SiriusVI Posted December 28, 2019 Share Posted December 28, 2019 Hey everyone, I know there are many topics in this forum dealing with how to proberly import a complete mame set. However, even though I have read many of these threads, I still haven't found a definitive answer. I have one merged mame rom set and one corresponding set of CHDs. Now, If I wan to import the complete set into launchbox, where would I put the CHD files? I have never dealt with mame CHDs before, so I'm really unsure about this. Here are some of my questions: 1. Do I create a different folder for the CHD files within the mame rom folder? That would put the CHD folder next to all the zipped roms. 2. Or do I create a paret folder called "mame" and then within that folder, one folder for the "roms" and one folder for the "CHDs"? 3. Or do the zipped CHD files go into the same folder as the zipped rom files? 4. Do I have to unzip the CHDs or should I leave them in their 7zip format? 5. If I unzip them, should I put them all in the same folder or should I leave the CHDs in a folder which has the same name as the zip file? 6. Should I import the roms first and the CHDs second or do I just point the launchbox importer to the complete folder and let it do its magic? As you can see, I am confused. It would be reallly helpful if someone told me a simple way to import the complete set (roms and CHDs). Thank you so much for your help!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neil9000 Posted December 28, 2019 Share Posted December 28, 2019 Launchbox does nothing with CHD files, just use the MAME fullset importer in Launchbox and point it at your roms folder. You just need to point your MAME emulator at your CHD and roms folders. CHD's should be unzipped to there own folders, like so. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOS76 Posted December 28, 2019 Share Posted December 28, 2019 by default MAME expects the CHD in the format that Neil showed you to be inside the ROMs folder. I personally things the ROMs folder is already over crowded so I keep those files in their own CHD folder and then just point MAME to that secondary location in the mame.ini file. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neil9000 Posted December 28, 2019 Share Posted December 28, 2019 27 minutes ago, DOS76 said: by default MAME expects the CHD in the format that Neil showed you to be inside the ROMs folder. I personally things the ROMs folder is already over crowded so I keep those files in their own CHD folder and then just point MAME to that secondary location in the mame.ini file. 48 minutes ago, neil9000 said: You just need to point your MAME emulator at your CHD and roms folders. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiriusVI Posted December 28, 2019 Author Share Posted December 28, 2019 Ah, so Launchobx does not import CHD files, got it. But aren't there some games that are only available as chd and not as roms? Does Launchbox importer just skip these titles? I should also have said that I don't use Mame standalone, but mame core in retroarch. I guess I just have to edit the mame.ini files to point the core to the correct chd folder, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neil9000 Posted December 28, 2019 Share Posted December 28, 2019 2 minutes ago, SiriusVI said: Ah, so Launchobx does not import CHD files, got it. Actually with the "MAME fullset importer" its also not importing the rom files. It knows what games currently are marked as working in MAME and imports them. All it does is pass the game name to MAME essentially, so as long as MAME knows where your roms and your CHD's are, then they load. 5 minutes ago, SiriusVI said: I should also have said that I don't use Mame standalone, but mame core in retroarch. I guess I just have to edit the mame.ini files to point the core to the correct chd folder, right? Actually in that case im not sure. Any reason for using retroarch for MAME? i use retroarch for as many systems as i can, but i avoid it for MAME, i have just had way to many controller issues with it. For me retroarch and the mame core itself seem to fight over controls, and it never works right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiriusVI Posted December 28, 2019 Author Share Posted December 28, 2019 3 minutes ago, neil9000 said: Actually with the "MAME fullset importer" its also not importing the rom files. It knows what games currently are marked as working in MAME and imports them. All it does is pass the game name to MAME essentially, so as long as MAME knows where your roms and your CHD's are, then they load. Actually in that case im not sure. Any reason for using retroarch for MAME? i use retroarch for as many systems as i can, but i avoid it for MAME, i have just had way to many controller issues with it. For me retroarch and the mame core itself seem to fight over controls, and it never works right. I