Attract-Mode Support Forum

Attract-Mode Support => General => Topic started by: Brikinhos on July 22, 2019, 08:42:50 PM

Title: Sub-wheels
Post by: Brikinhos on July 22, 2019, 08:42:50 PM
Hi all, I would like to know if there is any way to have a sub-wheel. I would like to have a structure like this using a .dat file from dat-o-matic for example:
#Sega Mega Drive/Genesis
- Bare Knucle II (Japan/Europe) (Parent ROM)
  - Streets of Rage II (USA) (Clone ROM)
  - Bare Knuckle II (Unknown) (Beta) (Clone ROM)

For example, if I select Bare Knuckle II I go to another wheel where there are the three games, Parent and Clones.

Code: [Select]
<game name="Bare Knuckle II - Shitou e no Requiem ~ Streets of Rage II (Japan, Europe)">
  <description>Bare Knuckle II - Shitou e no Requiem ~ Streets of Rage II (Japan, Europe)</description>
  <release name="Bare Knuckle II - Shitou e no Requiem ~ Streets of Rage II (Japan, Europe)" region="EUR"/>
  <release name="Bare Knuckle II - Shitou e no Requiem ~ Streets of Rage II (Japan, Europe)" region="JPN"/>
  <rom name="Bare Knuckle II - Shitou e no Requiem ~ Streets of Rage II (Japan, Europe).md" size="2097152" crc="42e3efdc" md5="c53faea21ca58de2282a8f1a210527ba" sha1="a0d3a216278aef5564dcbed83df0dd59222812c8" status="verified"/>
</game>
<game name="Bare Knuckle II (Unknown) (Beta)" cloneof="Bare Knuckle II - Shitou e no Requiem ~ Streets of Rage II (Japan, Europe)">
  <description>Bare Knuckle II (Unknown) (Beta)</description>
  <rom name="Bare Knuckle II (Unknown) (Beta).md" size="1245184" crc="0cf2acbe" md5="bbe27f5a43be4bb2a11d119b3c1c70e1" sha1="ee3bee676944bc5a3cab163c209825f678dc8204"/>
</game>
<game name="Streets of Rage 2 (USA)" cloneof="Bare Knuckle II - Shitou e no Requiem ~ Streets of Rage II (Japan, Europe)">
  <description>Streets of Rage 2 (USA)</description>
  <release name="Streets of Rage 2 (USA)" region="USA"/>
  <rom name="Streets of Rage 2 (USA).md" size="2097152" crc="e01fa526" md5="cb75d5a6919b61efe917bea5762c1cb7" sha1="8b656eec9692d88bbbb84787142aa732b44ce0be" status="verified"/>
</game>

Thanks in advance, and sorry if my English is bad  ;D
Title: Re: Sub-wheels
Post by: rand0m on July 22, 2019, 09:17:19 PM
Hi, its possible but it would require some tweaks. I wanted the same thing for one of my layouts but its still WIP so I'll share some insights:

1- Clones should be mentioned in a separate head in you romlist. For example in genesis.romlist clones of any games should be listed under the head "CloneOf". Text files can be opened in Excel (Open Excel > Import Text File > Delimited > Select ";" as separator) for easy editing. This Head should contain Clones and Parents both.

1a- this would mean that the example you gave Streets of Rage II will have Bare Knuckle II in its "CloneOf" and vice versa.

2- The tricky part, the search function (or keyboard search function plugin) should be modified to check the entries in "CloneOf" - so when you push the custom key to search it would search the "CloneOf" of current game and list any matched entries.

2a- This would work in cases where both parent and clone are in same system (in your example Genesis). If they are in different systems then you should create a "unified system list" and then run the search on the that list.

I want this setup for searching "series" in my layout but like I said its still a WIP.
Title: Re: Sub-wheels
Post by: Brikinhos on July 23, 2019, 07:21:17 AM
2- The tricky part, the search function (or keyboard search function plugin) should be modified to check the entries in "CloneOf" - so when you push the custom key to search it would search the "CloneOf" of current game and list any matched entries.
I didn't know it exist a search function plugin. It's not I want exactly, but it's a nice solution and I will try it. Thanks so much!