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MAME unmarked chd.


Lahrs

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I have a full unmerged ROM set as I plan to curate it down to my liking in the future, which can be more difficult with a merged set. When it comes to .chd files, I'm only seeing merged sets. I understand that a .chd is by nature a merged file, but I don't want to download the massive ton of non-working .chd files. Are there only merged .chd sets? I believe I can still cherry pick the merged .chd files to only download working games, but I'm pulling my hair out by looking for non-merged .chd sets and am now thinking I'm looking for something that doesn't exist. Any help?

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It only comes in a "merged" set. But it still has parents and clones separated out like a non-merged set. 

As for whittling it down, there about 640 CHD's total.  About 350 of those are parents (and the rest are clones).  Of those 350-ish, only 57 are considered "working".  You may want rethink your cherry-picking methodology.  "The Arcade Database" can help you filter out the working ones, then you can 'pick ones that you may actually like and would want to play.  Then go find just those.

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50 minutes ago, Lahrs said:

I have a full unmerged ROM set as I plan to curate it down to my liking in the future, which can be more difficult with a merged set. When it comes to .chd files, I'm only seeing merged sets. I understand that a .chd is by nature a merged file, but I don't want to download the massive ton of non-working .chd files. Are there only merged .chd sets? I believe I can still cherry pick the merged .chd files to only download working games, but I'm pulling my hair out by looking for non-merged .chd sets and am now thinking I'm looking for something that doesn't exist. Any help?

JoeViking245 posted ahead of me and echo you are best off just picking games you want. There are two lists from the site referenced as has a handy export feature: 

MAME search - ADB Working only CHD Games.txt (58 games working with CHD games)

MAME search - ADB Working + Imperfect CHD games.txt (100 games working + imperfect CHD games

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I believe we are on the same page but to be sure (huge amount of bandwidth if I mess up). I have the .266 non-merged ROM set (need to update), which I chose non-merged so I can go and remove all those that I'm not interested in without breaking any other ROMs. As far as the .chd files, those I meant as cherry picking. I have a list of working .chd files from the Arcade Database already, and from there I'm only grabbing the ones I want, 20ish. I was making sure that I didn't download a bunch of stuff I didn't need, which is why I was asking about the labeling of merged .chd sets. and pairing it with a non-merged set. I couldn't find anything as labeled un-merged .chd sets and ultimately figured I was chasing something that didn't exist.

As an example, even though there isn't a Pac-Man .chd. Let's say I get rid of all Pac-Man clones, keeping the parent. I get the Pac-Man .chd, which will have everything to run all Pac-Man versions. I can't, or at least easily and worth the time, break down the .chd file for just Pac-Man, it will have all Pac-Man versions, regardless of if I use them or not. That file is still considered merged. As far as I can tell, those merged and non-merged files are compatible, but will not be able to run any clones as I no longer have the clone ROMs.

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I worked for Namco for 15 years with arcades. From arcade attendant to multistate district manager. I have had my absolute fill of hacked cabinets and broken games. I will not go anywhere in the vicinity of a non-working .chd file, broken or hacked ROM, except Ms. Pac-Man, which was originally a hacked Pac-Man machine. Honestly, the fact I'm anywhere near MAME in general has my family laughing at me, that I fell back to the dark side. 

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8 hours ago, Lahrs said:

I have a list of working .chd files from the Arcade Database already, and from there I'm only grabbing the ones I want, 20ish. I was making sure that I didn't download a bunch of stuff I didn't need, which is why I was asking about the labeling of merged .chd sets. and pairing it with a non-merged set.

My apologies! The CHD set is indeed a merged set. (never really looked closely at it)  But it's not "totally" merged.

Example - Area 51:

There're 4 versions. 1 parent (area51) and 3 clones (area51a, area51t and area51ta).  The 1st 2 use the 1st CHD, and the 2nd 2, the 2nd CHD.

image.png.ed9579b7375cb486f02317f28e0db55f.png

Since you're looking at only 20ish, if you wanted the Time Warner licensed version (clone), you'd only need the 2nd CHD. Even though it's a clone of the 1st CHD, it's not required.

But I'm sure you've already figured it out, just download the 20ish main folders, then you can (manually) weed out the files inside. ;) 

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