Rom Fix before Duplicate removal

[ice_blade_za]

Greetings

I just started using RomCenter (v3.54) to try to get a handle on my rom collection. The issue is that when I some times download a fixed rom file the manager sees the file is named wrong then sees the file exists and deletes the newer rom I just got to fix the issue.

Would it work to first do a total scan, see the wrongly named files and first check to see if they have any missing/fixed images that need to be added to existing files. After the fix is done then removing the new file isn't an issue any more.

I don't know the details of how the fixing mechanics work, so I may be stating some thing it already does. Fixing a rom with a few missing images seems like a real pain. Manually working over these 1000+ not working files could be too much for me and I may just leave them broken if there is no automatic/semi-automatic way to do it.

After all of this... I must just say thanks for an excellent application. It really shows a love for keeping these old games alive.

[Wanderer]

Hi and welcome to the forums.

This might be of some help to you.

It would help us if you stated the emulator you're talking about though.

[ice_blade_za]

Didn't realise the emulator mattered when it came to the fixing side. I'm using Mameuifx 32 v0.140

I did read through the basic guide before to get a general understanding of the software. If I can understand the process that one could possibility follow to try to fix an existing collection then I wouldn't mind writing out a guide of some sort to help others.

The issue of having a collection (some times quite a big one) and trying to fix individual games I imagine is a common thing to do as people are doing new dumps all the time to fix old ones. That and the fact that I have found most sites are hosting many broken ROM archives. Getting a list is only step one, getting the individual missing files is impossible it seems. But fighting with the processing of getting things fixed makes it worse.

A basic example is how the reports will only list game name or file name. Why not both and sort according to one or the other. A detailed report of exactly what's missing/broken in each file could also help the hunting process I imagine.

The basis of the first request was more about the fact that I'm now trying to actually get these broken ROM sets fixed up. The initial collection was meant to be a v0.79 complete, but that was years ago and by now I have no way to know where it stands. We can add the fixing process as a page on the wiki I think since it's so common to have broken sets.

Oh, hi. Yes I didn't really introduce my self did I. I a digital designer (a graphic designer do it all) who really loves graphics, games and a trip down memory lane now and again (thanks to Mame)

[Wanderer]

First of all, i think Eric (RC developer) would welcome any ideas that may improve RC. Check this thread to see what's going on now with RC.

Didn't realise the emulator mattered when it came to the fixing side. I'm using Mameuifx 32 v0.140

The emulator matters because RC does not support only MAME but other systems too, as long as you have a datafile for them. As you probably know, if you use any mame emulator, you only need to have a datafile for the same version (in your case 0.140) in order to create a database from it. Specifically for mame, you can create a database using the emulator exe, without the need of a datafile.

When you load the datafile to RC and you add the rompaths, RC reads all files in the specified rompaths and generates the list of green/yellow/red files you see. If/When you add a new file to a rompath, you must tell RC to re-read the path (do a refresh) in order to update the list. If RC reports the new file as yellow or red, it's because the info in the dat for the specific MAME version are not the same as the info extracted from the rom file you have added.

If I can understand the process that one could possibility follow to try to fix an existing collection then I wouldn't mind writing out a guide of some sort to help others.

The wiki page i posted is supposed to help in that direction too. It was a quick attempt for help, started by me and improved by Eric. If you feel it can be improved even more, please fell free to post your ideas here.

who really loves <SNIP> games and a trip down memory lane now and again (thanks to Mame)

Yup, like the rest of us.

[RomCenter]

Hi, thank you for using romcenter and welcome here.

Greetings
I don't know the details of how the fixing mechanics work, so I may be stating some thing it already does. Fixing a rom with a few missing images seems like a real pain. Manually working over these 1000+ not working files could be too much for me and I may just leave them broken if there is no automatic/semi-automatic way to do it.

RomCenter does this for you automatically. That's the main reason I developped rc in first place.
Once you downloaded new roms and added them in one of your roms folder, you must do a 'refresh' for rc to take them into account.
Then the new roms show up in the listing with a status color (usually yellow or red if you already own a zip of the game).
You can simply select the global path on the treeview and click the fix button to fix all games. New files will be merged with old files and useless roms will be removed. Of course, you can also select a specific game, or even a rom to do a fix.
RomCenter will not delete a unique rom without warning you.
Hope this help.