How does the Don't Filter these ROMS under MAME Settings work?

[kemikal]

I'm trying to figure out how the "Don't Filter these ROMS" field under the MAME Settings works in GameEx, I have the the latest MAME non-merged rom set (0.220) and I have never been able to get this option to work. I have tried toggling the import switches to Yes and No, e.g. Only Working Games, All Imperfect Games etc...  but nothing works.

Basically in the Don't Filter these ROMS, I am adding a single entry of "rad_gen1.zip" (tried without the .zip extension too), without the speech marks, which is this game http://adb.arcadeitalia.net/dettaglio_mame.php?game_name=rad_gen1&search_id=1

Then I manually run Update list, after update is complete I go to the list of MAME games and the entry for the above game does not appear, it should be "Genesis Collection Volume 1 (Radica, Arcade Legends) (USA)"

I assumed anything that is added to the Don't Filter these ROMS field will get imported, regardless of any other settings or is something else overriding the import routine?

There are many games I wish to add to the MAME list manually that are not imported by default so if this feature can be explained that will be appreciated.

On a similar note, my previous romset was 0.200 and GameEx imported evosocc.zip and crysking.zip roms perfectly fine, I also had these under the GameEx favorites, after updating the romset to 0.220, these games no longer get imported so also don't appear under the favorites. I checked the file names and they have not changed. I tried to add them using the "Don't Filter these ROMS" but to no avail.

I have also attached the log.txt and GameEx.ini.

log.txtFetching info... GameEx.iniFetching info...

[Tom Speirs]

I need to look at this. I think it is broken right now.

[kemikal]

Thanks for looking in to it @Tom Speirs

I think as it stands GameEx has a strong filtering routine where it only imports MAME games that are actually playable, but with that, I think there should be a simple way to override (no matter what other filtering toggle is set) the filtering with an ability to add to the MAME list. In theory the "Don't Filter these ROMS" field is exactly what I need, shame it is not working, I have been trying for years to add items in that field thinking I'm doing something wrong. As long as I know I have the correct rom file and media, I just want to be able to add let's say rad_gen1.zip;evosocc.zip;crysking.zip (or without the .zip extension) to the "Don't Filter these ROMS", do an update and the games appear in the list.

[Tom Speirs]

Well, your missing favorites are working in 16.38. I actually had to fix something due to changes in MAME. I think the don't filter is working as it should. As for the other game that is filtered on a low level because it is not an Arcade Game. I may have to reevaluate that but otherwise everything is working as it should not

[kemikal]

Brill, I`ll update to 16.38 and update to see if my other 2 roms are imported.

Yes you are right the rad_gen1.zip is not actually an Arcade game so it must be some low level filtering that GameEx is doing to keep that game off the list, but it would be nice if the Don't Filter these ROMS bypassed all the filtering and added the game no matter what.

Thank again for your efforts.

[kemikal]

I updated to 16.38 and can confirm the 2 roms that were omitted from the Update List are now appearing for me, thanks for the fix.

If the Don't Filter these ROMS can be made to bypass all filtering and force any roms added to this field appear in the MAME listings that will be perfect

[RedDog]

@Tom Speirs Do you know at what Mame version the filter change occurred?

[Draco1962]

For Radica, Arcade Legends, it was first reported working as of MAME v0.194. My guess would be about then as I did not see this as an option when I was running v0.193. As for filtering, I think that it is working well if the coded filter is intended to filter out non-arcade games. Radica is a classed by genre as a handheld game, category as Handheld / Plug n' Play TV Game, 

[kemikal]

The evosocc.zip and crysking.zip roms are Arcade roms and I had them imported fine in GameEx when I was on MAME version 0.200. Recently I decided to update to the latest 0.220 rom set and MAME binary, this is when I noticed these two games not in the list, so something changed inbetween versions 0.200 and 0.220, which is quite a few versions!

The rad_gen1.zip is a non Arcade game and I think out of the box, it's okay for GameEx to exclude this, however there should be a method to include non Arcade games as long as you have the MAME rom file. The Don't Filter These ROMS seems like the perfect area to be able to manually add roms that GameEx filters out, but some low level filtering is still preventing the feature from working as I was expecting it to.

[Draco1962]

If Tom has the filtering to exclude the non-arcade ROMs then it may be working as designed.

An alternative may be to setup MAME as a standalone emulator using one of the emulator slots and installed within a separate path from what you are using with the integrated MAME settings, it may put it outside of the filtering occurring within the integrated MAME filtering schema.

I agree that if the ROMs you noted are missing after updating your MAME and ROM sets and updating list, the certainly needs to be addressed for working ROMs.

 

[RedDog]

  On 4/25/2020 at 2:52 PM, Draco1962 said:

For Radica, Arcade Legends, it was first reported working as of MAME v0.194. My guess would be about then as I did not see this as an option when I was running v0.193. As for filtering, I think that it is working well if the coded filter is intended to filter out non-arcade games. Radica is a classed by genre as a handheld game, category as Handheld / Plug n' Play TV Game, 

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Thanks. Good to know.