Some Arcade (FBneo) ROMs not importing

[FishMonkey]

I'm having trouble importing the latest FBNeo set into launchbox. Most the ROMs import without issue but some get left out even with all filters turned off, I assume these are hacks & homebrews not found in MAME and missing from the launchbox database.

Is there a way I can import these either using the liberato FBNeo dat-file or force importing the files and entering the info manually?

[Retro808]

1 hour ago, FishMonkey said:

I'm having trouble importing the latest FBNeo set into launchbox. Most the ROMs import without issue but some get left out even with all filters turned off, I assume these are hacks & homebrews not found in MAME and missing from the launchbox database.

Is there a way I can import these either using the liberato FBNeo dat-file or force importing the files and entering the info manually?

If you are u sing a Mame import option and they are hacks and homebrews then you need to uncheck some of the "skip" options in the Mame Import screen. Such as "Skip hacked", "Skip unplayable in Mame", and maybe a couple others. Play around with them and on the last screen it will show what is importing.

Or on the screen that asks "Wold you like to specify any custom options" do not check the box for "Force Using Mame metadata" and just import it like any non-arcade rom.

[FishMonkey]

4 hours ago, Retro808 said:

If you are u sing a Mame import option and they are hacks and homebrews then you need to uncheck some of the "skip" options in the Mame Import screen. Such as "Skip hacked", "Skip unplayable in Mame", and maybe a couple others. Play around with them and on the last screen it will show what is importing.

Or on the screen that asks "Wold you like to specify any custom options" do not check the box for "Force Using Mame metadata" and just import it like any non-arcade rom.

The skip features has no effect whatsoever.

I will try import as non mame metadata but surely then the files are just going to have weird names like ehbdjd.zip and no correct information.

It would be really nice to import via dat-files as this has most the information needed already.

[neil9000]

19 minutes ago, FishMonkey said:

The skip features has no effect whatsoever.

I will try import as non mame metadata but surely then the files are just going to have weird names like ehbdjd.zip and no correct information.

It would be really nice to import via dat-files as this has most the information needed already.

The problem is you are using the mame importer, but do not have a mame romset. FBA is not mame, is it based off of it? yes, but its not the same game list, it is different, and game names can also be different. What i would do is use the standard rom importer, but you will have to likely rename a bunch of games on the final page of the wizard. At the end of the day the specific mame fullset importer, or the option to use mame metadata when adding other systems (like naomi, atomiswave, etc) is strictly for mame romsets only, they "may" work with other romsets but nothing is guaranteed when you step outside the scope of a feature, which is the case here.

Edited August 9, 2022 by neil9000

[FishMonkey]

30 minutes ago, neil9000 said:

The problem is you are using the mame importer, but do not have a mame romset. FBA is not mame, is it based off of it? yes, but its not the same game list, it is different, and game names can also be different. What i would do is use the standard rom importer, but you will have to likely rename a bunch of games on the final page of the wizard. At the end of the day the specific mame fullset importer, or the option to use mame metadata when adding other systems (like naomi, atomiswave, etc) is strictly for mame romsets only, they "may" work with other romsets but nothing is guaranteed when you step outside the scope of a feature, which is the case here.

This is not true. FBNeo uses a portion of the MAME/HBMAME arcade set. FBNeo syncs with MAME/HBMAME changes, so if a ROM gets renamed or redumped on MAME/HBMAME, it will be renamed or redumped on FBNeo.

Basically FBNeo is a collection of the best 2D systems on MAME and an amazing selection of HBMAME. Here's a quote from the Devs replying to someone stating FB Neo is just an older/more glitchy arcade set for less powerful systems.

 

 

 

Those glitches are quite rare and usually quickly fixed when reported. But yeah we are not devoted to accuracy, if we consider something will enhance a game, we'll just do it. Last week one of our developpers decided to implement a filter to improve sound from the zx spectrum 1-bit beeper, now it sounds even better than fuse's band-limiting resynthesis, and that's indeed totally inaccurate emulation, zx spectrum can't do that.

 

There are also cases where FBNeo is more accurate than MAME. Fun fact, sometimes people report bugs because something is different from MAME and they just assume MAME is always right, but after checking against video of the actual pcb we learn that MAME is actually the one in the wrong.

 

Anyway, there is no definitive answer for MAME vs FBNeo, it all depends on what you want to play (MAME has far wider game compatibility, especially it supports 3D systems even if most of the time it doesn't work very well), what RA features you like (if you like runahead or retroachievements, FBNeo is definitely the way to go), and if you are a MAME OSD fanboy (you would be surprised by the number of people that complain because that menu doesn't open when pressing tab, even if literally everything is accessible through the RA menu instead)."

Edited August 9, 2022 by FishMonkey
I don't know how to put an external quote in a quote box

[Retro808]

1 hour ago, FishMonkey said:

This is not true. FBNeo uses a portion of the MAME/HBMAME arcade set. FBNeo syncs with MAME/HBMAME changes, so if a ROM gets renamed or redumped on MAME/HBMAME, it will be renamed or redumped on FBNeo.

