mame2003-plus: hundreds of new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support

m2306

@Riverstorm Thank you. So, if I now use Arcade Manager and the CSV for MAME2003 0.78 romset to filter out clones and then add back the games in the list you provided (if removed by AM) I will end up with a Plus romset without clones? What do you think about the removing of non working games with the ArcadeManager CSV for 0.78, will I remove games that are not in the list you provided, that aren't new but made working in Plus?

Riverstorm

@m2306 - That's a good point. The new games will obviously not be in the list but non-working to working games I'm not sure if they are in the list. I've not spent any time using AM or looked at the CSV file to know what's in the list vs the m3plus DAT.

If you're just looking to remove the clones from the m3plus DAT I can do that real quick without much issue.

grant2258

yea source files can be added isint too hard to do if someone wants to do it it would be up to arcadez or whoever is helping out with the libretto port. I really dont have anything to do with the project anymore unless its patches for games to work better on lower spec hardware. Ive done a fix for bionic commando need to test it out though and make sure its all good.

As for 1 game 1 rom its not that simple as using regions only you need to pick a rom that works sometimes thats the parent other times its the roms. I dont know any automate solution other than listing every parent and every clone then find pick the first one with a working status or the best working status.

Clyde

@Riverstorm said in mame2003-plus: hundreds of new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support:

Also you could cross reference the list. Here's a link that shows all the changes from added games, clones, hacks, fixed games, added sound, improved sound, etc. by full name on Github.

I prefer this IMHO more eye-friendly version. :)

https://github.com/libretro/mame2003-plus-libretro/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md

Riverstorm

@grant2258 - Ok, I figured you would know if that sourcefile field could be added easily or it would take more work than it's worth. It's handy for pulling ROM's based on drivers which you can combine with other drivers to get a pretty decent subset DAT of ROMs. It definitely expands the options available when filtering.

You can make a list of parent ROMs and still get the same effect. Like Neo-Geo games are around 150 whereas CPS is roughly half that. I've started breaking out the list of parent ROMs for Neo-Geo and CPS which are linked to the clones as that's reasonably doable but the clones list into the several 100's and wouldn't be viable.

Doing it that way you only need to track the parent to pull it and all clones. So by listing the 60 or 70 CPS games you can pull around 600 or 700 parent and clone ROMs. If the parent changes the ROM name a quick list change and it will work again, no need to track clones.

Yeah 1G1R is pretty much a region sort priority that you set. Like Europe, US, Austrailia, Japan, etc. It's smart enough to only lists the regions it finds in the DAT and then it will pick/pull the first one it finds based on the sort order. You're correct it doesn't take a "working" status into account. It could be the parent or clone depending on the region sort order. I would still be ok with finding a broken game or two. The only program I know that does it is ClrMamePro but no MAME DAT's have it really. Many consoles do with DAT-O-Matic which is nice.

@Clyde - Very nice, thanks for the much more eye-friendly version! :)

m2306

@Clyde I looked at that page but there wasn't filenames for the new games. Also I wasn't sure if those were all games or just the ones added in the latest update.

m2306

@Riverstorm I used the batchfiles I found here: https://www.reddit.com/r/RetroPie/comments/73g1bg/how_separate_neogeo_from_other_fba_roms/ to separate NeoGeo and CPS from my FBA set. It produced a number of files roughly corresponding to the number of games released for each system, although some NeoGeoCD games seemed to be missing. I haven't tested all games but the first few games I tested all worked so I assumed the batchfiles chose working roms.

I roughly understand the difference of the No-Intro Dat-omatic console DATs that have region tags and the MAME DATs so I'm not trying to get the exact same result, just streamline the romset to a somehow manageable size. Arcade Manager has CSV files included with lots of diffirent options for filtering, seems really good with the only problem being that the CSVs are for FBA .42 and MAME .78. I have no idea how AM filters out the clones but can only assume it chooses working roms. The MAME2003-Plus changelog has filenames for previously broken but now fixed games. So, if we assume that AM works and can properly do what it says we now have the information needed to get as close as possible to filtering out clones and non working games and then add back any Plus games that might have been filtered out. I will try this now but won't have any other way of verifying the result than scrolling through and testing random games..

grant2258

here is your xml with the source file you wanted https://github.com/grant2258/mamemagic2003/blob/master/mame2003-plus-barcade.xml

m2306

@grant2258 Oh, that's wonderful. Thank you. I can imagine other people would appreciate this also. There is no description so just to make sure, is this the Plus changelog games or the full Plus working only, or what? Sorry for being daft.

grant2258

its the full xml gamelist with sourcefile= so it can be filtered. as per request here https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/17766/mame2003-plus-hundreds-of-new-games-improved-input-features-new-bugs-now-with-runahead-support/1095

Riverstorm

@m2306 - I updated from source and then generated a DAT so this should be current I believe. That would include all the games from mame2003 plus all the exclusive additions, fixes, etc. from mame2003-plus you're looking for.

