MAME Leaderboard Question

[MNMax21]

I love the new GameEx MAME leader board and I was wondering a few things about it.  I took a gander in the forum and could not seem to find the answers, so I thought I'd ask (apologies if I missed it).

 

Does the MAME Leader board automatically take from a saved hiscore.dat file within the MAME folder or does it have to be manually updated somewhere?   Or is there a file I need to add to make the option work?

 

Does this work in GameEx, GameEx Evolution and GameEx Arcade?  I currently do not have hiscore active in Arcade mode, so just basically looking for guidance I guess on if I need to do anything.

 

Thanks!

[Tom Speirs]

You just need to enable the mame high score plugin with the latest version of MAME. GameEx and hi2txt does the rest.

[Draco1962]

I could use some assistance with this. I have checked all over and setup my plugin as instructed but something I am apparently missing a step along the way. I know that high scores are saving to nvram for some games, Satan's Hollow for example, but nothing is showing on the Leaderboard. Any help getting my Gal's Panic high scores to display for infamy would be awesome!

[Tom Speirs]

Are the high scores showing in GameEx?

[Draco1962]

I haven't tried it through GameEx, just through Arcade Edition at this time.

[Tom Speirs]

Same difference. Do they work? If so is GameEx Online enabled and not set to private and is it working?

[Draco1962]

I have GameEx Online and enabled. When I login I see that the game I tested (Satan's Hollow) was the last game played.

As I haven't had as much interest in the high scores until recent, I am showing my ignorance in asking where within GameEx Arcade Edition  do I go to see high scores?

[Draco1962]

Doing some digging in AE, I found within GameEx Arcade Edition\DATA\HISCOREDB the shollow.xml file which has a last modified date of 12/08/2018.  I would expect it to show 08/21/2020 as the last modified date and score data.

shollow.xml

[Tom Speirs]

There not stored there. There normally in your MAME folder in the HI folder.

Make sure they are showing up in GameEx before worrying about online.

[Draco1962]

I am not seeing a Hi file generated within the MAME\Hi folder. Also, you are saying to "Make sure they are showing up in GameEx before worrying about online." Where should I be looking within GameEx or AE? 

Attached are my ini and log files. Let me know if you require anything else. Once I get this working for myself I plan to create a "How to" document to ease the pain for others. Thanks for your help.

 

log.txt GameEx.ini

[Tom Speirs]

 It shows on the info page. The HI file is created by MAME. Not all games are supported and you need to enable the plugin. Maybe you should not be using MAMEUI.

[Draco1962]

MAMEUI should work the same as vanilla MAME. Since it is updating NVRAM. I will continue testing with other games first then try regular MAME.

I am not finding the info page as an option in AE.  I am either blind or daft. I have been accused of both and come by it honestly so please don't be afraid to whip out the construction paper and crayons to draw a picture pointing it out to me.

[Tom Speirs]

Its the hi files it needs. Not NVRAM. There is a high score plugin in MAME that creates the hi files.

The info page is the screen that say play this game, and shows the artwork etc. If there is a hi file GameEx will have a high score option in the list.

[Draco1962]

OK, I think I've got it now. MAMEUI works, by the way. I just posted a score on GameEx Online for Asteroids and confirmed that the Hi file was created in the \MAMEUI64_0222\Hi subdirectory.

I noted the High Score now showing in the Asteroids game selection. When I clicked on High Score, it initially blinked the page (went to black, then back to the game menu). On the second click, AE crashed:

Complete log.txt attached.

My reference for the NVRAM was that it was updating which is good for the game, but not posting if a Hi file is not generated. Satan's Hollow is not showing in the hiscore.dat file so not supported at this time.

Thanks for taking the time to guide me through this. 

log.txt

[Draco1962]

OK, the solution was simple. I compared the media files of the Theme in use in AE to GameEx and AE is missing the stats.png page. So I copied the one I had (attached) and it fixed the issue and now I can see the High Score from the game info page! You will need to add a light colored stats.png to the Default-Default theme media path in your next release as it shows as black text. I am trying to source a different image that is more arcade centric.

[Tom Speirs]

Crash is fixed in 16.63

[Draco1962]

Here is another stats.png if you'd like to use.

[Draco1962]

I downloaded and tested v16.63 and confirmed fixed! Thanks as always! Now to enhancements request page!