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1

clrmame Discussion / Re: help - un-merging a CHD collection

« on: 07 September 2022, 19:50 »

Just for your info, the process took about 4 hours.

Code: [Select]

D:\clrmame>rebuilder -x D:\source\mame\hash\saturn.xml -m standalone -r -i "W:\Software List\saturn-old" -o "W:\Software List\saturn" -d
[2022-09-07 11:37:24.014] [info] loading: D:\source\mame\hash\saturn.xml
[2022-09-07 11:37:24.085] [info] building view and rebuilder map: standalone
[2022-09-07 11:37:24.091] [info] rebuild start
[2022-09-07 11:37:24.092] [info] analyzing rebuilder source: W:\Software List\saturn-old, please be patient
[2022-09-07 11:39:14.230] [info] analyzing rebuilder destination: W:\Software List\saturn, please be patient
[2022-09-07 11:39:14.231] [info] optimizing
[2022-09-07 11:39:14.306] [info] 2522 unique matches found
[2022-09-07 11:39:14.308] [info] 0 archives with 0 matches can be fully copied
[2022-09-07 11:39:14.309] [info] 0 roms, 2522 chds will be rebuilt
[2022-09-07 11:39:14.310] [info] 0 files already exist; 0 files will be replaced
[2022-09-07 11:39:14.311] [info] rebuilding files, please be patient
▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓   100%
[2022-09-07 15:20:54.702] [info] finalizing and cleaning up
[2022-09-07 15:21:02.809] [info] rebuild end, took 13418.7163763 seconds

2

clrmame Discussion / Re: help - un-merging a CHD collection

« on: 07 September 2022, 09:47 »

ah! yess! now I see why it's not working for me.
I have:
saturn\xmcota\x-men - children of the atom (japan).chd
saturn\xmcota\xmencota.chd
(both CHDs in the same subdirectory)

and would like to get to
saturn\xmcota\xmencota.chd
saturn\xmcotaj\x-men - children of the atom (japan).chd
(each CHD in it's own directory)

To accomplish this I should have all CHDs in the root directory saturn\ ; now it's clear.

I'm now giving a spin to rebuild.exe and it works a charm!
Only thing I notice is that it have to physically copy the files from old to new directory. (time consuming)
Would it be possible to point to a root directory (i.e. saturn\ ) and quickly move all the files around inside the same root? (should be much faster!)

3

clrmame Discussion / Re: help - un-merging a CHD collection

« on: 07 September 2022, 09:32 »

Thanks!
I'm using Clrmame, and what you suggest doesn't work.
It takes all the clones CHDs out of the parent folder and saves them in the backup folder.
But it doesn't place them into their correct (new) folder, and simply marks them as missing in the main window.

I'll give a try to rebuilder tools and let you know.

4

clrmame Discussion / help - un-merging a CHD collection

« on: 07 September 2022, 08:29 »

Hello,
I have a fully merged collection of Saturn CHDs.
I would like to un-merge it and get a full non-merged collection.
I'm using MAME/hash/saturn.xml as a dat file.

What is the best way to proceed?

TIA for your help.

5

clrmame Discussion / Re: ClrMame Tutorial

« on: 13 April 2022, 07:08 »

Sorry for stepping in
I just wanted to point out that I also keep a NON-MERGED set!
It is very handy when I use romcmp to compare a freshly dumped set with things already in MAME.
With a non-merged set I'm usually sure that ALL roms get compared, and not only those of that specific clone.

Just my 2 cents....

6

clrmame Discussion / Re: Downloaded MAME Romset has 4800 files, after CLP 1700 files remained?

« on: 15 February 2019, 13:19 »

@RK_aus_S: I'm from Tessin, Italian main language. I can understand German reading (with a little bit of google translate help), but speak very little and write nothing.

Roman answer is perfect as usual. clrmame needs a little bit of training, but after using it for a while you will feel confident and soon you can not live without it for your ROMs collection!

7

clrmame Discussion / Re: Downloaded MAME Romset has 4800 files, after CLP 1700 files remained?

« on: 15 February 2019, 11:00 »

Sorry, I could not resist the urge to answer anyway! 

Regarding your first question, if you want to have on your retro cabinet just a very limited selection of games, just go for non-merged. This is what I do on my cabinet, where just 50 games are kept. With non-merged you do not need to care about parent/clone relationship, because every single .zip file will contain all needed roms for that game. Nevertheless you will still need to pay attention to BIOSes and DEVICEs file: depending on the games you will put on your retro cabinet some of them may be needed.
Alternatively, move a full set to your cabinet, make it split or fully-merged and forget about any parent/clone/bios/device: a full set is full by definition (when you get everything green in clrmame result window)

Regarding your second question, when you want to update to a newer MAME version, there are a few alternate roads; the easiest one it to load in clrmame the new mame executable, point it to your already existing set, scan it with all fixes enabled and you will get the best possible collection based on the roms you have. For what is missing after this procedure, you need to find them on the internet, and rebuild+scan or drag/drop on result window.

