Hey, I just had some questions about files. Up to this point, I have just been using MAME in a very casual sense. I would think of an old game that I used to play, find that rom and any other additionally required files that need to be with it for it to run and play it. But now, I’d like to go all in and have a full set and then just keep it updated. However, I’m struggling a bit, and I have some questions. Also, if it helps narrow the answers or the potential information that you may be able to provide, I am using MAME on an iMac running the latest version of macOS.
1. Is there a way to get a list of all files that I already have and a list of the files I am missing so that I know which ones I need to look for and acquire? Up to this point, my strategy had been using a website that would tell me all the individual files in a specific rom. I would then look for that rom and get the same rom from multiple places and keep merging the zip file until it had all necessary files to run it. During that process, I would try to run the rom in MAME and let it give me the error to tell me which files in that rom I was missing. I would write it down, and then keep downloading the same rom from other places, unzipping the rom to see if it had the additional files I was looking for, and then when it did, I would merge the roms and everything was good. As inefficient as it was, it wasn’t too bad because I was only dealing with a single rom at a time and only had a collection of 6 or 7 roms. Now that I am looking at going all in and wanting to establish a complete or as complete as possible collection and keep it up-to-date, that no longer seems like a valid strategy. So for Mac users, what would be the best way to find out where I stand as far as files I have and files I need? Also, it should be said that I have no programming background whatsoever. The reason I say that is because on my own assumption I downloaded some xml and dat files (having no idea what they are, their purpose, or how to use them). And they look like they list all the roms but it’s in a programming language-like form, and I don’t know if those files would be useful to me or not, but I have no idea how to really interpret them or how I might best use them.
2. Alongside the MAME arcade stuff, I’d also like to have a complete as possible software list (MESS stuff). Is there a way to see all the files that are out there so that I can hunt for them and try to acquire them. Basically, I’m wanting to also do the same thing with the MESS stuff as I am with the MAME stuff. In my own research, I keep seeing people talk about programs like clrmamepro and mameui and how those programs can help figure out what files you have and which ones you still need (at least that is what it sounds like those programs can do), but those programs are unavailable on Mac.
Any help with these questions and/or advice on how to efficiently start building a MAME/MESS collection would be greatly appreciated. If programming knowledge is required to really sort through all the MAME/MESS files and really understand what they do and how to use them, please let me know what language or skills I should be looking into. I am willing to buy books to learn so that I can utilize MAME/MESS better. Thank you so much in advance for your time and any information or guidance that you could provide. Also, sorry for the length of the post.
