Mala Help needed - CLViewer and game lists

[boboli]

I've had 2 issues lately with Mala - both RC8 and RC9.

I have Mala set to start whenever the computer starts. Upon startup of the computer, I get a CLViewer error message. Mala doesn't start. If I quit the CLViewer error, and start Mala manually, everything loads and works fine. I can't figure out what I might have done to cause this - it was working fine before.

2nd issue is more of a request than a problem. I have had problems with the Mala list creator. When I create a list, the list is not held by Mala - after one restart, the list is gone (nowhere to be found - I can choose the list name, but the list is blank). Also, the list maker could be easier to use. It would be nice to be able to sort games by game name, genre, control, etc., and THEN choose from those filtered lists to create your master list. It's tough to create a shortened list when all you have to go on is the ROM name. To my knowledge, there aren't any other front ends that are particularly good at this, so this is not a knock against Mala. I do like being able to filter ALL ROMS by genre, control, etc., from within Mala, but I would prefer to be able to filter a much shorter list by those categories (I'd like to be able to remove all pachinko, mah jong, Beatmaster, porno games, etc., and be left with a shorter master list)

[loadman]

I've had 2 issues lately with Mala - both RC8 and RC9.

To my knowledge the only Bug with RC9 is the screensaver does not start properly on some machines (in some modes).

I have Mala set to start whenever the computer starts. Upon startup of the computer, I get a CLViewer error message. Mala doesn't start. If I quit the CLViewer error, and start Mala manually, everything loads and works fine. I can't figure out what I might have done to cause this - it was working fine before.

Can you post some screeshots of your CLviewer setup in mala so we can try and recreate. Also how are you having mala start-up with windows (ie are you using mala as the windows shell or have you got a mala shortcut in your startup=up folder or ahave you just checked the checkbox startup with windows)

2nd issue is more of a request than a problem. I have had problems with the Mala list creator. When I create a list, the list is not held by Mala - after one restart, the list is gone (nowhere to be found - I can choose the list name, but the list is blank).

Ehh? Are you saving the lists?  Are you saying the Mll file you save is missing?  Are you saving this file in your MaLa directory?

[boboli]

I haven't done anything to set up CLViewer - I just started getting the bug. I'll check it again when I get home though.

The screensaver is not working for me either (FWIW)

I save the lists. They work the first time I use them. The next time, if I try to access the list, the list is blanked out, or several games are missing from the list (that were there previously). The mll files are not touched by me but something in Mala or the list maker is messing with the lists after repeated uses. This may only happen if I try to add one or two games to a previously saved list - I'll do some more testing.

I'm having Mala start up with Windows by checking the box within Mala.

[NOP]

...I do like being able to filter ALL ROMS by genre, control, etc., from within Mala, but I would prefer to be able to filter a much shorter list by those categories (I'd like to be able to remove all pachinko, mah jong, Beatmaster, porno games, etc., and be left with a shorter master list)

would it make sense to get rid of those ROMS entirely off your machine first, and then have mala list up what's left, or do you always want the entire set handy?

On my machine (I don't use Mala, so apologies if I'm off) I only have a collection of ROMs on there that a) I'm interested in, and b) match my hardware configuration.  My front end then has a much easier time slogging through the remaining ROMs to list them.  Makes backups of the entire machine a lot easier too.

To whittle the entire ROMset down to just the stuff I needed, I ended up creating this:

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

Maybe it'll help you too.  Search for all the mahjong games and create a batch file and just nuke 'em entirely off the machine.  Do likewise with all the trackball games (if you don't have a trackball) etc.  The batch file created will have to be tweaked, but that should be a simple matter of search+replace.

-jeff!

[boboli]

This might be helpful. I'll definitely give it a try. What I'm really looking for is to be able to sort roms by specific criteria (fighters, maze, etc.) and then be able to remove roms from those sorted lists by description (pacman instead of puckman, etc.). Further, I'd want to be able to axe entire groups of roms based on criteria (remove all mahjong, all pachinko, etc.). I don't want to delete them from my machine - I just want to have a list that doesn't include those games. The utility you referenced looks like it might work, but I wish someone would create something like itunes - lists all games and you can sort by certain criteria, view screenshots, make play lists, etc., all very easily and intuitively. I haven't seen anything like that for Mame yet.

[loadman]

[boboli]

loadman,

this is fine, but it's a bit backwards. The way this "add selection" works is that you have to add entire categories to your list (i.e. ALL paddle games) and then delete individuals. If you take a large category like fighters, and only want to add 10 fighters to your list, you either have to individually FIND 10 fighters (can't sort or filter the left window) and add them individually, or you have to add the entire category and then delete all but the ones you want to keep.

