Treatment of ROMs for various emulators (M2,EPSXE,CHANKAST,ZSNES,FCEU)

[mike boss]

Revised :

I never thought to mention the emulators, I appreciate that being pointed out.
I am going to be doing a Dual Light Gun (Aim Trak) MAME cabinet with MaLa as the font end.
For emulators I am going to use the following :

Chankast for Dreamcast
EPSXE for Playstation 1
FCEU for Nintendo
Fusion for multiple Sega systems
M2 for Sega M2 games
ZSNESW for Super Nintendo

I have obtained most of the ROM files I need for the respect consoles.
However I am unsure how to treat the contents for each emulator/game.
I know for MAME the contents of the ROMs remain in zip files.
Would this be the same treatment for the other above mentioned emulators ?

I Know it's a novice question but I've never done something like this prior.

Thank you

Few questions.
I'm working on a new project.
MaLa cabinet with MAME and multiple consoles.
I'm using Uncle T's guide for the install, but some emulators I'm using he doesn't include.

For Sega M2 ROMs - do I leave them zipped ?
My NES + SNES roms are unzipped. I don't recall the file ext right now.
Does this mean they would not work ? Would I have to add each one back to a zip file ?
OR if I indicate the file extension as "X" as opposed to zip would they play ?

Lastly, for Dreamcast games & PS1 games would I unzip them ?
Also if unzipped, do I leave the individual game in individual folder ?
IE - virtua cop in virtua cop folder contained in the ROM folder ?
Or do I just leave all the files unzipped loose in the ROM folder ?

thanks

[mike boss]

No help ?

For what its worth I'm thinking leave every ROM despite system zipped and see if it works ?

[NOP]

zippped or unzipped is up to that particular emulator, as that is the thing that is loading in the ROM image to run it.
You didn't mention which emulators you're actually using, so we don't have enough info to answer your question.

Soo, this question isn't really about MAME or Mala, but would be emulator specific.

I personally would leave everything zipped.  If an emulator isn't able to handle something as basic as unzipping a file, it might not even be worth bothering with!  The emulator itself should also tell you (in its docs or as an error when you're running it) if it is unable to find the files it needs.

[mike boss]

I never thought to mention the emulators, I appreciate that being pointed out.
I am going to be doing a Dual Light Gun (Aim Trak) MAME cabinet with MaLa as the font end.
For emulators I am going to use the following :

Chankast for Dreamcast
EPSXE for Playstation 1
FCEU for Nintendo
Fusion for multiple Sega systems
M2 for Sega M2 games
ZSNESW for Super Nintendo

I have obtained most of the ROM files I need for the respect consoles.
However I am unsure how to treat the contents for each emulator/game.
I know for MAME the contents of the ROMs remain in zip files.
Would this be the same treatment for the other above mentioned emulators ?

I Know it's a novice question but I've never done something like this prior.

Thank you

[Howard_Casto]

There are VERY FEW emulators that don't support zip..... Leave them zipped... if it doesn't work you'll have to unzip them. 

[mike boss]

Thanks for the info.
I've got everything for every emulator in its original ZIP state.
Now to being testing the emulators.
I think this set up is going to give me lots of trouble.