How do you organise romsets? MAME and (in particular) consoles
-
I just tried testing ClrMamePro, but I'm puzzled as to how it works. Tried making a test of rebuilding a "romset" consisting of dkong.zip, ddragon.zip, ddragon2.zip and ddragon3.zip.
I was using the DAT file "lite" from the Github page for MAME2003 (0.78) and thought the result was Donkey Kong and Double Dragon 1-3. But no, the result was chinagat, darktowr, ddragon1-3 (check!) and ddungeon. The only games that worked was the Double Dragon games and Donkey Kong wasn't even there.
I manually copied the DKong.zip onto my RPi, and the game functioned.
I don't get why the other "games" got copied into my romset, since neither dkong nor the ddragon has any parents...?
-
@markwkidd said in How do you organise romsets? MAME and (in particular) consoles:
@AndersHP my only experience is on Windows with ClrMamePro
With the correct DAT file ClrMamePro made it easy for me to set a preferred region of 'USA' and only add ROMs from other regions if there was not a USA version. (I know your intended region may be different but the same process should apply)
For example, depending on the specific system and what regions was available in, I could set ClrMamePro to filter my set based on a preference of USA ROMs > then EUR > then JPN.
The resulting set of ROMs will feature a USA version of a game whenever possible, then look for a EUR region ROM for that title, and finally use the JPN only if no USA or EUR ROMs are in the folder. All regions with releases in a given system are supported (in other words you could set a preference of Spain > Europe > USA > Italy > Japan > etc.)
@markwkidd can you be more specific as to how you did this, or perhaps link to a guide?
-
@AndersHP No-Intro creates and distributes the DAT files for 1G1R processing, and it turns out they have published a brief guide for how to remove the duplicated region ROMs. You might start with that guide: http://datomatic.no-intro.org/stuff/xml_details.txt
-
@markwkidd WOW, this is awesome, truly grateful for the link!
This totally did the trick on my SNES and MegaDrive roms. I cannot get the NES one to work, though, something about a missing XML file in the ClrMamePro header...?!Also, what about MAME roms, specifically Finalburnalpha (arcade) and Finalburnalpha (neogeo)?
I cannot find DAT files on the DAT-o-MATIC site for these..?
-
@AndersHP said in How do you organise romsets? MAME and (in particular) consoles:
k on my SNES and MegaDrive roms. I cannot get the NES one to work, though, something about a missing XML file
I was getting all sorts of errors too. I honestly spent a couple hours on it then gave up. Tried following like 4 different tutorials - all sorts of weird errors (which when I google that exact error there's 0 search results found on the entire internet!). I just broke down and manually edited my NES, SNES, and Sega Genesis ROMs.
-
@Dochartaigh I found the No-intro-NES xml header (it's the orange star on the last column in the NES row at the DAT-o-MATIC schedule) but it's to be placed in ClrMamePro's header subfolder, and since I'm running it on Mac through Wine I cannot add this file, but you could try.
I'll manually sort my NES.
But the question regarding MAME and NeoGeo FinalBurnAlpha still stands.
-
@markwkidd Method is not a bad alternative. But many games for the consoles where only released in Europe or Brazil and so on, complete with English language support.
If you sort out your rom collection for only games released in the Usa you will be missing some of these.
This is where hyperspin databases comes in. They already do this for you.
There is one downside to this and that is that the roms extension is missing when rebuilding a No-Intro Nes set. But this is easily fixed by adding the extension to the files with a file renamer.
-
For Fba and Neogeo look here in the wiki
-
@Rion I did, but these .DAT's don't support regions or 1G1R option in ClrMamePro (empty and greyed out).
Will try in Romlister instead and post my result.
-
-
@Rion Just tried the Hyperspin dats, it just skips all the roms. Guess it's not compatible with the newest romset 0.2.97.39.
When using the dats from github, everything gets added.
I also tried with Romlister. The result is the same. Either no roms get recognized (Hyperspin XML) or every rom gets added, including all the different regions (github XML).
So I still cannot get 1G1R to work with MAME... Anyone had luck with this?
-
OK, my conclusion so far on the rebuilding of MAME roms, is the following:
MAME, general: MAME2003 with Github "lite" dat (no fruit machine, mahjong, adult etc.).
MAME, not working from the above mentioned: trying to see if the FBA 0.2.97.39 version works. Basically handpicking these.
NeoGeo games: FBA 0.2.97.39, using the "NeoGeo only" dat.
I was keen on using FBA only, since these get regularly fixes and tweaks, and seems to have more working roms, but the absence of a "lite" dat makes the rom count add up to more than 4000 roms, which naturally includes a lot of junk.
-
@AndersHP said in How do you organise romsets? MAME and (in particular) consoles:
MAME, not working from the above mentioned
Are you going from a more recent version to an older version? This is important. I had a full 0.111 set and used the lite dat to generate a full 0.78 set. I have never experience an issue.
-
@rbaker so are you using the 0.78 for a newer set? So I could use this lite dat for fba? Or what do you mean?
-
@AndersHP I mean that you need a set newer than 0.78 to reliably generate a 0.78 set from it. So I used a 0.111 set to generate a 0.78 set. It would present a problem (probably) if I tried to generate a 0.111 set from the 0.78 set. I followed the video on the wiki page and it works every time.
