So I am a novice Mameui user looking for a way to keep updated and it was recommended to me that I try this. I used the guide at mameworld and I am still lost.

What I basically have is a clean version of CLRMame and a mess of Mame versions. I am looking to get everything clean with version 127. My Roms are all mixed up, some updates that I download are unzipped so I basically keep putting them in the Roms directory.

I found dats here: http://www.logiqx.com/Dats/
and here: http://mameui.classicgaming.gamespy.com/

The first site had a superset version of 127 and a regualr one but I really couldnt tell the difference by the desciption.

The official site has a link to a zip file containing 2 dats, one for icons and one for snaps. So for the profile section of the tutorial which dat am I starting out with?

Are there dat files for each artwork folder that I need to grab? Basically once I load a dat I am lost, the settings tab has all sorts of options and the faq lacks detail for a sorry noob like me.

Basic steps:

1) For MAME roms checking you don't need a datfile. Use Profiler->create and use your used MAME binary to import the data.

2) Settings->setup rompath(s)

3) Scanner, select your prefered merge mode, enable all check/fix options run a SCAN and let cmpro fix the stuff for you

4) you may stay with unfixable stuff and missing stuff. Now get the missing roms (or replacements for the unfixable ones) and add them. Adding can be done manually, via rebuilder or scanner's fixmissing.

Repeat 4) + FASTSCAN till you're done.


For other collections like artwork, flyers etc, get the belonging dats and do the same (handle pngs as roms now...)


Roman Scherzer

What is the best merge mode?

> Basic steps:
>
> 1) For MAME roms checking you don't need a datfile. Use Profiler->create and use
> your used MAME binary to import the data.
>
> 2) Settings->setup rompath(s)
>
> 3) Scanner, select your prefered merge mode, enable all check/fix options run a
> SCAN and let cmpro fix the stuff for you
>
> 4) you may stay with unfixable stuff and missing stuff. Now get the missing roms
> (or replacements for the unfixable ones) and add them. Adding can be done
> manually, via rebuilder or scanner's fixmissing.
>
> Repeat 4) + FASTSCAN till you're done.
>
>
> For other collections like artwork, flyers etc, get the belonging dats and do
> the same (handle pngs as roms now...)
>
>
> Roman Scherzer
>

Can I use the rebuilder to go through old rom sets to see If I have any missing? My first scan revealed a bunch of Bios missing as well as samples: Here is the log:

Missing Sets: 47 of 7186
Wrong SetName Case: 0 [0 fixed]
Wrong Named Sets: 1 [0 fixed]

Missing Roms: 1963 of 100819
Missing Bytes: 2gb of 59gb
Missing BIOS Roms: 18 of 125
Wrong Named Roms: 2 [738 fixed]
Wrong RomName Case: 0 [0 fixed]
Wrong Sized Roms: 18 [8 fixed]
Wrong Date/Time Roms: 0 [0 fixed]
Wrong CRC32s: 31
Wrong MD5s:
Wrong SHA1s:

I was suprised I was missing so many roms.

There is also an option under the rebuilder that says skip creation when file exists in ROm path. Is that to prevent duplicates or is that to prevent an older version from replacing a newer one?



> What is the best merge mode?
>
> > Basic steps:
> >
> > 1) For MAME roms checking you don't need a datfile. Use Profiler->create and
> use
> > your used MAME binary to import the data.
> >
> > 2) Settings->setup rompath(s)
> >
> > 3) Scanner, select your prefered merge mode, enable all check/fix options run
> a
> > SCAN and let cmpro fix the stuff for you
> >
> > 4) you may stay with unfixable stuff and missing stuff. Now get the missing
> roms
> > (or replacements for the unfixable ones) and add them. Adding can be done
> > manually, via rebuilder or scanner's fixmissing.
> >
> > Repeat 4) + FASTSCAN till you're done.
> >
> >
> > For other collections like artwork, flyers etc, get the belonging dats and do
> > the same (handle pngs as roms now...)
> >
> >
> > Roman Scherzer
> >
>

> What is the best merge mode?

