MAME Software Lists Import Tool - plugin

[OManco]

 

[mgtroyas]

Wow, I've being playing with this plugin latest days and it's impressive. Mame software lists for japanese computers are complete enough and much easier to add than fighting with Tosec sets (less complete) or Neo Kobe (manual organizing needed).

I have a small request: list of XMLs on "select a computer/console to import" screen are not alphabetically ordered, so it's quite difficult to select the system.

I have also a problem but probably more Launchbox related: when selecting all games after import and running "Download Metadata and Media" wizard, games that are not in the Launchbox database are forced to match to any similar game ID, so the name and ID is wrongly changed as a duplicate.

Edit: sometimes when adding the alternative versions as additional applications, this message is shown, don't know if the proccess finishes ok or aborts.

Edited June 11, 2021 by mgtroyas

[SiriusVI]

32 minutes ago, mgtroyas said:

Wow, I've being playing with this plugin latest days and it's impressive. Mame software lists for japanese computers are complete enough and much easier to add than fighting with Tosec sets (less complete) or Neo Kobe (manual organizing needed).

I have a small request: list of XMLs on "select a computer/console to import" screen are not alphabetically ordered, so it's quite difficult to select the system.

I have also a problem but probably more Launchbox related: when selecting all games after import and running "Download Metadata and Media" wizard, games that are not in the Launchbox database are forced to match to any similar game ID, so the name and ID is wrongly changed as a duplicate.

It's an amazing plugin. Literally the only thing missing is some way to ONLY import games and skip all applications. Manually removing all the apps from these computer systems is a pain.

[JoeViking245]

1 hour ago, mgtroyas said:

I have a small request: list of XMLs on "select a computer/console to import" screen are not alphabetically ordered, so it's quite difficult to select the system.

Thank you so much for the kind words!!  The odd thing about this request is that I've never seen the list NOT be sorted.  Guess I just got lucky.    I will get that resolved for the next update.

1 hour ago, mgtroyas said:

I have also a problem but probably more Launchbox related: when selecting all games after import and running "Download Metadata and Media" wizard, games that are not in the Launchbox database are forced to match to any similar game ID, so the name and ID is wrongly changed as a duplicate.

Ya, definitely out of my hands.   If you haven't already, try using the 2nd option when Downloading.

Selecting this won't replace the games Title.  Then as far as which game ID it associates to, I've no idea how close the Title has to match to the database to get selected. 

[JoeViking245]

2 hours ago, mgtroyas said:

Edit: sometimes when adding the alternative versions as additional applications, this message is shown, don't know if the proccess finishes ok or aborts.

That message box was put there for testing purposes and never got removed.  Click OK (Aceptar) and the process will finish.  (I'll fix that too.?)

For what it's worth, that message is saying you're updating that particular softlist (FM-7) and MAME has renamed an existing games' Title.  Same rom file_name.zip, revised Title.

[JoeViking245]

1 hour ago, SiriusVI said:

It's an amazing plugin. Literally the only thing missing is some way to ONLY import games and skip all applications. Manually removing all the apps from these computer systems is a pain.

Thanks!!  Ya, this has definitely been looked into.  Unfortunately there doesn't seem to exist any filters nor categories for softlists like there are for Arcade Machines.

But if you do happen to come across something like this for softlsits, please let me know.  And you right, it would round out the plugin quite nicely.  

[JoeViking245]

@mgtroyas I've posted an update on the plugins main download page to (hopefully) fix the list sorting and (for sure) the popup message(s).

Please let me if the "Select a Computer/Console to Import" list still isn't sorting correctly for you.

As always, to you and everyone else, thank you for your feedback and suggestions!

[mgtroyas]

5 hours ago, SiriusVI said:

It's an amazing plugin. Literally the only thing missing is some way to ONLY import games and skip all applications. Manually removing all the apps from these computer systems is a pain.

Until some time ago I also cared a lot about what to import, but I've come to value the "order by star rating" as the best Launchbox feature. The most known titles are always shown on the top, on the stars categories, and the not so known ones and the software and other secondary entries are left on the bottom, on the "not rated" category. So I'm always welcomed by the most likely interesting titles, and I can browse the "not rated" category whenever I want to look for hidden gems or rank the titles I know but haven't been rated yet.

I also select "one" or "two stars" as minimum instead of the five by default, so much more games are rated. If I see an odd rating I rate it myself, so I correct it. And thanks to many users doing so, every day more games are rated. Don't forget to download users rating every month or so, as it's not updated automatically!

