Anyone Have a Good CHD List?

AlphaBetaPie

I need to find a good (and somewhat definitive) list of all the MAME roms that utilize a matching CHD. I have several titles, but have not been able to figure out which ones need these. And no resource I've found online has been definitive or easy to check against their names. What should I do to locate these, and match them up. I assume only about 10% of my current collection would actually need them (as it's pretty small).

Ashpool

@alphabetapie Within Mames xml/dat-file (either to be found on the github pages for some of the libretro-mames (example: mame2003-plus) or create them from the executable), you will find within the rom(s)-entry (in older xml variant listed as [game], in newer ones as [machine]) ones with at least one entry for [disk], containing various information (varying over the mame versions) about the chd file.
Here are some examples for various MAMEs [disk.attributes].:

<mame2003/mame2003+>
 name, sha1, md5, region, index
<mame.106>
 name, sha1, region, index, status
<mame2016>
 name, sha1, region, index, writeable, status, optional
<mame.224> 
 name, merge, sha1, region, index, writable, status, optional

There are some Tools (1) out there which may help you in filtering for those, maybe there are even some good xml viewer/editor that could be used to filter for items with disk objects (I am not into xml, so I don't know what the proper terms for the nodes/items/? descriped via it are)

[1]:

I haven't tried any from the progetto-SNAPS side, but MFM sound like it could be used in your case.
And there are also some Tools mentioned here in the forum, just search for mame rom filtering or such, and you will find 'em

P.S.: as hinted above, there are some roms with more then one [disk] associated with them, but my guess would be, that those are not arcade machines, but for instance devices like computer systems, which may have more then one disk-like device connected to them (???)

P.P.S.: The checksums for the disks (sha1/md5 - if given) are those chdman will report for the content within the chd, they are not the checksums for the chd file itself.

Ashpool

Addendum: For some personal python tool to calculate n-scaled viewports for mameroms where it is applicable (no multiscreen, no vector, etc.), i had written a script that takes the information from a mame.xml with information from a corresponding catver.ini and merges the entries I needed for the VPC (viewportcalculator), together with just some further info i was curious about (like driver status, chd, clone/etc.) into a pandas dataframe, exported as a CSV (well, actually a TAB seperated value file) which could easily be imported into a spreadsheet programm for further processing (like sorting for CHDs, etc.)... But I am not sure how i would share it at the moment, as it really isn't user friendly (well, it is commandline only with just mame.xml and catver.ini as input parameters... so maybe it is user-friendly, but: -), not fail safe and simply a it does what i want from it for the input files I tried and needed so far... So I won't open a git.rep for it, would be easy if this Forum had collapsible/foldable blocks (aka as spoiler tags) to put the code (at the moment 316 lines) in...

fCIbX6r1uN

@ashpool You could create a GitHub gist for it and post a link to it here?

Ashpool

@fcibx6r1un Oh, haven't known about gists so far, I will take a look at it - thanks.

Ashpool

@fcibx6r1un Ok, it can be found in here: Project VPC. Provided as is and basic knowledge about using a python script assumed.

GreenGriffon

@alphabetapie This might help. I just ran a raw directory listing of all CHD folders from the most current version of MAME.
https://pastebin.com/CRtLuk5L

AlphaBetaPie

I was able to pull a list and find the CHD files I need, but I have another question. The instructions I've read say drop a folder in the rom directory with the exact same name as the rom file (for each CHD). But I'm confused. Most the CHD file names match the rom file name. But some don't. Some have different letters/versions, and the Street Fighter 3 CHD is named complete different. Does that matter, or do I need to rename them? And can you simply just change the file name and it'll work with any rom version?

mitu

The .chd name doesn't always match the ROMset name, so you shouldn't rename it.

AlphaBetaPie

@mitu Thanks for the tip. Also, if I have more than one (from a merged set), is there a distinction between which I should use? I assume you don't need two right?

mitu

@alphabetapie Use a ROM validation application and you'll know for sure which files - including CHD - are needed.

gomisensei

you could try http://adb.arcadeitalia.net/?search=mame&clone=0&filter_use_chd=1&driver_emulation=1

131 non-clone chd roms, you could also filter by mame version, this is default current mame...