8

clrmame Discussion / Re: Downloaded MAME Romset has 4800 files, after CLP 1700 files remained?

« on: 15 February 2019, 10:48 »

I leave both Romans to talk in their native language: unfortunately my German is extremely limited, just the barely minimum to survive north of the Alps 

9

clrmame Discussion / Re: Downloaded MAME Romset has 4800 files, after CLP 1700 files remained?

« on: 14 February 2019, 20:00 »

well, it really depends on what you are trying to achieve.
If you start from a clean slate, and just need to create a "best" set for you mame0.78 from an assorted collection of random junk, just rebuild (and scan if you are curious about the final result, but the rebuild is the only part doing something)
If you start from an already existing collection, and want to UPDATE it to a newer release (imagine a situation when you want to upgrade from your 0.78 to something newer like 0.206) then you load in clrmame the new executable (or its datfile), point it to your existing collection, scan (with fix enabled to correct all issue with names, wrong placed files, etc.) then rebuild. (Then scan again if you are curious, but it will do nothing to the collection). In this second instance you can also act a little bit differently (but it's slower!): move your existing collection into the "unsorted" folder so you will have an empty destination folder, and just rebuild: it will be the same as in the first instance.

10

clrmame Discussion / Re: Downloaded MAME Romset has 4800 files, after CLP 1700 files remained?

« on: 14 February 2019, 19:07 »

Hi, my fellow Swiss brethren!

1) you don't care about the downloaded romset format. CLRMAME will look into each single file to find a good match, so no need for you to know in which format they are.
2) put all of them in a single folder (or subfolders inside a single folder). I have a d:\unsorted folder where I put everything I ever download, and that is the source for my clrmame setup.
3) I usually do scan+rebuild+scan, but you can also do a scan followed by a drag/drop of "unsorted" onto the scanner result window. clrmame will recognise it and rebuild/rescan from there.
4) wrong files are usually moved to backup folder if you enable "fix" in the scanner. Missing files are missing and you need to find them on the internet, put them into "unsorted" and let clrmame do its magic!
CLRMAME saves a few log files (miss, have, complete log) and also a "fixdat" file for exchange with other collectors that can in this way just give you only what you are really missing and not full collections and also a "fastscan" hash that will enable it next time to only scan for missing/wrong, greatly reducing the total scan time.

11

clrmame Discussion / Re: Downloaded MAME Romset has 4800 files, after CLP 1700 files remained?

« on: 14 February 2019, 15:45 »

If i may step in, the best way to have a "certified" mame 0.78 dat file is to start from the official mame executable that you can download from the official mamedev webpage: https://www.mamedev.org/oldrel.html

Once loaded in clrmame, go to rebuilder and set as source the directory where the 10 downloaded romsets are, set as destination the appropriate rompath for your recalbox setup, and let it run.
What you will have at the end will be the best possible correct set for mame 0.78
If you are still missing something, I suggest you look for some "roll-back" rom sets, They usually contain the wrong roms that have been removed from mame from one version to the newer one.

Last thing: go for split, this is how 99% of mame user do it, and it works. Full merged only makes sense to reduce the total number of files, unmerged only makes sense in few very exotic cases, too scarce to mention.

12

clrmame Discussion / Re: Problem with my DATfile

« on: 28 March 2018, 19:47 »

I am ashamed by my stupidity!

Thank you so much for your help.
I could not spot the difference with WinMerge, cause it was buried in a 3 games modification.
I will give a try to BeyondCompare.

Thanks again. 

13

clrmame Discussion / Problem with my DATfile

« on: 28 March 2018, 19:15 »

Hi Roman,
since a few days I'm having a problem with my EMMA datfile, which I maintain by hand since many years.
So, the last version of the datfile which acted as expected is attached here, named old.zip
Then I edited it in a few lines here and there (you can check the differences with winmerge or similar tool), and the result is also attached here, named new.zip
With old.zip my collection of EMMA ROMs scanned perfectly and I had an "all green" situation.
Then I give new.zip to clrmame, rescan my collection, and instead of having just the few difference I manually inserted in the dat, I get clrmame complaining that 100+ files are unneeded or badly named!
I'm at a loss, I have re-checked and compared old and new, but still can not spot what I did to get such a strange behaviour.
Could you please be so kind and have a look?
Thanks in advance for your help.

14

clrmame Discussion / Re: progettosnaps 0.192 flyer.zip and compression

« on: 28 March 2018, 18:34 »

Yes, you can keep the flyers files unzipped and scan them without problems.
I keep my "progettosnaps" collection fully unzipped and it works flawlessly.

15

clrmame Discussion / Re: clrmamepro 4.033 released

« on: 11 September 2017, 20:32 »

well, ROMs are subject to copyright; so a tool to download them automatically would be a MASSIVE breach of copyright's law and an invitation for the big powers to sue Roman.
I think it's best if you find the ROMs you are missing by yourself, they are all widely available from multiple places.

16

clrmame Discussion / Re: How can I achieve completely independent rom sets with clrmamepro?

« on: 19 August 2017, 21:29 »

Sorry if I jump into someone else discussion.

