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Lightspeed: Ultra-Fast Mame Importer Tool


Jason Carr

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24 minutes ago, Sir BLaDE said:

Hi @Antropus thx for your work! I have a little request for you. It is possible you may add a way to change the name of the platforms by default ?

Because I use RL and it is a pain in the ass rename in LB once and again.

Most platforms need their names hard-coded so they are compatible with Launchbox and that way can read and use Launchbox's databases.
With that being said, a little tool could be written to post-process that. There are just too many possible platform names at this point (85+), so adding this to Lightspeed would bloat it and it would be tedious to rename them one by one. The simplest approach would be for me to generate an .ini files containing all Platform names, one per line, followed by the "=" sign. All you would need to do would be to enter the new name on the side and run the little app and it would rename everything for you. The ini structure would look something like this:

Quote

Arcade=Mame Arcade
Atari=Atari Classics
Capcom CPS-1=Capcom Play System One
etc

 

Edited by Antropus
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4 minutes ago, Tetsuo1981 said:

Here is the folder location. I am pretty sure I copied the filepath correctly

Extras artwork.png

Oh! So you never unzipped those large files into folders then? You need to do that. Each artwork folder should be separated and contain a collection of files matching the rom names. The extensions can be varied, including .zip and .7z, but you need a collection of files. A large zipped file will not be recognized. Same with MAME itself when it comes to artwork.

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3 minutes ago, Antropus said:

Most platforms need their names hard-coded so they are compatible with Launchbox and that way can ready and use Launchbox's databases.
With that being said, a little tool could be written to post-process that. There are just too many possible platform names at this point (85+), so adding this to Lightspeed would bloat it and it would be tedious to rename them one by one. The simplest approach would be for me to generate an .ini files containing all Platform names, one per line, followed by the "=" sign. All you would need to do would be to enter the new name on the side and run the little app and it would rename everything for you. The ini structure would look something like this:

 

It is a great idea also beneficial to anyone who has changed the name for other reasons

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18 minutes ago, Antropus said:

Oh! So you never unzipped those large files into folders then? You need to do that. Each artwork folder should be separated and contain a collection of files matching the rom names. The extensions can be varied, including .zip and .7z, but you need a collection of files. A large zipped file will not be recognized. Same with MAME itself when it comes to artwork.

Yeah...sorry! I'm still a bit noob to all of this. Right, I'll go back and unzip all the folders and give it another whirl and report back. Thanks for not poking fun at my stupidity!!!

Another silly question, where do the lists save to when you export them?

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Good afternoon @Antropus

I just started testing LS with Beta 7 and ran across a situation where 6 of the 6269 imported games are not pointing to any rom file. In other words, the ApplicationPath in the generated Arcade.xml only contains the directory path without the filename of the rom. Here is the list of game Titles having this issue:

  • Final Fight Revenge (JUET 990714 V1.000)
  • GP Rider (World, FD1094 317-0163)
  • Kizuna Encounter - Super Tag Battle 4 Way Battle Version / Fu'un Super Tag Battle Special Version
  • NATO Defense (alternate mazes)
  • Run and Gun (ver EAA 1993 10.8) (dual screen with demux adapter)
  • War of the Worlds (color)

I am including the Lightspeed.ini should you want to look at the settings I used to reproduce this problem.
Just included screenshots.

Lightspeed.ini

1.png

2.png

3.png

4.png

5.png

6.png

Edited by Pacman56
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@Pacman56, I just looked into my collection and searched for the 6 games you mentioned. I have a pretty complete collection, but none of these games are in it, so Lightspeed reports them as "missing" for me. I dug into the ROMs folder and they are indeed missing. Use the search in Lightspeed and look at the path column. If they all say missing for you as well then you don't have the ROMS. If that's the case, under the options tab if you check "Roms" under the "Match These Folders", those games should not be populated into your listview. Take a look and let me know if you have those ROMS in your system first.

Edited by Antropus
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@Pacman56, yeah, I ran it with your exact options and I got the same exact results. Then I checked "Roms" under the "Match These Folders" options, to make sure it forces the export to only games I have ROMs for and they disappeared from the Arcade.xml file :)
I could have an option to inform a "ghost zip" file if nothing is found, but ultimately you will not like to have games listed which there are no ROMs for, right? I mean, clicking on stuff that will not launch any game at all?

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@Pacman56, alright I went ahead and decided to add the "ghost zip" name even when the game is not present in your collection. I would STRONGLY encourage people to use the "Roms" option to export only games which you have roms for though! BUT, I am a Anarchist/Libertarian/Classic Liberal kinda dude and I am all for freedom and choice, so I will give you the tools but the decisions are up to you! :D

It will be in the next release.

