Tool to Import Metadata for MAME ROMs (from MAME.dat or arcadehits.net)

[Jason Carr]

Sincro has graciously developed and contributed a tool to import metadata for MAME ROMs, either from MAME.dat or arcadehits.net. Eventually this functionality will likely be built into LaunchBox, but as for now, this tool should serve the purpose well: Download LaunchBox MAME Import Download MAME.dat Thanks to sincro for this awesome contribution! Feel free to make any suggestions or ask any questions, and either sincro or I will follow up.

[Hafitz]

Possible to do a video tutorial on importing mame roms and emulator? am quite a noob when it comes to mame parameters and extensions.

[SentaiBrad]

Jason Carr said Sincro has graciously developed and contributed a tool to import metadata for MAME ROMs, either from MAME.dat or arcadehits.net. Eventually this functionality will likely be built into LaunchBox, but as for now, this tool should serve the purpose well: Download LaunchBox MAME Import Download MAME.dat Thanks to sincro for this awesome contribution! Feel free to make any suggestions or ask any questions, and either sincro or I will follow up.

Sweet. I was thinking of trying to do a few MAME games, even though they're a bitch to deal with really. This makes things easier though.

[Jason Carr]

Brad, care to do a video? In all honesty, I'm relatively clueless with this MAME stuff.

[corinthian]

Everything went smoothly using this import tool, but I have a question. As you are asked to disable metadata retrieval before importing your ROMs, how do you then scrape the metadata for the imported games after using the tool? I hunted around in the menus, documentation and in this forum but I couldn't find anything in this regard. Is there an option to download metadata for multiple ROMs? It's not in the bulk edit wizard. I'm loving version 3.6, by the way!

[Jason Carr]

Thanks, corinthian. I do have an item on my list to batch download info, but unfortunately that's not built quite yet.

[corinthian]

Great, thanks for following up!

[p.bizzy]

Does anyone have, or know how one could create a dat that only has, say... working, original (non-cloned), non-mechanical, non-trackball games? I see no reason to import 28+k more games (current completed mame set) when only 3k of them (when you run it through mame filters -- but it can't export) are practical for playing. I couldn't find any way through mame, mame+, or clrmamepro.

[eternal_sage]

Heya. First off, just got Launchbox up and running and so far I'm loving it. Planning on upgrading to the premium version on payday. But thats not why I am posting this. I grabbed the MAME importer and a copy of the mame.dat that I had just used to update all my MAME roms, looking forward to getting my favorite system (love me some vertical shooters :D) going on this thing. Unfortunately, when I start the program the information area where you can tell it where to look for your roms and all that seems to be frozen. What I mean by that is that it seems that I can't edit any of it. I can press the buttons at the bottom (USE mame.dat and USE arcade hits) and can even press go after selecting one of those, but of course, its pointing to the wrong place, so I can't do anything with it. Sorry if this is confusing Thanks in advance for any help!

[Jason Carr]

Hi sage, welcome. We gotta get a hold of sincro for this one, unfortunately, as this was his work. Maybe try private messaging him?

[eternal_sage]

Ok... thanks! Edit: Actually, I checked his profile, and it seems that he hasn't visited since September, and I don't see any method to send him an e-mail. Thanks anyway, I'll try some other ideas I've had.

[cder]

I've just installed Launchbox and think it's an amazing program however I use a lot of Mame rome in my Arcade and, as with eternal_sage, i'm having the same problem. Has anyone found a fix for it or will Launchbox be upgraded to include Mame roms?

[devopunk]

I am also having the same issue as sage and cder. I was looking to make Launchbox my primary frontend but cannot get my MAME games imported. I've tried everything I can think to do. The import tool freezes once I get to the selection window and MAME isnt listed in the default Launchbox emulator grid. Am I being dense or is everyone having this problem?

[Jason Carr]

Have you guys tried importing the ROMs via the standard ROM import process inside of LaunchBox? It doesn't look like Sincro has been around in a long while; I'll try emailing him to see if he can help out.

[Jason Carr]

I just emailed sincro, so hopefully he responds. I don't think I have the source code to the tool, so not sure I can do anything to fix the tool at this point.

[devopunk]

Thanks Jason. I tried importing from Launchbox first but when I get to the section where you can add an emulator, MAME does not show up in the drop down tab where the other emulators are listed. I thought I was just missing something. I only came to Sincro's tool because I couldn't get it to work in the current Launchbox build.

[Jason Carr]

Ah, I see. MAME is in LaunchBox with default settings under "MESS". That's probably confusing; I should change that (think I used the proper name but MAME's naming strategy is confusing).

[Jason Carr]

Actually, I'm not clear on the differences between MAME and MESS. Can someone clue me in? Do we need default entries for both MAME and MESS?

[devopunk]

I'm pretty new to all this but MESS seems to mostly emulate vintage computers and consoles while MAME emulates arcade games.

[devopunk]

I did finally get my MAME roms imported. I had to manually enter MAME into all the fields on the add emulator window.