Easiest Way to Update MAME ROM Set??

[lettuce]

Just wondering what is the best/easiest way to update an old MAME ROM set? I currectly have the full rom set of 0.144. I have downloaded torrents of 'MAME UPDATE ROM SET (144 to 145)' and 'MAME UPDATE ROM SET (145 to 146)', can i just copy the files from the 'MAME UPDATE ROM SET (144 to 145)' folder and overwrite any files windows asks me to in my main MAME Rom folder, and the do the same again for 'MAME UPDATE ROM SET (145 to 146)' ?

[BadMouth]

no.  things will have been renamed and/or reorganized.  pasting in the new files won't account for that.
you need to use clrmamepro.
There are several online tutorials out there for it.

[paigeoliver]

Also, I have found it is easier to not update mame with every update. Just update once a year or so and save yourself the headaches.

[Gray_Area]

Also, I have found it is easier to not update mame with every update. Just update once a year or so and save yourself the headaches.

True dat.


Hmmm, a coherent and grammatical post from lettuce, but information that I would think he knows. Is Donald Sutherland around?

[gryffyn]

Just wondering what is the best/easiest way to update an old MAME ROM set? I currectly have the full rom set of 0.144. I have downloaded torrents of 'MAME UPDATE ROM SET (144 to 145)' and 'MAME UPDATE ROM SET (145 to 146)', can i just copy the files from the 'MAME UPDATE ROM SET (144 to 145)' folder and overwrite any files windows asks me to in my main MAME Rom folder, and the do the same again for 'MAME UPDATE ROM SET (145 to 146)' ?

This may be really lazy of me, but I basically did all the stuff with CLRMame and all that once, ages ago, then got sync'd with a torrent of the full set.  Periodically I got back and get the new torrent for the latest version.  Roms that have changed won't match the checksum for the torrent so will get scrapped and re-downloaded.  Files that match, will just get seeded.  So I let the torrent handle whatever changes were made.   Seems to work ok.  You should only get the changes then and not have to worry about the "update" torrents at all.   Also, you're contributing to the torrent by allowing it to upload the files you already have while you're downloading other stuff.  This has the added benefit of possibly giving you better transfers since, if I recall, torrents give preferential treatment to those contributing more to the torrent?  I could be wrong, but however it works out... it should mean that you're only downloading the files that changed if you queue up the full rom set torrent instead of the updates.

Updates should work too though.  In theory, an update set should have whatever changed.. not just new additions.  But it's possible that things weren't included that should have been.  Doing the full rom set torrent guarantees (assuming the torrent is correct and properly CLRMame'd and all that) that you have the proper files for that version.

[Malenko]

delete and start over, its only like 250 GBs

[BadMouth]

250 GB of CHDs of which only a few GB are playable. 

IIRC, the romset is around 42GB with half of it being unplayable.

I keep a complete collection on an external drive and the PC that I download/seed with, but the useless crap gets stripped out using romlister before it goes in the cab.

[nickbuol]

LOL.  "Out of date"  at and "old" 0.144 version. 

I took a new job 3 years ago that had me basically living 2 hours from home for the first year, then in an apartment for almost another year while we tried to sell our house, and it wasn't until last night (a year after we moved into our current house) that I finally got my MAME cabinet up and going after some hardware failure that happened somewhere in that time frame of not playing.  I knew that I was already out of date prior to the new job thing, but holy crap.  I am running WAY behind at 0.128!  OMG.  That came out on October 16, 2008!

I had a set of DVDs for 0.127 and an update to 0.128, but lucky for me, it wasn't my "ROMS" drive that crapped out, it was the motherboard, so I just rebuilt the O/S drive and left the "ROMS" drive as is.

My plan is to upgrade the CPU to triple core (currently single core), add a second GB of RAM, and get a little beefier video card and then just buy an external hard drive with the full updated set with all of the other systems and front end pre-configured.  Then I will try the Torrent deal.  Seems like a great and somewhat simple way to stay updated.

[mcseforsale]

I'm running .127.

AJ

[tony.silveira]

Just wondering what is the best/easiest way to update an old MAME ROM set? I currectly have the full rom set of 0.144. I have downloaded torrents of 'MAME UPDATE ROM SET (144 to 145)' and 'MAME UPDATE ROM SET (145 to 146)', can i just copy the files from the 'MAME UPDATE ROM SET (144 to 145)' folder and overwrite any files windows asks me to in my main MAME Rom folder, and the do the same again for 'MAME UPDATE ROM SET (145 to 146)' ?

