Duplicate Mame Roms

[lettuce]

Would a deplication program such as, Duplicate File Detective or Noclone work for deleting all Mame deplicate roms, and just leave one copy of each rom??

[MaximRecoil]

Are you referring to actual duplicate ROMs, like if you copied and pasted your ROMs a few times, or are you referring to the various clone, bootleg and revision ROMs that might as well be the same game?

For the former, those programs you mentioned would work. For the latter, it would not work because they are different files, even though they all seem to play the same game.

[lettuce]

Well Noclone says that it finds and removes duplicate files regardless of file name.

http://noclone.net/

Is there an alternative program that shall delete all clones and  bootlegs??

[NightGod]

The point is, those files are *not* duplicates. They share similar names and play the same game, but they are included precisely because there is some difference between the clone/bootleg and the original.

You would likely get rid of a large portion of them if you ran a normal search on the folder and did terms like b.zip and c.zip since that would pull up the bootlegs and clones that are named according to the conventions, though you'd run the risk of eliminating some unique games, I would think it would be a very small proportion.

[lettuce]

So there is no program about that will sort out MAME roms, and delete clones of the same rom, and just leave 1 working rom of each game?

[SirPeale]

Problem is sometimes the *clone* works, but the parent doesn't.  You'd still need both.

http://www.clrmame.com might help you manage stuff by merging your sets.

[MaximRecoil]

Another thing you can do in Mame32 (frontends + regular Mame might have the option too) is to sort them by the "Originals" category that is on the left. This will only show the parent ROMs, or in the case of ROMs where only a clone or bootleg works (such as Choplifter in the old version of Mame32 that I use), it will show the working ROM.

This is useful if you just don't want the clones/bootlegs/revision ROMs cluttering up your game list. If you are looking to save hard drive space it won't help of course, because it doesn't actually delete anything.

If there was a way to generate a text list of the "Originals", you could use a batch file to copy that entire list of "Originals" ROMs to another folder, then delete the original ROMs folder.

For example, if you could somehow generate a text list of the "Originals" ROMs (maybe clrmame or certain frontends can do this?), and it looked something like this:

abc.zip
def.zip
ghi.zip
jkl.zip
mno.zip
pqr.zip
stu.zip
vwx.zip
yz1.zip

Of course it would be a really long list and have real ROM names, but anyway ... using a spreadsheet like Excel, you can easily and quickly make a list that looks like this:

copy abc.zip c:\originals
copy def.zip c:\originals
copy ghi.zip c:\originals
copy jkl.zip c:\originals
copy mno.zip c:\originals
copy pqr.zip c:\originals
copy stu.zip c:\originals
copy vwx.zip c:\originals
copy yz1.zip c:\originals

Paste that into Notepad, save it as a batch file, place it in your ROMs directory and run it, which will give you a new folder (c:\originals) which only contains the parent or working ROMs. In case of the few games where the clone or bootleg works but the parent doesn't, you would have to go back in and copy those non-working parent ROMs to your new folder. Then delete your old ROMs folder, and replace it with your new ROMs folder.

This all assumes there is a way to generate a text list of the "Originals", which I'm not even sure is possible.

[Boz]

If there was a way to generate a text list of the "Originals"...

I use a very old version of mame, but you can list originals with the command:

mame -list -noclones

I don't know if this functionality is still included in current versions.

[Sizzler]

I use a very old version of mame, but you can list originals with the command:

mame -list -noclones

Thanks

[MaximRecoil]

If there was a way to generate a text list of the "Originals"...

I use a very old version of mame, but you can list originals with the command:

mame -list -noclones

I don't know if this functionality is still included in current versions.

The closest I found with the newest version of Mame (v.107) is the -listclones / -lc switch, which will work just as well but you'd have to approach it a little differently.

I have linked to a zipped batch file which, when unzipped, placed in the ROMs folder and ran, will move all of the clones to c:\clones (make sure you create a folder in c:\ named clones before running the batch file). After that you will have your ROMs separated into two folders; the parents and the clones; and you may have to pay some extra attention to the few cases where the parent doesn't work but the clone does.

