MAME Full Set Importer - any way to tell it to copy roms to new folder?

[machineReadable]

I’m trying to create a portable Launchbox installation. I have a complete MAME collection on my file server. I want to use the full set importer to select a subset of roms and import them into my portable installation. I’m pretty sure in an older version of the importer, you used to have the option to decide whether to use the roms directly from your source, or copy them into a new folder, but that doesn’t seem to be possible now. Am I overlooking something?

[JoeViking245]

2 hours ago, machineReadable said:

you used to have the option to decide whether to use the roms directly from your source, or copy them into a new folder

There's a really good explanation why copy/move ROMs is not part of the MAME full set import wizard anymore.  But I don't know [fully] what it is.

But I do know that once you've finished importing, you can select Tools, File Management, Export/Copy ROM files from selected games to new folder to do what it is you're wanting. 

[neil9000]

But only if you have a Non-Merged romset, any of the other two romset types and you will break everything and a ton of games will no longer work.

[machineReadable]

Turns out my issue was more insidious than I thought. I discovered that even though Launchbox imported all of my games, none of them were playable, that is, I would click on them, and the game would not launch. So, I copied my MAME folder to my local machine, and re-imported from there. The games are now all playable, however, when I attempt to export my curated collection to a new folder as @JoeViking245 described above, I get 'No ROM files were found to copy to the destination folder'. I've seen some comments around the web that imply that this won't work if you've used the full set importer, but that doesn't seem right.

Edit: I noticed that in the Arcade Platform dialog, the Game media type was not pointing to the correct folder. I've changed it to where the games actually are, we'll see what happens.

Edit2: Same error.

Edited June 8, 2022 by machineReadable
Update

[JoeViking245]

19 hours ago, machineReadable said:

'No ROM files were found to copy to the destination folder'

Edit one of the games that [now] works and look at ROM File (aka ROM Path) in the Launching section.  It should point to where you ROM is physically located (either showing a Relative path or an Absolute path). 

But since "No ROM files were found..", I'm guessing the ROM File path is pointing somewhere else.  You originally said you had them on your file server.  I personally have no knowledge about file servers to even guess as to what may or may not be an issue there.

When you copied your "MAME folder", was that your full MAME emulator folder, including ../MAME/roms/ where your ROMs are located?  Or was that just a folder that had you MAME ROMs [only] in it?

 

What I'm getting towards, depending how you have standalone MAME setup and how you have you Default Command-Line Parameters set in LaunchBox for your MAME emulator, the ROM Path in the Launching section could still work if it was:

• D:\ROMs\MAME\astdelux.zip
• X:\nowhere\specific\astdelux.zip
• astdelux.txt
• astdelux

Again, depending on how you have mame.ini setup and also the Default Command-Line Parameters in LB.

 

I just ran a test using Export/Copy as described above and it had worked (to COPY files).

• Ran the Full Set Wizard
• Imported to Arcade 2 (unique Platform name)
• Pointed to a folder that had [only] 56 MAME ROMs
• Told it to use my existing MAME emulator (Manually Configure MAME Emulator)
• Checked/Unchecked some filters and had it do its thing
• Arcade 2 had 6679 games in it.
• Selected all games (click one and then pressed Ctrl+A)
• Ran the Export/Copy feature, pointed to an empty folder
• When it was done, the 'empty' folder had 56 files in it.

 

20 hours ago, machineReadable said:

in the Arcade Platform dialog, the Game media type was not pointing to the correct folder.

That shouldn't be the case.  Especially with a fresh import to a new Platform.  Any chance the incorrect folder was one that was used in the past?