MaLa GameList Format

[CaptainBadass]

Creating GameLists are a pain, so I decided to develop my own simple tool that shows a game screenshot and name, then you choose a category, and then it proceeds to showing the next game. Aftwards, MaLa GameLists would be generated based on the choices. Since it's quite easy to judge a category/genre from a screenshot, I figured that this way would be quite affective.
Now here's the problem. I have no idea how to generate a MaLa GameList. I've looked at .mlg files in a hex editor, and I'm quite baffled. I've looked at the RomLister source code to get an idea, but my C++ knowlegde if fairly limited (I'm developing the tool in Visual Basic 2008, don't laugh ).
So if anyone has any idea as to how the .mlg format works, I'd appreciate your help.
Thanks!

[NOP]

yeah.  You're in for a long ride.

mala game lists are pretty much a text file with some non-text values separating the data elements.  it took me a few weeks and a lot of testing to be able to duplicate the sample lists that I had. 

there's some sample source code on the mala home page about making the lists, but it's in delphi.  I converted that into a structure in malalistdef.h in the romlister source, and most of your clues will be there.  What it boils down to is that there's a header at the top of the file that defines the path and the title of the list and a few other items, then each entry is a duplication of the structure.

Each element inside the structure has it's own data:
Every string in the structure starts with a 06, then the size in bytes of the string itself, then the string.  The string is not NULL terminated.  Example: 06,08,"mystring"
Every BYTE value in the structure starts with a 02.  Ie, if a game entry's # of buttons is 4, the data would be 02,04
Every LONG value in the structure starts with a 03. Ie, if a game entry's year was 1980, the data would be: 03, bc, 07

It's ugly.  Even though the file is mostly text, you have to write it in binary.
If loadman ever changes the formatting, we're both screwed. 

edit: byte swap.

[CaptainBadass]

Thank you so much I understand it now, and should be generating my own game lists soon. Just gotta write the code to get the info from mame.xml.
There is one thing I don't quite understand, and that's how the created/modified date and time is stored in the header. What's the data type and time stamp format? I'd imagine I could get away with just using copied data from a pre made game list, but I would like to be thorough
Thanks again, I wouldn't be able to do this without your help.

[NOP]

it appears in my code that I never figured the date/time stamp out either.  I just hard code it to the same values as my example .mlg list had.