Does the Mame.exe version HAVE to match the ROM version?

[Pipercub]

I ask this because I hear people often mentioning rolling back to a prior version of mame for speed increases. In my case it has become apparent that MANY games ran FAR better under .66 and .67 than the .77. My question is, can I just use version .66 of dmame.exe and the .77 ROM set? Or do I need to install the matching ROM set as well?

[mmmPeanutButter]

This isn't an answer, but a second question that goes along with the first...

on the flip-side, if one has a lower ROM set (say 0.62), should they be running V0.62 MAME, or is there an advantage for using the most current MAME version?  (or will it even work?)

Thanks.

[Minwah]

I ask this because I hear people often mentioning rolling back to a prior version of mame for speed increases. In my case it has become apparent that MANY games ran FAR better under .66 and .67 than the .77. My question is, can I just use version .66 of dmame.exe and the .77 ROM set? Or do I need to install the matching ROM set as well?

Yes and no - some romsets have no doubt remained unchanged between .67 and .77, these will work OK...

Some games probably got changed at some point between those versions, so they may not run correctly (or at all).

You should be able to use ClrMAME to sort out most if not all your sets to work with .67...

mmmPeanutButter:  Use whatever MAME version you like, but make sure you have a romset for that version.  ie if your romset is for 0.62 then use MAME 0.62.  If you have a reason to upgrade to a newer version then do so - but you will have to update (some of) your roms.

[Howard_Casto]

If you want to keep your rom collection up to date then you need to keep your mame version up to date.  If you want to keep your mame version up to date then you must keep your rom version up to date.  It's as simple as that.  

If you aren't big on downloading the latest rom but want to keep mame current then you need to get a dat file and "fix" your roms with EVERY new mame version you download.  Not keeping your roms managed is the dumbest thing a person can do as it wastes bw and time from downloading roms you could have actually fixed via a rom managment utility.  It also costs rom hosting sites money and burners time for the same reasons.  

People it's YOUR responsibility to do rom maintenance every now and again.  Don't complain, just do it.