Troubleshooting MAME High Scores

[GreatStone]

@Elhora inside LaunchBox installation, there is a hi2txt.zip file: overwrite the existing xml with this one

 

[Jason Carr]

17 hours ago, Blitz Mary said:

Thank You I will do as you say . By the way some user is pissed about that high score can you please erase the highscore?

No problem, I removed all those corrupted fshark scores.

8 hours ago, flatuswalrus said:

I am getting a lot of errors lately that force LB to shut down. Here is one I just got now:

The process cannot access the file 'C:\Users\Dane\LaunchBox\Emulators\MAME (0.220)\cfg\1942.cfg' because it is being used by another process.

App:     LaunchBox
Version: 10.14
Type:    System.IO.IOException
Site:    Void WinIOError(Int32, System.String)
Source:  mscorlib

   at System.IO.__Error.WinIOError(Int32 errorCode, String maybeFullPath)
   at System.IO.FileStream.Init(String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access, Int32 rights, Boolean useRights, FileShare share, Int32 bufferSize, FileOptions options, SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES secAttrs, String msgPath, Boolean bFromProxy, Boolean useLongPath, Boolean checkHost)
   at System.IO.FileStream..ctor(String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access, FileShare share, Int32 bufferSize, FileOptions options, String msgPath, Boolean bFromProxy, Boolean useLongPath, Boolean checkHost)
   at System.IO.StreamReader..ctor(String path, Encoding encoding, Boolean detectEncodingFromByteOrderMarks, Int32 bufferSize, Boolean checkHost)
   at System.IO.File.InternalReadAllText(String path, Encoding encoding, Boolean checkHost)
   at (String , String )
   at Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Integrations.MameHighScores.EnsureNoDipSwitchChanges(String romFile, String mamePath)
   at (<>c__DisplayClass12_0 )
   at Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Integrations.MameHighScores.<>c__DisplayClass12_0.<Prepare>b__0()
   at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.RunInternal(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state, Boolean preserveSyncCtx)
   at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state, Boolean preserveSyncCtx)
   at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state)
   at System.Threading.ThreadHelper.ThreadStart()

Recent Log:

   6:49:41 PM Exception

EDIT: I am getting those very frequently with many different games.

This has already been fixed in 10.15-beta-1.

[Jason Carr]

2 hours ago, GreatStone said:

@Elhora Golden Axe is special: currently, the "score" is displayed as a "strength". consequently, launchbox cannot detect this as a score. I have modified the xml to display also Tyris and Gilius strength, and renamed the column SCORE. As soon as LaunchBox will be able to handle more than one hiscores table per game (@Jason Carr?) (3 tables for Golden Axe, one per character), it will be possible to be loaded.

@andyco47 rallyx and nrallyx xml have been improved so that a "SCORE" header is now available for LaunchBox to read

 

goldnaxe.xml 3.02 kB · 2 downloads rallyx.xml 1.92 kB · 1 download

Thanks @GreatStone. As long as it makes sense to combine the three Golden Axe tables together, then it should work as-is.

[Blitz Mary]

@GreatStone @Jason Carr It happened again this time with Pac-Land (World)

2020-04-28 11:38:16 PM Processing hi2txt output for pacland:
RANK|SCORE|NAME|ROUND
1|61626364|fghij|101
2|71727374|vwxyz|117
3|81828384|†‡ˆ‰Š|133
4|91929394|–—˜™š|149
5|101102103104|¦§¨©ª|165
2020-04-28 11:38:16 PM MameHighScores.Parse: No new scores found to upload!

pacland.hi

[GreatStone]

30 minutes ago, Blitz Mary said:

@GreatStone @Jason Carr It happened again this time with Pac-Land (World)

2020-04-28 11:38:16 PM Processing hi2txt output for pacland:
RANK|SCORE|NAME|ROUND
1|61626364|fghij|101
2|71727374|vwxyz|117
3|81828384|†‡ˆ‰Š|133
4|91929394|–—˜™š|149
5|101102103104|¦§¨©ª|165
2020-04-28 11:38:16 PM MameHighScores.Parse: No new scores found to upload!

pacland.hi 78 B · 0 downloads

@Blitz Mary I am nearly happy to see this  A good testcase with all needed info, and a way to test the coming hi2txt release: when using my new hi2txt local build with this .hi file, I am able to catch the crap content and reject the file, preventing any upload to LaunchBox server.

