M.A.M.E. - Seeking some "how to" help

[LazerTag]

Well first I hope this is considered the evil side of discussions on emulation talk. I want to make it clear that I am not seeking where to get ROMs, images, or games in anyway, shape, or form.


My question is this, What is a good method for keeping everything up to date on my ROMs?

I always seem to find myself taking weeks on end to get all the files I need to update with each time only to find I missed something. Or games that worked before are now borked due to name changes or a couple changed ROMs. I'm really having a tough time with this. So much so that I really have not been keeping up at all actually. I stopped around version .82 (I think) but I'd like to take the time to get it together again.



I know about CLRMame, but still find it sometimes confusing on what I need to have without simply going and downloading the entire set from somewhere again??

Am I just stupid? (that's a rhetoric question, you know who you are )

[DarthDazDC]

well, i have mame32 plus! and u can see what ROMS you havent got by clickin on not available, that should say what ROMS you havent got.

[LazerTag]

Maybe I wasn't clear. I'm looking for more of a "what steps do you take to update each time a new MAME version is released?".

It's more then just seeing what ROMs your missing. Quite often the MAME programmers will simply rename internal ROMs or a small prom is added, removed, or a couple additional ROM files are thrown into a particular game, whatever. Why redownload completely when you can just get those missing, new, renamed, or changed size to fix it up?

Again I am not asking and don't need to know where to go to get the files, just a better understanding of the steps some of you make to save time and all the downloading.

[Hexidecimal]

CLRMame is supposed to eb the shit when it comes to such things, but I neevr really understood how to use it, and that bothers me, so I just stopped trying, I havr deemed it completely impossible to stay current with MAME releases because by the time you've eaither A) Gotten a current set or B) figured out how the fuck to use CLRMame, theres a new release, and you have to starty all over again.

[blizz]

Why redownload completely when you can just get those missing, new, renamed, or changed size to fix it up?

That's what happens....

[Allnatural]

CLRMame is supposed to eb the shit when it comes to such things, but I neevr really understood how to use it, and that bothers me, so I just stopped trying, I havr deemed it completely impossible to stay current with MAME releases because by the time you've eaither A) Gotten a current set or B) figured out how the fuck to use CLRMame, theres a new release, and you have to starty all over again.

Yeah. I hate to admit it, but ClrMamePro confuses the hell out of me. And some have complained (including some devs) that one wrong click and your entire set can be wiped out.

It's more then just seeing what ROMs your missing. Quite often the MAME programmers will simply rename internal ROMs or a small prom is added, removed, or a couple additional ROM files are thrown into a particular game, whatever. Why redownload completely when you can just get those missing, new, renamed, or changed size to fix it up?

SYS2064 did make available just the changed files in each release of MAME, but they don't seem to be doing that anymore.

[LazerTag]

Well at least it sounds like I am not alone.

I think I'll just stick to what I have then. Nothing new has been added since that I just can't live without anyway. Thanks for all the info.

[zman]

I guess I'm alone in the universe clrmamepro. I thought it is a complex yet easy to use tool in merging or spliting roms for mame. If I remember correctly, just create a dat file with mame and run off of that for the mame rom directory to split or merge rom sets to the latest usable versions.

Or, when you run mame do a file info or audit to find the latest info on the roms and manualy update the roms.

Either way is easy anuff...

Oh... One more thing about clrmamepro... This program is updated often and usually on bug fixes, so read the version and what's new info before using...

[rcgamer]

i use clrmamepro for all of my arcade emus.