bkenobi Posted July 7, 2008 Share Posted July 7, 2008 Basically I don't like the number of categories in either catver.ini or genre.ini. Catver gives way too many and it makes it hard to find anything. Genre is too basic and results in HUGE lists for each item. I wanted a list that combined things into ~30 groups of no more than ~100 games per list (after clones are removed). I also wanted to combine all games that I don't have any intent to play (tabletop, casino, quiz, betting, etc) into a single group that could be filtered off in GameEx. There may already be a tool out there that does this better, but I never found it so I made my own....So, I wrote a script using Python that can take the standard catver.ini file and an input file containing renaming categories. It then processes things and spits out a new catver.ini file and only takes a few seconds to process. I've tried to use the prebuilt tools to do this (MAMEData, RomLister, Access, Excel, etc.), but they are all very time consuming. This just plain works.I wanted to include a list of examples in the category like I had before, but unfortunately the search feature in GameEx will find text in the category too, so that made this useless (mario resulted in a list of hundreds of titles...all the platformers). Anyway, if you want to create a custom list, you might give this a try.EDIT: I cleaned up the output slightly so there's header on the file. This will make it easier to tell when it was generated and what version of MAME it covers.EDIT 2: I found and fixed a slight bug that didn't put *Mature* on the categories I deemed "CRAP".EDIT 3: INSTRUCTIONS:To run this, you need to:1) Download and install Python2) Download and extract "Custom_catver.ini.zip" to a directory (e.g., c:\emu\catver)3) Download catver.ini for your version of MAME and put in c:\emu\catver (v0.125 is included)4) Edit "Catver_conversion.txt" if desired (this is the set of rules for how the catver.ini categories are reorganized)5) Run the script (just double click the .py file).6) Copy/move "new catver.ini" to wherever is appropriate and rename to catver.iniEDIT 4: Category "Driving / Plane" didn't have any converted category, so these games may not have been added to the new catver.ini file. I added them to "Shooter / Flying Other". This only affects 3 games and none are that valuable IMO, but they should show up in the list now.Custom_catver.ini.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clair Posted August 23, 2008 Share Posted August 23, 2008 Basically I don't like the number of categories in either catver.ini or genre.ini. Catver gives way too many and it makes it hard to find anything. Genre is too basic and results in HUGE lists for each item. I wanted a list that combined things into ~30 groups of no more than ~100 games per list (after clones are removed). I also wanted to combine all games that I don't have any intent to play (tabletop, casino, quiz, betting, etc) into a single group that could be filtered off in GameEx. There may already be a tool out there that does this better, but I never found it so I made my own....So, I wrote a script using Python that can take the standard catver.ini file and an input file containing renaming categories. It then processes things and spits out a new catver.ini file and only takes a few seconds to process. I've tried to use the prebuilt tools to do this (MAMEData, RomLister, Access, Excel, etc.), but they are all very time consuming. This just plain works.I wanted to include a list of examples in the category like I had before, but unfortunately the search feature in GameEx will find text in the category too, so that made this useless (mario resulted in a list of hundreds of titles...all the platformers). Anyway, if you want to create a custom list, you might give this a try.EDIT: I cleaned up the output slightly so there's header on the file. This will make it easier to tell when it was generated and what version of MAME it covers.EDIT 2: I found and fixed a slight bug that didn't put *Mature* on the categories I deemed "CRAP".Ok bken what do I do with this? Just replace my catver.ini file? What is that py file?Cheers hun Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bkenobi Posted August 24, 2008 Author Share Posted August 24, 2008 Python is a scripting language that can run on virtually any platform. I have updated the first post to include instructions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clair Posted August 25, 2008 Share Posted August 25, 2008 Python is a scripting language that can run on virtually any platform. I have updated the first post to include instructions.bken, do you think it's possible to just list by genre - beat em up, scrolling fighter etc. So there are only a handful of categories?I only want 8 or so categories max. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bkenobi Posted August 25, 2008 Author Share Posted August 25, 2008 It's possible. The best way is to use the genre list in the first place then. You end up with ~10-15 categories. The genre.ini file is available at the site listed above. Alternately, you can modify the "Catver_conversion.txt" file to use less categories on the right side. I reduced the category count to ~40 since I was looking to keep a single screen or so of categories and no more than ~100-200 games in each one.If you want to change categories, just decide what you want to group together. Then, using any text editor, use the replace text option to find any instance of the category on the right that you want to change and replace it with your new one. For example:Driving = RacingDriving / 1st Person = RacingDriving / Boat = RacingDriving / Plane = Shooter / Flying OtherDriving / Race = RacingDriving / Race (chase view) = RacingDriving / Race (chase view) Bike = RacingDriving / Race 1st P Bike = RacingDriving / Race 1st Person = RacingDriving / Race Bike = RacingDriving / Race Track = RacingThis could all be considered "driving", so you could do a find replace on the stuff on the right side (or just change it manually) so that you end up with:Driving = DrivingDriving / 1st Person = DrivingDriving / Boat = DrivingDriving / Plane = DrivingDriving / Race = DrivingDriving / Race (chase view) = DrivingDriving / Race (chase view) Bike = DrivingDriving / Race 1st P Bike = DrivingDriving / Race 1st Person = DrivingDriving / Race Bike = DrivingDriving / Race Track = Driving Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clair Posted August 25, 2008 Share Posted August 25, 2008 It's possible. The best way is to use the genre list in the first place then. You end up with ~10-15 categories. The genre.ini file is available at the site listed above. Alternately, you can modify the "Catver_conversion.txt" file to use less categories on the right side. I reduced the category count to ~40 since I was looking to keep a single screen or so of categories and no more than ~100-200 games in each one.If you want to change categories, just decide what you want to group together. Then, using any text editor, use the replace text option to find any instance of the category on the right that you want to change and replace it with your new one. For example:Driving = RacingDriving / 1st Person = RacingDriving / Boat = RacingDriving / Plane = Shooter / Flying OtherDriving / Race = RacingDriving / Race (chase view) = RacingDriving / Race (chase view) Bike = RacingDriving / Race 1st P Bike = RacingDriving / Race 1st Person = RacingDriving / Race Bike = RacingDriving / Race Track = RacingThis could all be considered "driving", so you could do a find replace on the stuff on the right side (or just change it manually) so that you end up with:Driving = DrivingDriving / 1st Person = DrivingDriving / Boat = DrivingDriving / Plane = DrivingDriving / Race = DrivingDriving / Race (chase view) = DrivingDriving / Race (chase view) Bike = DrivingDriving / Race 1st P Bike = DrivingDriving / Race 1st Person = DrivingDriving / Race Bike = DrivingDriving / Race Track = DrivingThe notepad idea is brilliant! Cheers hun!Now to decide on some categories Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clair Posted August 26, 2008 Share Posted August 26, 2008 The notepad idea is brilliant! Cheers hun!Now to decide on some categories Bken have you done anything like this for Genesis or Snes? The mdb's for these two consoles are terrible and really inaccurate.Ta Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bkenobi Posted August 26, 2008 Author Share Posted August 26, 2008 This is only focussed on the catver.ini file which is unique for MAME. The databases for SNES, Genesis, and all the rest are in the process of being rebuilt. They will be EXTREMELY accurate and contain all kinds of new data. There is a thread in the stickies concerning these databases. I don't know if they are looking for more help or not, but you could take a look there and see what's going on. Link Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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