This might be true but the part that is important is the "portion of Mame". Not all those roms in the FBNeo set might be in the Mame.xaml file we validate against when importing Mame roms. The file you mentioned ehbdjd.zip (Not sure what game that is) is not found in the Mame.xaml which is why it will not import using the Mame wizard. 

LB does not use dat files. For now if you want to add those Non-Mame hacks/home brews you will need to import as standard rom not using Mame metadata.

[FishMonkey]

38 minutes ago, Retro808 said:

This might be true but the part that is important is the "portion of Mame". Not all those roms in the FBNeo set might be in the Mame.xaml file we validate against when importing Mame roms. The file you mentioned ehbdjd.zip (Not sure what game that is) is not found in the Mame.xaml which is why it will not import using the Mame wizard. 

LB does not use dat files. For now if you want to add those Non-Mame hacks/home brews you will need to import as standard rom not using Mame metadata.

A portion of MAME is still MAME, not a mix of outsourced arcade ROMs + MAME, just a smaller percentage of the MAME/HBMAME collection. FBNeo is pure MAME/HBMAME ROMs, no exceptions. Sometimes they are from nightly/Dev builds, rarely they beat HBMAME by a few hours to a hack but again still MAME/HBMAME ROMs.

That was just gobbledygook with .zip on the end as I don't have my system to hand right now but there was a good 20-50 ROMs missed.

 

Is there any way I can use an XML or DAT-FILE to import ROMs and clones manually?

[Retro808]

1 hour ago, FishMonkey said:

A portion of MAME is still MAME, not a mix of outsourced arcade ROMs + MAME, just a smaller percentage of the MAME/HBMAME collection. FBNeo is pure MAME/HBMAME ROMs, no exceptions. Sometimes they are from nightly/Dev builds but again still MAME/HBMAME ROMs.

That was just gobbledygook with .zip on the end as I don't have my system to hand right now but there was a good 20-50 ROMs missed.

 

Is there any way I can use an XML or DAT-FILE to import ROMs and clones manually?

Then not sure why you cannot import them. If they are actual mame roms, meaning their names match the mame.xaml it should import. I do not believe we read any xaml from HBMame as last time I added some hacks for HBMame I had to import as a standard rom. 

Since you gave a gobbledygook name can you supply legit roms names of ones you had issues importing to test import?

1 hour ago, FishMonkey said:

Is there any way I can use an XML or DAT-FILE to import ROMs and clones manually?

LB uses the Mame.xaml. That is about the only one that can be used as of now without a plugin.

[JoeViking245]

26 minutes ago, FishMonkey said:

Is there any way I can use an XML or DAT-FILE to import ROMs and clones manually?

If you have an xml file that's formatted the same as MAME does its Arcade xml files, there's a plugin that can help with that.  

But the xml DOES have to formatted the same way.

[FishMonkey]

1 hour ago, Retro808 said:

Then not sure why you cannot import them. If they are actual mame roms, meaning their names match the mame.xaml it should import. I do not believe we read any xaml from HBMame as last time I added some hacks for HBMame I had to import as a standard rom. 

Since you gave a gobbledygook name can you supply legit roms names of ones you had issues importing to test import?

LB uses the Mame.xaml. That is about the only one that can be used as of now without a plugin.

When I said 20-50 missing ROMs what I meant was 550 ROMs didn't get imported.

Redearthn.zip a no CD version of Red Earth for example was included in MAME 0.116 - 0.141 (2007-2011) but is not importing when scanning as MAME ROMs.

19 minutes ago, JoeViking245 said:

If you have an xml file that's formatted the same as MAME does its Arcade xml files, there's a plugin that can help with that.  

But the xml DOES have to formatted the same way.

Thank you this is exactly when I need! I am hoping the liberato XML is the same format?

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/libretro/FBNeo/master/dats/FinalBurn Neo (ClrMame Pro XML%2C Arcade only).dat

[JoeViking245]

20 minutes ago, FishMonkey said:

I am hoping the liberato XML is the same format?

That's the old MAME format.  BUT you might be able to open it in a text editor and do a find and replace [all].

Replace "<game" (without quotes) with "<machine" (again, without quotes).

Be sure to include the less-than symbol (<), otherwise something like 88games will become 88machines.  

[Retro808]

42 minutes ago, FishMonkey said:

When I said 20-50 missing ROMs what I meant was 550 ROMs didn't get imported.

Redearthn.zip a no CD version of Red Earth for example was included in MAME 0.116 - 0.141 (2007-2011) but is not importing when scanning as MAME ROMs.

Are you using a more recent version of Mame in your set-up? I know you are using FBNeo, but if you have a more recent Mame build then LB pulls the Mame.xaml from it.

If so that might be the issue because the Mame.xaml in your \Metadata would be from the more recent Mame build and for example redeartn.zip is no longer a valid rom name.

