Romcenter

Done:
- Added corrupted files support
- Added ability to fix an Individual file

Next:
- Ability to fix a group of selected items
- Hook icons filters to display only green or red items...
- Hook progress forms and add a log window.
- ...

Good. Well done. Nice.

And... what about those nice HTML reports that were available in v.1?

html report will be back in rc 3, but later...

1) Support disabling rom path (ie, add a check box next to each added folder)
2) Support file name/game/rom name copy by adding "copy name" in the right click menu
3) Add a Yes/No dialog to view the saved have/missing list file by default text viewer
4) Add one more game status in Game Database
a) Complete, ie Game Playable (Green)
b) Incomplete, but fixable, ie Game not playable, but missing rom available/wrong rom name (Yellow)
c) Incomplete and unfixable, ie Game not playable, missing rom unavailable (Blue? or anything else)
d) Missing completely, All required game roms are missing completely (Red)

5) Add more information in "Infos"
eg For individual zip files, if some missing rom is available for certain game, the status can be "Available in XXX.zip, YYY.zip" instead of just "Available in another game", so we know more about the source of missing files.

eg For folder, add three columns called "# of missing roms" and "# of available missing roms" and "# of useless files" next to "# of roms", so we know more about the status of that game files.

6) Show individual complete, incomplete, missing game status for each folder
eg "C:\MAME\Roms, 5,12,10,6430"
ie 5 missing completely, 12 incomplete and unfixable, 10 incomplete and fixable, 6430 complete.

7) Change the rom center datafile format a bit
Since file name and game name is seperated by HEX AC, I can't edit the file with common text editor, why not using a "TAB" instead? It makes more easy to work out the file in text editor/spreadsheet program.


Sorry for so many requests. If you find difficulties to understand my bad english, please let me know

abalone wrote:1) Support disabling rom path (ie, add a check box next to each added folder)

<SNIP>

5) Add more information in "Infos"
eg For individual zip files, if some missing rom is available for certain game, the status can be "Available in XXX.zip, YYY.zip" instead of just "Available in another game", so we know more about the source of missing files.

Those two would indeed be nice.

If a dat file has name and crc only (ie without file size), Romcenter can still fix the files but those files won't be counted as "playable game" in "Game Database".

abalone wrote:1) Support disabling rom path (ie, add a check box next to each added folder)
2) Support file name/game/rom name copy by adding "copy name" in the right click menu
3) Add a Yes/No dialog to view the saved have/missing list file by default text viewer
4) Add one more game status in Game Database
a) Complete, ie Game Playable (Green)
b) Incomplete, but fixable, ie Game not playable, but missing rom available/wrong rom name (Yellow)
c) Incomplete and unfixable, ie Game not playable, missing rom unavailable (Blue? or anything else)
d) Missing completely, All required game roms are missing completely (Red)

5) Add more information in "Infos"
eg For individual zip files, if some missing rom is available for certain game, the status can be "Available in XXX.zip, YYY.zip" instead of just "Available in another game", so we know more about the source of missing files.

eg For folder, add three columns called "# of missing roms" and "# of available missing roms" and "# of useless files" next to "# of roms", so we know more about the status of that game files.

6) Show individual complete, incomplete, missing game status for each folder
eg "C:\MAME\Roms, 5,12,10,6430"
ie 5 missing completely, 12 incomplete and unfixable, 10 incomplete and fixable, 6430 complete.

7) Change the rom center datafile format a bit
Since file name and game name is seperated by HEX AC, I can't edit the file with common text editor, why not using a "TAB" instead? It makes more easy to work out the file in text editor/spreadsheet program.


Sorry for so many requests. If you find difficulties to understand my bad english, please let me know

1 - It would be usefull, so , I could add it, but it is not yet a priority.
2 - You mean copy the string in the clipboard ? Is it really usefull ?
3 - Report files will always use an external viewer. This is the best solution imho.
4 - RomCenter 3 use a and b. c and d are both red. Full or partial missing is the same. You have to download the full set again.
5 - I will add in rc3 a 'property' windows for each file to see all infos, included where missing roms come from.
6 - Good idea.
7 - New rc3 format will be mame xml.

Thanks you for these ideas.

For info, the goal actualy is to build a stabilized basic version of rc3 so that we can test the engine. Then I will add more feature (the first one will be samples and chd support). So don't be disappointed if all these features won't be included in the first releases.

abalone wrote:If a dat file has name and crc only (ie without file size), Romcenter can still fix the files but those files won't be counted as "playable game" in "Game Database".

Not sure I understand...
Size is not mandatory. These files are playable, even if the size is not available (name and crc is enough for doing everything).

