copying same name roms, if you delete one, the other won't work

[3dlollo]

While trying to figure out how to merge and have different rom sets for my different platforms (Vita, RPI, Android and Windows), I did find a peculiar issue, which looks like a bug.

Basically if you have roms in Arcade for example, and try to import a different set (say a set for mame is already on your launchbox arcade category, and try to add arcade roms from FB alpha); even if you choose to copy the roms in the launchbox folder, they are not copied.

I ended up with duplicate games; which was expected; if the name of the zip file match, the app does not overwrite, so there will be one copy of the game on location X and the other stay in my launchbox/games/arcade folder. So far so good.

Although there seems to be a weird issue that happen when you delete a rom. If I have 2 copy of Strider for example, one on drive D and one in C, in the launchbox game folder, if I delete one rom file, the other won't launch anymore.

I did launch both roms, they were both working; but once I delete the one in the D drive, so I can keep the one I have in my launchbox game folder, the game won't launch anymore.

Tried 3 times with 3 different games, and the result was the same.

1) have 2 sets of roms, with the same name; one is already in your games folder, the other is not

2) import the second set of roms; put them into arcade as the first set, and select to copy the files in the games folder.

3) Launchbox will show duplicate games, if you look at the info, the rom name will be the same but the copy of the game will point at the rom in the original location from which you did import it. That makes sense since you do not get the old rom overwritten.

4) launch each rom; they should both work.

5) pick either rom and delete it; at the prompt delete also the actual rom file, and at the second prompt, delete the related files too.

6) try to run the rom again, it won't launch.

 

Not sure if the step of deleting the rom and the related files is affecting launchbox; but I would expect that it should not. I also did not try to delete the roms and import them; which may or may not work. For sure, if the rom is deleted it is gone for good; so I can't reproduce this, unless I make a backup copy of the roms before the attempt.

Is this a bug? I am aware that launchbox is not designed to be used as I do; but I would expect that changes to a rom in a different folder, would not affect the original rom in the games folder, which does not seem to be the case. Thanks

[Lordmonkus]

8 minutes ago, 3dlollo said:

Basically if you have roms in Arcade for example, and try to import a different set (say a set for mame is already on your launchbox arcade category, and try to add arcade roms from FB alpha)

Let me just stop this right here, this is not how things should be done, if you are importing a different set of roms for a different emulator they should have their own platform.

[3dlollo]

So one import per emulator/platform?

I thought that since the roms for FBA and Mame are often the same (and they work on the same mame version , I tried in 2 different launchbox install, one for each set), I can import them in the same platform.

This case is unique to Arcade; since for NES, SNES, Genesis and so on, there are not multiple rom sets and variants (at least I never found different sets for these platforms).

[Lordmonkus]

Yeah sometimes FBA and Mame roms are compatible but not always, the best practice in what you are trying to do is to setup a different platform for your FBA rom set.

3 minutes ago, 3dlollo said:

I tried in 2 different launchbox install, one for each set), I can import them in the same platform.

Yeah, you can have them in the same "Arcade" platform in 2 different installs of LB but doing it in a single install is bound to cause issues like the one you are running into.

[3dlollo]

I see, thanks for the clarification.

My understanding was that only the missing roms would be added and copied, but instead it just ended up mixing up things; I will start with a clean canvas and make a mame and a FBA import so they will be divided