HiToText (Version 2010.11.4).

[redhorse]

Ok, I have it running now and after updating the GameEx HiScore_SupportedGames.txt file I can see my R-Type Higscores now!!

One question: In most of the samples that I've looked at the highest score gets a rank of 0. Why don't you use rank 1 for the highest score. IMO the highscore tables should show a "1" at the top, not a "0".

BTW: I've decoded the .hi file for Slapfight and programmed the decoding methods in a C# class. As soon as I've done the encoding methods for writing a file I will post the C# code  here.

[Fyrecrypts]

Ok, I have it running now and after updating the GameEx HiScore_SupportedGames.txt file I can see my R-Type Higscores now!!

One question: In most of the samples that I've looked at the highest score gets a rank of 0. Why don't you use rank 1 for the highest score. IMO the highscore tables should show a "1" at the top, not a "0".

BTW: I've decoded the .hi file for Slapfight and programmed the decoding methods in a C# class. As soon as I've done the encoding methods for writing a file I will post the C# code  here.

I agree with this, and I probably need to go back through the game files already created to change this. For R-type I actually changed this from 0 to 1 (and so on down the line) in the version you posted when I made the last version of HiToText. I'll look through the old ones again and see where this occurs. For HiToText it's only where games actually save or display rank.

[headkaze]

Hey Fyrecrypts to enable HitToText to work with or without the .hi extention

Change

Code: [Select]

fileName = args[1];
to

Code: [Select]

fileName = Path.GetExtension(args[1]) == String.Empty ? args[1] + ".hi" : args[1];

[headkaze]

Screenshot of HiToText running inside HyperSpin

[Fyrecrypts]

Next update will include headkaze's optional .hi extension line of code above, and include a few new games: Metrocross, Hyperduel, and Bombjack. Might include more if I can get to it.

I've kinda been hoping to decode an nvram file soon, however even the smallest of these is usually 1,000 bytes or more, and require changes in numerous places to work correctly, so it's a little daunting. I'll get you yet Metal Slug 3...

[NOP]

sorry, life has taken over for awhile, but i'm still here on this project as much as i can be.
i'll try my hand at a joust nvram file, simply because joust is my favorite game and i'd love to be able to share those scores...

[bent98]

Your program works great in Hyperspin although if I leave Hyperspin in attract mode for say 60 mins your program crashes. I am running Win XP 32.

Anything you want me to test or debug?

[Visitor Q]

Awesome Work Guys!

Tom has this fired up in Game Ex and didn’t even know until I went and looked for it.

Love it!

I just want to say I really appreciate all the hard work and dedication people put into projects like this and don’t ask for a single cent in return.

Hats off guys!!! 

Ps. Pretty Please on Mr. Driller High Score Support. =]

[Fyrecrypts]

Your program works great in Hyperspin although if I leave Hyperspin in attract mode for say 60 mins your program crashes. I am running Win XP 32.

Anything you want me to test or debug?

Is there an exception message at all? It's possible that I might have a game definition wrong somewhere, and it's crashing there.

Awesome Work Guys!

Tom has this fired up in Game Ex and didn’t even know until I went and looked for it.

Love it!

I just want to say I really appreciate all the hard work and dedication people put into projects like this and don’t ask for a single cent in return.

Hats off guys!!! 

Ps. Pretty Please on Mr. Driller High Score Support. =]

Glad you like it! And I'd love to get Mr. Driller in to the hiscore.dat as well, I just don't seem to ever have the spare time at home to mess around with it. =)

[bent98]

Ill take a closer look and get back to you.

[Fyrecrypts]

Update coming soon with a few new games deciphered: Bonanza Bros, and Nightmare in the Dark. Here's the thing about Nightmare in the Dark, it's an nv file (although a very easy one)! 

Got some cleanup stuff to do, then I'll release it tomorrow. Cracked Defender. 

Edit: Sorry I couldn't get this out tonight, I will very much try to get something up within the next 24 hours. I just have had very little time to work on anything.

