Directory structure and file storage

[jjhlk]

Do you guys dump all of you games into their own directories (w/ mame names) in one big directory? Or something else? I'm wondering what the best way to do it is when I start collecting games. Can I keep them in the .zip or .rar files and have the frontend deal with that? It would keep the space down a little, not that it matters much with all my space... I haven't decided on a frontend yet, but I'll be using it under Win2k for sure.

[SirPoonga]

For mame, you can keep the roms in zip and put them in the roms folder.

When I get new roms I make a folder for the version the rom came out.

[Aceldamor]

Some folks make 1 Roms directory with all the emu subfolders (ex. Roms/Gens or Roms/Mame, ect)  Some make a subfolder in each emulator named roms and put the roms there...it's all a matter of personal preference.

You can set the path to the roms folder in virtually every Emu FE out there. Also keep in mind that virtually every FE can read .zip files.

Hope that helps a little bit  

[Howard_Casto]

At the least you have to split up different emus.  The reason behind this is certain emus share rom names for totally different games.  

Personally I go a few steps further a split up my mame collection by major drivers (neogeo, cps1, cps2, vs ect).... The reason I do it is more of a convenience thing, so that they are easier to burn to cds if need be.