Development of module-script generator for lr-mess, lr-mame and mame standalone

Folly

You can get transparency background in gimp when starting a new image and selecting advanced options, then select transparency as background.
PNG's will keep the transparency and can be save with export as.

You are most welcome to suggest new systems / games.
Just let us know in the handheld tutorial what these systems are and then we can check if we can implement them.
Try to add also the short name so we can find it much easier.
Remember all the systems in those lists are non-arcade (mess) systems and that merging arcade and non-arcade isn't possible because of the split up of lr-mame and lr-mess (for libretro it's using one or the other)
If possible adding a system then we can add the game list stuff too.
If it is simply a cartridge game from a system we already "support" then it's probably also possible to add it to the game lists without adding to our system lists, if you know what I mean.

Here is how we implement new stuff.
We check the "what's new in mame" every time.
If it's a good system we add it to a list and hopefully I can add it to my automatic filter rules to create the new database.

At first I created simple text lists (ini files) from them and used that to build up the database for the script.
Later I automated the list creation simply by filtering on the things we are looking for.
So basically I converted @DTEAM selection into filer rules so the automation of these list were made possible.
So when @DTEAM suggests new systems I create the new lists automatically and that is also the check, so both lists should then be the same.
Here you can check how some ini's are automatically created using the latest mame version.

Folly

The script is updated to 259.00

I found a minor bug in the script as it will create a patched cdimono1.cfg file every time as system or category is installed.
It seems this bug has been in there for a while.
Not a big issue though but I will try to remove that bug later.

Edit :
Bug should be fixed now in 259.01 :
https://github.com/FollyMaddy/RetroPie-Share/commit/71fedbe2396ca96f05151574d8d803fb87a9eeda

bbilford83

@Folly said in Development of module-script generator for lr-mess, lr-mame and mame standalone:

If it is simply a cartridge game from a system we already "support" then it's probably also possible to add it to the game lists without adding to our system lists, if you know what I mean.

Thank you, I'm sorry I wasn't being fully clear, I just meant that the gamelists themselves don't have all the games that are now available to use for some of the existing systems. So I wasn't suggesting adding new systems, just replacing the gamelists that are there now with ones that have added content for all the games that currently work now. I understand now how the scripts are automated to work with whichever games are playable, but I assume you guys still update the gamelists manually, right? So I am just saying like I did for the handhelds I would offer new game lists and some new art so that it would include all the games that now work.

Folly

@bbilford83

Thanks for the good explanation.
Understood ;-)

DTEAM

@bbilford83 said in Development of module-script generator for lr-mess, lr-mame and mame standalone:

@Folly I spent some time with this but honestly I'm not sure I can replicate what you did for the other ones. I won't give up quite yet but even the transparency process in gimp is new to me. Anyway I will prioritize doing new gamelists for Jakk's and maybe all-in-one too first, since at least I know I can do some good there :).

Actually I am now working on something else you and @DTEAM might want me to share. Seeing how you guys keep adding the newly-promoted handheld/plug&play system games over time made me think to check if other systems I have were updated at all... i.e. if MAME's "Software List" roms have been updated for any of my systems since I added them with this script. Turns out, some have been updated a LOT. For example, whenever I last added the Hartung GameMaster (what a turd that thing is), it had 12 working games out of the 19 that were released. Now, all 19 are working, but I checked and confirmed the gamelists and art in the google drive don't have the new seven. So I am adding art and gamelist entries for those after testing them. I would be happy to share again when I am done with those updated systems. The GameMaster is the one with the most additions but I see several others where I am going to add at least 2-3 new games (svision, megaduck, etc.).

Just to add a little bit of context, 2 years ago (maybe more) Folly and me start to work on Lr-Mess and MAME potential following Valerino script. Folly worked a lot on the script generator and more (he is the whiz, 75% of the work or more ) and me on a theme for that (cygnus blue flames, all systems from the Tutorial , gamelists for some systems not suported by Screenscraper and other) and a little bit of homemade MAME artworks. It was a lot of work!!!!!. I cut in the descriptions of the games because it was too much work for me. Now, I'm very happy to see more people on that project. That's why I'm exited to see you working on the game descriptions. With the recent release of the new PI5, maybe we will see lot more possibilities with 32 bit systems such as GP32.

bbilford83

@DTEAM I'm happy to contribute in whatever way I can. The technical side you guys did creating the scripts and everything is so well beyond what I'm capable of so I am happy to fill in gaps with descriptions and the like. I'm sure for every one person to comment in this thread there are 100 who has benefited from all your hard work so thank you again!

bbilford83

OK @DTEAM and @Folly, some quick updates that might help. Before I shared the google drive link with the handheld updated gamelists and art (here) that I finished so far, gameandwatch, konamih, tigerh, and classich. I have now added a bunch more that are for systems you currently have set up in the script to download gamelists/art. They are gamate, gamecom, gmaster, gx4000, megaduck, pv1000, and tigerrz. I did them the same as the others - they are set up in the same folder structure as retropie with one normal gamelist file and one no .7z version (named to indicate). And then the art folder is where it should be for the gamelists.

