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Mame (etc) setup workflow


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TLDR, what's your workflow on culling down roms to just want you want for each emulator?

 

G'day all, years ago I built a mame setup with CRT and older core 2 duo. I was running maximus arcade and had mame, daphne, snes, megadrive etc all working well with video previews etc. However, I never did a cull of all the fodder and thus had lots of crud on there that either didn't work or was so bad it would never be used...cough mah-jong games haha.

 

Now I'm looking at rebuilding my original machine in horizontal mode, and another identical setup but in vertical orientation. I'm likely to switch to hyperspin for prettyness. I'm interested to know what your suggested workflow is for this culling. I have a current set of 2.0 mame roms in a non merged form. I understand there are ways to build xml files for hyperspin from what you have in your roms folder...but is the pre work involved actually going through and deleting every rom I don't want manually? Additionally, is there some way to cull the duplicates say from each countries version? Say Fixeight, which is a totally rad game btw, can I say I just want the USA version and have something delete the rest? Same with the other systems too, say Sonic one on Genesis/MD, I only want the USA version? Also let's say I didn't want any streetfighter 2 games (as if), do I just manually delete the lot...or?

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I use this:

 

https://www.waste.org/~winkles/ROMLister/

 

I don't delete the roms for games I'm not using, I just hide them from the frontend. Makes management and archiving way easier.

 

Depending on the machine I'm building it for, I filter for the physical controls I have, remove non-arcade games, generate a list for whatever front end I'm using on that device.

 

Brad

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The correct way to do it is to make a list of all the rom names you want then build a non merged set from the list.

Typically using clrmamepro.

 

See this thread for that

https://www.aussiearcade.com/showthread.php/59602-How-to-build-your-custom-arcade-roms-sets-with-CLRMamePro

 

 

To make your list, Use a GUI like QMC2 to inspect the games you want to include and note the rom "Name" in a simple text file.

Use that file to feed CLRMamePro to build your sets.

 

You will also need bios and device files.

 

Shame I can't attach text files to the messages here.

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Wouldn't/doesn't the non merged set include whatever machine bios is required in each rom? Or am I misunderstanding?

 

yup. I find non-merged is easiest and best if you're going to seriously customise your romlist. No more f-ing around. Each game is complete whether it's a clone version or whatever, the zip can be transferred in and out of active lists, copied, deleted leaving no mess, etc.

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Wouldn't/doesn't the non merged set include whatever machine bios is required in each rom? Or am I misunderstanding?

 

It shouldn't hold the machine bios/device, So there is no duplication there.

You will need to include the common Bios/Device files to your ROM folder.

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Correct. In a non-merged set, each zip contains everything needed to run a game. ozfalcon must have been thinking of a split set, where the parent zip contains everything except the bios and machine-common files, and the child sets are only roms different to the parent set. A merged set lumps all clones and children into the parent zip, again without any bios or machine-common files.

 

I do not think a non-merged set contains CHD files tho, but those are only for later games.

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Correct. In a non-merged set, each zip contains everything needed to run a game. ozfalcon must have been thinking of a split set, where the parent zip contains everything except the bios and machine-common files, and the child sets are only roms different to the parent set. A merged set lumps all clones and children into the parent zip, again without any bios or machine-common files.

 

I do not think a non-merged set contains CHD files tho, but those are only for later games.

 

I have never known non-merged to contain Bios & Device files.

 

You are correct, It would be much easier and convenient (Even if it's a bit more bloated).

 

 

How exactly are you building sets while including the Bios/Device files?

I don't seem to be able to do this in CLRMamePro.

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I've looked at clrmame pro a few times and it just baffles me. I went to a certain pleasing dome and picked a non-merged set. I then cherrypicked titles i wanted, and each zip contained everything required to run it, whether child or parent.

 

If you read the mamedev docs quoted below, that's what a non-merged set is, isn't it? I presumed it had always been that way.

 

A non-merged set is one that contains absolutely everything necessary for a given game to run in one ZIP file. This is ordinarily very space-inefficient, but is a good way to go if you want to have very few sets and want everything self-contained and easy to work with. We do not recommend this for most users.

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I've looked at clrmame pro a few times and it just baffles me. I went to a certain pleasing dome and picked a non-merged set. I then cherrypicked titles i wanted, and each zip contained everything required to run it, whether child or parent.

 

If you read the mamedev docs quoted below, that's what a non-merged set is, isn't it? I presumed it had always been that way.

 

No that is not correct, Bios and Device are set's in themselves.

https://docs.mamedev.org/usingmame/aboutromsets.html

Non Merged Set...

 

Split Set...

 

Merged Set...

 

With those basic principles, there are two other kinds of set that will come up in MAME use from time to time.

 

First, the BIOS set: Some arcade machines shared a common hardware platform, such as the Neo-Geo arcade hardware. As the main board had data necessary to start up and self-test the hardware before passing it off to the game cartridge, it’s not really appropriate to store that data as part of the game ROM sets. Instead, it is stored as a BIOS image for the system itself (e.g. NEOGEO.ZIP for Neo-Geo games)

Secondly, the device set. Frequently the arcade manufacturers would reuse pieces of their designs multiple times in order to save on costs and time. Some of these smaller circuits would reappear in later boards that had minimal common ground with the previous boards that used the circuit, so you couldn’t just have them share the circuit/ROM data through a normal parent/clone relationship. Instead, these re-used designs and ROM data are categorized as a Device, with the data stored as a Device set. For instance, Namco used the Namco 51xx custom I/O chip to handle the joystick and DIP switches for Galaga and other games, and as such you’ll also need the NAMCO51.ZIP device set as well as any needed for the game.

