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Commodore Amiga - Importing


Styphelus

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ScummVM could obviously use some streamlining. You have to build each entry basically from scratch.

I'm actually working on Amiga myself at the moment. I don't use a loader though - I just use regular old WinUAE. The method I've been using is to just load the disk(s) into the swapper, tweaking any game-specific settings I need, saving it as a config (.uae) file, and then importing the .uae file as the "rom" in LB with WinUAE as the emulator. It works fine but it is time consuming. I honestly don't think there's any way that LB could improve this process though, since nearly all of the work is taking place in WinUAE itself. By the time I get to LB in this process I've essentially got a single rom file that works with an emulator just like any other rom+emulator combo so the LB import itself takes about 5% of the total setup time.

Regarding the specific question above about proper names upon import, if all of your games are in separate folders by title you could tell it to use folder names instead of the file name. I have all of mine in separate folders as it helps organize the separate disks. This probably isn't the case if you're using a loader though...

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Thanks, but they are all in zip files. Rocketlauncher uncompresses them before loading them.

I could rename all my zip files with one of the hyperspin renaming tools but that still doesn't help anyone else using whdload rom sets who doesn't have hyperspin or doesn't want to rename their roms.

I can fix this in my end. That's not a problem.  I was just thinking of everyone else who uses these sets or any of my fellow hyper spinners wanting to make the transition. 

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@Jason Carr I actually thought of another one that could probably use some work - Atari ST. I mentioned this in a different thread but thought it was worth noting here as well since you asked for other platforms that are problematic for importing. 

Honestly, the existing functionality in LB should work but...just doesn't for some reason. All I need it to do is to load multiple .st files via command line but for some reason this doesn't work in LB. The proper format is simply

Emulator Path\Emulator.exe "Disk 1 path\disk 1 name.st" "Disk 2 path\disk 2 name.st"

What this should do is load the emulator, load the first disk into "Drive A", the second disk into "Drive B", and then start the first disk.

It seems like I should be able to accomplish this in one of two ways via LB (neither of which are exactly practical/user-friendly, but still possible):

1) Leave the application/rom path in a game entry empty, use Steem as the emulator, and then tell the entry to use special command line parameters and simply specify my "Disk 1 path\disk 1 name.st" "Disk 2 path\disk 2 name.st"

2) Direct the application/rom path in a game entry to Steem, uncheck "use an emulator" and again specify special command line parameters of "Disk 1 path\disk 1 name.st" "Disk 2 path\disk 2 name.st"

Neither one of these seem to work, however. The workaround I've found, which is a pain in the butt, is to simply create a shortcut in Windows to Steem, then edit the target path to append "Disk 1 path\disk 1 name.st" "Disk 2 path\disk 2 name.st" at the end and then rename the shortcut to the game name, and then use the shortcut as my "rom" in LB, and uncheck "use an emulator". It's a real pain to do that though... I feel like this method should be functionally identical to either of the two above options though... Maybe I'm completely retarded and am just missing something obvious, I don't know.

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Yes, Amiga WHdload sets have a specific naming convention similar to mame. I don't know if anyone uses different sets but this has been the only standard Amiga set in the Hyperspin/Rocketlauncher community.

I've attached the Hyperspin xml file so you can have an idea. In the xml, game name = rom filename and description = the actual name of the game.

Examples: 

1943_v1.2 = 1943 - The Battle of Midway

LittleComputerPeople_v1.2_0913 = Little Computer People

OmnicronConspiracy_v1.0_2200 = Omnicron Conspiracy

 

Killer Gorillas Amiga whdload rom set : http://kg.whdownload.com/kgwhd/

His site: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=28562

Commodore Amiga.xml

Edited by Styphelus
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It seems like that should help quite a bit for auto-association if that's the case. Obviously I can't speak for @Jason Carr since he'd be the one to make it happen, but as a general principle the less need for "guessing" the easier it should be. MAME importing works wonderfully through LB so it seems like this should be possible.

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What's his e-mail? Can you send me a PM?

I've looked for it before and couldn't find it. I sent him a PM before and weeks went by before he even read it. Does he want to be e-mailed? I have no idea of what is the best method to contact him or if he even wants to be contacted.

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I take it there is no way of us using these XML files combined with LB to fix the naming of the rom files?

 

I have compared a lot of the amiga ones with my own WHDLoad collection and they match more or less exactly, would be quite handy to be able to do that

 

 

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Thank you all. Good conversation and all makes sense. The Atari ST platform seems to be unique in needing both ROMs separately in the command line to launch the game, so that will be a pain in the rear to fix. But good to know about that for sure.

The rest of the platforms should be fixable just by pulling in the relevant data from the Hyperspin XMLs and expanding on the existing solution for MAME. This is indeed pretty high up on the priority list. I would appreciate if someone could compile a list or a package of the Hyperspin XMLs that we do need to integrate to fix the imports.

@Styphelus I had an issue on the previous forums where I kept forgetting about the PMs and wasn't getting emails for them. It was my stupid, sorry for that. Going forward I get an email for every PM, so that should work to reach me. I'm also trying to do a better job responding to people now that I have Kirsten's help and such. My tendency is to hide in the code so I'm making an active effort to come out of my cave more often. ;)

That said, I am somewhat swamped, as usual, so please bear with me if I take a few days to respond.

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