File Structure list games MALA

[empardopo]

I haven't found the programa Romdir2XML.

Anybody know the File Structure list games MALA?

Thanks in advance.

Note: I'm sorry for my bad english!! 

[empardopo]

I need to know the structure,please! Anybody know it? Loadman?

I want develop a program in that you can put your roms in a directory and my program generates a file with a list games for MALA.

Thanks in advance!

[BadMouth]

I don't know the answer to your question, but it sounds like mlgconverter.exe might be useful to you.
You can find it in this thread:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,101104.0.html

[DrChek]

I want develop a program in that you can put your roms in a directory and my program generates a file with a list games for MALA.

RomLister can do that.

[NOP]

romlister can kinda do that.  his original search was for romdir2xml, which can take a list of say, SNES roms and create an XML file of them.
Then you take that XML file as input into romlister and have it output a mala list.

sadly, the only thing romlister can do with roms is compare your MAME roms against the MAME xml file.  It's close, but no cigar.

that said, I would think it wouldn't be that hard to duplicate what romdir2xml does, but since no one appears to have a copy of it anymore, I can't really say for certain it wasn't a huge lot of work.

[empardopo]

I don't know the answer to your question, but it sounds like mlgconverter.exe might be useful to you.
You can find it in this thread:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,101104.0.html

Perhaps, I am wrong but I think that mlgconverter.exe it isn't that I'm looking for!
Mlgconverter.exe need a ini file or mlg file to run and I need a program that starting from a directory with my roms generates a MALA list games!

Thanks anyway!

I want develop a program in that you can put your roms in a directory and my program generates a file with a list games for MALA.

RomLister can do that.

I thought that Romlister only worked with mame games.

romlister can kinda do that.  his original search was for romdir2xml, which can take a list of say, SNES roms and create an XML file of them.
Then you take that XML file as input into romlister and have it output a mala list.

sadly, the only thing romlister can do with roms is compare your MAME roms against the MAME xml file.  It's close, but no cigar.

that said, I would think it wouldn't be that hard to duplicate what romdir2xml does, but since no one appears to have a copy of it anymore, I can't really say for certain it wasn't a huge lot of work.

If I find the original romdir2xml my problem is solved. Anybody has it?
Otherwise, my big problem is knowing the structure of the lists in MALA.

[DrChek]

I want develop a program in that you can put your roms in a directory and my program generates a file with a list games for MALA.

RomLister can do that.

I thought that Romlister only worked with mame games.

True. I didn't know you were talking about other emulators. Maybe try to contact the author of ROMLister since he knows the file format of the MALA lists.

[BadMouth]

I don't know the answer to your question, but it sounds like mlgconverter.exe might be useful to you.
You can find it in this thread:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,101104.0.html

Perhaps, I am wrong but I think that mlgconverter.exe it isn't that I'm looking for!
Mlgconverter.exe need a ini file or mlg file to run and I need a program that starting from a directory with my roms generates a MALA list games!

Thanks anyway!

I need to know the structure,please! Anybody know it? Loadman?

I want develop a program in that you can put your roms in a directory and my program generates a file with a list games for MALA.

Thanks in advance!

I didn't say it would do what you wanted, only that it might be useful.

Example:

1. Convert a mala gamelist that you already have to an .ini file
2. Learn the format of the .ini file by looking at it
3. Write a program that outputs an .ini file using the same format
4. After your program creates the .ini file, have it automatically convert it to a Mala mlg file using mlgconverter.exe

[NOP]

romlister is also open source, and while the MFC code to generate a list is pretty fugly, it does work...

if I had time to do a romdir2xml, I most certainly would attempt to add that feature, but i'm a bit swamped right now.  let me stew on it this weekend some.

[empardopo]

I don't know the answer to your question, but it sounds like mlgconverter.exe might be useful to you.
You can find it in this thread:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,101104.0.html

Perhaps, I am wrong but I think that mlgconverter.exe it isn't that I'm looking for!
Mlgconverter.exe need a ini file or mlg file to run and I need a program that starting from a directory with my roms generates a MALA list games!

Thanks anyway!

I need to know the structure,please! Anybody know it? Loadman?

I want develop a program in that you can put your roms in a directory and my program generates a file with a list games for MALA.

Thanks in advance!

I didn't say it would do what you wanted, only that it might be useful.

Example:

1. Convert a mala gamelist that you already have to an .ini file
2. Learn the format of the .ini file by looking at it
3. Write a program that outputs an .ini file using the same format
4. After your program creates the .ini file, have it automatically convert it to a Mala mlg file using mlgconverter.exe

While the structure is unknown, it seems good your idea! 
I think that It's my only option. 

romlister is also open source, and while the MFC code to generate a list is pretty fugly, it does work...

if I had time to do a romdir2xml, I most certainly would attempt to add that feature, but i'm a bit swamped right now.  let me stew on it this weekend some.

My real idea is RomDirTOMLG.
The program will generate a file from the games you put in a folder ... That is my idea!

[BadMouth]

There is a Gamelist download on the source code section of the Mala download page:
http://www.malafe.net/index.php?page=download
(bottom left)
"Use these classes to read and write game lists."

I downloaded it and it's a .pas file. 
I assume someone who knows how to code delphi would know what to do with it.
That ain't me. 

