What would be best method to import only a tiny number of arcade roms?

[dmaker]

I have about 30 or 40 classic arcade roms that I would like to import into LB. I don't have, or want, a full mameset. As such, though, I'm not really sure what would be the best way to do this?

 

Any suggestions?

 

[C-Beats]

28 minutes ago, dmaker said:

I have about 30 or 40 classic arcade roms that I would like to import into LB. I don't have, or want, a full mameset. As such, though, I'm not really sure what would be the best way to do this?

 

Any suggestions?

 

Just use the regular ROM import and turn off any skip settings in the MAME options that appear (skip unplayable, skip casino, etc, etc)

[dmaker]

I think I tried that and was expecting LB to install MAME, but it did not. Should it?

 

[dmaker]

I tried the ROM Import, Single Platform, Arcade, but I don't have MAME installed and was hoping it would install as part of that process.

[C-Beats]

What happens when you go to play one of the games you just imported? I can't remember if MAME is set up to use the whole "hey we noticed you don't have an emulator, let me grab one for you" process or not. MAME is a bit odd in that you have to have the version that matches your ROMs and so we can't just grab the newest version and it guarantee to work so lot of those processes don't support grabbing it.

[dmaker]

I havent been able to try to play a game as I don't have MAME installed. I tried the process I mentioned, but it ended with "you dont have mame installed", and then I thought maybe I could do a full romset import but just use options to pare it down, but it says i dont have a full romset in the folder. So I havent actually completed anything at this point. 

 

[dmaker]

So, I should install MAME first and then try to import those 26 roms?

 

[JoeViking245]

2 hours ago, dmaker said:

ended with "you dont have mame installed"

Like @C-Beats, I don't recall how the MAME installer was actually set up (compared to other less 'odd' or unique emulators).  But with other emulators, when you see a message similar to that, it will also ask if you want "us" to install it.

That aside.... Since you have your 30-40 classic Arcade games added to your LaunchBox collection already, at this point I'd suggest:

1. Go to Tools - Manage - Emulators and click Add
2. Type in "MAME" for the Emulator Name and it will auto-populate most of the settings
3. At the right-end of the Name field will be an icon that is a link to the MAME download site. 
4. Click it.
5. If your MAME ROMs are from the current 0.281 release, download the mame0281b_x64.exe file
   1. If your ROMs are from an earlier release, at the top of that page, click Downloads and select Previous Releases
   2. Scroll down to where you see the release number that matches your ROMs
   3. Click the file under Binary (Windows) for that release
6. Once downloaded, run the executable from Windows Explorer
7. If you get a Windows protected your PC popup,
   1. click More Info and then click Run anyway
8. I recommend extracting it to your /LaunchBox/Emulators/ folder
   1. e.g. Choose:  D:\LaunchBox\Emulators\MAME\
   2. Be sure to add MAME on the end of the path
9. Once finished extracting, back in your Edit Emulator window
   1. To the right of Application Path, click Browse and navigate to the folder you extracted MAME to and select "mame.exe"
10. Right below Default Command-line Parameters, add to the end of what's there (if it's not there already), -rompath %romlocation%
    1. e.g.  -keyboardprovider dinput -rompath %romlocation%
11. Click on the Associated Platforms label and make sure Default Emulator is checked on the Arcade line.
12. Click OK to save and close the Edit window.

[dmaker]

Thank you! That was very helpful. 

I assume that I put %romlocation% in the parameters and not the actual location?

I then went and imported the handful of roms and it is scraping now for metadata.

 

[JoeViking245]

42 minutes ago, dmaker said:

I assume that I put %romlocation% in the parameters and not the actual location?

Correct.  Literally as it's shown in green text.