Switch rom folders for MAME?

KevinsHope

Hello,

So I'm learning about ROM sets, and I would love to keep these sets devided from each other. Besides that, I don't want to have to copy roms to all rom folders. Is there a way to change the default folder that a particular MAME instillation gathers it's game list from? For example, could I configure all of my MAME instillation to use the same folder for ROMS? Can't seem to find an answer to this question in Google searches. Sorry to keep asking questions, but I appreciate all the help you have given me. RetroPie certainly has a learning curve to it, but I'm enjoying the challenge.

KevinsHope

So...no answers yet. Is the question ridiculous in content, an over-answered question that I just didn't notice while searching, or is the answer most likely NO, that there is no way to change the default ROM folder for MAME?

rbaker

@kevinshope Retropie does this for you by default. It's all explained in the detailed documentation on Mame. When you add roms to each mame emulator of your choice, that emulator is displayed for use in Emulationstation. If you do not want that and want just one folder then you use the Arcade folder for all roms and select the emulator using the launch command.

https://github.com/retropie/retropie-setup/wiki/Arcade

Riverstorm

Here's another good link along with Bakers to MAME setup. It covers pretty much every supported version on the Pi. The 'Arcade' drop down on the left shows the different sections even how to build and validate sets.

https://retropie.org.uk/docs/MAME/

I do keep most of the supported version sets non-merged (ROM set type not emulator) zipped and just extract the ROMs as needed. There is a lot of crossover between version sets if you plan to implement them all it's pretty redundant. Some emulators run certain games better than others so it's usually is a mix-and-match of MAME emulators and ROM/game subsets.