How do you organise your ROM files?

[AstroBob]

Hey everyone! 👋

When it comes to organizing ROMs, there’s no “one-size-fits-all” approach. Here at LaunchBox, we have a default system—just drop your ROMs into the LaunchBox\Games folder, and you’re good to go. But, let’s be honest—everyone has their own unique way of organizing their collection, and we’re curious to hear your approach!

Some users like to dive deep into subfolders, regional sorting, or even more creative systems. Here are some examples we've heard from folks over the years:

 

Regional Folders: US, EU, Japan etc

A popular method we've seen is sorting ROMs by region. Whether it’s separating out ROMs for US, EU & JP versions of the game, this method keeps everything tidy based on where the games were released. Do you do this, or do you prefer to keep everything together?

 

Alphabetical Folders: A Different Way to Tidy Up

For those who like things in strict order, alphabetically sorted folders might be the way to go. It might seem a bit unconventional, but it’s a method that can help quickly locate a game if you have a huge collection.  Is anyone else using this system, or do you think it’s too much work for something a simple search could handle?

 

Filtering Your ROMs: Do You Use 1G1R or Keep Multiple Versions?

If you’re a fan of no-intro sets, how do you handle multiple versions of the same game? Some people go with the 1G1R (1 Game 1 ROM) method, where you only keep one version of each game, but that can lead to tough decisions—especially when there are multiple revisions, demos, or even region-locked titles.

Do you prefer to have a “complete” collection that includes different revisions (Rev 1, Rev 2, etc.) and special versions, or do you streamline it to keep things tidy? And what about Demos, Prototypes, or Unreleased Games? Do they have a place in your collection, or do you stick to officially released titles?

 

Official vs. Aftermarket Games: Where Do You Draw the Line?

There’s also the question of Aftermarket Games (games released by homebrew developers, indie studios, or through fan projects). Do you include these in your collection, or do you only stick with official games released during the console’s active lifecycle? Hacks, mods, and fan translations are another point to consider—do you embrace them, or keep things strictly original?

 

Playable VS Potentially Playable: Installed locally, or your entire collection

While LaunchBox is primarily used to track games that are immediately playable, there’s nothing technically stopping you from tracking games from non-playable platforms. For example, maybe you like to track games from the most recent console generation (PS5, Xbox Series, etc.), or perhaps you prefer to track games available on services like Apple Arcade, Game Pass, or Amazon Luna. Do you only track games that are installed locally, or do you include your entire collection, even those available via subscription services?

 

Curated or Complete Collection?

Last but not least, are you a curator or a collector? Some people prefer to keep a small, curated list of their favorite games, while others want to maintain a comprehensive archive of every game released for a platform. Are you selective about what stays in your collection, or is your philosophy “the more, the merrier”?

 

 

Conclusion

There’s no right or wrong way to organize your ROM collection—it all comes down to personal preference and what works best for you. Whether you’re a fan of neatly organized folders, filters, or keeping everything in one giant library, we’d love to hear how you manage your ROMs!

 

So, how do YOU like to organise your games?

Take part in our poll and share your methods in the comments, and let’s learn from each other’s approaches! 👾📁

 

 

[AstroBob]

I’ll kick us off. For me, I’m definitely more of a curator than a collector. I might collect games from series that I’m particularly fond of, but for the most part, games in my library are there for a reason.

ROM hacks, homebrews, prototypes—it’s all fair game if I’m genuinely interested in playing them. However, I only keep one version of the released ROM and only one regional variation, except in cases where they are almost like separate games (e.g., the US and JP versions of Panel de Pon/Tetris Attack, or different versions of Donkey Konga that have different tracklists). The region I keep is mostly dictated by RetroAchievements, or whichever version I actually own.

In terms of how the ROMs are organized, I use the default LaunchBox system with auto-imports (just drop each game into a platform folder). I also track games that aren’t playable directly from LaunchBox (e.g., subscription games that I’m interested in, and physical games from systems like the PS5).

But what about y’all? There’s no right or wrong way—it’s whatever works for you 😊

 

[Hanz]

For a while I tried to have every version, but it just became unmanageable to my standards so I ended up trying to find the best version of each game. There is something satisfying when the total number of games for a platform in Launchbox matches the amount of files in the folder (aside from multi-discs of course). I usually go with whatever version Retroachievements supports. I will keep a duplicate of a game as a seperate entry if it has some interesting or significant difference like with Contra/Probotector.

