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

DTEAM

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

For sharing you need to add my adapted zemmix and zemmix2 folders to your roms folder just like @DTEAM did over here

Done!

bbilford83

@Folly @DTEAM forgive me I am a little confused and trying to juggle some work at the same time, is there anything left for me to do about Zemmix or is what @DTEAM did sufficient? It looks to me like it is integrated - thank you for using it!

Folly

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

@Folly @DTEAM forgive me I am a little confused and trying to juggle some work at the same time, is there anything left for me to do about Zemmix or is what @DTEAM did sufficient? It looks to me like it is integrated - thank you for using it!

I will summarise :

When we started with zemmix I added recognition in the script so the zemmix msx1 is detected as zemmix and the zemmix msx2 is detected as zemmix2

You made a zemmix gamelist with msx1 and msx2 games in them and called it zemmix and inside the gamelist you had fixed paths for the images created by the scraping you did.

To be sharing this zemmix gamelist, like any other predefined gamelist we added, we need to convert the gamelist to use relative paths instead of absolute paths.

All our shared predefined gamelist have the images in the roms/media/emulationstation subfolder so you can backup them with the roms. Another advantage is that you can use the same gamelist and images in any other system folder, if you somehow need to, for example msx.
By the way that is the about the only way my script can share it.

Your gamelist contained msx2 games but was called zemmix and zemmix is for msx1 only and so I had to split them up and give them relative paths too and rename the folders a bit so now they can be shared.

Above that, I wanted to have an index file in the roms directory of the games you picked so it is easier to find the games otherwise you need to look into the gamelist and that is not really an easy option.

So the zemmix folder contains msx1 only and the zemmix2 contains msx1 and msx2 games.

I have now added your google drive links folder in the script as an alternative host. So when you add something to that folder it will automatically be available to everyone who is using the script. Taking into account that you respect the predefined gamelist structure.

So DTEAM added my converted zemmix/zemmix2 stuff to his googledrive and therefor is now available to everyone who uses the script.
So as a mirror you can add that too in your folder.
I added your folder also as an alternative so if I or DTEAM will not host it then you can do that by yourself.

If you want to add stuff to the zemmix gamelists then it's best to add it to my gamelists which you can host by yourself now.

Hope I explained it good and that you understand the structure now.
If not then let me know.

Explore this :

bbilford83

@Folly Thank you I think I get it now! The relative vs. absolute paths makes sense to me, it is just easier for scraping purposes to use the absolute ones. But I think when I finish a gamelist I can change it as you did with some find and replace, nothing too brutal.

I didn't realize you had integrated the option to download the stuff in my google drive straight from the script, that is neat. I like and think it makes sense how you are keeping it separate as a WIP - people can look to see if they like it that way.

I have been working on and off on XEGS now, it is the same basic goals/issues/problems as with Zemmix. But an even higher percentage of Atari 8-bit games work for it, not many have required a keyboard so far. It will probably take a couple weeks but when I am done with that I will try to change the game lists to your structure. Then I will do C64GS which I think is the last "consolized computer," at least that I have found.

DTEAM

@bbilford83 @Folly

My only problem with this gamelist (zemmix ) is that it doesn't have any videos. On my drive, the concept is to have (most of the time) a marquee, a box (or system) and a video. Here we have a combination of 3 images in 1 file (good for SD card space). That said, I like what you have done and I put it on the drive because I don't have these systems at the moment.

bbilford83

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

@bbilford83 @Folly

My only problem with this gamelist (zemmix ) is that it doesn't have any videos. On my drive, the concept is to have (most of the time) a marquee, a box (or system) and a video. Here we have a combination of 3 images in 1 file (good for SD card space). That said, I like what you have done and I put it on the drive because I don't have these systems at the moment.

Yeah sorry about that, I guess I should've noticed from the beginning that I was omitting those but you included them. My build has every game made for any system on it, and that extra space can be huge so I've never scraped videos. I can try to go back and add them at some point - I am not sure if there would be a shortcut to do that without losing all the old descriptions.

