RomLister question on categories

[buks]

Hmmmm I'm being dumb here but.........

When I used MameWah I loved the fact that you could easily create category based lists. So if I wanted a list of just sports games I would tick all the sports related categories then it would generate the list.

So, I'd like to do that in MaLa now. The game list creating program is great for picking the odd game but not for trying to pick every game of a certain genre.

So I then saw that Romlister can generate MaLa lists - whoopeeee !!!!!!

Except I can only get it to generate lists using the options at the top of the screen (number of buttons, 2-way/4-way/8-way etc).

Any ideas how I can do this ? I did try adding this to the -find command at the bottom of the screen -

(category=Sports)

But that didn't do anything.

Am I doing this wrong or does Romlister not do that ?

Thanks for reading,

Buks

[Green Giant]

This one is pretty easy to fix.  Basically romlister uses the master.xml file to create the lists. 

For sports games, use something like this on romlister:

(buttons=7 | buttons=6 | buttons=5 | buttons=4 | buttons=3 | buttons=2 | buttons=1 | !buttons=) & !emulation=preliminary & (<category>Sports)

I found 554 sports games using that.  For detailed categories, open up the xml file and scroll down to a game.  I will use Jump Shot as an example.  It lists "<category>Sports / Basketball</category>".  When using romlister, use the exact phrase from the xml to search.  If you want all the sports games except basketball, you would type "(category>Sports) & !Basketball".  An only basketball lists would be "& (<category>Sports / Basketball)". 

I guess if romlister gets a hit on anything about a game, it adds that game to the list, so make sure and use stuff like "category>Sports" instead of just "Sports".  Otherwise you might get some random extras like trivia games in your sports section.

edit:  Caps don't matter on romlister, was thinking of the xml viewer I use.
Caps do matter so double check your entries. 
I ended up creating a list for nearly every category there is.  Then use the mala tree and you can organize it as you see fit. 

[CM]

I'll ask a dumb question:  Could MaLa or Romlister be updated to include an option for genre/category list creation (without leaving it to the user to know or guess all the various query types)?   I would point to GameEx as an example of a FE already doing this.   

[buks]

Looks like Green Giant has answered my query - I'll give it a go now.

CM - yep, you have a point. I suspect like a lot of software its a "work in progress" and the author will be more more than willing to add the option people want most (please !!!!).

Not averse to the odd bit of "regular expression" from my old unix days.... ahh bliss

Buks

[Green Giant]

If you can get NOP to read this thread, then it will probably be done by the end of the week.  If you will test it, he will code it. 

So... NOP romlister ROMlister ROM lister NOP hope you are searching for mentions of your name

[buks]

he he he - like the last comment GG.

Just thought I'd post my thanks - your tip for the -find command worked a treat. I've now got all my lists - looks like maybe a few roms got through that had the same name as the category but it wont take long to remove them from within MaLa.

Cheers again.

Buks

[Green Giant]

When you make the lists just make sure and use (ory>Sports).  The "ory>" just makes sure you are searching for the sports category not something like sports trivia.

[NOP]

Hi!

I'll start working on adding the category list to the quick-find wizard today.  I like the idea very much, the only bummer part is trying to wedge it into the GUI somehow.

The UI is already to the point where I can't run ROMLister on my own machine, as I can only run 640x480, and I can't see the -find command line!   

I suspect I'll have something to test with in a few hours.

-jeff!

[Green Giant]

Sweet, thanks for the fast work.

See, just have to catch jeff's attention and he will have an update pretty soon.

[CM]

NOP romlister ROMlister ROM lister NOP    .... thanks and looking forward to testing it

[NOP]

ok, kick this around and see what happens:

http://www.waste.org/~winkles/ROMLister/RomLister006b.zip

I'm up for more tweaks to it before I release it officially.


There's one caveat that GG alluded to earlier in this thread that I ended up bumping into:


I only added the main categories from catver.ini (puzzle, maze, fighting, etc) and then also added mature to the list.  Those that are familiar with catver know that it lists things like "puzzle / mature" and "driving / top down" etc.  I only added the stuff before the slash in the list, otherwise there would be way too many categories to chose from and no one would be able to get all of the driving games or all of the mature games in one search.

As GG said, you really should add "category>Sports" to the -find window, otherwise you could get matches from elsewhere in the game's data field.  The problem is that "mature" is always listed as a sub-category, so "category>mature" doesn't find anything.

So, you may get a few extra ROMs in your list, if for any reason, one of the names of a category is somehow used in the game's name, or perhaps driver information, or some other odd location.
I'd suspect that the chances of that are pretty low though.


Oh, and just one correction:
Green Giant said:
"Caps do matter so double check your entries."

AFAIK, the stuff in the -find field is not case sensitive.  The only time I check for case (and even this is pretty stupid) is in the Search button to locate a single game's XML info.  If you do find a place where case is used, let me know and I'll get rid of that immediately.

Otherwise, you're spot on with everything, and thank you so much for understanding the tool well enough to describe how it works better than I can. 

-jeff!

[Green Giant]

Oh, and just one correction:
Green Giant said:
"Caps do matter so double check your entries."