Also, I wish the window could be resized - it feels a little claustrophobic to have to work in such a tiny window.

It would be a vast improvement if you could sort and filter the left window and add to the right window as needed.

[NOP]

What I'm really looking for is to be able to sort roms by specific criteria (fighters, maze, etc.) and then be able to remove roms from those sorted lists by description (pacman instead of puckman, etc.).

Unfortunately, mame's listxml and controls.dat (controls.xml for my purposes) doesn't have a game type field (fighter, maze, etc) but if there's a list out there that does have that info, it would be fantastic to merge that in.

Further, I'd want to be able to axe entire groups of roms based on criteria (remove all mahjong, all pachinko, etc.). I don't want to delete them from my machine - I just

That can be done with ROMLister for certain.  with only "mahjong" in the find field, it'll easily locate all (or any ROM with any mention of mahjong in it's description)

When you create a list in mala, what does the actual file itself contain?  Can you post a small one here?  I see no reason why romlister couldn't just output a mala file directly, if there's some kind of header information or whatever required, I'm sure I can generate it.

I like your itunes like interface.  That's more work than I can offer my services to though.

-jeff!

[boboli]

NOP - wouldn't catver.ini be usable to sort by type? That's how Mala does it, I believe.

Really, when I say I'm looking for "itunes" it's mostly the ability to sort & filter based on any criteria, and then easily make playlists based on multiple criteria. I'll take another look at Romlister.

I believe the Mala list maker outputs an "mll" file, which looks like nothing more than a text list with possibly some additional formatting.

[NOP]

ah, that's what catver is for.  I see it mentioned all the time, but us poor DOS users don't know what to do with it.

It would take some kind of merging tool, but adding catver's data in with mame's listxml format and for good measure adding controls.xml into the mix, would give you everything you could possibly want to search for I'd think. 

This idea of merging files together into 1 super xml file came up a little while ago and I shrugged it off then, but perhaps now is the time to look into it again.

I believe the Mala list maker outputs an "mll" file, which looks like nothing more than a text list with possibly some additional formatting.

That's what I expected, and that's the data I need.  If I knew what that additional formatting looked like, and got a Mala user to do a little testing, I'd gladly add a Mala list output option to my list maker.  Please post one here and I'll see how it's put together.

-jeff!

[NOP]

Had a moment of inspiration and a few hours to kick around, so I came up with a program to merge together MAME's -listxml output + catver.ini + controls.xml (aka controls.dat)

http://www.waste.org/~winkles/ROMLister/mmm.html

With all that stuff merged together, you can now do all the various listing/filtering/sorting with ROMLister that you wanted, like find all the maze games with 3 buttons or less and a 4 or 8 way joystick in cocktail orientation. 

You may have to weed out all the various titles, although using the !nocloneof option will help with that.

-jeff!

[loadman]

Nice   

[boboli]

NOP - nice, but not sure how to use it. What do I do with the generated file?

Attached is a  Mala game list so you can see the format Mala uses.


Ideally, I want to be able to filter by multiple genres (e.g., make a list of all fighter games and maze games). It seems like it would be easier to pare that down, than to pare dowwn from 6000 games

[loadman]

loadman,

this is fine, but it's a bit backwards. The way this "add selection" works is that you have to add entire categories to your list (i.e. ALL paddle games) and then delete individuals. If you take a large category like fighters, and only want to add 10 fighters to your list, you either have to individually FIND 10 fighters (can't sort or filter the left window) and add them individually, or you have to add the entire category and then delete all but the ones you want to keep.

Also, I wish the window could be resized - it feels a little claustrophobic to have to work in such a tiny window.

It would be a vast improvement if you could sort and filter the left window and add to the right window as needed.

You could try creating your game lists using mame32 and importing them into mala game lists (in the Game list drop down menu)

Also if you are keen you might consider writting your own dream ap and sharing with the mala comunity
Delphi code for gamelists (from the website link) can be found here:
http://mala.arcadezentrum.com/easytrack.php?id=5

[NOP]

NOP - nice, but not sure how to use it. What do I do with the generated file?

You load the generated file into ROMLister. 

Provided mondomerge did its job and smushed together your MAME -listxml file together with catver and controls.xml, you should now have 1 single xml file that contains everything you could possibly want to sort and filter on.

