Mame Tutorial for n00bs

[Lordmonkus]

3 hours ago, Tatts4Life said:

Are the steps for setting up MAME in the first post still working?

Yes, it all still works. I still follow these exact steps with every Mame update.

[Tatts4Life]

As usual thanks for the help. I did just a quick test this morning and the few games I tried that didn't seem to work before worked. Now I need to figure out which games I want to load in LB. I think I'll skip mechanical games since it probably needs certain hardware I don't have.

[Lordmonkus]

If you have a full split set use the built in full set importer in LB but if you are planning on picking and choosing your games I highly suggest downloading a non merged rom set and picking each rom out, this is what I have done with my NoFiller set:

 

[Tatts4Life]

Are the folders for the games in the non merged set named like the game or does it have the weird naming like I’ve seen in the split set? For now I just wanted to get MAME up and running outside of LB first. I thought that split would let me pick and choose when I got things working, but the naming of the zipped folders confused me.

For games that need a CHD file if I want to pick and choose the chd file what would I look for on that site?

[Lordmonkus]

The names of the zip files are what they are, they are named by the Mame dev team and they have to be named that way.

Picking and choosing what you want from a split set can get very time consuming because of how the files are "split" up, hence the name. Non Merged is a much larger initial download but every zip file is one self contained working game which includes any bios or parent rom required for the rom. With a split set you will not only pull out a rom file, you will have to pull out any bios required and any other parent rom if you want to have a specific regional "clone" file.

[Tatts4Life]

HOLY SHIT! I just looked and non merged is double. Didn't even notice that before. Maybe I'll give that a try sometime in the future when I finally add it to LB.

[Lordmonkus]

Yeah it's double the size because it has a lot of duplicate files within each of the games zip files such as bios and parent roms for each regional clones. Where the split set breaks everything up and that is why the bios and parents are required to play the regional clone versions of games.

If you are going to have a full set and import it into LB we recommend using either the split or merged sets. Only get the non merged set if you want to create your own small custom set like I do or you just don't care about drive space and a large download.

[Tatts4Life]

Nice I just found a website that I think lists all the games that are in MAME and the rom name. That will make picking and choosing easier if I end up doing that.

[Lordmonkus]

Again though, if you are doing that make sure that if you are using a split rom set as the base that each game as any required bios and possible parent if you are picking a specific region clone. The region clones only contain the "different" roms and not the entire game which is what the parent file has.

[neil9000]

Also you can just add your romset to MAMEUI and that will audit and list all the games, short and full names,in a windowed UI unlike the commandline version.

[Tatts4Life]

I'll remember to grab the correct download. In fact I may just say screw split and go with non merged.

[Lordmonkus]

Non Merged is the easiest to build a hand picked set from. So you can either spend more time downloading the full set or more time testing your games to make sure they work after being picked out and put into their own setup.

[neil9000]

Just now, Tatts4Life said:

I'll remember to grab the correct download. In fact I may just say screw split and go with non merged.

I actually have both on my system, split and non-merged. I keep the non-merged so that if i setup another Launchbox on a smaller system or a Pi i can just pick the specific games i want with no issues.

[Tatts4Life]

Oh lord I thought a 4tb drive would be more than enough for all my gaming wants and needs. MAME and the awesome launchbox tutorials on YouTube are gonna fill this drive up fast. My current computer is about the size of an old vcr and can only hold one hard drive. I either need a larger drive or a new case so I can add more drives. I built this computer with the intent of modding oblivion, Skyrim, and the fallout games. I haven't even done that yet.

Edited December 4, 2018 by Tatts4Life

[Tatts4Life]

Ok I swear last question for today. I watched the video on how to add a split set to LB is it the same steps with the non merged set?

[neil9000]

Just now, Tatts4Life said:

Ok I swear last question for today. I watched the video on how to add a split set to LB is it the same steps with the non merged set?

It depends what tutorial you watched, we have a new MAME importer for fullsets and that is what you should use, it will work with any romset type.

[Tatts4Life]

It was from ETA Prime. This video 

 

[neil9000]

Just now, Tatts4Life said:

It was from ETA Prime. This video 

 

Yeah thats the new import method and what you should use, it works with any MAME romset type.

[Tatts4Life]

Awesome thanks 

[Headrush69]

On 12/4/2018 at 4:12 PM, neil9000 said:

I actually have both on my system, split and non-merged. I keep the non-merged so that if i setup another Launchbox on a smaller system or a Pi i can just pick the specific games i want with no issues.

I do the same.

Keep a full split set and I have a text file with the names of the roms I want.

Each new version of MAME, in the set information panel, import my text file and it will only select the roms I want. Save that dat file and use it to rebuild my non-merged set.

So when I needed a set for PI for example, load dat for MAME version 0.78, read my text file, save new dat file. Rebuild my MAME 0.78 set with just the roms I need in non-merged format.

So far so good, and haven't needed any roll-back sets or they were in ClrMamePro backup folder.