-
@AndersHP
I posted this around here a while ago, hopefully it will help. It runs on the pi, it may run on a Mac as well though I don't know if the 7z util is installed on a Mac by default.If you want to automatically pull North American files from a large zip bundle, first unzip the bundle into a directory. The result will be a directory filled with 7z files. If running on the pi, as opposed to a linux workstation, you will need to install 7z utilities for the next step with:
sudo apt-get install p7zip-full
Now, change to the directory with the 7z files and run the following command:
while read line; do i=$(7z l "$line" | egrep '\((W|U|UE|JU|JUE)\)( \([^\)]*\))?( \[!\])?\.[^\.]*$' | tail -1 | sed -e 's/^.* \(.*\)$/\1/g'); if [ -n "$i" ] ; then echo "Extracting $i from $line"; 7z e "$line" "$i"; fi; done < <(ls -1 *.7z)
This takes a while to run on a PC (10-20 min) and will take longer on a pi, but the end result is the extraction of all North American from the 7z files with very little manual work. After this just move the extracted files to the rom directory and you should be set. Using the totally made up file extension, .nes, the command would look something like this:
mv *.nes <rom folder>Note: If you want something special, like an English translation of a Japanese only game, you'll have to manually extract.
-
@rbaker said in How do you organise romsets? MAME and (in particular) consoles:
@AndersHP I mean that you need a set newer than 0.78 to reliably generate a 0.78 set from it.
Why is this?
I don't think I really grasp the differences yet.
I thought a .78 set was about the roms versions, and as soon as I used something newer than this, the Pi would struggle or be incompatible.Do you recommend the .78 Lite Dat file for the .111 romset then? And everything pretty much works? Because the .111 is not even mentioned here https://github.com/retropie/retropie-setup/wiki/MAME#advancemame-1.4
Also, what video? Sorry for all the answers..
-
@AndersHP Well over time, as each new set come out, the roms change. Some may change, some may not change. Each emulator needs a specific set of roms, e.g. 0.78 is needed for lr-mame2003. Now if you pick a dat file that allows you to generate a 0.78 set, you really need to run it on a full set of more recent roms than 0.78 as the dat file will be looking for all the roms needed to put together a 0.78 set from the set you have selected. If you pick a set less than 0.78 then it is unlikely to have all the necessary files needed to correctly build the 0.78 set. This is because 0.78 didn't exist when the lesser set was created.
and as soon as I used something newer than this, the Pi would struggle or be incompatible.
You would use newer rom sets with lr-mame2010 or advmame. You cannot use newer roms with lr-mame2003. Have a read of this:
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/2859/how-to-use-mame-with-retropie-help-guide/Once you have, the next place to go is:
is to the video.There is no question that it can be confusing but it is actually an exact science when you get what is going on.
-
@rbaker Thanks for the links. I read them, but still:
I read everywhere, including the first sticky you link to, that for RetroPie users, mame2003 0.78 is preferred, as well as FBA.
Sorry if I'm being pedantic here, but if I use a 0.111 romset to generate my 0.78 romset, and have to use lr-mame2010 (which Github states as "experimental") or advmame to run it, how is it still the recommended 0.78 mame2003 solution?
Or let me rephrase; do you know why mame2003 0.78 is recommended if you made a fully working romset for a 0.111 romset playing on lr-mame2010, using the 0.78 dat file?
Also; if we're straying from the recommendations of the 2003 romsets, then why not go all-in and use something newer that 0.111?
-
@AndersHP You have got completely confused. You cannot use a 0.78 set on lr-mame2010. You do not have to use lr-mame2010. You are simply using a newer set of roms and a dat file for 0.78 to generate a 0.78 set that can be used in lr-mame2003. I use lr-mame2003. I use a 0.78 set that I created myself by applying the 0.78 dat file to a full set of 0.111 mame roms in Crlrmamepro.
So (0.111 set + 0.78 Dat lite)+Clrmamepro = 0.78 set for use in lr-mame2003.
So in an attempt to unpick your confusion:
I read everywhere, including the first sticky you link to, that for RetroPie users, mame2003 0.78 is preferred
I agree and use it.
but if I use a 0.111 romset to generate my 0.78 romset
Yes, you can use a 0.111 romset or any other set that is verifed as being > 0.78 to generate a full 0.78 set.
and have to use lr-mame2010
This is the line that confuses me most. Why do you think that you now need to use this emulator?
do you know why mame2003 0.78 is recommended if you made a fully working romset for a 0.111 romset playing on lr-mame2010, using the 0.78 dat file?
Now i'm in trouble. I have not "made a fully working romset for a 0.111 romset playing on lr-mame2010" - this line makes no sense to me. I have taken a set of roms verified to be 0.111. I have applied the 0.78 dat file to the set using clrmamepro. Once complete, I have a folder on my desktop which now contains a 0.78 set that i can now use in lr-mame2003.
if we're straying from the recommendations of the 2003 romsets
We are not. I use the 0.78 2003 romsets. I just happened to have a 0.111 set in full. No need to go searching for a 0.78 set when the dat file allows you to generate any set of your choice.
I hope that is a bit clearer?
Contributions to the project are always appreciated, so if you would like to support us with a donation you can do so here.
Hosting provided by Mythic-Beasts. See the Hosting Information page for more information.