Is there a MAME database better than MAWS?

[mark shaker]

Greetings,

I'm trying to group games by their controls:
   8 Way Trigger Grip & Push Down Spinner.
   Optical Wheel, Up-Down Shifter & 2 Pedals.
   etc. etc. etc.

I'm using MAWS as my starting point, but it has rather course control groupings and is often flat out wrong.

Is there anything better that still contains the MAME file name for each game??? 

Thanks for your help!

   - Mark

[rockin_rick]

Try -

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=55636.0

Rick

[mark shaker]

Try -

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=55636.0

Rick

Rick,

Thank you for the link. But I think that this MAME "search engine" has the same data source as MAWS, and thus the same issues.

   - Mark

[horseboy]

http://fe.donkeyfly.com/controls/gamesbycontrol.php

[Bobbler]

Nice one horseboy, well handy for deciding which controls to give some real estate to.

[DigiChaos]

You can goto http://www.mamedatabase.com. When you look at the details of a game, there is a hyperlink to show you all the games that have the similar controller.

For example here is a list of games using the joy8way controller http://www.mamedatabase.com/gamelist-control-joy8way-0.aspx.


Here is all the possible controller links:
http://www.mamedatabase.com/gamelist-control-joy4way-0.aspx
http://www.mamedatabase.com/gamelist-control-joy8way-0.aspx
http://www.mamedatabase.com/gamelist-control-trackball-0.aspx
http://www.mamedatabase.com/gamelist-control-joy2way-0.aspx
http://www.mamedatabase.com/gamelist-control-doublejoy8way-0.aspx
http://www.mamedatabase.com/gamelist-control-dial-0.aspx
http://www.mamedatabase.com/gamelist-control-paddle-0.aspx
http://www.mamedatabase.com/gamelist-control-pedal-0.aspx
http://www.mamedatabase.com/gamelist-control-stick-0.aspx
http://www.mamedatabase.com/gamelist-control-vjoy2way-0.aspx
http://www.mamedatabase.com/gamelist-control-lightgun-0.aspx
http://www.mamedatabase.com/gamelist-control-doublejoy4way-0.aspx
http://www.mamedatabase.com/gamelist-control-vdoublejoy2way-0.aspx
http://www.mamedatabase.com/gamelist-control-doublejoy2way-0.aspx

[mark shaker]

http://fe.donkeyfly.com/controls/gamesbycontrol.php

Thank you!  This seems to be the only thing I've seen where someone looked at the physical controls.

   - Mark

[mark shaker]

You can goto http://www.mamedatabase.com. When you look at the details of a game, there is a hyperlink to show you all the games that have the similar controller.

For example here is a list of games using the joy8way controller http://www.mamedatabase.com/gamelist-control-joy8way-0.aspx.


Here is all the possible controller links:
http://www.mamedatabase.com/gamelist-control-joy4way-0.aspx
http://www.mamedatabase.com/gamelist-control-joy8way-0.aspx
http://www.mamedatabase.com/gamelist-control-trackball-0.aspx
http://www.mamedatabase.com/gamelist-control-joy2way-0.aspx
http://www.mamedatabase.com/gamelist-control-doublejoy8way-0.aspx
http://www.mamedatabase.com/gamelist-control-dial-0.aspx
http://www.mamedatabase.com/gamelist-control-paddle-0.aspx
http://www.mamedatabase.com/gamelist-control-pedal-0.aspx
http://www.mamedatabase.com/gamelist-control-stick-0.aspx
http://www.mamedatabase.com/gamelist-control-vjoy2way-0.aspx
http://www.mamedatabase.com/gamelist-control-lightgun-0.aspx
http://www.mamedatabase.com/gamelist-control-doublejoy4way-0.aspx
http://www.mamedatabase.com/gamelist-control-vdoublejoy2way-0.aspx
http://www.mamedatabase.com/gamelist-control-doublejoy2way-0.aspx

Thank you for the reply. But, I think that this is yet another view of the MAWS data.

It says that DDR is played with an 8-way joystick...

   - Mark

[shorthair]

Ya, the history.dat at times suffers the same (and not just in controls) but is getting better.

[u_rebelscum]

...Thank you for the reply. But, I think that this is yet another view of the MAWS data.