Here's a download link. I filtered out the clones so the only thing left are parent and "other" ROMs (basically standalone games with no parent).

Just an FYI it may not be exactly what you want. Take for example Puckman (Japan set 1) who's ROM name is puckman is the parent to Pac-Man (Midway) who's ROM name is pacman. If you want the Japan version you're set! ;) If you're looking for the Midway version then it's been removed. So their could be some cleanup to keep in mind.

I not 100% sure but I think in the AM thread cosmo0 added a link to convert DATs to CSV if you prefer to work with the files that way. Also if the CSV files doesn't have a "working" field on a per ROM basis I don't see how it could know which ROMs are working.

I like to use DatUtil which is all command line and a bit cryptic but powerful. If it had a front-end GUI I think it would be the sure fire thing but as it stands it has somewhat of a learning curve. Sometimes you need to run a DAT through multiple times or use the cleanse features.

In this post I was trying to explain how you could breakout neo-geo, cps1, cps2, cps3, etc. with the "list method" and run against the latest DATs. I haven't fully tested it but from doing a small test I believe this would work fine.

This would allow the "creation" of current DATs usable with ROM management tools. The key is knowing the parent ROM name and if the name changes. I don't think it changes to often.

Also you wouldn't need to track individual ROM changes because you're parsing against the current source DAT so the set created is current and working.

Or another thing is once you have a working ROM set for a specific emulator you could easily build a text file list of the game names which could be used to parse new releases also. On Windows you could use something like dir /b and then use fnr or flash renamer to remove the extension. Then viola you have a list that can be used with DatUtil. You can build the list anyway you want really obviously confined to each emulator's DAT but then you could dump them together.

With a little ingenuity I think you could easily tweak the list to your liking. Looking at the exception above you could easily remove puckman from the list and add pacman if you're looking for something like 1G1R. Keeping that in mind the puckman and it's clone chain has been broken which in this case I wouldn't mind as the only version I run is the Midway one.

I've been using the list from this wiki page, then I search the DAT for the parent of each game listed and add it to a text file. Just the main 156 games (not the prototypes, unlicensed hacks, etc.) Which then can be parsed against the main DAT. With that information you can pull the parent ROMs only or parent plus clones. You can also do some filtering based on the description field. No other fields are workable. Something like the manufacturer field etc. would have been nice.

That's where I was mentioning the sourcefile field would add some additional filtering options based on the driver as their's a parameter to use it. Hopefully that makes sense. I think @grant2258 just provided us with source to do it.

@grant2258 - Is the link with the sourcefile info incorrect? I think it's pointing to the wrong location.

grant2258

https://github.com/grant2258/mamemagic2003/blob/master/mame2003-plus-barcade.xml is working fine the xml file is there

Riverstorm

@grant2258 - That's exactly it! ;) Thanks a bunch for the file with this information.

m2306

@Riverstorm Thank you for the detailed information. I think I now can create something that's in line with what I had in mind. I would have been happy to do a tutorial for others to follow but this is complicated in many ways and as your PacMan example states, it is up to personal preference and tweaking..

REK607

I couldnt remap my controls for Smath TV V. 8.00, neither using TAB or in the RetroArch menu. I finally did it easy: I changed the emulator to mame2003 classic and its working flawlessly and I can even use right stick or buttons for shooting the bad guys.

grant2258

@REK607 said in mame2003-plus: hundreds of new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support:

I couldnt remap my controls for Smath TV V. 8.00, neither using TAB or in the RetroArch menu. I finally did it easy: I changed the emulator to mame2003 classic and its working flawlessly and I can even use right stick or buttons for shooting the bad guys.

people have tried helping many times. We need feedback to help you. If your happy using classic just use that.

