New boy on the block here folks, wanting to get into the mame scene and hopefully buy or build a proper cabinet for old times sake.

Some things i'd like to clear up thanks.

I'm about to DL the 135 set of roms, approx 30GB tomorrow.
This obviously doesn't include the CHD's.

I used to have the 126 roms and some CHD's. Approx 80-90GB. But half the stuff didn't work or was incomplete. Paid $30 last year.

What is the differfence of CHD and ROMs - as they all go in the ROMS folder anyway?

If i DL the complete 135 rom set (the NFO file states no missing roms etc), how do i know what works and what doesn't for which game?

Why does MAME list all those thousands of games, yet most don't work -or are to be worked on?

What do the upgrades 126 to 127 to 128 to 129 to 130 and so on actually make work?

I tried to use the clrmamepro thing (and as i'm not a rocket scientist), i found this walkthrough. Do i have to use this prog?



But still most of my 126 stuff doesn't work....! I'm missing hundreds of roms etc...

How do i know what games want CHD's or just the plain zipped roms? As i know that i'm only DL'ing 135 roms and no chd's tomorrow.

Im using MameUI32, is that ok? I'm not good with dos windows, command lines etc.

PS: If anyone is selling a cabinet with good working favorites/classics and uptodate - has good working dual controls and a good sized screen, i'd be interested...

Thanks.
FF.