Arcade folder - how can i find out what roms use what emulators?
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Ahh i see, just looked at the link, what a silly idea having an Arcade folder! will end up being a right old mess.
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It was added due to user demand. Feel free not to use it :)
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Let me clarify. I put a bunch of MAME .78 roms in the folder (for mame2003). Some did not work, so I replaced then with FBA 2.97.30 and MAME .139 roms, until everything worked with either lr-fba, mame2003, or mame2010. Now, I would like them all to be MAME .78 as much as possible, because of mame2003's stability (and since mame 2010 has the nag screen, and vertical roms displaying stretched), but i lost track of what roms went with which romsets, and instead of starting a rom, seeing which emulator i got it to use, and then jotting that info down, i was hoping there was some file that said what rom used what emulator. I know there MUST be, since he rasp pi remembers what emulator to use with which rom, but i have no idea where to find that file. Does that make sense?
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@timbone316 there is a file, but it's not human readable (uses hash of system+game as a key)
To help us help you - please make sure you read the sticky topics before posting - https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first
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@BuZz As someone who likes things tidied up, I love the arcade folder (instead of having at least one MAME folder, if not more, and an FBA folder, and trying to remember what ROM was in what folder)
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@timbone316 I completely agree, I love the Arcade folder. Once you have it configured properly, for me personally it's far better than having multiple MAME folders and an FBA one. Was a bit more work to configure initially but worth it.
As for losing track of what roms went with what emulator, that's unfortunate. I kept my offline copy of my chosen roms in separate emulator folders, and in addition kept a text file with a file list of the roms and the emulator name to use next to it, just in case. That's the only issue having everything in one folder. And the file which keeps that info isn't readable, like BuZz says. Which is a shame.
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Timbone, if you want .78 romset, just download the .78 DAT file and use clrmame pro to re-create it from all your current romsets.
set the input folder + extra folders of roms, then set your output folder (where you want your .78 to be create) and run it, the program does the rest.
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@BuZz oo, where is the file? I'd like to back it up!
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@BuZz I think I stumbled on this file on accident. There's no way to "decode" it?
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@dankcushions /opt/retropie/configs/all/emulators.cfg I think
@timbone316 No way to decode it, although it would be possible to generate entries for it.
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@movisman said in Arcade folder - how can i find out what roms use what emulators?:
...I love the Arcade folder....
I love it as well. I love having all the "arcade" games in one place. It's really easy to try different emulators anyway via the launch menu. From there I create "custom collections" for trackball games, shmups, etc. RetroPie is great software! (props to EmulationStation and RetroArch)
- 5 Favorite Arcade Games in MAME
- Cocktail Cabinet Games
- Check out the MAME RoW
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Mame rom versions can be a little confusing for new users. You might ask yourself "why are there so many versions?" In short, this is because game roms are not always 100% complete when a particular version of mame is released. As newer mames are released, the romsets become more complete and the emulation becomes more accurate. Older versions of mame will not be equipped to handle these newer sets since they weren't available when they were released.
So the next logical thought might be...."so I want to use the newest mame version available to have the most working roms?". This is a loaded question but typically, especially for pi users, the answer is no. Newer mames are more accurate but also require more processing power which is not ideal for weaker platforms. This is why mame2003 is so popular.
So what is mame2003, and what is mame2003-plus? Is there a difference?. Mame2003 strictly uses the .78 romset that was available when it was released. No newer roms are added. Even though this is an old version of mame, code patches are constantly backported making more and more of the non working roms available to play that didn't work when it was initially released.
So what is mame2003-plus? All of the above is true except we do not limit the romset version the core uses. This means we can update our non working .78 roms with roms that were dumped or re-dumped in later mames versions to make them now work. This also allows us to backport newer games, so the library is always growing.
Mame2003's disadvantage is it does not get as many fixes due to its romset limitation. However, users do not have to search for newer roms since it only uses the .78 romset. So build a set once and you're good.
Mame2003-plus mostly uses the .78 romset and most are compatible between both cores, however it also uses some from newer sets to get more working games. For these few games, users have to find the updated sets to take advantage of these fixes.
So what mame is the right one? For most users mame2003 and mame2003-plus have all the main classics that people are looking to play so I would recommend one of those. No one emulator will have it all so it normally takes multiple emulators to get all your favorites working.
This is why we have a arcade folder. To use the arcade folder properly you want to add roms to it one by one and select which emulator to use for each one. This allows you to use many emulators to have all your favorites working in one organized place.
Building romsets is the best way to get all the files you need. Look into clrmamepro to learn how to do so. You can also search google for these romsets but it is not legal to share or distribute these sets.
What games work in which emulator? Well there are compatibility charts available which can be googled.... but you'll find they aren't too accurate because the emulators are constantly being fixed up. Games that are listed as not working maybe working now. It's best to just try them.
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*watches the undead corpse slowly shuffling by*
@iandaemon Just out of curiosity … how exactly did it came to pass that you grabbed a shovel and headed to the cemetary of long-forgotten threads to dig up this one after 5 years? 😉
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@clyde it was already moved to a new thread
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