LB agrees to import roms only when forcing duplicates

[Amir Amran]

There is no duplicate of the rom in my library. I highlight all 5200 library, press scan for added roms, go through the import process but in the end LB does not import the rom when not checking force duplicates:

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[Christian]

If you already have an entry for Super Pacman in your platform (or whatever game that rom gets scraped as) and DON’T have the “Force Import Duplicates” box checked, then LaunchBox is working as intended. Any rom that would get imported as a game you already have in your library is skipped without that checkbox being selected, even if the actual rom file itself has not yet been added.

[Amir Amran]

All my libraries are the latest and most accurate no intros, redump, etc. sets. I have “Super Pac-Man (USA) (Proto)” as well in 5200 library but it is a different rom version than “Super Pacman (USA) (Proto) (Alt)” so LB should not put the same game ID on both games.

More games that will not import because LB decides to put other rom version ID on them, from SMS library:

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[Christian]

As stated previously and you have confirmed this is the feature working as intended. LaunchBox WILL allow you to import the titles in question, you just have to tell it that you are ok with it creating a duplicate game by pressing the "Force import duplicates" check box.

[Amir Amran]

Maybe i explained myself not good enough. I don’t think that you understand the issue. Why does LB share one rom version ID with 2 different rom versions? Where is the logic here? How is this feature working as intended?

Take “The Cyber Shinobi” for example:

I see here 3 different rom versions. Please explain why LB ignores “Cyber Shinobi, The (Taiwan) (En) (Unl)”? Why it won’t combine this with the 2 other rom versions? Why do i have to force duplicate this file and then manually combine it with the other two versions if it is not duplicate? The fact that LB treats it as duplicate does not make it duplicate.

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[Christian]

The game is a duplicate game, they all are for Cyber Shinobi. To import a game you already have in your collection (GAME not ROM or VERSION) then you need to check both the “Force Import Duplicates” and the “Combine games with same title” check boxes. Then the files will import as you expect.

[Amir Amran]

“The game is a duplicate game, they all are for Cyber Shinobi.”

Sorry, you lost me here. No intros sets does not carry duplicate rom versions. Duplicate rom versions count as duplicates only if they carry the exact same rom file name. Do you understand?

Let me ask you a question, why did LB combine me these 3 different “Black Belt” rom versions in the import process and treated non of them as duplicate?

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[Christian]

The primary issue here is that you are failing to understand, when LaunchBox is referring to a duplicate we are looking at the GAME level, not the ROM, or the VERSION of the ROM, or even individual file. Above all three ROM files are for the same GAME, Cyber Shinobi. All three refer to a single Games Database ID, all three have the same title. So they are all duplicates of each other in LaunchBox’s eyes.

In regard to your second question. The reason they are combined in the initial import, is because that game wasn’t in your collection at time of import. Because of this we import all the files and then combined them. On the second import you HAD the game, and told us not to import any game already in your collection (AGAIN GAME, not VERSION) and so the files associated to that game were skipped.

[Amir Amran]

Thanks for clarifying. This was not clear at all to me.

I understand now that LB treats so called “duplicates” as the same game even when the region is different and the games are not quite the same. This is very confusing because as a gamer from the 80’s i used to have the same console from different regions and it can be a bit different experience. Different regions can have changes in graphics, text language, music, etc. LB does not care about that if i understand you correct. If the game is from japan and there is existing usa version then LB will mark the japan version as “duplicate”.

I also understand now why when i import roms when the platform already has existing games i have to check both combine and duplicate so the roms actually get imported.

Btw, what dictates which version will be marked as duplicate and which not?

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[Christian]

All “versions” would be highlighted and marked as a duplicate. You would then have to look at them and decide which “version” you wanted to keep.