[Fyrecrypts]

All right, update is out, with one minor issue, for now I've temporarily removed being able to leave off the file extension, because it's now possibly ambiguous. I didn't want the application to always assume ".hi" anymore. I'll come up with a way to check for both .nv and .hi files, however, I'm not sure how long that would necessarily last either, as certain games (Defender) could possibly use both the .hi file and the .nv file and have different results.

In fact, I have an idea for an addition to HiScanner with this notion in mind. Basically, the defender's .nv file stores the all-time scores, and the .hi file shows "today's" scores. I figure, why not let HiScanner actually do a "today's" scores and the all-time scores as it was meant to be in the arcade.

Again, I'm also hoping to put up some sort of tutorial showing how to decipher the scores.

[headkaze]

I noticed in the HyperSpin release notes they call this project "Fyrecrypts hiscore software". Is that accurate? I just thought this was a group project?

[Fyrecrypts]

I noticed in the HyperSpin release notes they call this project "Fyrecrypts hiscore software". Is that accurate? I just thought this was a group project?

I call it HiToText, or the hi score project, I will send Bill a PM and let him know to use that and not reference anyone in particular.

[Dazz]

I noticed in the HyperSpin release notes they call this project "Fyrecrypts hiscore software". Is that accurate? I just thought this was a group project?

Thanks for pointing that out.  I have fixed the release notes.

Also, what all is required to get this setup and running in HS?  What exactly needs to be downloaded and setup?

Doh!  The instructions are posted on the HS forums.  Here.  Thanks!

[Dazz]

Thanks for adding Crystal Castles to the list.  Centipede is also another game that is played on a regular basis.  Think we can add that one as a request?

[Fyrecrypts]

New version out this morning, added about 6 new games (Defender, J.J. Squawkers, Crystal Castles, Gunsmoke, Elevator Action, and Jungle Hunt/King) give or take some clones. Defender, a big one! I'm currently only using the nvram file for scores, since "all-time" greatest seems more important than "today's" greatest. I have deciphered the .hi file which is today's greatest as well, however I'm not sure how I want to handle 2 different sources for one game yet... which leads me to...

Thanks for adding Crystal Castles to the list.  Centipede is also another game that is played on a regular basis.  Think we can add that one as a request?

Centipede also uses two separate files for scores. Half of the scores can only be overwritten through the nv file, the other half through the .hi file. It's pretty easy deciphering, but again, I'm not sure how I want to handle something like that yet.

I also discovered that despite some games using the same format in the hiscore.dat file, the bytes actually can represent something different. Ali Baba and 40 Thieves is the only example I've found so far, and it will be an easy fix. It is currently lumped in with pacman/mspacman, but will need to be in its own file.

[Fyrecrypts]

New version out, added: Tempest, Special Criminal Investigation, Up N' Down, Mr. Do's Wild Ride, and moved Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves to its own game. I decided it wasn't worth making and uploading a compiled version so I just stuck a copy of the HiToText.exe from the bin/debug folder into the main directory. Now there's only the one zip.

A note about Tempest, I had to modify the hiscore.dat file to fix what previously existed for tempest. The person who originally put it in there the way it was didn't realize that although the nvram does contain the first 3 scores, changing the nvram does not actually change the scores, and in fact just screws up tempest. It overwrites the nvram based on the memory in CPU #0 anyway, so I just extended and patched up the tempest portion. So, basically, old tempest.hi files are completely incompatible. Luckily you have a tool to put them right back in! Just screenshot the scores, delete the old .hi file, run Tempest with the new hiscore.dat (in main post, if you open it up in notepad it should be version 0.3), and use HiToText to write in all your scores (e.g. HiToText -w tempest.hi NLA 234500).

Still not completely sure how I want to handle games like Centipede, I might ask the FE guys what they think would be best for the input they want to put into HiToText, and the output they want back.

[headkaze]

Great work Fyrecrypts. I wonder if the FE dev's are going to keep up with releases or if people are going to need to download this separately?

[Fyrecrypts]

Great work Fyrecrypts. I wonder if the FE dev's are going to keep up with releases or if people are going to need to download this separately?