Some of these are identical to yours except for what I think is improved art (some probably didn't exist when you guys made the gamelists originally), but most actually have new entries for games that aren't on your gamelists, I think because they became playable on mame only since you did the gamelists originally too (like gmaster having seven new games).

There are also a couple I haven't uploaded yet because they aren't yet in your google drive, but I'm pretty sure I set up the systems on my retropie using your script, so you might want them. I think these are: gamepock (Epoch Game Pocket Computer) and svision (Watara Supervision). If I'm right and I should add those too, let me know.

I did these because it was pretty quick compared to all the work I have left to do on Jakk's/AllinOne...

Folly

@bbilford83 said in Development of module-script generator for lr-mess, lr-mame and mame standalone:

There are also a couple I haven't uploaded yet because they aren't yet in your google drive, but I'm pretty sure I set up the systems on my retropie using your script, so you might want them. I think these are: gamepock (Epoch Game Pocket Computer) and svision (Watara Supervision). If I'm right and I should add those too, let me know.

Just to let you know.
There is an option to retroscrape.
RetroScraper is made by kiro and implemented in my script.
So for gamelists that aren't in the gdrive you can use the retroscraper option.

If the retroscraper option cannot create a gamelist with media or a good one then we can consider making one for the gdrive.
If retroscraper does make a good gamelist but some stuff is missing then you can try to ask kiro to add it.

So I just tested svision and only 4 games are missing from retroscraper.
The svision one looks really good.
So I would advise to check it out and append the missing pieces to kiro.

The gamepock gamelist scraped with retroscraper is of less quality.
So adding your stuff to DTEAM 's gdrive would be a better option I think.

I believe you should check it out for more systems with retroscraper first before working on it.
Good idea ?

ps.
Here is the topic of RetroScraper :
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/32226/soft-new-scraper-in-the-works

Folly

version change to 259.02

be able to install a cheatfile from a list
when mamecheats.co.uk adds newer cheatfiles then they should pop up

bbilford83

@Folly said in Development of module-script generator for lr-mess, lr-mame and mame standalone:

Just to let you know.
There is an option to retroscrape.
RetroScraper is made by kiro and implemented in my script.
So for gamelists that aren't in the gdrive you can use the retroscraper option.

If the retroscraper option cannot create a gamelist with media or a good one then we can consider making one for the gdrive.
If retroscraper does make a good gamelist but some stuff is missing then you can try to ask kiro to add it.

So I just tested svision and only 4 games are missing from retroscraper.
The svision one looks really good.
So I would advise to check it out and append the missing pieces to kiro.

The gamepock gamelist scraped with retroscraper is of less quality.
So adding your stuff to DTEAM 's gdrive would be a better option I think.

I believe you should check it out for more systems with retroscraper first before working on it.
Good idea ?

ps.
Here is the topic of RetroScraper :
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/32226/soft-new-scraper-in-the-works

Thank you, I did not know about this at all! I guess because when I originally used the script this scraper hadn't been made yet. This is great though - the only reason I had not added VTech VSmile was because I couldn't find anywhere to start on scraping it and I just confirmed it works for the majority of games.

I'll add the gamepock one to my googledrive link now though. And then go back to working on Jakk's.

bbilford83

OK folks, I added one more to the google drive, vsmile. You can use retroscape for it but only a small portion of the games properly scraped, and even those were missing a lot of info, so I thought you might want this one in the repository. No worries if not. I'll return to Jakks now, I think that's it for me and software list.

Edit: Now I am done with Jakks too, I added a folder with both versions of the gamelist but no art folder because I didn't replace any art for that one.

Folly

@bbilford83

Nice,
We will have a look at it.

Edit :
When I was busy with your jakks gamelist I discovered that there is a mistake in my script.
The index file with the supported jakks games was faulty.
I will fix that in the new release.
So after the fix I was able to check if all drivers were added.
I found that your gamelist misses 2 entries :

jak_dwmno
jak_sithp

The descriptions are probably the same as :

jak_dwmn
jak_sith

Can you add these too ?

I like the new descriptions for the jakks I think the gamelist should be added if @DTEAM agrees.

bbilford83

@Folly said in Development of module-script generator for lr-mess, lr-mame and mame standalone:

I found that your gamelist misses 2 entries :

jak_dwmno

jak_sithp

The descriptions are probably the same as :

jak_dwmn

jak_sith

Can you add these too ?

I'm happy to but I am a little confused, are these clones? I don't remember if I had them and tried them or not but if they are the same gameplay I may have assumed they were duplicates somehow and left them off.

