How to Trim Arcade ROMsets with LaunchBox! (MAME, FBAlpha, FBNeo)

This guide will show you how to reduce arcade romset file sizes significantly with the help of LaunchBox -- from 34GB down to 8GB! This method will work with any full non-merged romset, and works beautifully with your favorite arcade emulator and handheld devices like the RG350, RG351P, and Retroid Pocket 2. This method is demonstrated on the RG351P in this video.

Timestamps:
00:00 introduction
00:45 different types of romsets and files
04:16 install LaunchBox
04:53 import your arcade romset
06:53 export your arcade romset
07:52 add media (optional)
10:58 performance test and conclusion

Intro theme song sampled from "Hexadecimal Genome" by Bit Shifter:

#MAME #FBNeo #Arcade #LaunchBox

[steve]

I've actually been watching a ton of videos regarding Mame and Launchbox setup, and I just need to come forward and thank you for making this detailed and extremely informative video on the subject. Your dialogue is clearly spoken and neatly scripted, and the video is to-the-point without missing important points of the setup process or rambling on about something that is probably obvious for most Arcade game enthusiasts who are new to Launchbox setups. Sincerely, you've done a fantastic job here!

Some other questions bouncing around my head on the subject that you may consider for future videos are; what are the differences between versions of romset over the years, are there advantages going with an older romset over a newer one, and why they aren't backward compatible, is it possible to convert a split romset to full-non-merged, is Retroarch worth a look and if so, how to set up RetroArch for Mame or FBNeo, are FBneo romsets different from Mame sets?

Setting up an arcade or console emulation computer or mobile device is trickier than I initially imagined, and I greatly appreciate your efforts to help me explore these topics with your videos.

[exeoddl]

Probably one of the best explanation ever heard about romsets differences (merged...).
Thx for that!!!

[clj]

If you can believe what I tried to do lol. I was trying go through a full non-merged romset and manually pick out the working parent files one-by-one. I completed #-B, which took about 1 hour, before I gave up. I knew it would take me about 2-3 full days just to get the roms I needed. But then I came across your video which showed that all I had to do was trim the set and export them via Launchbox. It took only 1 minute. You saved me days of work. Thanks.

[Kagara]

FINALLY, thank you! Straight to the point, no insignificant information. I wish more videos chose the same delivery as you here. Big thanks.

Subbed and liked.

[yelnatspowerzz]

You are doing the lords work my friend

[robknott]

T|his is amazing have used bigbox on all my arcade machines for a while now so my arcade files were so streamlined never thought to do this just exported them all to my 351p now you make my life so much better!

[Altseinx]

I’m new to mame as well and this really helped me out. Thanks for the great guide!

[Grimloic]

I've recently downloaded the entire MAME 0.246 ROM and CHD sets and I know I'm not gonna be playing all of them on my Steam Deck. This video is sooo useful for cutting down which games I'm gonna import into my SD card!

[studioviper]

Very nice guide! Might have been worth mentioning the All Killer No Filler batch files that can be downloaded from the arcade controls forum. These batch files allow you to pair down any MAME ROM set down to around 650 of the 'best' games, which is still more than enough games!

[nottommythao]

Subrscribed to you for your Steam Deck coverage with the Emudeck and went down a rabbit hole which led me to MAME. Thank you so much for this! I downloaded the ENTIRE MAME library (so far) and noticed that majority of the games were BS. Thank you for this tutorial for noobs like me.

[neil_]

Its worth noting that Launchbox imports its MAME games based off of several sources that are combined to create the working games list. This list is much more current then the games from say a MAME2003 romset. So Launchbox will show some games that you dont actually have and wont be imported. Just a heads up for people using MAME2003 sets.

[ArtistCameron]

Thank you russ, I finally manage to do something I've been trying for ages with this method.

[xl_]

Days ago I was after a set of mame roms but got intimidated by all the terms and acronyms and gave up almost instantly lol
But now I think I'll give another try. And I would love a LaunchBox guide from you, it is also another intimidating corner of the emulation world.

[patcruising]

Cheers! I was in the middle of doing it manually when I gave up and thought I'd search YouTube. Super easy to follow 😀

[AnthonyRiddle]

I was wondering what the difference in romsets were just yesterday. Very good video, never knew this was possible. Love it. I've learned a lot about mame roms today

[akrita]

life saving tutorial, I am very thankful

[Slim]

This is great! Do you have any advice for those of us who download the FB Neo romsets? This process of getting launchbox to import those seems to be not straightforward with those.

[skateboardmemories]

Im complety New to mame games. Would love to see a video with your favourites like a top 20 or something

[thekingnumberone]

Thank you so much for making this video

[tylerdurden]

This video needs an update. Launchbox wants a full legit MAME set version (which 2003-Plus is not) and then even if you do pick a version, it wants to install MAME for you and selecting prefer 2 player doesn't work. I did everything in this video and ended with 4 player versions of every game that had that option :(