Cheers,
-Kris

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11 minutes ago, Antropus said:

I just looked into my collection and searched for the 6 games you mentioned. I have a pretty complete collection, but none of these games are in it, so Lightspeed reports them as "missing" for me. I dug into the ROMs folder and they are indeed missing. Use the search in Lightspeed and look at the path column. If they all say missing for you as well then you don't have the ROMS. If that's the case, under the options tab if you check "Roms" under the "Match These Folders", those games should not be populated into your listview. Take a look and let me know if you have those ROMS in your system first.

Thank you @Antropus

I just searched for "Final Fight Revenge" from the Export tab and noticed that the Title "Final Fight Revenge (JUET 990714 V1.000)" appeared twice.
One of these title point to a proper rom path "...\ffreveng.7z" but the other one said "Missing" as you pointed out.
The reason I did not enable the "Match Roms Folder" under the Options tab is simply because I'm suppose to have a complete romsets (split-set) according to CMPRO as seen on the screenshot and I though that LS would fill the roms path from the information found in the generated mame xml rather than scan the file system for the roms. But then again, LS needs to know if my ROMs are archived as zip or 7z, so it needs to scan the file system I guess.
1.thumb.png.6ab9a0c5531226dcf60ae5ada6bb07e2.pngIn any case, enabling the Match "Roms" Folder under the Options tab definitly addresses the problem as I can now see a Total Filtered count of 6263 games which is exactly 6269 - 6 = 6263.
Consequently, I will now make sure that this option is enabled going forward for my remaining tests.

That you very much for looking in to this.
 

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I ran into something similar with clrmamepro in the past. I remember having to use a combo between it and romcenter to get the right results O_o
Moral of the story: don't trust any software, because they are all developed by hacks like me :P

Edited by Antropus
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2 minutes ago, Antropus said:

 

I ran into something similar with clrmamepro in the past. I remember having to use a combo between it and romcenter to get the right results O_o
Moral of the story: don't trust any software, because they are all developed by hacks like me

 

That's good to know @Antropus 

Because not having a complete romset will keep me up at night :D I'll start experimenting with romcenter so I can keep my OCD under control. :)

Like I said before, I don't know what I would do without LS.

Keep up the good (excellent) work!

 

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Hi Antropus, just stumbled upon this error while scrolling through platforms list in BigBox. I imported only MAME roms (no software lists) with Beta7. I was able to reproduce the error twice by scrolling through platforms. Could you maybe have a look what is causing it?

Thanks!

Log.txt58bcbf5139172_ErrorBigBox.thumb.PNG.e2c14aa1e3aa0ce4434523fb12ad4cfe.PNG

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1 hour ago, zs_prime said:

Hi Antropus, just stumbled upon this error while scrolling through platforms list in BigBox. I imported only MAME roms (no software lists) with Beta7. I was able to reproduce the error twice by scrolling through platforms. Could you maybe have a look what is causing it?

Thanks!

Log.txt58bcbf5139172_ErrorBigBox.thumb.PNG.e2c14aa1e3aa0ce4434523fb12ad4cfe.PNG

I am afraid that would be a question for @Jason Carr, unless it's being caused by some specific data being added by Lightspeed. It looks like a BigBox bug, but you never know.

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8 hours ago, Pacman56 said:

That's good to know @Antropus 

Because not having a complete romset will keep me up at night :D I'll start experimenting with romcenter so I can keep my OCD under control. :)

Like I said before, I don't know what I would do without LS.

Keep up the good (excellent) work!

 

I would usggest using *REMOVED* sets, they are always complete and updated the next day (or even same) MAME comes out ;)

Edited by CriticalCid
No direct links to ROM sites
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2 hours ago, Johnnydement said:

I would usggest using *REMOVED* sets, they are always complete and updated the next day (or even same) MAME comes out ;)

Thank you @Johnnydement My sets are from PD but I use CMPRO to rebuild them as 7z for space consideration.
I am however curious to find out what I'll see when I use romcenter to scan those rebuilt sets. 

Thanks for the tip though! ;)

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Using last beta version. With clones and consolidate clones disabled, it says it's importing 2771 games, but in launchbox only 2669 are listed. If I check clones and consolidate clones, it still shows it's importing 2771 games, but launchbox actually shows 2771. However I can't say which two are actually missing.. 

Edited by Malhavoc
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