mala game list creator/editor feature request

[NOP]

Would it be possible to have mala's game list editor allow us to edit the number of buttons and controls that are put into the list for each ROM?

The reason I ask for this is that the data that is plugged into the .mlg file comes from MAME's xml file (or via romlister, which uses controls.dat info) and sometimes it's inaccurate.

here's an example:
<game name="dingo" sourcefile="galaxian.c">
   <description>Dingo</description>
   <year>1983</year>
   <manufacturer>Ashby Computers and Graphics LTD. (Jaleco license)</manufacturer>
   <category>Maze</category>
   <input players="2" buttons="1" coins="2">
      <control type="joy8way"/>

I believe that Dingo actually uses a 4way joystick.  When using fatfinger's U360 mapper plugin, it is pulling this same data out of the list and programming the wrong map file in, which makes the game fairly tough to play. 

The only solution I've come up with so far is to manually hex-edit the .mlg file.  I could also edit the xml file and rebuild the whole list, but once your list starts getting customized as you go through it by hand, it's pretty impossible to rebuild it again.

thanks!

[TheShanMan]

I think a game details editor would be very nice!

[loadman]

I think a game details editor would be very nice!

I agree, and this may happen..

But why not do what I do and just edit the linked controls.ini and refresh your game list?

[NOP]

But why not do what I do and just edit the linked controls.ini and refresh your game list?

that works?  Sweet!

I was not aware that refreshing a game list re-imported info from controls.ini.  I thought refreshing a list basically re-scanned the ROM files you had on your drive and made a new list from those.  That wouldn't work in my case, since my list is quite customized and I have lots of misc ROMs tucked away in various folders.

I suppose that's slightly easier than hex editing the file. 

thanks-next time I need to make a change, i'll give that a shot.

[loadman]

I think a game details editor would be very nice!

I think I will add this to the Game List Editor

[NOP]

yay!

the controls.ini editing and refreshing doesn't work for everything because there are games that simply don't exist in controls.ini.  Those all seem to default to 8way stick, and some of those are most certainly not 8way, so I continue to hex edit my .mlg file to fix them.

This new feature will be very handy.  (I really only need it for buttons and controls though-so don't kill yourself trying to make everything editable!)