HiToText (Version 2010.11.4).

[TheManuel]

I only learned about HiToText a few days ago and I'm loving it.  This is a perfect example of people coming up with fresh and exciting ideas for, just when you think you've seen it all.  It certainly keeps the hobby interesting.

I have a question:
I have a .hi file for galaga that was originally created with an older version of MAME (0.129).  HiToText does not load the data from this file.  If I create a new .hi file from scratch with that same MAME version, it reads it just fine.  However, if leave in the old .hi file, run the game and let MAME overwrite the original file, I still see the high scores in MAME but HiToText still can't read it.
Is this a compatibility issue with my MAME version?

The puzzling part is that HiToText will read a .hi file that has been newly created with that same MAME version.

Regards.

[dna disturber]

Hi TheManuel,

Not sure why you're having those problems but HitoText can also write hiscores to .hi files.
If you write down your score from the old .hi and then create a totally new one with a newer version of mame you can write that score into the new .hi

You just have to use HitoText -w for it.....you can use the help command from (Hitotext -?) to see an example.

Hope this helps........

Dna Disturber 

[TheManuel]

That's awesome!
Thanks.

[dna disturber]

4 games to add to the XML

They are:
Mega Blast + 4 clones (2 of them old) - also added the 4 clones to hiscore.dat
Meta fox
Metal Clash
Wall Crash + 1 clone

Dna Disturber   

[dna disturber]

Another 4 games to add to the xml:

Mikie + clones
Mister Viking + clones  (2 clones added to hiscore.dat)
Valtric
Xain'd Sleena + clones  (2 clones added to hiscore.dat)

Dna Disturber

[TheManuel]

Hello.

What is the difference between the official hiscore.dat and the the one that can be downloaded from hiscore.dat-astic!?

Also, can HiToText display high scores from mspacman?
OK.  I saw puckman in the list of supported games, is mspacman covered by it?

[dna disturber]

Hi TheManuel,

Mspacman is supported and is a parent(not covered by puckman)   

The hiscore.dat from the HiToText project is I would say updated more often.
When there is a problem with the hiscore saving it's fixed (if possible).
Because of the project HiToText these problems get detected quicker because we work on the hiscores.

A big difference is that the hiscore.dat from the HiToText project supports old romnames.
So it doesn't matter what version of mame you use a .hi file will still be created using the same(newest hiscore.dat).

Leezer's is also great and if it wasn't for his hiscore.dat HiToText probably wouldn't even be here....

Dna Disturber   

 



 

[TheManuel]

Mspacman is supported and is a parent(not covered by puckman)

Ah, OK.
I did not see it in the list of supported games on the online spreadsheet or among the .cs files in the HiToText folder but now I see it in the list that HiToText creates with the -l switch.

A big difference is that the hiscore.dat from the HiToText project supports old romnames.
So it doesn't matter what version of mame you use a .hi file will still be created using the same(newest hiscore.dat).

This is awesome.  That, combined with HiToText's ability to adapt to your own MAME version, makes the software rather robust.

I'm currently setting up Hyperspin and I got to the point where I'm setting up HiToText to make sure I can see the high scores I care about.  Looks like I should be in good shape if I download the HiToText .dat file. 
If I have to specify my specific MAME version, does HTT store this info in an ini file, or do I have to run it with the command line switch every time?  I don't think you can change the HTT command line in HS.

Thanks for all your answers.

[dna disturber]

@TheManuel :

HiToText doesn't need to know the mameversion.

Put the hiscore.dat in your mamedirectory and download the newest version of HitoText (the one with the XML file included) and place it in the hyperspin directory.
In HyperHQ you then turn on HiToText and that's it......

The games must have a .hi to work so you should start the game(s) onetime to get HiToText showing the scores in hyperspin (start a game , exit , scroll up a game and then down again in hyperspin and you should see a score.

Be carefull when you use hyperlaunch to launch mame within hyperspin because it doesn't exit mame the right way (your hiscore won't be saved).
You can easily adjust hyperlaunch to do it the right way, if needed you can find the solution in the hyperspin forum.

