Import All Arcade Games Doesn't Move All Games

[VodkaParalyzer]

Evening Everyone

Apologies if this has been covered already, wasn't able to find any clarity on this.

New to LaunchBox, I imported all of my Arcade roms, and even though I selected Move all files to Games/Arcade, it only moved some of them

Meanwhile, the games themselves show up in LaunchBox, they're just pointing to the original folder where they were.

Why did this happen and is there an easy way to move all of the game files to a single directory? 

[lamvira99]

On 6/8/2025 at 10:43 AM, VodkaParalyzer said:

Evening Everyone

Apologies if this has been covered already, wasn't able to find any clarity on this.

New to LaunchBox, I imported all of my Arcade roms, and even though I selected Move all files to Games/Arcade, it only moved some of them

Meanwhile, the games themselves show up in LaunchBox, they're just pointing to the original folder where they were.

Why did this happen and is there an easy way to move all of the game files to a single directory? 

P/s: To be objective, space waves is quite easy to play but if you want to become a master of this game, you need to practice a lot more.

I had the exact same thing happen when I first set up my MAME set.

Edited Tuesday at 03:50 AM by lamvira99

[VodkaParalyzer]

11 hours ago, lamvira99 said:

I had the exact same thing happen when I first set up my MAME set.

Were you able to resolve it? Did re-import everything again? Or just live with it?

[JoeViking245]

On 6/7/2025 at 8:43 PM, VodkaParalyzer said:

I imported all of my Arcade roms, and even though I selected Move all files to Games/Arcade, it only moved some of them

Meanwhile, the games themselves show up in LaunchBox, they're just pointing to the original folder where they were.

For clarity, is your MAME ROM set a merged, non-merged or split set?  If it's a merged, the files that didn't get moved most likely don't physically exist.

[VodkaParalyzer]

The collection indicated that it's a Merged set

The files that were left in my download folder do physically exist

And even when I tried running a game that requires a CHD file, I had to move the CHD file to my download folder, rather than the LaunchBox/Games/Arcade folder

I've attached a screenshot comparing the two locations, with my download folder on the left, and the LaunchBox/Games/Arcade folder on the right

The files that are still in my download folder, show up under their respective games Additional Apps tab, of which I have attached as a second screenshot

 

[JoeViking245]

1 hour ago, VodkaParalyzer said:

The files that were left in my download folder do physically exist

Yes.  What I meant was, for the games that got imported and their ROM path (as shown in LaunchBox when you edit the game) is pointing to the Downloads folder.

On your last screen shot for Dragon's Lair, if you go to the Launching section, is that path pointing to the Downloads folder?  Or /Games/Arcade/dlair.zip? 

Going back to "what I meant was"...  in either of those 2 folders, do the files dlaird.zip, dlaire.zip, dlairf.zip exist (aka the 3 other Additional Apps)?  This question is rhetorical because in a merged set, they won't.

 

You'll note in your Downloads, the folder "dlair" is there.  Which of course contains the chd which "dlair.zip" will be looking for when you go to launch the game.  LaunchBox won't copy the games' associated files. Just the actual ROM file.

Notes on the other files I see in Downloads...

• (1on1gov.zip) did get copied (twice?)
  • Note: this game also requires the BIOS file coh1002m.zip, which would not have been copied. But does exist in your Downloads folder
• (2mindril.zip) 2 Minute Drill is a screenless game that shouldn't have been imported
• (3b1.zip) UNIX PC Model 3B1 is a computer
  • as are 3b2xxx
• (3bagfull.zip) 3 Bag Full is a slot machine
• (3c505.zip) 3Com EtherLink Plus is an ethernet card for a computer
• (3cdpoker.zip) 3 Cards Poker 96 Another slot machine

 

Bottom line is, to have LaunchBox be able to successfully copy your MAME ROM files to a different folder when importing, you need to have a non-merged set.  And because you can with a non-merged set is the only reason (I'm guessing) the developers left the copy feature enabled [when using the Arcade full set import wizard].  There isn't really a reasonable way to determine what set-type the user has. So toggling the copy feature isn't an option.  Completely removing copying when using the full set import wizard would probably make for a lot of angry users.

