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I have my Arcade roms under three platforms: FinalBurn Neo, MAME 2003-Plus and MAME using the 0.240 set. I already setup FinalBurn Neo and MAME 2003-Plus so no roms in FinalBurn Neo physically exist in MAME 2003-Plus. With MAME 0.240, there are ROMs not in FinalBurn Neo and MAME 2003-Plus but then of course, many ROMs that are. For example 1-on-1 Goverment is only in MAME 0.240 but 3 Count Bout is in MAME and FinalBurn Neo. I want a playlist that would show 1-on-1 Government because it only exist in MAME but not 3 Count Bout because it is also under FinalBurn Neo. I've tried multiple ways but nothing works. It seems that each statement is evaluated independent of the other. It does not seem like I cannot state something like SELECT games WHERE game in MAME AND NOT IN ('MAME-2003-Plus', 'FinalBurn Neo')

Thanks!

I don't want to import clones unless it is the US variant. Then, I want the US variant over the original. When importing roms, there doesn't seem to be a way to import the clone over the original even though I specify to prioritize North America. Is this something I have to do manually? For example, 1944.zip is imported but not 1944u.zip which is the USA clone. I think most, if not all, USA variant end in U so I'm thinking of exporting the set, replace roms with its USA variant and then import that set, keeping all clones. So unless there is another way I would, import the set (FBNoe, mame2003, etc) skip clones and prioritize by North America, export that and then replace any roms with its USA variant which hopefully is any clone ending in U and then import that set importing all clones. I am using full-non-merged roms too so no issue with copy/replace. I mostly use FinalBurn Neo and MAME 2003-Plus for Retroarch but same idea applies to any MAME variant.

Is there a way for Launchbox to display a message when launching a game? For example, "Hyrule Fantasy" (i.e. Legend of Zelda) on the Famicom Disk System, you need to switch to side B at the title screen. I might not remember that in the future.

Cool! Thank you!

I like to keep things easy and for Arcade, use Retroarch FinalBurn Neo primarily and Retroarch MAME 2003-Plus and it works out rather well and easier to get working. FinalBurn Neo also covers Capcom Play Systems 1, 2 and 3. Importing FinalBurn Neo as "FinalBurn Neo" put it under Arcade but importing MAME 2003-Plus as "MAME 2003-Plus" created a new main platform, such as Arcade, Consoles, etc. as "MAME 2003-Plus". I found how to move games between platforms but not entire Platforms. Thanks for any help!

But that won't use the MAME filtering built into LB. I guess i'd have to do that externally or deal with it.

After going through all the options, I want to use Retroarch's mame2003-plus core for MAME. I went through the import process and got to this point: So if you read the documentation https://docs.libretro.com/library/mame2003_plus/, the mame2003-plus core uses MAME 0.078 as a base with some roms updated with the MAME 0.223 or later but I'm just going to use 0.223 in this post. I'm thinking using MAME 0.078 or MAME 0.223 might not recognize all the roms. MAME 0.078 would not pick up the update roms while MAME 0.223 will see many 0.078 roms as invalid. Of course the mame2003-plus rom set has many duplicate I want to filter out. If there is no straight forward way, I thought of this tedious method: Import into LB a Full non-merged 0.078 set, stripping out what I don't want (clones, non-world region, etc.) Export that set from Launchbox Follow the documentation for the mame2003-plus core in libretro docs (https://docs.libretro.com/library/mame2003_plus/) Generate the XML Dat from RA/mame2003-plus core Validate ROMS with clrmamepro rebuild pulling in any missing roms from 0.223 roms and rollbacks. Any missing roms SHOULD be the clones I don't want Import that set using MAME 0.223 but not sure how that would pull in ROMS from the 0.078 set that would not be valid 0.078 OR, after typing all this out, just make sure my mame2003-plus set is up-to-date and just do step 4. Again, not sure how importing using MAME 0.223 would pull in 0.078 roms.

