N00b needs feedback

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Hangshai
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N00b needs feedback

Post by Hangshai »

Just had a couple quick q?s for anyone willing to help...

What is the best way to store roms, merged or split (between parents and clones)?

how do I merge three different directories that contain some of the same roms in all three to be consolidated, but I dont want to lose any of the good duplicates by having them erased during the transfer...

Also, any ideas on a site with detailed instructions that are up to date or at least close to... Pictures that match the current UI would be nice :)

thanks

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Re: N00b needs feedback

Post by Wanderer »

Hey, welcome to the forums.
Hangshai wrote:What is the best way to store roms, merged or split (between parents and clones)?
Well, that's a matter of preference. In Split mode, only the unique game roms are stored in each zip file, which means you have the most space-efficient mode but you may need more than one zip files to play a game. In Merged mode, you have all necessary game roms in each zip file, which means a rom file may exist in more than one zips. Not very space efficient but you can grab a single zip file and be sure the game will be playable. Personally i prefer the Split mode. I like efficiency. :)
Hangshai wrote:how do I merge three different directories that contain some of the same roms in all three to be consolidated, but I dont want to lose any of the good duplicates by having them erased during the transfer...
I'm not exactly sure what you are trying to achieve. I assume you don't wish to loose any roms. In that case, copy the contents of all three dirs in one dir. If during the copy process, a file exists, don't overwrite it, just rename it. That way you will end up with a single folder with all the contents of the three others (the names will probably not be the proper ones though). Then just "fix" that folder with RC. Of course you should keep the contents of the three original folders intact for some time, for backup purposes.
Hangshai wrote:Also, any ideas on a site with detailed instructions that are up to date or at least close to... Pictures that match the current UI would be nice :)
RC 3 is still under development so parts of the site may be a little out-of-date. Following the RC2 instructions should work though (more or less). If you have any doubts about anything, just ask for help here. :)

Hangshai
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Re: N00b needs feedback

Post by Hangshai »

awesome thanks.. youre a champ!! Great suggestions and I'm already kicking myself in the ass for not renaming the files. I ended up doing it in an ass backwards way, and now I have even more directories( orig roms, duplicates, badroms, and then the backups, yeesh). Mainly, Im trying to get them all into one dir to see if they can help eachother out.. anyway, great ideas.. Just an afterthought though.. RC2.71 had an option that allowed you to highlight and move romfiles in bulk throughout dirs.. 3.0 doesnt seem to have this feature anymore, and it was very helpful to me.. thanks again, man.. Oh, and mybe an option to allow roms in different dirs to use each other for rebuilding..

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Re: N00b needs feedback

Post by Wanderer »

Great, glad i could help. Just remember, RC3 is still under development and there are still a few bugs. Keep backups of your roms before doing anything. I'd suggest to do the "official" renaming process with the final version of RC3. Also, as Eric said in another post, there are a few options which will not exist in RC3.0 (some shell options - moving of roms, etc) and are planned for RC3.1. Just be a little patient. He has done a lot of good work in RC3 (it's much better and more trusted than RC2) but he still needs some time to finish things up.
Hangshai wrote:Oh, and mybe an option to allow roms in different dirs to use each other for rebuilding..
This can already be done. Just try adding more than one rom paths. In that case, RC can fix roms in one rom path by using the files of the other.

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Re: N00b needs feedback

Post by Hangshai »

Cool, good to know the shell options are making a comeback. And, just so I am sure I understand, as long as I have more than one rom path, for instance, c:program files\emulators\mame32\roms, and lets say, c:blah blah my documents\roms, than RC will automatically look in both dirs when rebuilding in either dir? That would be really cool, cause then i wouldnt even have to put them in the same dir until all the rebuilding was done, or would that create more problems? And what are your thoughts on a front end loader, such as Emuloader. Ive noticed that when I use RC and play with the mame32 directly, my roms will work, but sometimes, the application emuloader wont recognize the rom.. Of course, Ive stopped using it, but I prefer the interface better than plain old mame. Anyway, if you are wondering how all of this is relevant to RC, well, do the two progs use the same dats? 2 progs being emuloader and RC. Thanks again for lal the great help and suggestions...

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Re: N00b needs feedback

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Hangshai wrote:And, just so I am sure I understand, as long as I have more than one rom path, for instance, c:program files\emulators\mame32\roms, and lets say, c:blah blah my documents\roms, than RC will automatically look in both dirs when rebuilding in either dir?
Yes, that's right. You can have as many dirs as you wish. I don't think there's any limit.
Hangshai wrote:That would be really cool, cause then i wouldnt even have to put them in the same dir until all the rebuilding was done, or would that create more problems?
Well, maybe. There is a chance RC finds a rom that belongs in a zipped game in both dirs and decides that it should exist in both of them when you press on "fix". In that case, you may end up with a few games that will exist in both dirs (duplicates). IMHO, it's better to have everything in one dir but more dirs should work almost perfectly. You may have to do some manual checking for duplicates though.
Hangshai wrote:And what are your thoughts on a front end loader, such as Emuloader. Ive noticed that when I use RC and play with the mame32 directly, my roms will work, but sometimes, the application emuloader wont recognize the rom..
I don't use it. I mostly use MAME32 so i can't say anything about it.
Hangshai wrote:Anyway, if you are wondering how all of this is relevant to RC, well, do the two progs use the same dats?
RC uses the data extracted from MAME itself so i guess it's as official as it can get. I don't know how emuloader works so...
Hangshai wrote:Thanks again for lal the great help and suggestions...
You're welcome.

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