Folly

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

MAME 0.261 released

New working systems

Casio CZ-1 [Mastropiero, Devin Acker]
CXG Systems / Newcrest Technology Enterprise "S" [hap, Sean Riddle, Lord Nightmare]
CXG Systems / Newcrest Technology Super Enterprise (model 210) [hap, Sean Riddle]
dreamGEAR My Arcade Plug And Play 220 Game Retro Controller (DGUN-2959) [TeamEurope, ChinnyVision] For All in one and plug & play systems = MAME name : DGUN2959
Fengyun Hui [Guru, Dyq, little0]
Game Zone II 128-in-1 [TeamEurope, David Haywood] For All in one and plug & play systems MAME name : GAMEZN2
Lexibook Noddy's TV Console [David Haywood, TeamEurope] For All in one and plug & play systems MAME name = LXNODDY
Lexibook Super TV Air Jet 6-in-1 (Lexibook Junior) [TeamEurope, David Haywood] For All in one and plud & play systems MAME name: LXAIRJET
LJN Toys VideoArt [hap, Sean Riddle, Phil Bennett]
Play Vision / Taikee Racing Challenge - 8 Games In 1 [David Haywood, TeamEurope] For All in one and plug & play systems MAME name: RACECHL8
Play Vision Joystick88 [TeamEurope, David Haywood] For All in one and plug & play systems MAME name: 88IN1JOY
SciSys Chess Companion II [hap, Sean Riddle]
WinFun / JungleTac Motorcycle 30-in-1 [TeamEurope, David Haywood] For All in one and plug & play systems MAME name: WFMOTOR
Yamaha Portatone PSR-11 [Carl, Sean Riddle]

7 new games for All in one (~~maybe Fengyun Hui , to validate~~ arcade game)

Do we add ~~LJN Toys VideoArt ?~~

7 added to all_in1
Database + Script updated to 0261

bbilford83

@Folly One quick question about MAME (or @DTEAM if you know). I am chugging along testing for the XEGS, and the made-for-XEGS games were quick and easy (there are fewer than 30). But now that I am steadily testing the Atari 8-bit games that should also work, I am noticing that the MAME software list for Atari 8-bit seems to be really underinclusive... I noticed first there were way, way more games listed on the scraping websites when compared to the MAME SL, and other sources do seem to have these games so I don't think it's that they're undumped/lost. So actually I have three questions:

Is it the case that sometimes for non-mame emulators there are many more games available that are working? I.e. maybe mame has less compatibility than some other emulators and has more working games than the ones listed in the software list sets?
Do you think maybe my list for Zemmix is really underinclusive too? I have found sources of MSX1 and MSX2 games that I don't think are in the MAME SL for MSX1/MSX2 either, so I am thinking the answer is probably yes.
For both Zemmix and XEGS, there are other emulators (not MAME) that work for these other games. For my own build, as long as the systems would have actually played the games, I would want them included even if it had to be in a different emulator. For now, I am doing only MAME SL games for XEGS, but when I am done I think I will try to add all games I can find that work with lr-atari800 - which can also emulate the XEGS specifically. And I will probably go back to Zemmix and try to do the same. Would you prefer I limit the lists I share with you all to only mame-games, or all that I can get working even in other emulators? Since the script will only work with the MAME games I could see you preferring I limit it to those.

It will be quite a while before I get to a point where any of this matters so no rush, but since I realized the issues now I am asking in advance :).

Folly

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

I am chugging along testing for the XEGS, and the made-for-XEGS games were quick and easy (there are fewer than 30). But now that I am steadily testing the Atari 8-bit games that should also work, I am noticing that the MAME software list for Atari 8-bit seems to be really underinclusive...

Yes, could be. There are more systems that have that issue.
But remember everything takes time. So it will only be added when a volunteer is willing to and if the driver can run it.

I noticed first there were way, way more games listed on the scraping websites when compared to the MAME SL, and other sources do seem to have these games so I don't think it's that they're undumped/lost.

Correct there are more dumps, I think the same reasons time and volunteers.
BTW. As volunteer you have to have quite some knowledge it's very hard to get involved in the mame dev team.

So actually I have three questions:

Is it the case that sometimes for non-mame emulators there are many more games available that are working? I.e. maybe mame has less compatibility than some other emulators and has more working games than the ones listed in the software list sets?

That is sometimes true and also sometimes it isn't true.
But games that are not in MAME SL can work, many times, with the media runcommands.

Do you think maybe my list for Zemmix is really underinclusive too? I have found sources of MSX1 and MSX2 games that I don't think are in the MAME SL for MSX1/MSX2 either, so I am thinking the answer is probably yes.