I only really keep prototypes or unreleased games if they are particularly interesting. On the other hand, I want just about any decent ROM hack or homebrew game. I got way into Game Boy homebrew recently.

[Retrofrogg]

Great topic @AstroBob - and a topical one for me; I've recently written a guide (updated - version 2) on the forums which covers many of these issues:

I've found this method to embrace the best of both worlds - you have complete sets (as per DAT files, e.g. for No-Intro sets etc) though also have streamlined playlists showing only the original games.

For example, the root platform shows all the roms, but for my main playlist I use the auto-playlist function to narrow the entire set down to USA (and world) region only and released games only. I then try and use the auto-playlist rules to narrow down the set further by excluding duplicates as much as possible. This is done by setting auto-playlist rules to exclude certain terms found in the version and filepath fields. This highlights a current issue however - you can only exclude 2 terms currently, as the auto-playlist rules don't allow AND or OR qualifiers. So it's impossible to exclude all the duplicates necessary to get a fully clean set. Please include this functionality moving forward! 

Using the above method, it's also very easy to update the sets as necessary (using the ROM manager as well as the scan for added/removed ROMs in Launchbox functionality). 

I keep all roms in the same folder as otherwise it doesn't work with the ROM manager. I collect aftermarket games as there are DATs for those also (e.g. for platforms covered by No-Intro). I collect some hacks but those are less organised as there aren't DATs. I don't include non-playable games, as there's plenty to keep me busy without doing that! 

Edited October 25, 2024 by Retrofrogg

[Thanatos_Prime]

I imagine lots of folks start off as collectors\completionists and end up curated. That is how it worked for me. On the flip side, I have lots of game variants, versions and minor hacks. I track them very easily using the Version DB entry, and View\show versions.

[christhed]

I tend to collect everything I can get my hand on, then spend some time curating to free up space. Once I have more space available, I start collecting again. Every retro console is in the 1G1R format.

I also only keep games that have 3D box image available to make the collection look goooood. I'm at 25 000 games right now.

I wish there was a way to easily make a whole collection 1G1R (keeping only 1 release for every game).

 

[AstroBob]

 

On 10/27/2024 at 12:06 AM, Thanatos_Prime said:

I imagine lots of folks start off as collectors\completionists and end up curated

Agreed! Though interestingly, personally I think I started going in the opposite direction.

I started off with a small collection of games that I owned or had experience with from my childhood, and then slowly filled out blanks in the collection based on series that I'm interested in, sequels, hacks of favourite games etc.

But hey, there's no right way to get there, as long as what you end up with works for you 🙂 But thanks for the great insight folks! Love to hear how y'all and managing these. We plan to talk about this in a bit more detail on this weeks Halloween Stream 🙂

Keep the suggestions coming!

[Kefka2b]

I curate my rom sets however I mainly remove all the baby, girlie, Barbie , billions of American football and wrestling games.

Edited October 30, 2024 by Kefka2b

[Suhrvivor]

I curate my collection. My LaunchBox currently sits just below 3000 games. I'm constanly adding newly released titles I'm interested in playing eventually and I'm removing games and even systems that have little to no interest of playing.

I also curate my Steam library, you can permanently remove games from your account, I recently went and deleted a lot of those bad games I got from random keys online and Humble Bundle bundles.

[AstroBob]

3 hours ago, Suhrvivor said:

I curate my collection. My LaunchBox currently sits just below 3000 games. I'm constanly adding newly released titles I'm interested in playing eventually and I'm removing games and even systems that have little to no interest of playing.

I also curate my Steam library, you can permanently remove games from your account, I recently went and deleted a lot of those bad games I got from random keys online and Humble Bundle bundles.

Good shout! I also recently discovered this. It's quite a hidden option but I've certainly pruned a few games from there that I know I'll never ever play. There is of course the option to just *hide* the game in steam, but it still shows up in places like LaunchBox imports, achievement trackers etc. And I like to keep that game count lean

[Gygoracdes]

I only delete the sports games from my collection. Tennis, football, golf, cricket, NHL, NBL, NXY all managers, poker, casino, pinballs ect. etc. etc.

[SiriusVI]

I go for a customized 1g1r approach. I will usually exclude older game revisions, betas, demos, prototypes and so on. I will however keep unlicensed games and aftermarket releases. The aftermarket releases are kept in a separate platform though.

I also want single games and compilations, so for example on SNES, I will keep:

Super Mario World
Super Mario All-Stars
Super Mario All-Starts + Super Mario World

I consider those three separate releases.