 

What you have is a conveniently packaged non-merged set, It's not the norm to include Bios/Device files in the rom set.

(You'd be in trouble if your source of roms vanished!)

 

Do you use any other sort of ROM management package to check the integrity of your sets?

(Romvault or RomCenter)

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

I'd like to know how these non-merged+Bios/Device sets are being built.

As it would be handy to reproduce the method.

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TLDR, what's your workflow on culling down roms to just want you want for each emulator?

 

G'day all, years ago I built a mame setup with CRT and older core 2 duo. I was running maximus arcade and had mame, daphne, snes, megadrive etc all working well with video previews etc. However, I never did a cull of all the fodder and thus had lots of crud on there that either didn't work or was so bad it would never be used...cough mah-jong games haha.

 

Now I'm looking at rebuilding my original machine in horizontal mode, and another identical setup but in vertical orientation. I'm likely to switch to hyperspin for prettyness. I'm interested to know what your suggested workflow is for this culling. I have a current set of 2.0 mame roms in a non merged form. I understand there are ways to build xml files for hyperspin from what you have in your roms folder...but is the pre work involved actually going through and deleting every rom I don't want manually? Additionally, is there some way to cull the duplicates say from each countries version? Say Fixeight, which is a totally rad game btw, can I say I just want the USA version and have something delete the rest? Same with the other systems too, say Sonic one on Genesis/MD, I only want the USA version? Also let's say I didn't want any streetfighter 2 games (as if), do I just manually delete the lot...or?

 

If you already have a complete 2.0 non-merged collection, Then all you need is a list of good titles.

Simply copy the title(s) from your non-merged collection.

 

As SectionZ mentioned, There is the No Filler (All Killer) list.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=149708.0

 

It appears to be based on 0170 version, So some names of titles will differ to your 0200 collection.

 

For specific sets (USA versions etc) you will need to manually find the setname to copy with a GUI like QMC2.

Edited by ozfalcon
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Hmmm, i might be wrong then, and the non-merged set i got might still need the Bios and device files. I'll try to remember to go and look :)

 

Just had a look at the latest non-merged set,

Remark: Even though Non-Merged games -normally- DO NOT include BIOS or DEVICE files within the game, in the case of the PD non-merged set we DO include these within the game

 

You are correct - These files do contain the Bios/Device files. The size also is considerably larger than the Merged set (62GB vs 113GB).

 

I'm going to have to find out if there is a simple way to do this.

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There isn't a "simple" way to do this which is why Rom Managers came about.

 

You can automate the major part of it with RomList and/or ClrMame but after that you're down to manual removal of excess roms. Once you've got your list of wanted games, you can then use any of the above to merge the roms if thats your preference AND then I know Clrmame has the option to move the unwanted roms to a diff dir.

 

Once you have a final list you can again use ClrMame etc to create your master keepers list and use that in the future should you come across this problem again.

 

However like I said I use Rom Lister to generate a front-ends game list to include a subset of games and keep the rest in the same place, just hidden. Of course you can use your list to move the unwanted roms out but why as you never see them again unless you're dicking around in Windows Explorer.

 

I just don't get the fuss. It used to matter when HDD's were tiny and at a premium but you can keep the complete mame set in a 128gb ssd and still have plenty of free space :unsure

 

Still though, the answer to OP's question was in my first reply. Rom Lister. Check out the very first screen shot of settings

 

https://www.waste.org/~winkles/ROMLister/

 

Upright/Cocktail

Vertical/Horizontal

Control Filters

Region Filters

Clone Removal etc

 

Generate list for your frontend of choice. People are overthinking this.

 

Brad

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There isn't a "simple" way to do this which is why Rom Managers came about.

 

You can automate the major part of it with RomList and/or ClrMame but after that you're down to manual removal of excess roms. Once you've got your list of wanted games, you can then use any of the above to merge the roms if thats your preference AND then I know Clrmame has the option to move the unwanted roms to a diff dir.

 

Once you have a final list you can again use ClrMame etc to create your master keepers list and use that in the future should you come across this problem again.

 

However like I said I use Rom Lister to generate a front-ends game list to include a subset of games and keep the rest in the same place, just hidden. Of course you can use your list to move the unwanted roms out but why as you never see them again unless you're dicking around in Windows Explorer.

 

I just don't get the fuss. It used to matter when HDD's were tiny and at a premium but you can keep the complete mame set in a 128gb ssd and still have plenty of free space :unsure

 

Still though, the answer to OP's question was in my first reply. Rom Lister. Check out the very first screen shot of settings

 

https://www.waste.org/~winkles/ROMLister/

 

Upright/Cocktail

Vertical/Horizontal

Control Filters

Region Filters

Clone Removal etc

 

Generate list for your frontend of choice. People are overthinking this.

 

Brad

 

Romlister last update was build 031.2 - Released July 7th 2015

Mame has changed -xml output since 2015, So it is very likely V0200 of Mame will not work well or as expected.

 

 

I think there needs to be some clarification on ROM usage.

1. You don't want to fiddle/remove/delete any roms from your complete collection of roms (Whatever format they are in ie. non-merged, Split or merged).

2. You do want to copy or rebuild a custom collection of 100~500 roms tailored for your cabinet. This leaves your main collection intact (Wise).

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

This appears to be an uptodate process writeup.

https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Validating,-Rebuilding,-and-Filtering-ROM-Collections

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That's a good writeup!

 

Yeah you're right RomLister hasn't been updated in 3 years but I never put the later version of mame in my cabs so works for me. Good point though

 

Brad

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