Creating ES gamelists with media for MAME/lr-mame/lr-mess

kiro

@Folly Makes sense, also analyzing next gamelist, apfm1000, first item is called backgamm.7z (or zip does not matter), but I have the impression that the file should be backgamn.7z (or zip, does not matter)...

I cannot find a backgamm.zip rom except for the msx :-)

is it possible to validate?

Thanks!

Folly

@kiro

backgamm is correct, did a check :

cat /opt/retropie/emulators/mame/hash/apfm1000.xml |grep back
        <software name="backgamm" supported="no">
				<rom name="backgmmn.bin" size="4096" crc="811c6269" sha1="f820334bb6df9b856f54f1957b60a5e70bdd6d7e"/>

Is also in apfm1000.zip from mame-sl

kiro

@Folly ok, I'll double check.. I'll get that mame-sl file, it backgamm.zip was not in the romset from the e-mail...

Folly

@DTEAM said in Creating ES gamelists with media for MAME/lr-mess:

@Folly

I finalized "classich". I have deleted some images because it was a handheld picture over a handheld video (artwork) and it was ugly.

I think we both done a great job !

8 videos are missing :
Chicky Woggy (Table Top)
Donkey Kong Jr (Tabletop Coleco)
Donkey Kong Jr (Tabletop Nintendo)
Hippo Teeth (Sporty)---> missmatch video
HotLine (Mini)
HotLine (Sporty)
Packri Monster
Snoopy (Tabletop)

I saw only 1 missing.
Perhaps I am missing roms.
Will have a look at that.

DTEAM

@Folly

Some are from the madrigal romset

Folly

@DTEAM

Yes I saw.
Well If I have time i will see If I can make video's for them too.

Btw.
Did you see ?
For the new classich.ini there is really a lot of new stuff detected.

DTEAM

@Folly
I saw that ... I don't see the end !!!!
I'll start with Tiger and Konami and jump on classich after .
For some classich (like PEngo) i'll try (in the far futur) to do a video with the backgrounds.

DTEAM

@kiro

It's backgamm for the name and backgmmn.bin for the rom

see here

kiro

@DTEAM thx, I see the software name, but look at the ROM name

DTEAM

@kiro
See my reedit

kiro

@DTEAM sorry, didn't see that, so does this mean that you should be having as path backgmn.bin in the gamelist? Or am I missing something?

DTEAM

@kiro
Normally, we take the name to run the "basename"option in MAME . The bin file not always match with the "basename" used with MAME. I'm not at home, but i'll check later.

DTEAM

@kiro said in Creating ES gamelists with media for MAME/lr-mess:

@DTEAM sorry, didn't see that, so does this mean that you should be having as path backgmn.bin in the gamelist? Or am I missing something?

Technically yes if you bypass the data base (option with no basename in the Folly script), but with MAME, normally you run a .zip., .7z or .chd (for some arcade or cd games) file.

Folly

@kiro

A path as you suggested is not needed.

backgammn.bin is inside the archive.
Normally you run the zip file with the basename loader or the cart loader, just as @DTEAM described.
Only if you want to run the .bin file directly instead of the zip than you have to join the media and info to the .bin file also for displaying in the emulationstation.

kiro

@DTEAM Thanks!!

this is in the gamelist

<path>./backgamm.7z</path>

which means that if you do not have a rom called like that, it will not work (independently of it being supported or not).

So maybe it is good to review the script and take that 'path' name from the rom tag:

<rom name="backgmmn.bin" size="4096" crc="811c6269" sha1="f820334bb6df9b856f54f1957b60a5e70bdd6d7e"/>

Without changing extensions or anything.

Also, my script will not understand which rom this is about as it will not match any name like that (even without extension)

Thanks, we're getting somewhere, slowly but surely.

Folly

@kiro said in Creating ES gamelists with media for MAME/lr-mess:

which means that if you do not have a rom called like that, it will not work (independently of it being supported or not).

Sorry, but I really don't understand your last post.

Mame has standardised the naming so if you find the correct romset it will always be ok.
(all info is in the hash tables)
There is simply no need to add the .bin file or the name backammn.

Question :
Have you found the mame-sl romset ?
(I have send you an email)

kiro

@Folly I'm not talking about the romset or mame, I'm talking about emulationstation...

If you put in the path that the rom is backgamm.zip and try to launch it , it will pass backgamm.zip (or 7z for that matter) in the emulator command as parameter... of course, it will not work... unless again, you're doing things differently and I'm just not understanding it...

My understanding is that whenever you create your gamelists (which are read by emulatonstation) the data in it, especially filenames should be correct.

kiro

@Folly Thanks for the email will check :-)

Folly

@kiro

I think you don't understand how mame works.
And indeed it's difficult, have a look here :
https://docs.mamedev.org/commandline/commandline-all.html

The basename variable is the filename without extension and without path.
So when selecting the file in emulationstation, and using a basename loader, only the filename without the extension is entered in the loader. (%BASENAME%)
The paths are in the mame.ini or already in the loader.
So mame will check the paths and if the same basename is in the hash table it will know that it has the correct rom and run the known file accordingly.
That is called softlist loading.
However if you use the original mame loader this approach will only work if you have the path in the mame.ini as described here :
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/28462/tutorial-handheld-and-plug-play-systems-with-mame
Otherwise you have to use our project :
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/29682/development-of-module-script-generator-for-lr-mess-lr-mame-and-mame-standalone

When using, for example the cart loader, then the whole path and filename with extension is send to the loader (%ROM%).
Though the original loader in RetroPie doesn't have the extra options -cart or -flop etc.
So that will also only work with our project.

Hope you understand my explanation.

kiro

@Folly I'll have an in-depth look on my next stop at the toilet zone. But I think I understand that actually for these 'special' mame roms, more parameters are needed which are not catered for by RetroPie, is this correct? So your script will basically fecth the softname and launch the mame emulator with all needed parameters, am I on the right path?

This is ok, but then it conflicts with any scraper, since a scraper will rely on the filename to grab the information... I need to look into your script and see how we can marry both concepts.

Ideally, the scraper should create your gamelists and at the same time allow for launching your games as if it was using your script ...

Nice challenge!