For platforms where this applies, I keep both physical releases, digital releases and virtual console games in separate platforms, so e.g.:

Nintendo Wii
Nintendo Wii (WiiWare)
Nintendo Wii (Virtual Console SNES)

I also import the same games multiple times if they can be played on various devices, so for example I have:

Nintendo Game Boy
Nintendo Super Game Boy
Nintendo Game Boy (Game Boy Color Games)
Nintendo Game Boy Color

In my logic, when selecting the Nintendo Game Boy platform, it's like I'm holding the original Nintendo Game Boy in my hands and I then selecting the games I want to play. If I go to Nintendo Super Game Boy, I imagine sitting in front of the console and again choosing the games I want to insert. I usually use shaders in RetroArch to enhance the effect.

All of this results in duplicate games accross my different platforms of course, but it gives me the option to decide if I want to play:

Pokemon Blue on the original Game Boy
Pokemon Blue on the Game Boy Color
Pokemon Blue on the Super Game Boy

[eonder87]

My way is 1g1r and all kind playable games. I prefer USA > Europe > World > Japan > Others.

Original roms are good i don't like betas protos hacks or homebrews. Maybe i can put them on different platform like "Platform's Hacks".

[Nixx]

I plaid guilty as a deranged collector.

All variations of the same rom into a single 7z. Using 7z zstd you can have hundred of simmilar roms in the same file, it will not weight much more than the original file.
And an external program to load them, select the variation of the game to play.





At least, that what i use for the cadridge era, for CD/DVD i just keep multiple version with tags on the filename.

I want to abite by the one file = one game. Easier to manage, easier to save.
So currently thinking to convert each of my Windows game into a single portable file but i had to pause this project due to time constrain.

Edited February 2 by Nixx

[Suhrvivor]

3 hours ago, Nixx said:

I plaid guilty as a deranged collector.

All variations of the same rom into a single 7z. Using 7z zstd you can have hundred of simmilar roms in the same file, it will not weight much more than the original file.
And an external program to load them, select the variation of the game to play.





At least, that what i use for the cadridge era, for CD/DVD i just keep multiple version with tags on the filename.

I want to abite by the one file = one game. Easier to manage, easier to save.
So currently thinking to convert each of my Windows game into a single portable file but i had to pause this project due to time constrain.

I'm the opposite of you, I have one rom per whole setup and they're not zipped, I rather not wait for roms to be extracted.

[VodkaParalyzer]

Give me all the games, that's my motto lol. In reality, it partly depends on the system, and thus the sizes of the game files. If it's something like the Atari 2600, then I'll take everything. If it's a disc based system and games are multiple gigs in size, then I'm far more selective. Given time, and more storage space, I'll probably become less selective lol. I love scrolling though things and watching the gameplay videos, maybe reading about the game or looking at the manual. Actually playing them? Who has that kind of time 🤣

For me, what game files I have is only part of the equation. It's also how I manage them with playlists. Typically, for each platform I use the auto-generated genres, but I'll usually add a filter to it to exclude games without a release date. I find this works the best for excluding things like hacks, demos, etc.  I then add a playlist specifically for hacks, demos, etc filtering to where release date is empty. This keeps them available, but not mixed in with everything else. It also deals with these games often not having a clear logo, which makes scrolling through you game list in BigBox look icky.

This is why I would love it if Launchbox allowed you to define criteria in your playlist filters that could be inherited by playlists above it, unless overridden by the child playlist itself.

I then also have a collection of various playlist collections, covering all platforms for things like genres, play modes, release dates, progress, has RetroAchievments, etc. Depending what I'm in the mood for, I can navigate to one of these collections and work my way down. These are very much a work in progress, as things come to mind or I think of better ways to manage them.

Thank you, Launchbox for making such an awesome app like this. I truly wish that I could take my 25 years experience as a software developer and join your team 🤓

[Suhrvivor]

1 hour ago, VodkaParalyzer said:

Give me all the games, that's my motto lol. In reality, it partly depends on the system, and thus the sizes of the game files. If it's something like the Atari 2600, then I'll take everything.

I used to have the Atari 2600 on my LaunchBox but I ended up deleting it. I started gaming with the NES generation so that's how far my nostalgia goes. Anyway most of the better Atari 2600 games are just simplified Arcade ports and the few that are not I didn't find them interesting at all.

[VodkaParalyzer]

Whereas I cut my gaming teeth on the Atari 2600 and the early days of the arcade. Good times 🤓