Well, I think I'm going to make just one more change that the FE guys will have to keep up with, make it so it just uses the game name and the mame folder to get the scores back. HiToText would then take care of looking at the .hi file, the .nv file, or both. This would solve every issue, and shouldn't require the FE guys to ever have to update their FE to accommodate HiToText again, after this final change. Any strange issues regarding displaying the scores would be taken care of within the HiToString method. If this sounds like a valid idea, I'll bring it to Tom and Bill, and see if they like it. Again, I don't want them having to update their FEs all the time, so we should come up with something that should work for every game and stick with it.

[headkaze]

Definately a great idea and you know you could probably implement it without them needing an update. Since they currently pass the full path to the .hi file you could just get the Mame folder from that.

Eg. Something like this

Code: [Select]

mameFolder = Path.GetDirectoryName(args[1]);
romName = Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(fileName);
hiFolder = Path.Combine(mameFolder, "hi");
nvFolder = Path.Combine(mameFolder, "nvram");
hiFilename = Path.Combine(hiFolder, romName + ".hi");
nvFilename = Path.Combine(nvFolder, romName + ".nv");

if(File.Exists(hiFilename))
   // Process the hi file
else if(File.Exists(nvFilename))
   // Process the nv file


[headkaze]

HiToText support now added to CPWizard 

Also Fyrecrypts any chance you could change HiToText from a "Debug" to a "Release" binary for next version?

[wwwombat]

Ok, I have it running now and after updating the GameEx HiScore_SupportedGames.txt file I can see my R-Type Higscores now!!

One question: In most of the samples that I've looked at the highest score gets a rank of 0. Why don't you use rank 1 for the highest score. IMO the highscore tables should show a "1" at the top, not a "0".

BTW: I've decoded the .hi file for Slapfight and programmed the decoding methods in a C# class. As soon as I've done the encoding methods for writing a file I will post the C# code  here.

I agree with this, and I probably need to go back through the game files already created to change this. For R-type I actually changed this from 0 to 1 (and so on down the line) in the version you posted when I made the last version of HiToText. I'll look through the old ones again and see where this occurs. For HiToText it's only where games actually save or display rank.

Just want to do a quick check on this... I believe I have the latest HiToText installed in both the GameEx and CPWizard directories (trying to figure out how to do without one of them but that's a separate question for Headkaze) as well as the supplied hiscore.dat in my mame/hi directory.

Currently, my high scores do show however both Galaga and Donkey Kong still show the best score as being Rank "0" (instead of "1") and so on down the chain... do I need to do anything else or just wait for a future amended HiToText.exe?

[Fyrecrypts]

Just want to do a quick check on this... I believe I have the latest HiToText installed in both the GameEx and CPWizard directories (trying to figure out how to do without one of them but that's a separate question for Headkaze) as well as the supplied hiscore.dat in my mame/hi directory.

Currently, my high scores do show however both Galaga and Donkey Kong still show the best score as being Rank "0" (instead of "1") and so on down the chain... do I need to do anything else or just wait for a future amended HiToText.exe?

Yes, I need to get the next version out that includes some more games, and normalizes the output of every game. With the holidays and some setbacks due to... well... I'm not sure yet, still trying to figure that one out, I haven't released the newest version yet.

[Fyrecrypts]

Definately a great idea and you know you could probably implement it without them needing an update. Since they currently pass the full path to the .hi file you could just get the Mame folder from that.

Eg. Something like this

Code: [Select]

mameFolder = Path.GetDirectoryName(args[1]);
romName = Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(fileName);
hiFolder = Path.Combine(mameFolder, "hi");
nvFolder = Path.Combine(mameFolder, "nvram");
hiFilename = Path.Combine(hiFolder, romName + ".hi");
nvFilename = Path.Combine(nvFolder, romName + ".nv");

if(File.Exists(hiFilename))
   // Process the hi file
else if(File.Exists(nvFilename))
   // Process the nv file


Had to do this a little differently, but as you'll see whenever I can get the next update in, I took your advice and used the mame directory from the full path.