> hi2txt.exe -r C:\Downloads\pacland.hi

ERROR: Wrong SCORE value encoding detected: it can be due to a temporary corrupted .hi or nvram file

@Jason Carr Golden Axe itself separate the 3 scores: even if you do multiple very high scores with Tyris, and one low score with Ax, the game will keep 1 for Ax, 1 for Tyris (and 1 for Gilius). There is no sense to combine them in one table. Perhaps one character is easier to play with, some games have tables per difficulties, etc. It make sense to fight for hiscores on each separate table, IMHO

[Jason Carr]

20 hours ago, GreatStone said:

@Blitz Mary I am nearly happy to see this  A good testcase with all needed info, and a way to test the coming hi2txt release: when using my new hi2txt local build with this .hi file, I am able to catch the crap content and reject the file, preventing any upload to LaunchBox server.

> hi2txt.exe -r C:\Downloads\pacland.hi

ERROR: Wrong SCORE value encoding detected: it can be due to a temporary corrupted .hi or nvram file

@Jason Carr Golden Axe itself separate the 3 scores: even if you do multiple very high scores with Tyris, and one low score with Ax, the game will keep 1 for Ax, 1 for Tyris (and 1 for Gilius). There is no sense to combine them in one table. Perhaps one character is easier to play with, some games have tables per difficulties, etc. It make sense to fight for hiscores on each separate table, IMHO

I see. The multiple high scores tables for a game thing is still a problem, unfortunately. Maybe once we get everything perfected I can revisit.

[rommaster]

Hi Guys,

Converted from Retroarch to MAME 220 for scores, the first 2 times I ran MAME scores uploaded fine, now reporting nothing to upload. I've been trying with tapper and in-game this remembers my scores no problem. I've deleted the hi and nvram folders from MAME for testing but it has made no difference, ideas? Thanks.

 

Debug 2020-05-01 10-54-15 PM-NOTWORKING.logDebug 2020-05-01 10-46-53 PM-WORKING.logDebug 2020-05-01 11-09-28 PM-NOTWORKING.log

[Jason Carr]

4 hours ago, nicr4wks said:

Hi Guys,

Converted from Retroarch to MAME 220 for scores, the first 2 times I ran MAME scores uploaded fine, now reporting nothing to upload. I've been trying with tapper and in-game this remembers my scores no problem. I've deleted the hi and nvram folders from MAME for testing but it has made no difference, ideas? Thanks.

 

Debug 2020-05-01 10-54-15 PM-NOTWORKING.log 12.14 kB · 0 downloads Debug 2020-05-01 10-46-53 PM-WORKING.log 14.82 kB · 0 downloads Debug 2020-05-01 11-09-28 PM-NOTWORKING.log 12.69 kB · 0 downloads

Hmm, the log files are saying that hi2txt isn't outputting anything at all, which is quite odd (first time I've seen that). I looked at the code and I'm not sure why that would be. Any ideas @GreatStone?

[GreatStone]

@Jason Carr Is there a way for @nicr4wks to modify the way hi2txt is launched to call it with "-rd" argument instead of "-r"? It will display a lot of debug messages allowing us to understand what is going on. Also, how can we see in the log how hi2txt is called, to be sure?

[Jason Carr]

3 minutes ago, GreatStone said:

@Jason Carr Is there a way for @nicr4wks to modify the way hi2txt is launched to call it with "-rd" argument instead of "-r"? It will display a lot of debug messages allowing us to understand what is going on. Also, how can we see in the log how hi2txt is called, to be sure?

I can certainly change that up to always use -rd. Will that get in the way of regular use? Is that a good idea? I can add some logging to report the command that is run as well.

[Jason Carr]

@GreatStone I added some extra logging for the next beta version, both to use -rd and to log the commandline that is run. Looks like that should help quite a bit.

