Arcade Manager: install overlays and manage roms in a user-friendly, fast and cross-platform GUI

cosmo0

@cloudlink Thanks! ^^
I'm glad if at least one person enjoys it :)

If you like the realistic overlays, I encourage you to go to OrionsAngel's thread at the libretro forums (there is a link just above) and tell him you like them, I'm sure he'll be glad to hear it :)

cloudlink

@cosmo0
Do you know of a good way to install realistic overlays for consoles?

cosmo0

@cloudlink said in Arcade Manager: install overlays and manage roms in a user-friendly, fast and cross-platform GUI:

@cosmo0
Do you know of a good way to install realistic overlays for consoles?

What do you mean, realistic console overlays?
I have made a consoles overlay pack, maybe that's what you're looking for?
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/16430/
No automatic install but you can just copy and paste.

If you want a TV screen with scratches and reflection it can easily be done, I can add that to my existing ones.

mitu

This post is deleted!

cloudlink

@cosmo0
A TV screen with scratches and reflection would be awesome!

markwkidd

Can your tool be used to create "Full Non-Merged" romsets, where the BIOS is added to the game romset zips?

To do this in ClrMamePro you go to the Advanced button and uncheck "Separate BIOS Sets"

cosmo0

@cloudlink said in Arcade Manager: install overlays and manage roms in a user-friendly, fast and cross-platform GUI:

@cosmo0
A TV screen with scratches and reflection would be awesome!

https://github.com/cosmo0/retropie-overlays/tree/master/_sources/generic pick your TV screen and I'll add the screen :P

@markwkidd said in Arcade Manager: install overlays and manage roms in a user-friendly, fast and cross-platform GUI:

Can your tool be used to create "Full Non-Merged" romsets, where the BIOS is added to the game romset zips?

To do this in ClrMamePro you go to the Advanced button and uncheck "Separate BIOS Sets"

No it doesn't rebuild romsets, it just copies. This is what makes it fast :) It's just in case you have downloaded a matching romset and just want to copy a subset, or remove unwanted stuff.
But I have noted the idea, and I'll see what I can do with bioses.

markwkidd

@cosmo0 Ah ok. It really quite similar to my multifilter tool then I guess, except for the CSVs.

If the user has Full Non-Merged romsets, it's ok to just copy the romset by itself.

If it's plain Non-Merged, the romset needs to be copied along with its corresponding BIOS, device, and machine zips.

If it's Split, you need the romset, the parent romset, the BIOS, device, and machine zips.

Note that mame2003 didn't have devices and machines yet, just BIOS. Those other types came along later. You'll definitely run into them with MAME 2016, and I can't remember for sure what MAME 2010 and MAME 2014 include. That gets parsed from the DAT.

Apologies if you know this. Just trying to establish what we're talking about! :)

Edit: Actually I have never built a Full Non-Merged romset for later than MAME 2003. I wonder if turning off "Split BIOS Sets" will in fact merge in the device and mechanical files to the romset for something like MAME 2016.

Edit #2: I see that you don't support Split romsets at all. I don't blame you. Because my tool gets used by devotees of more modern MAME versions, SAM support Split sets and has logic that keeps the parents with the clones even if someone only selects a clone.

cloudlink

@cosmo0 said in Arcade Manager: install overlays and manage roms in a user-friendly, fast and cross-platform GUI:

https://github.com/cosmo0/retropie-overlays/tree/master/_sources/generic pick your TV screen and I'll add the screen :P

exodus_OLDCRT_DAY.png would be awesome!! :)

Evert

@cosmo0 , this is a brilliant bit of software. Love how easy it is to load overlays now. I used to do this the manual way and did not get past about 10 or so overlays until I was fed up. This is great.

Evert

@cosmo0 , would it be possible to include the neo-geo folder as well in this software package? I noticed that there are overlays made for some of the neo-geo games, but as I have split them out of the FBA folder and put them in the neo-geo folder, the program doesn't load the overlays.

I also noticed that the overlay for Bionic Commando and Red Earth is the wrong size, the overlay stretches over the game image.

tekn0

I just wanted to say thank you for making this wonderful tool! I have used it to create a mame2003 rom list I am very happy with.

