High Score Feature Problem

[Stu1983]

I'm just wondering how or when the high score that GameEx is reading is supposed to be updated?

My Donkey High score is still showing the same scores as it did the first time I ran it even though if I play the game it's showing different scores.

Do I have to force it to refresh somehow?

Stu

[headkaze]

It depends, it can only read .hi files so you must have the hiscore patch applied to your Mame's exe. It does not support nvram yet although there are talks about supporting this in the future. Donkey Kong is supported by HiToText though.

To check the hiscore you can find the HiToText.exe program and run it like so

HiToText -r dkong.hi

Just make sure you give it the full path to the hi file or copy HiToText.exe into Mame's hi folder to test it. It should output a list of the hiscores. GameEx should be reading this info "live" each time you go to view the hiscore table.

[Stu1983]

When I run HiToText manually I get the same score that GameEx is displaying so the problem isn't with GameEx.

Just need to work out why my Mame isn't updating the dkong.hi file, I compiled it using your compiler and I applied the hi scores patch.

After work I'll try deleting the dkong.hi and see if it tries to create it again or recompiling again

Stu

[headkaze]

Stupid question but you do have the hiscore.dat file in Mame's root folder?

[Visitor Q]

I have a few questions...

Has it ever worked, prior versions of Mame or is this the first time you are trying it?

What version of Mame are you currently using?

Do you have a "hi" folder under Mame and is it creating .hi files in it? I see you mentioned dkong.hi so it would seem so.

I had a problem like yours before and it had to do with a certain version of Mame and compiling it. Sometimes it would show the correct hi scores and sometimes it would not.

On another note, I see you that you are saying that there is maybe a way for Game Ex to post hi scores in the front end, is this under the Mame options in Game Ex or am I reading too much into this?

Thanks.

[headkaze]

VisitorQ: Yes there is now a new feature where you can view the hiscore table for games inside GameEx.

But VisitorQ also made a valid point there was a hiscore patch version released that was buggy and then a new version was released for it. I think it was the first release for 128 which has now been fixed. So you may need to do a fresh compile again. Also all the options for turning hiscores on and off are now stored inside mame.ini. You might want to check that it's actually turned on in there also.

[Stu1983]

But VisitorQ also made a valid point there was a hiscore patch version released that was buggy and then a new version was released for it. I think it was the first release for 128 which has now been fixed. So you may need to do a fresh compile again. Also all the options for turning hiscores on and off are now stored inside mame.ini. You might want to check that it's actually turned on in there also.

Oh I didn't realise there was a buggy patch for 128 sounds like I need to compile again, didn't get a chance to try anything last night but I'll give it a blast tonight

Stu

[Visitor Q]

VisitorQ: Yes there is now a new feature where you can view the hiscore table for games inside GameEx.

Can you point me to a thread that tells me how I can go about doing this or give me directions on how to do so? Does this have to do with the program posted on BYOAC or is this something I just turn on in Game Ex?

Thanks.

ps. Good Luck Stu!

[Stu1983]

Can you point me to a thread that tells me how I can go about doing this or give me directions on how to do so? Does this have to do with the program posted on BYOAC or is this something I just turn on in Game Ex?

I can't remember what version this appeared in it was about 3 updates ago, it uses the program posted a BYOAC but there wasn't anything fancy to do GameEx download the exe in the update and the option just appears when you go into the game info screen of a supported game, so if I go into Donkey Kong, I have the following options

Play This Game

Title

Manual

High Score

If I select High Score then GameEx changes to a new screen showing the high scores

Not all games are supported though so don't expect to see it for every game, actually don't expect to see it in many games at all, you'll need to check BYOAC for a list of supported games.

Stu

[Visitor Q]

It looks like 9.66 added HiToText.

I guess I must have missed it because I didn't know it was there to look for it. =]

I'll update to the new version of Game Ex that is out when I get home tonight and going into one of the games on the list over on BYOAC and see if I see anything.

Regarding the games that are support, do we need to keep something updated as more and more games support this or will Game Ex do this automatically?

[bkenobi]

My uninformed guess would be that Tom will keep the program side of things up to date, but the hi-score files would likely be your responsibility. These are basically DAT files and Tom doesn't typically keep those up to date (controls.ini, catver.ini, history.ini, etc.)

[headkaze]

Tom will release the new version of HiToText with each new release of GameEx so that will be automatic. But you will have to keep your hiscore.dat file updated although that file doesn't get updated that often and it will be a long while before HiToText supports all the games currently in it anyway. So for the most part the updates for hiscore support in GameEx are automatic as long as you update GameEx with each new release.

Check out the HiToText page for the latest updates and games added to HiToText.

[Visitor Q]

Cool...

Yeah I love this new feature and I did not even know it was there until I went looking for it!

Ok so it looks like the .cs files are what gets added to make HiToText work. I will read over that post but does the exe need updated every time new .cs files come out? I mean I would think the supported files would come out more than updates to the program unless the program needs updated for it to work?

Thanks.

[headkaze]

Ok so it looks like the .cs files are what gets added to make HiToText work. I will read over that post but does the exe need updated every time new .cs files come out? I mean I would think the supported files would come out more than updates to the program unless the program needs updated for it to work?

The .cs files are compiled into a single exe called HiToText.exe which will be included in GameEx each release. You can of course get the latest version of HiToText.exe and just copy it into the GameEx folder if you like.

[Stu1983]

Done a bit more experimenting last night and I'm no further forward... it seems if I delete dkong.hi then play it again mame creates it ok but it never updates the file so I only ever get 1 high score recorded. I tried recompiling and even tried going back to a 125 exe that I had sitting on my drive and it does the same.

Stu

[Visitor Q]

The .cs files are compiled into a single exe called HiToText.exe which will be included in GameEx each release. You can of course get the latest version of HiToText.exe and just copy it into the GameEx folder if you like.

Ok... Yeah I see there are two versions offend over there.

HiToText.zip

HiToTextCompiled.zip

I did not look on my Media Center PC yet but I am assuming Game Ex is using the compiled version so if for what whatever reason I would want to update it on my own, I would just download the compiled version containing one exe file and over write the older version.

Think I got that right and it makes sense now. I was looking at the none compiled version before that had a lot more than one exe in it and I think that is how I was getting misconstrued.

My Bad.

[Visitor Q]

Done a bit more experimenting last night and I'm no further forward... it seems if I delete dkong.hi then play it again mame creates it ok but it never updates the file so I only ever get 1 high score recorded. I tried recompiling and even tried going back to a 125 exe that I had sitting on my drive and it does the same.

Stu

So you were trying to run the current version then? 128 or 128u4? Did you ever having this running correctly in prior versions?