Cannon ball - Mame scraping

[cybermat]

Hello,
i have 3164 mame roms and i imported them via "IMPORT ROM FILES" forcing to use Mame metadata.

I've seen that metadata file used is Mame.xml , but with "simplified" naming convention. For example the simplified game name of Cannon Ball appears twice for games totally different.

<MameFile>
    <FileName>cannball</FileName>
    <Name>Cannon Ball</Name>
    <Status>good</Status>
    <Developer />
    <Publisher>Yun Sung / Soft Vision</Publisher>
    <Year>1995</Year>
    <IsMechanical>false</IsMechanical>
    <Version>(Yun Sung, horizontal)</Version>
    <Region>North America</Region>
    <IsBootleg>false</IsBootleg>
    <IsPrototype>false</IsPrototype>
    <IsHack>false</IsHack>
    <IsMature>true</IsMature>
    <IsQuiz>false</IsQuiz>
    <IsFruit>false</IsFruit>
    <IsCasino>false</IsCasino>
    <IsRhythm>false</IsRhythm>
    <IsTableTop>false</IsTableTop>
    <IsPlayChoice>false</IsPlayChoice>
    <IsMahjong>false</IsMahjong>
    <IsNonArcade>false</IsNonArcade>
    <Genre>Puzzle / Toss * Mature *</Genre>
    <PlayMode>2P sim</PlayMode>
    <Language>English</Language>
    <Source>yunsung8.cpp</Source>

<MameFile>
    <FileName>cannonb2</FileName>
    <Name>Cannon Ball</Name>
    <CloneOf>cannonbp</CloneOf>
    <Status>good</Status>
    <Developer />
    <Publisher>bootleg (TV Game Gruenberg)</Publisher>
    <Year>1985</Year>
    <IsMechanical>false</IsMechanical>
    <Version>(bootleg on Crazy Kong hardware) (set 2, buggy)</Version>
    <Region>North America</Region>
    <IsBootleg>true</IsBootleg>
    <IsPrototype>false</IsPrototype>
    <IsHack>false</IsHack>
    <IsMature>false</IsMature>
    <IsQuiz>false</IsQuiz>
    <IsFruit>false</IsFruit>
    <IsCasino>false</IsCasino>
    <IsRhythm>false</IsRhythm>
    <IsTableTop>false</IsTableTop>
    <IsPlayChoice>false</IsPlayChoice>
    <IsMahjong>false</IsMahjong>
    <IsNonArcade>false</IsNonArcade>
    <Genre>Ball &amp; Paddle / Breakout</Genre>
    <PlayMode>6P alt</PlayMode>
    <Language>English</Language>
    <Source>cclimber.cpp</Source>

With the same simplified name, scraped media are the same. To fix this i need to go under edit metadata and assign the proper launchbox database ID. It's not a problem but i ask

1) Why i cannot have the name used by OFFICIAL mame.xml ? Adding "version" surely helps to have an unique name, but it keeps to not being the original name of the rom.
2) Why romname is not used for automaticaly assign Launchbox ID ? In this way i could properly retrieve media in a reliable and faster way.

Tell me if i well understood the mechanism under mame metadata and scraping..

Thanks

 

 

 

Edited April 12, 2022 by cybermat

[neil9000]

38 minutes ago, cybermat said:

Hello,
i have 3164 mame roms and i imported them via "IMPORT ROM FILES" forcing to use Mame metadata.

I've seen that metadata file used is Mame.xml , but with "simplified" naming convention. For example the simplified game name of Cannon Ball appears twice for games totally different.

