CriticalCid

Tutorial: How to update your MAME ROMset to a newer version with CLRmamepro Note: This tutorial assumes that you already have a complete ROMset from a previous MAME version. If you don’t have a complete ROMset than I would suggest to just grab a complete set for the current MAME version and return to this tutorial if you want to update it in the future. Why update the ROMs?: MAME is very sensitive about its ROM versions. You can get an older version of a ROMset to work with a newer MAME version but you should be aware that you can run in many errors and missing files. In the best case your ROMset version matches exactly the MAME version you are using. The MAME developers are updating MAME every last Wednesday in the month, so if you download a complete ROMset today it won’t work perfectly fine with the newest MAME version by the end of next month. If all the games you want to play are all there and working perfectly fine you probably won’t care about new updates, but if you want to get all the new emulation improvements and new added ROMs you should keep track of them. Now is a complete ROMset with all CHDs roughly 400GB in size, so you probably don’t want to download that amount of data every month. It’s faster to just download all new added ROMs, CHDs and Samples and just to update the ROMset you already have. And with the program CLRmamero you can do this. If you want more information why MAME is so sensitive about the ROM versions and mandatory file names I highly recommend this Reddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/MAME/comments/3gh78n/probably_a_silly_question_but_why_are_ROM_packs/ Step 1: Groundwork 1. First of all you should know what ROMset version you have. I don’t know if there’s a comfortable way to find out what version you have. Normally your ROMset version should be the same as the MAME version you are currently using but I can’t guarantee that this is the case for you. So if you have absolutely no idea what ROM version you have I would suggest what I wrote at the beginning of this tutorial. Download a complete set of the current version and write down what version that is, so you can update that set in the future. 2. Download all ROM update packs beginning from the version you have until to the current version. With all I mean all. For example if your ROMset is on version 0.168 and you want to update to version 0.171 you will need the update packs: 0.168 to 0.169, 0.169 to .170 and 0.170 to 0.171! 3. Download CLRmamepro at http://mamedev.emulab.it/clrmamepro/ and install/extract it. You will also need to install/update to a version of MAME which matches the version you want to update your ROMset to. In this tutorial I show you how I update my 0.170 ROMset to version 0.171. I use for that MAMEUIFX64 0.171. 4. Optional: If you use a branch of MAME which supports some extra games (like MAMEUIFX) you would probably want these games too. Normally they are not included in an official complete MAME ROMset so you have to download them separately. Use Google to find out if your MAME version supports additional games and then download them. If you use MAMEUIFX like myself you can legally get the additional games in their forum: http://mame32fx.altervista.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4 Just download all ROMs and Samples and keep in mind to create separate folders for ROMs and Samples.

I wouldn’t just replace the CHDs. MAME sometimes keeps older versions of the games and just renames them. They would be missing if you just replace them. Also I would strictly disadvice to manually repacking the .zip files. You can break more than it would help you. If you want I can document my process when I update my own romset later this day and write I little tutorial. As I said it’s not very intuitive but when you done it 2-3 times it’s very easy.

There's also a third program. InputMapper https://inputmapper.com/ I use InputMapper myself and everything works completely fine.

I just looked at the PS1 xml and it appears that it doesn’t include normal CRC values at all (what would be impossible anyway since most CD games are a .cue + .bin file(s) combination) Instead it looks like this: SCUS94601, 3D_LEMMINGS Am I right that the parser would crash as well because the values don't have 8 digits? If that’s the case I would find it very great if you could include the option to just skip the first line. It wouldn’t break the parser because if a game hasn’t a CRC value listed then the line is still there, but only blank.

I thought that the CRC could be the problem because it caused already trouble in a synopsis file. But I honestly don’t know where the problem exactly is because all I get is this unclear error message: I tried it with a SNES, NES, N64, PS1 and Genesis synopsis file. The only file that was working was Genesis. At all the others I get the same error. I also uploaded the SNES one so you can test it yourself.

Or skip the CRC lines completely. Some systems like the N64 have almost no CRC values in it but I would still like to import all the other information’s from the synopsis file.

