What feeds the "controls" display on MaLa?

[jasonbar]

I'm messing with adding 3D games to my MaLa FE.  Asteroids & Asteroids Deluxe were easy, as I there are several revs of both of those games, so I was able to add an extra version of those games to my list, then mess with my BAT file & they're good.

For Warlords, however, I copied over an unused rom (wardner) to my gamelist in Mala's GameList.  I was able to go through & update all the required graphics files (cabinet, title, cpanel, etc. to display Warlords art instead of Wardner art).  And I updated the history.dat file to provide the appropriate info in the "about" section of my FE.

But!

When flipping through the info window & I get to the "controls" display, I can't get it set up right.  It still displays Wardner's year & mfger, and it says that there is no controls info for this game.  I tried updating controls.ini, but that didn't do the trick.


So, which file does MaLa look at to fill out its controls text in the info window?

Thanks!
-Jason

[SGT]

That info is stored in the mlg files which are the mame game list files.  Whenever the game list is built that controls info goes into the mlg file.  I verified this by using a hex editor and modifying one character in the allgames.mlg to see if it showed up when I brought up the info screen.

I assume the data originally comes from the controls.ini file.  Have you tried refreshing the main game list after modifying the controls.ini file?  I notice the same info in the allgames.mlg is also duplicated in your custom lists mlg files.  So I am not sure if you will have to refresh any custom game lists also after refreshing the Main game list.

[dungbeetle46]

As SGT said you need to refresh your main game list for any changes in controls.ini to show up, Mala only reads controls.ini when creating the gamelist, it doesnt read it on the fly

[jasonbar]

Thanks for the info.

First, I made a backup of my MLG file.  (phew!)

Oddly, when I'm showing my game list, the Refresh Main Game List (in the right-click menu) is dimmed out.  So, I switch to the main game list & refresh it.

Some time later, when it was done, I saw that, in the main game list, it did update the entry that I edited in controls.ini.

But, when I switched back to my game list, the entry hadn't been updated...how do I update my game list...


I also tried the "Update all  game properties in all lists" button in the Game Lists tab of the options menu.  That does indeed update the "controls" text, but it also reverted all my game names back to their default names (i.e., there's text like "set 1", "US", "new version", etc. appended to many game names, which I'd cleaned out before...).


Any more ideas?

Thanks,
-Jason

[SGT]

That does indeed update the "controls" text, but it also reverted all my game names back to their default names (i.e., there's text like "set 1", "US", "new version", etc. appended to many game names, which I'd cleaned out before...).

You know Mala can automatically remove stuff in the names that are in parentheses and brackets, right?  You don't have to manually edit each rom name.

[jasonbar]

Thanks--I do recall seeing some sort of selection to remove the "extraneous" text from a game name, but I've also customized many game names & doing this "Update all games..." action will undo that work...

Examples:
I have Badlands (Atari driver) shown as Badlands
I have Badlands (laser) shown as Badlands <Laser> & this reverts to Badlands Laser
I have Bermuda Triangle <Newer Version> & Bermuda Triangle <Older Version>, but those revert to Bermuda Triangle (Japan) & Bermuda Triangle (US Older Version).


etc...


Still haven't found a solution that I really like yet...


I'd also like to be able to enter data in the controls.ini & history.dat for the Daphne games in my list, as well as the few oddities (spinner hack, red-blue 3D glasses, etc.).


You mentioned a hex editor, SGT.  Can you expound a little on that?  Could I get into the .MLG file & edit it with a hex editor?


Thanks,
-Jason

[SGT]

Well you have a real problem if your setup is such that you can never refresh your custom game lists.  There are times that this will be necessary, and I'm surprised that this is the first one you've encountered.

If you only have a few games that you need to add controls.ini file information and you've already refreshed the main game list, why not just delete these few games from your custom game lists and then re-add back to your custom game list so they have the updated info?