[Jason Carr]

@GreatStone So I was testing Centipede with the updated logging, and it just so happens that I ran into an issue with some corrupted scores. This includes the additional logging I've added for the next beta:

Spoiler

2020-05-01 12:57:46 PM MameHighScores.Parse: Running the following hi2txt command:
"D:\LaunchBox\ThirdParty\hi2txt\hi2txt.exe" -rd "D:\LaunchBox\Emulators\mame0219b_64bit\hi\centiped.hi" -hiscoredat "D:\LaunchBox\Emulators\mame0219b_64bit\plugins\hiscore\hiscore.dat"
2020-05-01 12:57:46 PM Processing hi2txt output for centiped:
TRACE: working directory: D:\LaunchBox
TRACE: hiscore.dat: D:\LaunchBox\Emulators\mame0219b_64bit\plugins\hiscore\hiscore.dat
TRACE: game high score: D:\LaunchBox\Emulators\mame0219b_64bit\hi\centiped.hi
TRACE: game detected: centiped
TRACE: potential file containing hiscore: D:\LaunchBox\Emulators\mame0219b_64bit\hi\centiped.hi
TRACE: potential file containing hiscore: D:\LaunchBox\Emulators\mame0219b_64bit\hi\centiped.hi
TRACE: potential file containing hiscore: D:\LaunchBox\Emulators\mame0219b_64bit\hi\centiped.hi
TRACE: potential file containing hiscore: D:\LaunchBox\Emulators\mame0219b_64bit\hi\centiped.hi
TRACE: potential file containing hiscore: D:\LaunchBox\Emulators\mame0219b_64bit\hi\centiped.hi
TRACE: potential file containing hiscore: D:\LaunchBox\Emulators\mame0219b_64bit\hi\centiped.hi
TRACE: potential file containing hiscore: D:\LaunchBox\Emulators\mame0219b_64bit\hi\centiped.hi
TRACE: potential file containing hiscore: D:\LaunchBox\Emulators\mame0219b_64bit\nvram\centiped\earom
TRACE: reading a description from file: D:\LaunchBox\ThirdParty\hi2txt\hi2txt.zip, entry centiped.xml
TRACE: reading dtd from file: D:\LaunchBox\ThirdParty\hi2txt\hi2txt.zip, entry hi2txt.dtd
TRACE: format auto: hexadecimal_string
TRACE: charset defined: centiped
TRACE: charset defined: CS_NUMBER
TRACE: matching structure: size = 64
TRACE: data taken from file: hi2txt.lang_common.io.FileX
TRACE: structure loop elt (index=0): SCORE (3 bytes read on 64)
TRACE: structure loop elt (index=1): SCORE (6 bytes read on 64)
TRACE: structure loop elt (index=2): SCORE (9 bytes read on 64)
TRACE: structure loop elt (index=0): NAME (12 bytes read on 64)
TRACE: structure loop elt (index=1): NAME (15 bytes read on 64)
TRACE: structure loop elt (index=2): NAME (18 bytes read on 64)
TRACE: matching structure: hiscore.dat = 000b:0f:10:010023:0f:04:12
TRACE: matching structure: size = 30
TRACE: data taken from file: hi2txt.lang_common.io.FileX
TRACE: structure loop elt (index=3): SCORE (3 bytes read on 30)
TRACE: structure loop elt (index=4): SCORE (6 bytes read on 30)
TRACE: structure loop elt (index=5): SCORE (9 bytes read on 30)
TRACE: structure loop elt (index=6): SCORE (12 bytes read on 30)
TRACE: structure loop elt (index=7): SCORE (15 bytes read on 30)
TRACE: structure loop elt (index=3): NAME (18 bytes read on 30)
TRACE: structure loop elt (index=4): NAME (21 bytes read on 30)
TRACE: structure loop elt (index=5): NAME (24 bytes read on 30)
TRACE: structure loop elt (index=6): NAME (27 bytes read on 30)
TRACE: structure loop elt (index=7): NAME (30 bytes read on 30)
TRACE: output selected: the 1st one
TRACE: data displayed into:
TRACE: format call is implicitely defining the format itself
TRACE: format defined :+1
TRACE: output table field: RANK
TRACE: output table field: SCORE
TRACE: output table field: NAME
RANK|SCORE|NAME
1|151515151515|Ä¿Ä¿Ä¿
2|151515151515|Ä¿Ä¿Ä¿
3|151515151515|Ä¿Ä¿Ä¿
4|14320|CAD
5|13210|DCB
6|13010|ED 
7|12805|DEW
8|12201|DFW
2020-05-01 12:57:46 PM MameHighScores.Parse: Uploading score 151515151515 for rom file centiped and name Ä¿Ä¿Ä¿...
2020-05-01 12:57:46 PM MameHighScores.Parse: Uploading score 151515151515 for rom file centiped and name Ä¿Ä¿Ä¿...
2020-05-01 12:57:47 PM MameHighScores.Parse: Uploading score 151515151515 for rom file centiped and name Ä¿Ä¿Ä¿...
2020-05-01 12:57:47 PM MameHighScores.Parse: Uploading score 14320 for rom file centiped and name CAD...
2020-05-01 12:57:48 PM MameHighScores.Parse: Uploading score 13210 for rom file centiped and name DCB...
2020-05-01 12:57:48 PM MameHighScores.Parse: Uploading score 13010 for rom file centiped and name ED ...
2020-05-01 12:57:48 PM MameHighScores.Parse: Uploading score 12805 for rom file centiped and name DEW...
2020-05-01 12:57:49 PM MameHighScores.Parse: Uploading score 12201 for rom file centiped and name DFW...

