Adding MAME CHD's to Launchbox

[quazl]

I am not a Noob really, but a Noob when it comes to CHD files. I keep my CHD's separate from my ROM's. I have a full set of .182 of both. I have watched the tutorials, and searched these forums.

1. Does every CHD have a corresponding ROM?
2. How do I add the CHD's to LaunchBox?

When I point the importer to the location with all of the CHD's it doesn't seem to get all of the entries. I must be doing it wrong.

Thanks for any help

[DOS76]

I believe there are a few CHD's without ROMs but I don't know which ones they are off hand. You would have to get a list of those games and make a dummy .zip file with the name of the chd file and on import it should get found. I remember reading about this solution in an old post somewhere on the forums. Or if you knew the name of those games you could import those directly just make sure to use the folder name checkbox.

[quazl]

DOS76,

How do you add them? Do you keep your CHD's separate from your ROM's?

When I point to the CHD folder I only get 121 entries ( I adjust the importer to import all clones and uncheck all check boxes as well ) but there are 477 games ( subfolders ) in the chd folder.

Are you seeing the same thing as me?

[DOS76]

Most of those games have ROM files that correspond with the folder so they will be already in MAME if they are for working games. So you don't have to import them at all. You can keep them anywhere as long as you add it as a path in your MAME.ini file but by default the program is looking for it in the ROMs folder.

[quazl]

Thank you. That answer was the key. In my literally 20 years of collecting ROM's, I haven't really had the space until now to have the whole CHD collection. I was ignorant of the relationship between ROM and CHD.

I think that I can write a script to compare the folder names with the collection of ROM's and then create a dummy zip like you were talking about if they don't exist.

Thanks so much, DOS76!

[DOS76]

If you do I hope you would consider posting the script in the download section as a 3rd party application so that everyone has a chance to benefit from it.

[alexeon]

Not sure how much help this will be, but i  have a parent folder called mame and then inside that folder is all the rom files and all the chds in their own folders named the same as the corresponding rom files.  So when I imported the games to launchbox I just picked the mame folder and let it do the rest, seems to have worked out pretty well

[MiraiKuma]

I know this is an old post, but in case people actually use the search function to find solutions to their problems, I'd though I'd post this here. 

In the old days ( I am not sure of how it works in 2018) launchbox did not let me import chd games without having a .zip or .7z file for the chd. What I would do is create a dummy zip using the chd folders. In Demul you have the correct path to your chds. In launchbox you import the .zip/.7z files. Tell launchbox to only use file name and not extension for demul emulator. 

To create the dummy files you can create a .bat file and in it paste the following:

FOR /d %%i IN (*) DO (echo .> %%i.7z)

So your folder DIR would look like this:
MainGameFolder
    -roms
        rom1.zip
        rom2.zip
        etc,etc,et
    -chds
        -chddir1
                chd1.chd
        -chd2
                chd2.chd
        folderTo7z.bat

So the bat file goes in the main chd folder. Then just run the bat file. For each directory that the bat file is in, it will create a dummy 7z file (change to .zip if you want) named what the directory is. Then in Launchbox, just import the dummy zips and you are good to go.

Edit:
The reason I use 7z is because it doesn't matter what the extension was. This way I could place the .zip rom files in the same directory as the dummy chd files if I wanted to. I know that zip is a real file and 7z is a dummy file. 
 

Edited April 12, 2018 by MiraiKuma

[Kondorito]

Dont know if this will help, but I added yesterday a CHD game to my set that I did not have (zooo.chd), and this great game does not come with a zip file originally; its just a 12mb CHD file. I did not have to create any dummy zip/rom, just import rom file, select the chd file and thats it. 

[meloMini]

Hey guys,

I'm still a little confused, because I have no reference experience with this topic and don't know, if it's the games/emulator combination or the importing process, why my chd games don't work.

I recently imported a non-merged rom set and it worked great using retroarch with the mame2003 core. I then just dropped my chd folders (split, but same mame version) into the same folder as the non-merged rom set. Shouldn't this work just fine? Doesn't the emulator find the needed chd folders the same way as the needed bios files? Or do I really have to reimport the chds somehow?

[Suhrvivor]

1 hour ago, meloMini said:

Hey guys,

I'm still a little confused, because I have no reference experience with this topic and don't know, if it's the games/emulator combination or the importing process, why my chd games don't work.

I recently imported a non-merged rom set and it worked great using retroarch with the mame2003 core. I then just dropped my chd folders (split, but same mame version) into the same folder as the non-merged rom set. Shouldn't this work just fine? Doesn't the emulator find the needed chd folders the same way as the needed bios files? Or do I really have to reimport the chds somehow?

My best guess is that a core based of a 15 years old MAME version is not compatible with modern romsets, specially CHDs. Try a different core.

[thejamestownoasis]

Also a NOOB here and I'm having a bear of a time getting Golden Tee Fore 06 going. I don't even know if I have what I need, lol. I have the CHD file, but I keep reading that I need the "BIOS" / eagle file as well???

 

Then, these just go into the "roms" folder, created by launchbox, or do  I keep them in a separate folder under "MAME" that I created in the launch box folder (where I have the MAME emulator app stored)?

 

Then I need to create a FOLDER for the chd, separately, or turn the chd into it's own zip file? 

 

Sorry, I'm WAY out of my depths, here. I thought this would simply be importing ROM files and selecting an emulator- which I believe I can handle, lol.

 

This whole file formatting and creating additional folders- while ensuring I have the "right" MAME version with the "right" CHD/ROM is proving to be insurmountable for a layman like me.

 

Thanks in advance for any direction!

