Simple Arcade Multifilter - app for MAME and FB Alpha sets (Get rid of Adult and Mahjong games!)

jca2112

Hey, sorry about reviving an old thread.

I'm trying to filter the preferred Final Burn Alpha 0.2.97.42 romset for RetroPie (for a Raspberry Pi 3 as mentioned in the docs) using Simple Arcade Multifilter.

As mentioned previously, I believe FBA 0.2.97.42 is based on the MAME 0.187 romset, so I would be looking for a catver.ini (for sorting) file version for MAME .187, which isn't available anywhere (that I can find). Is okay to use ANY later version of a catver.ini file after 0.187? They only version I see available is for 0.197.

Appreciate any help/info.

markwkidd

The current ProgettoSNAPS catver.ini file is evidently designed to work with all versions of MAME 0.165 through the present. That's the one you need for your FBA collection.

jca2112

@markwkidd said in Simple Arcade Multifilter - app for MAME and FB Alpha sets (Get rid of Adult and Mahjong games!):

The current ProgettoSNAPS catver.ini file is evidently designed to work with all versions of MAME 0.165 through the present. That's the one you need for your FBA collection.

Good to know, thanks. Would that same MAME .197 catver.ini work for MAME 2003 0.78 roms as well? (One catver.ini file for both MAME and FBA sorting?)

markwkidd

@jca2112 said in Simple Arcade Multifilter - app for MAME and FB Alpha sets (Get rid of Adult and Mahjong games!):

@markwkidd said in Simple Arcade Multifilter - app for MAME and FB Alpha sets (Get rid of Adult and Mahjong games!):

The current ProgettoSNAPS catver.ini file is evidently designed to work with all versions of MAME 0.165 through the present. That's the one you need for your FBA collection.

Good to know, thanks. Would that same MAME .197 catver.ini work for MAME 2003 0.78 roms as well? (One catver.ini file for both MAME and FBA sorting?)

The current catver.ini will unfortunately not work well for mame2003.

However, I help maintain a catver.ini for mame2003 which, although I'm biased, should work perfectly for you: https://github.com/libretro/mame2003-libretro/blob/master/metadata/catver.ini

If you haven't used github before, use the "raw" link button to access the file directly

cosmo0

@jca2112 Hey! FYI my arcade manager has all you need for FBA : https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/17255/fast-and-cross-platform-retropie-arcade-roms-manager-gui
I provide several downloadable CSV files to help you manage everything you need.

markwkidd

@cosmo0 said in Simple Arcade Multifilter - app for MAME and FB Alpha sets (Get rid of Adult and Mahjong games!):

@jca2112 Hey! FYI my arcade manager has all you need for FBA : https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/17255/fast-and-cross-platform-retropie-arcade-roms-manager-gui
I provide several downloadable CSV files to help you manage everything you need.

Is it necessary to use the CSV files, or can you use a catver.ini only?

cosmo0

@markwkidd You can convert a catver.ini to csv using my tool :) the source file has to be a csv.

markwkidd

@cosmo0 said in Simple Arcade Multifilter - app for MAME and FB Alpha sets (Get rid of Adult and Mahjong games!):

@markwkidd You can convert a catver.ini to csv using my tool :) the source file has to be a csv.

Hmm.

I am pretty interested in working with your tool, and maybe leaving off of mine altogether, but it's hard for me to get excited about using CSVs when pretty much every other MAME and FBA tool uses DATs and INIs directly. Maybe we can collaborate on something eventually.

Edit @jca2112 I think the other tool is for people with pretty different preferences. SAM is good if you want to, for example, create a folder that only has Lightgun games and Fighters, along with the BIOSes that each require.

If that's your project, you load up the GUI, click on Gun and click on Fighter, and process the folder.

Then maybe you want another folder that is just "Adult" Puzzle games. With SAM you browse down to the Puzzle category, click on the subcategory that says *Mature*, and then you can process out a folder with only adult puzzle romsets.

The other tool is more about providing a curated experience and I think it's better than SAM if you fit into one of the pregenerated CSVs because there is also overlay support etc. But on the other hand if you want to load the latest catver.ini from Progetto and the latest DAT from FBA and then create your own curated folder then I think SAM is still the way to go.

markwkidd

This post is deleted!

cosmo0

@markwkidd said in Simple Arcade Multifilter - app for MAME and FB Alpha sets (Get rid of Adult and Mahjong games!):

@cosmo0 said in Simple Arcade Multifilter - app for MAME and FB Alpha sets (Get rid of Adult and Mahjong games!):

@markwkidd You can convert a catver.ini to csv using my tool :) the source file has to be a csv.

Hmm.

I am pretty interested in working with your tool, and maybe leaving off of mine altogether, but it's hard for me to get excited about using CSVs when pretty much every other MAME and FBA tool uses DATs and INIs directly. Maybe we can collaborate on something eventually.

I'm using CSV because it's easy for the user to edit and filter them using Excel or whatever, and do their own list.

I might support dat files directly, I already provide a conversion tool. I noted it in my todo list :)

The other tool is more about providing a curated experience and I think it's better than SAM if you fit into one of the pregenerated CSVs because there is also overlay support etc. But on the other hand if you want to load the latest catver.ini from Progetto and the latest DAT from FBA and then create your own curated folder then I think SAM is still the way to go.

Exactly :)

snoopmehdi

Hi all!
Congrats for this amazing job. I have a problem, i use the appropriate catver.ini dat. File and romset for mame 2003 but i do not have any caregorize to choice in window. Do you know what it could be ?

All the best !

Clyde

A nice and simplistic tool. I only have one feature request: Pleeease (+ sugar on the top) add a function to mark multiple entries, e.g. an all/none button or common hotkey support (Ctrl-A, Ctrl-LMB, Shift-LMB). It's extremely inconvenient to mark double-digit numbers of genres or make "all but …" selections.