4 hours ago, JoeViking245 said:

If you haven't already, try using the 2nd option when Downloading.

Selecting this won't replace the games Title.  Then as far as which game ID it associates to, I've no idea how close the Title has to match to the database to get selected. 

You are right, I usually also choose the second option, but with your imports I thought "well, it's all blank, doesn't matter" and choose the first one. Seems it may have an impact, I'll test further.

2 hours ago, JoeViking245 said:

@mgtroyas I've posted an update on the plugins main download page to (hopefully) fix the list sorting and (for sure) the popup message(s).

Please let me if the "Select a Computer/Console to Import" list still isn't sorting correctly for you.

As always, to you and everyone else, thank you for your feedback and suggestions!

XMLs are now sorted and no popups on importing! Thank you very much!

Just looking for perfection, there's a a detail about multiple versions as additional applications: they're not recognized as multiple versions, and so badges (pink stack icon) are not shown, so there's no visual way to know that game has alternative versions. I've found out what's needed:

- The "version" (i.e. "(Alt1)") must be filled in the "Version" field on the Metadata section of the main application and all the additional application.

- In case there's only one additional version, you need to create also an additional application for that main version. If not, launchbox thinks there's only one version and doesn't show the badge.

Edited June 11, 2021 by mgtroyas

[launcherbox]

Is this tool working on version 11.12? I can't seem to start the advanced import wizard (dll's weren't showing as blocked for me, latest LB 11.12, and trying to start the tool nothing happens?

[JoeViking245]

54 minutes ago, launcherbox said:

Is this tool working on version 11.12? I can't seem to start the advanced import wizard (dll's weren't showing as blocked for me, latest LB 11.12, and trying to start the tool nothing happens?

Yes, it works on the latest release.  I'm not really sure what the "advanced import wizard" is.  If all was set up correctly, you should see "Import MAME Software Lists" at the bottom of the Tools menu.  Is that not showing there? 

If it is showing, you click it and nothing happens, can you attach your debug log?

[launcherbox]

On 6/20/2021 at 12:59 PM, JoeViking245 said:

Yes, it works on the latest release.  I'm not really sure what the "advanced import wizard" is.  If all was set up correctly, you should see "Import MAME Software Lists" at the bottom of the Tools menu.  Is that not showing there? 

If it is showing, you click it and nothing happens, can you attach your debug log?

Resolved! The debug log shone the light on it for me. It turns out that if you DON'T keep your emulators in the standard/expected location, this tool won't know where to find the xml's. So I created an Emulators folder in the Launchbox folder, created a MAME folder in there, and copied the hash folder from my actual MAME location into the new folder, and voila....job done. Many thanks

 

EDIT - I was also stupidly using the FIRST entry on the download page, which is the OLDEST version! 

Edited June 21, 2021 by launcherbox

[JoeViking245]

41 minutes ago, launcherbox said:

the OLDEST version! 

I should probably remove those old ones. ?

I really don't recall how I had it in the 1st release, but you can (now?) browse to where you 'actually' have your MAME /hash/ folder located.  Also, next time you run the plugin it'll remember that folder location.  Well, it's supposed to at least. lol

Glad it's working now!

[launcherbox]

4 minutes ago, JoeViking245 said:

I should probably remove those old ones. ?

I really don't recall how I had it in the 1st release, but you can (now?) browse to where you 'actually' have your MAME /hash/ folder located.  Also, next time you run the plugin it'll remember that folder location.  Well, it's supposed to at least. lol

Glad it's working now!

Indeed, once I was using the latest version of your tool, I'd zero issues. It's a fantastic piece of work, thank you very much and ignore my sillyness! 

Edited June 21, 2021 by launcherbox

[CaptainWrong]

Hey, thanks for the plugin! I'm kind of new to Launchbox and this is working great. Can someone point me in the direction of how to actually get the software list games working in LB? I've been searching around the forums and the Internet at large and I keep getting pointed back to this thread. Haha. I have current MAME, rom and CHD sets and they work launching MAME as a standalone. I am just missing something and I can't figure it out.

[JoeViking245]

You're welcome and Welcome to LaunchBox!

1 hour ago, CaptainWrong said:

how to actually get the software list games working in LB?

That's a pretty loaded question. lol  Most softlist Consoles should work 'out of the box' after using this plugin.  However several of them will take some 'finessing'.  And each finesse tactic is slightly (or drastically) different from one another.