Folly

@bbilford83

I had a look and these drivers and the descriptions from mame are :

Driver jak_dwmn (Dreamworks Movie Night (JAKKS Pacific TV Game, Oct 18 2006, prototype)):
Driver jak_dwmno (Dreamworks Movie Night (JAKKS Pacific TV Game, Apr 24 2006, test program)):
Driver jak_sith (Star Wars - Revenge of the Sith (JAKKS Pacific TV Game, Game-Key Ready)):
Driver jak_sithp (Star Wars - Revenge of the Sith (JAKKS Pacific TV Game, Game-Key Ready, prototype)):

Seem that they are indeed somewhat obsolete.
However I can't filter them out so it's probably best to include them.

bbilford83

@Folly I am happy to put in duplicates but do you think it makes more sense to leave them out? Or I guess I can say these are outdated/earlier versions of the same games? For me I wouldn't want a prototype if the final is available but I understand some might.

FYI I moved onto the All_in1 and I am so far not very optimistic. There's soooooo little info out there about these compared to Jakks or the Classic Handhelds, I'm not sure I could make a decent gamelist. And honestly at least so far they've all just been bootleg compilations, so I can see why there wouldn't be tons of info out there about them. I may at the end keep only ones that aren't bootleg compilations and that I can find information about, but I would assume you wouldn't want my gamelist then and would prefer the generic-if-barebones one you have up there now?

Folly

@bbilford83 said in Development of module-script generator for lr-mess, lr-mame and mame standalone:

@Folly I am happy to put in duplicates but do you think it makes more sense to leave them out? Or I guess I can say these are outdated/earlier versions of the same games? For me I wouldn't want a prototype if the final is available but I understand some might.

Thanks.
I think we should keep them in.
I like the idea that the collection is most complete and it will save me time to filter it out (if I should be able to).

FYI I moved onto the All_in1 and I am so far not very optimistic. There's soooooo little info out there about these compared to Jakks or the Classic Handhelds, I'm not sure I could make a decent gamelist. And honestly at least so far they've all just been bootleg compilations, so I can see why there wouldn't be tons of info out there about them. I may at the end keep only ones that aren't bootleg compilations and that I can find information about, but I would assume you wouldn't want my gamelist then and would prefer the generic-if-barebones one you have up there now?

I agree,
All_in1 is too difficult to describe all.
In my perspective the generic-if-barbones will do.

Just an idea :
It's possible to add your gdrive to the script just like with the one of DTEAM so one could choose between one and the other.
A sort of alternative with a few differences and some other system.
For me it would make sense to put it in as a gdrive with "wip - work in progress" predefined gamelists.
So in time stuff that goes to the grdrive of DTEAM can be deleted on your gdrive (if you want) and stuff that won't go the gdrive of DTEAM is an addon for the users.
Do you like that idea ?

bbilford83

@Folly That would be fine with me, whatever you think makes sense. I think I am pretty much done with the gamelists now actually... I was trying to give Pico and a couple others a shot but they're not really workable for a variety of reasons. So you are welcome to use them however you see fit, I hope they're helpful!

DTEAM

@Folly said in Development of module-script generator for lr-mess, lr-mame and mame standalone:

Just an idea :
It's possible to add your gdrive to the script just like with the one of DTEAM so one could choose between one and the other.
A sort of alternative with a few differences and some other system.
For me it would make sense to put it in as a gdrive with "wip - work in progress" predefined gamelists.
So in time stuff that goes to the grdrive of DTEAM can be deleted on your gdrive (if you want) and stuff that won't go the gdrive of DTEAM is an addon for the users.
Do you like that idea ?

I'll update my drive with @bbilford83 additions (comments and upgrades) , I'll try to do that next week.

Does somebody is able to run UBOAT from MAME 0.259. On my side, it won't load.
Bandai U-Boat [hap, Sean Riddle, eggs] ROM name= UBOAT

Folly

@DTEAM said in Development of module-script generator for lr-mess, lr-mame and mame standalone:

Does somebody is able to run UBOAT from MAME 0.259. On my side, it won't load.

It does load (on my x64 vm) however the controls do not seem to work correctly for P2. ( not tested on my pi yet )
For player 2 left and right are flipped. (key d and key g)
I think the destroyer is above and the uboat below.
The destroyer shoots from top to bottom and the uboat seems to shoot in the upper screen from left to right.
Perhaps we have to look at the manual.

How did you download it, manual from mame-merged or did you use my restricted option ?

Edit :
I found the manual on archive (manuals-handheld-games-Bandai-UBoat)
The flipped player2 controls make some sense as it looks there are 2 screens in oposite direction.

DTEAM

@Folly said in Development of module-script generator for lr-mess, lr-mame and mame standalone:

How did you download it, manual from mame-merged or did you use my restricted option ?

mame-basename-autoframeskip = "/opt/retropie/emulators/mame/mame -rompath /home/pi/RetroPie/BIOS/mame\;/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/classich -v -c -ui_active -statename classich/%BASENAME% -autoframeskip   %BASENAME%"