Light Sock

I'm writing this tutorial to help people cutting down the Mame full set with only what their controls can play. The current Launchbox importer is pretty good if you have an Xbox or Playstation controller. If like me you have a 2 players arcade machine you're probably limited with 4 way / 8 way joysticks leaving the analog games unplayable. This method isn't an automated process and will take some time. This tutorial have 2 objective depending if you're an archiver and want all playable games according to your controls - or - if you just want the best playable games according to your controls. I'll also share my All Killer No Filler's bat files so you can reduce the total of games to around 800 titles as a great start. I got through this process after fulling my 1tb SSD with the Mame set in my arcade cabinet. I had no space for newer games like Tetris Connected, MK10, etc. I also hated that the current Mame importer in LB left so many unplayable games with my controls. I've tried softwares like Rom Lister, Lightspeed Ultra-Fast Mame Importer Tool, Rom Center and CLRMamePro but they were either outdated, unsupported or irrelevant for what I wanted. I'm also from the school that everything should always stay updated. So yeah those outdated softwares weren't going to help. As for Mame it would take too much time to update regularly unless we automate some parts of this tutorial. This tutorial could be done each year so you're always up to date with all your roms. Otherwise please upvote this request on bitbucket which would automate all this process in the Mame importer of Launchbox. UPVOTE ME SO THIS PROCESS GETS INTEGRATED TO LAUNCHBOX! 1. PLAYABLE FULLSET - Skip to step 2 if you want All Killer No Filler 1.1 - PREPARING YOUR FILES Download the latest Mame full set on Pleasuredome. You'll need around 700 Gb disk space. [FREE] MAME 0.228 ROMs (non-merged) [FREE] MAME 0.228 CHDs (merged) if you already have a CHD set chances are that you don't have to download the new one unless it's really outdated. [FREE] MAME 0.228 ROMs (bios-devices) Copy all the ROMs in Launchbox/Games/Arcade 1.2 - IMPORTING IN LAUNCHBOX Import the full set in LaunchBox > Tools > Import > Mame Arcade Full Set... We'll import a non-merge full set with clones as additional versions. I highly suggest the World region to prioritize. You can check what you want to import or not (up to you). I highly suggest checking everything as it clears out the vast majority of the Mame junk. I suggest you uncheck Create Playlists as we'll cut down more games after that process and you should really learn to manually do your playlists, it's easy and it's a great thing to know. This process takes quite some time so might as well go search a beer and watch some Twitch in the meantime. If you feel a little lost at this step you can watch this video from 06:00 - 08:00. 2. ALL KILLER NO FILLER - Skip to step 3 if you have done step 1 to be written... UPDATE: Since my life has been busy and that I don't have the time to finalize the step #2 of this tutorial, I'll share with you what I think to be the best All Killer No Filler batch file (available at the bottom of this topic). This is the one I'm using for my own arcades and I hope you like it! Just copy the file mame-aknf.bat in your Mame romset folder (must be a non-merged romset) and open it. It'll create a folder called AKNF and all the roms will be there. The bat file won't move any roms so it doesn't break your source romset, it's safely copying the rom files in the newly created AKNF sub-folder. The batch file was made with Mame 0.238 so in many years it could become obselete, I believed at this time of writing this update (2022/05/27) it is safe to say that'll work great with newer version of Mame for years to come. If you still want to create your own All Killer No Filler romset you should be able to figure it out quite easily with all the information in this topic and my result mame-aknf batch file as an example. 3. KEEP GAMES COMPATIBLE WITH YOUR CONTROLS 3.1 - PREPARING FILES Download the Create Playlists from MAME plugin. Download the latest .ini Mame files you can find them here. Usually the first link is a .7z archive with all the .ini files. Extract the .7z archive in a folder. Place the .dll file of the plugin in Launchbox's Plugins folder. Restart Launchbox. 3.2 - CREATE PLAYLISTS Go in Tools > Arcade Playlists from ini and browse to your Mame files .ini folder. In the left column choose Control.ini file. Note that this tutorial is aimed at removing all the games incompatible with your controls. You may want to use this method to remove more games according to other criteria. In the center column you'll now have all the possible control configurations available from Mame. In the center column select a filter that matches your controls. Re-do step 3 until you have all the playlists of everything that is compatible with your hardware. *Note that the best thing would be to do the same with the buttons but I can't find a .ini file with buttons information. 3.3 - MERGE/EXPORT ALL PLAYLISTS Create a new playlist Playable Fullset and add all games from the playlists you've created at step 3.2. Select all games in the new playlist Playable Fullset and go in Tools > Export/Copy ROM Files from Selected Games to New Folder... and export to a new folder Playable Fullset. This will export all your actual playable games in a new folder. 3.4 - REPLACE ROMSET Now we want to replace the huge Mame rom set with only the roms you're using. Close Launchbox Delete all the roms (not the CHDs or bios) in Launchbox/Games/Arcade directory. Move all the roms from the new folder Playable Fullset in Launchbox/Games/Arcade. 