MAME Roms won't import

MAME roms don’t import when the romset being imported is more recent than the romset supported in the LBGDB.

I am trying to import MAME 223 games by adding the new MAME roms from the 223 update set by dragging them into Launchbox. Even if select tp FORCE import duplicate games, the new roms don’t get imported at all even though these are confirmed working games.

The reason, based on what I know, is because Launchbox will only recognize games which match the MAME version supported (currently 222) and will outright ignore anything that doesn’t exist in the 222 version.

Case in point, MAME 223 has 156 files in the update set but Launchbox will only import 24. That’s a HUGE omission.

However, if I deselect all the 223 rom zips which match 222 names, leaving exclusively entirely new files, then Launchbox will allow the remaining 122 files to be imported (albeit giving the games a title matching the zip filename).

So, the bug occurs when attempting to import a combination of updated romfiles + entirely new romfiles. This is EXTREMELY inconvenient as it requires manual deselection of potentially many, many files.

Here is my proposed fix: Allow users to tell launchbox to use their own MAME DAT (found within the mame.exe file (clrmamepro can access it so launchbox should be able to as well) or alternatively using the XML dat file found on progrettosnaps or elsewhere.

This way, more casual users can use the import tool as currently functions being none the wiser about newer game additions but those of us wanting to stay up to date with MAME, can always do so at will (and have game titles per their MAME name rather than the zip filename) using their own DATs. I’m willing to accept that only the game title info is filled in per the dat file. We can always update metadata per the LBGDB at a later date when the LBGDB is updated weeks later.

Frankly, launchbox could do away with having to “support” a particular version of MAME altogether and wouldn’t need to bear the burden of keeping up with MAME at all, if Jason would so choose to do.

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