If there already is such a function I'm just too blind to see, I'd be as humbled as I'd be grateful to know it. :) I'm running SAM on Linux via WINE, so that may be a factor if I'm missing functionality that should be there.

markwkidd

@clyde said in Simple Arcade Multifilter - app for MAME and FB Alpha sets (Get rid of Adult and Mahjong games!):

A nice and simplistic tool. I only have one feature request: Pleeease (+ sugar on the top) add a function to mark multiple entries, e.g. an all/none button or common hotkey support (Ctrl-A, Ctrl-LMB, Shift-LMB). It's extremely inconvenient to mark double-digit numbers of genres or make "all but …" selections.

If there already is such a function I'm just too blind to see, I'd be as humbled as I'd be grateful to know it. :) I'm running SAM on Linux via WINE, so that may be a factor if I'm missing functionality that should be there.

No I unfortunate don't think you're missing anything -- multiple selection was not on my mind when I coded the tool. Thanks for the suggestion, if I do another version it does need this feature.

Clyde

@markwkidd said in Simple Arcade Multifilter - app for MAME and FB Alpha sets (Get rid of Adult and Mahjong games!):

@clyde said in Simple Arcade Multifilter - app for MAME and FB Alpha sets (Get rid of Adult and Mahjong games!):

A nice and simplistic tool. I only have one feature request: Pleeease (+ sugar on the top) add a function to mark multiple entries, e.g. an all/none button or common hotkey support (Ctrl-A, Ctrl-LMB, Shift-LMB). It's extremely inconvenient to mark double-digit numbers of genres or make "all but …" selections.

If there already is such a function I'm just too blind to see, I'd be as humbled as I'd be grateful to know it. :) I'm running SAM on Linux via WINE, so that may be a factor if I'm missing functionality that should be there.

No I unfortunate don't think you're missing anything -- multiple selection was not on my mind when I coded the tool. Thanks for the suggestion, if I do another version it does need this feature.

Since you seem to have resumed work on this project, may I humbly remind you of this? 😇

markwkidd

@Clyde said in Simple Arcade Multifilter - app for MAME and FB Alpha sets (Get rid of Adult and Mahjong games!):

@markwkidd said in Simple Arcade Multifilter - app for MAME and FB Alpha sets (Get rid of Adult and Mahjong games!):

@clyde said in Simple Arcade Multifilter - app for MAME and FB Alpha sets (Get rid of Adult and Mahjong games!):

A nice and simplistic tool. I only have one feature request: Pleeease (+ sugar on the top) add a function to mark multiple entries, e.g. an all/none button or common hotkey support (Ctrl-A, Ctrl-LMB, Shift-LMB). It's extremely inconvenient to mark double-digit numbers of genres or make "all but …" selections.

If there already is such a function I'm just too blind to see, I'd be as humbled as I'd be grateful to know it. :) I'm running SAM on Linux via WINE, so that may be a factor if I'm missing functionality that should be there.

No I unfortunate don't think you're missing anything -- multiple selection was not on my mind when I coded the tool. Thanks for the suggestion, if I do another version it does need this feature.

Since you seem to have resumed work on this project, may I humbly remind you of this? 😇

I've been using SAM quite a bit over the last few weeks and I certainly appreciate the issue with the current GUI here.

My dilemma is that there is a very limited control over that GUI component via AutoHotKey. I can change the list so that Ctrl-A and Shift-Click work, but by doing so the user can no longer single-click several different items in a row to select multiple items from the list.

I've made a test build with that change implemented. Try it out if you will and see what you think about the change: https://www.dropbox.com/s/mqgpqm73l46i740/Simple Arcade Multifilterv1.1X-2019-01-15.zip?dl=0

Clyde

That works like a charm! I would argue for keeping this behaviour, because it matches most file requesters on at least Windows and Linux (I don't have much experience with MacOS). You could add a short explanation to the list like "Use Shift and Control keys to select multiple entries" or something similar.

However you will decide, your test build gives me the controls I longed for, thanks very much!

MajinKaan

For some reason some games like 3kokushi keep passing through every filter.

Clyde

@markwkidd Hi Mark, your download link to the test version from 2019-01-15 doesn't work anymore. I still have it, but I think the option to mark multiple entries with Shift and Control will be very helpful for other users, too. Any plans to (re-)release it in your repo?

sirhenrythe5th

I never got myself a Full Romset, i started with MAME-Roms back in 1997 and in those days you had 33.6k-Modems (1MB=10Minutes).
So no chance to download GIGABYTES of Rom-Sets (they even did not exist at that point, all roms of MAME034beta7 might have had about 200MB ;)).
So i cherry-pick my roms since 20 years and dont have to filter with tools.

But just for interest: why are you all so negative about Adult- and Mahjong-Games?
Once you learned the rules of Mahjong the games are really fun and addicitve.
Plus this japanese flair of a lot of them :) - nice manga themes and so on, the newer ones (Psykio i.e.) are really eyecatching.

And i have to admit: i like to Play adult games as well.
All These Gals Panic and so on...they are playable, i like them.
"Billard Academy" is the best Billard-Game for MAME in my opinion, i would never delete it just because there might be some boobs on the screen!!!

Clyde

@sirhenrythe5th I'm not Mark, but the reason that I'm removing Mahjong games from all of my romsets is a) their pure number that tends to clog my games lists and video preview cycles, and b) that I prefer the action oriented games on my retro builds.

A reason to filter adult games could simply be the presence of children in your home, or as company of your guests, as it is with my birthday parties nowadays. Or you just want to see naked women only when you're in the right mood. edit: That said, you also could remove any non-adult games with SAM to have a set for the times when you are in the right mood. ;)