LB - MAME import wizard questions where updating romset is applicable

[Elmo80]

Hoping someone can share their advice on updating the MAME games within LB with what i'm trying to achieve. 

I've read quite a few posts and spent a fair bit of time talking to my mate ChatGPT but i admit i'm getting a bit confused. 

I have the latest 0.284 MAME emulator and merged rom set.  For the past 18 months i have updated regularly, via a torrent check approach, downloaded all rom/bios so all is up to date. 

I have previously been able to do a scan for new platform Arcade roms in LB Tools and added those with metadata and images/videos using the wizard - on face value everything is up to date in LB platform Arcade and that is what i'm trying to achieve.

Late last year when i applied the same above logic, there was around 600 new roms to import but a majority of those are poker/casino games that i don't want. I applied the use MAME metadata within the scan for update rom wizard and checked skip all poker/casino games but the wizard still wont filter those ones out and the 600 new roms remain - i therefore cancel the wizard.

What Chat GPT is telling me the metadata connection between the MAME emulator and LB is probably out of date, so LB cant recognise the attributes of the new roms. 

What's weird, i have zip file for time crisis 2 within my MAME romset folder and the scan for new roms wizard wont even identify it. Not sure why?

I'm thinking a refresh of the full MAME romset in LB is required to fix this issue. 

When using the MAME import wizard in LB: - 

- How can i avoid redownloading all the media, i.e. images / videos? would i need to check none for import of videos / images then scan for new media files after the import is complete?

- If i check yes to bezel project (as i would want bezels for the new imported roms) will this overwrite all the existing bezels in MAME artwork? 

- Can i skip updating MAME emulator since its already there up to date? this is one of the first options in the wizard and i don't want to impact my custom controller settings,mame.ini, shaders and etc. 

- Will the import wizard keep the platform categories organised as per my original import.

I'm not worried about the metadata for each game, i've never personalised this for MAME roms in the Arcade Platform. 

I have a complete backup if things go bad but ultimately, what should i be checking in the MAME import wizard for best chance of success? 

Thanks

 

[JoeViking245]

8 hours ago, Elmo80 said:

Late last year when i applied the same above logic, there was around 600 new roms to import but a majority of those are poker/casino games that i don't want. I applied the use MAME metadata within the scan for update rom wizard and checked skip all poker/casino games but the wizard still wont filter those ones out and the 600 new roms remain

This was fixed in version 13.21 (Apr. 24, 2025)  "MAME Gambling games are now marked as Casino games allowing you to easily filter them out during imports"

8 hours ago, Elmo80 said:

How can i avoid redownloading all the media, i.e. images / videos? would i need to check none for import of videos / images then scan for new media files after the import is complete?

Don't have LB delete media when deleting your existing Arcade platform and then click None for both LB and EmuMovies media during re-import.

Since MAME doesn't really add many "new" machines between releases, those few games will be easy to identify.

8 hours ago, Elmo80 said:

Can i skip updating MAME emulator since its already there up to date? this is one of the first options in the wizard and i don't want to impact my custom controller settings,mame.ini, shaders and etc. 

If you are manually updating your emulator, you can of course skip that step.  I haven't checked in a long while, but I believe when "updating" this particular emulator, LB will install (unzip, basically) MAME into a new folder, suffixing the folder name with the release number.  Essentially giving you a "new" install vs. updating your existing install.  It then reassociates the game to use the "new' emulator.

Do note that a new/fresh install of MAME only includes the base files and that there are no configuration files included.  I manually update my MAME emulator myself.  Which involves downloading the binaries from MAMEDev, right-clicking the exe file and opening it with 7zip (as the installer is just an executable zip file). Then copy the complete contents of the "zip" into my existing MAME folder.  After at least 5 years and doing monthly updates, I've never ran across an issue doing it this way.

9 hours ago, Elmo80 said:

If i check yes to bezel project (as i would want bezels for the new imported roms) will this overwrite all the existing bezels in MAME artwork?

If doing a full import, I don't know.  If after the import is complete you go to Tools < Download < Update Metadata and Media for Selected Games..., I'm fairly certain it will only download the missing artwork (bezel files).  But I not 100% on that.

9 hours ago, Elmo80 said:

Will the import wizard keep the platform categories organised as per my original import

It shouldn't affect your Categories at all.  Since you're importing only one Platform (Arcade), it will still get added under the Arcade Category.  If your current Arcae Platform is under multiple Categories, then you will probably need to reset that in the Platforms Parents tab.

On the other hand, Playlists you had or have manually created that look specifically for games in the Arcade Platform will still be there.

9 hours ago, Elmo80 said:

what should i be checking in the MAME import wizard for best chance of success?

Maybe someone else can chime in on how best use the import wizard for monthly updates.  I don't use it for that.

I update my Arcade ROM set each month, update the emulator as mentioned above then read through whatsnew.txt to see what new Arcade Machines were dumped/added.  If I see something intriguing, I'll manually it (them?) using Ctrl+N.  There's also a plugin in which you can see what new Arcade Machines have been added with each release.  It only shows you MAME cabs, so you're not inundated with fruit machines and the sort.  Unfortunately, since the plugins release, there haven't been any "new" machines added to speak of.  A lot of new or updated ROMs, yes. But not cab machines.

[Elmo80]

Thanks for your response. Appreciate your insights. The problem with the import wizard is you don't have a sense of what comes next, the best pathway and the implications. 

On the LB 13.21 fix, i'm on 13.24 and at least on the tools scan for new MAME roms it's still an issue and the poker/casino games are being included to be added. 

I had a crack at the import wizard. I didn't see an option on updating MAME or not. At the end of the install, MAME wasn't updated, perhaps because i already had the corresponding version of MAME manually installed, so no need to update and all configs remained. Poker/casino games were skipped - worked. 

In regards to the bezels, it only updated the new and missing ones which was great. The media i just checked none and updated the new items after the import. 

One thing i did do before running the import wizard was run mame.exe -listxml > mame.xml from cmd to generate the mame.xml - not sure if it helped but was absent from the MAME emulator folder. 

I agree with you, with the number of new roms being limited compared to the effort to update all, may as well just pick the new ones of interest and add rather than import. 

I also figured out my issue with Time Crisis 2 - it's still classified as unplayable - added it anyway and it's definitely not fully playable.