How to update your MAME ROMset to a newer version with CLRmamepro

[Trnzaddict]

On 6/2/2018 at 2:18 PM, TonyRamirez said:

I am on Mame 0.197 so I am not behind like I was months ago when I was on 0.139.  Tried many programs that messed up my games.  Then went back to Romcenter and fixed any games red manually and now they all work great.

Staying with 0.197 right now as I got the games I want (no clones except Pacman and 2 player fighter games) instead of GB of files that won't even fit on my Hard Drive.

Question on Mame.  Why do so many games don't even work like mechanical games?  They just load and quit.

I wouldn’t stay on 197.....there was a bug that made the atari arcade games (Hard Drivin’, Roadblasters, etc.) that caused the driver to have a 50% drop in performance. 

In 198 it’s fixed, and this torrent check method is a life saver. Been updating every revision now with no problems.

[EyeQue]

Many, many thanks for the OP. I am now the proud father of an updated 0.161 child to a 0.198 teenager  ;)

[flatuswalrus]

I downloaded a complete CHD set and went through the process in the original post. I updates from 0.195 to 0.198. After it was all done it had moved all but a few files from each update pack I had obtained so that worked I assume. Anyway, I had my CHD files in a seperate folder and after this was done it had moved most of them into the folder that my MAME ROMs are in. Was it supposed to do that? If so, it is no drama as they are still in folders instead of zip files so easily distinguishable.

Also, afterwards in LaunchBox I went to: Tools > Scan for Removed ROMs. Then it removed all 3006 of my arcade games in LaunchBox even though their file path had not changed. Needless to say I am now having to add them all again. Does anyone know why this happened?

EDIT: The CHDs that have been moved into my Arcade ROMs folder are 438GB and 100GB remained in the original CHD folder. DOes that mean the 100GB can be deleted as they are not going to been needed?

Edited June 23, 2018 by Dane

[DOS76]

I'm not really sure but the fact that it dictates where your chd files go and will either move them if you let it or list them missing if they aren't in the folder is one of the reasons that using the program wasn't for me.

[flatuswalrus]

7 hours ago, DOS76 said:

I'm not really sure but the fact that it dictates where your chd files go and will either move them if you let it or list them missing if they aren't in the folder is one of the reasons that using the program wasn't for me.

My 0.198 CHD set had 516 folders. After using ClrMamePro it put 477 in my MAME ROM folder and left 221 behind making a total of 698 after the process. I guess it renamed some going by what it deemed necessary going by the ROM names. I just hope it is all correct. I won't be able to test them though for another day as it will take a day or two to add all my Arcade games after LaunchBox kindly decided to remove them all for me. So I'll keep my fingers crossed it's all good.

To update MAME itself to the latest I downloaded it and copied it into my older version's folder and replaced/overwrote whatever it said was replaceable/over-writable. I believe that is what is recommended? Or just get rid of the old and start fresh with the new version? Reason I did the first mentioned was no not lose any settings. It saved by shader settings which is good but the cfg\default.cfg was empty.

[DOS76]

I just use Torrent check to update mine it does require a little manual work but I find it to be very simple to use it its located here on the PleasureDome forums
http://forum.pleasuredome.org.uk/index.php?showtopic=26754

 

[flatuswalrus]

I am never using ClrMamePro again. I said the exact same thing about Retroarch though when I first used it and now I love it, haha. Though, I do not like what has happened to my games as a result of this process. Before with my 0.195 set I had 3,006 games as I did not chose to import fruit games and unplayable games etc etc. Though, after updating to 0.198 and LaunchBox deleting all my Arcade games and re-adding them I opted to import everything except all closes to see and now have about 7,000 games. Despite this is has removed SO many damn games that were favorites of mine to play. Luckily I still have my 434GB 0.198 CHDs in tact but my 0.195 set is altered so I am deleting it and downloading a fresh new 0.198 ROM-set. That is no drama though as it'll take less than two days.

My MAME was not saving controls after updating from 0.195 to 0.198 which was incredibly frustrating but it seems it was doing that because the folder it was housed in was read only. Once I unchecked that it saved the controls perfectly.

On a side note, it doesn't do it for videos thankfully but why the heck does LaunchBox download two or sometimes even three images for each game? It is annoying as that takes up space. Is it because it is downloading the same front cover for one game for example from both databases even though it technically shouldn't? After my 0.198 set finished and I re-add my arcade games to LaunchBox AGAIN I'll delete all the images and download them again as like I said there are three images for some games which is just silly.

[DOS76]

Next Wednesday MAME 0.199 comes out so you may just want to wait a few days until then to download the roms but totally up to you. Onto the images LB is only downloading what you tell it to and since it was changed to support more than one cover image due to people insisting on that feature to accommodate games with different covers from different regions that is just something that happens unfortunately. How did LB delete your Arcade games by the way as I see you've said that in the last few post and did you check the backup folder to see if there was a copy of your Arcade.xml to restore them from. 

[flatuswalrus]

8 hours ago, DOS76 said:

Next Wednesday MAME 0.199 comes out so you may just want to wait a few days until then to download the roms but totally up to you.

I'm already half way through downloading a fresh set of 0.198 ROMs so I'll download that, create a spare copy and update with the 0.199 update pack when it comes out. I will just try something other than ClrMamePro like the method you mentioned.

8 hours ago, DOS76 said:

Onto the images LB is only downloading what you tell it to and since it was changed to support more than one cover image due to people insisting on that feature to accommodate games with different covers from different regions that is just something that happens unfortunately.

