[RESOLVED] Error Building Mame Game List

[RedDog]

I have been working on a v0139 romset for retropie. I had upgraded it from v0138 to v0139 using a program called RomVault (which was quite a bit easier than clrMamePro). This is the first time I have attempted a rom set upgrade, so I wanted to take steps to confirm the update was successful. I rechecked the new set using RomVault and the Mame0139.dat and got good results, but I also wanted to do another chckoe usidet RomVault.

I set mame32 v0139 up in GameEx, but it will not complete the gamelist build and I am trying to determine where the issue lies. It processes the ListInfo.dat file and then returns to the menu finding no games. The log shows the following entries:

03:18:29.1  6/14/2017:  Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
03:18:29.1  6/14/2017:     at GameEx.GameEx.MainForm.d7()
03:18:29.1  6/14/2017:     at GameEx.GameEx.MainForm.c5()

So to doublecheck GameEx, I ran a manual verification using the mame32.exe executable and there are plenty of good roms in the set (see verify.txt). I also redownloaded the mame32.exe executable again with the same result in GameEx.

My normal set is v0161 and when I set it up in GameEx, it processes the list just fine. Before checking in GameEx, I was fairly sure the updated v0139 set is good; but since it is not doing what I expect, I don't know now.

Anyone know what the error in the log might be related to?

 

verify.txt

log.txt

GameEx.ini

[RedDog]

...and yes Draco, the Mame and Rom versions match.    

[Draco1962]

You confuzzle me with Dazzle!

 

[RedDog]

Aw, Dang it! 

[Draco1962]

 

 

[DazzleHP]

On 14/06/2017 at 2:09 PM, Draco1962 said:

You confuzzle me with Dazzle!

 

On 14/06/2017 at 3:53 PM, RedDog said:

Aw, Dang it! 

WTF?! Wow. The version of your mame is the problem. I would elaborate, but, wow.

[RedDog]

Well, I do have other problems...        ...but it's not the Mame version in this case.  

I should have mentioned that I have Mame set up in the integrated Mame and as an emulator. It is the integrated Mame that is using the v0139 set and will not generate a gamelist and is throwing out the error I was looking for help with. Ignore Emulator_1.

[DazzleHP]

Seeing as you are working with an old version of MAME, and i assume therefore old versions of the support files, you could well be running into the "CarnEvil" bug or something similar.

The old support files often had bad mistakes that would halt GameEx in it's tracks, for no reason other than bad formatting of said support files. This went on for quite sometime if i recall, with many of us providing "corrected" versions of those files.

The whole thing was sorted in the end, with a lot of co-operation from many sources.

Anything before then is still susceptible to errors.

[RedDog]

@DazzleHP I've seen mention of the 'CarnEvil' bug here and there, but I have not encountered it via GameEx. If you are on the right track, that would point fault at the roms, either originally being 'bad; or my update being 'bad'. I am pulling the Mame executable directly from mamedev.org, so I have to assume it is ok.

I will see if I can't get some 'other resources' to try and confirm it. Thanks.

 

[Tom Speirs]

Hey RedDog,

Please get me that version of MAME and I will gladly take a look for you.

Cheers.,

Tom.

[RedDog]

Hi Tom. I am working with v0.139. I tested both the 32 and 64 bit versions, but 64 is what I started with.

I did some additional testing and it does look to be an interaction problem between the current version of Mame and v0.139 (or older versions). It could very well be what Dazzle was talking about above.

I found a GameEx 14.61 install on an older PC that also happened to have a v0.139 set on it. That set validated successfully with GameEx 14.61, but when I brought the Mame and a sample of games over to the PC I have 14.81 installed on, it would not validate and the log showed the same error entries in the log:

15:22:33.1  6/19/2017:  Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
15:22:33.1  6/19/2017:     at GameEx.GameEx.MainForm.d7()
15:22:33.1  6/19/2017:     at GameEx.GameEx.MainForm.c5()

The original reason I started this thread was to double-check my romset update using GameEx. Now that I know GameEx 14.61 will validate a good set, I can get that done on my other PC. So, continuing to investigate this is more for the benefit of newer versions of GameE. I am happy to help with that if you would like to do continue, but I leave the decision up to you.  

[Tom Speirs]

Your more than owed buddy. I will take a look later.

[DazzleHP]

You would know if you had the CarnEvil bug because (at the time) GameEx, and most all other frontends would halt at that point,

The reason is that someone (we still don't know who) decided that the 'pipe' character was a good idea.

