Does anyone have problems with Mamewah 'losing' or 'changing' data?

[link2005a]

Maybe it's not mamewah, but I am using the Mamewah config program that's been touted on this site (and it is really easy to use) but I keep having things change on me. Like suddenly my screenshots will be pathed incorrectly, or my layouts are all swapped randomly with eachother. Doesn't happen all the time, but enough so it's a problem.

Anyone else have this problem? Any solution?

Thanks.

[screaming]

Hmm.. To be honest, this is probably a problem in MAMEWAH Config (as long as you're not doing anything funky).  *a lot* more people use MAMEWAH than use MAMEWAH Config, so that leads me to believe that this issue would have come up a long time ago if it were MAMEWAH.

  Of course, so far you're the only one with the problem so it could be you   If you can help me by trying to narrow down exactly what you're doing right before it happens, it would help me fix MAMEWAH Config (if that's really the problem).  I'll play around with it more as soon as I get a chance and see if I can come up with a safer way to manage all that stuff in MAMEWAH Config...

-sab

[NinjaEpisode]

I've seen similar results when using Mamewah Config, i.e. my layout will change and I'll have to go back to the .ini and force it back to where it was.

I figured it was just me.

[link2005a]

Hmm.. To be honest, this is probably a problem in MAMEWAH Config (as long as you're not doing anything funky).

[screaming]

Well, I notice it happening the most when I delete an emulator. That REALLY seems to F-things up. I only delete the emulators to 'reinstall' them since I have no other way of rebuilding my game lists (that I know of). But once I delete an emulator all my layouts get whacked, mame is suddenly using my NES layout, the Atari layout is being used by N64 and Sega, etc. That and the part where I imput my screen shot locations loses that info. That happens when I delete an emulator and sometimes just randomly.

  It does, a lot!! I'm pretty sure I don't account for that when I re-arrange the layouts. I'll fix it!.

  You can re-generate your default list by right-clicking on the emulator.   Just be aware that unlike MAMEWAH, this doesn't delete the game list in your favorites... This is on purpose though.

-sab

[link2005a]

[wakerlet]

Maybe it's not mamewah, but I am using the Mamewah config program that's been touted on this site (and it is really easy to use) but I keep having things change on me. Like suddenly my screenshots will be pathed incorrectly, or my layouts are all swapped randomly with eachother. Doesn't happen all the time, but enough so it's a problem.

Anyone else have this problem? Any solution?

Thanks.

I've had a problem where MAMEWAH quits responding, I have to hard boot the machine and then the emulator INI file I was using is toast (defaults to the original settings).  I "corrected" this by backing up the INIs once configured into a separate Backup folder and creating a batch file that will copy them back to the proper locations if there is ever trouble.

BTW, I'm not using Mamewah Config for any of this.

-Todd

[D5A1AC]

Yes, this happened to me last night. For some reason a whole bunch of ini files decided to become unreadable in notepad and many of the settings had changed. All I did was reinstalled MAMEWAH and unfortunately had to set it all up again. But it fixed it.

[link2005a]

Yes, this happened to me last night. For some reason a whole bunch of ini files decided to become unreadable in notepad and many of the settings had changed. All I did was reinstalled MAMEWAH and unfortunately had to set it all up again. But it fixed it.

I haven't had to uninstall Mamewah, yet, but I've had to do alot of the same work multiple times within mamewah/mamewah config.

[link2005a]

I haven't had to uninstall Mamewah, yet, but I've had to do alot of the same work multiple times within mamewah/mamewah config.

Case in point, I was away for the weekend, came back last night and went into Mamewah and all my layouts were wrong. My Nintendo platform page was using the Genesis layout, N64 was using Atari, etc, etc. And I didn't change anything, just kindof seems to messup on it's own occasionally.

[link2005a]

It does, a lot!! I'm pretty sure I don't account for that when I re-arrange the layouts. I'll fix it!.

[screaming]

Have you had a chance to fixed this issue on the config program yet?

  I'm sorry, no I'm looking at it now and I'll see if I can release something this weekend!

-sab

[link2005a]

Cool thanks! 

[screaming]

Hey there link,

  I just wanted to post and say that I'm looking at it some more now, after not even opening the source for a few months.. Now that I'm looking at it again, I'm not so sure the solution is as obvious as I thought it was.

  If you use the MAMEWAH Config-sanctioned '_Installed Layouts' as your layouts folder, MC should work perfectly with keeping track of your layouts->emulator mapping no matter what you do with your emulator (delete, add, re-arrange). The issue creeps in when you don't use '_Installed Layouts' for your layout folder, and this is mostly on purpose.

  I don't want MC to be destructive, or at least, I want it to be as least destructive as possible.  That's why I went through the trouble of making a _backup folder whenever it changes a file and also the reason '_Installed Layouts' exists at all!

  When you set your layouts folder to _Installed Layouts and save (File->Save), MC will rename everything in _Installed Layouts and add a "._mc" extension to avoid the chance of overwriting something.  It will then look at all your emulators and the layouts you have defined for them and COPY them from other layouts folders into '_Installed Layouts' and leave your other layouts folders just as they are.  Then, once all your layouts have been set up to match the emulator, MC will clean up after itself delete everything in '_Installed Layouts' with a ._mc extention (which by this time shouldn't be needed any more).

  Now, I'm not sure I articulated the process as well enough, but my question is this:  Things will be a little easier if I could take some liberties with other layout folders other than '_Installed Layouts', but I/we/you run the risk of potentially deleting data without recoverability options. Should I keep it the way it is with MC only managing your layouts if you have your layout folder set to '_Installed Layouts'? 

  The SAFEST way for this to work is to *require* that everyone who uses MC to set their layouts folder to '_Installed Layouts' (in which case I don't need to do anything to other layouts folders and the above scenerio doesn't apply), otherwise none of your layouts will match your emulators.  That's probably not too big of a deal though, since it's not like MC will delete your other layouts folders and you could always go back once you stopped using MC. What do you think?

  (Incidentally, I found the "bug" where some people were getting a folder full of files with ._mc extentions:  When I was setting this whole process up I kind of stopped in the middle when it came time to make that decision above and never made a final decision... So MC renames everything in your layouts folder no matter what it is with a ._mc extention, and then doesn't necessarily put everything back if your layouts folder is not '_Installed Layouts'.  I'll fix this once I have a decision.)

-sab

P.S.  I know this doesn't address your issue with deleting an emulator, but once I straighten this out I'll be able to get a handle on the whole process and possibly re-write it.  In any case, it will be easier to fix any problems.

[Dire Radiant]

TBH I'm not sure why anyone would want to use anything other than _Installed Layouts. It simplifies the whole process so much and cuts down on the mess of having layouts extracted everywhere. I have a Zipped Layouts folder and _Installed Layouts and really I don't ever have to worry about anything else. I like it so much that I now zip all my homegrown layouts and use MC to install them.

Oh and kudos to Screaming for not only seeing right away that his program was at fault but actually admitting it. If more developers refused to play the "Blame the other app" game then there would be a lot less frustration going around.