How to maintain a full set of MAME ROMs?

[Johnny T]

Hi all,

I have a full "split set" of MAME ROMs that I have audited with RomCenter.

I'm wondering if a "merged" set is easier to maintain as I'd like to keep updating them as new updates come out.

I just wondered if anyone who's OCD like me and likes the full set manages to stay on top of new updates etc?

Do you use the merged set or split set? How do you cope with updated Roms etc?

Any help on this would be great. 

PS. I do know that it's not necessary to have *all* the games and I personally have a playlist where I use LM's All Killer No Filler playlist as my 'go to' games. However, occasionally I like to dive into the unknown and just pick and play a few games I've never heard of before. ?

[moudrost]

If your goal is to stay up to date, split set is the easiest to maintain.  You might save a small amount of space with a merged set, however it gets a bit more complicated updating.  I have been using MAME since the late 90s and its rare that you will find update sets that aren't split.If your goal is to stay up to date, split set is the easiest to maintain.  You might save a small amount of space with a merged set, however it gets a bit more complicated updating.  I have been using MAME since the late 90s and its rare that you will find update sets that aren't split.

[Johnny T]

That's great, thanks. Space isn't an issue so I'll just stick with the split set then. 

Thanks again for your help ?

[DOS76]

updating your set is much easier than it is made out to be. Its basically as easy as downloading the new torrent for the whole set and pointing it to the same folder your current roms are in then your torrent client will check what is in your folder against what is in the torrent will mark all parts of the torrent you already have as complete and fill in the blanks. Its really that easy now doing it this way will leave behind old files and stuff that gets deprecated and removed from the set by MAME so that is on the bad side but there is a tool available called torrentcheck that can run before starting the torrent and it can (depending on your settings) find and remove unnecessary files, delete wrong sized files and then make a report of what you are missing from the new torrent. Once that is complete just start the torrent in your client let it check itself and your set it up to date.

[DOS76]

http://wiki.pleasuredome.org.uk/index.php/TorrentCheck

 

[Johnny T]

9 hours ago, DOS76 said:

updating your set is much easier than it is made out to be. Its basically as easy as downloading the new torrent for the whole set and pointing it to the same folder your current roms are in then your torrent client will check what is in your folder against what is in the torrent will mark all parts of the torrent you already have as complete and fill in the blanks. Its really that easy now doing it this way will leave behind old files and stuff that gets deprecated and removed from the set by MAME so that is on the bad side but there is a tool available called torrentcheck that can run before starting the torrent and it can (depending on your settings) find and remove unnecessary files, delete wrong sized files and then make a report of what you are missing from the new torrent. Once that is complete just start the torrent in your client let it check itself and your set it up to date.

Thanks for the info DOS (I've just downloaded it now and thanked blackpudd).

Are you using a split set too (just out of curiosity)?

I'll give the technique a go. Sounds like you would only need to run TorrentCheck now and again anyway to do a file clean up. 

Really appreciate your help. It sounds like a great system and exactly what I was after. ?

[wallmachine]

@Johnny T Check this thread out might provide some guidance or stress

 

Edited June 26, 2020 by wallmachine

[DeadVoivod]

Or do like me, OCD here too. So I once went through a whole set, was actually v210, and played every single game there is. I only kept the games that I actually like, or the ones that are more "famous", left me with around 1.300 games. A lot of work, but definitely worth it, plus you can play ALL the games at least once. 

Now I only have to look out for the MAME update sets and see what has changed or has been added since the last set. Very easy. Just copy it to your existing folder, and add it to LB. Done. 

[wallmachine]

30 minutes ago, DeadVoivod said:

Or do like me, OCD here too. So I once went through a whole set, was actually v210, and played every single game there is. I only kept the games that I actually like, or the ones that are more "famous", left me with around 1.300 games. A lot of work, but definitely worth it, plus you can play ALL the games at least once. 

Now I only have to look out for the MAME update sets and see what has changed or has been added since the last set. Very easy. Just copy it to your existing folder, and add it to LB. Done. 

so thats whats working from home like

[DeadVoivod]

Indeed ?

[DOS76]

ah copying update sets to your existing MAME folder would overwrite your existing rom and break it since the update version of the rom only contains the part that changed so unless its a new rom being added to the set it will be an incomplete file. Unless I'm completely misunderstanding what you are saying that is terrible advise to be telling users.

[DOS76]

@Johnny TI do use a split set but any set would work in this scenario.

[neil9000]

2 hours ago, DeadVoivod said:

Now I only have to look out for the MAME update sets and see what has changed or has been added since the last set. Very easy. Just copy it to your existing folder, and add it to LB. Done.

Like @DOS76 just said that will break games as updates only include altered/new files, so overwriting the old rom with the one from a update pack will break the games as the original rom had most of the data in it.

[DeadVoivod]

I meant that in the update it always said which ROMs were updated and which were set to from non-working to working, so from the new "complete" set, just copy it over to your MAME folder, as the name usually stays the same. For the newest added ones, you have to import them obviously, if not already existing in your set. 

Sorry if I explained that wrong. 

[DOS76]

yeah for a time I was doing it exactly like that too but then it got a little to tedious as some times it would be 100s of files I had to go through and check from the torrent list so I went to just downloading the whole file again to save time.

[Johnny T]

Great advice folks. Thanks for taking the time to give me your various methods. I think I've got a handle on it now thanks to you all. Much appreciated. Cheers ?

[drewjbx]

Hey so I will be importing a full non merged set (221). LB has a nice feature that will allow you to export/move known ROM files to new folder. In doing this it will copy only the roms that LB has in it's database. Out of 35,000 MAME files you will end up with about 2800 to 3000 roms and save yourself a lot of space. ('Working' CHD's will need to be picked manually). The problem is LB will not export/move the clones only parents. Does anyone know a way LB will export/move the clones as well (also known as additional apps). Clones can be useful such as Simpsons 4P and 2P for example. 

Edited July 2, 2020 by drewjbx