Messages

31

Emulators / Re: Mame or mess

« on: July 24, 2022, 03:10:43 AM »

MAME is arcade games. MESS is everything that isn't an arcade game, all your consoles and computer games.

MAME and MESS were combined years back. If you are running any build of MAME built in the past five years it also contains MESS.

When using MAME for arcade games they call the games roms.

When using MESS within MAME they call all the non-arcade systems software lists.

http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=2290.msg15484#msg15484
http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=2307.msg15606#msg15606

32

General / Re: Switch emulator

« on: July 24, 2022, 02:53:34 AM »

Yes. Configure both emulators in AM. Set one to be the default "Emulator" for your system. Make sure you have a key/button defined for "Edit Game" in the "Controls" settings of AM. Highlight any game you want to use the alternate emulator and press the key/button set for "Edit Game" and choose the alternate emulator configuration. This will need to be done for each game that needs the alternate emulator.

You can also manually edit the romlist.txt for your system and type in the alternate emulator for the games that need it by changing the name in the "Emulator" field to your alternate emulator.

33

Themes / Re: NEVATO theme how to set to 4:3 on a 16:9 monitor?

« on: July 04, 2022, 12:21:48 PM »

Change lines 76 and 77 of the layout.nut

from

Code: [Select]

//fe.layout.width = 1920;
//fe.layout.height = 1080;

to

Code: [Select]

fe.layout.width = 800;
fe.layout.height = 600;
or what ever you want the resolution to be

34

General / Re: Adding game info for emulators that are not MAME

« on: June 26, 2022, 01:03:27 AM »

Hi Progets; if I'm in a Windows environment, is it possible to use command line to import an XML file and build the romlist? I know Windows is DOS based so the commands might be different but I'm not sure if I'm going to be unable to import the lists entirely.

Yes, you can import an XML file on the command line. More information on which system, where the XML file is from, file names and locations would help to give you better details.

An import would look like this. Your locations/paths to the files and names will likely be different.

Code: [Select]

cd C:\AttractMode
attract-console.exe -i "C:\AttractMode\romlists\Nintendo Entertainment System.xml" -o "Nintendo Entertainment System"

attract-console.exe is the command
-i is the file you want to import
-o is the AttractMode romlist name you want

If there are any spaces in the path or file names you'll need to use quotes like I show above.

35

General / Re: Trouble generating MAME romlist

« on: June 21, 2022, 08:27:47 PM »

In your mame emulator.cfg (configuration) make sure you have this.

Code: [Select]

info_source          listxml


36

General / Re: Is there any list with original console games (not included in arcade?

« on: June 12, 2022, 12:34:31 AM »

Interesting concept. I understand what you're trying to do but not how you want to approach making it happen. The easiest way would be to just put the unique games in your collection and the romlists will only contain unique games to that platform/system. You can also use filtering or tagging if you have more than unique games in your collection.

At any rate, if you're simply asking how to figure out which games for which system, these are couple of examples that should help and I think you'll find the rest by simply changing the system name in the search.
I Googled "nes exclusive games list" and this was in the top 5 results https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Nintendo_Entertainment_System-only_games
I Googled "snes exclusive games list" and this was in the top 5 results https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Super_Nintendo_Entertainment_System-only_games
I Googled "sms exclusive games list" and this was in the top 5 results https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Master_System-only_games
I Googled "genesis exclusive games list" and this was in the top 5 results https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Sega_Genesis-only_games

I don't know if these list are 100% accurate but at a glance they looked pretty good.

How will you decide which system rom you will use when it's not an arcade game but was release on multiple other systems? Will you just not include these games?

37

General / Re: Multi Disk Batch/Bulk

« on: June 10, 2022, 04:54:17 PM »

Does this 39,007 include stuff like the snes and sega master system?

No, that number is just arcade games. To get all the other systems you need to download MAME Software Lists (also know as MESS in the past). If you read the two threads I linked above you will see how doing almost everything in MAME is how I would approach things today if I was starting out fresh/new.

