new rom list generator thingy.

[NOP]

ok, new release of the command line app.  Version 1.4 

http://www.waste.org/~winkles/rl_1p4.zip

New:
Added ability to override the delimiter in -csv mode

-csv:";" will change it from comma (default) to a semicolon.

If you specify only -csv on the command line, it'll default to a comma.

Note that any found criteria that contains the delimiter will have the character replaced with an underscore, to avoid import errors.

Example, with the default delimiter of a comma, a ROM description that looks like this:

PuckMan (Japan set 1, Probably Bootleg)
  will be outputted like this:
PuckMan (Japan set 1_ Probably Bootleg)

-----

Removed adding a - to CSV values that don't find a match.  You'll now get stuff like this:

rl -in:allgames.xml -out:outdata.csv -find:"year,game name=,description,buttons=,control=" -csv
 
Results in a file like this:

1981,froggers,Frog,,joy4way
1982,amidars,Amidar (Scramble hardware),2,joy4way
1982,triplep,Triple Punch,1,joy4way
1982,knockout,Knock Out!!,1,joy4way
1981,mariner,Mariner,2,joy8way
1982,tron,Tron (set 1),joy8way & dial

----------

New: multiple items found in the search criteria will all be listed in the CSV output file, with a " & " between.  See Tron above for an example.


I think that covers the command line app's outstanding requests, so I'm going to try and focus on the GUI now. 

[Havok]

 

[NOP]

Here's stab #1 for the GUI version.

http://www.waste.org/~winkles/ROMLister  (now with a website! woo)

Next time around (I'm getting a little burned out on this at the moment) I plan on merging the command line functionality in with the GUI version, so I can officially drop the command line one entirely and keep only one code base.

There are some quirks, as you'll discover working with it.  Namely the search button only allows you to find items in the input xml file, not any new data created with the tool. 

So, kick it around.

-jeff!

[xmenxmen]

How/what does one have to do to take a list result generated with this tool in order to use it with mala?

[NOP]

Honestly, no idea.
I've never run mala before and don't have any idea what sort of input files it uses.  (my cab runs DOS)

I'm not opposed to creating a new file output format specifically for mala, I'd just need a little primer on what type of stuff it needs and some example files to peek at.

I think though that this utility and mala could go hand in hand quite nicely though, and I'm certainly up for future developing.

-jeff!

[Havok]

Just as an FYI - this utility already works perfectly for AtomicFE game lists: the rom list is all we need! Thanks NOP for this great utility! I am building a bunch of filtered lists, and this is a MAJOR time saver, plus I am discovering new games I was not aware of!!!

[NOP]

Hey xmenxmen

Can you post (or PM me) what a game list for MaLa looks like?  Provided I can reverse engineer the list and see what MaLa needs, I can provided that output format in my utility. 

I can't imagine that it will be very hard to do.  Doesn't MaLa already have some means to do ROM filtering and sorting, or do you do it all by hand?

[Dazz]

Sorry for bumping an old thread, but since Romlister is still updated I figured I'd ask this in the real thread.

Is there any reason why Romlister wouldn't be listing all games?  I'm using v16 that I just downloaded from the website, but Paperboy does not appear in any list I create.  I have checked every box and it still does not come up in just a basic all game list.

[NOP]

it's probably the controls.

here's the xml data:
      <controls>
         <control name="Misc">
            <constant name="other"/>
         </control>
         <control name="Handlebar">
            <constant name="stickx"/>
         </control>
         <control name="Throttle (Handlebar)">
            <constant name="sticky"/>
         </control>
      </controls>
   <labels>

and romlister doesn't have checkboxes for "Misc" "handlebar" or "throttle", plus it defaults to joy2way and joy4way.  paperboy doesn't fit into those categories.

you can always hit the "list all roms" button and from that list you can right click on a game and add it manually into your own list.

[Dazz]

Nop,

Thanks for the info, but it doesn't look like it is only Paperboy with this issue...  Would it be possible to have the newer control types added into Romlister?  I've found this app to be extremely valuable to me right now and knowing that I am not getting complete lists of what I am filtering for is a bit annoying.

[NOP]

what other roms are you missing other than paperboy? 

The deal is this:
Having a checkbox for every single, possible, obscure control like "handlebar" would increase the GUI size and be a bit of a nightmare of checkboxes to have to wade through, not to mention the debugging and verifying required for each one that I add.

The compromise was to have the GUI build the search command that gets sent into the search engine.  You can then customize that command by hand, adding any and all sorts of obscure controls that you'd like.

Check the tutorials for information about how to tweak the command line by hand.
http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/RL_tutorial_Advanced_Searching

If you're worried about missing games that have nonstandard controls, how about reversing your search and do a NOT search on the controls that you absolutely don't have?

IOW, set all the checkboxes to "don't care" and put the checkboxes for controls you don't have (like a trackball perhaps) to "NO" and try your search again.  That should give you everything except the games that require the controls that you don't have. 

[u_rebelscum]

I'm also interested in the the search string you're using that's not finding paperboy.  Could you copy and post the string at the bottom of the build search page?

As nice as all the check boxes are, I love being able to hand edit the string in RomLister.  And always do so; the check boxes are not finite enough for my searches, and there's enough of them as is.

[Dazz]

I selected all controls, buttons 7 and less, and all games except for Majong, quiz and Adult and then just generated the list.

[NOP]

do the NOT trick, it works really well.

set all the controls to don't care, uncheck any box that you absolutely don't have controls for (I used spinner, light gun, and trackball) and then selected the same genre settings as you.  Clicked Go! and paperboy and all the variants showed up.

[u_rebelscum]

I selected all controls...

In this case, I'd grey out all the controls, like NOP is saying.  By checking all, you might think you're getting all games with any input, but you're not.  You're requiring two things: A) game has to have at least one of the checked inputs, B) for some input types, the game has to be in controls.dat.  For example, if the game isn't in controls.dat and it only has a an analog stick, by selecting all you won't get the game.  If you greyed out the inputs, instead, you would get the file.  Greying out all controls means "any inputs".

[Dazz]

Yeah, making them all gray was able to create the list I was looking for.

Thanks!