It says that DDR is played with an 8-way joystick...

Most of the "MAWS data" comes directly from mame (the -listxml option); the rest comes from history.dat & art stuff.  While it's nice to know which know which games used Halls Effect sticks vs Flightsticks vs snapsticks vs normal analog sticks, electronically (and thus to mame codewise) these are the same.  Which is why controls.dat exists with the extra info.

FWIW, mame calls DDR's input a "16-way" input, but this is grouped as an 8-way in -listxml's output.

FWIW 2, MAWS simplifies some of the info from -listxml: MAWS only shows one input type per game.  For example, wacko is listed in MAWS as "double 4 way joystick", while -listxml's output (the source of MAWS info) includes the required trackball as well as the joystick.

[rockin_rick]

Yes, the program I referenced (RL) does use mame's xml output.  So it does suffer from the 'errors', but will allow more advanced sorting (which I what I thought you were mainly interested in...)

If someone would/could write a small app that would take the controls.ini data and "fix" the mame xml output, then you could run 'correct' data through RL and that would be the better than what is currently available.  I'm not a (computer) programmer, but it seems doable...  I suppose that could be done by hand, but that would be a big job.

Rick

[mark shaker]

...Thank you for the reply. But, I think that this is yet another view of the MAWS data.

It says that DDR is played with an 8-way joystick...

Most of the "MAWS data" comes directly from mame (the -listxml option); the rest comes from history.dat & art stuff.  While it's nice to know which know which games used Halls Effect sticks vs Flightsticks vs snapsticks vs normal analog sticks, electronically (and thus to mame codewise) these are the same.  Which is why controls.dat exists with the extra info.

FWIW, mame calls DDR's input a "16-way" input, but this is grouped as an 8-way in -listxml's output.

FWIW 2, MAWS simplifies some of the info from -listxml: MAWS only shows one input type per game.  For example, wacko is listed in MAWS as "double 4 way joystick", while -listxml's output (the source of MAWS info) includes the required trackball as well as the joystick.

Robin,

Thank you very much for the background info.

I would like to start a simple database that listed the combination of controls by player each game, but with job and family I don't have the time to get that project (or any other) off the ground...

   - Mark

[jelwell]

wrong thread.

[Tiger-Heli]

Joseph - I think you replied to the wrong thread.

Mark - That's basically what Horseboy's link does - a sort routine of MAME games using the controls.ini info.

[Buddabing]

I would like to start a simple database that listed the combination of controls by player each game, but with job and family I don't have the time to get that project (or any other) off the ground...

This exists already.

[Tiger-Heli]

That's what I just said. 

[mark shaker]

Mark - That's basically what Horseboy's link does - a sort routine of MAME games using the controls.ini info.

Not quite. It's not searchable. I don't see any easy way to figure out what games use:

An Analog Steering Wheel + a 4 Speed Shifter + 2 Analog Pedals

or

An Optical Steering Wheel + an Up/Down Shifter + 1 Analog Pedal

or

A 8 Way Trigger Grip Joystick + a Push-To-Fire Spinner

or

An 8 Way Joystick + 6 Buttons

   - Mark

[Tiger-Heli]

True - Now that I look at it, it's not very complete either, but we have only ourselves to blame for that.

[NOP]

hey gang,

here's something you can try.  I took my ROMLister program, and with just a couple minor tweaks, I was able to get it to run with controls.xml

So, first grab this:

http://fe.donkeyfly.com/controls/controls_dat.php

snag controls.xml.0.111.1.zip

Then go here:
http://www.waste.org/~winkles/ROMLister/

and grab the controls.xml version of the software.

Run ROMLister and browse for the controls.xml file, and then you should be able to do your normal searching through that file.

This was pretty much just a hack job on it-I am pretty sure I can merge the 2 versions together and just tweak the search keywords based on what input xml file you use.

Kick it around, see if it does what you need, and if it's good, I'll put a bit more work into it.  THis was literally a 20min job.

-jeff!

[mark shaker]

hey gang,

here's something you can try.  I took my ROMLister program, and with just a couple minor tweaks, I was able to get it to run with controls.xml

So, first grab this:

http://fe.donkeyfly.com/controls/controls_dat.php

snag controls.xml.0.111.1.zip

Then go here:
http://www.waste.org/~winkles/ROMLister/

and grab the controls.xml version of the software.

