Simple Arcade Multifilter - app for MAME and FB Alpha sets (Get rid of Adult and Mahjong games!)

Clyde

That works like a charm! I would argue for keeping this behaviour, because it matches most file requesters on at least Windows and Linux (I don't have much experience with MacOS). You could add a short explanation to the list like "Use Shift and Control keys to select multiple entries" or something similar.

However you will decide, your test build gives me the controls I longed for, thanks very much!

MajinKaan

For some reason some games like 3kokushi keep passing through every filter.

Clyde

@markwkidd Hi Mark, your download link to the test version from 2019-01-15 doesn't work anymore. I still have it, but I think the option to mark multiple entries with Shift and Control will be very helpful for other users, too. Any plans to (re-)release it in your repo?

sirhenrythe5th

I never got myself a Full Romset, i started with MAME-Roms back in 1997 and in those days you had 33.6k-Modems (1MB=10Minutes).
So no chance to download GIGABYTES of Rom-Sets (they even did not exist at that point, all roms of MAME034beta7 might have had about 200MB ;)).
So i cherry-pick my roms since 20 years and dont have to filter with tools.

But just for interest: why are you all so negative about Adult- and Mahjong-Games?
Once you learned the rules of Mahjong the games are really fun and addicitve.
Plus this japanese flair of a lot of them :) - nice manga themes and so on, the newer ones (Psykio i.e.) are really eyecatching.

And i have to admit: i like to Play adult games as well.
All These Gals Panic and so on...they are playable, i like them.
"Billard Academy" is the best Billard-Game for MAME in my opinion, i would never delete it just because there might be some boobs on the screen!!!

Clyde

@sirhenrythe5th I'm not Mark, but the reason that I'm removing Mahjong games from all of my romsets is a) their pure number that tends to clog my games lists and video preview cycles, and b) that I prefer the action oriented games on my retro builds.

A reason to filter adult games could simply be the presence of children in your home, or as company of your guests, as it is with my birthday parties nowadays. Or you just want to see naked women only when you're in the right mood. edit: That said, you also could remove any non-adult games with SAM to have a set for the times when you are in the right mood. ;)

sirhenrythe5th

@Clyde thank you very much for your words, that makes sense indeed 👍

What i just was thinking....IF i would download a full rom-set, there would be hundreds of other roms that i would delete.
Chesscomputers, Homecomputers, Pinball Roms (VPinMAME is of course awesome btw 😊), but not (all) Mahjongs and Adult Games.

I also have only 666 action orientated favourites up and running in Kiosk-Mode (w/ NEOGEO), all the Mahjongs only appear in Full Mode (1134 Roms)

Clyde

@sirhenrythe5th My pleasure. :) About your reflections about Mahjong and adult games, I think that most Retropie users are "normal" retro gamers who prefer action oriented games over turn based ones. Also, many will have kids or are kids themselves. That may explain why board games – Mahjong being one of the most prominent ones – and adult games tend to be mentioned as examples to filter out.

Of course I don't know that for sure, I'm just making a (hopefully halfway educated) guess. :)

e4rthdog

Is there any option to automatically create the folder structure according to the categories you select?

If i understood correctly, if i need to create a separate folder for each category i need to see to the GUI, i need to do it separately per category.

emperorgr

dear @MARKWKIDD

thanks for your wonderful utility...however i have some requests and perhaps notices that will my life and hopefully other users too easier...

After 1.12 version the option to NOT copy clones has been removed..why? this is useful
You can make an automate process processing an entire collection to folders for each rom category for users to analyze the romset and decide which roms they need....i make this manually and take sometime
Perhaps make an option to remember last time paths so we dont have to type them again and again.
keep working on the project maybe? haha

thanks again for your effort!!!

neurocrash

@markwkidd Hi, is there any documentation? I do not know the meaning of the following options, but am hoping to prevent having 7 copies of some roms like 720.

Exclude BIOS sets
Exclude Device sets
Exclude Mechanical sets

Thanks!

YFZdude

@neurocrash

Exclude BIOS sets

Some romsets have BIOS files separated. In a good non-merged set, the BIOS files needed should be in the zip with the rom that uses them so there is no need to keep a separate BIOS set.

Exclude Device sets

Note sure about this one.

Exclude Mechanical sets

This would toss out mechanical games like actual pinball machines, slots, etc. Devices that won't run properly in emulation because there isn't really hardware attached.

Clyde

@YFZdude said in Simple Arcade Multifilter - app for MAME and FB Alpha sets (Get rid of Adult and Mahjong games!):

@neurocrash

Exclude Device sets

Note sure about this one.

They are similar to BIOS sets in that they're shared parts necessary for some roms.

See https://docs.mamedev.org/usingmame/aboutromsets.html for more about the different kinds of sets.

YFZdude

@Clyde
Yes that link is helpful. I think what has helped me is that I used a non-merged romset. That way when I add them to RetroPie I don't see all the clones and extra junk in the list once I have filtered out the unwanted .zip files.

publicENEMY

Hi. Thanks for a great app like Simple Arcade Multifilter.
I would like to suggest, can we have checkboxes in the selection? This would make it easier to select and choose. Also, can we have like a preview of what file will be copied? What game (name) will be copied? Also, realtime preview where we can see a list of all roms. Selected roms will be highlighed and unselected roms will not be highligted.

Anyway. Really good app. Thanks.

Clyde

@publicENEMY There was a test build that let you select multiple entries with Ctrl-A, Ctrl-Click, and Shift-Click, but alas, the download link doesn't work anymore.

@markwkidd Maybe you could put it up again somewhere? I'm still using it and I find its selection controls very convenient. Alternatively, I could host it in my own Github repo with your permission. At the moment, only my local storage and its backups prevent this version from vanishing into oblivion …

(Oh, I just noticed that I already asked you this nine months ago. I don't want to bug you, just tell me to shut up about it and I will. 🤐 )

edit: According to his profile, markwkidds last login happened in May, 2019. So maybe we lost him entirely. 😟