MAME Smart ROM Sorter vs ROM Manager
MAME Smart ROM Sorter
github.comROM Manager
github.comSide by side
| Figure | MAME Smart ROM Sorter | ROM Manager |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 0 | 1 |
| Spec score · ROM Management Software | 7.3 (#22) | 7.7 (#12) |
| Intended users | The project describes use cases including general arcade cabinets, controller setups, light-gun or trackball builds, driving setups, fighters, and lean playable-game folders. | The project describes ROM Manager as a tool for managing retro console game ROMs and documents CLI, Python API, MCP, and agent usage. |
| Purpose | MAME Smart ROM Sorter helps home arcade builders curate large MAME collections into smaller, purpose-built folders. | ROM Manager converts and organizes game ROMs, including extracting archives, renaming by known game codes, converting ISO/WBFS images to CHD or RVZ, and generating cue sheets. |
Plans
In their own words
MAME Smart ROM Sorter
MAME Smart ROM Sorter has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
ROM Manager
ROM Manager is free, MIT-licensed software for organizing and converting retro console game ROMs. Its pipeline extracts archives, renames files using known game codes, converts ISO or WBFS images to CHD or RVZ, and cleans up files. It can create missing cue sheets for BIN tracks. Interfaces include a command-line tool, Python API facade, MCP server, and optional agent server with an AG-UI web interface. CLI and MCP tools can manage a self-hosted RomM library through its REST API using Basic or OAuth2 authentication. MCP tools cover conversion, game-code lookup and naming, and RomM resource groups, with environment toggles controlling domains. The server supports stdio, Streamable HTTP, and SSE transports; authentication is configurable, with none as the local default. Local conversion needs no service URL or credentials, while RomM access requires server details and credentials or a token. Conversion depends on external chdman and dolphin-tool binaries; extraction uses 7z or optional backends. Destructive cleanup can remove source files, so backups are advised.