How to update MAME 32 without clearing my settings?

[nintari]

havent updated my version of mame32 in a loooong time, so much so that I didnt even realize mame 32 was now mameui32 lol...made it kinda tricky to find!

anyway I want to updat my mame32 install to the latest version but dont want to overwrite my settings. any suggestions?

[bkenobi]

First off, AFAIK the MAME32 team (or MAMEUI team I guess) has moved over from the MAME32.ini file to using the same file that the MAMEdevs use (mame.ini). This means that your settings may not move over automatically. Don't take my word on it as I haven't tried and my input is hearsay. Anyway, if I were you, I would copy the mame32.ini file to a backup location and install MAME32. Then, run MAMEUI once to make sure you get the ini file and quit MAMEUI. Use some kind of a diff program (Beyond Compare is a good one, but there are many available) to figure out what the differences in your setup are. Change as necessary either in the ini file directly or in the MAMEUI interface.

There may be another way, but that's my best bet other than starting from scratch on it.

Oh, all other files should be fine (controller settings, etc), so you shouldn't need to worry about it. This will likely only affect video settings and enabling/disabling features.