What the Best way to sort RoMs

[garnerb350]

Just got Mame 129 installed and I tied it thru my front end...(Maximus Arcade)...Opened it and then I had flashbacks of the hell I went thru when I had version 114...( I spent weeks opening/deleting Roms I couldn't understand...( japan, mahjong, etc) Whats the best and easiest utility to sort thru and make up lists for USA titles..Fighting games, puzzle, etc....category?

On Maximus what I want to acheive is catergories such as All Games, Favs, Sports, Fighting Games, Adult Games, Shooting Games, Classics...Off the top of my head I know like Rival Schools is named different in Japan...I was hoping there was a faster way instead of select game, look, close game, go to list and delete, go back repeat step one, continue......

[Dazz]

Hmmm, perhaps download Romlister and try it out.  I've found that RL sucks when it comes to some games controls (such as Paperboy).  It will not list that game on a list no matter what I try.  Other than that it seems to do a pretty good job and I think that Maximus is one of the output types it can save your list(s) as...

[Hoopz]

Hmmm, perhaps download Romlister and try it out.  I've found that RL sucks when it comes to some games controls (such as Paperboy).  It will not list that game on a list no matter what I try.  Other than that it seems to do a pretty good job and I think that Maximus is one of the output types it can save your list(s) as...

I wouldn't say it sucks as that's doing a disservice to it's creator, NOP.  Have you contacted him to ask about it?  Maybe it's something he can help with.  He's always been very responsive to people's needs. 

To the OP, are you wanting to simply customize your lists or delete the roms altogether? 

[Hoopz]

Dazz,

Just saw where you asked NOP about it in his thread.  He mentions the controls were the reason that it wouldn't show.  So I answered my own question about you asking... 

[garnerb350]

Thanks guys....
Hoopz, I guess pretty much customize the lists....I'm not going to actually delete the roms, just hide the roms I dont need....I dont play majong, but none the less I still want to keep em. And really....Do I really need the Japanese version of Street fighter 2 when I have the USA version?
I was just wondering if there is a quicker way to delete useless games from my game lists...

Its funny, cuz I have my PC for my cab kept in a old metal (non insulated) shelter...Its been cold lately in NC and imagine a guy sitting on a bar stool with his hands shaking trying to change the game list on Maximus Arcade....Last night I was outside for about an hour, and I couldnt take it... Plus the usual " Honey...can you empty the litter pan?" "Honey, can you...insert random request"....Thats a totally different problem alltogether...but you get my point?

I was out for an hour and I was only able to get 10 min of work done...


I've dloaded Rom lister Dazz...thanks

[gonzo90017]

http://old.joymonkey.com/main/index.php?n=MAMEUtilities.ROMSorting

[Turnarcades]

There's no substitute to sorting by hand. Get a system going and you can do it all in one day. ROM sorters tend to leave things behind or remove a clone you may need or even original games. What I do is only update once a year, then I put all parent roms into one folder and all colnes into another. I open MAME32 and then hand-pick any clones I want to keep (like 2-player versions of 4-player games) and delete any foreign/crap games as I go using the snapshot preview as a quick reference.

[ivwshane]

I think sorting would be so much easier if catver.ini was still being updated:(

Has anyone heard of any status on that?

[NOP]

There's no substitute to sorting by hand. Get a system going and you can do it all in one day. ROM sorters tend to leave things behind or remove a clone you may need or even original games. What I do is only update once a year, then I put all parent roms into one folder and all colnes into another. I open MAME32 and then hand-pick any clones I want to keep (like 2-player versions of 4-player games) and delete any foreign/crap games as I go using the snapshot preview as a quick reference.

wow.  that's a noble effort indeed.  I suppose it's not too bad once you've gotten a baseline of roms from previous sorting, but to a newbie who suddenly gets a full set of 7k+ roms, the task is daunting.

the whole reason romlister was created was to simply weed out the games that I absolutely, positively could not play on my machine.  I don't have a trackball or a spinner.  Get those babies out of the running immediately.  I only have 3 buttons on my machine.  Trim off the games that have too many buttons....

From there, sure, weed it by hand and add things that got nuked (pacman/puckman etc) but I just couldn't ever think that I could go through the whole list by hand and come out with any sanity.

Of course, I've spent more hours developing a program to do it for me rather than putting those hours into building my own list, so maybe the sanity part is already lost. 

[Crapahute]

Hi,

Maybe my little program might help :

http://www.mamedata.com