|
MLG - MAMEWah List Generator (c) Copyright 2009 Roger Meier All rights reserved http://freeware.the-meiers.org VERSION HISTORY =============== 1.0.0 ----- - Initial Release LICENSE ======= THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT OF THIRD PARTY RIGHTS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR HOLDERS INCLUDED IN THIS NOTICE BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, OR ANY SPECIAL INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE. WHAT IS IT? =========== MLG is an application that parses ROM folders and generates game lists for MAMEWah, taking advantage of a particular ROM file naming convention. In addition, MLG can also generate LCD files for each ROM in specified ROM folders. Refer to the MAMEWah documentation for details on LCD files. HOW TO USE IT ============= INSTALLATION ------------ MLG comes without an installer and can be placed anywhere on the harddrive as long as the correct folder structure is maintained. I.e. the "mlg.ini" must reside in the same location as the "mlg.exe" executable and the optional "lcd.ini" file. EXECUTION --------- mlg.exe can be executed via the command line or by double-clicking the application icon in Explorer. Upon launch, MLG processes the ROM folders specified in "mlg.ini" (see "CONFIGURATION" below for details) and then quits. CONFIGURATION ------------- The configuration file "mlg.ini" specifies which ROM folders to process and where to store the generated lists. Each line in "mlg.ini" represents an entry for a ROM folder. Each line contains three parameters, separated by a TAB character (ASCII code 9). The format for each line is as follows: ROM_EXTENSION<TAB>ROM_FOLDER_PATH<TAB>LIST_FILE_PATH<TAB>LCD_FILE_PATH ROM_EXTENSION: this is the file extension of the ROM files. This is used to identify ROM files. Only files with this extension will be processed. ROM_FOLDER_PATH: this the location of the ROM files, specified as absolute path. LIST_FILE_PATH: name and path of the MAMEWah game list. This is where the ROM info ist written to. LCD_FILE_PATH (optional): path to the LCD files. If specified, this is where LCD files are written. Example: A valid "mlg.ini" entry looks like this: bat c:\emu\dosbox\programs c:\emu\mamewah\files\dosbox-0.lst c:\emu\dosbox\lcds\ ROM FILE NAMING CONVENTION -------------------------- In order for this application to extract information from the ROM filenames they have to be formatted correctly. Each file name should start with the ROM name followed by INFO fields enclosed in parentheses () and ADD_INFO fields enclosed in brackets []. the order does not matter as long as the ROM name is at the beginning of the file name. I.e. the filename syntax should be as follows: NAME(INFO1)(INFO2)...(INFO5)[ADD_INFO1][ADD_INFO2]..[ADD_INFO5].ROM_EXTENSION or NAME(INFO1)[ADD_INFO1](INFO2)[ADD_INFO2]...(INFO5)[ADD_INFO5].ROM_EXTENSION Example: A valid file name looks like this: All New World of Lemmings (1995)(Psygnosis)(AGA)[cr HLM](Disk 1 of 4).zip The resulting MAMEWah game lists will have entries like this for each ROM file: NAME INFO1 INFO2 INFO4 INFO3 ADD_INFO1 ADD_INFO2 ADD_INFO3 Refer to the MAMEWah documentation for further detail on game lists. LCD FILES --------- The optional "lcd.ini" file contains the prefix as well as the suffix of the LCD data to be sent to an LCD display by MAMEWah. The first line in "lcd.ini" specifies the prefix, the second line specifies the suffix. Refer to the documentation of your LCD display to determine what the prefix and suffix should be. If an LCD_FILE_PATH is specified in "mlg.ini", an LCD file is generated for each ROM found in the respective folder specified by ROM_FOLDER_PATH. The contents of each LCD file will be as follows: PREFIX INFO1 INFO2 INFO3 ... SUFFIX I.e. each LCD file will contain the INFO fields extracted from the ROM filenames, separated by line feeds, preceded by the prefix and superseded suffix as specified in "lcd.ini" |