Creating custom game lists for mame?

[ivwshane]

I'm using MALA as my frontend and I wanted to remove a ton of games such as the adult ones and all the casino type games and most likely all of the MESS stuff. After searching around I came across romlister which seems like it will do what I want. However romlister requires a controls.xml file and I cannot find an updated one anywhere. Besides manually deleting games what are my options? The wiki has outdated links on it. I looked into mawler but it looks like that is currently outdated as well but it might get an update soon.



If it matters, I'm using mame 1.47 for testing but I'll be using mame 1.67 once I get everything figured out.

[NOP]

controls.xml merely augments the available data in MAME's listxml datafile, so if there is an entry or two (or a hundred!) missing from controls, romlister will still be able to do a pretty good job at making your lists.

This http://controls.arcadecontrols.com/ is the latest available version of controls and the official homepage.

I just created a merged file with the above controls.xml and mame 167's listXML and it appears to be able to make a list just fine for me.

MESS info is still a bit of a problem.  The best way to exclude MESS data is to append by hand (there is no button or checkbox for this yet) the following text at the end of your -find: window after you have clicked all the buttons and massaged all the checkboxes you want.

Code: [Select]

& !slotoption
"slotoption" appears to be a common element in the majority of MESS devices.  A few may still slip into your lists, but it's the best we've come up with so far.

Good luck!

[Yenome]

Having been working on this my self i can give some advise. First one would be to only work with the mame version your going to be using. If you use .147 and get everything working it might not work with .167 personally im sticking with .161. far as romlister is concerned if you cant find a controls.xml you can make a empty file and name it that. I only use the catver.ini file the control info is built into mame xml that is created by romlister to merge. now in the merge log it will cry about not finding the games in controls.xml but it should still work the same as it does for me. this is the search string i use to get rid of most the unwanted games

(buttons=6 | buttons=5 | buttons=4 | buttons=3 | buttons=2 | buttons=1 | buttons=0 | !buttons=) & !(triggerstick | top-fire | rotary | dial | trackball | pedal | lightgun | 'Analog') & (!sample_name= & !emulation=preliminary) & !('ball & paddle' | isbios=yes | casino | mature | pinball | quiz | rhythm | tabletop | Fruit_Machines)

this results in games that are not any of the ones listed last in the search string. this also only finds games that use a 2, 4, 8, or 49 way stick with/with out up to 6 buttons. it will return around 4-5k games in .161 from there i dwindle it down a lil further. what i have done is made two set one with out clones and one using the @USA macro that finds USA and world games. i then put all the roms from the two lists into one folder and use romlister to scan the folder to make a new xml. that i go through and get rid of any game that has a USA clone as im from USA so i prefer those games as they was what i played in the arcade.

The exception for me is since I will only have two sticks and 6 buttons ea player i dont need any four player games so for teenage mutant ninja turtles and the simpsons i use clones that are two player versions. i havnt completed this list yet if you want i can send the XML to you once i have it done. do note i am using unmerged roms once the list is done so i wont need parent files. like pacman will have all the files it needs from puckman to work. less clutter and since i only got an 120gb HD for my bartop more room i save for other things the better. Still keep a full .161 set on my main pc for archive.

[ivwshane]

Very nice guys! I will give your suggestions a shot!

[Howard_Casto]

It isn't 100% accurate by any means, but the best way to filter off mess junk atm is to search for "coins" in mame's controls entry.  Consoles don't take quarters.