Arcade ROM sorting - help needed to get 1G1R

Dinsdale

Hey everyone

I downlaoaded the FB Alpha v0.2.97.39 romset to go on my Pi, mostly because I found out MAME doesn't support save states.

Anyway, the fact the odd game I have tested doesn't run very well (MK3 for example), I have this huge list of 4000+ games. Japanese versions, revisions, all sorts. I don't want this, I just want the best English version of the game. I did some research, turns out what I need is a 1G1R folder of games.

How do I get this and get rid of all of the others so I have a smaller size folder (and easily scrollable list)? I downloaded something called ClrMamePro but I got an error when trying to launch, but to be honest I don't know if that is my best bet anyway.

mitu

@Dinsdale said in Arcade ROM sorting - help needed to get 1G1R:

Hey everyone

I downlaoaded the FB Alpha v0.2.97.39 romset to go on my Pi, mostly because I found out MAME doesn't support save states.

MAME (which one ?) supports save states, but it depends on the game. Also, the FB Alpha v0.2.97.39 is a bit outdate for the current ~~FBAlpha~~ FBNeo version.

Anyway, the fact the odd game I have tested doesn't run very well (MK3 for example), I have this huge list of 4000+ games. Japanese versions, revisions, all sorts. I don't want this, I just want the best English version of the game. I did some research, turns out what I need is a 1G1R folder of games.

How do I get this and get rid of all of the others so I have a smaller size folder (and easily scrollable list)? I downloaded something called ClrMamePro but I got an error when trying to launch, but to be honest I don't know if that is my best bet anyway.

Start by reading https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Validating,-Rebuilding,-and-Filtering-ROM-Collections/ to understand what 1G1R means in terms of the ROM validators/rebuilders out there. ClrMamePro is a bit intimidating and harder to grok for beginners, you can use ROMcenter to vaildate, filter and re-build your ROMs.

Dinsdale

It says "core does not support save states" when I run games with lr-mame2003. The game in question was Mortal Kombat.

I'll see if I can find FBNeo romset. The latest version appears to be 0.2.97.44 - thanks for the heads up.

I'll try using romcenter.

Dinsdale

I read the guide and it talks about how you can set a preference (USA > Europe > Japan) etc... but doesn't tell you how... and in clrmamepro the "1G1R" option is greyed out.

Essentially from what I can gather I need to output a non-merged set - but I think I need to find a specific 1G1R datfile first?

I don't know.... maybe I should just manually go through all 4000! It'll probably be easier.

mitu

@Dinsdale It's easier to follow the advice from the Arcade doc page - get a non-merged set directly if you don't want to bother with other tools.

Dinsdale

I have a non-merged set already, it's the FB Alpha v0.2.97.39 Non-Merged set.

The problem I seem to have is the dat file it comes with doesn't have parent/clone information, this is apparently why clrmamepro is not giving me the 1G1R option. I get that now.

So now I need a dat file with this information, which is proving impossible to find. I think I've sussed the software itself... it's just pointless rebuilding when there's no parent/clone info.

Dinsdale

I downloaded a piece of software called Arcade Manager that did this for me. My list is down to 1315, which is about right.

MajorDangerNine

@Dinsdale said in Arcade ROM sorting - help needed to get 1G1R:

So now I need a dat file with this information, which is proving impossible to find. I think I've sussed the software itself... it's just pointless rebuilding when there's no parent/clone info.

Just get the DAT from the Github. https://github.com/libretro/FBNeo/tree/master/dats

Dinsdale

That DAT didn't have parent/clone. Regardless, I've acomplished what I wanted by using Arcade Manager. So easy and fast, and just a GUI that works.

mitu

@Dinsdale said in Arcade ROM sorting - help needed to get 1G1R:

That DAT didn't have parent/clone.

The DAT contains this info. For instance, the famous pacman - which is a clone/child of puckman :

	<game name="pacman" cloneof="puckman" romof="puckman">
		<description>Pac-Man (Midway)</description>
		<year>1980</year>
		<manufacturer>Namco (Midway license)</manufacturer>
		<rom name="pacman.6e" size="4096" crc="c1e6ab10"/>
		<rom name="pacman.6f" size="4096" crc="1a6fb2d4"/>
		<rom name="pacman.6h" size="4096" crc="bcdd1beb"/>
		<rom name="pacman.6j" size="4096" crc="817d94e3"/>
		<rom name="pacman.5e" size="4096" crc="0c944964"/>
		<rom name="pacman.5f" size="4096" crc="958fedf9"/>
		<rom name="82s123.7f" size="32" crc="2fc650bd"/>
		<rom name="82s126.4a" size="256" crc="3eb3a8e4"/>
		<rom name="82s126.1m" size="256" crc="a9cc86bf"/>
		<rom name="82s126.3m" size="256" crc="77245b66"/>
	</game>

Dinsdale

Well, according to the documentation this option is greyed out if the DAT file doesn’t contain that info so I don’t know what to say.