4. CHD AND BIOS CLEANUP 4.1 - FILTER IN MAME Download the latest version of Mame (must match your romset version). I highly suggest to download the no-nag* version of Mame available here. This will remove all the advertisement screens when you start a game. They're not user friendly for arcade cabinet like mine that goes in events or just plain stupid users. Open Mame and navigate to Configure Options > Configure Directories > ROMs > Add Folder and add Launchbox/Games/Arcade folder. Go back in the Mame game list screen and click on Custom Filter at the bottom of the left filtering section of Mame. Select the Available and CHD Required filters as follow. The game list will now be left with all the games that actually requires a CHD file. Export this filtered list to a text list pressing the yellow floppy disk icon at the top of the game list. Now you have a list of all the required CHDs only for the games compatible with your controls. 4.2 - EDIT YOUR FILTERED LIST Go in Mame/ui folder and open the exported.txt file you've just generated. Do the following to the exported.txt file. Remove the line 1 (Name: Description:) Remove the whole Description column Add ' character before and after rom name as follow 'romname' Add , character after rom name so now it looks like that 'romname', Delete all the breaks and have all the rom names on one line like that 'romname1','romname2','romname3' Your file should now contains a comma separated list like that 4.3A - COPY/MOVE FOLDERS FROM A FILTERED LIST - ideal for CHDs Download the attached PowerShell script move-folders.ps1 I've made to automatically extract all the required folders to a new folder. Right click on move-folders.ps1 go to properties and click Unblock. If it's not there the file is already unblocked. Right click on move-folders.ps1 and press Edit, it'll open the script in Windows PowerShell ISE. At the line $Folders = @('folder1','folder2','folder3') you'll add the comma separated game list you've made with Mame at step 4.1. $Folders = @('area51','area51mx','bbh','bbh2sp','bbhcotw','bbhsc','blitz','blitz2k','blitz99','calspeed','carnevil','carnking','cartfury','chaoshea','cleoftp','cliffhgr','cndypuzl','cryptklr','cubeqst','cvsgd','darkhleg','eggsplc','evilngt','fbait2bc','fbaitbc','fbaitmc','firefox','flipmaze','gauntdl','gauntleg','gobyrc','gtfore01','gtfore02','gtfore03','gtfore04','gtfore05','gtfore06','hypbbc2p','hyperath','hyprdriv','jdredd','jojo','jojoba','jppyex98','kinst','kinst2','kollon','konam80s','lacrazyc','mace','mach3','maxforce','musclhit','nagano98','nbagold','nbanfl','nbashowt','nightrai','otenamhf','otenamih','otenki','polystar','powyak96','powyakex','psyvaria','psyvarrv','raycris','redearth','roadburn','salarymc','sf2049','sf2049se','sfiii','sfiii2','sfiii3','sfrush','sfrushrk','shanghss','shangtou','shikigam','shikigama','simpbowl','soutenry','spuzbobl','totlvice','turrett','usvsthem','vaportrx','virtpool','warfa','wargods','wg3dh','xiistag','zokuoten','zooo') Example with full set Mame 0.228 version Now at line 3 of the code edit the paths according to your configuration but keep \$Folder at the end of the path. robocopy "C:\UNFILTERED\$Folder" "C:\FILTERED\$Folder" /move} OPTIONAL STEP: If you don't want to download the powershell script file you can copy the code below and create your own PowerShell file. $Folders = @('romname1','romname2','romname3') foreach ($Folder in $Folders) { robocopy "C:\UNFILTERED\$Folder" "C:\FILTERED\$Folder" /move} Execute your freshly edited move-folders.ps1 file and take another beer because this step takes a lot of time. Now you'll have all your filtered files in C:/FILTERED folder. In this case we are moving CHDs so copy all the content from the FILTERED folder to Launchbox/Games/Arcade. 4.3B - COPY/MOVE FILES FROM A FILTERED LIST - ideal for Bioses For this example we'll filter the only the required bios. Re-do step 4.1 of filtering in Mame but use Bios as Filter 2 at step 4.1.3 Download the attached bat file copy-files.bat I've made to automatically extract all the required files to a new folder. Right click on copy-files.bat go to properties and click Unblock. If it's not there the file is already unblocked. OPTIONAL STEP: If you don't want to download the bat file you can copy the code below and create your own .bat file. md FILTERED copy bios1.zip FILTERED copy bios2.zip FILTERED copy bios3.zip FILTERED Right click on copy-files.bat and press Edit, it'll open the file in your default text editor. Replace the 'bios1', 'bios2', 'bios3' and so on with the bios names from the exported.txt file from step 4.1. md FILTERED copy ar_bios.zip FILTERED copy atarisy1.zip FILTERED copy crysbios.zip FILTERED copy konamigv.zip FILTERED copy konamigx.zip FILTERED copy megaplay.zip FILTERED copy neogeo.zip FILTERED copy pgm.zip FILTERED copy skns.zip FILTERED copy stvbios.zip FILTERED Example with All Killer No Filler with Mame 0.228 version Execute your freshly edited copy.bat file and wait for the process to complete. In this case we are copying Bioses so copy all the content from the FILTERED folder to Launchbox/Games/Arcade. 5. FINAL WORDS You did it! Now you have a 100% working set that matches your controls. Note to save more space; you can Skip Clones entirely at step 1.2 but keep in mind that you'll have to manually exchange the roms if you have a 2 players maximum setup. If you've selected WOLRD by default most of the 3+ players games like TMNT, Simpsons, etc comes with the version with more players. I highly suggest not using a full Mame set but create your own collection of roms. Consider using the All Killer No Filler list available here as a great start and from there you can add the missing games. Hope this helps someone out there! *No-nag: in other to remove the advertisement screens you have to set skip_gameinfo at 1 in your mame.ini file. move-folders.ps1 copy-files.bat mame-aknf.bat