EDIT:  The copy feature isn't in the Arcade Full Set Import Wizard.  My mistake/confusion.  But the feature is available in the regular Import ROMs.  The reasoning why some ROMs don't get copied/moved stands.

 

[VodkaParalyzer]

3 hours ago, JoeViking245 said:

Yes.  What I meant was, for the games that got imported and their ROM path (as shown in LaunchBox when you edit the game) is pointing to the Downloads folder.

On your last screen shot for Dragon's Lair, if you go to the Launching section, is that path pointing to the Downloads folder?  Or /Games/Arcade/dlair.zip? 

Going back to "what I meant was"...  in either of those 2 folders, do the files dlaird.zip, dlaire.zip, dlairf.zip exist (aka the 3 other Additional Apps)?  This question is rhetorical because in a merged set, they won't.

The only file I have showing, is dlair.zip, which is in my downloads folder

Looking at the game in LB, it's pointing to this file, as shown in below screenshot

3 hours ago, JoeViking245 said:

 

You'll note in your Downloads, the folder "dlair" is there.  Which of course contains the chd which "dlair.zip" will be looking for when you go to launch the game.  LaunchBox won't copy the games' associated files. Just the actual ROM file.

Yeah, I manually placed this here, to see that it would work, which then led me to find that some games are referencing the Games folder, while others are referencing the Download folder.

3 hours ago, JoeViking245 said:

Notes on the other files I see in Downloads...

• (1on1gov.zip) did get copied (twice?)
  • Note: this game also requires the BIOS file coh1002m.zip, which would not have been copied. But does exist in your Downloads folder
• (2mindril.zip) 2 Minute Drill is a screenless game that shouldn't have been imported
• (3b1.zip) UNIX PC Model 3B1 is a computer
  • as are 3b2xxx
• (3bagfull.zip) 3 Bag Full is a slot machine
• (3c505.zip) 3Com EtherLink Plus is an ethernet card for a computer
• (3cdpoker.zip) 3 Cards Poker 96 Another slot machine

 

Bottom line is, to have LaunchBox be able to successfully copy your MAME ROM files to a different folder when importing, you need to have a non-merged set.  And because you can with a non-merged set is the only reason (I'm guessing) the developers left the copy feature enabled [when using the Arcade full set import wizard].  There isn't really a reasonable way to determine what set-type the user has. So toggling the copy feature isn't an option.  Completely removing copying when using the full set import wizard would probably make for a lot of angry users.

EDIT:  The copy feature isn't in the Arcade Full Set Import Wizard.  My mistake/confusion.  But the feature is available in the regular Import ROMs.  The reasoning why some ROMs don't get copied/moved stands.

 

I've been tinkering on this so much of late, starting to forget what I did where lol

And I agree, removing functionality isn't a good idea.

Is there a way to import the games again, using a merged set, and not have them split between two locations?

I did find an older post, where it was being asked Merged vs Non-Merged, and it sounded like both could be made to work.

If I were to nuke the games from LB, then ensure that everyt file is in the Arcade/Games folder, and then import everything from there, would that work?

[JoeViking245]

41 minutes ago, VodkaParalyzer said:

If I were to nuke the games from LB, then ensure that everyt file is in the Arcade/Games folder, and then import everything from there, would that work?

Yes.  Easiest way is to right-click the Arcade platform and click Delete.  When it asks to delete Images (2nd popup), click no.  Move all (the rest of..) the files (and chd folders) into /Games/Arcade/.  Then run the Arcade Full Set Import Wizard (and it won't ask if you want to move the files. ).

[VodkaParalyzer]

Thank you everyone, for your help on this!! Nuking and redoing the import was the trick. Although, when I nuked my Arcade collection, it left behind all of the Publisher Playlists, and when I reinstalled and said yes to configuring MAME again, it actually installed a second instance of MAME that was configured differently that didn't load. Nuking that emulator instance and repointing my arcade platform to the working insance was the trick.