100% noob trying to be a geek, begging for help with Roms. Please......

ucald4amarine

Ok, So... I got the Roms. And... Some of them even work! Now...
See, I had several working. I had placed them into their appropriate sections. (MAME) and set them to their correct emulators. (in this case, what worked was Lr-mame2000) Then while trying to clean up the extra games, I deleted the ones I didnt want to... So... I put them back on. But they didnt work under MAME anymore. Only way they would work was under Arcade (lr-mame2003) and, some of the games that I had put on before that had worked great before no longer work at all... What did I do?!

mitu

@ucald4amarine said in 100% noob trying to be a geek, begging for help with Roms. Please......:

. What did I do?!

That ROM set do you have ? lr-mame2000 uses a different one than lr-mame2003, so it's important to know which one are you using.
Can you give a concrete example ? - i.e. ROM that doesn't work, with the emulator you're using and from which ROM set the file was taken.

ucald4amarine

@mitu metal slugX worked on mame, lr-2003. And dinosaurs and Cadillacs wored on mame-libretro on I believe lr-2000. (It ran fine from the get go then I never bothered again.)
I deleted the metal slug version accidentally, tried to reinstall it, no luck. Formated the SD card, put everything back where it was. Now, dinosaurs and Cadillacs no longer runs, and metal slug doesn't work under anything either. I tried placing them in arcade as well and selecting the emulations to use. With no success either. (I think I've answered your questions, let me know if I've missed anything.)

mitu

@ucald4amarine said in 100% noob trying to be a geek, begging for help with Roms. Please......:

I think I've answered your questions, let me know if I've missed anything.

What ROM set are your roms from ? You were advised to use the proper ROM set for the emulator you're using. A rom working in lr-mame200, doesn't necessarily work in lr-mame2003 or vice-versa. Which emulator are you using now when you say it doesn't work ?

ucald4amarine

@mitu not sure if I follow your question. Probably just my lack of knowledge here reflecting on me again, but if I understand correctly, then my romset was a .78 rom compilations, and the weird thing was, I took notes on what emulators they worked in for future reference. (I was going to do 4 total, so having the ability to quickly copy and paste seemed a good idea.) But, the game metal slug worked great in the MAME romset on the USB I was using for transfer under the lr-Mame2000. Then after the delete, it worked again in the mame-libretro romset after transfer, but this time, under the lr-mame2003. At this time, I found out that dinosaurs and Cadillacs no longer ran. And after much fidilling around, that's when I decided to just reformat, and reinstall everything based off of my notes.

ucald4amarine

Btw, I really appreciate all of your patience with me on this. It's really something to have ppl willing to help a unlearned noon here.

mitu

First of all, forget lr-mame2000. The 0.78 ROM set is for lr-mame2003 and you should make sure it's always used. Copy your ROMs to the arcade folder, it will be easier to keep count, don't hop folders just to change emulators. Use the Runcommand launch menu when launching a ROM and make sure the default emulator for arcade is lr-mame2003.
To diagnose a non-running ROM, use the same Runcommand launch menu to enable Verbose Logging when launching the ROM, then get the /dev/shm/runcomman.log file from the PI and upload it to pastebin.com to note the error.

Note that if you don't use the full ROM set (i.e. you delete some of the ROMs), you might have a problem with 'child' ROMs when you delete their 'parent' ROM (see https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Arcade/#step-2-select-the-right-rom-set). If you want to keep only some ROMs - and delete the others- , then make sure you're using a Full or Non-Merged ROM set.

rbaker

@ucald4amarine said in 100% noob trying to be a geek, begging for help with Roms. Please......:

I took notes on what emulators they worked in for future reference.

Why? That guide I linked you to is really specific. You don't go trying roms in different emulators. All you do is put the 0.78 set in the Arcade folder and you are done. The 0.78 set is not for any other emulators, only the default lr-mame2003. The problem is that some roms will work in other emulators but that is not by design. You should only ever deal in complete sets to prevent madness.

Clyde

@mitu said in 100% noob trying to be a geek, begging for help with Roms. Please......:

If you want to keep only rom ROMs, then make sure you're using a Full or Non-Merged ROM set.

I think you meant some ROMs. Just a quick note to avoid confusion on @ucald4amarine's side. :)

mitu

@Clyde Thanks, corrected.

ucald4amarine

@mitu well, these are ROMs that have been working earlier, and only stopped working recently. But I just thought of sleeping right as I woke up. I don't know if this has anything to do with anything. But last night I did rename some of the rom titles for my own ease of access. (Renameing mslugx to Metal Slug X, and dino to Dinosaurs and Cadillacs.) I have no idea if this could affect the boot sequence. But as soon as I can test it I'll let you know. Or, perhaps you already know the answer?
Thanks in advance.

mitu

Renaming a ROM file is not supported by any MAME emulator. The filenames are specifically assigned by MAME so it knows what the ROM should contain. So if you renamed dino.zip to Cadillacs and Dinosaurs.zip, that will not work. Keep the original filename, Emulationstation already knows how to translate the short zip file name to the 'real' game name (and you can always scrape for information from Emulationstation if you'd like more information and images added to the game).

VictimRLSH

Each ROM the emulator is capable of running has its own internal configuration that is tied to the name of the ROM .zip file. It MUST have the correct filename, and also must not be unzipped.

Your best bet is to run the ROMS through CLRMamePro with the 0.78 dataset and it will figure out how to create the proper .zip file with the ROM data you actually have. There is a tutorial video for CLRMamePro in the MAME FAQ page pinned in the gaming discussion forum HERE https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/2859/how-to-use-mame-with-retropie-help-guide/30

One thing that guide doesn't mention is BACK UP YOUR ROMS before letting CLRMamePro loose on them, if you choose the wrong options it can easily corrupt or erase your original ROM data.

dankcushions

honestly i would advise against going down the clrmamepro route at this point. just redownload the full romset if you haven't kept a copy.

just do the absolute basics. put the full 0.78 romset in the mame-libretro folder, and set the default emulator to lr-mame2003. that's essentially all you need to do.

VictimRLSH

@dankcushions True, not the best option for a noob now that I think about it. My ROMS were from a massive virutally every rom in existence torrent that was a complete cluster$%&* and absolutely needed sorthing out with CLRMamePro.

ucald4amarine

@dankcushions
Sheesh... The more I learn from you all, the more of an idiot I feel... Thanks for all of your time and patience with me. I know this is hard to believe, but I am learning from my mistakes.

ucald4amarine

@rbaker you suggested putting the game files in the arcade section. As far as I'm currently understanding this, it seems to me that the arcade section may be the best place to put everything, as it gives me all the emulations needed. Could you explain please why I would(or should) use the rest of them? (Mame, neo-geo, etc. Perhaps for game specific platforms such as snes?)

VictimRLSH

If you want all the 'good' stuff in one place, mark it as a Favorite, and it will show up in your Favorites list regardless of the platform. Putting everything in one directory is going to create a navigational nightmare.

ucald4amarine

@VictimRLSH
I was only planning on putting about 50 games on the Pi, as growing up, my brothers and I didn't have much access to games or computers of any kind until about 2008, when we moved out of our families farm. So, really, there are a very small number of games that we had ever played when we snuck out to the movies or something. Given that it's a small list, would leaving it all in arcade be wise, or should I still plan to sort out which one goes in which?

VictimRLSH

@ucald4amarine The console games need to be in their respective directories for the emulators to find them, but you CAN put all your MAME games in the Arcade directory. If you have console or computer games as well, you'll need to use the Favorites to get everything in one place anyway.