Are Shortcuts Possible Within Gamelist Subfolders?

mattrixk

I've been experimenting with Folders in my Gamelist recently and I've come across something.

I can move some files into the "Favourites" folder and it moves them out of the main list. But what if I want to keep those games in the main list too? The simplest answer is just to copy the ROM file so there are 2 versions of it, like this:

- Favourites [folder]
  Donkey Kong Country
  Lion King
  Mortal Kombat II
Chrono Trigger
Clay Fighter
Donkey Kong Country
Earthworm Jim
Lion King
Mortal Kombat II
Primal Rage
Samurai Showdown

However, that could end up with lots of overlap and wasted space once I start moving into Genre Folders and Themed Folders, and working with larger files like Playstation ROMs.

My question is this:

Is there a way to make a shortcut to the ROM file within the gamelist.xml, so I can have the shortcut within the Folder, but the actual game within the root of the System folder?

Zigurana

@mattrixk why not use the new and excellent filtering functionality by @pjft ?

Howitzer99

@mattrixk You can try creating symbolic links in a Favorites folders that points to the original roms. Each system has their own version of this feature: linux uses 'ln -s', on Windows you can create shortcuts, not sure about PS3.

meleu

@mattrixk as the mate said above, the best approach in your case is to use symbolic links.

@Zigurana do you know if there's a way to make emulationstation launch a custom shell script giving some parameters to the script? I mean, if I press (let's say) Y when the cursor is in "Donkey Kong Country" then execute somescript /path/to/donkeykong.rom

Zigurana

@Howitzer99 said in Are Shortcuts Possible Within Gamelist Subfolders?:

@mattrixk You can try creating symbolic links in a Favorites folders that points to the original roms. Each system has their own version of this feature: linux uses 'ln -s', on Windows you can create shortcuts, not sure about PS3.

That would still give you duplicates in the GameLists.xml, so the maintanance burden is still there, only the ROM data is linked.

Zigurana

@meleu said in Are Shortcuts Possible Within Gamelist Subfolders?:

@Zigurana do you know if there's a way to make emulationstation launch a custom shell script giving some parameters to the script? I mean, if I press (let's say) Y when the cursor is in "Donkey Kong Country" then execute somescript /path/to/donkeykong.rom

Yes, if you press A, it will run the runcommand script, which you can edit... :-p
What specifically are you trying to accomplish?

mattrixk

@Zigurana I completely forgot about that one. I found the thread and realised I was the first person to comment (saying I'd test it when I got the chance... that never happened. Oops).

I'm in the process of re-sorting, resetting and re-arranging everything. Basically starting from scratch, so I don't really want anything in my main system that isn't part of core.

That would still give you duplicates in the GameLists.xml [...] only the ROM data is linked.

I don't mind duplicates in the gamelist.xml, as long as there is only one copy of the ROM itself (eg: Mortal Kombat II might be in the "Favourites" folder, the "Fighting" folder, the "Blood" folder and the "Not For Kids" folder, and each of those folders will just have a shortcut/symbolic link to the actual ROM in the main gamelist).

@Howitzer99 Intriguing... how would one go about this? Say for SNES as an example?

Zigurana

@mattrixk said in Are Shortcuts Possible Within Gamelist Subfolders?:

I'm in the process of re-sorting, resetting and re-arranging everything. Basically starting from scratch, so I don't really want anything in my main system that isn't part of core.

But it is! since May 4th.

meleu

@Zigurana said in Are Shortcuts Possible Within Gamelist Subfolders?:

What specifically are you trying to accomplish?

Implement favourites.

The user choose a game to add to favourites and the script creates a symbolic link in a folder, just like what @mattrixk described in the OP (but with symbolic links).

I thought in doing something in runcommand, but the user would need to launch the game, invoke runcommand menu, and then add the game to favourites, and then choose "Exit (without launching)"... Long way, huh? I already gave up :-)

Zigurana

You mean to get a single list of favorites across all systems?
Otherwise, I might have a surprise for you tonight...

DarkWolf

@Zigurana said in Are Shortcuts Possible Within Gamelist Subfolders?:

surprise

What it gonna be, huh, exciting :D

You mean to get a single list of favorites across all systems

Nah, I think for every system itself, but without having to edit emulationstation

AndrewH

Maybe not a major concern, but wouldn't multiple copies mean you would have separate high score tables for those games?

mattrixk

@AndrewH I hadn't considered that, but high scores have never been a particular concern for me*, so it's not something that's going to keep me up at night. I can see how it might bother other people though.

*I'm just happy if I get through a game, I don't really care how high the score was.