Launchbox does not import all MAME ROMs

[Typhon]

I'm  not sure if this is the appropriate place to post this or not. But anyways, I'm missing 28 games from my ROMs folder. These ROMs have already been sorted out by myself as 'parents only' (from m HyperSpin set), and I'd have liked to have all of them imported to Launchbox (with or without meta data), but it seems that if a MAME ROM is not in the database, it is not imported.

I don't like that - if a ROM is going to be skipped like that, it would be nice if Launchbox would at the very least create a list of games that were skipped, so that I can then add the games manually, and enter in the meta data. Any chance of something like this being implemented? Maybe Launchbox could generate a text file with the list of ROM files that were skipped.

[Lordmonkus]

You should be able to force import them even if they aren't in the database, I did that with Akai Katana.

[Typhon]

I was able to import a couple of games that I identified as 'missing,' and the games didn't have any meta data of course, but the first time running them through, the games were not added. I tried it 3 times, same results.

 Edit: irrelevant information.

Edited December 18, 2017 by Typhon

[Typhon]

I am literally having to add missing games one or two at a time. If I add too many, only one of them will show up on the last box when it asks you to confirm the files and game titles.

Something is broken here, and this has turned out to actually be quite a hassle.

[Typhon]

It's not just MAME ROMs, I had the same problem with Sega Model 2 and Sega Model 3 ROMs. Only 59 of 66 ROMs Sega Model 2 ROMs, and 38 of 44 Sega Model 3 ROMs were imported. Granted, most of them were clones, but still. This time, the games were all in the database. So whether or not games are in the Launchbox database might not be the issue at all. Maybe it's just an issue with arcade games, because I haven't had this problem with any of my console systems so far.

Edited December 17, 2017 by Typhon

[DOS76]

If you right click on the games that are missing the clones are the clones listed as additional apps as LB should be trying to consolidate them instead of creating separate entries for everyone.

[Typhon]

Thanks for the reply. It's definitely not that though, as I have the 'combine ROMs with same title' checkbox unchecked.

Had the same issue with Sega Naomi, this time the missing games weren't in the database, but there were a couple of non-clones. Demul was updated a month ago and there some ROM name changes.

This should be fixed. It would have been much easier for me if the games were imported (regardless of whether or not they exist in the database), and I could then identify the games in the list using their rom names as game titles, and I could have manually fixed them, instead of having to compare what I know I have to figure out what I'm missing, then add them that way (one or two games at a time).

I suspect the average user won't notice or care that 1-5% of their ROMs didn't get imported, but for someone like me going for an 'ultimate' collection, this was a serious pain.

@Jason Carr, are you aware of this issue?

Edited December 18, 2017 by Typhon

[Jason Carr]

The internal MAME database needs updated to the latest MAME data. That is on my list.

[Typhon]

@Jason Carr

Forgive me for being forward, I know I'm the new guy, and I don't want to seem arrogant. Overall I'm loving Launchbox so far. 

But the issue here, for me anyways, isn't that the data is missing, or wrong. MAME gets updated every month, I would never expect you guys to have that 100% perfect.

The issue is that a noticeable percentage (1-5%) of the ROMs are not being force imported, no matter how I configure the settings when trying to do so. I would be perfectly happy if Launchbox just imported the game using it's file name as the title for games it didn't know what to do with.

I update my MAME set only once every year or so (if that), but I'd like to not have to figure out which games didn't get imported the next time around. It's like searching for a needle in a haystack.

Edited December 19, 2017 by Typhon

[fromlostdays]

Did you try importing them and unclicking "sync to the launchbox database" on import? If so, it should just import the files as is.

[Typhon]

No, I actually did not try that. That might work. Is there a way to update meta data for just one system?

I already have all of my arcade systems set up, so I can't try this unfortunately. But even if it works, I still think Launchbox should handle this situation better. There were a few games for Sega Naomi that I had to add manually (one at a time) that were actually in the database already.

