Any way for a completely custom game list??

[Chris BEANS]

Hi All,

I'm slowly getting Mala set up exactly the way I want it but am having trouble with game lists....

It's no problem to have the games I want in individual lists. but I can't get them in the order I want..

For example, I'd like to have Street Fighter, street fighter II, Street Fighter III, Hyper street fighter etc... all in that order.

Doesn't matter whether I list them by name or rom, Hyper Street Fighter II (hsf2.zip) always comes first.
Can't list by year either because I have certain games that need to be in order that were released in the same year. When two games from the same year are together it again reverts to alphabetical...

Is there any way to list roms in a completely custom order, exactly the way I want??

Cheers

[Chris BEANS]

[loadman]

Hi,

You can olnly order using filters at the moment.

This may not always be the case in a future version 

You might consider using MaLa Tree for your setup 

[SGT]

Is there any way to list roms in a completely custom order, exactly the way I want??

There is a work around.  You'd have to really want it badly if your game list is very long as it would take quite a while to do manually.  However if it was something that more than one or two people wanted, an app could be written to make the order as simple as dragging and dropping to change the order.

Anyway.... you could set the game list to the order of genre and edit the genre field in the game list so that when it is alphabetized it would be in the order your wanted.  For example the first three characters of the genre could be entered for the first game in the list as AAA, the second game in the list AAB, the third game in the list AAC, etc..

This assumes you do not use the genre field in a layout or anywhere else.

It would probably be a good idea to use more three characters so you can allow plenty of space between games to allow for additions and changes later.  Of course with an app to do this, all the games in the list would be reassigned a new three digit genre "code" each time it was edited.  Like I said, a manual edit like this would be a nightmare with a real big list.

[Chris BEANS]

Hi,

You can olnly order using filters at the moment.

This may not always be the case in a future version 

You might consider using MaLa Tree for your setup 

I'll have a play with Mala Tree, see how it goes. I'll also look forward to my problem 'not always being the case'

Cheers

Is there any way to list roms in a completely custom order, exactly the way I want??

There is a work around.  You'd have to really want it badly if your game list is very long as it would take quite a while to do manually.  However if it was something that more than one or two people wanted, an app could be written to make the order as simple as dragging and dropping to change the order.

Anyway.... you could set the game list to the order of genre and edit the genre field in the game list so that when it is alphabetized it would be in the order your wanted.  For example the first three characters of the genre could be entered for the first game in the list as AAA, the second game in the list AAB, the third game in the list AAC, etc..

This assumes you do not use the genre field in a layout or anywhere else.


It would probably be a good idea to use more three characters so you can allow plenty of space between games to allow for additions and changes later.  Of course with an app to do this, all the games in the list would be reassigned a new three digit genre "code" each time it was edited.  Like I said, a manual edit like this would be a nightmare with a real big list.

That sounds like the perfect solution for me!! Thank you!!
Such a simple solution.

My lists are short as I no longer crave every rom ever, I just have the ones I use and love.
Shouldnt take too long at all to knock em up.

Thanks again

[Chris BEANS]

Am I being dim? Why can't I find a way to edit the Genre??
I know it can be done and my brain is telling me that it's probably as simple as finding the right box to edit..... but can I find it?? Nope!!!   

[SGT]

You have two choices but first please copy your Mala folder to another folder in case anything goes wrong.  I don't want to be responsible for screwing up your system.  These options assume you do not need the genre to be correct for Mala or any other programs that use catver.ini.  Here are your two options. 

Option 1) You can edit your catver.ini.  Please make a copy of this file before editing it just in case you need to revert back.  You'll have to look in Mala Options>Mame Config>Additional to find where this file is.  Mine is located in my Mame folder.   This file has the genre for each game.  After modifying this file, load Mala, refresh the main game list, then refresh the custom game lists by clicking:

Options>Gamelists>Update All Game Properties in All Lists.

Option 2)  You can use a hex editor to modify the genre in the actual game list.  This is not for the faint hearted.  If you change anything in the wrong area you can render your game list unusable so have backups. 


Option 1 is the way to go as it is easy.  Ideally an app written to directly modify the genre in a gamelist file would be ideal.  I might create such an app down the road where the app automatically assigns the genre a 3 or 4 character code after the user drags and drops the games in the order that he wants.

[Chris BEANS]

Used option 1, worked a treat!!

Thanks loads

[SGT]

Glad its working for you.