[NOP]

My real idea is RomDirTOMLG.
The program will generate a file from the games you put in a folder ... That is my idea!

If you're only referring to MAME games, with rom names like "puckman.zip" then ROMLister will actually do that for you.  You need an XML file as generated by a recent copy of MAME.

If you want to do this with other games, say for example SNES, with filenames like: "Alien vs. Predator (E) [!].zip" that is more difficult because mala wants to know details like # of buttons, # of players, manufacturer, year, etc, to properly fill in all the fields in the .mlg list.

We don't have that information anywhere, certainly not in the file name anyway.  I would think that we could just default values in those empty fields, I don't know if mala will like that or not.

It's doable to add this to romlister. 
let me keep thinking about how to best go about it.

[NOP]

ok, that was pretty easy.  (about an hour)

http://www.waste.org/~winkles/ROMLister/RLromdir2xml.zip

this is a prototype for your testing. 
1) go into the settings and tools menu and at the bottom of the screen you will see "romdir2xml" button.
2) browse to your folder of roms (only supports .zip files right now)
3) pick an xml filename to create

RL will read the zip files and generate an XML file.  When it's done, it will set that new xml file as your input file.

Now for the tricky part:
*NONE* of GUI controls will work here.  since we're not using MAME's xml data anymore, there is no longer any information for controls, genre, monitor orientation, nothing.  Don't bother playing with any of those controls (in the future, I will likey gray them all out)

1) delete all the text in the -find: window, and replace it with a =
(we need something to search on, a "=" is in every rom description)
2) press go!
This will make a list of every ROM in the xml file.  You can now output that list to mala or any other front end you want.

alternately, you can press the "list all roms" button and then either select them all or just the games you want and right-click-->add to list.

I have loaded the output .mlg file into mala and it didn't crash, but I have not tried actually playing a game off it.

The neat thing is you could actually make lists based off the zip filename.
For my testing, I used my SNES roms collection, which are named like this:
3 Ninjas Kick Back (U)
3D Stereo World - Find the Hidden Images (PD)
3x3 Eyes - Jyuma Houkan (J)
3x3 Eyes - Seima Korin Den (J)
4 Nin Shogi (J)
46 Okunen Monogatari (J)
7th Saga, The (U)
90 Minutes - European Prime Goal (Beta)
90 Minutes - European Prime Goal (E) [!]

You could change your search criteria (by hand) in the -find: window to say, only make a list of the (U) games.  neat.

good luck.

[empardopo]

ok, that was pretty easy.  (about an hour)

http://www.waste.org/~winkles/ROMLister/RLromdir2xml.zip

this is a prototype for your testing. 
1) go into the settings and tools menu and at the bottom of the screen you will see "romdir2xml" button.
2) browse to your folder of roms (only supports .zip files right now)
3) pick an xml filename to create

RL will read the zip files and generate an XML file.  When it's done, it will set that new xml file as your input file.

Now for the tricky part:
*NONE* of GUI controls will work here.  since we're not using MAME's xml data anymore, there is no longer any information for controls, genre, monitor orientation, nothing.  Don't bother playing with any of those controls (in the future, I will likey gray them all out)

1) delete all the text in the -find: window, and replace it with a =
(we need something to search on, a "=" is in every rom description)
2) press go!
This will make a list of every ROM in the xml file.  You can now output that list to mala or any other front end you want.

alternately, you can press the "list all roms" button and then either select them all or just the games you want and right-click-->add to list.

I have loaded the output .mlg file into mala and it didn't crash, but I have not tried actually playing a game off it.

The neat thing is you could actually make lists based off the zip filename.
For my testing, I used my SNES roms collection, which are named like this:
3 Ninjas Kick Back (U)
3D Stereo World - Find the Hidden Images (PD)
3x3 Eyes - Jyuma Houkan (J)
3x3 Eyes - Seima Korin Den (J)
4 Nin Shogi (J)
46 Okunen Monogatari (J)
7th Saga, The (U)
90 Minutes - European Prime Goal (Beta)
90 Minutes - European Prime Goal (E) [!]

You could change your search criteria (by hand) in the -find: window to say, only make a list of the (U) games.  neat.

good luck.

I've generated a xml file which contains the next

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!-- This file generated by ROMLister -->
]>
<romdir2xml>
   <game name="Chuckie Egg.z80">
      <description>Chuckie Egg.z80</description>
      <year>?</year>
      <manufacturer>Unknown</manufacturer>
   </game>
   <game name="ManicMiner.z80">
      <description>ManicMiner.z80</description>
      <year>?</year>
      <manufacturer>Unknown</manufacturer>
   </game>
<romdir2xml>

Then, It's impossible for me to enable the Go button!

Have you test it? What am I doing wrong?

Greetings!

[NOP]

if you click on settings and tools, select your new xml file, then hit set, is there a pop-up message that appears?  what does it say?

the GO button gets grayed out if:
1) RL cannot open the file for reading.  file attributes, 0 byte file, corrupt?
2) RL is unable to find a valid XML header.  If it says "This file generated by ROMLister" that's valid enough for it.

those are the only 2 conditions I can see in the code that turn off the button.  Both of those conditions pop-up an error message.

[empardopo]

Now it works!I do not know what I was doing wrong before! Thanks! 
Now I only need to test it in a real environment!
Greetings!