MAME import/update improvements

[Former user]

Hi Jason,

I'm wondering if it's time to now improve the Mame importing and updating facilities?

Background:

The complete MAME sets and extra artwork/media are very large so I tend to keep them separate from my usuable gaming system from which LB runs. I then keep my MAME sets updated every month but keep my LB system and it's copies of ROMS separate and unchanged until significant changes have been made to MAME (or any other emulator in fact)

INITIAL IMPORTING:

I imported MAME back when it was version 1.86 using the Copy option into LB and selected the MAME specific options (which are great by the way) for non-Mahjong etc.

At present, the import facility does not copy over any require parent roms or CHDs that are needed. I think this should be fixed. My CopyMameExtras tool that I uploaded to your site does this, but it would be nice if it was part of the import routine.

It would be good if, in addition to the usual download media screens, you had the option of pointing to folders that contain "MAME Extras" and then either have them copy to the LB media folders or keep them in the existing location - as you have when selecting ROMS to import. Again my CopyMameExtras does this but it would be nice to have it integrated.

UPDATING:

Now that MAME is at 1.95 I decided to update LB as more games are now working. I went through the import process but something strange happened. It copied over no new games AND created copies of about 150 roms that already existed but added a _1 at the end! I have no idea why it chose those 150 roms to duplicate. Suffice to say it would seem that updating MAME isn't supported.

In addition to the features mentioned above, can I suggest fixing this _1 bug and also support updating to a newer version of MAME? Looking at LB is seems that you have an LB specific MAME xml file which you use to filter the games on import. What version of MAME is that based on?

Thanks