JediKnight007
Member
I've been messing around with the MAME 0.125 front-end recently, and while it supports a lot of games, there are some classics missing, such as Centipede, Paper-Boy, and Space Harrier, among others. So I did some experimenting, and found how to add games to the front-end.
Go to the list folder inside the MAME installation. Look at _by_rotation.txt (the one with the underscore in front). Notice the format...
Zip Name
Game Title
Year
Screen Alignment - (H) for horizontal, (V) for vertical
Manufacturer
Open this file in a word processer, then go ahead and delete EVERYTHING. Yes, you won't be able to sort your "old" games by rotation, but you need this file for your custom list. Besides, sorting alphabetically, by year, or by manufacturer is much more useful, anyway.
Add your games by following the format, listing (H) games first, sorted by Game Title, then (V) games, again sorted by Game Title. Best way to get this info is to load the game in the original MAME 0.125 port, and select Game Information from the in-game menu.
An example...
720.zip
720 Degrees
1986
(H)
Atari Games
archrivl.zip
Archrivals
1989
(H)
Bally Midway
bladestl.zip
Blades of Steel
1987
(V)
Konami
capbowl.zip
Capcom Bowling
1988
(V)
Incredible Technologies
When you're finished, put the _by_rotation.txt file back in it's place, put your games in the ROMs folder, and start the front-end. Press Square to select the All Games option (as opposed to only particular categories), then press Circle and choose By Screen, and there you go! (assuming you did everything right
)
You can add clones this way, just make sure that the parent game is also in the ROMs folder, too. You can also add snapshots, just rename the PNG to the Zip Name and place in the proper folder.
EDIT - Something else I should mention - open and save _by_rotation.txt in LF mode, if you use the Windows default CRLF, MAME won't recognize it. (Notepad can't do this, use Word or something.)
Go to the list folder inside the MAME installation. Look at _by_rotation.txt (the one with the underscore in front). Notice the format...
Zip Name
Game Title
Year
Screen Alignment - (H) for horizontal, (V) for vertical
Manufacturer
Open this file in a word processer, then go ahead and delete EVERYTHING. Yes, you won't be able to sort your "old" games by rotation, but you need this file for your custom list. Besides, sorting alphabetically, by year, or by manufacturer is much more useful, anyway.
Add your games by following the format, listing (H) games first, sorted by Game Title, then (V) games, again sorted by Game Title. Best way to get this info is to load the game in the original MAME 0.125 port, and select Game Information from the in-game menu.
An example...
720.zip
720 Degrees
1986
(H)
Atari Games
archrivl.zip
Archrivals
1989
(H)
Bally Midway
bladestl.zip
Blades of Steel
1987
(V)
Konami
capbowl.zip
Capcom Bowling
1988
(V)
Incredible Technologies
When you're finished, put the _by_rotation.txt file back in it's place, put your games in the ROMs folder, and start the front-end. Press Square to select the All Games option (as opposed to only particular categories), then press Circle and choose By Screen, and there you go! (assuming you did everything right
)You can add clones this way, just make sure that the parent game is also in the ROMs folder, too. You can also add snapshots, just rename the PNG to the Zip Name and place in the proper folder.
EDIT - Something else I should mention - open and save _by_rotation.txt in LF mode, if you use the Windows default CRLF, MAME won't recognize it. (Notepad can't do this, use Word or something.)
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