Must have been the XML viewer I was using.  When I was searching for different types of categories in the master.xml file had to make sure and get the case right.  Made so many lists that its all a big blur to me now.

[Green Giant]

Tested out the new romlister, but I can't select the category option.  It is there but it is greyed out.

[NOP]

the only way to get the category option is to use a merged xml file.
Pop into settings and tools and create one.

You may have been using an old merged file-one built using the stand alone tool vs. the new one built into ROMLister itself.  I now leave a signature in the xml header of the merged tool so that I can enable certain items in the GUI if all the searchable items are available.  There were also a couple bugfixes since I added the merge tool into ROMlister, so you really should rebuild your merged file.

-jeff!

[Green Giant]

Yeah, thats probably it.  Still using one from way back before mala integration.  Been meaning to rebuild especially since I updated to a newer version of mame.

[buks]

NOP - I too am using 640x480 and the -find command was hidden. I can switch to 800x600 if need be but the screen edges disappear into the back of the TV somewhere

I've noticed this with a lot of software - how come the screen doesn't display to the full screen res and then use scroll bars ? Or is that something that you have to code for ?

I'll try to test v006 tonight (but I've already got all my lists thanks to v005 and GG !).

Buks

[NOP]

yeah, you're missing out on some things by using an old merged file.
All clones, since they weren't listed in controls.xml then got no controller information in the merged file.  I fixed that now, by using the parent's controls information.

There was also a wee bug in a few games getting incorrect categories. 

I still find that controls.xml only has maybe 80% (I just made that number up) of all the games that mame has, and this causes a problem with finding games based on buttons. 

Due to the different naming for mame's .xml and controls.xml on buttons, (Controls.xml uses "numButtons=x" and mame only uses "buttons=x") if a game doesn't have an entry in controls.xml, it will essentially get skipped because I've got the search criteria set to use "numButtons" instead of "buttons" because I want the better accuracy of controls.xml's data. 

Certainly the number of skipped games is pretty small, but I discovered that I missed a few gems when building a list for my cocktail machine.  The game "streaking" was missing.  (ok, not a gem, but so stupid it had to be included on my machine)

I have a work around for this issue, which will probably work out, but it will mean that you'll have to re-merge yet again after I add it in.

I'm also thinking that I should utilize catver.ini's list of when a game was added to mame would be a useful search item as well.  Then folks even using mame 0.36 could use the latest xml files and still find games that worked with their particular mame version.

my work is never done...

NOP - I too am using 640x480 and the -find command was hidden. I can switch to 800x600 if need be but the screen edges disappear into the back of the TV somewhere

I've noticed this with a lot of software - how come the screen doesn't display to the full screen res and then use scroll bars ? Or is that something that you have to code for ?

yeah, scrollbars on a whole GUI is something I've never tried tackling before-in C++, windows doesn't take care of that for you.  It is certainly time to try and tackle this issue, although I think I have a quicker solution in mind.

-jeff!

[Green Giant]

An easy way to get around the screen size problem is use another computer.  I just merged the files on my cab a while back, and I have been using the merged file at work when I get a chance.  I will probably get a copy of the xml, controls, and catver so I can use whatever updates come out soon.  Then you just copy the lists into your Mala folder.

[buks]

NOP - works fine. Love the simplicity of creating categorised lists. Now I've added "Puzzle" games using v006 and it look 100%.

Cheers.

Buks

[Green Giant]

Noticed something weird today on my computer.  When I updated from an old version, it is not carrying the misc. options, -no clones -no samples -playable, to the -find box.  I tried using the older version and it isn't showing it either. 

This doesn't happen when I put a copy of Romlister on a machine that has never had it before.  It must be some field that was left from an old version messing up the new one.

[u_rebelscum]

I still find that controls.xml only has maybe 80% (I just made that number up) of all the games that mame has, and this causes a problem with finding games based on buttons. 

Closer to 45% if you include clones, unplayables, & mahjong games.  Higher percent if you ignore unplayables (~60%), lower if you count just parents or ignore mahjong games (~30%).  (I'm not able to get through to controls.dat ATM to check the numbers, though.)

Of course, controls.dat was last updated for 0.111, and 0.117 is now out, so the numbers are even lower because of the added games (336 more).  Most of the rest missing, OTOH, are the smaller, less well know, uncloned games.  (Not all, but most.)

(edit: upgraded numbers after looking at control.dat)

[NOP]

Noticed something weird today on my computer.  When I updated from an old version, it is not carrying the misc. options, -no clones -no samples -playable, to the -find box.  I tried using the older version and it isn't showing it either. 

This doesn't happen when I put a copy of Romlister on a machine that has never had it before.  It must be some field that was left from an old version messing up the new one.

Yup, just found out about this this morning too.
I'll be able to look into tomorrow and will post back here when a new version is available.  Rather weird, but that's what you get for free!

-jeff!

[NOP]

ok, build 007 is available.

http://www.waste.org/~winkles/ROMLister

Fixed the checkbox thingy not doing what they're supposed to be doing. 

I'm still WIP on the addition on the MAME release# a game was included in, and the fix for controls.xml not having data on certain games.  I've kinda programmed myself into a corner trying to add these features, so they may not see the light of day until I get some inspiration.  We'll see. 

-jeff!