I just wanted to say a big thank you for this incredible software! It must have saved so many hours in the life of so many people. I tried it directly on Mame and it works out of the box!

I just spent the last 3 days trying things here and there and I may have found an easy route to manually clean a romset. I'm downloading the latest non-merged romset and will try to achieve the following. Delete the unused files after the LB Mame importer process Delete all non-working CHDs Remove incompatible games with my control panel with the new tool posted yesterday If I'm able to get this working I'll try to make a post and hopefully that'll help someone.

Thanks a lot this seems all fresh 8 hours ago! In the meatime maybe it would be nice if we go and upvote this request of updating the Mame importer. https://bitbucket.org/jasondavidcarr/launchbox/issues/5928/mame-arcade-fullset-importer-update

I completely understand, it all makes sense, I've made the suggestion and do really hope this feature gets upvoted and that one day it'll see development! It would be really appreciated if it could be added directly to the original post by a moderator to get maximum visibility. https://bitbucket.org/jasondavidcarr/launchbox/issues/5928/mame-arcade-fullset-importer-update

Do you plan on adding those features? If yes, any ETA? Can we pay for the development somewhere for priorities? Thanks!

Hi @Jason Carr and thank you for your reply. At first I was really excited to wait for the next version of LB but reading your message again, I've checked and I already have Launchbox 11.9 version. So maybe I'm not looking at the right place but the importer in Tools > Import > Mame Arcade Fullset isn't doing exactly what Lightspeed did. It more just clean the obvious Mame junk the vast majority doensn't want. As for what could be improved in the importer; I think that some people want to have a fullset that is fully working and playable by their control panel. For example in my case I have 2 joysticks that are 4 way / 8 way only. So again, in my case, what's missing in the Mame full-set importer is the following: Removing games that have more than 2 players Removing games that have more than 8 buttons (excluding COIN and START buttons) Removing games that aren't 4 way or 8 way (analog joy, lightgun, spinner, rotating joy, etc) Thanks a lot for your great work by the way! It would be awesome to see the Mame importer updated to fin tune the collection to your control panel compatibility!

Anyone can give me a download link to the latest known stable version of this? Much appreciated, thanks!

I have a similar question. I would like to remove all the games that have More than 2 players More than 6 buttons (excluding start and coin) Every controls that aren't 4 way or 8 way Romlister - https://www.waste.org/~winkles/ROMLister/ Lightspeed - https://forums.launchbox-app.com/topic/30530-lightspeed-ultra-fast-mame-importer-tool/ Both are outdated. Isn't there's a manual way of filtering the games with Notepad+ or something? Thanks for helping!