Hope this helps.
Oh I forgot to tell you you need a hiscore enabled mame  but I'm assuming you already know that......

Let me know how everything goes......

Dna Disturber    

[TheManuel]

Thanks, dna disturber.

I think I sounded more ignorant that I really was about the whole thing  .

I was just curious as to what was that feature of HiToText.
This is from the command line's help blurb:

       You can specify your own version (by date) of HiToText if it is not
       determining your version correctly. You can only do this with the -r, -ra
, -w, and -wa flags.
       You can see your mame version by running mame with the -help command. (e.
g. mame -help).

[Fyrecrypts]

Thanks, dna disturber.

I think I sounded more ignorant that I really was about the whole thing  .

I was just curious as to what was that feature of HiToText.
This is from the command line's help blurb:

       You can specify your own version (by date) of HiToText if it is not
       determining your version correctly. You can only do this with the -r, -ra
, -w, and -wa flags.
       You can see your mame version by running mame with the -help command. (e.
g. mame -help).

There is currently only one instance where HiToText needs to know a version, Track and field. You can indeed specify your own version if you don't want HiToText to do it for you. =) This comes up because older versions of MAME create different NVRAM for track and field (I'm sure other games too that we haven't dealt with yet). So if you had an older version you'd want to use a different handler that takes into account the different NVRAM.

For most users, not supplying a version manually should be 100% okay.

[TheManuel]

Alright, that should work for me.
Thanks a lot!

[dna disturber]

Another 5 games to add to the xml:

Minefield
Minky Monkey
Mole Attack
Monster Bash + clone             - adjustments hiscore.dat:  added/renamed -> clones/old romnames
Moonwar + clone                   - adjustments hiscore.dat:  added/renamed -> clones/old romnames

Dna Disturber   

[dna disturber]

Another 5 games to add to the XML:

Traverse USA / Zippy Race   +clone   - hiscore.dat: removed 5 unnecessary bytes from the chunk of data.
Jack the giantKiller    +clones            - hiscore.dat: added clone treasure Hunt
Joinem
Loverboy
Freeze

Dna Disturber   

[dna disturber]

Another 5 games to add to the XML:

Funky Fish
Funky Bee + clone(s)         -hiscore.dat: added clones funkybeeb + funkbeeb (old)
Super Mouse + clone(s)      -hiscore.dat: added clones funnymou + suprmou2 (old)  *entry funnymou (as parent) can be removed from the hiscore.dat as of 0.138u1 suprmous is the parent (for now I put it on commentary)
Future Spy
Galactic Warriors

Dna Disturber   

[dna disturber]

Another 5 games to add to the HitoText.xml :

Battlantis + clone(s)
Battle Cross
Bermuda Triangle + clone(s)      -hiscore.dat : moved 2 clones (one of them old) to parent worldwar
World Wars + clone(s)              -hiscore.dat : 2 clones added (see above) + bermudaa put on commentary as it is a clone of worldwar and not a parent (this can be removed from hiscore.dat)
Tazz-Mania + clone(s)

Dna Disturber   

[Fyrecrypts]

4 games to add to the XML

They are:
Mega Blast + 4 clones (2 of them old) - also added the 4 clones to hiscore.dat
Meta fox
Metal Clash
Wall Crash + 1 clone

Dna Disturber   

Your Meta Fox .txt file was actually megablst. Can you put up Meta fox? =)

[dna disturber]

Your Meta Fox .txt file was actually megablst. Can you put up Meta fox? =)

Oops , probably did that one in the early morning hours..  

[Fyrecrypts]

Your Meta Fox .txt file was actually megablst. Can you put up Meta fox? =)

Oops , probably did that one in the early morning hours..  

Hahaha, no worries, been there. =) Thanks for getting it to me so quick. Crossing my fingers for a release today.

[Fyrecrypts]

New release! MANY games added by dna disturber as anyone who's been watching this thread has probably seen. I've converted some legacy games to the XML format (not a lot), added a small bit of XML functionality (described below), and a ton of work has been done on the hiscore.dat-astic.