<MameFile>
    <FileName>cannball</FileName>
    <Name>Cannon Ball</Name>
    <Status>good</Status>
    <Developer />
    <Publisher>Yun Sung / Soft Vision</Publisher>
    <Year>1995</Year>
    <IsMechanical>false</IsMechanical>
    <Version>(Yun Sung, horizontal)</Version>
    <Region>North America</Region>
    <IsBootleg>false</IsBootleg>
    <IsPrototype>false</IsPrototype>
    <IsHack>false</IsHack>
    <IsMature>true</IsMature>
    <IsQuiz>false</IsQuiz>
    <IsFruit>false</IsFruit>
    <IsCasino>false</IsCasino>
    <IsRhythm>false</IsRhythm>
    <IsTableTop>false</IsTableTop>
    <IsPlayChoice>false</IsPlayChoice>
    <IsMahjong>false</IsMahjong>
    <IsNonArcade>false</IsNonArcade>
    <Genre>Puzzle / Toss * Mature *</Genre>
    <PlayMode>2P sim</PlayMode>
    <Language>English</Language>
    <Source>yunsung8.cpp</Source>

<MameFile>
    <FileName>cannonb2</FileName>
    <Name>Cannon Ball</Name>
    <CloneOf>cannonbp</CloneOf>
    <Status>good</Status>
    <Developer />
    <Publisher>bootleg (TV Game Gruenberg)</Publisher>
    <Year>1985</Year>
    <IsMechanical>false</IsMechanical>
    <Version>(bootleg on Crazy Kong hardware) (set 2, buggy)</Version>
    <Region>North America</Region>
    <IsBootleg>true</IsBootleg>
    <IsPrototype>false</IsPrototype>
    <IsHack>false</IsHack>
    <IsMature>false</IsMature>
    <IsQuiz>false</IsQuiz>
    <IsFruit>false</IsFruit>
    <IsCasino>false</IsCasino>
    <IsRhythm>false</IsRhythm>
    <IsTableTop>false</IsTableTop>
    <IsPlayChoice>false</IsPlayChoice>
    <IsMahjong>false</IsMahjong>
    <IsNonArcade>false</IsNonArcade>
    <Genre>Ball &amp; Paddle / Breakout</Genre>
    <PlayMode>6P alt</PlayMode>
    <Language>English</Language>
    <Source>cclimber.cpp</Source>

With the same simplified name, scraped media are the same. To fix this i need to go under edit metadata and assign the proper launchbox database ID. It's not a problem but i ask

1) Why i cannot have the name used by OFFICIAL mame.xml ? Adding "version" surely helps to have an unique name, but it keeps to not being the original name of the rom.
2) Why romname is not used for automaticaly assign Launchbox ID ? In this way i could properly retrieve media in a reliable and faster way.

Tell me if i well understood the mechanism under mame metadata and scraping..

Thanks

 

 

 

Cannon Ball is not a simplified name, thats the name of the game, and there are two games with that name, as you state. the simplified names, or "shortnames" that MAME uses are different, "cannball" Vs. "cannonb2" two completely different names. I think the proble may be that Launchbox does its image search after the metadata import and that is after we rename the game to its full name. Can you check both games in your setup and see if they have have the same, or different database ID's associated with them.

Also can i ask why you are using the standard rom importer and not the dedicated MAME fullset importer we have? The dedicated importer does not use that mame.xml data file and pulls the data file directly from the version of the MAME emulator you are using (which of course should match your romset version).

[cybermat]

I stated "simplified" because on official xml is like that

<machine name="cannball" sourcefile="yunsung8.cpp">
        <description>Cannon Ball (Yun Sung, horizontal)</description>
        <year>1995</year>
        <manufacturer>Yun Sung / Soft Vision</manufacturer>

I avoided Mame Fullset because i don't have a full set  , i will try with that and let you know!

 

[neil9000]

Just now, cybermat said:

I avoided Mame Fullset because i don't have a full set  

Dont use it if you dont have a fullset. Could be though that you only have a parent and not the clone, or vice-versa if its not a full set, who knows, so unless you know exactly what files you have the filter for mame isnt going to be completely accurate anyways, as you may be missing files that the filter settings you chose are actually looking for. Sets that have been trimmed like that really are asking for trouble when you are using tools that expect other files to be present that are not.

[cybermat]

I have a custom set generated by http://adb.arcadeitalia.net/ , 3164 roms with just arcade games, working and imperfect parents and just some working/imperfect clones when the parents are not.

I know that behind current solution there is a lot of work, but it would be nice using official metadata also with custom Mame set.
Romname linked to Launchbox ID would help a lot for scraping the proper media, expecially for Arcade roms.

Thanks for your help.