Hey guys quick question, I just updated mame to the latest version. Do I also need to update my roms even though they still work?
Hope I don't get the question wrong, but updating ROMs doesn't make sense to me for the following reasons.
ROMs are basically dumps/dowloads of the original software that where once installed in the original machines in form of ROM integrated circuits.
The binary data within the roms is the machine code that where originaly compiled for the original hardware (especially CPUs).
So you can consider them as 'hostircal' information that will never change, regardless of emulator updates.
However, an emulater like mame on the other side does not necessarily support all existing ROMs. MAME for example needs a so called game driver for every ROM that should become emulated. The game driver is a piece of software (derived C++ class) that carries all informations and methods about the hardware neccessary to emulate to get the software within the ROM emulated.
That means: a newer version of an emulater may support additinal ROMs that where not supported in its earlier version or may have updates/ enhancements to improve the performance of an specific ROM/game. But there is no such thing like an improved or updated version of a ROM (at least not because of new emulator version).
Regards
Stefan