I love this tool of yours. With the feature to scrap from synopsis files I have finally an easy way to get the numbers of local players in LaunchBox. Now I really would love to see an updated version with better error handling. I have many synopsis files which just give me an ‘invalid synopsis file’ error and I really don’t know in which line I could fix the errors.

Oh sorry, I kinda missed that your games are zipped. I’m using RocketLauncher to launch all my games. It extracts all of my games before the game starts so that was never a problem for me. Sorry for the confusion.

I'm using NeoRaine for NeoGeo CD games and I don't had to struggle with TXT files or such. Some games have, besides the better music quality, additional features like the Combat School in Metal Slug 1 & 2 in their CD version. On the other hand some games are missing frames and animations compared to their cart version. Here's a list which features some games and their differences of the various versions: http://www.gamefaqs.com/neogeocd/916662-neo-geo-cd/faqs/51773

What about an extra section in Retro Style Spotlight? I mean emulation news would fit perfectly fine with the other retro news, especially if it’s on a channel for a product like LaunchBox which is designed for using emulators. But I also would say there’s no need to cover it weekly, just throw it in when a huge release did come out.

I’m sorry you feel that way. I LOVE the early 3D era of gaming. The look and feel of many of these games is such unique and has its own interesting experimental style, graphical and gameplay wise. Maybe I’m too nostalgic about it because I grew up with it and the N64 was my first console ever. But nonetheless the PS1 is still my favorite console of all time and I love to play games for it still today.

My method to do this is with the tool 'Rom Folder Cleaner' and the current HyperSpin MAME database. But it requires having RocketLauncher installed and MAME already set up in it. If you don’t use RocketLauncher could this method be a little bit too much work for such a minor task but if you want I could write a tutorial how to do it. The much easier method would be to just import your whole MAMEset in LaunchBox, then using the genre filter, go to the genres you don’t want and then delete all the games in this genre.

There are programs like ROMlister which can filter your MAME romset. I don't use it myself but it should be worth to check it out.

Haha, I have to admit that for two or three seconds I was really confused to see here a German word.

It’s exactly the same. Typically you update your ROMs and CHD together in the whole process. But if you want to only update your CHDs it’s absolutely no problem, it’s just a checkbox to uncheck.

Guess we have to wait for Mobygames then. But what about Giantbomb and Arcade-History? The first one already has an API and the second one is a database file designed to get scraped from. It would be nice to have some info on what is worked on at the moment. Sorry if I sound too pushy but with Arcade-History integrated I could finally start to set up my LaunchBox and import all of my arcade systems.

Oh ok. I only looked in their wiki and there was nothing about this topic.

Most trackers don’t like proxys but I couldn’t find any rules against it on their site.

If you want the most recent MAME set it is indeed the best option to go. The MAME sets are even 'free' so you don't need to build up any ratio to download them. Just register there and grab it. But again, if you don't want to download the 300 to 400GB CHD set each time it is easier to learn how Clrmamepro works and just update the set you already have. And I also think that Jason don't want to see here any links to ROM sites even if they are private trackers with strict rules that don't allow any current systems.

I'm using Microsoft Security Essentials and never got any warnings. And Clrmamepro is one of the most common programs in the MAME community so it should be definitely clean.

You can update from 161 to 170 in one step but you will still need all update packs from 161to162 till 169to170 to do that.

For starters I would recommend the offical Clrmamepro tutorial: http://www.mameworld.info/easyemu/clrmameguide/clrmame-guide.html If you need help just ask. I used that program so many times I could rebuild and update a romset while I’m sleeping.

Yeah, it's the same.

If you need help with Clrmamepro than just ask, I'll be glad to help. Once you figured out how that program works it will be so much faster to just update your romset than downloading a completely new set. Especially if you want CHD games you don’t really want to download 300 to 400 GB again.

That’s odd. The official FAQ still says: Can two users share a library and both play at the same time? No, a shared library may only be accessed by one user at a time.