Attract-Mode Support Forum
Attract-Mode Support => General => Topic started by: zpaolo11x on October 20, 2020, 10:28:11 PM
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I was wondering... I always used "additional import files" field in emulator setup to point to catver.ini on MAME, so the romlist would be populated with category data. Is this the only thing one can do? Because I'm planning to include both bestgames.ini and series.ini data in my layout, and I'm wondering if I have to write a parser (like the one for history.dat or command.dat) or if there's a way to include this data in the romlist when the emulator is configured.
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I use catver.ini and nplayers.ini. Controls.ini is only needed if you are using an older version of MAME (Raspberry Pi).
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I use catver.ini and nplayers.ini. Controls.ini is only needed if you are using an older version of MAME (Raspberry Pi).
I don't use nplayers.ini, just catver.ini, but still I have the number of players in my mame romlist :O That said, all these "ini" files populate the romlist in entries like Category, Controller etc, so it seems that other inis like bestgames.ini or series.ini doesn't have a field in the romlist to populate. I'll have to build a parser :D
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I have never used the bestgames.ini or series.ini. I just looked at them and think you could do a simple cut-and-paste from these to manually create tag files in AM.
I know everyone has different preferences but the series.ini seems to be every version of a rom which most people wouldn't want to see. The bestgames.ini seems to rate every game so I don't think most would want all these games either since it includes games that they say are very bad.
You could make a script to use these files but a cut-and-paste makes more sense to me unless you really want these usually filtered and removed roms.
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You could make a script to use these files but a cut-and-paste makes more sense to me unless you really want these usually filtered and removed roms.
My idea is to read those ini files at layout launch or romlist load, then create properties in the game list for them. Thanks to the internal game list in Arcadeflow I can add properties that are not currently in the romlist... In this way when you look at the details of a game you can see if it has a rating, and if it's part of a series.
With the "more of the same..." search function you'll be able to filter your games to show the ones in the same series as the current game, and you'll be able to sort by serie and by rating. Of course it will apply only to the games you currently have.
I just have to find a smart way to parse this huge files, or maybe output a simplified version to be used in the layout (like it does in history.dat)
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I have never used the bestgames.ini or series.ini. I just looked at them and think you could do a simple cut-and-paste from these to manually create tag files in AM.
I know everyone has different preferences but the series.ini seems to be every version of a rom which most people wouldn't want to see. The bestgames.ini seems to rate every game so I don't think most would want all these games either since it includes games that they say are very bad.
You could make a script to use these files but a cut-and-paste makes more sense to me unless you really want these usually filtered and removed roms.
My feature request would be a good use (IMO :) ) for Series.ini https://github.com/mickelson/attract/issues/636