List Mode by something other than Emulator

[xamlmammal]

So I am fairly new to the arcade front end scene. I started building my own arcade and I see that a majority of others who have this interest are all doing it very similarly. That is, building a front end that organizes by the platform.

I am looking to do something different. I am not trying to build the ultimate 9,000 + library across infinite number of platforms, I simply want to have a list of games by their style. But within that list I want it to include both mame, dolphin, demul, steam. I want my Mortal Kombats, street fighters, together and organized under a list for fighters, for example.

Is that possible with Attract Mode? One List for fighters that will launch many different emulators?

[retrogam3]

yes you still add all of the emulators you are going to use and generate the collection/rom list. after that you can copy lines from rom lists to create one rom list and then delete the layouts you are not going to use.

[xamlmammal]

Thanks for the Reply though I am not sure I fully understand the response as I am still fairly new to Attract Mode. I have an emulator for each emulator that I am going to use. I also will have a ROM List generated for each of the Emulators.

The next is where things get fuzzy. I have these Displays that I create, would I create a display for say "Fighter" and filter the rom list for that particular display to only show fighter... what i am not clear on is the idea around creating a single rom list. How does the binding work for the ROM list to the emulator work. It appears in the display like that display is directly tied to the emulator and not a series of emulators so I am confused how that would work or does work. I feel like I am missing something.

[retrogam3]

Look in the romlist folder where you have AM installed. There you will find the various romlists that were created when you setup the emulator. than just edit the romlists you actually want to use with notepad. If you have thousands of games in a single rom list it will be hard to edit. You can copy the game info from one romlist and paste it in another. have one for just fighters. I've attached a romlist I have that has several emulators and various roms that go with those emulators even though my romlist is just called mame. Keep in mind you can't just use my romlist but it should give you the concept.

#Name;Title;Emulator;CloneOf;Year;Manufacturer;Category;Players;Rotation;Control;Status;DisplayCount;DisplayType;AltRomname;AltTitle;Extra

See the third entry after name and title says emulator. This is what tells AM what emulator the particular rom runs under. First things first though you need to get the roms working in the emulator and with AM first.

[xamlmammal]

Oh Perfect, thank you.

I thought the list itself was the driver for the emulator not the list itself. That's exactly what I needed to know.

As for the .txt file rom lists, I actually wrote a little program to edit the fields, filter them etc and save them back out. I wasn't sure if something already exists, if nothing does exist I will share it on the forums.

[akafox]

Rom lister would do that.. however it doesn't support AM list format so yeah that would be useful!

[empardopo]

Oh Perfect, thank you.

I thought the list itself was the driver for the emulator not the list itself. That's exactly what I needed to know.

As for the .txt file rom lists, I actually wrote a little program to edit the fields, filter them etc and save them back out. I wasn't sure if something already exists, if nothing does exist I will share it on the forums.

I would like take a look to that program. Is it possible?
Thanks in advance.

[akafox]

I would like take a look to that program. Is it possible?

sure. romlister is here https://www.waste.org/~winkles/ROMLister/ I don't know if it will work well natively for AM though. However you can import a different list type to AM.