Help: MAME Sets w/ CLRMAMEPRO, using multiple update packs

[GiSWiG]

Maybe I'm just not searching right, but I can't find tutorials on updating multiple packs. I can find a dozen different ways to update one set but not multiple. I have the full 0.138 set and every individual update pack to 0.149. Do I load the 0.139 MAME exe and then scan the 0.138 ROMS, add the 0.139 update to the add-ons, then rebuild, then repeat 10 times OR do I load the 0.149 MAME exe, add the 0.138 rom set to the rom path, add all the updates to the add-on paths, then scan and rebuild?

Also, using the 0.138 set and updating to 0.143 or 0.144, I have 100% but after that, the total existing rom count practically doubles (200k+) and I never have the full set. Is this normal? Should I care?

P.S. What is the most widely accepted tutorial on using CLRMAMEPRO with MAME sets out of the doezens outthere which do tend to be older versions of CLRMAMEPRO. I'm new to using sorting MAME roms but I have used CLRMAMEPRO to organize console roms.

Thanks!

[Zorlon]

The way I would do it is...

Keep all the rom packs and updates in a single folder (If you want to extract the roms you can but it's not needed, if you do though make sure nothing is over written and you do that to a sub folder [auto renaming is fine])

Get that ClrMamePro up and running and make sure you are using the correct dat (I'm sure you do )

Use the Rebuilder option
Set the source as the folder you have all the rom packs/updates in or the folder you extracted all the packs to (extracted packs should not over write any files, auto renaming is fine)
Set the destination as the folder with all the MAME roms in

Hit Rebuild and let it do it's thing (this is very very time consuming from this point, you may even want to spread this out more and only do a few of the sets/updates at a time)



You can re-scan the roms folder after, it may need to rename a few game files yet

P.S. there is a world of difference between sorting console roms to mame roms

A hint for you when you scan filter out everything except for roms and sets

Samples will almost always have something missing these are not all available anyway as far as I know
CHD's are not considered roms and are not in the rom packs, these tend to be large files and downloaded on there own
Sets are all the files needed for a single game these include the CHD files and the Samples so it will say that some sets are missing files still or are missing if they just have a CHD, you sometimes get that if the game uses a master rom set but has no rom files of it's own just the CHD file
Roms are all the files inside each game zip file

Missing Report explained

Sets - Missing/Total - This one is not very accurate the left number is the number of zip files missing totally but that number does not include zip files that have missing Roms in them
ROMs - Missing/Total - The number of missing rom files, these roms are inside each game zip file, not the actualu zip files
CHDs - Missing/Total - this is just the number of missing CHD files
Samples - Missing/Total - Number of samples missing.... does not count the zip files just files inside the zips
Bytes - Missing/Total - amount of data missing in file size this does include CHD's, I am not sure it counts Samples though

Not bad for a guide I just typed up

[GiSWiG]

Great tips Zorlon! I haven't seen it described any better than any tutorial I've seen.

Just to be sure, you mentioned 'dat'. Do you mean a 'dat' file or using mame exe to build the dat, assuming 0.149 too.

[Zorlon]

A dat file for ClrMamePro you can download the 0.149 dat if you don't have it

http://www.progettosnaps.net/dats_en.html it's listed under Mame Dats, P.S. that site also has some of the art work and snaps and other great resources for mame

P.S. extracting the packs before rebuilding is going to be the quickest option but it still takes an age

P.P.S. I have the full Mame rom set so if you are missing anything after running through the process outlined above let me know and I will see what I can do

My scan results are as

Download Links:
Links are hidden from guests. Please register to be able to view these links. The only reason I have so many missing sets is because those are actually just CHD files, the roms for those CHD's are in a master rom set, so the sub set only has a CHD but the master set has roms and a CHD

Samples are hard to get/find but I will check back and see if I can find the rest of those, they are just sound files by the way mostly for 70's Arcade games, maybe the odd early 80's ones creep in there as well

CHD's I may get myself just to complete the set, but a lot of those are not even fully emulated so can't be played at least not with MAME

[GiSWiG]

Doing what you suggested and adding in 0.150, I got...
Download Links:
Links are hidden from guests. Please register to be able to view these links. All sets except the 0.150 came from here.

Is there a way to strip out countries, versions, etc. that I don't want to keep as a 'playable' set? I don't speak Japanese and don't need the Japanese versions of the US versions I already have.

[Zorlon]

What do need is parent roms of each game you want, these may be jap mind, not that all Jap games are in Japanese, most are in english anyway, you can get rid of all the Mahjong games though, most of those are Jap only.

I actually downloaded the sets myself from here, done that yesterday and today, managed to get every single rom that way

If you run through the process again try extracting each set and update to it's own folder, rebuild from each folder alone just in case something messed up via the other rebuild

7349 is a rather large amount of sets to be missing :/

Also when you scan make sure all the fix options are on, otherwise it will not fix and miss named sets or roms and any other fixes.