Regarding the hex editor, its easy to modify existing test, but I don't know if Mala will crash if you insert text or remove text in an existing MLG file.  BACKUP EVERYTHING FIRST.  I like the hex editor found here:

http://www.chmaas.handshake.de/

[jasonbar]

Well you have a real problem if your setup is such that you can never refresh your custom game lists.  There are times that this will be necessary, and I'm surprised that this is the first one you've encountered.

OK, now you're scaring me.  I'd like to think that my MaLa/MAME cabinet/etc is stable & that I wouldn't have to be doing any refreshing, just a little bit of tinkering here & there.  In what situation will it be necessary to refresh it?   

If you only have a few games that you need to add controls.ini file information and you've already refreshed the main game list, why not just delete these few games from your custom game lists and then re-add back to your custom game list so they have the updated info?

GENIUS!!!  That's what I'll do!   


Thanks
-Jason

[jasonbar]

Thanks, SGT.     I spent much of yesterday messing w/ controls.ini & history.dat & my MaLa game list.

I have 26 "oddball" games (3 3D games, 5 spinner hack games, & 18 Daphne games).  I removed them from my game list, picked the 1st 26 Mahjong games in my list, "hacked" their controls.ini entries, refreshed my main game list, added them back in my game list, then edited their game list entries to point to my oddball ROM names.  (then my mame.cmd file looks for those oddball names & spits out the appropriate MAME or Daphne command line)

I got the "controls" & "about" info window contents to display just how I want them.


There's oooone more bit of cleanup that's eluding me thus far, though.


On my MaLa layout, I'm displaying manufacturer & year.  Those are still displaying the info for the Mahjong games.  Which file feeds mfger & year to the FE display?  Is it mame.xml?


Thank you very much,
-Jason

[SGT]

Yep, its mame.xml. You'll have to refresh the main game list after modifying mame.xml.  I would suggest backing up your mame.xml file after making changes in case you choose the Mala option to recreate mame.xml which would overwrite your modifications.  Also, when a new Mame comes out with new roms, a new mame.xml file is needed.

Instead of modifying existing entries in mame.xml, I usually just create a new xml with only my new "roms".  I don't modify existing roms, but create new ones.  I call this xml file, additional.xml.

Then I combine mame.xml with additional.xml to a file called combined.xml.  Combined.xml is the file that i submit to Mala.  This way when new versions of mame come out which need a new mame.xml file, I can easily add my additions without having to edit the new version of mame.xml.  Not sure if that made sense, but it is described in the first part of my reply here:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=68419.msg711826#msg711826

[jasonbar]

SGT-

Thanks for your helpful reply.     Took me quite a while to find time to work on this, but I just wrapped up tonight & am running a backup of my cab hard drive overnight tonight.


I'm already a follower of your ways, though--I already have my mame (virgin).xml file & my mame (bonus).xml file, which I merge into mame.xml.

Same for controls.ini & history.dat.

I've ended up morphing things a bit from how you/I used to have bonus non-MAME items (in my case, DAPHNE games, spinner hack games, & 3D art games...and someday, PC games).  Because I never got MaLa to automatically fill out the file path for a game in MaLa GameList, I stopped using the rom path to filter the DAPHNE games from the rest...and I've deleted my dummy ROMs from that alternate (DAPHNE) directory.

My mame.cmd file is now pretty much a giant list of if/then statements.  Works great.

I still have to go through the somewhat cumbersome route of deleting a game from my gamelist & adding it back in from the All Games list after I've done my updates in the Main Game List & refreshed it.

Something that vexed me for some time was that MaLa didn't seem to be actually refreshing games in the Main Game List unless I removed the game from the list & then did the refresh.  That took a few tries to figure out.

Also, my brackets of choice (purely for style reasons) are < & > if I need something paranthetical in a game name in the list.  A little digging found that the html codes for those characters are &lt; and &gt; , which I've simply put into the mame (bonus).xml files so that I don't have to keep going into GameList & customizing the names.


Anyway, I think I'm all set--I also no longer need to hijack those Mahjong ROMs--it's all swell.


Thanks for you help!

-Jason