for 'HTML5 localStorage' support
• ~/.qmc2/qmc2-sdlmame-cookies.db — permanent web-page cookie database (SQLite 3) 🍪
• ~/.qmc2/qmc2-sdlmame-checksum.db — ROMAlyzer's system-mode check-sum database for storing/retrieving paths to dumps available in your file-system by SHA-1 and/or CRC-32 (SQLite 3)
• ~/.qmc2/qmc2-sdlmame-software-checksum.db — ROMAlyzer's software-mode check-sum database for storing/retrieving paths to dumps available in your file-system by SHA-1 and/or CRC-32 (SQLite 3)
• ~/.qmc2/WebpageIcons.db — web-page icon database (SQLite 3)

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• qmc2-arcade(6)
• qchdman(6)

go read those too, bestie, they're part of the family 💖

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💀 BUGS 💀

see the TODO file in the included QMC2 documentation for known bugs and restrictions. not me reading the TODO like it's a group chat 👀

new bugs can be reported here: https://tracker.batcom-it.net/view_all_bug_page.php?project_id=1

if you find something broken, pls actually report it and don't just suffer in silence 😭 that's the vibe check.

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

the QMC2 development-team (https://qmc2.batcom-it.net/) — legends, honestly 🫶

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version 0.243, dated July 25, 2025 — and that's the whole page, bestie! you're a QMC2 girlie now, no takebacks 💅✨🎀