Could be, but as you said there is very little known about Zemmix and the supported games.

For both Zemmix and XEGS, there are other emulators (not MAME) that work for these other games. For my own build, as long as the systems would have actually played the games, I would want them included even if it had to be in a different emulator. For now, I am doing only MAME SL games for XEGS, but when I am done I think I will try to add all games I can find that work with lr-atari800 - which can also emulate the XEGS specifically. And I will probably go back to Zemmix and try to do the same. Would you prefer I limit the lists I share with you all to only mame-games, or all that I can get working even in other emulators? Since the script will only work with the MAME games I could see you preferring I limit it to those.

Yes I would prefer to limit those to mame only I think otherwise it is getting too messy.

It will be quite a while before I get to a point where any of this matters so no rush, but since I realized the issues now I am asking in advance :).

Good luck testing !

bbilford83

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

Yes I would prefer to limit those to mame only I think otherwise it is getting too messy.

Thank you for the detailed explanation and quick response! I'll make sure not to add the games that aren't in MAME to my system until after I've shared my lists with you guys.

DTEAM

@bbilford83 @Folly

Please, Need help to found a photo of this system : Play Vision Joystick88

bbilford83

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

@bbilford83 @Folly

Please, Need help to found a photo of this system : Play Vision Joystick88

I tried for a while and so far haven't found anything... I'll keep looking though.

Folly

@DTEAM

Added your question to the mame forum.
Perhaps they can help.

My guess it will look something like this :

bbilford83

@Folly on a totally different note, today I checked your script and saw that you have integrated installation of the new LJN Videoart system that became usable in mame/mess .261. I installed it, and have the new videoart.zip bios in the correct places, but for me none of the 9 games will launch - they all go back to the emulationstation menu immediately. I tested in lr-mess, lr-mame, and mame standalone, unfortunately none seem to work. Maybe it is still something just I am doing wrong but if you have the time to check could I ask if you can see if it works for you? Or I'd take any other ideas you might have on what I did wrong :).

Folly

@bbilford83

saw that you have integrated installation of the new LJN Videoart system that became usable in mame/mess .261

Just for your understanding, I didn't add it in my script.
It depends on the database I added.

To fix it you need another bios too.
Go to the restricted downloads and select BIOS not found after you tried running a game. It will read the runcommand.log and automatically add the files to the form and ultimately to the list.

bbilford83

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

@bbilford83

saw that you have integrated installation of the new LJN Videoart system that became usable in mame/mess .261

Just for your understanding, I didn't add it in my script.
It depends on the database I added.

To fix it you need another bios too.
Go to the restricted downloads and select BIOS not found after you tried running a game. It will read the runcommand.log and automatically add the files to the form and ultimately to the list.
Remember (??? = org)

Thanks very much for the quick reply. I had never even noticed that part on your script, trying it now. Where it says "insert the options," I see that ???, but is that the only thing I change?

Edit: I tried that but it says "no search results found."

Edit 2: I understand about updating the database, I wasn't being very precise in my phrasing but I just meant that you had updated whatever you needed to so that the system was now included :).

Folly

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

I see that ???, but is that the only thing I change?

yes

bbilford83

Actually @Folly, I didn't know about the runcommand.log file before, that is obviously very useful! But looking at that now I don't think it is a bios problem. This is what it says:

But I do have lr-mess, mame, and mess all updated to current, so I thought it should "know" it is a working system?

Folly

@bbilford83

You can find the runcommand.log in /dev/shm.
Indeed this is probably a different issue, have you tried mame standalone ?

Can you check your version of lr-mess in the mame UI (about)

bbilford83

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

@bbilford83

You can find the runcommand.log in /dev/shm.
Indeed this is probably a different issue, have you tried mame standalone ?

@Folly yes, standalone cart, standalone basename, lr-mess, all kick me right back out.

Can you check your version of lr-mess in the mame UI (about)

In mame UI, about (loaded a diferent game), says MAME .261 (ILP32), Revision: 7d5e2708. Retroarch "information" says the same - MAME (.261 (7d5e2708).

Do I maybe need to update from source instead of binary? For any other newly-added systems/games so long as the .2XX number has matched it has worked for whatever was listed as newly-working so long as I updated to the current binary.