REK607

@grant2258 said in mame2003-plus: hundreds of new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support:

@REK607 said in mame2003-plus: hundreds of new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support:

I couldnt remap my controls for Smath TV V. 8.00, neither using TAB or in the RetroArch menu. I finally did it easy: I changed the emulator to mame2003 classic and its working flawlessly and I can even use right stick or buttons for shooting the bad guys.

people have tried helping many times. We need feedback to help you. If your happy using classic just use that.

Sorry I didnt want to sound rude or anything, I just wanted to say what worked for me now. I'm very very happy with mame2003-plus in fact, but I can't give details at this time because I dont have internet at home and I normally check this at other people homes. I'll take a look again enabling input interface, legacy remapping and analogic control maping on RA :-)

grant2258

@REK607 said in mame2003-plus: hundreds of new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support:

@grant2258 said in mame2003-plus: hundreds of new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support:

@REK607 said in mame2003-plus: hundreds of new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support:

I couldnt remap my controls for Smath TV V. 8.00, neither using TAB or in the RetroArch menu. I finally did it easy: I changed the emulator to mame2003 classic and its working flawlessly and I can even use right stick or buttons for shooting the bad guys.

people have tried helping many times. We need feedback to help you. If your happy using classic just use that.

Sorry I didnt want to sound rude or anything, I just wanted to say what worked for me now. I'm very very happy with mame2003-plus in fact, but I can't give details at this time because I dont have internet at home and I normally check this at other people homes. I'll take a look again enabling input interface, legacy remapping and analogic control maping on RA :-)

no problem f you want help with this it can be done with feedback with your settings. The easiest way for this to work for you is the following options

control mapping: Analog

input interface if you dont use a keyboard choose retropad (disables keyboard) else choose simultaneous allows both.

Legacy Mapping = on

after all this close retroarch delete all your mame2003-plus/cfg directory contents in case you have older version settings. Then use the tab menu to set the controls as RA analog sticks remapping arent supported yet until someone at libretro adds them use the tab menu. The fire buttons are input this game P1 Right/Up, P1 Right/Down, P1 Right/Left, P1 Right/Right.

Riverstorm

@m2306 - That sounds good. Hopefully it made sense. I am going to continue to put together lists for the systems in my free time for FBNeo as m3plus has sourcefile information now and is not needed. If you can not get exactly what you want I can put together some instructions on how to to do it this way.

With this method, at a minimum, you should be able to cleanly pull Neo-Geo, CPS-1, 2 and 3. You can also invert your selections so with a Neo-Geo list you can pull everything but Neo-Geo ROMs. There's a lot of little things you can do in addition @grant2258 posted that link to allow ROMs to be pulled by driver(s). Which is really handy. No lists needed with m3plus. It's the only DAT currently that can do that! ;)

@REK607 - I know you struggled with it a lot but hopefully you get it going as m3plus really does work well for those dual sticks games on a controller.

m2306

@Riverstorm And anyone following up on this: Here's what I did to achieve a almost cloneless MAME2003-plus romset. I'm sure it's not perfect but seems good for me so far. I started with an up to date full non merged 2003-Plus romset bilt with Clrmamepro. I copied the Plus only games and the games fixed in Plus from the full set to a separate folder (the list of games can be found in the Plus changelog), (I pasted the filnames in a .sh file and used chmod in OSX to make the copying easier). I used Simple Arcade Multifilter (Windows) to filter out gambling games and other unwanted categories from the full set. Then I used Arcade Manager (OSX) and chose a ready made "Working games only" "No clones" CSV for MAME2003, not Plus as the the current version 5 of AM doesn't have CSVs for Plus. Now I should have a .78 set with only working games and no clones. Then I copied the Plus only games and Plus fixed games I separated earlier back into the filtered set. This way I ended up with a set that's (mostly) without clones, (mostly?) working games only and all the games added to MAME2003-Plus since branching from the .78 romset. All games I have tested works and I haven't found anything missing. I have no idea how AM chooses working games from clones and broken games etc., but this gave me a manageable set that isn't a pain to scroll through. I have additionally separated CPS and NeoGeo games from the FinalBurnNeo romset and have those in separate folders. This setup feels ideal for me at the moment. If anyone suspects I made some mistake in the way I did this I'd be happy to hear what I can do to fix it and also as to not spread misinformation about building a romset like this.