HiToText support now added to CPWizard 

Also Fyrecrypts any chance you could change HiToText from a "Debug" to a "Release" binary for next version?

Hooray! Thanks headkaze! As for the release binary, I'll go ahead and do that from now on, just makes more sense.

[Fyrecrypts]

New version out with lots of changes. First, a thank you to redhorse who contributed to one of the new games supported now: Slap Fight! He gave it to me before Christmas, but as I said in my previous post I've had some issues to work out.  Other new games added are Space Invaders and some clones, 1943, Phoenix, Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, and Columns. Columns required a rewrite of what was in the hiscore.dat, so yet again for this version to work correctly you will need an updated hiscore.dat provided above in the hiscore.zip file attached to the main post. Again, this will mean deleting your current columns .hi file, so if you want to keep your Columns scores follow my instructions a few posts up when you had to do this for Tempest.

In addition to that, HiToText temporarily is only supporting looking for .hi or .nv files in your actual MAME directory, this shouldn't really affect anyone as most people only use HiToText for FEs, but I'm saying it should you encounter an expected error experimenting with HiToText. The next version of HiToText I'll ensure this issue is fixed. The reason this happened though is so that current FE's could see hi scores from .nv files without having to change a thing, so you can now see Nightmare in the Dark, and Defender scores.

I've also put in a change that will allow me to easily show scores from games where the hi scores are split between .nv and .hi files. Games like Centipede, which I'm hoping will be in the next release.

And finally, I've reorganized all the games to use a similar format, instead of basing the order on the order of the hi score table, I'm giving almost all games the RANK field (which now starts at 1 for every game), and that will always be followed by the SCORE and NAME fields, then whatever other fields are stored in the order they are displayed on the hi scores screen for each game. The only games that did not get a RANK field were games where only one score is kept like Pacman, Space Invaders, Elevator Action, Super Dodgeball, etc... They will continue to only show the SCORE field.

With headkaze's suggestion, I've also compiled the binary (what most of you care about) as a release in visual studio. This means less debug code in the executable and more optimizations so it'll work faster. As the list of games climb, I'll probably have to do more optimizations to ensure a quick speed.

Anyway, I think I covered everything, enjoy!

[tspeirs]

Thanks Fyrecrypts. I will do my best to include the latest version in new releases of GameEx at all times.

[Space Fractal]

Look like this is now a cool project and I need to add this to MultiFE. Is it any way I can port HiToText.exe to BlitzMax or Pure Basic, since MultiFE is used a diffecent language than most FE's? That is due I still looking forward to get this run in Linux, even it still a bit in the future, so I hope this is not a Windows only project.

BTW downloads did not work today, so I cant look how it really works now, but would do that soon. To start with I just think to add support for the exe directly which would got invoked if found after you have quit the game.

[Fyrecrypts]

Thanks Fyrecrypts. I will do my best to include the latest version in new releases of GameEx at all times.

Thanks Tom, but don't feel obligated, it should be the user's responsibility to update HiToText, you've done your part. =)

Look like this is now a cool project and I need to add this to MultiFE. Is it any way I can port HiToText.exe to BlitzMax or Pure Basic, since MultiFE is used a diffecent language than most FE's? That is due I still looking forward to get this run in Linux, even it still a bit in the future, so I hope this is not a Windows only project.

BTW downloads did not work today, so I cant look how it really works now, but would do that soon. To start with I just think to add support for the exe directly which would got invoked if found after you have quit the game.

I'm not sure what exactly you're trying to say, but this application is programmed in C#, primarily because if it were in anything different I would not be able to spend as much time as I do on it. Some time in the future, making the Games files dlls is something I would like to do. The program is completely open source, so you can feel free to use the code in any way that would suit your application.

[Space Fractal]

I could download today and check. # should could run in Linux too, without modification which I would check in one of these days. DLL's cannot been used in Linux, so I simply think this project should just continue to use C# as lanugage. Its a good chooice.

So keep working  !

