Age Ratings

[Xtra9268]

I'm building my arcade machine primarily for myself but I am also going to let my 4-year old nephew and 6-year niece play on it. There are games that I would not want them to play.

So the first idea is:

<game name="1941" index="" image="">
<description>1941</description>
<age>10</age>
<cloneof></cloneof>
<crc></crc>
<manufacturer></manufacturer>
<year></year>
<genre></genre>
</game>

Then I start Hyperspin like this:

hyperspin --age=11

HyperSpin will only show games in the Wheel where the age tag is 12 or higher.

Is this possible?

2. The other option is to clone the Hyperspin folder and manually remove games from the duplicate xml file (i.e. C:\HyperspinKids\Databases\MAME\MAME.xml) The problem I'm running into is after Hyperspin from the HyperspinKids folder is launched it reads C:\Hyperspin\Databases\MAME\MAME.xml

So how do I change the path to C:\HyperspinKids\Databases\MAME\MAME.xml ? Is this possible?

[Xtra9268]

Can someone at least help with #2?

[THK]

You could just replace the MAME xml with one with all the games removed and make the original a genre xml called something else. This of course rest on the premise that your kids won't use the genre system, otherwise you'd have to delete every other genre xml as well.

Another way to go about it is to have a 2nd HS install with alternate xmls.

[baddeolv]

Anything "pocketgal" is a bad idea

[Xtra9268]

Another way to go about it is to have a 2nd HS install with alternate xmls.

I did that. Hyperspin is my main; HyperspinKids is the 2nd HS install.

C:\HyperspinKids\hyperspin.exe loads C:\Hyperspin\Databases\MAME\MAME.xml instead of C:\HyperspinKids\Databases\MAME\MAME.xml

Does this clarify the problem?

[Min2001]

You are going about this all wrong. You don't need to add another tag to the XML, there is already support for age ratings.

There is a <rating> tag that has been created for the MAME XML (You just download the full XML with all the info) You will not need to manually edit the XML. All you need to do is use Don's HyperList Generator and filter the games you have by rating then add them to a seperate XML and then add this to be displayed as a genre or as a separate wheel.

If security is an issue you can always then either remove the main wheel and keep replacing it (which is more hastle than its worth) or you can change the default MAME.xml by renaming this as something else and displaying the alterative kids version, then just change the default keypress for displaying genres to another key and use this hidden keypress to show the original MAME.xml database by displaying the genre listing.

You can use HyperHQ to change the controls for the genre keypress by going to Controls tab>Keyboard