well that's true, but it doesn't help the long filename problem....
if somethings named act_rais.ext then how are you supposed to finish the title? (Act Raiser 3 super duper edition boffo)
It's much nicer to do the opposite in converting "Act Raiser 3 super duper edition boffo" into act_rai~1.ext in the command string that is being sent to the emu.
Changing by hand is bad, especially with console emus in which you would have to change hundreds or thousands of potential entries by hand. It would be like writing in all the mame descriptions manually. (ugh)
For the record, however i'm not a big fan of console emulation and I only run the games I actually own on them (if that) simply because I feel that the emulated consoles are too available and the media too inexpensive to "borrow" or "trial use" roms for them.
Enough of my preaching