Hi Roman and thank you for the reply. Yes I see your points and they make perfect sense in how they may be interpreted in more than one way and also end up with duplicate files possibly. You're right they do run fine. I spent a few hours yesterday going through the DAT and testing it to understand what was happening.
I've seen people giving out wrong information on what's happening on other forums. These "errors" (as they call them) have been in several versions of the lr-fbalpha DAT now so the posts are far and wide. They didn't bother to view the DAT and see what's happening and just tell people to manually add the "missing" files. Maybe there's no answer here but just an awareness.
I completely became aware when I had upgraded from a really old version and extra files where being removed between the two versions. I went back to the old version for testing and it does indeed leave them in the archive in non-merged mode and removes them in current ClrMamePro in non-merged mode. Just to clarify has the processing changed between versions and it's not a setting I am missing correct?
There's 3 files are listed below.
BIOS (pgm.zip):
<rom name="pgm_t01s.rom" size="2097152" crc="1a7123a0"/>
<rom name="pgm_m01s.rom" size="2097152" crc="45ae7159"/>
<rom name="bios.u42" size="131072" crc="517cf7a2"/>
CLONE (thegladpcb.zip):
<rom name="pgm_t01s.u72" size="2097152" crc="1a7123a0"/>
<rom name="pgm_m01s.u4" size="2097152" crc="45ae7159"/>
<rom name="bios.42" size="131072" crc="517cf7a2"/>
I do have another example but it's also from the same parent/BIOS set just a different clone.
BIOS (pgm.zip):
<rom name="pgm_p02s.u20" size="131072" crc="78c15fa2"/>
CLONE (dmnfrntpcb.zip):
<rom name="pgm_p02s.u42" size="131072" crc="78c15fa2"/>
<game isbios="yes" name="pgm">
<description>PGM (Polygame Master) System BIOS [BIOS only]</description>
<year>1997</year>
<manufacturer>IGS</manufacturer>
<rom name="pgm_t01s.rom" size="2097152" crc="1a7123a0"/>
<rom name="pgm_m01s.rom" size="2097152" crc="45ae7159"/>
<rom name="pgm_p01s.u20" size="131072" crc="e42b166e"/>
<rom name="pgm_p02s.u20" size="131072" crc="78c15fa2"/>
<rom name="ddp3_bios.u37" size="524288" crc="b3cc5c8f"/>
<rom name="bios.u42" size="131072" crc="517cf7a2"/>
</game>
<game name="dmnfrnt" romof="pgm">
<description>Demon Front (V105)</description>
<year>2002</year>
<manufacturer>IGS</manufacturer>
<rom name="v105_16m.u5" size="2097152" crc="bda083bd"/>
<rom name="t04501.u29" size="8388608" crc="900eaaac"/>
<rom name="a04501.u3" size="8388608" crc="9741bea6"/>
<rom name="a04502.u4" size="8388608" crc="e104f405"/>
<rom name="a04503.u6" size="8388608" crc="bfd5cfe3"/>
<rom name="b04501.u9" size="8388608" crc="29320b7d"/>
<rom name="b04502.u11" size="2097152" crc="578c00e9"/>
<rom name="w04501.u5" size="8388608" crc="3ab58137"/>
<rom name="dmnfrnt_igs027a.bin" size="16384" status="nodump"/>
<rom name="v105_32m.u26" size="4194304" crc="c798c2ef"/>
<rom name="pgm_t01s.rom" merge="pgm_t01s.rom" size="2097152" crc="1a7123a0"/>
<rom name="pgm_m01s.rom" merge="pgm_m01s.rom" size="2097152" crc="45ae7159"/>
<rom name="pgm_p01s.u20" merge="pgm_p01s.u20" size="131072" crc="e42b166e"/>
<rom name="pgm_p02s.u20" merge="pgm_p02s.u20" size="131072" crc="78c15fa2"/>
<rom name="ddp3_bios.u37" merge="ddp3_bios.u37" size="524288" crc="b3cc5c8f"/>
<rom name="bios.u42" merge="bios.u42" size="131072" crc="517cf7a2"/>
</game>
<game name="dmnfrntpcb" cloneof="dmnfrnt" romof="dmnfrnt">
<rom name="demonfront_v107-u43.bin" size="2097152" crc="671d8a31"/>
<rom name="t04501.u29" merge="t04501.u29" size="8388608" crc="900eaaac"/>
<rom name="a04501.u3" merge="a04501.u3" size="8388608" crc="9741bea6"/>
<rom name="a04502.u4" merge="a04502.u4" size="8388608" crc="e104f405"/>
<rom name="a04503.u6" merge="a04503.u6" size="8388608" crc="bfd5cfe3"/>
<rom name="b04501.u9" merge="b04501.u9" size="8388608" crc="29320b7d"/>
<rom name="b04502.u11" merge="b04502.u11" size="2097152" crc="578c00e9"/>
<rom name="w04501.u5" merge="w04501.u5" size="8388608" crc="3ab58137"/>
<rom name="dmnfrnt_igs027a.bin" merge="dmnfrnt_igs027a.bin" size="16384" status="nodump"/>
<rom name="demonfront_v107-u62.bin" size="4194304" crc="cb94772e"/>
<rom name="pgm_t01s.rom" merge="pgm_t01s.rom" size="2097152" crc="1a7123a0"/>
<rom name="pgm_m01s.rom" merge="pgm_m01s.rom" size="2097152" crc="45ae7159"/>
<rom name="pgm_p02s.u42" size="131072" crc="78c15fa2"/>
</game>
I don't know if you heard of RetroPie (using a Raspberry Pi) and the emulator is called lr-fbalpha (Libretro core) using Retroarch as the frontend. Here's the [Github page][https://github.com/libretro/fbalpha/tree/master/dats] with the DATs I used based off FBA 0.2.97.43.
I don't know of any MAME examples. I did look at 0.198 of the same games and none of these examples are valid and it looks much cleaner in there now.
Kind off topic but I was wondering is it possible to tell which merge files belong to the parent and which ones to the BIOS or do you need to check each "ROM" entry to really know? I always look at the Clone/Parent/BIOS unless there is none. I tried building some ROM sets out of zips with DatUtil and it works great for "flat" sets but I was trying to figure out a way to use it to build a DAT with merge information but had no luck. I suppose the program needs a way to know the parent/clone/bios relationships. Can you pull a parent and all clones (possibly the BIOS) in ClrMamePro. I know I build fix DATs of missing ROMs frequently and that works great.
Are files flagged as "no dump" or "bad dump" processed the same as regular ROMs at default settings?
I know there's a reason here I am sure but when you disable separate BIOS sets it still complains they are missing when you actually check it as an option, how come?
Anyway thank you for all you do and I often sing your praises on other forums. Oh and I always think of the Sentinel now when I visit!
Have a great weekend!