 

 

[GreatStone]

@Jason Carr I recommend to use "-trace -r ..." instead of "-rd ...": debug mode is adding traces AND additional fields found in the .hi file that can potentially break your parsing. -trace is only activating the traces. My bad...

[Jason Carr]

Just now, GreatStone said:

@Jason Carr I recommend to use "-trace -r ..." instead of "-rd ...": debug mode is adding traces AND additional fields found in the .hi file that can potentially break your parsing. -trace is only activating the traces. My bad...

No worries, I can tweak that for the next beta.

[GreatStone]

@Jason Carr When do you need the new hi2txt build (fixing issues detected in the past days by users and preventing uploading wrecked scores) for the integration into LaunchBox? The more time I have, the more fix I put inside, but it is already better than the current public one.

[Jason Carr]

2 minutes ago, GreatStone said:

@Jason Carr When do you need the new hi2txt build (fixing issues detected in the past days by users and preventing uploading wrecked scores) for the integration into LaunchBox? The more time I have, the more fix I put inside, but it is already better than the current public one.

I'm not 100% on the release schedule yet, but I'm guessing that we'll want to put out the next official release on Monday, May 11th. So that would be the best time to get the new version integrated.

[Jason Carr]

4 minutes ago, GreatStone said:

@Jason Carr When do you need the new hi2txt build (fixing issues detected in the past days by users and preventing uploading wrecked scores) for the integration into LaunchBox? The more time I have, the more fix I put inside, but it is already better than the current public one.

You know what though, there have been enough changes already that it might be good to get an updated version of hi2txt into a beta, before then. It won't affect everyone, but at least it will help for folks who update to the betas. Up to you though; we can certainly wait too.

[Underoath13]

@Jason Carr

So I recently fixed one of my computers a few days ago and just opened Launchbox on it. On this computer it had my all time mspacman score in the hi folder unlike my other computer where I moved that file so I could upload scores. Without even launching the game (it says 2020-05-01 and I definitely didn't open mspacman last night or today) it somehow uploaded my all time score from a month or two ago. My score I actually competed for on the leaderboards was about 71,000. So it looks like there's some kind of vulnerability that allows uploads of previous high scores.

And no, I don't have a log file since I didn't have logging enabled on the recently fixed computer. Also I had opened Launchbox a few times since I fixed my computer and updated it from I think 10.11 to the current version about two days ago. It looks like it just happened.

[Jason Carr]

31 minutes ago, Underoath13 said:

@Jason Carr

So I recently fixed one of my computers a few days ago and just opened Launchbox on it. On this computer it had my all time mspacman score in the hi folder unlike my other computer where I moved that file so I could upload scores. Without even launching the game (it says 2020-05-01 and I definitely didn't open mspacman last night or today) it somehow uploaded my all time score from a month or two ago. My score I actually competed for on the leaderboards was about 71,000. So it looks like there's some kind of vulnerability that allows uploads of previous high scores.

And no, I don't have a log file since I didn't have logging enabled on the recently fixed computer. Also I had opened Launchbox a few times since I fixed my computer and updated it from I think 10.11 to the current version about two days ago. It looks like it just happened.

What version of MAME are you using?

[Underoath13]

3 minutes ago, Jason Carr said:

What version of MAME are you using?

0.212