So, download and launch ROMLister. 

It'll ask you where MAME is on the first screen, OR ask you to input an .xml file.  Load in that .xml file that mondomerge created.

Here's some examples of what you can do:

You want just the maze games.
Type in maze at the -find field at the bottom of the screen and press the Go! button.

You should get a list like this:
PuckMan (Japan set 1, Probably Bootleg)
PuckMan (Japan set 2)
PuckMan (Japan set 1 with speedup hack)
Puckman (Falcom?)
Pac-Man (Midway)
Pac-Man (Midway, with speedup hack)
PuckMan (Japan set 3)
Pac-Man (Midway, harder)
Newpuc2
Newpuc2 (set 2)
New Puck-X
Pac-Man (Hearts)
...

ok, let's trim that down some.  Let's only look for maze games that have cocktail modes.

type in "maze & cocktail=1" in the -find field and press go again.
The list suddenly got a lot smaller.

Ok, let's start a new search.  Let's look for all the vertical fighting games that are 6 buttons or less and use an 8way joystick.

You can use the quick find wizard at the top to pick your criteria that you want, so click the vertical checkbox, select 6 buttons and keep the "or less" checked, and then click on 8way joystick.

Your find field should now look like this:
(buttons=6 | buttons=5 | buttons=4 | buttons=3 | buttons=2 | buttons=1 | !buttons=) & (rotate=0 | rotate=180) & joy8way & !emulation=preliminary

All we want to do is also check for fighting games that also match all of those criteria, so add a "& fighter" to the end of the list:

(buttons=6 | buttons=5 | buttons=4 | buttons=3 | buttons=2 | buttons=1 | !buttons=) & (rotate=0 | rotate=180) & joy8way & !emulation=preliminary & fighter

So that above jibberish means:
Find any game that has 6 buttons OR less.
AND then make sure the orientation is vertical (the rotate=x stuff)
AND then check to see if it uses an 8way joystick.
AND then make sure the emulation is NOT preliminary (unplayable in other words)
AND finally, make sure it's a type of fighter game.

(you could even add a "& !mature" to the end to weed out all the mature fighter games too)

So ROMLister then goes and checks every single game and makes sure it meets all of those requirements before adding it to the output list. 

Any text that is inside the "<game name" and "</game" tags you can search on and build up insane criterias for weeding out ROMs that you do want and ones that you don't want.

Ideally, I want to be able to filter by multiple genres (e.g., make a list of all fighter games and maze games). It seems like it would be easier to pare that down, than to pare down from 6000 games

Easy.  Pick the hardware your cab supports, then add in the game type at the end.  You could even pick out the maze and fighter games at one time by adding this to the end:  "& (maze | fighter)" or even "& ((maze | fighter) & !mature)"

Have ROMLister create a batch file and with a little bit of search+replace work on the batch file, you could copy off all the ROMs you're interested in in under a couple minutes.

Attached is a  Mala game list so you can see the format Mala uses.

I see that.  It's not exactly like I was expecting.  There's a lot of mysterious data in there that I don't know how to generate on my own.  I'll study it and see, but that kinda ruined my day...

Hoped my little tutorial helped.


-jeff!

[boboli]

Thanks Jeff - I'll have to play around with it a bit.

Loadman - wish I knew how to program. If I did, I wouldn't have to ask ; )   Don't take my comments/questions the wrong way. I love Mala, Mame, and I'm blown away with everything involved in this crazy hobby. Just thought that others might have the same issues I did with the lists and thought there might be an easier way to accomplish what I'm looking for. Although there's a lot out there, it's not always easy to find.

[loadman]

Loadman - wish I knew how to program. If I did, I wouldn't have to ask ; )   Don't take my comments/questions the wrong way. I love Mala, Mame, and I'm blown away with everything involved in this crazy hobby. Just thought that others might have the same issues I did with the lists and thought there might be an easier way to accomplish what I'm looking for. Although there's a lot out there, it's not always easy to find.

:-) Sorry if my last post came off a bit harsh. It was not meant to at all 

If you have a look at that code from the link in my last post (even if you don't program) it may give you a clue as to game list structure and help you...   

If you do want to learn...  Try Delphi Its free . I only started to code late last year

[SGT]

Loadman,

In Mala is there a way to have one gamelist where individual roms in that single list use different versions of Mame.  For example, now if I have some roms that need an earlier version of Mame to run fast enough, I must have them in a whole separate game list.  Is there a work-around that you know of that will let me keep my mame games in one list?