RomCenter wrote:

abalone wrote:1) Support disabling rom path (ie, add a check box next to each added folder)
2) Support file name/game/rom name copy by adding "copy name" in the right click menu
3) Add a Yes/No dialog to view the saved have/missing list file by default text viewer
4) Add one more game status in Game Database
a) Complete, ie Game Playable (Green)
b) Incomplete, but fixable, ie Game not playable, but missing rom available/wrong rom name (Yellow)
c) Incomplete and unfixable, ie Game not playable, missing rom unavailable (Blue? or anything else)
d) Missing completely, All required game roms are missing completely (Red)

5) Add more information in "Infos"
eg For individual zip files, if some missing rom is available for certain game, the status can be "Available in XXX.zip, YYY.zip" instead of just "Available in another game", so we know more about the source of missing files.

eg For folder, add three columns called "# of missing roms" and "# of available missing roms" and "# of useless files" next to "# of roms", so we know more about the status of that game files.

6) Show individual complete, incomplete, missing game status for each folder
eg "C:\MAME\Roms, 5,12,10,6430"
ie 5 missing completely, 12 incomplete and unfixable, 10 incomplete and fixable, 6430 complete.

7) Change the rom center datafile format a bit
Since file name and game name is seperated by HEX AC, I can't edit the file with common text editor, why not using a "TAB" instead? It makes more easy to work out the file in text editor/spreadsheet program.


Sorry for so many requests. If you find difficulties to understand my bad english, please let me know

1 - It would be usefull, so , I could add it, but it is not yet a priority.
2 - You mean copy the string in the clipboard ? Is it really usefull ?
3 - Report files will always use an external viewer. This is the best solution imho.
4 - RomCenter 3 use a and b. c and d are both red. Full or partial missing is the same. You have to download the full set again.
5 - I will add in rc3 a 'property' windows for each file to see all infos, included where missing roms come from.
6 - Good idea.
7 - New rc3 format will be mame xml.

Thanks you for these ideas.

For info, the goal actualy is to build a stabilized basic version of rc3 so that we can test the engine. Then I will add more feature (the first one will be samples and chd support). So don't be disappointed if all these features won't be included in the first releases.

2) Yes, sometimes, I need to copy the name/crc of a rom, for unknown reason
3) Sorry about my bad english, I mean add a prompt for launching external text viewer after saving the have/miss list
4) Thanks! Since I found that RC2.72 may treat incomplete and unfixable rom as "yellow". c+d= red is fine
5,6,7) Nice to hear that

RomCenter wrote:

abalone wrote:If a dat file has name and crc only (ie without file size), Romcenter can still fix the files but those files won't be counted as "playable game" in "Game Database".

Not sure I understand...
Size is not mandatory. These files are playable, even if the size is not available (name and crc is enough for doing everything).

If a data file has no "SIZE" field, romcenter 2.72 will treat all these roms as "RED", even they have correct crc32.

RomCenter wrote:New rc3 format will be mame xml.

Can I ask a couple of questions about the format please?

1) Will it be pure MAME XML or will there be some RomCenter specifics in it also?

2) I assume that there will be support for existing RomCenter data files too (i.e. backwards compatibility)?

If I need to enhance DatUtil then some advance notice would be useful.

Mike

abalone wrote:If a data file has no "SIZE" field, romcenter 2.72 will treat all these roms as "RED", even they have correct crc32.

It's bad practice to be missing sizes in the data file anyway.

Logiqx wrote:

abalone wrote:If a data file has no "SIZE" field, romcenter 2.72 will treat all these roms as "RED", even they have correct crc32.

It's bad practice to be missing sizes in the data file anyway.

Yes, but that's the only PSP scene release data file I have.

BTW, your new superset data is cool!

I am guessing that it is from pocketheaven.com because a quick Google search showed them at the top as supplying a PSP datafile.

I've had a look at it and their data file is in 2.00 format so I am guessing that the lack of filesize is something to do with the transition from 1.92 to 2.00 many years ago. It may have been them or it may have been whoever wrote the tool that generates their data files but somewhere along the line someone decided that file size isn't important (in 1.92 format it was often excluded).

I can also see that their 'master' format is RomCenter and they are converting to CMPro format using DatUtil... the clrmamepro header gives it away. Actually, I didn't even think that CMPro allowed data files without files sizes... I guess it must do if they supply them.

It might be worth contacting the guys who create the PSP data file and asking if they could consider including the filesize information too. Perhaps they don't include it because headers make it difficult to determine but a tool could easily work it out in the same way that the CRC is worked out.

On a related note, I have a format guide at my site for anyone interested:

http://www.logiqx.com/DatFAQs/RomCenter.php

Logiqx

1) Will it be pure MAME XML or will there be some RomCenter specifics in it also?

The format is full mame compatible. I mean you can directly import a mame.xml file. Some rc specifics tags will be used in the header for general datafile info (author, dll etc...) but syntax is not yet defined.
Datutil will be used for converting other formats to mame.xml.

2) I assume that there will be support for existing RomCenter data files too (i.e. backwards compatibility)?

Yes, converted to xml with datutil.

If I need to enhance DatUtil then some advance notice would be useful.

Of course, there is actually nothing more. The current mame xml has all info I need, and if I need some special infos, I can add new tags.

It's the other tags (like author, version, refname) that I was thinking about. If I don't make DatUtil support them then they will get lost during conversions.

Let me know when you decide on them and I'll add support.

Logiqx