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Fixing 20GB romsets with CLRMame - does it fix things?
#326043 - 05/19/14 10:43 PM
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So I'm kind of a MAME novice. I've used MAME on my computer, and on my Android phone. I love playing Galaga and Qix on my phone. But I like try out new games sometimes, or revist old favorites, but all I have is one of those giant 20GB collections, and it seems like every time I scroll through the list of 6000 games and find one I want to play, my emulator gives me a "missing rom files" error message. Sometimes it works on one emulator, and not the other.
Specifically for my Android, I have one emulator that is based on 0.37b5, and one that is based on 0.139u1. For example, the game 1942 from my romset works on the 0.37b5 one, but not on the 0.139u one, and 1943 from the same romset works on the 0.139 one, but not on the 0.37 one.
So I found this CLRMamePro Guide that I mistakenly thought was about going through all your mame ROMS and fixing them, until I read this:
"Realistically the only solution to any of the problems left in the list is to re-download the rom file"
See, thats what I did to get 1941 working. I read the error message, it told me which file was missing, so I went and downloaded it, and added it to the rom zip, and repeated the process until I had a working ROM. But that is a PAIN in the ASS to do for every single game I want to play.
Anywho, I ran CLRMamePro on my 20GB romset. I used the dat file from www.logiqx.com/Dats/, although they only had a 0.140 datfile, and I'm running 0.139, not sure if that makes a difference. My emulator didn't have a datfile kicking around to use.
I don't want to have a full, working, complete 20GB romset. I just want working ROMs of a small collection of good games. Unfortunately all the rom collections available that I can find are the 20GB variety, not the "Jim's 50 favourite ROMs of all time" type.
Is there any easy way I can get a collection of ROMs that are guaranteed to work with one of these emulators? Or is there any way I can fix the collection I have?
And while I'm here, just thought I'd ask, is there any way to sift the good stuff out of the 8,700 games I currently have? I mean I've read a lot of top-arcade-games-of-all-time lists, but its kinda hard to translate that to ROM filenames. Like Space Invaders was found under "invaders.zip" when I was looking in the 'S's, or Donkey Kong is actually "dkong.zip". Is there a file-name list of Forum Member Bob's Top MAME picks?
Edited by moeburn (05/19/14 11:36 PM)
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Re: Fixing 20GB romsets with CLRMame - does it fix things?
[Re: moeburn]
#326044 - 05/19/14 11:11 PM
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what do you expect when you update from an ancient to a more recent version.....you cannot magically create some thousand files whcih you dont have,...
what you can do pretty easily with cmpro is to rebuild sets...which takes evrything still valid no matter how it is named and creates it with correct names and placing....
so a rebuild process followed by an adding process (e.g. via rebuilder, scanner or fixdats and good friends)...and of course this does not have to be done set by set....
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Re: Fixing 20GB romsets with CLRMame - does it fix things?
[Re: Roman]
#326045 - 05/19/14 11:38 PM
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I don't understand, I didn't update anything. I also can't tell which version is ancient. Is 0.37 a never version than 0.139, because it is a larger number, mathematically speaking? Or is it more like v139 is a larger number than v37?
I got the romset before I got either of these Android emulator versions. I have no idea what version of MAME the romset I have is made for. When I got it, I had no idea that each individual MAME rom has to be updated every time MAME itself gets updated.
Edited by moeburn (05/20/14 12:01 AM)
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Re: Fixing 20GB romsets with CLRMame - does it fix things?
[Re: moeburn]
#326046 - 05/20/14 12:01 AM
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> I don't understand, I didn't update anything. I also can't tell which version is
> ancient. Is 0.37 a never version than 0.139, because it is a larger number,
> mathematically speaking? Or is it more like v139 is a larger number than v37?
MAME goes by the Number after period, that the ONLY number you have to worry about, so just ignore the "0." in MAME versions. Since MAME started out with .1 then .10 and then .100 which are three different versions. So .139 would be newer than .37 but the latest is 0.153 currently. At least we don't have to compile the new version and dig though ftp sites, unless you want too.
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Re: Fixing 20GB romsets with CLRMame - does it fix things?
[Re: Roman]
#326047 - 05/20/14 12:05 AM
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> what do you expect when you update from an ancient to a more recent version.....you
> cannot magically create some thousand files whcih you dont have,...
>
> what you can do pretty easily with cmpro is to rebuild sets...which takes evrything
> still valid no matter how it is named and creates it with correct names and
> placing....
> so a rebuild process followed by an adding process (e.g. via rebuilder, scanner or
> fixdats and good friends)...and of course this does not have to be done set by
> set....
Okay, I found a proper 0.139u1 dat file, if I'm to understand correctly, the only thing CLRMamePro will do is take all the romsets I have and make them playable, but it won't add any files that it can't find from other roms. To do that, I need some sort of "rollback" file.
I've found a rollback torrent for everything up to the latest 0.152 version. I told my uTorrent to only download everything up to 0.139u1. Would you be so kind as to guide me through how to use CLRMamePro to take these rollback files and fix all my outdated ROMs to work with my 0.139u1 emulator?