So what about the amount of media downloaded. For example, emusync downloads ~40mb of box front images for the SMS. Launchbox, importing only from Launchbox is 300mb. The ROMs alone are 37mb total. If we look at just the Alex Kidd series, Launchbox downloaded three box fronts for Alex Kidd in Miracle World and one for the other three titles. So for four roms, we have six images. Also, the LB images are much larger on average. With emumovies, only two files are bigger than 200kb. With LB images, many are over 1.6MB and a Sonic one is over 6MB. Alex Kidd in Shinobi World from emumovies is 128KB but in LB images, it's over 1.3MB and is more faded. I did notice that the the 3D boxes from LB were consistent with boxes of the same size and angle facing right. emuumovies had many that were smaller and facing left. This is where grabbing from emumovies is more efficient spacewise. I would think doing that and then downloading individual ones from LB images might be more space conscious but would take more work.

Do you lose anything not scraping/importing media through Launchbox? Launchbox doesn't rename the existing files so it wants to download a new copy of files from emumovies. I prioritize emumovies and Lunchbox media fills in the gaps. Thanks for the info

After probably a decade, I finally bought the Lifetime Supporter of EmuMovies. I pretty much only use Launchbox. I was excited to have all the videos and manuals. Now I am so disappointed and I wish I did not get the Lifetime Supporter of EmuMovies. (although I don't mind supporting them) Downloading from EmuMoveis is soooo slow in Launchbox. I only selected a few box images, cart images, manuals, low quality videos. In Launchbox, it takes hours, I stopped at over two for NES and it was not done. I searched around and this has been a problem for YEARS! I can't understand after seeing Launchbox progress so much over the years, this is still an issue. It is not a connection issue. I found EmuMoviesSync and was able to download the same amount of data in roughly 30 minutes. I even tried a vpn, using different countries (a suggested option) but that didn't help. I copied the files from EmuMoviesSync to the proper media folders but Launchbox does not 'see' the files. It just still wants to download and process the set from emumovies. I did see this submitted to Launchbox support, there is at least one old ticket. Working in a software company, I seen tickets go way to the bottom in priority and I've seen them get marked "won't do". It seems like this issue is one of these two. Is there a workaround? Can a batch file be provided to import the files downloaded from EmuMoviesSync? Has someone already made one? I'm going to try Bulk Rename Utility to rename files downloaded through EmuMoviesSync, see if that works, at least for the majority. I'll rename those to what would be priority files, import them and then scan the media in LB and see how that goes.

I should have said that I use this process to copy out only the working roms. The full set including all the undesirable games is almost 800GB. Using this process, I get it down to 300GB. After the initial import of from the full set, I use LB to Export/Copy the roms to the folder that LB will ultimately be using and copy the matching CHDs. Then I remove the 500GB of excess rom files.

I've updated my MAME set to 0.220, although I don't believe that changes anything other than Launchbox won't recognize new additions until the next LB update. This also involves a game that has been part of MAME since the 0.030's versions. I follow a process that I found on Youtube that works quite well for stripping out games that either don't work or are mechanical, fruit, casino, etc. I import the full set in a full non-merged state and I choose to import all games as separate apps and uncheck Skip Mature Games (only because some are quite fun even though they might be a little sexist, most of the time they are japanese uncovering women in swinware you would see at the beach, anyway...) After that is imported, I export/Copy the resulting games to a different folder, use scripts to copy the matching CHD folders, remove the existing MAME import in LB and then import the exported set with clones as additional apps. After the first import, I get 6,000 and change games. MAME reports over 8,000 working, non-mechanical games. I'm sure that might include some casino, playchoice, etc. games but I found one that works in MAME but doesn't get imported into Launchbox; 280zzzap. Its really nothing special, probably won't play it but it is just an example. In Launchbox's mame.xml, the game is false for all categories so it should come through. What could be stopping it, and I'm pretty sure it is, is it's Imperfect status. That doesn't make it 'Not Working' in MAME's eyes but most likely does in LB. It does work in MAME and in retroarch mame_libretro. It is imperfect because of sound but it plays. I guess it's Imperfect status in LB's MAME.XML is what is stopping it from importing. I could replace the word Imperfect with good in the mame.xml and it would import it but I'm sure I'd get a lot of games that have some real problems, working but barely playable. 280zzzap is playable, just no sound. Maybe this is an enhancement request but I think instead of having just 'exclude all not working games' maybe LB could have the various levels of 'working' available to be checked? How about having checkboxes for each level of status so not-working can be excluded but imperfect could be included? Maybe some people are picky enough to include only games better than good? For now, you could just work around this by replacing all instances of imperfect with good and roll the dice.