Run ROMLister and browse for the controls.xml file, and then you should be able to do your normal searching through that file.

This was pretty much just a hack job on it-I am pretty sure I can merge the 2 versions together and just tweak the search keywords based on what input xml file you use.

Kick it around, see if it does what you need, and if it's good, I'll put a bit more work into it.  THis was literally a 20min job.

-jeff!

Jeff,

If it also searched on the controls.dat keywords, it would be just what what I need.

If you don't have the time to include all the other control names, I do have a plan B. While I'm not yet sure exactly how, I'm sure that I could "flatten" the XML file and then load it into a relational database, so I could run SQL queries on it.

   - Mark

[NOP]

>If it also searched on the controls.dat keywords, it would be just what what I need.

Do you mean this stuff?

numPlayers="2" alternating="1" mirrored="1" usesService="0" tilt="0" cocktail="1"

This tool searches on anything between "<game romname=" and "</game>"

The checkboxes at the top of the GUI are just to get you started-if you look at the bottom of the screen as you click stuff, you'll see the search parameters changing on the fly.  Just go down to that parameters box and add in anything else you want to search on, like add "& mirrored=1" inside the quotes if you wanted that keyword included.   Just make sure to skip the quotes and use cocktail=1 or alternating=1 instead of cocktail="1".

-jeff!

BTW: i pointed everyone to the wrong controls.xml above, there's no reason the controls.xml.0.111.2.zip wouldn't work either.

[mark shaker]

>If it also searched on the controls.dat keywords, it would be just what what I need.

Do you mean this stuff?

numPlayers="2" alternating="1" mirrored="1" usesService="0" tilt="0" cocktail="1"

This tool searches on anything between "<game romname=" and "</game>"

The checkboxes at the top of the GUI are just to get you started-if you look at the bottom of the screen as you click stuff, you'll see the search parameters changing on the fly.  Just go down to that parameters box and add in anything else you want to search on, like add "& mirrored=1" inside the quotes if you wanted that keyword included.   Just make sure to skip the quotes and use cocktail=1 or alternating=1 instead of cocktail="1".

-jeff!

BTW: i pointed everyone to the wrong controls.xml above, there's no reason the controls.xml.0.111.2.zip wouldn't work either.

Thank you *very* much! I now have all I need.

I did notice the textual query line after my last post.

If you do plan to do any future development:

A .ini (or xml) file that let people customise the Quick Find Wizard would rock.

The .csv output function does not work.

   - Mark

[NOP]

If you do plan to do any future development:

A .ini (or xml) file that let people customise the Quick Find Wizard would rock.

The .csv output function does not work.

   - Mark

New version, build 002 ready to be kicked around.
http://www.waste.org/~winkles/ROMLister/

(yeah, my screenshot is wrong)

I fixed the csv output for controls.xml i believe and rolled both MAME's xml and control.xml into the same executable.

A customizable quick-find wizard would be cool.  I think that would be a *huge* PITA too.  Adding a few checkboxes is doable though-just let me know what you want.

The next/prev/search stuff is still kinda wonky, so be gentle on the error reports there.  Does anyone use that feature anyway?

-jeff!

[mark shaker]

New version, build 002 ready to be kicked around.
http://www.waste.org/~winkles/ROMLister/

(yeah, my screenshot is wrong)

I fixed the csv output for controls.xml i believe and rolled both MAME's xml and control.xml into the same executable.

A customizable quick-find wizard would be cool.  I think that would be a *huge* PITA too.  Adding a few checkboxes is doable though-just let me know what you want.

The next/prev/search stuff is still kinda wonky, so be gentle on the error reports there.  Does anyone use that feature anyway?

-jeff!

Jeff,

Thank you so much!

I won't stop you from adding bling, but it already does what I would like it to do.

There is no need to add any more check boxes, as I can get a list of all the control names by doing a .csv file on just controls and pasting the list into a utility that eliminates duplicates (I used TextPad).

That gives me the master list of search terms, and makes it easy to find games compatible with a particular controls configuration.

   - Mark