Rom conversion and front end suggestions

[codenamed]

Alright so I finally got around to wiring my cp decided to wait on the custom one as the build process is hampered becuase of no work space. So I drilled holes for additional buttons and wired it up apears to have been moon patrol then converted to a data east game. Now I need help I want to use mame32 or somthing simmilar I dont like the dos version as it doesnt list the games. Now the problem is my rom sets are all 0.128 How can I convert them to use mame32 or is there front end that will work with this rom set?

[CathalDublin]

just dpwnload version 128 of mame32 or command line from http://mamedev.org/oldrel.html

Frontend suggestion hyperspin

[youki]

Most all front end will works if you set up correctly.

If you have a rom set 0.128  , you have to use mame 0.128.

And for the front end , you have a huge list in the wiki.

I suggest you try :  mala , AtomicFe , Hyperspin or Mamewah.

[codenamed]

I managed to convert almost all the roms with clrmamepro works pretty good. I will try the front end you suggested.

[u_rebelscum]

I managed to convert almost all the roms with clrmamepro works pretty good.

Not surprising, since 99% of the sets (aka zip files, aka (incorrectly) "roms") didn't change.  (And thus didn't need to do any converting.)

If you have a rom set 0.128  , you have to use mame 0.128.

IMO, that's a little over stated. 

If you every single rom set, be it parent or clone, completely emulated or not, to work, then you have to match versions.  However, usually less than 1% of the sets change per main revision (say from 0.128 to 0.129).  Some sets haven't changed for 5 years; others have changed half a dozen times in the past year.  Of course, if the game you want is in that 1%, you'll feel it "has to" be updated.  And if a bios is one of the sets, it effects many games; same with parents to a lesser degree.

For example, I update mame (on my desktop) on every main and minor (u) release (about weekly), but update a romset only when I try to play that one needing the update (call it ~6 times a year, or about every other month, and maybe once every couple years do I do a full update).

Still, it's best practice to match your rom files and mame as closely as possible.