Can Mala display game info for non-Mame emus?

[Ninten-doh]

I have Mala set up as my front end and really love it.  The only feature I would like to see is text file support for non-Mame emus like Daphne and Visual Pinball.  With Mame, my front end looks great with the company, year, controls, etc. listed.  When I switch to Daphne and VP, it looks so empty.  I'd like to create my own text files with the appropriate info and include it in Mala.  Does this option exist and I just don't know how to do it?  I'm probably the only idiot who cares about this, but figured I would ask.   

[ChicagoDave]

Good question.  Also, can MaLa display the game info if the second emu is also a different version of MAME?

[swindus]

The info is stored in the game list files. So it is possible to diplay all these information for any emulator if they are available in the game lists for this emulator.

So the question is not: Can MaLa display this information. The question is: How can I add this information to the game list?

Maybe I will add a edit/custom import function in MalaGamelist in the future, but no plans for this so far.

On the other hand the source of the MaLa game list files is available on the MaLa webpage. So anyone is invited to create on application for this task.

http://mala.arcadezentrum.com/download.html

[Ninten-doh]

Hi Swindus,
Just so I'm clear on this...

For MAME, you have check boxes for both catver.ini and controls.ini, but you do not have this option for other emus, correct?  I was hoping to display controls.ini info for Daphne using the DaphneControls.ini file that Howard Casto created, but from what I understand this is not currently available through MaLa.

[loadman]

Hi Swindus,
Just so I'm clear on this...

For MAME, you have check boxes for both catver.ini and controls.ini, but you do not have this option for other emus, correct?  I was hoping to display controls.ini info for Daphne using the DaphneControls.ini file that Howard Casto created, but from what I understand this is not currently available through MaLa.

Can you copy and paste data from one to another?

I dunno just thinking out loud

[Ninten-doh]

Loadman, copy and paste from where to where?  Sorry I'm being so dense!   

[loadman]

Loadman, copy and paste from where to where?  Sorry I'm being so dense!   

It probably won't work anyway, I mean copy data from DaphneControls.ini to controls.ini if mala is looking there

[swindus]

Hi Swindus,
Just so I'm clear on this...

For MAME, you have check boxes for both catver.ini and controls.ini, but you do not have this option for other emus, correct?  I was hoping to display controls.ini info for Daphne using the DaphneControls.ini file that Howard Casto created, but from what I understand this is not currently available through MaLa.

Yes right, currently not available through MaLa. The difference of the game list creation between MAME and the other emus is that the MAME list is created from the XML file and the lists of the other emus is created from a directory content.

But I'm thinking about a way to add this information to any game list within the MalaGamelist application.

[Ninten-doh]

Thanks for clarifying Swindus!   

[Howard_Casto]

Hi Swindus,
Just so I'm clear on this...

For MAME, you have check boxes for both catver.ini and controls.ini, but you do not have this option for other emus, correct?  I was hoping to display controls.ini info for Daphne using the DaphneControls.ini file that Howard Casto created, but from what I understand this is not currently available through MaLa.

Yes right, currently not available through MaLa. The difference of the game list creation between MAME and the other emus is that the MAME list is created from the XML file and the lists of the other emus is created from a directory content.

But I'm thinking about a way to add this information to any game list within the MalaGamelist application.

It's funny that I still have to tell people how to add multi-emu capacity to their fes after all these years properly (no offense intended at all). 

Gamelist by directory should definately be an option, but the proper way to do it is to standardize everything.  Mame has to be a special case now because of the xml, but back in the day all emus had one thing in common, clrmamepro dat files.  Mame's listinfo format is just an expanded version of the clrmamepro dat file.  The standard dats contain not only the game name, but the manufacturer, the year, and the parent/clone relationship.  All you have to do is make your list generator parse clrmamepro dat files and you are good to go.  As for catvers, that is easy as well.  In dk catver.ini is used for mame, but for any other emu it seaches in emunamecatver.ini, where "emuname" is replaced by the name of the emu.  Easy stuff as long as you use the tools already available to you instead of trying to re-invent the wheel. 

A user should never, ever ever have to manually edit gamelists to add data to a list.

I hope that helps.

[Minwah]

All you have to do is make your list generator parse clrmamepro dat files and you are good to go.

I agree....but for the sake of the topic it is important to note that many dat files do not contain any extra information other than gamename & description (usually the same for console roms).

The topic of creating information-rich dat files for console roms and computer images has been discussed many times.  The problem is that it is a mammoth task which no one really wants to tackly...I do not know if anyone has made any progress recently (?)

[Howard_Casto]

Yeah I'm not referring to console roms.  The poster was asking about other arcade emus.  Console roms are a whole other bucket of worms and it's best just to let good tools deal with em and make a list based on a directory as there isn't any info anyway.


Actually that isn't true about the extra information.  There aren't many arcade emus left outside of mame and all of them have full dats that contain the manufacturer year ect....  Daphne doesn't have a parent/clone relationship, but that is intentional as daphne doesn't have any clones, only alternate rom sets.  Other than that afaik they all contain full data. 

[swindus]

Thanks for the info. I didn't know that.