MameWah: "Display Clones - only if better than parent" problems?

[unclet]

I successfully created a "Filtered" game list INI file in MameWah-v1.62b9 with "Display Clones = NO".

If I try to change that "Filtered" game list to have "Display Clones = Only if better than parent", then all my listed games go away (ie: MameWah displays no games at all in the display menu side).

Is this a problem with MameWah or do I not understand what "Only if better than parent" means....

please explain.


PS: Also, setting the "Years = NO" and "Manufacturer = NO" filtered settings do not seem to do anything in my display.   The games originally come up without the YEars and Manufacturer text appended even if those options are set to YES....   so making them NO shows me the same stuff.   Anyone else see this behavior?

[Minwah]

Is this a problem with MameWah or do I not understand what "Only if better than parent" means....

please explain.

Some clones are better emulated/more playable than the parent rom...so this attempts to show the 'best' based on the driver status of each game, and it's parent where applicable.

I know the driver status stuff in MAME has changed, but it seems to work OK for me.

PS: Also, setting the "Years = NO" and "Manufacturer = NO" filtered settings do not seem to do anything in my display.   The games originally come up without the YEars and Manufacturer text appended even if those options are set to YES....   so making them NO shows me the same stuff.   Anyone else see this behavior?

Do you get a list of actual years and manufacturers in the filters menu (like 1976, 1977 etc...)?  If not, then it sounds like you are not using all the info from MAME, which is probably a bad list_generation_method - for newist MAME versions use 'rom_folder_vs_listxml'.

Edit: this would make sense as to why the clone filter stuff isn't working properly too....definately sounds like an incorrect list_gen_method.

[unclet]

Let me first say, theat when I bring up the filtered list, only the actual game titles are listed ... meaning the text which I can scroll through to select a game to play does NOT have year/manufacturer information in it.   I then can go into Generate Game List option and look at year individual year and see that each one is set to YES ... same as the manufacturers ... they are YES as well.

I would assume that when the year and manufacturer are set to YES, then I should see that information in the filtered game list text ... correct?

It is not really bothering me since I did not want to se this info in my filtered list .... so I have moved on to configuring other stuff now, however, I thought I would mention it.

[Minwah]

I would assume that when the year and manufacturer are set to YES, then I should see that information in the filtered game list text ... correct?

Um, no, not neccessarily.  It depends on the layout you are using...if it doesn't have year/manufacturer/etc shown then you will never see that information.  However, filters can still be used regardless if the info is being displayed on the screen - sounds like this is what you are doing.

[unclet]

Oh, I see .... the year and manufacturer data would be displayed in separate display boxes, which my layouts do not include.  I thought this was referring to the actual game list text contents ..... that explains it.

So, what makes MameWah display complete game list names inlcuding the year and manufacturer (ie: GoodTool naming convention) in the "All Games" list, but only displays the game name in the "Filtered" list?

[Minwah]

So, what makes MameWah display complete game list names inlcuding the year and manufacturer (ie: GoodTool naming convention) in the "All Games" list, but only displays the game name in the "Filtered" list?

Are you talking about console/computer games or MAME?  Mamewah displays whatever you feed it...either from 'mame -listxml' or from a datfile, or NMS file or just filenames.  It depends on the list generation method.

MAME games don't have GoodTools naming, but you can remove stuff like '(Set 1)' etc. by using a custom list with 'display_clone_info 0' set in the relevant emuname-x.ini file.  The same goes for console games, where stuff like '[E]' will be removed.  Note that you have to generate the filtered list for this to take effect.

[unclet]

I am referring to my Atari2600 Console games so far ... first one I am trying to set up.

The display_clones_info is "0" already ... so I guess based on what you are saying is that this will strip all the [E] (Atari), etc ... etc ... stuff from the actual filename in my "Filtered" list .

Now in my "All Games" Atari2600 INI file fo MameWah I notice the [E] (Atari), etc ... etc stuff is displayed.   I guess this is being displayed since I have the "rom_folder" path stuff set.

Do you have any documentation as to what the settings are for your INI files?  I am currently using the v162b9 beta.

I am not sure what "listxml" even refers to ...... never heard of anything like this .....

I guess my goal would be to keep the "GoodTool" naming convention of the actual roms, but only have the game name (ie: not the [E], (Atari(, etc... stuff) displayed in the game list.  How can I do this in the "All Games" list? Just curious.

[Minwah]

The display_clones_info is "0" already ... so I guess based on what you are saying is that this will strip all the [E] (Atari), etc ... etc ... stuff from the actual filename in my "Filtered" list .

Now in my "All Games" Atari2600 INI file fo MameWah I notice the [E] (Atari), etc ... etc stuff is displayed.   I guess this is being displayed since I have the "rom_folder" path stuff set.

OK that is fine...all you need to to is select your custom list ('Filtered') and then Games List Options > Generate List using Filters - I think that is pretty much all - it should generate a list with all games with the [bracketed stuff] etc. removed.

Did you really have year/manufacturer filters for 2600?  If so how, did you use a dat file?  With 'list_generation_method rom_folder' no extra information such as this is available.

I am not sure what "listxml" even refers to ...... never heard of anything like this .....

It's a MAME switch used to collect info about the games.  'rom_folder_vs_listxml' is the default list_generation_method in Mamewah, for MAME only.

I guess my goal would be to keep the "GoodTool" naming convention of the actual roms, but only have the game name (ie: not the [E], (Atari(, etc... stuff) displayed in the game list.  How can I do this in the "All Games" list? Just curious.

You can't do it in the All Games list (it is purposely not possible to modify this list).  Just do what I said before, and rename your 'Filtered' list to 'All Games', and forget about the 'original' All Games list.

[unclet]

If I rename my "Filtered" list (ie: "Atari2600-1.ini") to "All Games" and forget about my original "All Games" list (ie: "Atari2600-0.ini") , then won't I be displaying two "All Game" lists?   Or are you saying to also delete the "Atari2600-0.ini" file so I am only displaying one of them.....

PS:  My Atari 2600 directory listing is attached.  I grabbed these files from a torrent recently but I am not using MameWah on this directory since I only chose games I wanted and also renamed them to have smaller names ..... :>)

[Minwah]

If I rename my "Filtered" list (ie: "Atari2600-1.ini") to "All Games" and forget about my original "All Games" list (ie: "Atari2600-0.ini") , then won't I be displaying two "All Game" lists?

Yes, but have the second one selected, and you can effectively ignore the fact that the other (original) one exists.

Or are you saying to also delete the "Atari2600-0.ini" file so I am only displaying one of them.....

No I would leave the ini file there.  You will only 'see' the original list in the Select Games List menu, so I would just not enter that menu (unless you want further custom lists...in which case there is a workaround you can use to remove the original altogether).

Also note if you use the NEXT_GAMELIST or PREVIOUS_GAMELIST shortcuts (with 'cycle_list 0' set in Atari2600-0.ini), then this list will never by cycled to.

PS:  My Atari 2600 directory listing is attached.  I grabbed these files from a torrent recently but I am not using MameWah on this directory since I only chose games I wanted and also renamed them to have smaller names ..... :>)

I'll have a look...