The only real choice is either split or full merged. Unmerged sets are not common at all and a waste of discspace. Fullmerged sets usually give you a little bit of discspace saving but in times of terabyte hds this is not important anymore. Most people use split sets.


Roman Scherzer

The rebuilder is an engine which is usually used to
a) convert a mess/unknown collection into something useful
b) add files to an existing collection

The rebuilder simply takes any sourcefile, tries to match the hashvalues against the database, and in case of a match, it creates the file in the destination but with the correct name. It creates all found instances there. So if a file is shared by 10 sets, all 10 sets are created with that one rom. You see it's a file based not set based operation. It doesn't care about completeness of sets.

So for the usual operations a), you can "convert" your e.g. MAME roms to another emulator where you loaded a datfile for. In case of b), you can let the rebuilder destination point to your clean collection and your source files are being added to that collection.




Roman Scherzer

I am scanning and rebuilding back and forth between rebuilding and scanning and this is my latest log:

Missing Sets: 5 of 7186
Wrong SetName Case: 0 [0 fixed]
Wrong Named Sets: 1 [0 fixed]

Missing Roms: 723 of 100819
Missing Bytes: 708mb of 59gb
Missing BIOS Roms: 0 of 125
Wrong Named Roms: 0 [0 fixed]
Wrong RomName Case: 0 [0 fixed]
Wrong Sized Roms: 0 [0 fixed]
Wrong Date/Time Roms: 0 [0 fixed]
Wrong CRC32s: 0
Wrong MD5s:
Wrong SHA1s:


Getting there now!

I am going to start the art today.


> The rebuilder is an engine which is usually used to
> a) convert a mess/unknown collection into something useful
> b) add files to an existing collection
>
> The rebuilder simply takes any sourcefile, tries to match the hashvalues against
> the database, and in case of a match, it creates the file in the destination but
> with the correct name. It creates all found instances there. So if a file is
> shared by 10 sets, all 10 sets are created with that one rom. You see it's a
> file based not set based operation. It doesn't care about completeness of sets.
>
> So for the usual operations a), you can "convert" your e.g. MAME roms to another
> emulator where you loaded a datfile for. In case of b), you can let the
> rebuilder destination point to your clean collection and your source files are
> being added to that collection.
>
>
>
>
> Roman Scherzer
>

Updated:

issing Sets: 5 of 7186
Wrong SetName Case: 0 [0 fixed]
Wrong Named Sets: 0 [0 fixed]

Missing Roms: 3 of 100819
Missing Bytes: 8kb of 59gb
Missing BIOS Roms: 0 of 125
Wrong Named Roms: 0 [0 fixed]
Wrong RomName Case: 0 [0 fixed]
Wrong Sized Roms: 0 [0 fixed]
Wrong Date/Time Roms: 0 [0 fixed]
Wrong CRC32s: 0
Wrong MD5s:
Wrong SHA1s:

Missing Samples: 142 of 2152
Wrong SampleName Case: 0 [0 fixed]

Missing CHDs: 22 of 227
Wrong CHD Case: 0 [0 fixed]
Wrong Named CHDs: 0 [0 fixed]
Wrong CHD_MD5/SHA1s: 0

Unneeded Files/Folders: 0 [0 fixed]

Corrupt Containers: 0

Number Of Sets: 7186
Number Of BIOS sets: 38
Number Of Parents: 1560
Number Of Clones: 3327
Number Of Others: 2299
Number Of Roms: 100819
Number Of BIOS Roms: 125
Number Of Samples: 2152
Number Of 'nodump' ROMs: 1125
Number Of 'baddump' ROMs: 547

Most of my errors are sample files and a few CHD files. Now If I get a superset DAT from http://www.logiqx.com/Dats/ Should keep seperate sets or is Clrmame smart enough not to delete other roms? What does the superset contain? I want to check before I delete all these roms. The Dat i have been using I created from the Mame exe file.

