MapleLeaf

I'm looking to hand-pick my own MAME ROMS from a set for LB. I have limited storage space and there's maybe only 50-80 games that I want. When I look at how the ROMS/CHDs are named (I'm referring to the abbreviation) It's not clear to me which game is what. Absent plugging the entire set into MAME, is there a quick way to find what I'm looking for from this ROM set? I mean I doubt there's some master list some where detailing the full game name next to the abbreviation. I hope my explanation makes sense.

I have a MAME 0.194 ROMs (non-merged) set. Just wondering what would be the best emulator for both LaunchBox (Windows) and Android (Nvidia Shield)? For Android I'm thinking something from RetroArch or maybe MAME4Droid from the Play Store? Ideally, I don't want to muck around with this for long to get it working but I'm aware that MAME software and ROM sets can be a bit of a pain.

When importing a MAME collection, I notice that LB will show both the parent and clones in the library view. Can LB consolidate the clones/parent into a single directory while still showing the games cover art? Example: You see 1942 in your library so you click on the game and now you see an expanded view of the 1942 parent and all of its clones. If you've got 6+ different clones of a single game it takes up a lot of room in the library view. I don't exactly want to show parents only as certain clones are required for max players etc. Also, on a side note, what is a "mechanical game" or a "fruit game" ?

Would it be possible for you guys to create a clrmamepro tutorial video for your YouTube channel? The quality of your tutorial videos is usually excellent. Since updating sets is a fairly in-depth process involving many steps, I'm surprised that I don't see one on your channel at all. Written tutorials of this scope are a bit intimidating due to the sheer number of steps involved and lets be honest, I don't think most people are jumping for joy over playing Tiger Handheld and Big Buck Hunter arcade. Video tutorials are simply easier to follow. Updating is a daunting task; questions do arise and things CAN go wrong. A younger generation will have to carry the torch eventually and I don't see a lot of younger people getting involved with MAME because It's complicated. Just my 2c. Also, maybe use .dat file/creating a .dat file instead of using mame.exe would be good.

Anyway to put the tutorial images back in the OP? They aren't loading. Not sure if it's my browser or the images/links are broken.

I've watched some of the tutorial videos from the LB YouTube channel back when I was looking into front-end options. That's not what I'm talking about. But of course that IS something I'll get into at some point. But right now I'm referring to original MAME stuff (what we've been talking about so far) configuring my files in there. If you guys use original MAME It's probably a breeze for you - especially if I linked you to the instructions.

Exhausted here and fading fast. Need some rest. @neil9000 I'll read over your response in full when I wake up and take some time to think over what everyone has said. Is anyone on this forum (with adequate know-how) willing to assist with live tutorials/help for this sort of thing? Your time would be compensated for - try me. I don't mind putting in work, as I've been doing so every day for the past three weeks, but this current pre-occupation is taking up wayyyy too much of my life lol. I'll re-check this board when I wake up. Thanks for the advice so far guys! Definitely seems like I've made the right choice for a front-end.

As I mentioned in another post, there's a long list of command-lines for MAME. http://docs.mamedev.org/commandline/commandline-all.html Are all of these command-line options available in the menu you're showing me? Using original MAME to address my OP issues will involve me editing an .ini file and setting paths. That's a bit above what I know how to do. I do have the instructions for it, but am still somewhat confused. This is another example of a process that's probably easier in MAMEUI. Except there are zero instructions on how to do this in MAMEUI; it would be me sitting there and making guesses and I'll maybe be able to figure out 60% of it on my own.

Never had to type in command-lines? Uh...Ok, well, there are A LOT of command-line options. http://docs.mamedev.org/commandline/commandline-all.html I'm sure you can see how this would be intimidating to people who don't know command-line and have never emulated before. And really, I couldn't be bothered to learn command-line when MAMEUI functions perfectly fine without the use of command-line. When I was first getting into MAME most of the information (articles/tutorials/YouTube videos etc.,) were focused around MAMEUI so I gravitated toward MAMEUI.

The site you posted is for original MAME which is different than MAMEUI. I'm using MAMEUI. I realize there's some overlapping information/functionality, but I don't use original MAME because I have zero interest in typing Command-line. Yes, in MAMEUI--for paths--It's "Options" > "Directories" but there are certain things about this functionality that doesn't make sense to me. And yeah, you're right, once you get the hang of things, MAMEUI isn't so bad, but until you reach that point it drives you borderline bonkers which is about where I'm at. I've never had to work so hard in my life to understand what should be a simple piece of software. I've scoured the web trying to find answers to certain things and I'm coming up short. I wish I could just get on a Skype call with someone and make it worth their while to help me out with this.

No, I haven't tried RetroArch. I've seen videos of it in action though. Does the RetroArch MAME emulator or "core" version have to match my ROM/BIOS/CHD/Samples version? I've invested too much time into MAMEUI at this point and this is pretty much one of the last things I need to figure out. So I'd prefer to get this sorted then move on.

Could do with some help organizing MAME files... I got these from a certain dome of pleasure: MAME 0.194 ROMs (non-merged) MAME 0.193 CHDs (merged) MAME 0.194 Software List ROMs (split) MAME 0.194 EXTRAs MAME 0.194 Multimedia Basically, I'm struggling pretty hard here. I'm very new to emulation, but I've been reading everything I can about MAME over the past 3 weeks, trying to learn what I can but I have no idea how to fully organize/path these downloads. I'm aware that you can place ROMs/CHDs/BIOS files into the Mameui64 > Roms directory. I know you can place Samples in the Mameui64 > Samples directory. Anything beyond this I don't know how to do. Having said that, all of what I have is "created in such a way that their contents can be used directly in MAME or frontends, without the need of copying, moving, renaming, compressing, or extracting any files or folders." So my goal is to get all of this working without having to move anything around. If I do need to move files around to specific folders, I can do that too, but I don't know how to manually organize anything beyond what I've already mentioned: (ROMs/CHDs/BIOS/Samples). In original MAME I'm aware that you can edit the mame.ini and the ui.ini to set paths to these folders without having to move anything around. But as I said, I use MAMEUI so I haven't been able to test this and I'm not overly fond of using something as complex as the original MAME. So can anyone help me out with what I should be doing to organize everything? I realize this request doesn't have much to do with LaunchBox and Bigbox, but I figure if I can't this right, there's probably not much hope for me getting LB/BB working properly. From my perspective, I need to get the basics down before moving on.