Empty Game List.

[shardian]

I used to have MALA on a pc that crashed with the exact same damn setup, and this FE was super simple to use. WTF is going on now, I have NO IDEA!

I am using the newest version of MALA, Catver.ini, hiscore.dat, controls.ini

I am using cmd line .054 mame with a .054 romset. On two computers now, the gamelist stays empty after setting up MALA. I am thoroughly frustrated and ready to give up on this FE. I have tried fresh installs of MAME, complete resets of everything. What could possibly be the problem I have never had a prob with this FE until now!

[loadman]

MaLa uses the XML to get game list details that is auto generated in mame from I think .84 Up.

Refer note about it on the website WebSite note here: http://www.malafe.net/

You can get around this (as I did because I use .79)

You generating the xml file usimg a higher version (say .89 then drop back )

Eg set up mame with a .89 then change the mame.exe to version .54 later.

[shardian]

That worked. Thanks!

I noticed after you posted that the xml file .054 was generating was 0 bytes. Was definitely a problem. 

[ddrtist]

Sharadin, I noticed you are using the hiscore.dat in your Mala.  How in the heck did you get this to work??  I have read the thread on compiling your own MAME to allow it to use hiscore.dat, but I just cannot get the damned thing to work.

The two versions of MAME I have working 100% are MAME .122 and MAMEPlus .122  Can you advise me on how to get hiscore.dat working in either of these???

[loadman]

That worked. Thanks!

I noticed after you posted that the xml file .054 was generating was 0 bytes. Was definitely a problem. 

On my to do list is to add a warning rather than just a blank list

[shardian]

Sharadin, I noticed you are using the hiscore.dat in your Mala.  How in the heck did you get this to work??  I have read the thread on compiling your own MAME to allow it to use hiscore.dat, but I just cannot get the damned thing to work.

The two versions of MAME I have working 100% are MAME .122 and MAMEPlus .122  Can you advise me on how to get hiscore.dat working in either of these???

Ummm, I don't even know if it is working yet.  I just downloaded it and added it to the directory. IIRC, older versions of MAME supported it, but newer versions dropped it - which is why you have to compile. I haven't been home since I initially set it up, so I'll have to check to see if my Donkey Kong Jr. Score is still up.

[TheManuel]

ddrtist:
If you don't want to compile, just use MAMEPlus or some of the other builds that support hiscore.  I use MAMEPlus because, in addition, it allows you to skip the disclaimer when MAME loads (not all nag screens, unfortunately) and the VCC compiled version is the fastest build I know of if (good if you have an old PC like mine).  It also supports the command.dat file plus (no pun intended) a few other extras.

Shardian:
I could swear I once used a small tool that converted the old listinfo to xml but I can't find it now on the web.  There is one that does exactly the opposite but that is of no use to you right now.  You could try searching some more or maybe EmuLoader or some of the other frontends already do this when you load an old MAME version and you could then use the resulting xml file on MaLa.