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Author Topic: MaLa:"Recommended Games (0)" ... how to enable game recommendations?  (Read 9108 times)

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ARTIFACT

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the title says it all!

I would love to see these recommendations... I remember seeing that in GameEX when I was testing various front-ends for my cab.

I know how to display it in MaLa's "game info" screen, but the lists always say (0) and are empty...

THANKS!

ARTIFACT

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Re: MaLa:"Recommended Games (0)" ... how to enable game recommendations?
« Reply #1 on: September 11, 2007, 10:58:58 pm »
Any chance someone has an idea was data file I am missing to enable this?

shock_

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Re: MaLa:"Recommended Games (0)" ... how to enable game recommendations?
« Reply #2 on: September 12, 2007, 07:08:05 am »
they come from mameinfo.dat

http://www.mameworld.net/mameinfo

 :angel:

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Re: MaLa:"Recommended Games (0)" ... how to enable game recommendations?
« Reply #3 on: September 12, 2007, 09:35:05 pm »
they come from mameinfo.dat

http://www.mameworld.net/mameinfo

 :angel:

You learn something new everyday.  :D

SGT

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Re: MaLa:"Recommended Games (0)" ... how to enable game recommendations?
« Reply #4 on: September 12, 2007, 10:34:16 pm »
What version of Mame and what version of Mala is anyone able to successfully show the recommended games list.  I have the mameinfo.dat for Mame .116, and I have Mala pointing to it in the config.  I am getting Recommend Games (0) for every rom.

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Re: MaLa:"Recommended Games (0)" ... how to enable game recommendations?
« Reply #5 on: September 12, 2007, 11:10:22 pm »
I've been running each point release of MAME from .108 to current, with MaLa RC8 to current, and have updated mameinfo.dat twice in that time and always I get recommended games for at least some games.

note: I only see them in the game's info window; I haven't tried to expose them to the screen via text fields in MaLa layout. Can you even do that?  Is that what you're trying to do?)

SGT

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Re: MaLa:"Recommended Games (0)" ... how to enable game recommendations?
« Reply #6 on: September 12, 2007, 11:34:30 pm »
No I can not see any from the info window.  An old version (.106) of mameinfo.dat works fine.  Here's what Mala doesn't like:

In the latest mameinfo.dat file for example the rom "1941", the recommended game list heading is:
Code: [Select]
Recommended Games (Airforce 2):
Apparently "Airforce 2" refers to a category of recommended games that "1941" belongs to.  You can see this in MAWS for the Recommended Games here:
http://www.mameworld.net/maws/romset/1941


In the older mameinfo.dat files, every rom's recommended game list heading is:
Code: [Select]
Recommended Games:
If you hand remove " (Airforce 2)" from the newer mameinfo.dat file, the recommended game list comes in just fine for that rom only.  Therefore I feel pretty confident that the Mala code is looking for a line that ONLY has "Recommend Games: " and this is why the recommended games = 0 for those using the newest mameinfo.dat file.



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Re: MaLa:"Recommended Games (0)" ... how to enable game recommendations?
« Reply #7 on: September 13, 2007, 12:32:02 am »
I'll check when I get home later but that all sounds plausible.  I have a cold at the moment  :dizzy: so I may have imagined they were still working when they're really not.   I was using I think a version from about 1.08 or so until I got a fresh copy yesterday when I originally answered this thread.  It reminded me to update!

ARTIFACT

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Re: MaLa:"Recommended Games (0)" ... how to enable game recommendations?
« Reply #8 on: September 15, 2007, 12:29:13 am »
interesting!

Maybe Swindus needs to fix some bugs in Mala to make this work?

When I tried GameEX, I recall a nice list of recommended games for most games I clicked on... with shortcuts to launch these games right away (Handy!) ... that'd be nice to have in Mala

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Re: MaLa:"Recommended Games (0)" ... how to enable game recommendations?
« Reply #9 on: March 04, 2020, 10:35:38 am »
13 years later and am on MaLa 1.82b. 

Recommended games is definitely in the mame info file as you can see related/recommended games within mame's own inline history and mameinfo viewers along with other bits.

As popular as MaLa is after all these years, I'm surprised the project hasn't been merged with or taken over by other devs.  MaLa definitely shows its age but the flexibility for almost endless tweaking is still why many of us still use it over EmulationStation and other FE's.
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