[fromlostdays]

You can update the metadata for just one system, or just one game. Select a system - mame for example - and control A to select all the games. Go to tools, download media and metadata, which will give you three options: replace all metadata, fill in only fields with missing metadata, or skip games with existing metadata.

I'm a little confused by what you're asking in terms of importing. The database isn't perfect, but if you select a mame rom or Group of mame roms that didn't import, and then drag them into launchbox, tell it to add them to mame and don't sync them to the database, then they should import just fine. You can then right click it and select "edit" and try and download any media from there.

If its too many roms to go through individually, you can delete all your mame games and reimport them all without syncing to the database. This should get them all in, then just use the tools option above to download metadata etc. I'm pretty sure you don't lose your media by doing this.

You might even be able to just select your whole mame collection drag into launchbox, and import it again over the existing one. This time choosing not to sync. When the box pops up listing what is imported, it shouldn't try to reimport any existing games... so it should only import any that are missing from your current xml. (In theory, and I'm pretty sure I've done this before, actually, for a different system).  

[fromlostdays]

I have no idea if this would work, because I've never used it, but you could even try selecting your mame platform, then going to Tools and "Scan for Added Roms". This might bypass the database sync and see the ones you're missing, but again, not sure. 

[Typhon]

Interesting ideas...I'll give this a shot for MAME. There's still 20+ games I didn't manage to find. Thanks for your help.

I guess I was just expecting Launchbox to import all of the games. But if it's only a few extra steps to get the job done, I can't complain. Still a bit confusing for a n00b though.

[fromlostdays]

Well there's some backstory to that. Launchbox used to scrape an existing metadata website, I forget the name, but it was really unreliable. So instead of giving up on the idea of scraping, the community and dev was like, we'll just make our own database, and have be doing just that, but its a huge undertaking, especially for something like Mame that changes. But launchbox can import anything. Some things just shouldn't be synced to the database.

I hope it works out. Let me know how it goes. I know for a fact the above methods would work for pretty much any other system, but I can't be totally sure with mame. I'm one of those people that imported a set years ago, told launchbox to ignore like MOST of the roms and had no idea any were missing haha. I'm only slightly concerned because launchbox doesn't ignore stuff that isn't in the database for other systems, so I'm wondering just how special mame actually is.  

[Typhon]

An update: your idea of not syncing to the Launchbox database worked for Zinc (forgot I still had to do that 'system', if you can even call it that) as far as adding games that were not added the first time.

However, this did *not* work for MAME. Regardless of having the 'sync to Launchbox database' box unchecked, on the last window where it gives you game titles, I was still getting properly named titles, and, rather than go through all of the time and hassle of importing everything, I did a control+A, control+C, and copied all of the lines into Notepad++, and determined there were only 3062 lines, instead of the 3098 that I needed. Aren't I clever?

But yeah, still having problems. It was a good idea, and seems to work in some instances though.

Edited December 19, 2017 by Typhon

[fromlostdays]

There is one more thing you can try, Typhon. You can try importing all of your mame roms as a system NOT named either MAME or ARCADE. I'm guessing that those two system names trigger launchbox to look at some mame database that doesn't have those games in it.

Sorry I couldn't be more help. 

[Typhon]

I appreciate you taking the time to help me troubleshoot regardless, thanks for the ideas. It's always good to have a better understanding of how things work. 

Honestly everything was pretty simple with Launchbox, for the most part, except for setting up my arcade systems, and Commodore Amiga. Not a fan of FS-UAE, so I had to do things the hard way to make things work.

[fromlostdays]

And yet another possible workaorund.  I think setting mame as the emulator on import is actually what triggers launchbox to do it's magic. I noticed this because I have rocketlauncher as my main emulator, and even if the system is named MAME or Arcade, it doesn't trigger the mame options. I've been importing random games under the arcade system like this without problem. 

[lfan]

What is the MAME db version in Launchbox? I'm losing 83 roms on import. ?

Thanks.