rydin4life Posted February 20, 2020 Share Posted February 20, 2020 Brand new to this! I just cleaned up a spare laptop and downloaded MAME along with LaunchBox. I downloaded a few games like Mortal Kombat and Killer Instinct (along with associated chd files) from the Internet Archive. The games work in MAME and show in Launchbox which is great. I'd like to download what I believe is called a "ROM set" where there are thousands of arcade games and not just download one at a time like I did. I've searched and read a lot, but I can't seem to find a place to actually download something like this. Can someoone point me in the right direction? I also hear things like merged vs. split, but again, I can't seem to find a download for one or the other. I'd like to download a large set and if I'm missing any games I want, then I can download individually and add them. HOw do I do that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted February 20, 2020 Share Posted February 20, 2020 You can always get the latest full Mame set from Pleasuredome but it is a site you have to sign up for, do not hit and run on the torrent or they will shitlist you. The other option is the interent archive, they have different rom set versions available though usually not quite the latest. 25 minutes ago, rydin4life said: I'd like to download a large set and if I'm missing any games I want, then I can download individually and add them. HOw do I do that? If you get a proper full set there is nothing you will need to download separately to add. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rydin4life Posted February 20, 2020 Author Share Posted February 20, 2020 (edited) 8 minutes ago, Lordmonkus said: You can always get the latest full Mame set from Pleasuredome but it is a site you have to sign up for, do not hit and run on the torrent or they will shitlist you. The other option is the interent archive, they have different rom set versions available though usually not quite the latest. If you get a proper full set there is nothing you will need to download separately to add. Thanks..very helpful! I've seen some things on the internet archive, just don't know which one is valid and how to get it to download. It's all new to me so still working on how to figure this all out, appreciate the help!! When you say that there isn't a need to download anything separately, does that include games with chd files like Killer Instinct 1 and 2? I'm particularly interested in these games. Edited February 20, 2020 by rydin4life Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted February 20, 2020 Share Posted February 20, 2020 4 minutes ago, rydin4life said: When you say that there isn't a need to download anything separately, does that include games with chd files like Killer Instinct 1 and 2? I'm particularly interested in these games. Sorrry, yeah you will need to download the CHDs separately, I forgot about that. 5 minutes ago, rydin4life said: just don't know which one is valid and how to get it to download Split and Merged sets will be approximately 60 gigs in size + CHDs and there should be a link to download using torrent on their site. Sorry I cannot provide you with direct links here, it's against the rules of the forums. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rydin4life Posted February 20, 2020 Author Share Posted February 20, 2020 (edited) 2 minutes ago, Lordmonkus said: Sorrry, yeah you will need to download the CHDs separately, I forgot about that. Split and Merged sets will be approximately 60 gigs in size + CHDs and there should be a link to download using torrent on their site. Sorry I cannot provide you with direct links here, it's against the rules of the forums. I completely understand, just thankful for your help! Looking for things now! Does it really matter if I go split or merged? If they're the same games, I just want whatever is easier Edited February 20, 2020 by rydin4life Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rydin4life Posted February 20, 2020 Author Share Posted February 20, 2020 Also, just want to clarify, will the rom sets have the chd files in them or do I need another download for those? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted February 20, 2020 Share Posted February 20, 2020 CHDs are typically a separate download, it's quite large and only a select few games require them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rydin4life Posted February 20, 2020 Author Share Posted February 20, 2020 Thanks @Lordmonkus Just wanted to confirm that I need the romset version that matches the version of mame I have ,is that correct? Seems odd because if I download individual roms there's not a version listed, so why does it matter that the versions match with an entire romset? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted February 20, 2020 Share Posted February 20, 2020 1 hour ago, rydin4life said: Just wanted to confirm that I need the romset version that matches the version of mame I have ,is that correct? This is not a 100% hard rule but it is highly recommended to guarantee 100% rom compatibility. 1 hour ago, rydin4life said: Seems odd because if I download individual roms there's not a version listed, so why does it matter that the versions match with an entire romset? While individual games may work the further apart you get in terms of emulator version and the rom set your rom is from you will find more and more games that do not work. This is due to emulation improvements or rom dump improvements which happen over time. Sure you could use a mismatched rom set and Mame version and you may find that 90% of the games do work but you will find some that do not work. Generally speaking being a couple of versions out of sync is perfectly fine. But once in a while there is a big change that will affect quite a lot of games like a couple of years ago when the Capcom "suicide battery" was decrypted and there was a new version of Mame which required all the Capcom CPS games to be updated in order to work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rydin4life Posted February 20, 2020 Author Share Posted February 20, 2020 Thanks again @Lordmonkus Really appreciate this help. What you said makes complete sense! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rydin4life Posted February 21, 2020 Author Share Posted February 21, 2020 Thanks again @Lordmonkus I'm importing a full romset into Launchbox right now. I see that Killer Instinct and Killer Instict 2 are included in this set. Once it's done importing (going to be a few hours probably), will the chd file be included in that romset, or will I have to find the chd file and put that into the roms folder on my own? Also, if there's a game that's not included (although I'm sure this is rare), can Ijust download it and drop it into the roms folder, import it with Launchbox and that's it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted February 21, 2020 Share Posted February 21, 2020 8 minutes ago, rydin4life said: will the chd file be included in that romset, or will I have to find the chd file and put that into the roms folder on my own? You will have to get the CHD and either place that in the same folder as your Mame roms or you can put CHD files in another folder and add that folder path to Mame so it knows to look there for it. The CHD won't need to be added, Mame just needs to load the normal rom and know where the CHD file can be located and it will work. 9 minutes ago, rydin4life said: Also, if there's a game that's not included (although I'm sure this is rare), can Ijust download it and drop it into the roms folder, import it with Launchbox and that's it? Yes, this will work but if you got a proper full set there will be no games missing other than the CHD files. The rom set and CHDs are typically kept as separate downloads because the CHD set is so large and affects only small selection of games. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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