 

Best,

James

[meloMini]

Yes, you were right. The CHDs run with mame2016 and the normal mame core. I put the normal mame core now on default for arcade games and registered all mame cores and some fba cores with arcade, so that i can quickly choose between them when starting problematic games. This is very nice and flexible. Should be even quicker to test out from launchbox then from within retroarch.

My opinion about placement of the CHD folders is, just to put them inside the roms folder. Because all roms are zipped and all CHDs are in seperate folders, they can be easily selected and moved out of this folder for maintenance purposes. Otherwise they just stay, where they are needed. I try to keep my setup simple. And launchbox in combination with retroarch is the first solution ever, that makes everything really manageable. So a big thank you to everyone involved so far. The level of maturity in 2018 is really awesome.

[meloMini]

3 minutes ago, thejamestownoasis said:

Also a NOOB here and I'm having a bear of a time getting Golden Tee Fore 06 going. I don't even know if I have what I need, lol. I have the CHD file, but I keep reading that I need the "BIOS" / eagle file as well???

 

Then, these just go into the "roms" folder, created by launchbox, or do  I keep them in a separate folder under "MAME" that I created in the launch box folder (where I have the MAME emulator app stored)?

 

Then I need to create a FOLDER for the chd, separately, or turn the chd into it's own zip file? 

 

Sorry, I'm WAY out of my depths, here. I thought this would simply be importing ROM files and selecting an emulator- which I believe I can handle, lol.

 

This whole file formatting and creating additional folders- while ensuring I have the "right" MAME version with the "right" CHD/ROM is proving to be insurmountable for a layman like me.

 

Thanks in advance for any direction!

 

Best,

James

Sounds like you are pretty new to the topic. Because it has never been easier. It was at least ten time worse / more difficult the last two decades. And this was despite there was always a lot of love, dedication and sofistication in emulation and retro gaming.

So to help you out a little. As far as I know until now, your ROM (.zip), bios (.zip) and your CHD (in a seperate folder, named exactly as the rom) go into the same folder. This folder is used by launchbox when importing the game(s). Then you choose retroarch as an emulator. This emulator is the best starting point, because it encompasses a lot of different emulators for the most common platforms. So you have about 6 mame cores (mame emulator versions) and 5 final burn alpha cores already at hand to test your game. So get retroarch running and you should be good to go on your game. Preferred cores would be mame, mame2016, mame2003, fba.

Now to versions. CHD version should not be that important. The rom needs to go with the chosen core. So you have to test this out a little. Do you have the correct bios file? If everything is set up correctly, then maybe the bios file isn't the correct one.

[thejamestownoasis]

21 minutes ago, meloMini said:

Sounds like you are pretty new to the topic. Because it has never been easier. It was at least ten time worse / more difficult the last two decades. And this was despite there was always a lot of love, dedication and sofistication in emulation and retro gaming.

So to help you out a little. As far as I know until now, your ROM (.zip), bios (.zip) and your CHD (in a seperate folder, named exactly as the rom) go into the same folder. This folder is used by launchbox when importing the game(s). Then you choose retroarch as an emulator. This emulator is the best starting point, because it encompasses a lot of different emulators for the most common platforms. So you have about 6 mame cores (mame emulator versions) and 5 final burn alpha cores already at hand to test your game. So get retroarch running and you should be good to go on your game. Preferred cores would be mame, mame2016, mame2003, fba.

Now to versions. CHD version should not be that important. The rom needs to go with the chosen core. So you have to test this out a little. Do you have the correct bios file? If everything is set up correctly, then maybe the bios file isn't the correct one.

Thanks- yes, very new to this so I’m grateful for the help.

First thing’s first: I cannot even find the proper files. I don’t know how much Nintendo has shaken up the ROM world in the last couple weeks, but I’ve spent more time than I’d ever care to admit to, looking for the ROM, BIOS, and CHD for this game: incredibly frustrating. Least I have the CHD, lol.

If I at least had the correct files I’m sure I could putz around until I got it to work, but I cannot even get to step “2”, lol.

I believe I saw “MAME” in LB as the only selectable emulator for arcade titles- perhaps I just missed retroarch as an option. Gulp.

the whole app DOES seem very straightford, otherwise. I had a couple Sonic games up ans running within 15 mins. 

Darn Golden Tee! It’s really the only game I want to out this “work” in for, anyway!

 

thanks

James

Edited August 21, 2018 by thejamestownoasis

[thejamestownoasis]

Well, the ROMS all downloaded, so I followed the tutorial as closely as I was able...

Moved the ROMS into the MAMEUI roms folder. Opened MAMEUI, went to start multiple games, multiple times, MAMEUI crashed every time.

I never unzipped the ROMS, simply moved the folder from one spot to the MAMEUI rom folder.

Ideas?

I'm using the MAME 193 collection. 

Thanks of course.

James

Edited August 22, 2018 by thejamestownoasis

[Retro808]

Did the crash give you any errors?

In the menu did you double check the rom folder location is set properly?

[thejamestownoasis]

7 minutes ago, Retro808 said:

Did the crash give you any errors?

In the menu did you double check to rom folder location is set properly?

None that I saw. I did get cute though and followed your lead...I went into "options" then "directories" and cleverly did this...hit "browse" and went to the roms folder and set it there...app still crashed upon game start up

did I screw up already?!

 

the video simply shows to put the roms in the mameui "roms" folder and then starting mameui. He clicks on the game and it starts!

 

 

 

I swear I did this step for step, lol

thanks

James

Edited August 22, 2018 by thejamestownoasis

[thejamestownoasis]

Googled my issue and the first thing I found was someone having issues when the audio was not being output to the monitor/tv - he was outputting through the CPU like I was...not sure how that happened all of a sudden - but it did.

Switched the output to the monitor and now I get this when I start a game...

 

 

[DOS76]

That means you don't have the right files in your set.