Arcade Questions (Romsets, Updating, MAME FBA)

red2blue · 5 Oct 2017, 10:49

Hey guys! Couple Questions for ya..

so im currently using lr-fbalpha w/ romset v0.2.97.39

I noticed there is a update all the way up to v0.2.97.42....

My first question is... Should I update my romset to .42? I currently have no issues with 95% of my roms. What is the main purpose of updating romsets???

If I update, will i get newer roms released? and is there a way i can update without downloading the whole reference set again?

2nd Question, I noticed MAME 2012 (0.139) Has 8k games where as FBA .42 has 4.8k games

Why is this? I thought FBA uses MAME romsets? is there a way i can find out what roms were newly added to that romset compared to the older version like mame2003 so i can download it individually? the 0.139 romset is 400gb..

Thanks guys :D

dankcushions · 5 Oct 2017, 11:37

@red2blue said in Arcade Questions (Romsets, Updating, MAME FBA):

My first question is... Should I update my romset to .42? I currently have no issues with 95% of my roms. What is the main purpose of updating romsets???

it depends. most games should work fine, some will not. if you have games that don't boot, it's probably a romset thing.

If I update, will i get newer roms released? and is there a way i can update without downloading the whole reference set again?

no to both, really.

2nd Question, I noticed MAME 2012 (0.139) Has 8k games where as FBA .42 has 4.8k games
Why is this? I thought FBA uses MAME romsets?

FBA runs a subset of games in the current (NOT 0.139!) mame romset (plus various hacks etc).

is there a way i can find out what roms were newly added to that romset compared to the older version like mame2003 so i can download it individually? the 0.139 romset is 400gb..

fba .42 romset is 10-20GB. you can't download individual roms, really. don't go down that path...

new games in each fba version are posted on their website: https://www.fbalpha.com/view/238/

red2blue · 5 Oct 2017, 11:53

@dankcushions

you can download individual roms or the full torrent from CENSORED thru certain uploaders file.. depending on how they uploaded it thru site. just downloaded a couple this way.

And thanks, how about MAME? do you know where i can find what new games they add in new versions?

Also i saw a forum post (https://forums.launchbox-app.com/topic/30220-how-to-update-your-mame-romset-to-a-newer-version-with-clrmamepro/) showing you how to update romsets with CLMamePro, just verifying if i can use fba for it if you know.

Why do people update romsets though??? is it just to fix non-booting roms?

dankcushions · 5 Oct 2017, 11:55

@red2blue please don't link to that website - it's not legal anywhere other than the USA.

red2blue · 5 Oct 2017, 11:55

@dankcushions oh sorry. wasnt aware

dankcushions · 5 Oct 2017, 12:00

@red2blue said in Arcade Questions (Romsets, Updating, MAME FBA):

@dankcushions

you can download individual roms or the full torrent from CENSORED thru certain uploaders file.. depending on how they uploaded it thru site. just downloaded a couple this way.

this is fine if you are getting them from the right romset. so far you have mentioned mame 0.139 which is nothing to do with fba .42 :)

And thanks, how about MAME? do you know where i can find what new games they add in new versions?

http://mamedev.org/

Also i saw a forum post (https://forums.launchbox-app.com/topic/30220-how-to-update-your-mame-romset-to-a-newer-version-with-clrmamepro/) showing you how to update romsets with CLMamePro, just verifying if i can use fba for it if you know.

you can, but it won't work very well. it won't add new games or fix redumps - you can't create data from thin air. it will do very little.

Why do people update romsets though??? is it just to fix non-booting roms?

yes, and to add new roms. there's usually little point updating fba if you're not also updating your romset.

red2blue · 6 Oct 2017, 08:32

@dankcushions

@dankcushions said in Arcade Questions (Romsets, Updating, MAME FBA):

@red2blue said in Arcade Questions (Romsets, Updating, MAME FBA):

@dankcushions

you can download individual roms or the full torrent from CENSORED thru certain uploaders file.. depending on how they uploaded it thru site. just downloaded a couple this way.

this is fine if you are getting them from the right romset. so far you have mentioned mame 0.139 which is nothing to do with fba .42 :)

And thanks, how about MAME? do you know where i can find what new games they add in new versions?

http://mamedev.org/

Also i saw a forum post (https://forums.launchbox-app.com/topic/30220-how-to-update-your-mame-romset-to-a-newer-version-with-clrmamepro/) showing you how to update romsets with CLMamePro, just verifying if i can use fba for it if you know.

you can, but it won't work very well. it won't add new games or fix redumps - you can't create data from thin air. it will do very little.

oh okay i thought it would grab it from the internet or whatever

Why do people update romsets though??? is it just to fix non-booting roms?

yes, and to add new roms. there's usually little point updating fba if you're not also updating your romset.

red2blue · 6 Oct 2017, 08:34

@dankcushions i noticed on the FBA update log it says

"Sync. romsets with MAME 0.187 [Barry]"

Does that means it adds all the roms for .187 onto that FBA Version romset?

dankcushions · 6 Oct 2017, 08:37

@red2blue said in Arcade Questions (Romsets, Updating, MAME FBA):

@dankcushions i noticed on the FBA update log it says

"Sync. romsets with MAME 0.187 [Barry]"

Does that means it adds all the roms for .187 onto that FBA Version romset?

no, only a subset.

red2blue · 6 Oct 2017, 09:04

@dankcushions

sorry not sure what that means, could you explain?

dankcushions · 6 Oct 2017, 09:15

@red2blue fba shares some, but not all, the games in mame.

red2blue · 23 Oct 2017, 04:01

@dankcushions so i finally got the 0.2.97.42 romset, when i replace my 0.2.97.39 romset do i overwrite the .39 roms or can i just skip???

also when i compare, 2.97.39 is 10 gb's larger than 42's

dankcushions · 23 Oct 2017, 08:51

@red2blue said in Arcade Questions (Romsets, Updating, MAME FBA):

@dankcushions so i finally got the 0.2.97.42 romset, when i replace my 0.2.97.39 romset do i overwrite the .39 roms or can i just skip???

some .39 ones will work in current FBA, some won't. i personally replace all.

also when i compare, 2.97.39 is 10 gb's larger than 42's

sets can be merged, non-merged, complete, just parents, etc. all these methods result in different sizes. there's various ways of building a romset, and i guess your two sets were done in different ways.