How to delete/purge unworking ROMs from Pi 4.7.1?
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Hey all, I'd hoped to come on here to figure out why none of my NeoGeo ROMS are working yet-- believe me, I've been searching here for answers!-- but figured I'd ask something that'll hopefully be simpler (and which might help answer that question...):
So in getting my new RetroPie console emulator to work, I've found a good number of ROMS that aren't working: their name shows up under the system (mainly a lot of arcade ones so far), but I get the ol' black screen when I try loading 'em. Perhaps certain versions-- i.e. the World, US, Rev, etc one-- will work on some versions of RetroPie but not others? (hell, some of these are old ROMs I DL'd back in 2003 or so to play on MAME on my desktop comp, so it'd make sense if some aren't working...).
In any event, for those that don't work, I'll usually DL/try a different version till I find one that does. However, that's left quite a few duplicate "ghost" ROMs, ones that I've since deleted from the flash drive that I connect to my Pi4, yet they're still listed under that console (for those who've dealt w/ this before-- and my apologies if this has been covered here already, I tried searching these forums for "clean," "delete" etc ROMs, but didn't see anything obvious-- you've likely noticed that they aren't listed on the MicroSD card when you remove/load it into a computer).
So, is there something I can run in command line to remove these, if I type in the name of the ROM? Or on another menu? (I tried searching Configuration earlier and found a menu listing all the ROMs that included with a "Delete" option---- unfortunately I don't have my Pi in front of me at the moment to remember exactly which one-- but that didn't seem to work).
That said, another quick question to clarify what makes a working ROM?? I've seen (old) posts suggesting that you DON'T want to decompress the zip files for the ROMs when you file 'em into the appropriate folders on your flash drive (at least for some of those NeoGeo files like I mentioned), but I do have numerous working ROMs that include BOTH the zip file and the resulting folder, and some that are just the zip file.
So, decompress or no? If this is another variable I can eliminate, that would really be helpful.
Thank you for any/all insight!!
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Arcade emulation (MAME/FBNeo) is a bit different than other systems. It has its own documentation page, where the easiest approach to arcade emulation is explained - https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Arcade/. In short, make sure you're using the right romset collection version, for the arcade emulator that you're using, instead of chasing individual ROMs.
For arcade ROMs, they should always be zipped, other emulators don't have this requirement.However, that's left quite a few duplicate "ghost" ROMs, ones that I've since deleted from the flash drive that I connect to my Pi4, yet they're still listed under that console ...
Make sure you don't have the 'Parse Gamelists Only' option toggled on, if you've deleted a ROM file, it should also be gone from EmulationStation's gamelist after the next restart.
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@mitu did check out that link thank you, yeah I suppose that does help explain why Pac-Man is one of the many ROMs that aren't working, heh (still not entirely clear what this 2nd ROM is that I'm apparently supposed to have though... Puckman??).
But I did try again, putting ONLY the zip files for the ROMs that aren't working on my flashdrive and restarting, and they still didn't work(??). If we're supposed to be thinking instead of romset collections and which emulators they work for, IS there a site that lists which romsets/emulators work for certain games??
But back to the original question, I actually was able to find that "Parse Gameslists Only" option (by going from "Start"/Main Menu/Other Settings, unless I was supposed to find it another way?), And it turns out that Parse Gamelists Only already WAS toggled Off(??). I actually even turned it On, Restarted System, turned it Off then Restarted, and all the unworking games are still there (there's even a folder or 2 for some of the old ROMs that I'd moved into Retropie's ROMs that had other ROMs
misfiled inside of those that I didn't know about).Is there another way to try to refresh the system? Or to delete these games from the system one by one? It seems that File Manager/Retropie/roms/arcade/ was the screen that I'd stumbled upon before that listed every ROM folder, with a 4- Edit, 8- Delete listed, but unless I was doing something wrong, pressing those keyboard numbers & hitting Enter, the joystick buttons etc didn't seem to do anything. :/
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@mortalwombat said in How to delete/purge unworking ROMs from Pi 4.7.1?:
@mitu did check out that link thank you, yeah I suppose that does help explain why Pac-Man is one of the many ROMs that aren't working, heh (still not entirely clear what this 2nd ROM is that I'm apparently supposed to have though... Puckman??).