[headkaze]

It would be pretty easy to port this to C++ infact using pointers and structs would probably make it easier to code. But still there is alot of work there to translate! It would be nice to not have to rely on the .NET runtimes but for projects like GameEx and CPWizard we use it anyway but some other FE's would probably prefer to have a native binary version.

For Linux it should be okay to port across to Mono, although we have not tried. If you can get it compiling let us know. I don't think were using any sort of p/invoking or Windows specific code so it shouldn't be a problem.

[Space Fractal]

It would be pretty easy to port this to C++ infact using pointers and structs would probably make it easier to code. But still there is alot of work there to translate! It would be nice to not have to rely on the .NET runtimes but for projects like GameEx and CPWizard we use it anyway but some other FE's would probably prefer to have a native binary version.

For Linux it should be okay to port across to Mono, although we have not tried. If you can get it compiling let us know. I don't think were using any sort of p/invoking or Windows specific code so it shouldn't be a problem.

That is what I can do. Is is a way in the future to make a such a parser version, so new games can been added without adding updating the main app every time? That is was fyrecrypts was thinking with dll files. C# Is a portable langauge like Java is, so it should been not a problem. So of course I would use the binary version, and hope it works. I report when I have tested in few days soon.

[headkaze]

That is what I can do. Is is a way in the future to make a such a parser version, so new games can been added without adding updating the main app every time? That is was fyrecrypts was thinking with dll files. C# Is a portable langauge like Java is, so it should been not a problem. So of course I would use the binary version, and hope it works. I report when I have tested in few days soon.

We talked about doing this earlier in the thread actually

[Space Fractal]

It a bit confuction how to get it to work because there is no real documentation and hitotext.exe is actuelly missing to the compiled file.

I need to ask some thing:

1. Is hitotext.exe need hitotext and app.config in the same dir, but for some reason it not in the compiled file (which it should), but is comply versions of it on the other download in first post? I see only the newest is really needed for best support.

2. do the app.config file which is a wrong name for the config (should been hi2txt.config), but that is needed by hitotext.exe as well?

3. How to checkout the supported games without using a manual list? I would like it have some short of -listgames command to get the list so no manual edit is needed. Only romnames is needed. (there is a command for that)

4. How to use the updater.exe, should that been invoked on some points?

[Fyrecrypts]

It a bit confuction how to get it to work because there is no real documentation and hitotext.exe is actuelly missing to the compiled file.

I need to ask some thing:

1. Is hitotext.exe need hitotext and app.config in the same dir, but for some reason it not in the compiled file (which it should), but is comply versions of it on the other download in first post? I see only the newest is really needed for best support.

2. do the app.config file which is a wrong name for the config (should been hi2txt.config), but that is needed by hitotext.exe as well?

3. How to checkout the supported games without using a manual list? I would like it have some short of -listgames command to get the list so no manual edit is needed. Only romnames is needed. (there is a command for that)

4. How to use the updater.exe, should that been invoked on some points?

HiToText is a stand-alone application.

I think you've downloaded HiScanner, which has no real practical purpose yet if you do not have your own webspace to host this. It's included because it was my primary project for a while. I have left it up there, but it has not been updated online for months. If you would like to use this application you need a webserver with a MySQL database. There is some php code I've included (I think... been a while) that will access the database. I am not really supporting this application as it's not very user friendly right now. The code is free and you're welcome to mess with it as you see fit to help, when I get closer to creating my own cab I will resume work on this application. The app.config file is required for HiScanner to work correctly, and does need to be in the same database.

Updater.exe is only used for HiScanner, and also requires the app.config file in the same directory. Source for this is not open, only because it's a very simple application.

The HiToText.exe is included in the base directory of the HiToText_20090106.zip file at the top of this post, it is also included in the bin/Release directory. No additional files are needed (not even app.config), HiToText is self-contained.

Hope that helps, headkaze and I have gotten HiToText to be pretty user (and FE) friendly, however the same is definitely not true for HiScanner. =D

[Fyrecrypts]

I have some great news! Thanks to Cananas over on the mameworld.net forums, Mr. Driller will be in the next version of the hiscore.dat file and also deciphered for HiToText.

