Digesting games list

[SavannahLion]

Looking at the MAME options, I don't really see any way to say... list what games were added, dropped, earmarked for whatever reason. In other words, I would like to use Mame XXX to generate a list of working/non-working ROMS then compare it to the list of working/non-working ROMS from MAME xxx+y.

Is there an option to generate such a list? I see -listfull flag that generates a list, but the list is limited as it only tells me what was added or taken out. It doesn't necessarily seem to be the same kind of information about what is considered "working" vs "non-working" as what you would find in the Whatsnew file. -listxml goes into further detail on each ROM but still doesn't seem to indicate working or non-working status.

Am I doomed to generate a list and reference the whatsnew file on every single point release to keep track of the ROM changes?

[u_rebelscum]

I'd say "Yes, but..." 

"Working" and "non-working" are near equivalents of listxml's driver status "good" and "preliminary", respectively.  I'm not sure which way status imperfect goes.  So you could use the listxml data to produce lists to compare, but the results might differ a little than what you'd get from the way you do it now.

Note that none of the above relate to playable or not-playable.  (You might know this already, but for others reading.)