lr-mame4all some roms need multiple versions?

skrapps914

I'm experimenting with some roms on lr-mame4all. some roms i've come across, will only work if both versions are in the rom directory. example. Double Dragon (usa) won't work, unless the double dragon (japan) version is also in the directory

so in my roms directory i have both ddragonu.zip and ddragon.zip
is there a reason why the usa one needs the japanese one?

simonster

This is due to the way roms are organised in MAME. If you are playing a game that is a clone or modification of another game, you need the parent game's roms to be present(as they aren't replicated in every clone's folder).

You have two options, either:

a) you have both roms in the folder, as you have currently with your example.

or

b) you can copy the rom files from the parent game's zip file into the clone game's zip file.

If you follow option a, then you will have multiple copies of games in emulation station, such as the Japan and US release of Double Dragon, but if you follow option b, although you have only the specific games, if you play a lot of games based on the same files, they will increase the disk usage.

I play a lot of NeoGeo MVS games and found it easier to have NeoGeo.zip in the folder (even though it does nothing when selected) as it is required by most of the files, but equally I want the 2 player version of The Simpsons and have imported the 4 player roms into the zip file, as this is the only version I will want to play on my cabinet.

I hope this helps explain.

Simon

Floob

@skrapps914
Please read this:
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/2859/how-to-use-mame-with-retropie-help-guide

The section "What do the terms "Parent" and "Clone" mean?" covers that. I'll expand it with more detail.

mediamogul

@skrapps914 said in lr-mame4all some roms need multiple versions?:

is there a reason why the usa one needs the japanese one?

The Japanese version is a 'Parent' rom and the USA version is a 'Clone' rom. The clone roms need overlapping code and calls to the parent to prevent redundancy. There are ways to hide clones and create various custom sets using .dat files, but your likely to always find an issue with any approach. I gave up chasing that dragon and OCDing over it years ago and just install a full split set for the maximum level of compatibility while saving as much space as possible.

Edit: Hah! I'm always a minute or two behind Floob. His thread goes into much greater detail.

skrapps914

thanks all for your help. appreciate it. I'm still learning, and this is great useful information for the future