Pac-Man's rom is a 'child' rom of
puckman, if you don't have a full non-merged set, then you'll need the 'parent' rom to run any 'child' roms.But I did try again, putting ONLY the zip files for the ROMs that aren't working on my flashdrive and restarting, and they still didn't work(??). If we're supposed to be thinking instead of romset collections and which emulators they work for, IS there a site that lists which romsets/emulators work for certain games??
The Arcade quick start page I linked has a table with the exact romset version for each emulator - it doesn't look like you've read it entirely.
Is there another way to try to refresh the system? Or to delete these games from the system one by one?
How are you transferring/accessing your ROM files ? You haven't added any details about your system.
If you clean-up/empty the roms folder (forarcade) and have 'Parse Gamelists Only' turned off (default and recommended), any deleted game/folder should also be deleted from the gamelist. -
@mitu as far as transferring the ROMs to my Pi/RetroPie, I have a MS-DOS (FAT32, which I heard is the recommended formatting) USB flashdrive, which I've been putting into my laptop, dropping the ROMs I DL on the laptop into the retropie/roms/arcade folder on there, which I then put into my Pi4 (Model B 4GB RAM running Retropie ver. 4.7.2 [armv71], running on Raspian GNU/Linux 10 [bbuster], last commit 5 days ago if that matters, using EmulationStation v2.9.6RP).
I'll admit that's one of the reasons I'm still a bit confused by the link you shared, is that I didn't see Pi version 4 listed as one of the options at the top (denoting the Recommended MAME & FB Emulators). Is there an updated link that includes Pi4 that you wouldn't mind sharing?
Anyway overlooking figuring out the romsets (which sounds a bit more complicated; I've only had this baby for about 2 weeks and am still learning how to navigate everything), as far as just deleting the duplicate/unworking ROMs & folders from the Pi interface, I did delete everything from the "arcade" ROMs folder and restarted the Pi, and everything's still showing with "Parse Gameslists Only" Off(??).
Alternately, when I turned it On and Restarted (and you mean Start/Main Menu/Quit/Restart System, right? Not Restart EmulationStation?), it gives a smaller list of ROMs, most of which aren't working and thus I'd like to delete, but 2 that are (Cheyenne [Version 1.0] and E-Swat Cyber Police [Bootleg]). I guess which specific games/versions may not matter if I'm still figuring out the romsets, I'm mainly just confused how they're working when I thought I'd deleted everything?? (but I guess they're backed up to the Micro-SD?).
As of right now, I've found this old posting and have just been deleting the unworking ones individually with Select/Options/Edit This Game's Metadata/Delete, which seems to be working, though I dunno if it's a recommended method.
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/10348/deleting-roms-on-the-retropie-interface -
@mortalwombat said in How to delete/purge unworking ROMs from Pi 4.7.1?:
as far as transferring the ROMs to my Pi/RetroPie, I have a MS-DOS (FAT32, which I heard is the recommended formatting) USB flashdrive, which I've been putting into my laptop, dropping the ROMs I DL on the laptop into the
retropie/roms/arcadefolder on there...This is a good way to transfer the roms to your Pi. When you plug in the USB drive, it will make a copy on the micro SD card in the Pi. It also leaves a copy on the USB drive.
I did delete everything from the "arcade" ROMs folder and restarted the Pi, and everything's still showing with "Parse Gameslists Only" Off(??).
(but I guess they're backed up to the Micro-SD?).
See above. They can "come back" if you still have the files on the USB drive and plug it in to the Pi again. To really be sure you are getting rid of something from the list, you should delete it from the micro SD card
romsfolder as well as the USB drive. -
@yfzdude thank you for replying, I feel that I do have to research/find other methods of transferring ROMs to my Pi/RetroPie though than this flashdrive, because frankly I've had more flashdrives fail than MicroSDs! (blame the amount of moving parts I guess...).
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