MAME ROM type best (merged, split, non-merged)

[NLS]

I admit I haven't spent as much time as I wanted with LaunchBox, although I am a full user for more than a year.

So this looks totally like a newbie post (heck IS a newbie post) although I am into emulation the last... 25 years.

Here it is.

A well known (torrent) source of MAME content, differentiates the ROMs (and software list for MESS part of MAME) to

- merged (my all time favorite as once was by far the smallest in storage needs, not so much any more, plus I always use full collection not partial)

- split (which now is of similar size)

- non-merged (which is by far the largest and AFAIK is only useful to people that want to pin-point specific games or clones or whatever and the game zip includes all needed files, so this version has many duplicates)

(CHDs are always merged)

...now. As I said I use merged version all these years, but I've read somewhere in here, that LB doesn't do proper parsing/scraping on merged. Is that correct and valid even for latest version?

I am willing to switch to split but NOT to non-merged. Let me know if that will help with this issue (if the issue exists).

Thanks.

 

[Lordmonkus]

Split and non-merged are the 2 recommended ones to use. Personally I use split because it allows to me to pick the specific version of a rom I want which is handy in certain 4 player games like Gauntlet and TMNT. I like being able to pick the 2 player versions of these since it lets me choose the exact character I want instead of being stuck with whichever character is player 1. Also on my HTPC I like to have both the 4 player and 2 player versions imported and labeled slightly different so I know which is which.

[NLS]

Well this is what I ask about. To be able to "import" and select each and every clone and not "miss" some because of the "merged".

If one more (not that I don't trust you, esp. since you are a mod, but is a lot work) can verify that split works better, I will switch.

 

Edited August 31, 2017 by NLS

[DOS76]

Split works better with LB/BB with a merged set if you want to use any clones you have to set them up manually as LB won't identify them while importing since there is no physical file for it to read it does except games without file extensions so you can manually point LB to a clone in the additional apps but if you wanted a lot of clones then it would be a shit ton of work to make it happen.,

[NLS]

Thanks. So will switch to split.

Which means a lot of work.

Hope I can drop them in RomVault as I hate setting up 153 switches on CMP (and THEN having to torrentzip).