PS thanks for bearing with my noobishness, answering my questions, and not telling me to "go read the such and such"!
Edited by moeburn (05/20/14 12:19 AM)
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Re: Fixing 20GB romsets with CLRMame - does it fix things?
[Re: moeburn]
#326053 - 05/20/14 02:09 AM
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> Okay, I found a proper 0.139u1 dat file
Don't waste your time hunting down those - you don't need a dat file for rebuilding/scanning/fixing ROMs (*).
Just point the clrmame Profiler to the mame executable of the version you want to scan, clrmame reads all the info it needs from that.
While it does that, a couple of dialog boxes will pop up, just click yes on all of them. Except if clrmame asks you about importing software lists, then you should click no for now, unless you know what that means.
> if I'm to understand correctly, the only
> thing CLRMamePro will do is take all the romsets I have and make them playable, but
> it won't add any files that it can't find from other roms.
Well yes, you need the missing files, there's no way around it. Clrmame will only work with the files that you make available to it. If you're still missing files it will go as far as it can with what you have but of course you'll still be missing files.
That should be obvious. For the same reason, you can't play a game that you bought on Steam until it has finished downloading.
> Would you be so kind as to
> guide me through how to use CLRMamePro to take these rollback files and fix all my
> outdated ROMs to work with my 0.139u1 emulator?
Use the "add path" function from the settings menu. Set an "add" folder, and leave all the new files zipped in that folder. You asked about this - in the Scanner, click the button labeled "Avail. Sets". This way clrmame will only rebuild the ROMs you already have in your MAME roms folder and not add new ones, even if it finds them in your "add" folder.
Then start the scan and just click yes to everything.
S
(*) I think for really really ancient versions of MAME you might need a .dat file. I don't know how far back you have to go. Anyway I'm sure clrmame will let you know.
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Re: Fixing 20GB romsets with CLRMame - does it fix things?
[Re: moeburn]
#326055 - 05/20/14 02:31 AM
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> I had no idea
> that each individual MAME rom has to be updated every time MAME itself gets updated.
Not (I want to say never) "each individual file". There's a bit more to it.
Never before seen versions of popular games still surface from time to time and when that happens some reshuffling of existing sets for that game is bound to happen. For example, what was "Set 2" now becomes "Set 3". Then both your sets 2 and 3 stop working - the new set 2 needs new files, but the old set 2 simply needs to be renamed.
Another situation is MAME being updated for accuracy, requiring data that used to be hard-coded in MAME, like graphics palette data from a PAL or GAL chip (or whatever is in it). Even for a game that has been supported for a decade or longer. Those chips simply weren't dumped when that particular game was first dumped way back in the day. So that game would stop working once that data is properly dumped and becomes a "required file".
This is all in the official mame.net FAQ though, which you should definitely read.
S
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Re: Fixing 20GB romsets with CLRMame - does it fix things?
[Re: Sune]
#326056 - 05/20/14 02:43 AM
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> > Okay, I found a proper 0.139u1 dat file
>
> Don't waste your time hunting down those - you don't need a dat file for
> rebuilding/scanning/fixing ROMs (*).
> Just point the clrmame Profiler to the mame executable of the version you want to
> scan, clrmame reads all the info it needs from that.
I don't have an executable, this is for an Android mame emulator based on 0.139u1.
> Use the "add path" function from the settings menu. Set an "add" folder, and leave
> all the new files zipped in that folder. You asked about this - in the Scanner, click
> the button labeled "Avail. Sets". This way clrmame will only rebuild the ROMs you
> already have in your MAME roms folder and not add new ones, even if it finds them in
> your "add" folder.
>
> Then start the scan and just click yes to everything.
>
> S
>
>
> (*) I think for really really ancient versions of MAME you might need a .dat file. I
> don't know how far back you have to go. Anyway I'm sure clrmame will let you know.
And in this 'add' folder is where I put the rollback ROM zip files?
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Re: Fixing 20GB romsets with CLRMame - does it fix things?
[Re: moeburn]
#326057 - 05/20/14 02:47 AM
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> > Use the "add path" function from the settings menu. Set an "add" folder, and leave
> > all the new files zipped in that folder.
> And in this 'add' folder is where I put the rollback ROM zip files?
In other words, yes. See relevant part of my previous post, now in bold italics!
/EDIT - missed your other question:
There is no version of ClrMAME for Android, you'll be running it on Windows, which means you'll be copying all of your ROMs from your tablet or phone to a Windows PC. I'm guessing you're torrenting your "rollback" on Windows as well. I'd think it would be easier to find and download a .139u1 MAME executable for Windows than to find a .dat file. Since .dat files aren't needed for this purpose I don't know why someone would upload such a file anywhere.
It doesn't matter what platform you're going to run MAME on, version .139u1 of MAME on any platform needs the right ROMs for version .139u1.
S
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Re: Fixing 20GB romsets with CLRMame - does it fix things?
[Re: moeburn]
#326080 - 05/20/14 09:14 AM
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just to give you an idea....
MAME 0.37 is roughly 14-15 years old.... 0.139 is already 4 years old....
...and with each release sets change and new files are added...
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