It all boiled down to this in the end: ｜ <--that

It doesn't look much but that one character is the cause of much upset, but thankfully, dev's are much wiser now That is why i was concerned earlier,

I will conclude my ramblings here and now.

You have the best of the best. Use em!

[RedDog]

So I dug farther into the Carnevil/pipe/GameEx bug/issue and found this article on our forums. Since that article accuses the history.dat file of killing GameEx with the pipe (in the library, he he), it looks like my issue is probably something else. When I set up Mame for this situation, I did not configure any dat or ini files in GameEx.

[fRequEnCy]

I would think something is wrong with your listinfo.dat file that is being generated.  This file usually takes awhile to generate.  From the time stamps on your log, it seems awfully fast to be reading it after it is generated.  I'll have to do some testing on that particular version of mame.  Have you opened that particular file to see if anything exists in the file?  It's location is listed in your log.

 

Quote

03:17:54.1  6/14/2017:  Running: E: E:\Emulation\Mame\Mame0139b_32bit\mame32.exe -listxml > C:\Users\V\AppData\Local\Temp\listinfo.dat
03:18:02.6  6/14/2017:  Opening Listinfo.dat
03:18:04.1  6/14/2017:  Reading ListInfo.dat
03:18:13.4  6/14/2017:  Reading ListInfo.dat - DONE
03:18:13.4  6/14/2017:  Total verifyable roms: 0
03:18:13.5  6/14/2017:  Processing ListInfo.dat
03:18:29.1  6/14/2017:  Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
03:18:29.1  6/14/2017:     at GameEx.GameEx.MainForm.d7()
03:18:29.1  6/14/2017:     at GameEx.GameEx.MainForm.c5()

 

 

Edit:  Perhaps was wrong on the speed since I didn't test that particular version and it did generate quickly now that I have.  Was comparing to new version of MAME.  But still open the file to see it's contents .

[RedDog]

I have the listinfo.dat from the test I did from the Mame/Roms I pulled from the PC with the GameEx 14.61 install. The listinfo.dat weighed in at 42 megs. I am not familiar with the listinfo.dat and it's use, but I did take a look at it and the XML looks to be fully generated and properly formed (ie the end of the file shows data sets closed out properly). On that test, there were 62 games in the folder, but I have a feeling GameEx may not be getting far enough to start verifying the games.

The issue has been easy to replicate, so hopefuly it also is for Tom. If it is something that can be remedied easily, it will probably be helpful for people still running old sets on older PCs.

[fRequEnCy]

Looks like the xml has changed.  Particularly the tag <game> has been changed to <machine> in newer versions of MAME.  So GameEx needs to look for different tags based on the version.

[RedDog]

Well, the listinfo.dat on v0139 does show <game></game> tags and no <machine></machine> tags. Could be it.

[fRequEnCy]

Probably!  Am sure GameEx is now looking for the new tag in newer releases since it was changed.  Hence why your older version of GameEx verified ok since it was looking for the older tag since the new one didn't exist then.  Which is why it won't verify now. 

Now will have to wait for Tom to chime in to verify since he will have to check his code.  But giving him some direction what he needs to look for.  I guess to fix this probably we should also find out what version it was changed.

[Tom Speirs]

Have not had a chance to look yet but it is supposed to be backwards compatible.

[DazzleHP]

See, now even i am confused!. If you are using a 1.39 MAME, with a 1.39 ROMSET, then everything should be fine. If you are trying to run a 1.39 against anything other than the correct MAME then you will get errors. This is NOT a GAMEEX fault! This is how MAME works!.

[RedDog]

@DazzleHP I am sorry if I lost you.

Here is a quick synopsys: I am using a v0.139 Mame with a v0.139 romset in the integrated Mame. This is currently returing an empty gamelist even though a manual verify using the mame executable returns a long list of good games. I tested with a prebuilt Mame from mamedev.org and roms from an original v0139 set as well as one I upgraded from v0.138 to v0.139 with the same results.

However, my GameEx.ini will also show that I have a v0.162 Mame and v0.162 romset set up in the Emulator Section. I forgot that I had this setup when I made my initial post, so I later tried to clarify that the v0.162 Mame/romset setup in the Emulator Section should be ignored as it does not pertain to the issue.

 

Beta testing software is nothing new to me and after running my setup through quite a few hoops, I am leaning towards the possibility of there being an unresolved issue with GameEx. I think it is very likely that fRequEnCy's theory regarding changes in the tagging syntax is the culpret.

[RedDog]

This issues was resolved with today's hotfix. Woo Hoo!!!