MAME/FBA roms question

josvk

Hi there, I'm new to the forum so thanks for helping me!

At the moment, I'm building my first bartop arcade, using a Pi3 and IPAC2 controller board.

I've spent the past few nights trying to understand the whole MAME/FBA romset differences, etc. using the 'Managing Roms Wiki' page and the forum.

So far, I've come to this setup. Please comment on whether this is indeed the 'right' way to set it up :-)

Get myself an 0.78 rom pack, and play them in lr-mame2003 as standard emulator, or in lr-fba-next if this works better.
Get extra Neo Geo/SNK roms from a 0.173 romset, and play them with lr-fba-next. Play all roms with CHD files, and CP I/II/III roms in lr-fba-next.
Have endless joy.

A few questions regarding this setup:

I believe all roms in the 0.37b set are also included in the 0.78 set, so the 0.78 set is a better starting point (although some older roms play better in mame4all). I just want the top 50 games or so, so I need to 'trim' the full 0.78 romset to the 50 games I want to play. I need to use a rom manager such as clrmamepro to do this. Is it also possible to to this manually, by only coping the files of the games I want to play? Or does this only work in a non-merged set, because the parent/clone issue. If so, and if I use a merged set, can I manually copy both parent/clone files of the games I want to play?
lr-fba-next uses a newer Mame set (0.173), and plays Neo Geo roms that aren't included in the mame2003 (0.78) set, right? If I want to play a few games in lr-mame2003 and a few in lr-fba-next, and put all the files in the arcade folder, how does it work with the proper bios file? I believe the 0.78 and the 0.173 set use different bios files (updates), but they are the same filename (neogeo.zip) in the same folder (arcade), thus overwriting eachother. Can I use the 0.173 bios for both lr-mame2003 and lr-fba-next, or how does this work? And is it also possible to use a 0.175 bios? (I can't find the 0.173...)
final question :-) forget all the above, is it also possible to just use roms from the 0.173 (fba 0.2.97.38) set, and play them in lr-fba-next, and don't think about the 0.78 set? Will I be able to play all the games, or miss out on a few because I don't use the 0.78 set?
By using this list: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/libretro/libretro-fba/master/gamelist.txt

Sorry for the many questions, any help is much appreciated. I feel like I'm almost conquering the mame dragon ;-) Thanks!

dankcushions

@josvk said in MAME/FBA roms question:

Hi there, I'm new to the forum so thanks for helping me!

At the moment, I'm building my first bartop arcade, using a Pi3 and IPAC2 controller board.

I've spent the past few nights trying to understand the whole MAME/FBA romset differences, etc. using the 'Managing Roms Wiki' page and the forum.

So far, I've come to this setup. Please comment on whether this is indeed the 'right' way to set it up :-)

Get myself an 0.78 rom pack, and play them in lr-mame2003 as standard emulator, or in lr-fba-next if this works better.

lr-fba-next will not be able to run 0.78 roms. it needs roms from the FBA 0.2.97.38 set, so you should get that for any games you can't run in mame2003 (or that aren't in the 0.78 set at all)

Get extra Neo Geo/SNK roms from a 0.173 romset, and play them with lr-fba-next. Play all roms with CHD files, and CP I/II/III roms in lr-fba-next.

i don't think FBA cares about CHDs. in FBA, all the games that usually need CHDs are just regular rom.zips that have been hacked to not need the CHD.

Have endless joy.

:)

A few questions regarding this setup:

I believe all roms in the 0.37b set are also included in the 0.78 set, so the 0.78 set is a better starting point (although some older roms play better in mame4all). I just want the top 50 games or so, so I need to 'trim' the full 0.78 romset to the 50 games I want to play. I need to use a rom manager such as clrmamepro to do this. Is it also possible to to this manually, by only coping the files of the games I want to play? Or does this only work in a non-merged set, because the parent/clone issue. If so, and if I use a merged set, can I manually copy both parent/clone files of the games I want to play?

correct, you need a non-merged set if you plan on just copying random roms. if not, you must copy the parent.zip (and any bios zip - eg neogeo.zip, pgm.zip, etc), or if it's a clone, the parent.zip AND clone.zip

lr-fba-next uses a newer Mame set (0.173), and plays Neo Geo roms that aren't included in the mame2003 (0.78) set, right

I don't know if there are a lot that aren't included in mame2003, but it's certainly probably better at playing them. it's what i do :)

