[APPLICATION] Map File Maker

[Adultery]

Current version: 1.0.8

As the name says, it's a program for creating and editing MAP files. Some of the features include:

• Quickly and easily grab your files and make working (and attractive) MAP lists for your games.
• Parses lots of files really quickly!
• Options to remove bracketed text, replace patterns, left and right crop, capitalize titles.
• File naming options for the most frequently used DAT naming conventions!
  Naming conventions include:
  • No-Intro
  • ADVANsCEne
  • Good Name
  • TOSEC
• Integrates GameEx's List Coloring options.
• Enable colorization in the right-click menu (This feature is disabled by default)
• Import your own region colorization themes
• Easily create your own colorization schemes in Notepad using an included XML as a template!
• Share your themes for others to download and add to their own setups!
• Map File Maker uses the Software Updater Framework to search for program updates!
  • Stay ahead with the latest program version!
  • Enable or disable automatic update checking in the right click menu (This feature is disabled by default)
  • Includes an option to check now for updates for users who would rather not use automatic updating.
• Comprehensive editing tools to make your MAP creation experience moar awesome!
  • Easily add and remove rows to your MAP file.
  • Hide and show columns that you want to see. Your selection is saved for next time too!
  • Clear columns with a single click!
• New MAP File Builder option!
  • Build clean ROM sets based off your MAP file.
  • Fast and easy file parsing/moving
  • Generates MISS and HAVE lists after process completes
• MAP/DAT importing options!
  • Import existing MAP files with just a click!
  • Integrated support for clrMAMEpro DAT files!

Any questions or comments? Feel free to ask 'em. I also like feature requests.
Download it here:
draclabs.hfc-essentials.com

:REQUIREMENTS:

• Windows XP or greater
• .NET Framework 4.0

:THANKS/SHOUTS:
Major props to Tempest for his Map File Magician, which was the inspiration for this simple program. If you're looking for something that's thick with great features, I highly recommend it.
Tom @ GameEx for a great front end. If you're reading any of this, how bout some flag code blocks? The code's already in there waiting!
Circo @ EmuMovies for hosting all my apps and having the best collection of artwork anywhere. The awesomeness of EmuMovies can't be over-stated!

:CHANGELOG:

• Added option to import clrMAMEpro DAT files
• Fixed some missing regions
• Massive code optimizations

• Added new Map File Builder option!
• Rebuild your ROM files based on a MAP file
• Copies ROMs to and from a directory of your choosing
• Generates a Miss and Have list based on the results

• Added string splitting to the "REPLACE" box and the "WITH" box
• Use ';' to seperate multiple replacement searches
• Only enter 1 in the "WITH" box to do a general replace for 1 value
• Type in a 1:1 pattern ratio for Replace and With patterns for a 1:1 pattern replacement
  • Example: REPLACE 1942;8-Eyes;Abadox WITH 1942!;9-Eyes;Awesomeness
• Added remove/replace/crop edits to MAP file importing routine
• Fixed a bug that was affecting the Left and Right crop if the number of chars was less than the crop number

• Fixed a bug that stopped the map list from being generated (No Name)
• Improvements to directory parsing

• A couple of bug fixes

• Fixed updater not working on right click
• Code enhancements to color importing system
• Added code to update the updater
  The new updater is really more pretty now, and if I continue to add functionality to it I suppose it's good to have an option to update it as well.
• Squashed color refreshing bug
• Did some code cleanup and optimization
• OFFLINE INSTALL: Added two new color scheme files (NoInTenDo and SmEGA)
  I plan to add some more color scheme files to this. When I do I'll add a zip to my server so these can be updated as well. Currently the system is only updating the EXE and not the support files.

• Initial release

[headkaze]

Can never have too many tools and utilities. Thanks Adultery!

[Adultery]

Why thank you Headkaze! I try to be useful if I can, but more often than not it's for me.

Here's an updated picture if anyone wanted to have a look see:

I added a bunch of string manipulation stuff to it. Still working on the Good Name crap (man there's a ton of stuff to filter out / fix!)

[starbuck]

Thanks Adultry, will give it a try when you are ready to release it. I very much want to be able to have a map file that has colors for games you have and don't have. This way I can present a list of all games on my cab and just color the ones currently available. Have tried to do it in a map file and thru map magician and could not get Gameex to play the games.

Would it be possible for a map file to display flags for the different countries.

