Project - find working MAME romsets for a given emulator/Pi model
-
Hello,
I should ideally be able to reach @herb_fargus or the people managing the MAME compatibility list, please.
A comment in a forum post - I can't remember what the thread is - made me think recently about finding a way to ease things for arcade fans. So I am working on an excel sheet that is the reply to the question what Retropie MAME emulator runs what arcade videogame for a given MAME Romset for a given Raspberry Pi model. For that purpose, I draw from the compatibility lists in the Retropi Wiki
https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Managing-ROMsWhenever you wan to run a given videogame (romset) you will know what is/are the emulator/s that you should use and what the mame romset is and on what Raspberry Pi models they work. All at a single glance.
I should need to reach the compatibility list maintainers as at least in the Mame4All compatibility list, the file names have unnecessary trailing spaces at the end which produce inaccurate results in my project.
e.g. videogame "1941" is displayed as such in its cell whereas "1941j " has three trailing spaces that are not part of the filename. Trying to match the "1941j" pattern (real filename) results in error. Removing those trailing spaces is quite simple and in case you needed my support I would be glad to help.
Once you kindly proceed, I will be able to release my project to the community.
Regards to everyone,
-
@derebo I set up all the compatibility lists (albeit did a poor job of parsing as you have noticed) really the solutions you're looking at are built into managers like clrmamepro etc there are some issues with matching strictly by the filename as many if the filenames have changed throughout the versions. So you may actually be linking to the wrong game. Only true way to handle it is to match against hashes in the dat file generated from each mame version release
Rom managers could be better utilised (would be nice if they were a bit more user friendly)
-
@herb_fargus Please, no criticism to your parsing, please. Quite the contrary, appreciation for your time and effort.
Regarding the use of clrmamepro for such task, I have not managed to master that tool in years... Do you happen to know of a guide for the purpose of my project? If it can be achieved, all the better. I take good note of hashes in the dat files, good suggestion. I do agree about rom manager user friendliness... RomVault seems to be the friendliest, I bet.
Thank you for your reply in advance. -
recalbox did something similar: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1F5tBguhRxpj1AQcnDWF6AVSx4av_Gm3cDQedQB7IECk/edit#gid=32876421
personally i don't think it's necessary. mostly for arcade there's an obvious choice for which emulator for each pi system.
-
This post is deleted! -
Hi,
I am posting on this thread once more as I am recapping from previous messages and adding a few more details:
The Arcade doc [https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Arcade/](link url) facilitates the following combination:
mame4all-----MAME 0.37b5-----2270 roms
As the .dat file is available and I have tested Clear Mame Pro a good deal of times, I have run the 0.37b5 dat fle against an already existing full romset to observe the dat file actually creates 2241 roms (non-merged), so a difference of 29 roms.
Additionally, the compatility list (Google Sheets) lists a number of roms that simply do not show in the dat file. Eg. argus in the compatibility list does not have a counterpart in the related .dat file
More precisely, the below 28 roms do not show in 0.37b5 .dat file but DO show in mame4all-pi (MAME 0.37b5) Google Sheets file:
- batugnsp
bigkarnk
biomtoy
butasan
cubybop
exerizrb
firetrk
flstory
flstoryj
hardhead
karianx
kncljoe
kncljoea
kurikint
logicpr2
logicpro
mahoudai
momoko
pipibibi
plgirls
plgirls2
rranger
shippumd
skyfox
tatsujn2
tubeit
valtric
And I am missing one more rom. Now, as we are talking about the same romset version, it is my understanding that there should be no differences.
So I wonder if I am missing the point or should be double check the figures.
Please, kindly provide your thoughts and/or clarfications.
Regards,
- batugnsp
-
@derebo those games are probably flagged as 'non working'/'NW' in the drivers, so are either not added to the dat file, or are in there but ignored by CLRMAMEPRO. it's nothing to worry about.
-
@dankcushions Thank you very much for your feedback. Indeed.
Ok, so I think I have it.
MAME 0.37b5 is made up of 2241 romsets after ClearMamePro'ing
MAME 0.37b5 for MAME4ALL-Pi is made up of 2271 romsets after ClearMamePro'ingThe mame4all .dat file in [https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Arcade/] should be linking to its respective .dat made up of 2271 romsets but it seems it is actually linking to the plain MAME 0.37b5 .dat file and thus romsets are missing.