-------------------
Version 2010.11.4
-------------------
New Games: Battle Cross, Battlantis, Bermuda Triangle, Calipso, Congo Bongo, Dock Man, Acrobatic Dog-Fight, Funky Fish, Freeze, Funky Bee, Future Spy, Galactic Warriors, Jack the Giantkiller, Joinem, Kick, Lover Boy, Mega Blast, Meta Fox, Metal Clash, Mikie, Minefield, Minky Monkey, Mole Attack, Monster Bash, Moonwar, Mister Viking, Qix, Roc'n Rope, Rompers, Satan of Saturn, Saturn, Super Mouse, Tazz-Mania, Traverse USA / Zippy Race, Valtric, Wall Crash, World Wars, Xain'd Sleena, Zoar, Zodiack, Zombie Raid, Zzyzzyxx (dna disturber)

Bug Fixes:
explorer had a bug in the XML where it was determining rank using non-reversed bytes.
exprraid modified in hiscore.dat to add new clones.
exprrada renamed to exprraida.
extrmatn modified in hiscore.dat to use non-legacy named clones.
frogger modified in hiscore.dat to use non-legacy named clones, and merged clones to parent.
galaga modified in hiscore.dat with documentation and merged clone gatsbee.
gijoe modified in hiscore.dat to merge gijoeu, and add gijoej.
...So many more hiscore.dat changes documented in the HiToText thread on BYOAC that I just thought I'd stop here: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=83614

New Features:
New ExternalWrappers meant for "Name" ConversionTypes called PadLeft, and PadRight. They take two parameters, the first is the length you want the byte array to be. The second parameter is the byte to populate with.

[dna disturber]

5 new games to add to the hitotext.xml :

TeddyBoy Blues + clone          -hiscore.dat :   added clone teddybbo
Terra Force + clones               -hiscore.dat :   added clones terrafa , terrafb
The Deep + clone                   -hiscore.dat :   added clone rundeep
Battle Chopper                       -hiscore.dat :   corrected the last name-entry (wrong length - missed a byte)
Lady Frog

Dna Disturber   

[dna disturber]

5 more games to add to the hitotext.xml :

Space Fury + clones             -hiscore.dat:   added clones spacfurya , spacfuryb , spacfurb (old) , spacfurc (old)
X Multiply + clone                 -hiscore.dat:   added clone xmultiplm72
Vamp x1/2 + clones              -hiscore.dat:   added clone vamphalfk , vamphafk (old)  *Parent vamphafk can be deleted (put on commentary)
Van-Van Car + clones            -hiscore.dat:   added clone vanvans (old)
Vanguard + clones                -hiscore.dat:   added clones vanguardc , vanguardj   *vangrdce and vanguarj commentary added (old)

Dna Disturber    

[dna disturber]

5 new (not entirely because gyruss is already present in hitotext) games to add to the hitotext.xml :

Varia Metal + clone                     -hiscore.dat:  added entry vmetal + clone vmetaln (wasn't there yet)
Varth + clones
Vastar + clone
Venture + clones
Gyruss + clones (xml conversion)   -hiscore.dat:   added clone venus after matching the number of bytes to gyruss
                                                                    parent venus can be deleted ( put it on commentary )


Dna Disturber   

[PsychoMikey]

Don't know if i can post this in this thread.

I can't save scores in arkanoid2 revange of doh (world). It does create a .hi file and in Hyperspin and i can see the scores for the default hiscore list. My hi score saving does work for example with mspacman.

I did try to run it with and without hyperlaunch, so that's not the problem. I'm running mame64 139, using the newest hiscore.dat and hitotext.exe/xml.
Also tried deleting all my old hi files and clearing the nvram dir in mame.

Any suggestions?

[dna disturber]

Don't know if i can post this in this thread.

I can't save scores in arkanoid2 revange of doh (world). It does create a .hi file and in Hyperspin and i can see the scores for the default hiscore list. My hi score saving does work for example with mspacman.

