Best way to generate custom lists for a display?

[Mr B0bert]

Very new to Attract Mode, but I'm trying to build custom lists as a display in my cab. The weird thing is some games appear, but others won't despite the line being present in MAME.txt under \romlists and the romset files are in MAME, and I can see them in other displays... any ideas? Here's the current code in attract.cfg for the display:

Code: [Select]

display Dad is old
layout               nevato
romlist              MAME
in_cycle             yes
in_menu              yes
filter               "Dad is old"
rule                 Name equals rtype|shinobi|bublbobl|combatsc|tmnt2po|tmnt22pu|asteroid|dkong|mshj|ddux|samsho4|streetsm|mvsc|wakuwak7|mwalk|shdancer|mk|mk2|mk3|umk3|mk4|soulclbr|fatfury1|fatfury2|fatfury3|fatfursp|ddsom|ddtod|garou|mslug|mslug2|mslugx|mslug3|mslug4|mslug5|sfa2|sfa3|sf2|sf2hf|sf2ce|ssf2|ssf2t|pfghtj|xmvsfj|mshvsfj|vsavj|vsav2|vhunt2|vampj|parodius|sexyparo|gokuparo|outrun|orunners|pdrift|snowbros|galaga|invaders|mspacman|pacman|pacland|sonic|galaxian|frogger|galaxyfg|aof|aof2|aof3|fantzone|fantzn2|wboy|wbmlvc|rtype2|rtypeleo|uccops|baddudes|batman|nbbatman|nwarr|gijoe|xmcota|goldnaxe|ga2|gaxeduel|ddragon|nbajam|nbajamte|robocop|rbff1|rbff2|rbffspec|rayforce|raystorm|kof94|kof95|kof96|kof97|kof98|kof99|kof2000|kof2001|kof2002|kof2003|cotton2|cottonbm|twinspri|nspirit|ninjakd2|ncombat|ffight|captcomm|dino|avsp|aliensyn|chinagat|mpatrol|simpsons2p|defender

Games not appearing include the Metal Slug entries, SF2 variants (aside from SSF2), Final Fight, R-Type 2 and Leo, etc. But Defender and R-Type, along with 80% of this list, do.

I was thinking maybe I'm doing this inefficiently - would it be better to create custom romlists for each of these displays, or use tags?

[progets]

It looks like your rule should work. Be certain the rom names are correctly spelled. You could try changing your rule from "Name equals" to "Name contains" and see if it helps.

If this doesn't help I would recommend tags over additional romlists. AM needs to read every romlist when it loads so additional romlists will cause a delay to load duplicate information. This isn't really an issue on a fast PC but can make a big difference on something slow like a Raspberry Pi. Tags can be done using the GUI while additional romlist would need to manually be done outside of the GUI.

You might check out this thread to give you other ideas http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=1165.msg8455#msg8455.

[Mr B0bert]

Thanks progets for the advice! I really appreciated it.

I ended up playing around with some of the other suggestions and didn't have much luck. My next thought was maybe something was up with the fact I had a merged set, so I grabbed a split set and still no luck.

After a series of blank stares and throwing a few things against the wall revealed what's happening, and it's definitely a bug!

The error seems to hit where you're entering a series of games and the order needs to be reversed so the root filename is at the front.

Sounds odd I know - here's what I had before:

Code: [Select]

aof|aof2|aof3
... but if I used the following:

Code: [Select]

aof2|aof3|aof
It works!

Did the same for Street Fighter 2 - before

Code: [Select]

sf2|sf2ce|sf2hf
... and after which worked:

Code: [Select]

sf2hf|sf2ce|sf2
A very unusual bug! I wanted to post it here in case anyone else comes across it.

When it displays the games in Attract Mode it pops them in alpha order as expected, and I've since added to the filter and it's running great. Have been having a great time playing games on my cab with my son, much faster using Attract Mode than swapping PCBs!