The difference in romsets between the two .dat files may be accounted for in the explanation given in the MAME4ALL-Pi emulator sourceforge site [https://sourceforge.net/projects/mame4allpi/files/]
It emulates all arcade games supported by original MAME 0.37b5 plus some additional games from newer MAME versions.
This version emulates 2270 different romsets.Still, the MAME4ALL-Pi .dat file in sourceforge (named clrmame.dat in mame4all_pi.zip) lists 2271 instead of 2270. I think the extra romset is raimais but need to check it.
As I think Retropie users and users at large may notice this mismatch, I think the explanation above might be added to [https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Arcade/] so as to further clarify and avoid duplicate posts.
Kind regards,
-
@derebo thanks for this research! yes i agree that mame4all-pi should link to it's '0.375b5 + extras' dat file. the dat file linked to on the mame page is different - can you tell me if this is the correct one for mame4all-pi? https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2TMeZ6iEFvHVUNfWHpUZk82bkk/view?usp=sharing
if it is, i can change the link :)
-
@dankcushions You're certainly welcome. And I agree with your plan of action as well, as it would avoid misleading or confusion.
I have compared the file in your link mame4all-037b5-RetroPie-260.dat and clrmame.dat (originating from Sourceforge's MAME4ALL_Pi mame4all_pi.zip file) and they are exactly the same file:
[IMG]http://i63.tinypic.com/2z4woc2.jpg [/IMG]
So, please, go ahead. Kindly note that the .dat file description and version numbering differ from what would be expected in a regular MAME .dat file:
MAME4ALL ROMs Datfile v2.3 actually is '0.375b5 + extras', as you suggest.Additionally, please mind Sourceforge's MAME4ALL_Pi's site informs about 2270 romsets. However, when adding the MAME4ALL_Pi .dat to ClearMamePro it will show 2271. Yes, one extra romset.
[IMG]http://i63.tinypic.com/d6wk3.jpg [/IMG]
So that might be noted as well in the Retropie Arcade Doc section.Regards,
PS. Sorry, images do not seem to be viewable in forum format [IMG]
-
And just one further clarification in regards to 0.78.
lr-mame2003 emulator is based on MAME 0.78 In this case, yes, the .dat file in
https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Arcade/and the lr-mame2003 .dat file in
https://github.com/libretro/mame2003-libretro/blob/master/metadata/MAME 0.78 XML.datdo match. However, the .dat lists 4720 romsets while here
https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Arcade/
it is stated 4705 romsets. The difference should be in those 15 bios romsets, I guess:
https://retropie.org.uk/docs/MAME/#lr-mame2003-mame-2003
Active Sets: 4705 BIOS: 15 CHDs: 30 * Samples: 56Maybe some clarification? Up to you.
Regards,
-
@derebo said in Project - find working MAME romsets for a given emulator/Pi model:
@dankcushions You're certainly welcome. And I agree with your plan of action as well, as it would avoid misleading or confusion.
I have compared the file in your link mame4all-037b5-RetroPie-260.dat and clrmame.dat (originating from Sourceforge's MAME4ALL_Pi mame4all_pi.zip file) and they are exactly the same file:
[IMG]http://i63.tinypic.com/2z4woc2.jpg [/IMG]
So, please, go ahead.done! the wiki has been updated. the docs are synced to the wiki... at some point.
Additionally, please mind Sourceforge's MAME4ALL_Pi's site informs about 2270 romsets. However, when adding the MAME4ALL_Pi .dat to ClearMamePro it will show 2271. Yes, one extra romset.
interesting! well, i think here i would rather leave it as is as there are some vagaries around which roms get counted. i'm happy that it is an 'approximate' value.
PS. Sorry, images do not seem to be viewable in forum format [IMG]
you need to use:
 -
@dankcushions >the docs are synced to the wiki... at some point.
They should be synced automatically ish. At least much quicker than once a week. :)
Contributions to the project are always appreciated, so if you would like to support us with a donation you can do so here.
Hosting provided by Mythic-Beasts. See the Hosting Information page for more information.