Software Support > controls.dat
My goals for this year
Howard_Casto:
--- Quote from: SirPoonga on May 06, 2011, 02:16:16 pm ---Looks like Microsoft is getting into HTML5. I am starting to see them getting rid of Silverlight for HTML5. also this is a ms blog.
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2011/05/06/galactic-building-a-3d-solar-system-with-html5.aspx
Looking at what one could do with HTML5 I could totally see an IE9 frontend - put IE9 into full screen mode and use HTML5 along with controls.dat data I think you could make a pretty cool FE.
Well, maybe not an FE because that require running a local exe which web tech frowns on. BUT I see we could make an html5 control viewer. Someone could then just embed IE9 into their FE. The only issue with that is how much traffic would that push to arcadecontrols.com. I would host the FE viewer on my own website possibly. I might just do that at some point.
--- End quote ---
Well the actual code could be stored locally... the viewer would only need to access the database. As far as that's concerned the whole thing could be a downloadable package, with the user only having to periodically download a new controls.xml.
You are forgetting that a controls viewer (that shows the users controls) would also have to read a user's individual mame cfg files though. Imo that would be more difficult than any bandwidth issues.
I've been using IE9 for about a month or two now and while it supports html5 pretty well,.....when you start mixing other languages in with it... let's just say it's less than stable.
I do think we need to start thinking about a "official" controls.dat viewer though. Something web-based would be nice because it would instantly work on mac's and linux. Getting the database converted to the new format we were talking about probably should take priority though.
SirPoonga:
Alright, time to get back into the project - summer is over and it is getting cold out. I'm going to start by working on a better database design to store the information. Man, was I a rookie when I started this project.
TheManuel:
I would like to help you.
I have made a bunch of entries for my personal use (and I'm only getting warmed-up) and would like to share them.
I think I get the spirit of what this project is about, which is mainly about accuracy. Therefore, I will take some time to document my entries and leave off the dubious ones for my personal use only.
Some questions that would help me get started:
- If I have entries with unverified label wording (but that I know exactly what they do in-game, should I leave them out or do you have a use for them?
- Do you accept individual entries for games that were part of multi-game systems like the Neo Geo or do you want those to remain at the system level (generic A, B, C & D buttons, in this case) as they are now
- I have gone one step further for the games that I've researched and tried to document the layout of the buttons, not just their labels, so that I can play them as faithful to the original as possible; is there a way to incorporate this type of information in the project (perhaps I can use the misc details area)?
- Do you have a standard set of required documentation you maintain for each entry?
Best regards and thanks for creating this fantastic project.
:cheers:
Howard_Casto:
--- Quote from: TheManuel on October 25, 2011, 12:39:59 pm ---I would like to help you.
I have made a bunch of entries for my personal use (and I'm only getting warmed-up) and would like to share them.
I think I get the spirit of what this project is about, which is mainly about accuracy. Therefore, I will take some time to document my entries and leave off the dubious ones for my personal use only.
Some questions that would help me get started:
- If I have entries with unverified label wording (but that I know exactly what they do in-game, should I leave them out or do you have a use for them?
- Do you accept individual entries for games that were part of multi-game systems like the Neo Geo or do you want those to remain at the system level (generic A, B, C & D buttons, in this case) as they are now
- I have gone one step further for the games that I've researched and tried to document the layout of the buttons, not just their labels, so that I can play them as faithful to the original as possible; is there a way to incorporate this type of information in the project (perhaps I can use the misc details area)?
- Do you have a standard set of required documentation you maintain for each entry?
Best regards and thanks for creating this fantastic project.
:cheers:
--- End quote ---
I think this is covered elsewhere, but when we mean "official label" it has absolutely nothing to do with the button/controls function. We want the label as it appears on the control panel overlay. Of course for controls that don't have a label, we try to get as official as we can via manuals and ect.. The reason neo-geo games only have "A, B, C, D" labels is two-fold:
1. All neo-geo overlays use these labels.... they are the official labels.
2. Every single solitary neo-geo game starts with a "how to play" screen that describes, in detail, what button does what.
That should pretty much answer all of your questions just with that example.
Because documentation is sparse there is no standardized set but here is a list of acceptable sources, from best to worst.
1. A picture of the games actual cpo.
2. An official source of documentation from the game, stating the controls (instruction card, game manual, ect)
3. A "how to play" screen found within the game.
4. Some other official source directly from the game's manufacturers.
5. Common sense (This one is rarely accepted unless the controls are really simple or we have precident with another game in the series)
Some examples of #5:
It's a 4-way joystick game with no buttons. We can safely assume that the labels are either non-existant (common for joysticks) or are up/down/left/right.
SF III Third Strike.... We can't find an official cpo image, but we already have a entry for the original sf III so we can assume they are the same.
Judge Dread.... It's a prototype so no official cpo or labels exist. We can look at photos of the prototype if possible, but if not, their function will have to do.
TheManuel:
I still have several additions/corrections that you may find valuable and that adhere to the general philosophy of this project.
One example off the top of my head, is aburner2. In the MAME configuration screen, the fire button is labeled "fire" and the missile button is labeled "vulcan". This is inaccurate because vulcan actually refers to the vulcan cannon, which is the 20mm gun in the F-14 fighter, whereas missiles are just that (there is no such thing as vulcan missiles).
The manual confirms this on page 6:
http://pdf.textfiles.com/manuals/ARCADE/A-J/After%20Burner%20[Owner's]%20[English].pdf
I can't make the url clickable because of the square brackets it contains.
Controls.xml simply follows the MAME convention, so this is a good candidate to be fixed for the sake of accuracy.
Edit: corrected embarrassing spelling and grammar
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