[loadman]

Loadman,

In Mala is there a way to have one gamelist where individual roms in that single list use different versions of Mame.  For example, now if I have some roms that need an earlier version of Mame to run fast enough, I must have them in a whole separate game list.  Is there a work-around that you know of that will let me keep my mame games in one list?

Yep...You Launch With another Key  ... See Pic.

Placeholder for the external application command line: rom path, rom name, rom parent name, rom extension and emu name (%path%, %rom%, %parent%, %ext%, %emu%).

Good Question: I just added to MaLa Wiki Page:
http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/MaLa_FAQ

[SGT]

Yep...You Launch With another Key  ...  See Pic.

Thanks loadman.  If I had a decent memory that would work.  Doubt I would remember which games used which key. Also hoping for something more seamless to work well in a cab.

I am thinking about delving into writing a plugin.  I am thinking that upon the game_selected event, have the plugin check for the existence of a config file with the same name as the rom.  If it does not exist, do nothing.
If it does exist, get the emulator command line from this config file and give it to Mala.  That is if Mala allows the "emulator command line" for a specific game to be changed when the "game selected" event occurs.

Loadman,  Can the "emulator command line" be changed during an event in a plug-in?

[loadman]

Yep...You Launch With another Key  ...  See Pic.

Thanks loadman.  If I had a decent memory that would work.  Doubt I would remember which games used which key. Also hoping for something more seamless to work well in a cab.

I am thinking about delving into writing a plugin.  I am thinking that upon the game_selected event, have the plugin check for the existence of a config file with the same name as the rom.  If it does not exist, do nothing.
If it does exist, get the emulator command line from this config file and give it to Mala.  That is if Mala allows the "emulator command line" for a specific game to be changed when the "game selected" event occurs.

Loadman,  Can the "emulator command line" be changed during an event in a plug-in?

Great Idea...  You can get a Plug-in to change mame.ini [Edit mala.ini settings (for the emu command- line)
so that may be a solution....  I would have to experiment 

[SGT]

Great Idea...  You can get a Plug-in to change mame.ini settings (for the emu command- line)
so that may be a solution....  I would have to experiment 

Did you mean the mala.ini instead of the mame.ini?  Seems Mala loads the mala.ini when Mala first starts.  If you change the contents of mala.ini while Mala is running, there is no effect.

Looking at the help file for the Mala API, it mentions a variable called:
commandline which it describes at the "emulator commandline".  Can this variable's contents only be read from or can it also be written to, during an event?

[loadman]

Did you mean the mala.ini instead of the mame.ini?  Seems Mala loads the mala.ini when Mala first starts.  If you change the contents of mala.ini while Mala is running, there is no effect.?

yes I did... shame

Looking at the help file for the Mala API, it mentions a variable called:
commandline which it describes at the "emulator commandline".  Can this variable's contents only be read from or can it also be written to, during an event?

Dunno    I will have a play when I get home from work

[SGT]

Looking at the help file for the Mala API, it mentions a variable called:
commandline which it describes at the "emulator commandline".  Can this variable's contents only be read from or can it also be written to, during an event?

Looking more closely, the Mala variable "FileName" holds the path and the name of the Mame executable.  I am so ignorant of the way this plugin thing works.  I cannot figure out if Mala only provides read-only access to these variables or if the plugin can actually change them.

I would hate to go to the trouble of learning Delphi only to find out what I want to do cannot be done.

Thanks loadman for any information you can give me later on this subject. 

[loadman]

Looking at the help file for the Mala API, it mentions a variable called:
commandline which it describes at the "emulator commandline".  Can this variable's contents only be read from or can it also be written to, during an event?

Looking more closely, the Mala variable "FileName" holds the path and the name of the Mame executable.  I am so ignorant of the way this plugin thing works.  I cannot figure out if Mala only provides read-only access to these variables or if the plugin can actually change them.

I would hate to go to the trouble of learning Delphi only to find out what I want to do cannot be done.

Thanks loadman for any information you can give me later on this subject. 

You are right...You can't change it... But

Thinking outside the box:  you could have your two versions (or more) of mame
eg mame89 and mame104  and have the plug-in copy the version of mame you need as mame.exe
So then MaLa will always be launching mame.exe but Your sneaky plug-in is changing what version mame.exe is before launch (if the game is on the list to use the other version).... 
Hey.... it's not sexy but it will work and be invisible to the user. So who cares?   

Welcome to the fun world of MaLa dev    Let us know if you need help (probably better via the MaLa Forum )