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Main => Software Forum => Topic started by: MrQuan on May 07, 2006, 09:32:59 am

Title: adding hi score data
Post by: MrQuan on May 07, 2006, 09:32:59 am

G'day,

My Mamewah/Mame/ZSnes/Project64 PC is all hooked up and running like a dream.  Thanks in part to these forums for smoothing out most issues I had.  :)

Anyways, I have stumbled on a problem that I can't see a clear solution to...

I recently added the hiscore.dat file to my Mame directory from http://www.mame.net/hiscore.html (I downloaded the latest one - 20th February 2001), and this was working well for most of my games.  However, sfa3 (street fighter alpha 3) didn't create it's own .hi file and the documentation tells me this is because it isn't supported by hicore.dat.

My question is, is it possible to add hi score support for sfa3, and other games I find aren't supported?  The documentation explains about memory addresses etc, I understand this - but is there an easier way to do this without having deal with source code and stuff like that? - or even a newer hiscore.dat file somewhere else on the net?

Thanks in advance for your help.  :)

Title: Re: adding hi score data
Post by: mackem on May 07, 2006, 09:42:14 am

Try http://www.mameworld.net/highscore/latest.htm

Title: Re: adding hi score data
Post by: MrQuan on May 07, 2006, 09:44:29 am

Ahhh, thank you!  I knew February 2001 couldn't have been the latest!  I'll see if this supports the games I'm after.

Title: Re: adding hi score data
Post by: Pi on May 07, 2006, 12:33:28 pm

Note that most modern games use Non-Volatile RAM (in its various flavors) to store configuration and hi-score data. So those don't need the hiscore.dat support, but they do need the folder called "nvram" with writing permission (iow, not read-only).

Title: Re: adding hi score data
Post by: MrQuan on May 08, 2006, 08:55:43 am

Cheers mackem, sfa3 and all of my other ROMs I tested now have high score functionality. :)

Quote from: Pi

Note that most modern games use Non-Volatile RAM (in its various flavors) to store configuration and hi-score data. So those don't need the hiscore.dat support, but they do need the folder called "nvram" with writing permission (iow, not read-only).

Yeah, I noticed the NVRAM directory in my MAME directory, it has multiple files in there named after my ROMs, does that mean the NVRAM thing is working then? (I'm assuming MAME takes care of NVRAM without an additional .dat file?)

Title: Re: adding hi score data
Post by: Pi on May 08, 2006, 09:42:36 am

Yes, MAME takes care of NVRAM without an additional .dat file. The additional hiscore.dat is for games which didn't save hiscores in NVRAM or just that didn't have. Although MAME supports hiscore.dat, it's considered a hack and not part of faithful emulation.

Title: Re: adding hi score data
Post by: destructor on May 08, 2006, 11:21:32 am

Remember if you use NVRAM and you will want to record game (inp file) your game will not playback correctly. When you record (or playback) game, remove NVRAM file from MAME folder temporary or use option -nonvram (mameplus option, I don't know if it's in standard MAME too).