Do I need clrmame for updates

[DHG0529]

Ok long story short I built a Hyperspin cab a couple years ago and was running mame 148 I think.

For a few reasons, mainly upgrading I've decided to do a clean install starting with Windows.
So while I'm at it I figured I might as well update mame as well.
When you don't mess with this stuff for a couple years you tend to forget alot about setting it up.

If I have the full mame 151 set and all the updates from here do I simply copy the updates one at a time overwriting and files as necessary.... same question with chd's....

Do I need to use clrmame at all? I remember this program being anything but intuitive and if I don't have to relearn it then I'm not going to.
If I do need clrmame where would I find the newest dat file... I've looked in case I need it but can't find it.

Also, I know I'll have to update my mame.exe as well. Do I simply need to update the executable file? Will the existing .ini files or whatever else stores info keep all my old settings?

One more random question... is Pac Man Battle Royale emulated yet?

[Pug]

do you overwite? yes.

do you need clrmame? that's up to you, if you think you can manage without it then do so. I found clrmame to so unnecessarily complex that i wrote my own. Or you can get the mame torrent from the usual place, the roms come already clrmame'd for you.

do you just update the exe? yes.