I did try to run it with and without hyperlaunch, so that's not the problem. I'm running mame64 139, using the newest hiscore.dat and hitotext.exe/xml.
Also tried deleting all my old hi files and clearing the nvram dir in mame.

Any suggestions?

PsychoMikey.

I've got good news and bad news
What do you want to hear first................ok the good news (yep I knew you wanted to hear the good news first)

The good news:
There is nothing wrong with your configuration. I tried it on my machine (mame 0.140 + latest hiscore.dat and hitotext) and got the same result.

The bad news:
It's probably a checksum in the game that resets the scoreboard every time you start a new game.
This has to be investigated further (meaning debugging and trying to find the checksum)....not sure tho if it really is a checksum.
It could also be that the hiscores are saved in another part of the memory and this is only the initial scoreboard (wild guessing here).
Will take a look at it but debugging is more Cananas's speciality........

Unfortunately no fast solution here...sorry 

Dna Disturber   


 

[dna disturber]

Unfortunately no fast solution here...sorry  

Dna Disturber    

@Psycho (better watch what I'm saying here)

Or maybe I do have a fast solution......Aren't  you glad I don't have a social life    
I looked at it and it was indeed the memory of the initial scoreboard...
Found another scoreboard in the game and that one worked......    

I updated the hiscore.dat.... So if you grab the new hiscore.dat from fyrecrypts place and delete the old arknoid2.hi it should do the trick.
Tested it myself and it worked for me......
No change was necessary to hitotext.xml so only the new hiscore.dat needed.......
Let me know if it works for ya.

*** Only after the scoreboard has been on the screen for the first time a .hi is created (if you exit earlier no .hi for you   ) ***

Dna Disturber    

[Cananas]

It's strange. I'm sure that worked before. I will try with older versions of MAME to know what has been changed.

[dna disturber]

It's strange. I'm sure that worked before. I will try with older versions of MAME to know what has been changed.

Cananas you are right.

I also happen to have a complete mame 0.130 set and it did still work on that one.
Maybe it has something to do with this:
- 0.130u3: Aaron Giles merged memory maps in the TNZS driver.

The new entry fortunately works on both versions (no track and field multiple version stuff-like needed)

Dna Disturber   
 

[PsychoMikey]

@DNA Disturber

Yeah, Worked like a charm!! This is so awesome!

 :notworthy:Thank you so much! 

[dna disturber]

5 new (not entirely because violence fight is already present in hitotext) games to add to the hitotext.xml :

Victory Road + clone(s)                              -hiscore.dat :   added clone dogosokj   ;old
Violence Fight (xml conversion) + clone(s)     -hiscore.dat :   added clones viofightj , viofightu (and old ones viofighj , viofighu)
Wanted                                                   -hiscore.dat :   5 bytes were missing for the scores/names so added these to the entry
Warp & Warp + clone(s)                              -hiscore.dat :  added clones warpwarpr , warpwarpr2 (and old ones warpwarr , warpwar2)
Wiggie Waggie + clones(s)                          -hiscore.dat :   added clone superbar


Dna Disturber    

P.S. :   342 games (clones) are missing from hitotext versus mame 0.140
I'm going to try to update the hitotext.xml to get a lot of them in (easy to do but takes some time -adjusting hiscore.dat and hitotext.xml and check if they work-).
A large number is however linked to the legacy driver but still hoping to get 200+ games in (xml).  
That would mean that the hitotext.xml is up to par with mameversion 0.140 clone-wise !    

[Fyrecrypts]

5 new (not entirely because violence fight is already present in hitotext) games to add to the hitotext.xml :

Victory Road + clone(s)                              -hiscore.dat :   added clone dogosokj   ;old
Violence Fight (xml conversion) + clone(s)     -hiscore.dat :   added clones viofightj , viofightu (and old ones viofighj , viofighu)
Wanted                                                   -hiscore.dat :   5 bytes were missing for the scores/names so added these to the entry
Warp & Warp + clone(s)                              -hiscore.dat :  added clones warpwarpr , warpwarpr2 (and old ones warpwarr , warpwar2)
Wiggie Waggie + clones(s)                          -hiscore.dat :   added clone superbar


Dna Disturber    

P.S. :   342 games (clones) are missing from hitotext versus mame 0.140
I'm going to try to update the hitotext.xml to get a lot of them in (easy to do but takes some time -adjusting hiscore.dat and hitotext.xml and check if they work-).
A large number is however linked to the legacy driver but still hoping to get 200+ games in (xml).  
That would mean that the hitotext.xml is up to par with mameversion 0.140 clone-wise !    

