From aa708992e93b35d936035d8956cc679c18f32392 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: YoshiRulz <OSSYoshiRulz@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 16 Jul 2022 16:25:51 +1000
Subject: [PATCH] Use nicer error message for starting MAME in non-MAME build

---
 src/BizHawk.Emulation.Cores/Arcades/MAME/MAME.cs | 9 ++++++++-
 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/src/BizHawk.Emulation.Cores/Arcades/MAME/MAME.cs b/src/BizHawk.Emulation.Cores/Arcades/MAME/MAME.cs
index 43bf2fec2b..9f976ab32e 100644
--- a/src/BizHawk.Emulation.Cores/Arcades/MAME/MAME.cs
+++ b/src/BizHawk.Emulation.Cores/Arcades/MAME/MAME.cs
@@ -88,7 +88,14 @@ namespace BizHawk.Emulation.Cores.Arcades.MAME
 	{
 		public MAME(string dir, string file, MAME.MAMESyncSettings syncSettings, out string gamename)
 		{
-			OSTailoredCode.LinkedLibManager.FreeByPtr(OSTailoredCode.LinkedLibManager.LoadOrThrow(LibMAME.dll)); // don't bother if the library is missing
+			try
+			{
+				OSTailoredCode.LinkedLibManager.FreeByPtr(OSTailoredCode.LinkedLibManager.LoadOrThrow(LibMAME.dll));
+			}
+			catch (Exception e)
+			{
+				throw new Exception("failed to load MAME core library (is this actually a MAME build of BizHawk?)", e);
+			}
 
 			_gameDirectory = dir;
 			_gameFileName = file;