Rom Versions vs Sets

[SteveJ34]

It's been raining for the past week so I have focused what little extra time I have on the hardware/software components of a  couple of vertical classic bartop projects.

I'm planning to set these up using mame55.

Using various tools, I have narrowed a game list to those that will play with 1 joy and 3 buttons and eliminated majority of clones and hacks.

My focus is to create a simple setup as these are xmas presents for the "uninformed"....probably using game launcher as front end.

The question, which may be a stupid one, is this....

Is there really any play difference between those games with descriptions of Set 1, 2, etc?

I understand the differences in some with descriptions of  Version x but what does the "Set x" really represent?

I look forward to any and all replies.

[paigeoliver]

Differences are usually completely invisible to the average user. There are some games with real differences, but most of the case a different set just has a different licensor information, or is just an earlier version. I usually remove all clones just on general principle. Frankly the game lists are too long even without clones clogging them up.

Some games that do have real differences include.

Nibbler (clone is harder)
Pleiads (one of them is one shot on the screen at a time, the other is multi)
The End (one has you above the shields, the other below. These feel like completely different games).

[SteveJ34]

Thanks for the additional insight.

[Witchboard]

Oh.  I thought the higher the set the more accurate the game.  I learned something new today.