MAME Import - What to keep, what to toss

[Lahrs]

I'm installing MAME (v.267) with the Launchbox wizard. I've gone through the setup process and put in my filters to pare down the games and am currently in the process of important all the goodies from LB and EMUmovies. Along with the MAME rom set, I also have the optional Extras package. With LB importing the games that fall within my filters, and LB and EMUmovies doing the lifting for the extras, can I delete the Extras download I did? That was a big file. What about the other 39k games that were filtered out? I have a non-merged set, which should prevent conflicts from removing games now, but what about when .268 eventually is released, will not having those extra files be a problem when I update? If so, I can just zip the extra games I'm not using now and store them... somewhere.

A more general question, any tips, tricks, or other you can share to improve the MAME experience? This is more of a subjective question of course.

I did play Altered Beast on a different installation, and oh boy, it was clearly missing an arcade controller, that would be my tip to myself, buy an arcade controller, or build one. That game was definitely designed to eat quarters, it was absolutely unforgiving. At my highest point, I was in charge of 17 arcades, and one of the first things I did with nearly half the games was turn down the difficulty. Despite pushback from all the higher ups, I saw an increase in revenue when I did that, more people were having fun, fun equals more quarters, or tokens as it were. Never understood the 'destroy the player' mindset.

[Joe35car]

I would just keep the files. If you start deleting stuff you might break games that need bios or other files to run the game.

[JoeViking245]

6 hours ago, Lahrs said:

I also have the optional Extras package. With LB importing the games that fall within my filters, and LB and EMUmovies doing the lifting for the extras, can I delete the Extras download I did?

The MAME extras are mainly useful for its UI.  If you just want to play the games, consider the extras as 'bloatware'.

 

6 hours ago, Lahrs said:

What about the other 39k games that were filtered out? I have a non-merged set, which should prevent conflicts from removing games now, but what about when .268 eventually is released, will not having those extra files be a problem when I update?

Since you have a non-merged set, you can safely get rid of the other 39k games without affecting the ones you keep.  If you plan to do monthly updates, having a complete set does make the update easier. Since you'll be getting rid of that hugh jass extras package, you'll have storage available for the full set [you already have].  I keep a fullset on an external hard drive and just have LaunchBox point to that folder.  Of course, not all games are imported.  There have been a couple occasions where someone mentioned a particular game I didn't have in LB, and it was nice to be able to easily add it.  So, no real advise. Just some snippets of information.

 

7 hours ago, Lahrs said:

any tips, tricks, or other you can share to improve the MAME experience?

My tip is to actually play the games you import.  Ya, LaunchBox makes 'em all look really pretty there 'on the shelf'.  But why have 'em if you ain't gonna play 'em.  

[Lahrs]

12 hours ago, JoeViking245 said:

My tip is to actually play the games you import.  Ya, LaunchBox makes 'em all look really pretty there 'on the shelf'.  But why have 'em if you ain't gonna play 'em.  

100%. My initial purge got me down to 2100ish I think, somewhere around there. It's going to keep getting smaller as I play and find out what I want to continue playing and which ones didn't hold my interest. I'm horrible about backlogging games, which is why I started printing out checklists of games owned vs. played/completed. This alone has helped my wallet quite a bit. I do believe LB has a similar option built in, which will be very handy.

The only extras I want, other than the downloads from LB and EMUMovies, are bezels. Having a widescreen monitor, the bezels not only look good in general, but really help counter the wide screen vs the CRTs nearly every game was released on. I will have to play around with those until I can home in what I like. Until then, I will the Extras zipped somewhere. Unfortunately, I'm running out of HD space, both on my PC and my NAS. That will be my next upgrade, much bigger hard drives.