MAP File discussion

[Draco1962]

Will this auto configure the switches for each of the GOTM games? Or is that something that will have to remain manually done?

[Adultery]

Yeah, the "technology" to do this has been present for some time, I just forgot about it.

Custom Lists Path

Location of MAME 32 custom ini folders. GameEx supports the standard MAME32 .ini folders.

Default:

• C:\Emulators\Mame32\CustomFolders

Jump to MAME Settings

@Drac: Yeah, that's still something the user would have to do unfortunately, but AFAIK since the shut down of TG, they're only using default settings now.

Here's what a MAME32 INI file looks like basically:

[FOLDER_SETTINGS]RootFolderIcon = cust1.icoSubFolderIcon = cust2.ico[Race Track]amspdwyamspdwyabadlandscspring1csprins1csprintcsprint1csprint2csprintfcsprintgcsprintsgrudgeindy500indyheatoffroadoffroadtpitnrunpitnrunaracingbredlin2proughracsgt24hsprint1sprint2sprint2asprint4sprint4asprint8sspring1ssprintssprint1ssprint3ssprintfssprintgssprints[Race 1st P Bike]wgpwgp2wgpjwgpjoywgpjoya[Plane]landgearmlandingtopland[Race (chase view)]acedrvrwbigrunbuggyb1buggyboybuggychlbuggychtcalspedacalspeedcartfurychasehqchasehqjcischeatcontcirc

Sub in GOTM for a category, and Hi-Score Games for another like this:

[FOLDER_SETTINGS]RootFolderIcon = cust1.icoSubFolderIcon = cust2.ico[Game Of The Month]arkanoid [HiScore Games]popeye1944

...save the INI as HiScore.ini and have a logo in your theme directory called HiScore.png, point the MAME Custom Lists option at the folder it's in, and it works just like any other MAME list. Get the idea?

[Draco1962]

@Drac: Yeah, that's still something the user would have to do unfortunately, but AFAIK since the shut down of TG, they're only using default settings now.

Not entirely correct - look at the attachment here! A few enterprising member secured and converted to .pdf the TG game switch settings and ROM name recommendations!

[rtkiii]

i think your idea is brilliant Adultery, and wouldn't necessarily be tied to the HS Comp. You could make all sorts of crazy lists for your self if it could be made that easy! Like "Top 10 games where a mushroom is present but isn't a Mario game"

I wanted to do this early on but it seemed like a hassle and never invested the time. I think you'd need to setup a custom emulator for each one...but it would be cool. To set it to One of your friends and in the theme BG you could have a picture of them with a thumbs up

[Adultery]

Nope, no custom emu needed. :-)

[hansolo77]

So if we have it setup, all you would need to do is just go into MAME through Game Ex, and see all the different lists (like 2-player, 4-player, horizontal, etc) and High Scores would be in that list too? I don't know if I'd like to see the High Score games listed in that menu. I kinda like to have it placed in it's own menu right off the root like I did in my map file guide. The way it sounds, the MAME custom favorites, whatever it's called, would have it listed under the MAME menu.

[Adultery]

That's your call. It doesn't hurt to have both options, but like I said, I'll have to do something about the High Score Snapper utility if you're using a map file and a different emu (not like too many people are using that plugin anyways).

I personally don't want to add another emulator to my list if I can avoid it, but that's me.

[Draco1962]

Unless one is using a funky alternate MAME build, I think focusing on the integrated MAME support is a preferable option IMO.

[GimmeClassics]

Sorry, I had little time the last few days . Very busy at work...

Both options (Han's and Adultery's) seem very interesting !! I'll test them both.

Thank you Tom, Han, Adultery and Draco for your help and being involved with our Hi-score Competition. I'm gratetful for that

[hansolo77]

Yeah I think the idea is sound (Adultery's) it's just in my specific gaming style, I prefer to have the High Score list selectable right from the main menu, rather than having to dig down into MAME first. To each their own. Adultery's method seems much more simpler, and would require nothing in the way of direct updates from me (or GC) on the map file. But as I said before, this idea JUST happened. It'll take awhile to figure out the best way to make it work (if at all). We don't HAVE to have a list, I just thought it might make some people have an easier time getting to the games that much quicker.

[Adultery]

Actually it was Tom's idea.