Joe's method might be the best for you.

 

[FishMonkey]

17 minutes ago, Retro808 said:

Are you using a more recent version of Mame in your set-up? I know you are using FBNeo, but if you have a more recent Mame build then LB pulls the Mame.xaml from it.

If so that might be the issue because the Mame.xaml in your \Metadata would be from the more recent Mame build and for example redeartn.zip is no longer a valid rom name.

Joe's method might be the best for you.

 

 

I don't actually import as a MAME set I just select use MAME metadata for emulators other than MAME that use MAME files towards the end of importing ROMs process. 

Does this only use the latest MAME file names?

Edited August 9, 2022 by FishMonkey

[LP64]

13 hours ago, JoeViking245 said:

Replace "<game" (without quotes) with "<machine" (again, without quotes).

Thank you for this advice! I also replaced "</game" with "</machine" but I wouldn't have had a clue to do so without your guide. (EDIT: And plugin 😀)

@FishMonkeyif you follow Joe's advice and also do the extra step I mentioned above you can have the complete FBNEO Romset in Launchbox. Or if you want me to share the working XML file with you, just let me know.

 

Edited August 10, 2022 by LP64

[JoeViking245]

3 hours ago, LP64 said:

I also replaced "</game" with "</machine"

Great catch!  Totally forgot about the closing part of the element.

[FishMonkey]

10 hours ago, LP64 said:

Thank you for this advice! I also replaced "</game" with "</machine" but I wouldn't have had a clue to do so without your guide. (EDIT: And plugin 😀)

@FishMonkeyif you follow Joe's advice and also do the extra step I mentioned above you can have the complete FBNEO Romset in Launchbox. Or if you want me to share the working XML file with you, just let me know.

 

Thank you for testing this before I got chance. I'll probably rebuild my FBneo set weekend and reinstall launchbox then (just done a fresh windows install).

Did it still add 1 game entry per game with the clones listed for each game just like launchbox normally would and did the arcade hacks also get added to the correct playlist, CPS1, CPS2, etc?

[LP64]

3 hours ago, FishMonkey said:

Did it still add 1 game entry per game with the clones listed for each game just like launchbox normally would and did the arcade hacks also get added to the correct playlist, CPS1, CPS2, etc?

If you select the "import clones as additional apps" option when importing, it will do as you mentioned (make sure you grab the newest version of Joe's plugin though, as he just released a fix for this option today/yesterday!)

As you are doing a fresh Launchbox install, this is what I would do to make sure you get the playlists working (as the plugin won't automatically generate playlists):

1.  Use the plugin to import your romset.
2. Right-click on your newly generated platform and select "Create Missing Arcade/MAME Playlists". Now you'll have your playlists (CPS1, Capcom, etc.) but the imported romset will initially be missing the metadata required to fill these playlists.
3. Select all your FBNeo games, then click "Tools>Download>Update Metadata and Media for Selected Games". Keep "search for game information in the local database" checked. Skip downloading the media initially and just update the metadata to ensure things are working. When prompted, select "Yes, but do not replace any existing fields or media".
4. Hopefully everything is now set up the way you want!

[FishMonkey]

Thanks guys. The plugin will not load on my system. Does anyone have any ideas why?

I think it's something windows related. I'm running an i5 4699k at 4gHz with Intel HD 4600 onboard graphics with 1GB allocated memory on an 8GB system which isn't that outdated but I'm having problems everywhere.

I'm a couple of hours away from going back to Linux and the ugly retroarch xmb interface as I'm having problems there on windows as well (nestopia) will not load, I built my romset myself using clrmamepro so the ROMs are definitely not the issue.

Edited August 14, 2022 by FishMonkey

[JoeViking245]

1 hour ago, FishMonkey said:

The plugin will not load on my system. Does anyone have any ideas why?

I think it's something windows related.

The plugin not loading would have nothing to do with Windows.  It's a LaunchBox plugin.  It would be best to ask about it on the plugin page itself (so as to not muddle up this thread).  Also give some details. Like it's not showing in the Tools Menu.  Or, it is, but when you click it, nothing happens.  And be sure to re-read the Using the plugin section 1st.  Just in case something was overlooked.  

[FishMonkey]

47 minutes ago, JoeViking245 said:

The plugin not loading would have nothing to do with Windows.  It's a LaunchBox plugin.  It would be best to ask about it on the plugin page itself (so as to not muddle up this thread).  Also give some details. Like it's not showing in the Tools Menu.  Or, it is, but when you click it, nothing happens.  And be sure to re-read the Using the plugin section 1st.  Just in case something was overlooked.  

Thanks but every program that works on my win 11 gaming laptop is having problems on this win 10 install and I have installed every runtime/web package that I can think of... While I'm no IT god I'm pretty IT litterate.

I'm not even a Linux guy but I got fed up of the ball ache for a rig that only plays media and retroarch and jumped ship.

Edited August 14, 2022 by FishMonkey