But none of that will help if your MAME emulator isn't setup 'correctly' in LB.  Edit you MAME emulator (in LB) and verify you have these 2 boxes checked [Details tab].

This will be for just 'regular' roms.  For chd's... that's where some 'finessing' comes into play.

Double check that in the Associated Platforms tab you see your Platforms, Custom Command Line Parameters and Default Emulator check-box(s) checked.

If that doesn't fix it, show me a pict of your MAME emulator Settings Details tab and the Associated Platforms tab.

[CaptainWrong]

On 7/7/2021 at 10:27 AM, JoeViking245 said:

You're welcome and Welcome to LaunchBox!

That's a pretty loaded question. lol  Most softlist Consoles should work 'out of the box' after using this plugin.  However several of them will take some 'finessing'.  And each finesse tactic is slightly (or drastically) different from one another.

But none of that will help if your MAME emulator isn't setup 'correctly' in LB.  Edit you MAME emulator (in LB) and verify you have these 2 boxes checked [Details tab].

This will be for just 'regular' roms.  For chd's... that's where some 'finessing' comes into play.

Double check that in the Associated Platforms tab you see your Platforms, Custom Command Line Parameters and Default Emulator check-box(s) checked.

If that doesn't fix it, show me a pict of your MAME emulator Settings Details tab and the Associated Platforms tab.

Thanks for the help. I know I'm not asking for much. lol. Anyway, I double checked the settings and I was looking at Atari 800 and Coleco Adam. The ROMS look like they imported right. If I right click and show games folder, it goes right to where they are. MAME is working fine for arcade stuff. But if I choose an Atari 800 game, nothing happens. Weird huh?

[JoeViking245]

58 minutes ago, CaptainWrong said:

Atari 800

Remember that part about 'finessing'?  This is one of them.   Change the Default Command Line Parameter to:

a800 -cart1

As for the Coleco Adam, did you use 'this' Importer for the Coleco?  Did you change the Default Command Line at all?  I ask because the Coleco Adam cartridges [adam_cart.xml] has 12 roms, none of which are games.  Now if you're wanting to emulate that Console for say historical nostalgia purposes, we can look into it further.  However I'm going to guess you want games.  For those, you probably want to try "Coleco Adam Digital Data Packs" [adam_cass.xml] which has a handful of games, or "Coleco ADAM diskettes" [adam_flop.xml] which looks like it has a few more.

But unless your heart is die-hard set on the Adam, you may want to look at "Coleco ColecoVision cartridges" [coleco.xml].

But before you mess around with Coleco, get the Atari 800 working first.  Does it run after putting the "1" and then end of "-cart"?

[CaptainWrong]

Hey , that worked on the 800. I had a 400 and I forget the 800 had 2 cart slots. I'm assuming that is what that's about?

The Adam is not a huge deal. It's a total nostalgia thing (I had access to a lot of 8-bit computers growing up) but aside from a slightly better version of Donkey Kong, there really isn't much there. I just assumed it would be easier than a CHD based machine to do.

 

Anyway, thanks for the help. I'll play around with the command line parameters as I would like to use this for more modern CHD stuff and I haven't tried any of that yet. I'm getting back into emulation after about 10 years and a lot has changed. MESS was still it's own thing back when I was running anything. Haha.

[JoeViking245]

1 hour ago, CaptainWrong said:

800 had 2 cart slots. I'm assuming that is what that's about?

That's probably is why you need to have cart1, but that's not why the plugin fails to do that for you.  ?  Details aside, glad it's working now!

For the Coleco Adam, both the adam_cass.xml and adam_flop.xml sets have Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr.  Not sure if one is better than the other.

2 hours ago, CaptainWrong said:

I just assumed it would be easier than a CHD based machine to do.

For the most part, it's just as easy for either.  The a800 just happens to be one of the few that MAME's hash file leads you astray. 

The good thing about MAME (current) is that it works exactly the same regarding command lines and even the UI, as ol' MESS.

Most, if not all of the more popular Consoles are covered here on the forums in regards to getting them to run via MAME through LaunchBox.  For me, the easiest way to search for a specific one is to use Google and search something like:      LaunchBox MAME Atari 800

And when you've exhausted that avenue, just post a question on the forums. 

Welcome back to emulation and remember to have fun and play games. 

[CaptainWrong]

Thanks again for the help! I'll play around some more and see where I get. I must say, this is still so much easier than when I was really into emulation before. I didn't even know MESS had been wrapped into MAME these days, if that tells you anything.