rompath Proposal for VPinMAME rompath registry setting to support collecting colored and patched roms without overwriting the original files

[jarr3]

I wanted to present a proposal for VPinMAME roms paths supporting colored and patched roms without having to overwrite any files while patching them.

 

VPinMAME which is based on standard MAME supports multiple paths in the settings for the rompath. I have set my VPinMAME settings (rompath) to:

 

C:\Visual Pinball\VPinMAME\roms_patched;C:\Visual Pinball\VPinMAME\roms_color;C:\Visual Pinball\VPinMAME\roms

 

These settings means, that VPinMAME will search in this order for the requested rom files from left to right.

 

One example on how I have set it up the for AC/DC Tables from Stern:

• I let the original rom file recide in the roms folder.  (acd_170.zip and acd_170h.zip)
• The color patched files go into roms_color folder   (acd_170c.zip and acd_170hc.zip)
• Any modificated roms go into roms_patched

 

For the roms_patched folder it is even possible to use the AC/DC PWR Up edition patched rom, but rename the file to acd_168hc.zip, for example (the file in the zip needs to be renamed as well). My experience is that VPinMAME will still correctly load the rom even though it is actually based on acd_170hc. I do the exact same thing with the patched rom without any music for the PUP modded AC/DC table. (renamed to acd_165h even though it is a acd_170hc without sound)

 

The roms folder will now contain only the exact version of the rom which VPinMAME expects when audited using clrmamepro for example. clrmamepro is an audit tool for your roms which is able to help you build the correct set of files for your roms folder for exactly your VPinMAME version.

 

Using this strategy, it is very easy to test new rom versions, putting them earlier in the rompath, even when they have the same name VPinMAME will read the first file it finds.

 

VPinMAME reads the rompath setting from the registry at "Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Freeware\Visual PinMame\globals->rompath"

 

I have included the extracted registry for the setting, so to amend the same on your installation... just edit the file, rename it to *.reg and double-click the file to have it added to your registry.

 

Please beware all changes to the registry needs a little bit of caution! You can backup the same before loading the file!

 

/Richard alias Jarr3

rompath.reg.txt