I've seen the documentation for those cores but I'd like to know more about the mame2016 and I just can't find much. Regarding MAME, do you know of a good and accurate guide or youtube on setting up MAME with overlays, shaders, etc.?

I have a full set, its 768GB. As I said, I used launchbox to import them as individual games but skip all non-working and the rest. Then I used Launchbox's export/copy option to copy all of the resulting games and the corresponding CHDs which totals 233gb. I then import that set to Launchbox but this time I choose to keep all clones as one game (LB calls them applications, which is odd). I think what I'll do is update to 0.219 and I've saved the current 0.219 mame_libretro core for future installs. Still curious why there is little to no docs on the mame 2015 or 2016 cores, there is some on 2010. I like retroarch's consistency across emulators which is why I tend to go to retroarch.

So I've really gotten in to mame. I've had a set before but I've never been crazy with the MAME emulator. I've recently discovered mame2003, especially to put on a Genesis Mini and I've tried it on my PC. I do have the full set of MAME 0.217 at a whooping 768GB in full non-merged form for the straight up libretro mame core. I did try the mame2003 core on my PC and it really works nice out of the box. I didn't have to setup any controls with my XBOX One controller. I had compiled a list from various sources of the best MAME games, over 800 and although I didn't get much past B, every game on the list is available in the mame2003. Also, the whole set is only under 33gb. Using Launchbox importing and its ability to export games, I imported everything with everything skipped except mature games and to add all games as individual apps, exported/copied the results which came down to 233gb, then imported that set with the same skip settings and clones as additional apps. That equals about 2900 games. mame2003 comes in at about 2700 with clones as additional apps and same skip settings. Also, the mame2003 set doesn't include all the extra, mostly unneeded clones. So a few questions - Space is not an issue but MAME 0217 comes with so many clones per game, many will never see the light of day. They are just hogging space. 233gb vs. 33gb - mame2003 is using the old 0.78 mame set yes, maybe not "accurate" enough for purist but will gamers miss much? - many mame2003 games work on mini systems and most on raspberry pi (I don't have one but might have the time now with the quarantine.) - There are the mame2010, mame2015, mame2016 cores but I don't see much documentation about them. I'm thinking they are not much different than mame2003. Are they any better? - Just what games or fixed games are missing from mame2003? mame2003 is still actively developed for and many games are being fixed or backported from newer mame versions. Does the same hold true for for the other mame2xxx cores/sets? - As far as the latest mame core (mame_libretro) versus actual MAME, it seems better in retroarch but if it keeps getting updated, it seems like I have to keep my rom set updated like having to get the 0.219 set. When I load the mame_libretro core, it has 0.219 in parentheses afterward. I don't have the time for to keep updating the rom set. mame2003 is occasionally updated but I did use the update instructions from the libretro site which was quite easy. - There is also mame2003-plus. Is that the better choice? - I also have Final Burn Neo loaded in LB too so if there really is anything missing or not as polished in mame2003, maybe its there in FBN? After all this, mame2003 seems like a win-win but is it really? Are the other mame cores, mame2010, mame2015, mame2016 any better? Thanks for all who read an answer. There just doesn't seem to be much out there on these topics and I hope others are helped by your answers.