38

General / Re: Multi Disk Batch/Bulk

« on: June 09, 2022, 11:44:45 PM »

If you create M3Us for all of your games you won't need a rule for all the disks, just change the file extension to .m3u in your emulator.cfg.

This thread shows some scripts and might be helpful. The scripts aren't for m3u but the same concepts apply. I also think you can learn a lot there if you read the whole thread. http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=2290.msg15484#msg15484

This thread might also interest you if you want to use MAME for Software Lists (non arcade systems). http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=2307.msg15606#msg15606

39

General / Re: Issue with MAME Setup

« on: June 08, 2022, 09:03:32 PM »

If you use a merged romset AttractMode won't see any clone roms since they are zipped in the parent roms. Most people use non-merged roms.

Most people would put everything in a single folder for MAME arcade roms. If you have a rom and matching chd folder in different locations that might work in MAME but will likely have issues in a frontend like AttractMode. If you use MAME software list roms, they should go into a separate folder with their matching chd files.

...\MAME\Roms\<romname.zip>
...\MAME\Roms\<chd_folder_name>

40

General / Re: RocketLauncher plugin is now built into AttractMode - Why use RocketLauncher?

« on: June 07, 2022, 08:45:01 PM »

The plugin allows AM to pass information about game specifics (all the fields in the romlist.txt) and artwork locations to RL.

From plugin.nut

Path to picture files representing every emulator
Determine which AttractMode Artwork should be used to show Rocketlauncher game backgrounds in the fade screen
Determine which AttractMode Artwork should be used to show Rocketlauncher wheels/box art in the fade screen
Determine which AttractMode Artwork should be used to show Rocketlauncher videos in the fade screen
Determine which AttractMode Artwork should be used to show Rocketlauncher game artwork in the fade screen (marquee)
Determine which AttractMode Artwork should be used to show Rocketlauncher game artwork in the fade screen (fanart)
Determine which AttractMode Artwork should be used to show Rocketlauncher game artwork in the fade screen (flyer)

A lot of these thing might not be needed if RL already has the paths to all your artwork and also has the system database files for the game specific information.

As I mention in the OP, RL isn't needed for AM but it can add some features that aren't in AM. Most of the things you mention can be done in AM without RL.

Fade in and out - modified fadetogame plugin shown here http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=1893.msg13126#msg13126
User function (start and exit a program before and after game launches) - this can be done in the emulator.cfg or with a short script
Multi disc game support - this can be handled in most modern emulators
Alternate emulator under one system - this exists and is built into AM (game edit --> alternate emulator)
JoyToKey support (different setting loaded between game genre) - this is possible but requires a lot of work (emulator per system and genre mix and then use the AM (game edit --> alternate emulator)

41

General / Re: Newbee Starter Newb help videos & artwork

« on: June 06, 2022, 06:14:20 PM »

1. You can create a "cartart", "boxart", "boxbackart" or any other folder that you want. They can be named anything but their names need to match what they are called in the layout.nut of the theme you use.

2. Clearlogo = Wheel. Marquee is the graphic on the top of an arcade machine.

3. In the Cools layout videos are disabled by default. You can turn it on in the layout options.

4. Robospin, maybe? http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=481.msg3331#msg3331

42

Emulators / Re: Config MAME emulator on M1 Mac

« on: May 31, 2022, 04:49:26 PM »

The last AM Mac release was in in January 2020 which is before the M1 came out.

The forum is for users and developers don't look for issues here. Report any problems, issues, feature requests, etc. here https://github.com/mickelson/attract/issues.

43

Emulators / Re: Config MAME emulator on M1 Mac

« on: May 24, 2022, 08:05:42 PM »

Try running a couple of MAME games from AttractMode and then post your last_run.log file.

44

Emulators / Re: Config MAME emulator on M1 Mac

« on: May 24, 2022, 01:31:12 PM »

Make sure your MAME emulator (not AttractMode) mame.ini file contains the correct "rompath" to your roms.

This is old but it might help. http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=326.msg2330#msg2330

45

Emulators / Re: Config MAME emulator on M1 Mac

« on: May 23, 2022, 06:16:13 PM »

Can you generate the listxml file from the command line?

mame -listxml > mame.xml