Editing game lists, .db3, .map files

[Rick1974]

Is there a way to edit the database or a .map file to display games in the order I choose?

For instance, in Neo Geo, KOF 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 are listed before '94, '95 etc...

Ideally, I'd like it displayed as

King of Fighters '94

King of Fighters '95

King of Fighters '96

""

""

King of Fighters 2000

King of Fighters 2001

Etc....

I can't seem to figure out how to do this, if at all possible..

Thanks in advance for any help

[Adultery]

I don't believe you can do that, it's alphabetical.

[Tempest]

Actually I'm almost certain that if you use a map file, you can arrange them however you want. I took advantage of that with my Map File Magician app to allow the user to do things like putting all basketball games together in the list, etc.

[Adultery]

Nope, it's still alphabetical. I use map files for all my consoles.

I added the feature in MFM and was testing when I discovered this. You can try it if ya don't believe me. :-)

[Tempest]

It's not that I don't believe you, but in 2010 when I wrote my app it wasn't that way.

I'm not going to bother to test and see, because I don't care.

[DazzleHP]

We have a battle of the Titans going on there!

Both of their apps are extremely useful though so get to know them if you are going to look into creating your own .map's

To answer your question though, and to make it fool-proof, just give your games the full year-date in the map file. It may not be 100% authentic but will certainly display them in order. For instance:

King of Fighters 1994

King of Fighters 1995

King of Fighters 1996

King of Fighters 2000

etc.

Or if you want to retain the original titles then may be put the year first in brackets for example:

[1994] - King of Fighters '94

[1995] - King of Fighters '95

[1996] - King of Fighters '96

[2000] - King of Fighters 2000

etc.

There may be a few times when this situation arises (especially if you are a "collector") and sometimes the best answer is a compromise.

[Tempest]

Adultery - It occurred to me yesterday that re-arranging games in the list was something that I did in Mame by modifying the gameslist.txt.

You win.

[Adultery]

W00t!

Don't worry, it's cool. I wouldn't be so sure except it was pretty recent that I tested. I may have even asked Tom if he would fix it as I would consider that a bug. The way you explained it would truly make for great map integration, leaving the order up to the user... so I was kinda bummed it didn't work that way.