The sets I got are 0.138 through to 0.149 that got me my full rom set (obviously this does not have CHD's or Samples) if any missing between all those you will of lost out on some roms that way

ClrMamePro is the best for scanning the roms
Romcenter is best for organizing roms though, it is another dat tool, you should be able to import the dat, or the RomCenter web site may have that dat in RomCenter format

It has been a very long time since I felt the need for RomCenter, I used to use that as a front end though because it lists all the roms in the prog and you can run them from it (you just config the emulator into the settings)

Anyway the point is RomCenter lets you set your own filters, so you can make it just show Jap only games ect, not sure how well that will work with Mame roms though, if that works ok with mame roms then it is a simple case of filtering so it shows what you want rid of selecting all and deleting... I would move rather than delete though in case you remove something you did not want to.

[GiSWiG]

Ok. I'm doing good so far until I hit the 0.144.

So here's the process I've been following and everything looks good...
1) Loaded 0.138 set and dat, verified good
2) Added 0.139 DAT, clrmamepro recognized it as an update to 0.138 and asked to update, I said yes.
3) Added the 0.139 update folder to the add-on path
4) Did a Diff scan, fix all errors
5) Rebuilt using add-on path
6) Rebuilt using backup path (doesn't do much, I think it does this in step 5)
7) Use scanner, using the 'Scan'.

Repeat for each update starting at #2, #3 I remove the old update path and add the new update's path.

So up until 0.144, no missing ROMS...
Download Links:
Links are hidden from guests. Please register to be able to view these links. But then at 0.144...
Download Links:
Links are hidden from guests. Please register to be able to view these links. 15,177 missing roms.
I got these all from here. Is 0.144 incomplete?

[Zorlon]

I only scanned with 0.149, there is no point in scanning with 0.144 or any other lower dat

I got everything from 0.138 to 0.149 extracted the sets/updates to there own folders inside another folder

Sum it up I had the folder I downloaded all the updates to including the 0.138 set up to the 0.149 update then I had a Fix folder that had a sub folder for each Set/update

I used ClrMamePro to Rebuild from the Fix folder, I have 0 roms missing from the 0.149 set

P.S. Mame 0.150 has only just come out, but I am scanning my 0.149 roms now with it out of interest and see what I am missing, lots of renamed files and slight changes to the sets by the looks of it.

Edit:- 486/215150 roms missing from 0.150, not bad

[GiSWiG]

I misread. I'm now starting with base 0.138, scanning with 0.150 dat, then rebuild each individual update folder....
Unless I'm misreading again...coffee not kicking in yet

[Zorlon]

Sounds like you are reading just fine good luck with it

P.S. if you are missing a few roms I'm sure I can help

To see what games just have a few roms missing after the scan just untick sets so it only shows games with missing roms

Just got back I only have 1 game missing after updating my roms to 0.150

I was just missing a few roms from rfjets.zip, but I fixed that rather quickly, not sure how I ended up missing roms from the game I'm sure it's not a new to 0.150

I will be grabbing some CHD's in the next few days, though I know most of those will not be playable but there are other emulators asides from Mame that can play some of those

http://nonmame.retrogames.com/ is worth book marking it lists games that are not playable in MAME but are playable is other emulators, some are playable in MAME but either support other features or make the games more playable in other emulators

[GiSWiG]

Well, I still end up with 15,000 missing. I found a full 0.149 set that claimed it was a full set, but it had 20,000 missing. I comboed the two, 8,000 missing...

Sum it up I had the folder I downloaded all the updates to including the 0.138 set up to the 0.149 update then I had a Fix folder that had a sub folder for each Set/update

I used ClrMamePro to Rebuild from the Fix folder, I have 0 roms missing from the 0.149 set

...if we're both getting the sets from here, and you're not missing any, maybe it is because of this. I'm not getting the 'Fix folder'' part. Can you explain more?

Thanks a bunch!

[Zorlon]

The Fix folder is just the folder you use to rebuild from

The Roms folder is the folder that all the rebuilt roms go to after you hit rebuild

In the Fix folder I have a folder for each of the updates and the 0.138 rom set those folders have the zip games from the packs

So the Fix folder has a 0.138 folder a 0.138 to 0.139 folder a 0.139 to 0.140 folder ect ect all the way up to 0.149 to 0.150 (you might as well have that one ready as well as you have it)

Inside each of those folders you extract the contents of each pack

Set up the Rebuilder as shown in the screen grab [Your paths will be set to your personal setup though]



In the screen grab I have Mame installed to my portable drive under H:/Emulators/MAME

I added a Fix folder in the MAME folder (this has all those packs extracted to it), the Roms folder should be there anyway

I would also set the settings up in ClrMamePro as well to use the fix folder as the backup folder

You only need to do this with the latest dat file do not do that with all the dats only do that with the latest one

If you still have x amount of roms missing though after a scan, untick sets so it will not show sets that just have missing samples or chd's so only Roms is selected (again this is after a scan)

The scan results windows should show less games, it will only show the games that have missing roms

right click on the results window hit Save>Fix-DatFile>All Listed Set Issues... then I can have a look for you and create a fix pack for you.

[GiSWiG]

Yeah, that's about how I did it, but, I found a truly fully set and after upgrading to 0.150...
Download Links:
Links are hidden from guests. Please register to be able to view these links. Now what am I going to do with that many ROMS...?

Well, I think we got a good thread for others to learn from, my original source just must have been flawed.

[Zorlon]

Lol you do whatever you like with all the roms

I just guided you on how to get the silly things

P.s. you will still want CHD's for the few games that work and use CHD's

[GiSWiG]

So which games w/ CHDs work?