If I want to play a few games in lr-mame2003 and a few in lr-fba-next, and put all the files in the arcade folder, how does it work with the proper bios file? I believe the 0.78 and the 0.173 set use different bios files (updates), but they are the same filename (neogeo.zip) in the same folder (arcade), thus overwriting eachother. Can I use the 0.173 bios for both lr-mame2003 and lr-fba-next, or how does this work? And is it also possible to use a 0.175 bios? (I can't find the 0.173...)

i've never tried this but since they're the same file names (eg neogeo.zip), i guess it won't work. pick an emulator to run neogeo games and stick with it. (personally i have all the neogeo games in the neogeo folder anyway)

final question :-) forget all the above, is it also possible to just use roms from the 0.173 (fba 0.2.97.38) set, and play them in lr-fba-next, and don't think about the 0.78 set? Will I be able to play all the games, or miss out on a few because I don't use the 0.78 set?
By using this list: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/libretro/libretro-fba/master/gamelist.txt

you'll miss out on many games that aren't in the FBA set (fba is mostly focused on fighting and shoot-em-up games, and SOME classic arcade games), but it depends on how much you care about the ones you miss. the compatibility spreadsheets list the entire sets so you can compare.

Sorry for the many questions, any help is much appreciated. I feel like I'm almost conquering the mame dragon ;-) Thanks!

No problem :) these are good questions!

josvk

Thanks @dankcushions ! This helps a great deal.

I'll stick to individual roms, and look for them in both the 0.173 (fba 0.2.97.38) (play in lr-fba-next) and 0.78 (play lr-mame2003) sets. I'll make sure I config the parent/clone roms correctly.

I still don't understand the Bios setup. If I play Arcade games in two different emulators (fba next and mame2003), I have to use two different bios files, right? But they have the same filename so I can't put them in the same Arcade directory... Can I use two directories? One for mame2003, and one for fba-next?

how do you setup your own config? Do you play your NEOGEO games in fba-next, in a separate directory?

Thanks again!

dankcushions

@josvk said in MAME/FBA roms question:

Thanks @dankcushions ! This helps a great deal.
I still don't understand the Bios setup. If I play Arcade games in two different emulators (fba next and mame2003), I have to use two different bios files, right? But they have the same filename so I can't put them in the same Arcade directory... Can I use two directories? One for mame2003, and one for fba-next?

no, not if you plan to use the arcade folder - the point of the arcade folder is to keep everything in one directory :) you could always use the seperate FBA and mame-libretro folders, but then you have two systems (mame and FBA) appearing in emulationstation.

but really, i don't think it is needed. the BIOS files used in MAME/fba are pretty limited. there's neogeo.zip, pgm.zip, maybe a few others. most games don't need a bios. each BIOS is used by a subset of games all running on the same board, so you i don't see why you'd want to run different games from these subsets on different emulators :) the best for one will be the best for all.

also, i'm not sure but i think if you use unmerged sets, there's no need for a BIOS as each rom.zip contains a seperate copy of the needed bios files within it. (again, not sure!)

how do you setup your own config? Do you play your NEOGEO games in fba-next, in a separate directory?

i have all my neogeo games in the neogeo directory. i use fba-next to play them (i think it's the default)

josvk

Hio @dankcushions , thanks again.

Almost there ;-) I'd rather have one folder, so I'll put all my roms in the Arcade folder, including the neogeo.zip bios file. Would you suggest I use the 0.173 (fba 0.2.97.38) bios file, since it is the most recent?

I'll use fba-next as the default emulator, and use runcommand to play some 0.78 roms (that aren't in the fba 0.2.97.38 set) in mame2003.

Please verify one final time whether my thinking is correct :-)

dankcushions

@josvk said in MAME/FBA roms question:

Hio @dankcushions , thanks again.

Almost there ;-) I'd rather have one folder, so I'll put all my roms in the Arcade folder, including the neogeo.zip bios file. Would you suggest I use the 0.173 (fba 0.2.97.38) bios file, since it is the most recent?

it depends on what emulator you're using to run neogeo games in that folder - lr-fba-next will only work using the 0.2.93.38 neogeo.zip, and lr-mame2003 will only work using the 0.78 neogeo.zip.

I'll use fba-next as the default emulator, and use runcommand to play some 0.78 roms (that aren't in the fba 0.2.97.38 set) in mame2003.

Please verify one final time whether my thinking is correct :-)

hope that helps :)