Also, I have a dat file for artwork but there is no path selection for artwork. When I load it there are no settings so where does it pull its information from? Do I just use default?

> Most of my errors are sample files and a few CHD files. Now If I get a superset
> DAT from http://www.logiqx.com/Dats/ Should keep seperate sets or is Clrmame
> smart enough not to delete other roms?

A file which isn't listed in the used datfile is unneeded. Different dats, different rompaths.

> What does the superset contain?

Ask Logiqx ;)


> Also, I have a dat file for artwork but there is no path selection for artwork.

Handle artwork (and flyers, snaps, etc) as roms. So simply setup a rompath for your artwork zips. Keep in mind the general scanning rule: rompath\setname\rom1...rom n (for decompressed sets) and rompath\setname.zip for zip-compressed sets. So check how the sets are defined in the dats and setup the rompath accordingly.

> When I load it there are no settings so where does it pull its information from?
> Do I just use default?

For new profiles, use default.


Roman Scherzer

Still dont get the artwork thing, when I scan I get zero results. I setup t a rompath to the artwork folder. Its like it doesnt see the artwork.

> > Most of my errors are sample files and a few CHD files. Now If I get a
> superset
> > DAT from http://www.logiqx.com/Dats/ Should keep seperate sets or is Clrmame
> > smart enough not to delete other roms?
>
> A file which isn't listed in the used datfile is unneeded. Different dats,
> different rompaths.
>
> > What does the superset contain?
>
> Ask Logiqx ;)
>
>
> > Also, I have a dat file for artwork but there is no path selection for
> artwork.
>
> Handle artwork (and flyers, snaps, etc) as roms. So simply setup a rompath for
> your artwork zips. Keep in mind the general scanning rule:
> rompath\setname\rom1...rom n (for decompressed sets) and rompath\setname.zip for
> zip-compressed sets. So check how the sets are defined in the dats and setup the
> rompath accordingly.
>
> > When I load it there are no settings so where does it pull its information
> from?
> > Do I just use default?
>
> For new profiles, use default.
>
>
> Roman Scherzer
>

1) get the artwork datfile from here: http://www.mameworld.net/mrdo/mame_art/mame_artwork_dat.zip
2) drop the zip in the profiler window, create a new profile with default settings for it when loading it
3) setup a rompath which points to path where you got your artwork zipfiles (again, zips from this page: http://www.mameworld.net/mrdo/mame_artwork_ingame.html)
4) scanner->scan


Roman Scherzer

Ok that worked for Artwork. I moved to CPanel. Did the same thing. I got the Dat from Mr.Do and loaded into the profiler. I setup a rom path to the Cpanel dir under mame and downloaded all the MR.Do PNG files. Extracted them to the Cpanel dir and went to run Scanner. I get the error:

The Following not empty rompaths dont contain any vaild set:

F:\Mame127\MameUI32\cpame;\

Either you selected the wrong paths or all sets have wrong names. Recheck your settings or enable at least 'set' + 'name' check.

Do you want to go on with the scan?

What do I do now?

You haven't read my advice about the storing methods.
Look at the dat, check the setname, setup the rompath correctly.

if the pngs are in one set called "cpanels" and you got them in d:\test\bla\mycpanels\cpanels.zip, "d:\test\bla\mycpanels\" is the rompath to set up.


Roman Scherzer

That it exactly what I did except it wasnt working so this is what I did. I emptied the cpanels directory, set up the rompath and then used the rebuilder from backups. It made one nice zip file and now reports that 0 is missing. Im starting to get it now, I get it about the rompaths.

> You haven't read my advice about the storing methods.
> Look at the dat, check the setname, setup the rompath correctly.
>
> if the pngs are in one set called "cpanels" and you got them in
> d:\test\bla\mycpanels\cpanels.zip, "d:\test\bla\mycpanels\" is the rompath to
> set up.
>
>
> Roman Scherzer
>