Good utility for viewing/copying select MAME roms?

[Bmuse]

Hi all,

Coming back to MAME after a couple of years, and giving GameEx a try. Using a new PC, and don't want to copy all the thousands of ROMs that I won't play.

Is there a good utility that will allow browsing and copying ROMs with their associated snaps, videos, etc?

Or, what's the best process?

Thanks very much!

B

[Tom Speirs]

It sounds like you already have the files so why not access them over the network?

[Bmuse]

Hi Tom, thanks for the instant reply! 

Not sure what you mean though -- I have all the MAME roms and media on an external drive (copied from previous PC). I'm setting up the new PC, which is smaller, and just don't want to copy all the files back from the external drive.

Essentially, I only want the ROMs/snaps/etc in my MAME directories for certain games.

So I'm not sure if I have to browse each subfolder and copy a ROM maually, then find its associated media in the other subfolders and copy that -- or if there's a utility or ROM manager that makes it easier.

[tthurman]

There are programs out there for managing your set, but I'm not aware of any that do it t the extent you are looking for.  Mame content manager seems to touch on what you're looking for, but its final release is quite dated now.  Quite possibly someone may come across your thread and point you to something I'm completely unfamiliar with, as this isn't something I've invested large amounts of time into.

Also, it is much easier in the long haul to maintain a complete set, else you'll find yourself repeating the customization process any time you update MAME releases.  This does eat into disk space, and in itself is somewhat time consuming, but nowhere near what drilling down though and entire set to grab only your favorites over and over again. 

What I think Tom is getting at is you already have the files on an external drive, so why not just access them over the network.  Load GameEx, map a network drive on your new pc to the external drive you have your collection on (remember to check reconnect at login), then configure GameEx to utilize this path to your mame directories.  Set up an account over at EMU movies, utilize the custom lists feature in GameEx for only the games you're intereted in.  The GameEx auto-downloader feature for EMU movies will pull the snaps down you need, and put them where they belong for you.

One last thing, if you're current collection of games is old, and it sounds like it probably is, be certain to grab the release of MAME those sets where built for.  Using a current MAME release with a older set of any type is likely to result in all sorts of unwelcome anomalies.  So if you got a 0.145 set, grab the source code for 0.145 to compile a custom MAME executable, or just grab the binary if your not concerned with high scores etc...

 

 

[Bmuse]

Thank you for the detailed response!

Yes, I was initially thinking that this time around I'd save space with a tighter install -- but you're right of course about updating.

I have the 0.149 set -- downloading the GameEx MAME pack, so I'll double-check what's needed to get it all working together. I will be sure to implement the features you recommend as well.

[tthurman]

If you compile your own, I recommend you check out headkaze's MAME Compiler 64. 

Here's a link to the thread over in User Projects