Very nice! I'll be putting an update on Friday with your additions (and legacy subtractions =D ), and hopefully the DetermineRank issue we discussed earlier. Great work man!

[snatex]

I was hoping someone could help me out with Hitotext.

This is what I have done:

1 - Compiled MAME 0.140u1 with latest hiscore diff
2 - Downloaded latest hitotext w xml and put in hyperspin folder with hyperspin.exe
3 - Downloaded latest hiscore.dat and put in MAME folder with MAME.exe
4 - Edited Hyperlaunch MAME portion with Autohotkey to remove "Hotkey, %exitEmulatorKey%, CloseProcess" then recompiled.
5 - Made sure that hyperpin's setting.ini had HiScore section, Active = true

After editing hyperlaunch I am now getting .hi files to generate but when I achieve an actual hiscore it is crashing MAME. I played Donkey Kong and got a hiscore. When I exited I got a crash error box from MAME. Next time I tried to play Donkey Kong it was all messed up and DK was invisible, etc. So I deleted the .hi file and played again. It was now fine but when I got another hiscore and tried to exit it crashed again.

Can you help me get this setup properly?

Thanks.

[PsychoMikey]

My advise would be to first try without hyperspin to see if hiscore support is working properly. Maybe something went wrong during your compile of mame. Also try a few different games so you know if it is game specific. I'm running 138 and DK works perfect over here.

[snatex]

Just tested and it works perfect outside of hyperspin.  I'm thinking it has to be something with the way hyperspin is exiting MAME. 

[dna disturber]

@snatex
Perhaps after editing there's a typo in the autohotkey ?
u-versions aren't the most reliable verions of mame by the way....I'm agreeing with PsychoMikey that it could also be a mame-thing

Just tested dkong with mame 0.140 with newest hiscore.dat (using hyperspin) and it worked.

Dna Disturber  

[snatex]

I tried using MAME without hyperspin several time and it recorded high scores fine and exited properly.  So I don't think its MAME.  I tried Hyperspin with and without Hyperlaunch.  Without Hyperlaunch the edited hyperlaunch doc shouldn't matter right? 

[dna disturber]

I tried using MAME without hyperspin several time and it recorded high scores fine and exited properly.  So I don't think its MAME.  I tried Hyperspin with and without Hyperlaunch.  Without Hyperlaunch the edited hyperlaunch doc shouldn't matter right?  

No that is true......
Have you searched for similar problems in the hyperspin forum ?...........................cuz I'm drawing a blank here

Maybe you can set the winstate not to hidden to see how hyperspin launches mame ? (and then use the exact same command to see if that works without hyperspin)

Dna Disturber  

[snatex]

I have it working now.  Thanks for your help.  DNA I took your suggestion to compile 0.140 and it works fine now. 

[dna disturber]

3 new games to add to the hitotext.xml :

My Hero + clone(s)                                                 -hiscore.dat : joined clones to myhero
Mysterious Stones - Dr. John's Adventure + clone(s)    
Fly-Boy + clone(s)                                                  -hiscore.dat : joined clones to flyboy (should now be parent)

Dna Disturber   

[secret80sman]

FireCrypts,
I hope your daughter is doing well, I have one of my own who is 2 and I know how it is.

I was wondering if there was any thought to resuming the Ghost project. Being able to see my buddie's scores sounds like a dream come true and I think the application would really take off in the MAME community. I rather liked your old name HiScanner better but I'm sure you had a reason for the name change, I've not read through the entire thread here so I'm sure it is in there somewhere.

Thanks!