@clockman You CAN use a list xml for retroarch...well sort of... Find a version of mame on the main mame site
here that matches the version of the retroarch core you are using. (That can be found
here) then use that version of mame for your executable. It will use that versions xml list..which will math the version of the mame core you are using.
Now this may not be one hundred percent mind you because say the mame 2003 plus core is modified and many games added to it that were not in the regular 2003 bulid of mame.
Also note that this will
only work in
Windows (or linux via wine).
If you really want to be picky and micromanage your lists, make a copy of your lists and open them in a
plain text editor (i.e. notepad in windows or nano in linux) or rename them from list.txt to list.csv and open them in a spreadsheet program to really tweak them! Just make sure you save them as
plain test csv format files NOT anything else or you will destroy your lists! (That's why you made a back up first like I said right!?) Then rename the list.csv file back to list.txt and make sure they are on your attract romlist folder so that AM can see them!