This may be really lazy of me, but I basically did all the stuff with CLRMame and all that once, ages ago, then got sync'd with a torrent of the full set.  Periodically I got back and get the new torrent for the latest version.  Roms that have changed won't match the checksum for the torrent so will get scrapped and re-downloaded.  Files that match, will just get seeded.  So I let the torrent handle whatever changes were made.   Seems to work ok.  You should only get the changes then and not have to worry about the "update" torrents at all.   Also, you're contributing to the torrent by allowing it to upload the files you already have while you're downloading other stuff.  This has the added benefit of possibly giving you better transfers since, if I recall, torrents give preferential treatment to those contributing more to the torrent?  I could be wrong, but however it works out... it should mean that you're only downloading the files that changed if you queue up the full rom set torrent instead of the updates.

Updates should work too though.  In theory, an update set should have whatever changed.. not just new additions.  But it's possible that things weren't included that should have been.  Doing the full rom set torrent guarantees (assuming the torrent is correct and properly CLRMame'd and all that) that you have the proper files for that version.

i've read about people doing this but can't wrap my head around it.  let's say you are running 144 and want to update to 146.  you get the 146 torrent and simply point it to your mame rom folder?  anything that has changed will dl, anything that is the same won't?

is it that simple or are there a few more steps to it?

thanks

[ark_ader]

I'm still running .84 with the newer builds for CHD-centric games.

I'm into classic arcade games and not mahjong.

[paigeoliver]

.55 still rocks even today!

[Silverwind]

Wow I'm on 1.04!

[JayB]

I'm on 113 I think. Only thing I want is to get rid of the nag screens and I can't for the life me get it to work

[BadMouth]

I just updated from v.137 to v.146
The PGM games make it worth the update IMO.

I keep v.080 and v.036 sets if I need them.
It's not like they take up much space. 

[brad808]

I update my mame version every time I format my cab computer, which happens to be this weekend. I never bother updating previous rom sets though I simply download a new full set. In the day of terabyte hard drives and high speed internet I can't be bothered messing around with old sets. I just start to download the new set before bed, wake up in the morning and delete the old set.

[lettuce]

Just wondering what is the best/easiest way to update an old MAME ROM set? I currectly have the full rom set of 0.144. I have downloaded torrents of 'MAME UPDATE ROM SET (144 to 145)' and 'MAME UPDATE ROM SET (145 to 146)', can i just copy the files from the 'MAME UPDATE ROM SET (144 to 145)' folder and overwrite any files windows asks me to in my main MAME Rom folder, and the do the same again for 'MAME UPDATE ROM SET (145 to 146)' ?

This may be really lazy of me, but I basically did all the stuff with CLRMame and all that once, ages ago, then got sync'd with a torrent of the full set.  Periodically I got back and get the new torrent for the latest version.  Roms that have changed won't match the checksum for the torrent so will get scrapped and re-downloaded.  Files that match, will just get seeded.  So I let the torrent handle whatever changes were made.   Seems to work ok.  You should only get the changes then and not have to worry about the "update" torrents at all.   Also, you're contributing to the torrent by allowing it to upload the files you already have while you're downloading other stuff.  This has the added benefit of possibly giving you better transfers since, if I recall, torrents give preferential treatment to those contributing more to the torrent?  I could be wrong, but however it works out... it should mean that you're only downloading the files that changed if you queue up the full rom set torrent instead of the updates.

Updates should work too though.  In theory, an update set should have whatever changed.. not just new additions.  But it's possible that things weren't included that should have been.  Doing the full rom set torrent guarantees (assuming the torrent is correct and properly CLRMame'd and all that) that you have the proper files for that version.

This would be the best way to do it, but not sure how to sync say romset 0.146 with the torrent so when 0.147 come out i do what, just tell the 0.147 torrent to save to the same directory where romset is 0.146?? Surely it cant be that straight forward?

[brad808]

Wouldn't doing that method leave you will all the old out of date files as well though? Combining torrents i would think would download all the new files of anything changed but it won't delete the original files that were updated or renamed.

Sent from my Desire HD

[Hoopz]

Wouldn't doing that method leave you will all the old out of date files as well though? Combining torrents i would think would download all the new files of anything changed but it won't delete the original files that were updated or renamed.

Sent from my Desire HD

Yes.  You only download the rooms that don't match your files but out of date rooms are not removed.  Over time, you will end up with a lot of junk.  Clrmamepro will it either after each update or whenever you want to do it.

Or flush your roms every X number of releases/downloads and grab the torrent and start all over whenever you want.

No need to update if they aren't adding games that you want to play IMO. And no need to do any of it if its only a few games.  Run multiple versions of Mame with a few roms for each version.  Much easier and less hassle.