Filtering MAME games
A complete MAME set is huge (more than 3.6 terabytes).
Some people prefer keeping only specific games to save hard disk space.
The criteria used to select what not to download (or delete) is a matter of personal choice. Some examples are:
- non-arcade systems
- games that are not working
- clone games
- games that require CHDs
- games of specific categories (adult, gambling, Mahjong, quiz)
- games that reguire specific input controls (49-way, trackball, light gun)
- games in specific languages (Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Russian)
- games with specific screen orientations (vertical, cocktail)
- games with specific screen types (vector, LCD, dual screen)
Creating subsets of ROMs
Downloading (or deleting) the right archives according to any criteria is hard because each game can be spread across different archives.
An alternative is downloading selected archives from non-merged torrents because each archive has all needed files to run the game.
Below is a list of tools that help create a subset of ROMs. Most files they require are in the MAME EXTRAs torrent:
| Arcade-Manager |
| Lightspeed MameLister |
| MAME Content Manager Plus |
| MAME File Manager |
| MAME Shrink |
| MAME XML Cleaner |
| NARS |
| ROMLister |
| SabreTools |