[Adultery]

Not unless Tom adds functionality for it in a way I can get to it. Maybe he could add a country code the same way he uses color coding. Either way its a feature request. As for hex color codes the user would have to enter their own in your case and unless you import a map file the directory scan isn't going to pick up roms that aren't there so you'd be doing a lot of manual entries.

[starbuck]

Tried using the hex codes in a map file and unfortunately many of the emulators won't run the game as the hex code alters the name so emulators won't run the games or simply won't reconize the rom as a valid name. Due to the number of emulators I'm running (Over a hundred in Mess alone) I only have a handfull of my favorite games for each system under each. Since lists take up very little HD space and doen't slow GameEx down. I've wanted to have the ability to show all games I have for each system and show all the great media I have for each of the the systems and games. If a player wants to be able to play a game that shows up but is currently not available on my cab, its an easy matter to add that game from my removeable drives to the cab. Adding hex codes was easy because I had a sign made that said all games are avaible on request. Only the games in green are on the cab. Since I only had a handful of games for each system on the cab, I only had to add the color code to a few games for each system. If I a added a game or removed a game from a system, it was easy to go to the map file and change the hex code for the new or removed game.

I also like the color idea for the regions. Currently I run a seperate emulator for the different regions, hacks, homebrew etc. Kind of like what you do for your Mario hacks. I have requested several times for folders for emulators, but I'm sure I'm one of a few that would like to see this so its not high on Tom's list.

Using your utility, I will run a scan on my removeable drive for a system and create a mapfile for eavery game I have for a system. Then as you stated I will go in and add a hex coe for the handfull of games I have for the system on my cab.Doing this as a player scrolls thru the games list for a system they get to see all the great games that were for a particular system thru the videos, snaps, box art etc. This never fails to spark conversations and arquments about what was the better game for a system or which system was the best.

If your utitly had a option to put a check mark next to the games you have on your cab and colorize those rom names that would be fantastic. I still wonder if the games would be reconized because oif the hex code and run.

In closing looking forward to your release. I'm interested to see how emulators and GameEx handles the colors.

Thanks as always to all you do.

[AlphaUMi]

I missed this project Adultery, and it's fantastic!

And what do you guys think about have flags instead of colors, like in the GoodMerge sets?

[nullPointer]

Thanks for the cool app Adultery! I’d been meaning to congratulate you on this for a while. I haven’t added Nintendo DS to my system yet, but I had neglected to consider that a map file would be necessary to work around the silly scene naming conventions. One less thing to worry about now. Thanks!

Pretty soon you’re going to need your own thread in the Pinned and Hot Topics section (like our esteemed colleague Mr. Tempest), just so we can keep up with the virtual cornucopia of great tools you’ve been producing lately!

[starbuck]

Any timeline for a release yet.

[Adultery]

Not really, it's kind of a labor of love. However...

If you wanted to play with it, here it is.You can either do ADVANsCEne of None for naming conventions, but the app is 100% operable in it's current state. You can import any MAP file, or edit any field no matter what you choose. I added an option to change the list background too so you can try and get it close to whatever your list color is in GameEx and see how it will look with the color you chose for that entry. I still have some tweaking to do, but it's working for my tests so far. The No-Intro preset is almost ready also, but would appreciate some testing.

[celly]

Thanks Adultery, I'll give this a try. See how it works with my DOS games.

[Adultery]

Update anyone?

This update brings in some cool enhancements:

• Regions are now image based instead of text based. See a cool little flag instead of having it spelled out.
  Hopefully the "man upstairs" will give me a tag for flags in GameEx... In which case this will be quickly added.
  
• The color cell is now colored by your choice instead of the whole grid.
  You can refresh your foreground and background colors in the Color Options under the right-click menu.
  
• An option has been added to enable and disable writing color data to the MAP file.
  
  • Useful for users who don't want to make MAP files specifically for GameEx.
    
  • The default setting is not to write the color tag to the MAP file.
    

  [*]Row and cell editing options have been added to the right-click menu.

  • Selected rows can be deleted easily.
    
  • Add a new row and enter your own games into it.
    
  • Show/Hide any column in the grid.
    
  • Clear the data from selected columns quickly and easily.
    

I think that's the lot of it, but I'm sure I missed some stuff... Progress is moving along fast.

Questions? Ask away. Suggestions? I'm always listening.

[starbuck]

Thank you,

Will test and let ya know.

