How to upgrade MAME in existing LB

[TommyTomorrow]

I messed up LaunchBox when I tried to update MAME to the latest version, and now I don't know how to fix it because my LB instance is on my laptop, where I don't have enough space to import a full set of MAME ROMs. LB has two import modes: the first is full set, which launches a wizard that automatically downloads, installs, and configures the selected MAME version. The second mode is importing individual ROMs, but this mode doesn't automatically download or configure the emulator. I currently have MAME unpacked to the "MAME 0.288" folder in the Emulators folder. The Arcade platform is added, and an emulator with that version is added. However, when I launch any game, a black screen appears for a split second and then returns to the main LB window. None of the YouTube tutorials available in the LB help program show how to import individual ROMs and manually add MAME. Any advice?

[JoeViking245]

MAME, in its own rights, is a unique animal. Namely because its ROM sets come in 3 flavors. Merged, non-merged and split.

Though LaunchBox is tailored to accommodate full sets [in all 3 'flavors'] for both importing and updating, it can't really accommodate curated sets (a select portion of a full set).

To manually update your MAME emulator, you can go to MAMEDev's site and download it from there. Be sure to select the version corresponding to the version of your ROM set. (e.g. both being for 0.288).  When you edit your MAME emulator in LaunchBox, you can click the link (globe icon) to have LaunchBox open your web browser to MAME's download page for the most recent release. Again, make sure it matches your ROM set release version.

From here, run the exe file and (what I do is) install it to the same location your existing MAME emulator is located.  This will NOT overwrite any settings or configurations you've made in MAME, as the installer ONLY includes the 'base' files.  If doing it this way, nothing needs to be changed in LaunchBox as far as your MAME emulator is concerned.  If you decide to install MAME to a different folder, all you'll need to do in LaunchBox is redirect the emulators application Path to the new mame.exe location.  However, you won't have any MAME custom configurations changes you made unless you copy those files/folders to the new location.

 

As for updating your curated ROM set located on your laptop, that's a bit more tricky, but not impossible.  Basically, what you need to do is copy only the files from your updated full set that already exist in your curated set, to your curated set's location. Overwriting the old ones.  Since not many, if any 'new' machines (games) are added in MAME updates, you can just manually add those to LB.  e.g.  From release 0.278 to 0.288, there were no added MAME machines.  There were existing ones (ROMs) updated. But nothing 'new'.

Manually adding MAME games to LaunchBox:  If you added any new games (ROMs) to your curated folder location, you can NOT use LB's Scan for Added ROMs feature.  This goes back to MAME being a unique animal.  What you can do is, select those added ROM files [in Windows Explorer] and drag them onto LaunchBox.  This will start the (regular) import wizard.  Just tell it you're import ROMs into Arcade using MAME as the emulator. Tell it to use ROMs in their current location and follow through the prompts.

 

The MAME Tools plugin has a couple of its features that may come in handy regarding this thread.
1)  MAME Arcade - What's New:  This will tell you what new arcade machines were added for any specific release of MAME.
2)  MAME Troubleshooting:  Use this to help determine why a specific game using the MAME emulator isn't working.