Make your roms read-only. I can't see how MAME could kill your roms in any case.

EDIT: There's also this: https://github.com/mamedev/mame/issues/13233
where the paths are changed, making it seem that your roms aren't there any more.

The software lists are the xml files in the hash directory. You don't need them in order to compile.

But if you're wanting to remove the functionality of software lists from MAME, you can't.

Fixed thanks: https://github.com/mamedev/mame/commit/ ... 10b23e20ba

So totally useless then.

That page is not visible unless you have an account and are logged in.

Added to next HBMAME 0.245.12, thanks.

Release date is undecided.

If you were to type >mame -listxml at the command line, you'd get lots of info about the games and the roms they need. That xml file is just that output - just in case you want it for something.

You only need the first download.

Yes; you only need one. And make sure it's the latest version.

Get the latest MAME 0.254 from https://mamedev.org/release.html (this version will be there in a day or two). It has the blue M icon. Your existing roms will be a 90-95% match. If they work with the particular games you want to play, then there's no need to update the ones you never use. If you find...