Creating a curated game list and all necessary files

[zebidia]

Hi all,

Does anybody know if any version of MAME allows the exporting of a game's files to a new location on the hard drive? I have a large set of MAME ROMS, CHDs, Samples, BIOS (.156), etc, and would like to make a much smaller, curated subset of games to put in a storage-restrained cabinet. I am finding it well-nigh impossible to figure out an *exact/thorough/complete* list of all files needed to play a particular game, and even if I could figure it out, I don't want to have to manually locate and copy all the files. Furthermore, it would be great if such a utility would locate all UI-specific files, like artwork, marquees, etc., and copy them to the appropriate subfolders of a target directory.

This functionality seems like it should be a no-brainer, but I haven't found such a thing in the (admittedly) small number of MAME versions I've tried. And utilities like CLRMamePro, while great for what they're designed to do, don't allow me to play a game to determine whether or not I want to include it in my final subset.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[BadMouth]

Most people use romlister to weed stuff out.  You'll end up having to keep all the bios, but they don't take up much space.  You also might end up missing a couple sound board roms that were separated out into their own rom.

[NOP]

thanks for the RL plug BadMouth!

To expand slightly on that, what I like to do is use CMPro to create a set of roms where every ROM file needed for a particular game is included in 1 zip file. (I forget exactly how cmpro words it) but it's the one that takes up a huge amount of hard drive space.  I do this on my desktop machine which has HDD space to spare.

I then take romlister and create a list of games that match my particular set of video and control parameters.
I export the list from romlister to the front end I'm using, but I also export out the list as a batch file and a text file just for kicks.
I use the batch file to help move the individual game zip files over to a new folder which I will eventually move onto the machine itself.  that same batch file can be easily modified to also copy artwork, marquee, etc files too.

Once all my files are moved or copied into a temp folder, I can then either re-CMPro those roms to save space or just copy the entire contents over to the cab I'm making.

There is a romlister batch file tutorial over here:
http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/RL_tutorial_batchFiles

[nipsmg]

To expand slightly on that, what I like to do is use CMPro to create a set of roms where every ROM file needed for a particular game is included in 1 zip file. (I forget exactly how cmpro words it) but it's the one that takes up a huge amount of hard drive space.  I do this on my desktop machine which has HDD space to spare.

I believe it's unmerged or non-merged.

[haynor666]

First I'm creating favorites list in MAMEUI (by default CAB.ini) or any other mame or frontend. Next is strip such list from unecessary entries like: [FOLDER_SETTINGS] RootFolderIcon mame SubFolderIcon folder [ROOT_FOLDER] so only rom names are here.

Besides this file You need also file with additional support files (bios, mcu dumps etc.) List for mame 163 was only for games that I choose back then. Look for attached bios.txt
Next I run script that copies all roms using CAB.ini renamed to roms.txt (example for mame 163 attached). Script will also copy snaps, titles, artwork (if file artwork.txt is provided).

Script will look like this:

Code: [Select]

@ECHO off
TITLE MAME files copier

SET folder_source=F:\
SET folder_destination=G:\gamingPC
SET custom_favorites=CAB.ini

ECHO.
ECHO this script will copy roms (bios, games, chds)
ECHO and support files (artwork, samples, snaps)
ECHO also it will make all necessary directories
ECHO.
ECHO from   %folder_source%
ECHO to     %folder_destination%\mame
ECHO.
CHOICE /M "Proceed now?"
IF ERRORLEVEL 2 GOTO SKIP
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO START
GOTO END


:START
MKDIR %folder_destination%\mame\artwork
MKDIR %folder_destination%\mame\cfg
MKDIR %folder_destination%\mame\diff
MKDIR %folder_destination%\mame\hi
MKDIR %folder_destination%\mame\ini
MKDIR %folder_destination%\mame\memcard
MKDIR %folder_destination%\mame\nvram
MKDIR %folder_destination%\mame\folders
MKDIR %folder_destination%\mame\roms
MKDIR %folder_destination%\mame\samples
MKDIR %folder_destination%\arcade-snaps

ECHO.
ECHO copying artwork
FOR /F "delims=" %%a IN (artwork.txt) DO COPY %folder_source%\artwork\%%a.zip %folder_destination%\mame\artwork >nul

ECHO.
ECHO copying favorite list
COPY %folder_source%\folders\%custom_favorites% %folder_destination%\mame\folders >nul

ECHO.
ECHO copying bios, support files
FOR /F "delims=" %%a IN (bios.txt) DO COPY %folder_source%\roms\%%a.zip %folder_destination%\mame\roms >nul

ECHO.
ECHO copying roms
FOR /F "delims=" %%a IN (roms.txt) DO COPY %folder_source%\roms\%%a.zip %folder_destination%\mame\roms >nul

ECHO.
ECHO copying CHDs
FOR /F "delims=" %%a IN (roms.txt) DO ROBOCOPY %folder_source%\roms\%%a\ %folder_destination%\mame\roms\%%a\ /E >nul
FOR /F "delims=" %%a IN (roms.txt) DO IF "%%a"=="cobram3" ROBOCOPY %folder_source%\roms\cobra\ %folder_destination%\mame\roms\cobra\ /E >nul

ECHO.
ECHO copying samples
FOR /F "delims=" %%a IN (roms.txt) DO COPY %folder_source%\samples\%%a.zip %folder_destination%\mame\samples >nul

ECHO.
ECHO copying in game screens
FOR /F "delims=" %%a IN (roms.txt) DO COPY %folder_source%\snap\%%a.png %folder_destination%\arcade-snaps >nul

GOTO END


:SKIP
ECHO.
ECHO skipped
ECHO.
GOTO END


:END
ECHO.
ECHO all done
ECHO.
PAUSE