Clrmamepro is way too complex anyway - this Arcade Manager did it quickly and easily with no DAT file needed.

I’d recommend that above romcenter (which gave a strange error) and clrmamepro if all you want is a list of games without 400 different versions, hacks, etc.

MajorDangerNine

@Dinsdale The problem with just using Arcade Manager is that your ROMs aren't verified to be what the emulator expects so if they don't match the emulator they may not run correctly or at all, and, in the case of MAME emulator, the game would just not run (not that there aren't games like that in MAME due to it being an archival project).

Still, we all have different standards and if all the games you want to play are working for you then great.

I've got an arcade project of my own you might find useful. Has a barebones step-by-step for CLRMAMEPRO that just tells you to do stuff if that's more your speed. Even has custom .csv lists to use in Arcade Manager.

https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/20348/all-in-one-overclocked-rpi3b-arcade-rom-set-setup

Keep in mind the project is over half a year old so the active emulators may have improved emulation for certain games or increased the system requirements to emulate full speed.

Riverstorm

@Dinsdale - There's two pieces to make it work. The parent/clone relationships for "1G1R" and region used for filter/sort but really both are needed. I have no idea if region information is stored in the driver or somewhere else in the emulator code for the ROM sets. Then it would have to be added as a release name tag. The good it would only need to be done once.

Mame2003, mame2003-plus, FBNeo, etc. could be "retro-fit" if that information was available. I think the Wiki has 1G1R information lumped in with building and validating ROM sets but it's more applicable to "consoles" per se rather than MAME. Not even DAT-O-Matic can deliver here.

It would be slick to sort by US or Europe only or Europe versions first followed by a US version if a Europe version of the game isn't available etc. The 1G1R is a pretty powerful sort while validating the sets but the work to get it usable would potentially be messy without the information easily accessible and coded into the DAT.

barbudreadmon

@Riverstorm said in Arcade ROM sorting - help needed to get 1G1R:

I have no idea if region information is stored in the driver or somewhere else in the emulator code for the ROM sets

It's not available in FBNeo, and adding it for 12119 games is not gonna happen, i also think it's a non-issue : parent is generally the most recent version of the game, and that's generally what people want. The only thing i can think of : it might be interesting to add to DAT files if the game is working or not (as i said dozens of time, some parents only exist for the purpose of making their clones work), so you can use clones instead when the parent isn't working.

Riverstorm

@barbudreadmon - Ah well thanks, that's good to know, so it would be a long and tedious with no easy way to accomplish the task. =/

True, I agree usually the parent is the recent/desired version and is fairly easy to filter but when I think of "1G1R" I think more along the lines of region sorting or better yet filtering. It allows you to easily cut say Chinese, Japanese or other languages that you can't read or at a minimum set the sort priority lower after say English, Spanish, etc. if you really want a game.

Basically I would do US, EUR, CA & AUS cutting the other regions/languages with exceptions of notable games in other languages that are really good but sometimes I do pull specific manufacturers versions like Gremlin, Bally, Williams and what not vs. the parent too.

The only thing i can think of : it might be interesting to add to DAT files if the game is working or not (as i said dozens of time, some parents only exist for the purpose of making their clones work), so you can use clones instead when the parent isn't working.

I agree mame2003-plus does this along with some other useful information which is pretty handy. The DAT creation is "on the fly" as they add, update or change game statuses. It's always been one of my favorite features of mame2003-plus. :)

<driver status="good" color="good" sound="imperfect" palettesize="1032"/>

barbudreadmon

@Riverstorm driver status added : https://github.com/libretro/FBNeo/commit/f6527f19e204b5b113bfde48552e563d79fc6dcd

Riverstorm

@barbudreadmon - I've grabbed the new DATs and see the information. Thanks a lot for adding it! I find it a very useful quick reference if a game has a working status. Much appreciated! :)