I, for one, am using regularly "not-merged-set", and updating them regularly at each new MAME version release.
The reason for it is the following: I dump a lot of old PCBs and obviously I need to correctly identify them to see if they are already fully documented or not. One of the tools I use to such an aim is "romcmp.exe".
So I point ROMCMP to compare my newly dumped set against the most likely candidate in the MAME ROMs collection, and usually I get a clone, so if I point it against a "split-set" I only get compares for the few clone ROMs and I do not know if the other ROMs I have dumped REALLY match the parent or not.
If I perform the same procese against a "not-merged-set" I can get (in one single run) a FULL report of matches for the clone I have dumped.

So, if there will be in the future a possibility to have BIOSes and DEVICEs also included into the "not-merged-set" I will be double happy, becuase my job checking dumps will be even more complete and inclusive. And also because I could more easily check if some chips are missing or faulty on the real PCBs I will be checking.

Thanks for listening to my rants. 

17

clrmame Discussion / Re: clrmamepro help with shrinking game list

« on: 03 April 2017, 06:35 »

No, CLRMAME can not magically create files out of nothing.
You will have to find the missing files by yourself.

What CLRMAME can do is help you keep all your files in correct order for the version of MAME taht you are using.
It works this way:
1) you point clrmame to the mame executable that you are using; this is done only once, and in this way clrmame "learns" what files are needed and in what order for your mame.
2) you let clrmame "scan and fix" your collection of files; clrmame will keep the good ones, give them the right name and order, and will put the unneeded ones into the backup directory (better safe than sorry).
3) clrmame will also help you "rebuild" all the files that you find out on the internet into the right place in your collection.

Each step must be redone when you upgrade your mame to a newer version.

This is just a quick overview, if you have any specific problem just ask.

18

clrmame Discussion / Re: question about fixdat files and a small suggestion

« on: 04 January 2017, 08:54 »

Ok, thank you. So the format of the fixdat is the same regardless of the scan method.

What about my proposal for a "minimal fixdat"? Not worth the effort, I presume.

19

clrmame Discussion / question about fixdat files and a small suggestion

« on: 03 January 2017, 19:57 »

Dear Roman,
happy New Year!
During last week I was updating to latest MAME a very old machine (from 0.78 to 0.181).
I noticed that the fixdat file generated are always the same, regardless of the merging flag I set (non-merged, split, merged). Is this the right behaviour?
Consider the following datfile (it's just a test made by me to illustrate the situation):

Code: [Select]

<datafile>
<header>
<name>test XML</name>
<clrmamepro/>
</header>
<machine name="a">
<description>a</description>
<rom name="aa1" size="256" crc="5baf4761" sha1="aa7e07eb2cada03b85bdf11ac6a3de65f4253eef"/>
<rom name="aa2" size="256" crc="04c22349" sha1="d1cb78911cb1ca660d393a81ed3ed07b24c51525"/>
</machine>
<machine name="b (clone of a)" cloneof="a" romof="a">
<description>(clone of a)</description>
<rom name="aa1" merge="aa1" size="256" crc="5baf4761" sha1="aa7e07eb2cada03b85bdf11ac6a3de65f4253eef"/>
<rom name="ab2" size="256" crc="9428afb0" sha1="ba907d3361256b022583d6a42fe223e90590e3c6"/>
</machine>
<machine name="c (one rom identical to a)">
<description>c (one rom identical to a)</description>
<rom name="cc1" size="256" crc="0ab15633" sha1="df004ff41f35b16089f69808ccf53a5e5cc13ac3"/>
<rom name="cc2" size="256" crc="04c22349" sha1="d1cb78911cb1ca660d393a81ed3ed07b24c51525"/>
</machine>
</datafile>
I was expecting fixdat files to look like the following:
1) un-merged -> identical to the starting datfile
2) split -> games A and C as per original datfile, game B with only one entry (the non "merge" rom)
3) merged -> game A with 3 roms (aa1,aa2,ab2) and game C with 2 roms (cc1,cc2). No entry for game B.

Now my suggestion: as you will notice, rom cc2 has different name from rom aa2, but same size and hash. The games C and A have no parent/clone relation. This is happening a lot in MAME, especially with PROMs or sound ROMs.
Would it be possible for clrmame to generate a "minimal fixdat" file containing only the REALLY NEEDED 4 roms aa1,aa2,ab2,cc1 ? Only these 4 roms are really needed to fully rebuild my example set and clrmame perfectly manages this rebuild already now.
The advantage of a "minimal fixdat" will be to save a lot of bandwidth for people helping each other to complete their collections.

thank you for listening to me and for all the good work you put into clrmame.

20

clrmame Discussion / Re: fix_xxxxxx.dat in Deprecated format?

« on: 26 August 2016, 07:27 »

I don't see any point in using the deprecated format today anyway...

Sorry to step in, but I'm a user of the old dat_format.
The reason I still use the old format in my dats is that I mostly manage them using an old tool (ListTool.exe) which does a marvellous job, but is only working with old datfile format.