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live highscores

ceedub

By ceedub
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ceedub Super Member!

ceedub

Posted
Posted

ive been using gameex for a looong time now. as a matter of fact the last frontend i used before ex was mamewah lol.

anyway ive had a dream for a while about a live score board so other gameex user can compete.

i realize this is not as easy as it sounds and anyone using it would need a custom compiled version of mame(i assume most of you use one anyway).

so how hard would this actually be?

KRC GameEx God (Top Rank)

KRC

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I asked for something similar in the requests topic a while back, but never really got a response, I don't think my request got overlooked, I think it may not be possible (I could be wrong though)

  • Like 1
ceedub Super Member!

ceedub

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i think the mame reason is want it is so i can brag about having my name on the 7-10 split club in world class bowling lol.

seriously though the only other person ive seen pull it off was 6 yr old step daughter who got LUCKY!! she actually was the first to get her name on my cab for the split.. gave me something to shoot for lol.

i feel like this will add a real arcade feel for our cabinets

..mame reason lol. ive got mame burned into my brain

Adultery GameEx God (Top Rank)

Adultery

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This is gonna be difficult to pull off unless you have the hex address for every score table in every game in MAME.

It's really not a limitation of GameEx at all... As a matter of fact there was a project that supported this and GameEx integrated it, but the dev behind it threw in the towel, so I'm not sure it even works anymore.

Draco1962 GameEx God (Top Rank)

Draco1962

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According to this response to a similar thread by Headkaze, CPWizard is able to read and display the HiToText output. This will display only during "in game" according to his response, but it is possible apparently. That being said, I am sure that there may be a way through a plugin or other such modification outside of GameEx's functionality.

At this point, however, it is not something supported by GameEx (or any other frontend that I am aware of and recommend that the OP post a request in the "Features & Enhancement Requests" thread.

headkaze GameEx God (Top Rank)

headkaze

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Actually GameEx already has the ability to display hiscores just like CPWizard using HiToText. I could knock up a plugin to do this actually. It wouldn't be perfect but the way it would work would be using an FTP when you run a game download the .hi file for it and then when you exit the game upload it again. I'll see what I can knock up.

  • Like 2
Adultery GameEx God (Top Rank)

Adultery

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Well there ya go!

I figured we were at the mercy of HiToText which AFAIK is no longer active.

headkaze GameEx God (Top Rank)

headkaze

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I figured we were at the mercy of HiToText which AFAIK is no longer active.

Yes we are at the mercy of HiToText to display hiscores in GameEx but is shouldn't effect the sharing of them. HiToText uses an xml file for encoding and decoding each game's hi file so in theory anyone can still add games without needing to recompile HiToText.

Okay I've finished the plugin and am just waiting on Tom to give me a special FTP area for sharing the hi files. There are some issues using the plugin and because of that I will say "use it at your own risk". If you're worried about losing your hiscore don't bother using this plugin.

- Because it just downloads the .hi when you start the game and uploads when you finish, it will overwrite any hi file you have. If you both play the same game at the same time the last one to exit will overwrite the hiscore table. Sorry but I did say it wouldn't be perfect.

- You can't stop people cheating and editing hi files and uploading. This is why we can't take this feature too seriously anyway.

- Different versions of MAME mean different versions of .hi files. So there may be compatibility problems with people running different versions of MAME.

I will release the source code so others can improve on it. Perhaps someone else can fix some of the above issues?

  • Like 1
Stu1983 GameEx God (Top Rank)

Stu1983

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I really like the sound of this plugin.

I have a couple of suggestions.

Does the ini file change even if a user doesn't manage to achieve a hi score?

If it doesn't would this be possible:

  • UserA starts game
  • Plugin grabs the ini from server
  • UserB starts same game
  • Plugin grabs the ini from server
  • UserA finishes with new high score
  • Plugin detects ini has changed so uploads
  • UserB finishes without a new high score
  • Plugin detects ini has not changed so doesn't upload

Still wouldn't avoid peoples scores being overwritten if both users had a new hi score but would avoid some conflicts

Can you detect the version of mame? Could the ini's be uploaded and downloaded from a different sub folder on the ftp depending on the version? Even if the version of mame can't be detected the plugin could ask the user to select the version as a config option

headkaze GameEx God (Top Rank)

headkaze

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Does the ini file change even if a user doesn't manage to achieve a hi score?

They are actually binary files with a .hi extension. It's hard to say if they would change or not since they're just a chunk of the game's memory. My guess is that since it is RAM and not ROM it would likely change even if you didn't get a new hiscore.

Can you detect the version of mame?

I do have a routine for detecting the version of MAME but currently I don't do this. I really don't know that much about the version differences and incompatibilities it may cause. I believe there would be versions that would work together. I guess it would depend more on if a ROM has changed between versions since the memory locations of the data may also change.

Could the ini's be uploaded and downloaded from a different sub folder on the ftp depending on the version? Even if the version of mame can't be detected the plugin could ask the user to select the version as a config option

The plugin should probably at least backup the current users .hi file just incase. I can easily add that.

When I release it soon people are welcome to test it out and see what issues arise. I will also be releasing the source code so others can improve upon it.

  • 2 weeks later...
headkaze GameEx God (Top Rank)

headkaze

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I

How will this work with people using cheats in mame? Will it detect it?

There is no way around that unfortunately.

Tom never got back to me about an FTP address so I guess I won't be releasing the plugin anytime soon. It's probably not worth the effort anyway as it's near on impossible to solve all the issues I've mentioned.

DazzleHP GameEx God (Top Rank)

DazzleHP

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There is no way around that unfortunately.

Tom never got back to me about an FTP address so I guess I won't be releasing the plugin anytime soon. It's probably not worth the effort anyway as it's near on impossible to solve all the issues I've mentioned.

Sad to hear this :( some sort of GE live scores got me real pumped! I have no qualms about backin up my own hiscores before using the plugin and cheaters never bothered me in any game - in actual fact often times i wouldn't be half as good at a game if it wasn't for cheaters as i try that much harder to beat them legit :P

As you said it's nothing to be taken too seriously but could possibly spark some interesting competitions and rivalries :D

Adultery GameEx God (Top Rank)

Adultery

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Too bad we don't have a centralized DB for GameEx info... We could use that for sure. I can imagine the RSS feed of what users are doing... Like "Draco91962 played Popeye 2 days ago"! ;)

DazzleHP GameEx God (Top Rank)

DazzleHP

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Too bad we don't have a centralized DB for GameEx info... We could use that for sure. I can imagine the RSS feed of what users are doing... Like "Draco91962 played Popeye 2 days ago"! :)

What would it take to start one? I have nothing but time for the forseeable future so i'll put myself up first for the task :)

I'll probably need some pointers to start with but i am a very fast learner and have some experience with MySQL so not a total DB noob. Live GE Scores is something i think LOTS of ppl will like and what other FE has them?? I'm not naturally competitve but when i see someone knock me down a few places on a leaderboard then i become all "oh no you di'int! IT-IS-ON!!!" :P

I'll be more than happy to contibute to this anyway i can so i'll just put that out there for y'all to ponder...

ceedub Super Member!

ceedub

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well, doesnt this suck!...chaters dont bother me either because if its a game im hardcore into ill know if it was a cheater hi score and if they go marginal while cheating to get sightly above whats possible without cheating illl congratgulate them

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