[helpman]

now if we could see each game's highscores on a news ticker when we select the game to play...

[Adultery]

If you had a 2nd monitor you can see the high score leaderboard while you are actually playing the game using Game Info.

Aside from that unfortunately there's no way to do this, but you can point MAME at the official RSS feed using the Theme Editor so all the top scores scroll along the bottom of the MAME game selection menus.

[rtkiii]

DLed and tested...thanks. I like having this quick menu and always wondered how I did this before...thanks man!

It was actually very helpful and quick to get to the games in the comp. Plus I totally forgot about Blood Bros and Time Pilot being in the competition so when I saw them in the list it triggered my memory to play.

Great idea!

[rtkiii]

The only thing I would change is shorten those names. Most of the time there extra text that just ran off the screen like the version or country. I'd just keep it clean and short. If not I manually changed the file as well so it works better with my theme.

[hansolo77]

Yeah I'm thinking the same thing. I'll update it later this afternoon when I get home from work.

[helpman]

If you had a 2nd monitor you can see the high score leaderboard while you are actually playing the game using Game Info.

Aside from that unfortunately there's no way to do this, but you can point MAME at the official RSS feed using the Theme Editor so all the top scores scroll along the bottom of the MAME game selection menus.

if my arcade cabinet supported two monitors ...

...and if my theme would have place for a rss ticker... :D but that can be done I'll have a look if I have time

[helpman]

DLed and tested...thanks. I like having this quick menu and always wondered how I did this before...thanks man!

It was actually very helpful and quick to get to the games in the comp. Plus I totally forgot about Blood Bros and Time Pilot being in the competition so when I saw them in the list it triggered my memory to play.

Great idea!

DARN! now he's playing them and will beat me!

[rtkiii]

Lucky for you...I'm terrible

[Adultery]

Well here's your programatically built MAP file and here's the MAMEUI Favorites file. Next step is the console exe to handle your updating.

So far so good... I'll PM you guys with the new version of DBM.

[GimmeClassics]

Cooool !!! Thank you Adultery

[hansolo77]

Awesome!

[Adultery]

OK, so here it is.

To use this, simply add the command-line into GameEx's configuration for RunOnStartup. If you add it to RunOnStartupDon'tWait, it won't work because GameEx launches before the file is updated, not reading the proper files.

Here's a usage example
RunOnStartUp="C:/HiScore Updater/HiScoreUpdater.exe" -type 0 -mappath "C:/GameEx/Map Files/HiScore Competition.map"

The way it works is simple. The HiScore Updater calls up the web site and downloads the most recent version of either of these files. It then creates a file in your temp directory, deletes the existing file, and moves the temp file to that location. That's all there is to it! It's a console app, so there's no GUI for this, it must be run from the command line.

Here is a list of supported command line arguments:

-Type, -UpdateType

0 is for the MAP file

1 is for the MAMEUI Favorites file

2 is for Local Copy mode

-map, -mappath, -mpath

Specify the path to your MAP file, including the file name. Use quotes around the path if your file path has spaces in it.

-favorites, -favorite, -favoritespath, -fpath

Specify the path to your MAMEUI Faovrites file, including the file name. Use quotes around the path if your file path has spaces in it.

-local, -localpath, -lpath

Specify the local path to your file. Use quotes around the path if your file path has spaces in it

The update type is mandatory, and your path must be specified according to your file type.

Notes about using Local Copy Mode:

You must specify a location of your local file, and the destination file must be set (ie -fpath or -mpath). An example CL might look something like this:

"C:/HiScore Updater/HiScoreUpdater.exe" -type 2 -mpath "C:/GameEx/Map Files/HiScore Competition.map" -lpath "C:/Map Files/MyMapFile.map"

Enjoy it. Hope it is useful to you guys.

Download it at DracLabs.

/Side note @ Han and Gimme: There's also an updated version of the DBM available in the usual place, which generates these files everytime you update the database. I also fixed your bug Han (finally), so you shouldn't be forced to do a retry anymore (the RSS updater shouldn't crash out or retry the update anymore).

[Adultery]

Updated the release, added a Local Copy mode.

[hansolo77]

Wow snazzy! Can't wait to give this a try! So what was the deal with my RSS updater bug?