[Cananas]

More explanation:

Mr Driller stores the high score table in 3 diferent (but contiguous) addresses. All start with the same bytes: 76 65 57 76.

-0x200DB4: Here is the default high score table. Never change.
-0x201038: The high score table that is shown in the game. If you change somehing here, you will see in the game.
-0x2013FC: Apparently, is the high score table that is saved into the mrdrill.nvram file.

If you get a high score and you ener your initials, those are stored into de last two table (0x201038 and 0x2013FC).
After you exit the game, the high score data in 0x2013FC is stored in the nvram file.

The problem with this game is this: After you saved the nvram file, when you run the game again, the high score table in the nvram files is stored in the 0x2013FC address. But it don't update the high scores in the 0x201038 table, so, in fact, you don't see the saved records in the game.

If you play again and get another high score, you will see this score in the game, because is stored in the 0x201038 table. Also, is stored in the 0x2013FC (remember the tablethat is saved intro de nvram file).

So Mr Driller saved the high score table in the nvram file, BUT, it doesn't update the high score table that is shown in the game (address 0x201038).

Threre is 40 entries for high score with this structure (here is the 1º score in the 500m level). I'm assuming that bytes 0-3 are 76 65 57 76:

bytes 4-6: (30 75 00): The Score, inverted, so 0x007530 points (30000 points). The maximun score will be: 0x0F423F points (999999 points), so bytes 3F 42 0F, replacing 30 75 00.

byte 7: It seems always 00, no matter wich number put it here... Not used?

bytes 8-9: the depth. In this case (C8 00), so 0x00C8 m (200 meters). The maximun depth wil be 9999m (0x270F), bytes 0F 27.

bytes 10-11: It seem always 00. Not used?

bytes 12-14: The Initials. Only 3 letters are admitted:
  00: A
  01: B
  02: C
 ...........
  18: Y
  19: Z

byte 15: It seems always 00. No matter which is the number. Not used?

byte 16: If different from 00, show in the high score the "Mr Driller pin". I suppose that you get this medal when you finish a level (got 500m in level 500 or 1000m in level 1000).

bytes 17-19: It seem not used.

[Cananas]

Commando (and clones)

First of all the hiscore.dat must be updated. There is one more clone and other one has changed the rom name. The correct names are:

commando :
commandu :
commandj :
sinvasn :
sinvasnb :
commandb :

There are 7 entries for records, plus the Top Score at the end of the .hi file.

The structure of each entry is:

bytes 0-3 (00 50 00): The score. In this case 50.000 points. Note that the last 0 is always omitted. Another example is the trird record (00 19 42): 0019420 points.

bytes 4-13: The name in the Asccii format (41->A, 42->B...5A->Z). There are some special characters:
    5B->. (full stop) This character can be also obtained with the byte 2E as usual. But if you set this directly from the game, it always register like 5B.
    5C->heart symbol
    5D->rb symbol
    5E-> (an space)
    61 to 7A->the alphabet with another cursive yellow font.


After this 7 entries, we found the Top Score with the same format that the Score (005000->50000 points), so the max. score will be 9999990 (99 99 99).

                         

[Fyrecrypts]

New version out, with new games including one that many of us have been wanting for a while: Mr. Driller! Thanks go to Cananas for discovering where the hiscore table was, and with that I added support for it in the hiscore.dat file, and in HiToText. Other games added: DJ Boy, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Turtles In Time, Dragon Blaze, Asteroids, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Pacmania, Do! Run Run, Commando (also thanks to Cananas for decoding that).

Between this release and the last release Leezer released a new hiscore.dat. He did not incorporate the running changes I've been making, but he probably didn't know I was. I've merged his changes with mine, and uploaded it in the main post. I had to modify Do! Run Run and Meteorites (a clone for Asteroids) to work correctly. In addition, I forgot to mention that 1943 in a previous release also required modification.

Enjoy!

[Visitor Q]

Anyone know if there is a way to get Zinc to display the hi score in my front end for Mr. Driller?