MAME ROM Management newbie question

dankcushions

it depends on what you're trying to achieve. what set do you want to build?

Riverstorm

I think mame4all-pi and lr-imame4all use a common ROM set (0.37b5). The rest you need to maintain individual sets. I like to use ClrMamePro with the Rebuild option. Specify as many sources as you want and then set your target to the ROM version folder you're building. Each set will need a separate folder.

Do you need to run multiple sets? If I was just starting out I would go with lr-mame2003 and it should cover most if not all of your needs.

You might need AdvMAME that @caver01 summarized well:

There are really just 3 reasons I still need AdvanceMAME: 1. Vector resolution, 2. Analog controls (spinners, trackballs), 3. Boolean "not" controls mapping (used to exclude direction combinations to make a single joystick act as a tankstick).

EDIT: I think Dank did some actual code tweaks for lr-mame2003? I don't know but I think I read that somewhere.

caver01

It can be cumbersome to keep multiple sets around. Not to overcomplicate things for you, but you might discover that a few games you like to play actually work better in FBA than they do in MAME. NeoGeo games like the Metal Slug series, or many of the fighter games play well in lr-fba-next. So, that's ANOTHER ROM set to maintain.

An interesting workaround (and I will call it "interesting" because I know it's not exactly the best practice) is something I discovered as I built my cabinet. I used to use AdvanceMAME for everything. As I shifted over to using more libretro cores I tried my AdvanceMAME ROMs (.106) and guess what? Most of them work!

I know, each emulator is built around a ROM set from a given moment in history, but I have found that most of the classic titles I have loaded play just fine in multiple emulators. For example, of the 158 arcade games I have loaded, 134 of them are .106, and of those, 83 are being played with lr-mame2003 and only 48 are running in AdvanceMAME 1.4.

I know this isn't exactly a solution, but you might find that for the games you want to play, a single set will work using multiple emulators. I will say that if you plan to use multiple emulators like some of us do, it can be helpful to keep a spreadsheet to track what versions you are using for which emulators (and why).

Riverstorm

@caver01 said in MAME ROM Management newbie question:

you might discover that a few games you like to play actually work better in FBA than they do in MAME.

That's true, another MAME list, I do use FBA for the Metal Slug series.

Shoot Caver I had a chance to play with the vector settings in AdvMAME last night. The flicker is great! The vector games look great!

Is there any other old school games I should add to AdvMAME? I moved over Space Duel to add to Solar Quest, Star Castle & Tempest.

I don't know if this is a good place to ask but I've been curious how you setup your joystick/tankstick and what games you use?

EDIT: There's one game I can't seem to get running in AdvMAME 1.4 that works fine in .94. It's Thunder Jaws ROM name is thunderj.zip. It just drops back to the selection screen with no error.

caver01

I am not familiar with Thunder Jaw, but I will take a look. I have some other settings worth adding to vector games (per ROM) in the .rc file. More to come later. I want to post something with detail and images in another thread.

dasfreak

Thanks for the replies. So just to get this right

If I stick with mame4all I can just rebuild 0.37b5 and go for it. Easy
If I want to use lr-mame2003 I'd need to maintain a separate directory just for the 0.78 ROMS and rebuild those independently. e.g. no mixing with 0.37b5
Ditto if I wanted to use lr-mame2010 and 0.139

So I'd essentially end up with something like

 /ROMS/  
   /37b5  
   /0.178  
   /0.139

and to rebuild for each emulator I'd have to point clrmamepro at the specific romset I want to rebuild? e.g. /ROMS/0.178
I can't just point clrmamepro at /ROMS/ and have it figure it out based on the DAT file?

caver01

@Riverstorm Here's my post with screenshots on getting the best vectors out of AdvanceMAME.
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/1035/how-to-make-vector-arcade-games-look-their-best

dankcushions

@dasfreak said in MAME ROM Management newbie question:

Thanks for the replies. So just to get this right

If I stick with mame4all I can just rebuild 0.37b5 and go for it. Easy

If I want to use lr-mame2003 I'd need to maintain a separate directory just for the 0.78 ROMS and rebuild those independently. e.g. no mixing with 0.37b5

Ditto if I wanted to use lr-mame2010 and 0.139

So I'd essentially end up with something like
 /ROMS/  
   /37b5  
   /0.178  
   /0.139 
and to rebuild for each emulator I'd have to point clrmamepro at the specific romset I want to rebuild? e.g. /ROMS/0.178
I can't just point clrmamepro at /ROMS/ and have it figure it out based on the DAT file?

0.78, not 0.178 :)

again, it depends on what you're trying to do. you shouldn't need to rebuild anything for these emulators if your source (eg 0.78) is the same as your destination requirements (eg mame2003 = 0.78). you can optionally do a 'scan' using clrmamepro to see if there are any problems with each set, against the appropriate .dat file.

Riverstorm

@dasfreak said in MAME ROM Management newbie question:

I can't just point clrmamepro at /ROMS/ and have it figure it out based on the DAT file?

You'll need to point it to the exact folder. The top level ROMS folder is more for organizational reasons. I would even further define it as MAME ROMs and make the root ROMs as ultimately you'll probably have more than one ROM set from another platform i.e.- NES, SNES, C64, Atari, FBA, etc..

I would ditto what Dank pointed out too. Are you trying to build one set of each? If you do decided to run more than one set you would have some heavy ROM overlap. With mame4all-pi and lr-imame4all you can only run one as they use the same ROM set and samples in the same directory with the difference being which emulator you'll be using standalone vs a Libretro core.

I keep MAME current with each release and it weighs in pretty heavy at around 400GB. It's grown exponentially when CHD's and LD's started making their way into MAME. If you have the set already or it's close you can run it through ClrMamePro to verify and clean it up. Don't forget to use the Backup folder as a rebuild source as ROMs do make their way their depending on what "Fix" options you choose. Also these older versions did use inverted CRC's for no dump and bad dump ROM's which is an option in the settings. There's a lot of great tutorials that can help if you're new to ClrMamePro.

Riverstorm

@caver01 said in MAME ROM Management newbie question:

@Riverstorm Here's my post with screenshots on getting the best vectors out of AdvanceMAME.
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/1035/how-to-make-vector-arcade-games-look-their-best

Thanks Caver a bunch, heading that way now to read up on vector gaming! :)