Arcade zip files unzipping

[Franchise2099]

I am having issues launching arcade games properly next to console systems.  I use Retroarch for a great deal of the home console emulation throughout the 80 & 90's.  (ease of use & uniform controls)  To save space, I have most of these games zipped.  The problem occurs having the emulator retroarch selected to unzip games before startup.   Realizing that i would need to rename the emulator (if I wanted to use the same emulator(Retroarch)) or use a completely different emulator to run Arcade game I did just that.  I made a new emulator called "Retroarch Arcade" and made sure to have the unzip game before startup to be unchecked.  (The wording on the checkboxes is not 100% as I am not in front of my emulation machine)   I was met with the same results.  No matter what I tried to do the games would try to unzip until I changed the original Retroarch emulator to not unzip games.  I even made sure that "Retroarch Arcade" was the default emulator for Arcade/mame.   

     I bare the same results even trying to use differnt emulators like mameui64 and mame.   I apologize for the sloppy writting.  Currently at work.    @Jason Carr

[neil9000]

7 minutes ago, Franchise2099 said:

I am having issues launching arcade games properly next to console systems.  I use Retroarch for a great deal of the home console emulation throughout the 80 & 90's.  (ease of use & uniform controls)  To save space, I have most of these games zipped.  The problem occurs having the emulator retroarch selected to unzip games before startup.   Realizing that i would need to rename the emulator (if I wanted to use the same emulator(Retroarch)) or use a completely different emulator to run Arcade game I did just that.  I made a new emulator called "Retroarch Arcade" and made sure to have the unzip game before startup to be unchecked.  (The wording on the checkboxes is not 100% as I am not in front of my emulation machine)   I was met with the same results.  No matter what I tried to do the games would try to unzip until I changed the original Retroarch emulator to not unzip games.  I even made sure that "Retroarch Arcade" was the default emulator for Arcade/mame.   

     I bare the same results even trying to use differnt emulators like mameui64 and mame.   I apologize for the sloppy writting.  Currently at work.    @Jason Carr

If you added a new emulator called Retroarch Arcade which is set to not unzip games, then you need to tell the games that. The "Default" checkbox in the manage emulator screen is for imports only, it wont change it after they are imported, you need to bulk edit your roms to use the other retroarch emulator. Click your arcade platform then a game in it, use CTRL A to highlite all the games in that platform and right click one and choose edit. This will open the bulk edit wizard, click next, in the first dropdown choose emulator and in the second dropdown that appears select your Retroarch Arcade emulator, finish out the wizard.

[Franchise2099]

I am not really sure what you are saying.  I don't think what you are saying applies to me.  I pointed the new emulator (both Retroarch Arcade & MameUI64) to a new and unused folder of arcade games.  The default for arcade games was applied to this new emulator/s also.  This is not a default under just Retroarch.  I shouldn't have to Highlight any selection of games to have them point to an emulator as the list I am talking about was only created under these new emulators.  This setup is sounds like something you are trying to do if you wanted to use multiple emulators under one category like naomi games under the arcade moniker.  (ie.  launch this game in the list under mame launch this game under the same list with demule)

[neil9000]

3 minutes ago, Franchise2099 said:

I am not really sure what you are saying.  I don't think what you are saying applies to me.  I pointed the new emulator (both Retroarch Arcade & MameUI64) to a new and unused folder of arcade games.  The default for arcade games was applied to this new emulator/s also.  This is not a default under just Retroarch.  I shouldn't have to Highlight any selection of games to have them point to an emulator as the list I am talking about was only created under these new emulators.  This setup is sounds like something you are trying to do if you wanted to use multiple emulators under one category like naomi games under the arcade moniker.  (ie.  launch this game in the list under mame launch this game under the same list with demule)

You said that you already had your games imported but made a new emulator entry for them. When you did that did you re-import all your arcade games to use that new emulator entry you made?

[Franchise2099]

I re-imported the games each iteration of the emulation change.  I did a test under retroarch initially turning off zip for everything and that worked but the controls didn't really play so well so I went with a new emulator and started from scratch.  I will try an additional import as now I can't be sure if I did a re-import from Retroarch Arcade to Mameui64.  

[neil9000]

1 minute ago, Franchise2099 said:

I re-imported the games each iteration of the emulation change.  I did a test under retroarch initially turning off zip for everything and that worked but the controls didn't really play so well so I went with a new emulator and started from scratch.  I will try an additional import as now I can't be sure if I did a re-import from Retroarch Arcade to Mameui64.  

You dont actually need to re-import, that is what i was saying in my first reply, you can just tell the games in a platform to use a different emulator via the bulk edit wizard.

[Franchise2099]

ahhhhhhh..... Gotcha.  I've never had to rework a big bulk amount of roms.  Just key specific roms that don't play nice with redream or reicast.  *Stupid windows ce*  

Thank you for your help.  I will try additional tweaking and let the community know what works.  

[neil9000]

1 minute ago, Franchise2099 said:

ahhhhhhh..... Gotcha.  I've never had to rework a big bulk amount of roms.  Just key specific roms that don't play nice with redream or reicast.  *Stupid windows ce*  

Thank you for your help.  I will try additional tweaking and let the community know what works.  

Anything you can do to a single rom you can do in bulk, either with a CTRL A to highlite all, or just a few by holding shift while clicking on multiple games. then when you right click and go to edit you get the bulk edit wizard instead of the single game edit window.

[Jason Carr]

Yeah, per Neil, the first thing to try is to select all your arcade games, and then right click and Edit. Then select the emulator field to update it. This will make sure that all your arcade games are using that Arcade copy of Retroarch. My guess is that's the likely problem.

[Franchise2099]

Followup:  Thank you for the advice.  This ended up working pretty well.  I can now successfully launch arcade games using different emulators.  I have done this so many times I must of forgot to either point a "master batch selection" to a new emulator or re-scan the whole damn archive.   Thanks a bunch.