If you use this file, make sure you have your ROMs backed up somewhere beforehand in case anything goes wrong. Also, examine the text of the batch file first to double check my work and to be sure it is going to do what you want it to do. Don't forget to make sure that the c:\clones path exists before running the batch file.

http://maxim.skyphix.com/move_clones.zip (Right Click and select "Save Target As...")

[Boz]

Thanks

The pisser is that the various command line switches in the VERY old version of Mame that I use (.80) isn't even available. You don't even get them with a "mame /?". I found the switches in the .CHM help file of Mame32. 

[Boz]

I have linked to a zipped batch file which, when unzipped, placed in the ROMs folder and ran, will move all of the clones to c:\clones (make sure you create a folder in c:\ named clones before running the batch file). After that you will have your ROMs separated into two folders; the parents and the clones; and you may have to pay some extra attention to the few cases where the parent doesn't work but the clone does.

I'm curious. Do you use Clrmamepro to verify your roms? Could using "non-merged sets" be good enough to make sure all stand-alone parent roms will work?

Putting the clones in their own folder sounds like a pretty efficient idea. Thanks.

[MaximRecoil]

Do you use Clrmamepro to verify your roms?

No, in fact, I don't even have a recent set of ROMs. To generate that list for the batch file I just ran mame -listclones > c:\clones.txt with Mame .107.

Could using "non-merged sets" be good enough to make sure all stand-alone parent roms will work?

I'm not sure.

BTW, the current list of command line options can be found here. I think there is a way to generate them from the Mame EXE too, but I'm not sure how (you would expect mame /? to work but it doesn't).

[Boz]

Do you use Clrmamepro to verify your roms?

No, in fact, I don't even have a recent set of ROMs. To generate that list for the batch file I just ran mame -listclones > c:\clones.txt with Mame .107.

Could using "non-merged sets" be good enough to make sure all stand-alone parent roms will work?

I'm not sure.

Oh... Clrmame Pro (at least the very old version that I use) allows you to merge different sets of roms into stand-alone zip files. It's pretty smart about it. Here's a link to the Clrmame Pro help page that describes it. I would think that using this method to sift through and seperate your roms, you could conceivably get original sets that don't have any trouble running. Then you could seperate the clones into a specific folder like you were talking about.

(Normally opens in a frame. this is just the page I'm talking about)
http://www.clrmame.com/docs/htm/merger.htm

(Root to the full documentation)
http://www.clrmame.com/docs/index.htm

[squire]

but is it possiable to get rid of the all dup roms and leave english only or american?

[NightGod]

Short of manually going through them all, there is no way I know of to definitively remove all of the dupe ROMs and leave only working copies.

[MaximRecoil]

Short of manually going through them all, there is no way I know of to definitively remove all of the dupe ROMs and leave only working copies.

Running the batch file that I linked to, or making your own, will do 99% of the work. You will end up with all the clones in a different folder and all the parent ROMs left in the original ROMs folder. There are a few cases where the clone works but the parent doesn't but the parent still needs to be there, so you would have to go back and deal with that manually.

[pointdablame]

A good follow up question would be:

Is there a definitive list available of games that have a working clone, but a non-working parent?

If there is, or if we could figure it out, you could create a batch file to do what you wanted.

I've never dived into this very much.  I usually keep all my roms in my frontend and just deal with it, or more often, i hand pick a few games that I want to play on a particular machine.  Having a list of all working, parent roms (and those few clones) sure would be handy though.

[Havok]

Joymonkey has a nifty little batch file that actually moves the clones to another directory. It looks like he last updated it to v.103, however I would think all is the same, except some non-working changed to working status. If you only want to remove clones, then this utility should work just fine. Check it out here:

Clone Mover 0.103

[lettuce]

Shall i start another thread up then, where people can list roms that have working clone, but a non-working parent rom file, or we could list them here??

[Sizzler]

Shall i start another thread up then, where people can list roms that have working clone, but a non-working parent rom file, or we could list them here??

The non-working parent roms are pretty easily figured out using Mame32

[Havok]

Shall i start another thread up then, where people can list roms that have working clone, but a non-working parent rom file, or we could list them here??

Most of the front ends manage this: for example, AtomicFE just added support for managing clones in v.17-2