use Retroarch, because it works just fine. I have multiple displays and I can't seem to get Mame standalone working with my setup. It's a weird issue where mame seems to launch on whichever of my three displays it wants to. There is no consistency. Since I've switched to retroarch, there hasn't been any issue whatsoever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neil9000 Posted December 28, 2019 Share Posted December 28, 2019 9 minutes ago, SiriusVI said: I use Retroarch, because it works just fine. I have multiple displays and I can't seem to get Mame standalone working with my setup. It's a weird issue where mame seems to launch on whichever of my three displays it wants to. There is no consistency. Since I've switched to retroarch, there hasn't been any issue whatsoever. Fair enough. Although there are settings in name for the exact monitor, and even the rotation and resolution of said monitor. Whatever works for you in your environment though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiriusVI Posted December 28, 2019 Author Share Posted December 28, 2019 2 minutes ago, neil9000 said: Fair enough. Although there are settings in name for the exact monitor, and even the rotation and resolution of said monitor. Whatever works for you in your environment though. Yeah, I've tinkered with these settings, but for some reason, windows switches up which of my displays is labeled as 1, 2 & 3. So whenever I restart, these numbers might be switched and then if I set mame to launche on display 2, this could be whichever. So, I'd like to stick to retroarch. But I've just realized that the retroarch core in mame doesn't seem to use an ini file for it's arcade games... Besides, mame doesn't allow me to set the chd path in it's ini even in the standalone version... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neil9000 Posted December 28, 2019 Share Posted December 28, 2019 1 minute ago, SiriusVI said: Yeah, I've tinkered with these settings, but for some reason, windows switches up which of my displays is labeled as 1, 2 & 3. So whenever I restart, these numbers might be switched and then if I set mame to launche on display 2, this could be whichever. So, I'd like to stick to retroarch. But I've just realized that the retroarch core in mame doesn't seem to use an ini file for it's arcade games... Besides, mame doesn't allow me to set the chd path in it's ini even in the standalone version... @DOS76 any hints? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neil9000 Posted December 28, 2019 Share Posted December 28, 2019 24 minutes ago, SiriusVI said: Yeah, I've tinkered with these settings, but for some reason, windows switches up which of my displays is labeled as 1, 2 & 3. So whenever I restart, lol, i wish mine would a little, my main display doesnt get my bios screen. I have to grab my harmony remote and switch both TV and AVR inputs if i want to do anything in the bios. I could kill computer hardware sometimes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOS76 Posted December 29, 2019 Share Posted December 29, 2019 yeah I've never had that issue with Windows changing my Displays numbering on restart and I no longer have a multiple monitor setup in action so can't test to see if anything like that has changed or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiriusVI Posted December 29, 2019 Author Share Posted December 29, 2019 So just to summarize: I point the Launchbox importer tool to the mame rom folder, which does NOT include the CHDs. And I do not separately import the CHDs, correct? Where do I put my CHDs. Do I leave them zipped? unzipped? in the folder named after the rom? I'm still confused =( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retro808 Posted December 29, 2019 Share Posted December 29, 2019 @neil9000 First response to you Mentions what to do with chd files. They need to be placed in your roms folder and each in a folder named after its rom. The chd needs to be unzipped. As long as you have pointed mame to the main roms folder it will know where the chd is. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiriusVI Posted December 29, 2019 Author Share Posted December 29, 2019 2 hours ago, Retro808 said: @neil9000 First response to you Mentions what to do with chd files. They need to be placed in your roms folder and each in a folder named after its rom. The chd needs to be unzipped. As long as you have pointed mame to the main roms folder it will know where the chd is. 2 hours ago, Retro808 said: @neil9000 First response to you Mentions what to do with chd files. They need to be placed in your roms folder and each in a folder named after its rom. The chd needs to be unzipped. As long as you have pointed mame to the main roms folder it will know where the chd is. Got it, thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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