Have you had time to upload that layer for the loading screens.

[Adultery]

Remind me which layer? :*(

[Adultery]

Beta 3 Is Out!

• Show or hide columns by your own choosing. Your preference is retained in the program's memory for each time you launch it.
  
• Some HUGE tweaks to speed up the info stripping code (I loaded up 6k games in less than 2 mins over the network! Major performance increase!!)
  
• Added No-Intro list building capabilities. Good Name is next (shoot they have a TON of naming data... That may take a bit). Then I'll pack in my app updater and make it an official release.
  

[Adultery]

Well this is the last beta release...

BETA 4 Added Features:

• Added Good Name listing capabilities.
  
• Added a tick box for scanning subfolders for ROMs.
  
• Code tweaks (I parsed 10,700 Good Name files in less than a minute... I don't think I can make it any faster! LOL!)
  
• Added the text region column back in for sorting. Like the rest you can decide to display it or not.
  
• Made custom flags for multi-country titles (JUE for example).
  
• New icons for unknown titles.
  

Only 2 objectives left and this will be official! I want to add a progress bar to the bottom of the form next to the Status Label. I also will be adding in the ability to update the program via the internet. Then this sucker is done until I think of something else.

Any changes from this point forward will be purely cosmetic, so this is as functional as you could want it to be I suppose (minus te readme anyways, but you folks can figure out how to use it. ).

[Adultery]

OFFICIAL RELEASE! Yay!

First post updated.

[starbuck]

The layer for the loading screens

[Tom Speirs]

Good work.

Let me know what you need from me to make this better. Is the colour support working? What else would be useful?

[Adultery]

Funny you should ask...

Can we get a code in for flags the way color is done now?

I'm not sure how you could go about it, but I thought it would be cool if, say [R]USA[/R] was USA. or [R]U[/R], (I suppose it doesn't really matter how it works). You could link to the flags you already have in the theme folder somehow... If you decide to add it in then let me know! However you decide to do it it'll only take a few minutes to add in the code (it'd be pretty much the same as the color writing function I already use).

I still have to test the color on my rig but I based the code on your instruction to Starbuck in an earlier thread. There may be a problem when GameEx returns to the list after playing a game but no one's said anything to me about it yet.

[starbuck]

Morning Adultry,

Luv you app.

What I want to do with youe app is:

Right now I Iet GameEx make my map file for the complete rom set, by running the roms one time thru Clrmame pro. This gives me a complete list of all the games available for any given system. I then point GameEx at that map file. I then, pick only a handful of favorite games I want on my cab. These games I want colored different then the rest of the set. This way when someone plays my cab, the see a complete list of all the games ever made for that systerm. When combined with the media from Emumovies they see all the great videos, boxes etc for all the different games. The colored names are the only ones available for play. If they see a preview for a game they want to play that is not available, I can easily add it to the cab.

Is there a way that your great utility will allow me to creat import that set and by right clicking a row change ther name to a color of my choice. Or is there an easier way for me to do this.

Thanks for yoor help.

[Adultery]

Simple really.

If you have a color in mind for all the games you want to keep, all you need to do is double click that game's color column and type the 5-letter hex code in the color column. There's a right click option to update the color cell also.

What I would do is color the ones you want to keep (the list is smaller right?) and then do a column sort so you can go through and add the 2nd color to the remaining roms.

[starbuck]

I would use the standard color for all the games and then color the games that are available a neon green. I currently am running 200 plus systems in Game EX and only have 5 to 10 games on each system.

This worked. But interesting enough. When you open the system on GameEx, the three games that are colored appear at the top of the list regardless of the alpha spelling. When you play a game and come back to the list, the color is gone and the games are make in the list alpha.

When you close GameEx and reopen the games are colored again and back at the top of the list

[Adultery]

That sounds like a GameEx bug.

Like it's taking the top MAP line's color codes and then doing its own sorting regardless of the order of the MAP file, where it should take the color tag with it when it sorts the list.

Too bad, I figured the MAP file would determine the order and the GameEx alpha sorting wouldn't be happening. I can see why it is this way but I thought it would be cool to let the MAP author determine the order.

[Draco1962]

@Adultery - Tom recently made changes to the sort order in the latest version. I am not sure if that has an impact or not, but definitely get with him to see if he can provide you with any useful information to make it work or, if a bug, can get it fixed in the next release.