Here's a fix to launch CabVol minimized to system tray if you have shelled bigbox.exe or any other frontend. This will work without explorer.exe running. 1- Create a shortcut of CabVol.exe 2- Create a .bat file with this code %comspec% /c start "" /min "C:\LaunchBox\ThirdParty\CabVol\CabVol.lnk" 3- Create a .vbs file with this code Dim WinScriptHost Set WinScriptHost = CreateObject("WScript.Shell") WinScriptHost.Run Chr(34) & "C:\LaunchBox\ThirdParty\CabVol\CabVol.bat" & Chr(34), 0 Set WinScriptHost = Nothing 4- Create an automated task in the Windows Task Scheduler to run your .vbs script. This is the only way to get CabVol launching minimized to system tray from the task scheduler. Task Scheduler doesn't let you launch a shortcut ".lnk" file with the minimized option. Task Scheduler doesn't hide a cmd prompt in case you're asking why the .vbx script file. Hope this helps someone out there, I've spent few hours on that one!

Thank you

0.2 - Changelog Added game marquee image in the cab Added static fallback video background in the cab Added abstract video mask in wheel sidebar Added light video mask in wheel selector Fixed compressed video background file size Fixed first basket arcade scene to arcade machines in video bg Fixed computer battery indicator always showing File cleanup Minor fixes

Anyone can help with this complicated emulator?

Just updated youtube and download link.

Starcraft Sound Pack View File Audio have been taken from original Broodwar game in source game files. Hope you enjoy! Find latest version here https://github.com/Emulga/BigBox-Starcraft-Sound-Pack Submitter G22 Submitted 12/06/2019 Category Big Box Sound Packs

Remade Windows to my liking if anyone prefer this one.

Thanks a lot for this list. This is some amazing work and I'm really looking forward to use it. I would like to keep my Mame fullset but add your no filler all killer game list as a playlist. Is there a way that I could do this without doing this manually? Thanks for anyone who could give me a hand on this ?

Hi it's me again! I've been back at it for a good 8 hours for 34 new clear logos. I spent a lot of time on this and hope you'll like them! For some older arcade publishers I had to redraw the logos in vector to size them up bigger. I first started to separate my games by arcade board until I realize it's a bad practice coming from the Hyperspin community. At least for me it's useless as it created just too much categories. I made clear logos for the most known publisher/developer companies out there. So you can just write Capcom in the search bar where you have all your arcade games and create a Capcom playlist. I remade them so the word "classics" isn't there. I found it irrelevant. I think we're just doing things over and over because it always been like that without questioning why ? capcom 68000 is there because it's the only one I did before changing my mind on arcade board categories

Oh my god haha! My brain had an hard time processing within the set. Thanks a lot you're a lifesaver! Much appreciated!

According to latest Mame 0.215 release forum topic the only set that contains all bios and devices is the non-merged set. Since Demul can't point a different folder for bios and roms some people like me that stores Arcade roms in Games/Arcade and bios in Emulators/Mame/roms to have roms and bios separated may have an issue with Demul. But still non-merged may not be the best as you'll loose 50gb of disk space. You could probably use a non-merged or split set with the bios in the Games/Arcade folder and save 50gb. I think I found what makes me think that there were missing roms in my merge set. I've found a romset of Sega Model 3 which is basically roms pulled out of a Mame set. So I compared them to my roms and found no other versions zips because they're of course in the merge zip. So I went into LB and click on that particular rom and checked under "Additional Apps" and they weren't there. Then I thought I was missing stuff. Since I used the importer and told him to not import "not working" roms I understand that what I think it's missing it's in reality broken games. BTW if anyone knows how I could put different paths for bios and roms in Demul before I move all my bios files in "Games/Arcade", which I would prefer not to. Thanks a lot for helping me, great discussion!

Hi @DOS76 and thank you for your quick reply! 4. I'll update them then and add them to my Github so anyone can contribute. 7. I've found that some arcade games that uses an emulator other than Mame have it's own scraping section with more metadata/artwork than it can be found when scraping as Arcade. I wonder why there are separate sections for example Sega Naomi instead of only having everything under Arcade in the games database. Hope this makes more sense. 8. New question: It seems that less games (like bootlegs) have been imported in "Additional Apps" using a merge set. Is it possible that a non-merged set results in more games in Launchbox? I know duplicates all should be under "Additional Apps" page of a game but seems like I'm missing some. Thanks a lot for helping, really appreciated!