Oh okay, I just see the same cover multiple times more than different covers but if it does that due to that reason then it's all good.

8 hours ago, DOS76 said:

How did LB delete your Arcade games by the way as I see you've said that in the last few post and did you check the backup folder to see if there was a copy of your Arcade.xml to restore them from. 

I chose to Scan for Removed ROMs in LaunchBox and despite my ROM path not being renamed or moved it removed all the games from LaunchBox. Unfortunately I can't give any more info as the scan only took a few seconds so it caught me by surprise. It's okay though because after what happened with the ROMs after ClrMamePro I'd be uploading them to LaunchBox again. I am not mad at LaunchBox though, she is a sassy lass whom I can't stay mad at. She's like the sea, a cruel mistress who is both beautiful and unforgiving simultaneously.

Edited June 24, 2018 by Dane

[OlDirty]

Maybe a stupid question but for what reason are you using those tools to update to a new MAME version? I have a 0.193 romset and all the update packages to do an update to version 0.200. Which are „update pack 0.194“, 0.195,0.196,.. till 0.200. So i thought i can just copy/replace the files of 0.193 with all the update packages, beginning with 0.194. Do you use these tools just for savety reasons to be sure that everything is 100% correct or does it also create some necessary files?

Edited August 21, 2018 by OlDirty

[DOS76]

if you copy and replace with update packs you will break your roms. Say an existing ROM in MAME gets an update in the newest pack and that update is only one file revision but it is still going to use the 8 other files in the archive if you copy replace it you will now only have one file and be missing the 8 other files needed to run the ROM.

[neil9000]

Yeah, basically the update packs include the new/altered files only and not the full roms, there is no need to include the full roms as you are updating a existing set, so it keeps the update size down by just including the new/altered files. CRLMAMEPRO will scan your romset with the latest mame list and copy the new/altered files into your existing rom zips to make them correct for the new MAME emulator.

[OlDirty]

47 minutes ago, DOS76 said:

if you copy and replace with update packs you will break your roms. Say an existing ROM in MAME gets an update in the newest pack and that update is only one file revision but it is still going to use the 8 other files in the archive if you copy replace it you will now only have one file and be missing the 8 other files needed to run the ROM.

Ahaaa. Thanks a lot for the explanation. Now all that makes sense. So i always broke my full romset when i updated. lol

Will try the method with torrentcheck. Thanks again!

[OlDirty]

I just updated my 0.197 Romset to 0.200 with the tutorial on the first page. Still about 500 Roms are missing ( i guess my 0.197 is not complete). But anyway, thanks A LOT for the tutorial!!

I can’t go the torrentcheck route, because i don’t have access to pleasuredome (no new members allowed). And i guess you need access there for the torrent packages.

[OlDirty]

I'm trying to update my Romset from version 0.201 to 0.202. I followed the guide on the first page, but when i wanna start the rebuild process i get the error message "Path Error: Destination isn't set". Does someone has a clue what i'm doing wrong?

[neil9000]

Just now, OlDirty said:

I'm trying to update my Romset from version 0.201 to 0.202. I followed the guide on the first page, but when i wanna start the rebuild process i get the error message "Path Error: Destination isn't set". Does someone has a clue what i'm doing wrong?

I have been seeing this recently also, what i did was just specify it. On the page where you clicked the box to use the existing path for destination, uncheck it and actually put in the path above it.

[OlDirty]

a) I tried that but then i get just 42 new files int that destination folder. Do i have to copy those files to my mame Rom folder and replace the existing once with them?

b) I have a merged file set and wanted to change it to a split. So i choose split in the rebuild page, but i guess it also just converts these 42 files to split files right?

[neil9000]

42 minutes ago, OlDirty said:

a) I tried that but then i get just 42 new files int that destination folder. Do i have to copy those files to my mame Rom folder and replace the existing once with them?

b) I have a merged file set and wanted to change it to a split. So i choose split in the rebuild page, but i guess it also just converts these 42 files to split files right?

a) yes the destination folder should be where your other roms are, clrmamepro has moved the files its fixing to a backup folder, so when they are fixed/cleaned they need to go back to the original folder.

b) Yes i think so, i have never tried to change my romset type, so i guess there is a different procedure to do so. As you say this way will probably just convert any that are actually changed from 0.201 to 0.202.

[Headrush69]

2 hours ago, OlDirty said:

b) I have a merged file set and wanted to change it to a split. So i choose split in the rebuild page, but i guess it also just converts these 42 files to split files right?

Rename your roms folder to something like roms_old and then create a new roms folder. (in the same directory it was previously)

Now in the rebuilder, select split sets and pick the roms_old folder (or whatever you named it) and the source folder and it should rebuild the entire collection you have.

If you have a full set, this can be lengthy.

Edited October 7, 2018 by Headrush69

[EVH]

Hi guys,

I've got a quick question about the "add to" path in Clrmamepro.

Currently all my update packs e.g. 0.202, 0.203 and 0.204 are in their own directories. Can I move these in to a parent directory called "Update" and point Clrmamepro to that using the "add to" path?

My logic is that once the settings for the “add to” path are defined, I can simply drop in the 0.205 sub directory and run another scan. In theory  

Edit: It doesn’t work. From what I can see, you need to have each update directory defined as its own line in the “add to” path. 3 packs, 3 lines etc  

 

Edited December 12, 2018 by EVH