Cabinet HD crashed -- starting over and MAME is 25gig now?

[pmc]

I lost everything but a secondary drive with my PSX disks ripped onto it (for use with ePSXe) and a hundred or so small PC games. I'm starting over with the OS, MAME, Mala, autohotkey, zsnes... sega genesis, N64, Daphne, Atari 2600, you name it.

I now have a clean install of TinyXP Rev9 on a 40gig hard drive. It's a 2.4GHz Athalon with 2mb RAM and on-board video. Maybe 2004 era PC. Not enough room for a current full MAME ROM set.

Suggestions on how to approach MAME? I'm coming from 0.94 and figured I'd install the newest if it'll run OK. I don't have room (or a need for) 25gig of MAME material. Should I figure out how to update my 0.94 ROMs (which were, in turn, updates from a 0.75 set)? Or is it better to download the 25gig and then weed it down to 5gig or so. Or maybe I can find a down-sized package with all the superfluous stuff already weeded out?

I really only want 1979-1992 or so for games. I don't want CHDs. I do want the extras like marquees, cabinet shots, control panels, etc. because I use them in the front end. And this time I'll be deleting the clones and Chinese majong games. I'm done with endless lists of never-to-be-played games.

What the heck is in there that makes it 25gig now? 

TIA.

[ragnar]

I know you probably have a reason but have to ask.  With a clean install being done and why not upgrade the hard drive to a larger drive?

A 160 Gig drive is $42:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007603%20600003442&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&Order=PRICE&PageSize=20

Also, might also be a good time to get an external drive for backup.

[pmc]

With a clean install being done and why not upgrade the hard drive to a larger drive?

Not a bad idea. Honestly, I didn't think of it for some reason. And I just had Newegg ship to me yesterday...

Is that what most people do? Install the whole 25gig? Man, I seem to remember keeping MAME on a floppy. My 0.75 install was around 5gig and it was too many ROMs then.

[WhereEaglesDare]

there a lot of clones and mahjong roms etc... you can use rom lister and get a playable list down to less than 8 GB

[nitz]

I really only want 1979-1992 or so for games.

I'm sure RomLister could be used to get rid of games from 1993 and later too. I think any of the "big" roms (like the 20+ meg ones) would have been from later than that, so yeah, you should easily be able to get this down to under 5 gigs by dumping clones, mahjong, and post 1992 games.

[pmc]

But I still gotta start with the whole 25gig. OK. I'll get started.

[cmoses]

You don't have to start with the whole 25 gigs.  On my machine I have a list of games that I want to play as well as any aditional ROMs that are needed to play them.  When I download the torrent I deselect all and then go in and click off the ones I want.  It takes a little bit of time, but far less than than downloading all 25 gigs.  Plus you don't end up with a bunch of ROMs you will never play, mahjong, casino, etc.

[shateredsoul]

but but.. what about street fighter 3 and killer instinct?

Sounds like you know what you want, but if you change your mind...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145368&cm_re=1tb_hard_drive-_-22-145-368-_-Product

[Osirus23]

I like having the whole set, then making a list of just the games I want in MaLa. That way if I come across a new game I want to play or if a guest asks about playing a game I'm unaware of I can go back and add it to the list without having to track down the ROMs.

[pmc]

but but.. what about street fighter 3 and killer instinct?

Sounds like you know what you want, but if you change your mind...

Hehe. Well, I just mostly play the classics. I've had the cabinet since 2003 and I'm playing patterns seem to be pretty well defined despite my fantasies of exploring all kinds of new and interesting roms.

I like the original SF games, and I sometimes play Alpha 3 and I have a Dreamcast in there too, so I get all the DC games too. I've discovered that there is such a thing as too many games.

So I'm 50% into a full set with 24 more hours to go...  I still think that's waaaay to big for PacMan and Donkey Kong but I'll stick with it. cmoses: thanks for the tip. I'll try that.

[mmb]

I like having the whole set, then making a list of just the games I want in MaLa. That way if I come across a new game I want to play or if a guest asks about playing a game I'm unaware of I can go back and add it to the list without having to track down the ROMs.

Exactly.  I've an "All Games" list in Mala that has everything but Majong, adult and the casino games for just that purpose.

[Gray_Area]

I've seen terabyte drives for under $60, lately. However, I'm betting your HD interface is PATA, so none of that then. Still, you can get PATA drives reeel cheap. And I guess for next time on roms, check out the MAMEPlus tools.