Mame2016 Question : Regarding Light Gun Games

YFZdude

@escc1986
You can compare the list of games yourself. It may take a little time. I would suggest copy and paste the data into a spreadsheet so you can create a table and sort /filter them by genre.

MAME2003:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/libretro/mame2003-libretro/master/metadata/catver.ini

MAME2016:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/libretro/mame2016-libretro/master/metadata/catver.ini

For the 2016 version, it may say its too large and you can click view raw to show it in a text format.

EDIT: On second thought, it may be best to copy / paste into a simple text editor, save it, then import into a spreadsheet using = as a delimiter so that it splits into two columns. Then create your table and filter.

Clyde

You can do that on RetroPie's command console that you can access by pressing F4 in Emulation Station or by logging into the Pi via SSH.

Note: Regardless of the method, we've to address that the catver.ini's designation of Lightgun games changed from "=Lightgun" to "= Shooter / Gun".

# Save both files as catver_2003.ini and catver_2016.ini
wget -O catver_2003.ini https://raw.githubusercontent.com/libretro/mame2003-libretro/master/metadata/catver.ini
wget -O catver_2016.ini https://raw.githubusercontent.com/libretro/mame2016-libretro/master/metadata/catver.ini

# Save their lightgun entries in catver_20??_lightgun.ini
grep Lightgun catver_2003.ini > catver_2003_lightgun.ini
grep "Shooter / Gun" catver_2016.ini > catver_2016_lightgun.ini
# (The quotes in the second command are neccessary because of the spaces and slash in the filter pattern.)

# Cut "=Lightgun" and " = Shooter / Gun" from each line, leaving only the romname
sed -i 's/=Lightgun//g' catver_2016_lightgun.ini
sed -i 's# = Shooter / Gun##g' catver_2016_lightgun.ini
# (The second sed had to have "#" as dividers because "/" is part of the pattern to replace.)

Now you'll have two text files with every lightgun rom for each MAME version. Based on my own tests, there should be 69 roms from MAME 2003 and 336 roms from MAME 2016. So, 2016 seems to have a handful more of them. ;)

YFZdude

@Clyde said in Mame2016 Question : Regarding Light Gun Games:

Note: Regardless of the method, we've to address that the catver.ini's designation of Lightgun games changed from "=Lightgun" to "= Shooter / Gun".

And for some reason, the 2003 file is formatted as rom=category
while the 2016 version is rom = category.
Note the spaces around the = sign.

Good tip Clyde. The command line is certainly powerful if you know the tools.
I also came up with about the same numbers you did. 69 vs. over 330.

Clyde

@YFZdude Yes, I noticed the changed formatting when my first attempts didn't get the results that I expected (as in: "sigh … there goes my lunch break".) Note the spaces in my second grep line. But well, one can work with them if they're known.

Some more possible bash-fu that I didn't have the knowledge or time to research for would be

comparing both files with diff (the problem beyond my lore: different lines for the same roms in both files let all of them count as different), and
copying the roms in the files from the resp. romsets to their own rom directory to further process them (e.g. scrape) or make them a new system in Emulation Station.

edit: As for counting, grep can do that with its -c option.

grep -c Lightgun catver_2003.ini
# result: 69
grep -c "Shooter / Gun" catver_2016.ini
# result: 336

edit 2: The numbers may be (much?) smaller after filtering out the clones or non-working versions.

escc1986

Thanks for all the help and suggestions

Unfortunately I'm a very noob at all this and honestly don't comprehend any of this

Could one of you provide an easy step by step guide so I may try to tell the difference between both sets ?

Thank you

Clyde

@escc1986 Well, my second-to-last post principally was a step-by-step guide. Just press F4 in Emulation Station, enter my commands after one another (and 1:1 character per character!) You can omit every line starting with #. They are only comments.

After that, you'll have two text files named catver_2016_lightgun.ini and catver_2016_lightgun.ini in your RetroPie home directory (/home/pi), containing all lightgun games of MAME 2003 and 2016 respectively. You can read them either via network or by the command less (e.g. less catver_2016_lightgun.ini) in the command console. You can navigate in the text by cursor up/down, pgup/pgdown, and quit by pressing q.

If you access your Pi from Windows via the \\RETROPIE network share, you'll have to move the files to the RetroPie directory to see them:

mv catver_2003_lightgun.ini RetroPie
mv catver_2016_lightgun.ini RetroPie

You could also enter mc to get a text-based file manager. Pressing F3 in it will display the file under the cursor bar. F10 gets you back to the console.

To get back to Emulation Station from there, enter exit.

Sorry, this is the only guide I can give you, and I actually find it much easier than any tour through graphical programs ("click there and there and there …"). Its basically just typing up what you see. 🧐

As a common German saying goes, we grow with our tasks. 🙂

escc1986

@Clyde

I truly appreciate the guide you made for me , I am deeply sorry for my brain being slow to this kind of stuff

I will try this method and see if I can compare

Again appreciate it and I'm sure your guide will help others as well ;)

Clyde

@escc1986 Don't stress yourself, though. It's only an offer freely given without any expectations or obligations. If it helps you, great. If not, its totally ok. 😊

escc1986

@Clyde

Thank you for the kindness , its nice to hear a reply with gently words instead of words with frustration , it means alot

i was able to successfully copy and paste all your guide lines and was successfully able to get the 2 lists to review , Thanks so much !!!!!

YFZdude

@Clyde said in Mame2016 Question : Regarding Light Gun Games:

Some more possible bash-fu that I didn't have the knowledge or time to research for would be

comparing both files with diff (the problem beyond my lore: different lines for the same roms in both files let all of them count as different), and

I don't know a bash way, but that's where my love of spreadsheets comes in handy. I can drop two columns and do something with formulas like
=IF(ISNA(VLOOKUP(A2,H:H,1,FALSE)),"New Game","") to compare one list against another and show the new stuff.

copying the roms in the files from the resp. romsets to their own rom directory to further process them (e.g. scrape) or make them a new system in Emulation Station.

This one I do with a script once I have a .txt list of games.
FOR %g IN (list.txt) DO copy "source\%%g" "destination"
At least that is the DOS compatible batch file version. I am not quite as familiar from memory with the bash version.

I think we may be command line nerds. =-)

escc1986

@Clyde

May I ask you Clyde

Do you happen to know the developer of mame2016 ?

Or

Do you know if I can find him on here to ask him a question ?

Clyde

Alas, no, I'm not connected to any developers in any way.

escc1986

@Clyde

Thank you for answering my question

No problem at all , just had to ask

I wonder where I may find the developer , my question just is wondering about an update and a settings options

Thank you Clyde ;)

Clyde

The official development page of lr-mame2016 is https://github.com/libretro/mame2016-libretro (you can find the link in the RetroPie Docs on MAME 2016). Alternatively, depending on the questions, you could try to ask them in a new thread here in the forum. Maybe someone here can help, even if they are not the developers.

escc1986

@Clyde

Your absolutely right Clyde , I should post a question about it here

Thank you also for the documentation for the mame 2016

Appreciate that ;)