Please can anybody help me to understand this?

Hello,

in the past I was only interested in Arcade MAME. MESS was not for me.
What I understood is that MAME & MESS are included in one version.
In all Updatepacks are these SL folder with tons of rom updates for non Arcade Software Emulations etc.

Now I have a mega archive and thought maybe I can accomplish this when I know there to put.

1. In my MAME is a folder software (Is this the SL folder?)
2. OK, I think for each system I must have in this folder a minimum subfolder of systemname:
    e.g. mame\software\a2600 (Must I put the roms of a2600 in this folder?)
3. OK, I have the roms. There I can get the DAT file to scan the folder if anything missing
    or correct/incorrect like the Arcade MAME Roms v0.204 (Any Resource there I can get these DAT files?)
4. Last question: And the Covers, Artworks, Titles, Snaps etc. from Progettrosnaps (Where to put these files?)
    In the folder covers\a2600, artworks\a2600, titles\a2600, snaps\a2600 etc.?

A thanks who give me the right direction what I must do.

Hi,

It seems you have all the answers in your text. You know where to put all files.

The only unknown parameter you seems to not be aware is about DAT files.

Well If I'm not wrong, you have to use HASH xml files in your HASH folder. It exists about 505 files for all systems and some build of mame have them in the Zip file like mameui64

I don't use Software, only arcade games, but I know that some frontend like EmuLoader (great frontend) manage software as well and use hash files to audit software.

Sorry for my bad english, I"m French ^^

I WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS AS WELL !!!

Best Regards, Frederic

Viva la France. :)

No your english is good. I understood all. My english is not perfect. I learn to use so much I can.

Thank you for your time. Now some are clearer for me.
I will try that.

With best regards

You're welcome ;-)

Hope you'll success...

OK, it seems to work.
Now scans take a while. Your tip was "keep it simple" like.
Nice thank you.

Yes it takes a while to audit all files ^^

But be sure to give the good path for your emulators and software.

Be aware that mame do not emulate softwares correctly....

Best regards !

OMG.... How many space I need to complete Software List files?
2 TB? That is insane. I must thinking about to complete.

Over 500 folders in there. Now it has 44 GB. I need years to complete.

Yes software take a lot of space disk and time indeed.

That's why I don't collect them ;-)

I've never really understood why mame's team has added CHDs and Software. May be I shall understand a day :-D

OK, I let the roms there it is now, but more download is not acceptable in the moment for me.

Without this software thing my mame is round about 600GB. That is enough.
2-4 TB additional stuff for other home consoles etc. is a bit to much.

In the past I had a collection with 450GB. I thought after 2 years now I can try to complete 0.204.
And yes, it tooks 3 weeks to find all with the additional help here in the forum and fileserver.

I completed and I leave it as is for now.
No more time to try all the thousands home console stuff. An overhault of data to manage.
90% waste space on harddisk. This is no longer like collecting stamps in a stampsbook.

Maybe I have 15 more years to live, where my physical motor stops reacting agile.
The time is running so fast. One year feels like one month.

I have not even seen the Eiffel Tower in real life. Now it's time to stop wallowing in the past and
enjoy the real life.

That's a good idea. I agree with you ^^

The time is escaping faster and faster. So it's up to us to decide what is important and what is less.

Have a nice evening ;-)

thanks, you too

I read somewhere you can convert the chd files back to their  original state and use on original consoles thats the only real reason to collect them like you say emulation is poor on mame but in other emulators... for instance the sega dreamcast nulldc works real well but in mame there is a lag or slowness when trying to emulate or i have not got the setting right one or the other :) the whole thing is about 3.5tb if you include the rollback roms and chds required to update from one mame to the next....

Try the Redream emulator for DreamCast Emulation.
The emulator can also read CHD files.

https://redream.io/

The problem of the back conversion is: You have to have both versions of the chd file
to determine the difference between the two files. Should the difference significantly
affect the file size, the conversion file will vary greatly in size. That's why you can keep
both versions at the same time.

However, there is a program called "Delta Patcher".

https://www.romhacking.net/utilities/704/

Those program check two files differences and save it to a file with a extension of "xdelta".
You must create 1 patchfile for each file that you want.

Extrem Example: (Size of two CHD files are significant e.g. 199MB/259MB:
You have a CHD file name: gds-0018.chd
Those file was changed from MAME 0.183 to MAME 0.204
MAME 0.183 version of the CHD file has: 271.771.062 Bytes ~ 259 MB
MAME 0.204 version of the CHD file has: 209.405.716 Bytes ~ 199 MB
The Patchfile that was generated to convert the 0.183 version to 0.204 are: 207.750.438 Bytes ~ 198 MB in size
The Patchfile that was generated to convert the 0.204 version to 0.183 are: 262.301.863 Bytes ~ 250 MB in size

But, not all CHD files are significant in size! Some are minimal.

Minimal Example: (Size of two CHD files are NOT significant):
You have a CHD file name: savquest.chd
Those file was changed from MAME 0.149 to MAME 0.203
MAME 0.149 version of the CHD file has: 308.353.531 Bytes ~ 294 MB
MAME 0.203 version of the CHD file has: 308.345.169 Bytes ~ 294 MB
The Patchfile that was generated to convert the 0.149 version to 0.203 are: 278.090 Bytes ~ 271 KB in size
The Patchfile that was generated to convert the 0.203 version to 0.149 are: 287.350 Bytes ~ 280 KB in size

Result: It takes a lot of time to archive these files for all changes. It comes to the fact that each time you have to
first convert these files back again. It was an attempt. It is simpler to create a duplicate of the old versions.

For my part, I thought I create DAT files that contain only the changes from version to version and then let them
bring together via a ROM Manager to the version I need. Of course, then you have more on the hard drive than
really needed, but this is the best solution to archive these files.

What I'm still looking for is a program that analyzes DAT files specifically for MAME and writes only the difference
of the files into a new one. So I have to do everything manually with WinMerge which is very time consuming.

I use RomVault http://www.romvault.com/ for archiving. RomVault does not delete files stored in a separate
DAT file. Thus, I always have the old versions ready and can then create the MAME version that I needed.

You can convert CDI / GDI / BIN / CUE files to CHD. As you know, CHDman is used for this purpose.
CHDman can also convert these files back, but in the end this file is not the same as before! CHDMan is also
included in the RomVault setup!

For this I still try to find a solution to really have the same version at the end before they are converted into CHD.

However, there is a program called "QuickPAR" for which files that are spread over the USENET can check and
repair if they differ in content from the original.

http://www.quickpar.org.uk/

Hope you understood all because my english is not so perfect.

yeh i have tried redream in one of those harrison hacks works well :) but its still in conjuntion with nulldc and attract.exe as a frontend

proably the easiest way to use those chd files from software lists SL :)))