Excellent work!

cosmo0

@cloudlink said in Arcade Manager: install overlays and manage roms in a user-friendly, fast and cross-platform GUI:

@cosmo0 said in Arcade Manager: install overlays and manage roms in a user-friendly, fast and cross-platform GUI:

https://github.com/cosmo0/retropie-overlays/tree/master/_sources/generic pick your TV screen and I'll add the screen :P

exodus_OLDCRT_DAY.png would be awesome!! :)

https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/16430/overlays-compilation-repository-for-consoles-and-handhelds-1080p/3

Let me know what you think :) I'm not much of a designer, I just used what was available to me...

cosmo0

@evert said in Arcade Manager: install overlays and manage roms in a user-friendly, fast and cross-platform GUI:

@cosmo0 , this is a brilliant bit of software. Love how easy it is to load overlays now. I used to do this the manual way and did not get past about 10 or so overlays until I was fed up. This is great.

Thanks! :)

@evert said in Arcade Manager: install overlays and manage roms in a user-friendly, fast and cross-platform GUI:

@cosmo0 , would it be possible to include the neo-geo folder as well in this software package? I noticed that there are overlays made for some of the neo-geo games, but as I have split them out of the FBA folder and put them in the neo-geo folder, the program doesn't load the overlays.

I also noticed that the overlay for Bionic Commando and Red Earth is the wrong size, the overlay stretches over the game image.

I have noted the Neogeo request, I will do it for next version.

I'll check the overlays, thanks for the report. Is it the artwork or realistic pack?

@tekn0 said in Arcade Manager: install overlays and manage roms in a user-friendly, fast and cross-platform GUI:

I just wanted to say thank you for making this wonderful tool! I have used it to create a mame2003 rom list I am very happy with.

Excellent work!

Thank you very much! :) I'm very glad to know at least one person uses this tool to manage their game collection, I spent a lot of time tuning it :)

Evert

@cosmo0 It is for the artwork overlays

AndersHP

I still haven't tried this but will soon. One question:

If I want my MAME and FBA games all sorted inside the Arcade folder, using your "best games" option, I guess your tool would copy the selected "best played in MAME" and "best played in FBA" roms and make a gamelist, but what about the emulators.cfg file that determines which emulator runs which games - is this updated correspondingly?

cosmo0

@andershp said in Arcade Manager: install overlays and manage roms in a user-friendly, fast and cross-platform GUI:

I still haven't tried this but will soon. One question:

If I want my MAME and FBA games all sorted inside the Arcade folder, using your "best games" option, I guess your tool would copy the selected "best played in MAME" and "best played in FBA" roms and make a gamelist, but what about the emulators.cfg file that determines which emulator runs which games - is this updated correspondingly?

No, no feature to do that yet, but it's planned... someday :)

tekn0

@andershp Put all the roms you want to be just FBA in the fba folder. Then do this command:

ls -1 RetroPie/roms/fba | sed -e 's/.zip$//' -e 's///g' -e 's/^/arcade/' -e 's/$/ = "lr-fbalpha"/' >> /opt/retropie/configs/all/emulators.cfg

AndersHP

@tekn0 Thanks. This method was mentioned in the MAME vs FBA thread also, I just thought maybe this tool did this since it had a "best core" option.

Can still use it to sort off the countless mahjong/adult games though, looking forward to that :)

jca2112

Just tried out Arcade Manager -- glad to see something related to MAME rom management available on the Mac platform.

Question: Is there an automated way to uninstall overlays?

I used the Arcade Manager function to install Realistic overlays, then decided to change and install Artworks overlays, but some of the Realistic overlays were left behind. (I assume because no Artwork version was available?) Is there a way to uninstall ALL the overlays so I can start over?

Also, is there a way to use bezels/overlays files JUST in the roms folder? (Instead of having to install into the /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch/overlay/ overlay folder?) Would it just be a matter of changing all the rom .cfg files to point the input_overlay = /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch/overlay/ to a /roms/ folder instead? Basically I want all the roms (and related overlays, files, etc.) all to be on an external USB, rather than having it on the internal SD card. That way when you take the USB and all the games, all the overlays, etc. go with it.

Appreciate any help/info.