Good point. I tried this, wasn’t sure. You technically dont even need the file if you’re launching from the command line. I ran:
RetroArch -L mame_libretro.dylib "/path/to_mame_merged_set/tmnt2pj.zip"
And it loaded the game just fine, even though i dont have that file at all (just the parent tmnt.zip file).
Empty / dummy files are good if you want them in a playlist/to scan them into RetroArch or any other front end.
So you can make a playlist with all the dummy entries needed and it should work fine?
To save some time for others, here’s a gist that will generate all the empty/dummy clone files all in one go.
Here’s a zipped folder of all the empty/dummy files for the latest MAME (Arcade only) as of the writing of this post (~6500 games, but only ~1MB in filesize)
Thanks! I wanted to ask one thing though. Is it necessary to place all the clone zip files in the same folder as the parent ROMs? I use Mame separately as well and don’t really want to fill my Mame ROMs folder with 6500 empty zip files.
They ideally do need to be in the same folder. They can easily be removed / sorted though by ‘sorting by size’ and then just dealing with all the 0 size ones.
If you dont want to do that, then you need to do something fancy with the mame.ini file paths and add two seperate paths for the rompath. I personally don’t know how to edit or use a custom mame.ini in retroarch.
Edit: Looks like you can manually create it. See here, then you’d need to edit the rompath in the ini file to include the path to both the merged romset folder and the empty file folder.
Thanks, but the link to that page is giving an error. I tried to manually copy the mame.ini from my Mame folder into “system\mame\ini” and also changed rompath to my mame roms directory. Then I added another path to it using a semicolon which pointed to your empty zip files directory, but it didn’t work.
I messed with this for a bit, and eventually found out the Retroarch MAME ini was defaulting to a hidden folder in my ‘home’ directory:
~/.mame
Which is a hidden folder. Seems like a bug, but the ini file is in there.
A MAME standalone does not care if you have them all together or separated, it will show you everything (parents and clones), even if you do not have them. In order not to see the clones you have the visualization filters “Hide clones or only parents”.
You have to enable “Read Configuration” in the MAME options.
And maybe the option “MAME INI Paths”? From this I’m not sure.
If you use Linux, I do not remember well if I had problems with the routes of the directories…
This is the native form of Mame:
$HOME/.mame/roms
If for a rem, it does not serve, try:
$/home/YOU·USER/.mame/roms
This is the default directory of MAME standalone.
The ini of the Core Mame is saved in system\mame\ini
It is not created, you can copy the MAME standalone.
Thanks. I tried those options but it didn’t seem to change anything (no ini file was created), and there isn’t any doc on what they all do so it was mostly guesswork. I was able to get into the configuration directory settings from within the MAME menus (by hitting Tab) and it does show the ini directory to be ~/.mame, so perhaps RA overrides this somehow?
I also put a mame.ini file in the system/mame/ini folder and it doesn’t seem to take.
LaunchBox makes this much easier.
Where did you find the “~/.mame” folder? I have hidden folders enabled but I couldn’t find it inside the main RA directory. I don’t have a ‘home’ directory inside the RA directory.
Also yes, it doesn’t seem to take the mame.ini from “system/mame/ini” path at all.
Did you find any solution to run the clone roms yet?
I already enabled both of them but it still didn’t work.
I am beginning to suspect that you can not handle the ROMs from the .ini. Only Drive.
And it has logic because it is incompatible with the Playlist of Retroarch.
Yes, RetroArch overwrites its own configuration.
“~/.” It is an acronym from the directory “/home/YOU·USER/”
"~/.mame" is the same as "$/home/YOU·USER/.mame/".
That is, it is inside your home folder, you have to enable hidden files to view it.
In retroarch is in “.../retroarch/system/mame/ini”
The installation varies depending on what half you used to install, PPA, AppImage, Snap, Flatpak.
I am almost convinced that it is not possible to assign the Roms Route from the .ini, only the Drive.
Then, create the Set Split, or you have them in Merge with the empty files that Zack did. There is no problem in having all together, Mame always shows all parents and clones, even if you do not have the game.
Well, too bad. So basically "rompath " in the ini is useless for RA. Is there anything else too that’s useless in the ini?
There is a chance that you need to enable “boot from cli” to use the ini. I had some luck using the rom path during my FM-Towns R&D.
Zach, Do you think this can be done with the current version, with all the Roms and with the official mame xml or maybe the one from my ROMSet (pleasure…)?
I would like to do it also with FBNeo, to have everything complete.
(I intend to make all the miniatures.)
O.T.: The one in the avatar, is Zack, with K, from Zackary. He was a “fan” of that series. The Zach with H, I’m learning he’s a youtuber.
I updated the gist here, and created zips of dummy clone files for MAME .242 and FBNeo 1.0.0.0.03
I got it. Thank you!
Hi! If possible could you add the zips of dummy clones files for mame 0.251. Thanks a lot. It would be very appreciated
I updated the gist here , and created zips of dummy clone files for MAME .251 and the latest FBNeo
Thank you so much, its really very appreciated 
Have a great day
