Don's HyperSpin Tools 3.0!

[brolly]

It wasn't for confusion reasons, but simply because comma is a valid windows filename character and therefore should not be used as a separator on anything that can be in the filenames or eventually you'll run into a particular scenario where it won't work. | on the other hand cannot be used in filenames so it's the perfect separator.

[sandman7793]

Ok, figured there was a good explanation!

[Markussage]

First, thank you VERY much for all the efforts with these tools. Great Job!

Now, sorry in advance for the Hyper-Noob question but I want to make sure I'm doing everything correctly.

When I open HS list gen, I select Mame. I set the path to Source XML, no problem.

After watching the video, I'm confused as to what goes into the Output XML, Exclude XML List, and most importantly, mamelist.xml.

Again, I want to do it right the first time so I sincerely appreciate the help!

Thanks!

[Markussage]

Ok, in Output XML I put Hyperspin\Databases\MAME\MAME.xml. I generated a mamelist but still foggy as to what that's for.

Otherwise I think I got it...

[Min2001]

The output xml path should be left blank, you generate the output xml when you run the program. This path should only be filled in when editing an already existing output xml that has already been generated. After the program is run and you hit scan you can filter the games you need to either an excluded list or an output list. You can then use the filtered output xml as the one in mame by just renaming it to MAME.xml after exporting.

Exclude list is also not needed. The mamelist.xml can be generated by running -listxml command on mame, check the tooltips.

[slizzap]

It appears to me that the List Generator does not create the index tags for the output list. Am I missing a setting somewhere or is this not implemented? I searched and found a thread for the original announcement of this toolset and BadBoyBill had mentioned the need to retain the indexing system, so it was brought up at some point. But when I create a list and output to an XML, the "index" and "image" tags are blank for all games. So, for example, I can't hold down the right arrow and select the "F" letter and have it jump to the first game starting with "F".

Also, is there a way to filter out the tags from the descriptions? For example, some games have multiple sets, so you might have a game listed as "Game Name (set 1)". I'd like to remove the tag so when the XML is created the game shows up in the list as "Game Name". Is this possible with this toolset?

Thanks!

[sandman7793]

Development on these tools have stopped and EMB has left the building (Pun intended)

This beta one was the last update. There's a rom renamer in there that might help you rename your roms correctly so the list generator works for you.

http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showthread.php?25540-Don-s-HyperSpin-Tools-4-3-Beta-Significant-ROM-renamer-and-XML-generation-updates

[slizzap]

Development on these tools have stopped and EMB has left the building (Pun intended)

This beta one was the last update. There's a rom renamer in there that might help you rename your roms correctly so the list generator works for you.

http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showthread.php?25540-Don-s-HyperSpin-Tools-4-3-Beta-Significant-ROM-renamer-and-XML-generation-updates

Ah, thanks for the info. I'm actually working on my MAME set right now, so needless to say I won't be renaming any of those ROMs I originally used the MAME XML that's on HyperList until I found some specific games I was looking to add were missing from that XML. So if those were missing I had to question what else was missing, and so I created my own master list...unfortunately it's the raw listing from MAME itself, so it's got all the "set", "USA", "World", etc tags for the descriptions of the games.

This utility really is amazing, and I found it really useful. Now I just need to figure out how to remove the tags without having to do it all manually.

[Min2001]

Also, is there a way to filter out the tags from the descriptions?

HyperHQ (Wheel Settings Tab), Navigation/Themes tab. Check the 'Remove Wheel Info' and/or 'Remove Textfield Info' checkboxes.

There is also a 'Use XML Indexes' Checkbox that you can select that lets you use the index tags or not too. That's why these are not automatically added as some people have custom rom xml's so the first game indexes won't be the same on all.

[RodentVienna]

you could do a search and replace in e.g. notepad++ for replacing text such as (set1)

[slizzap]

Good ideas, guys. I wasn't aware HyperHQ could filter out that info. My only issue with that is that I may want to create my own tags. For example, my main MAME set will contain hacks of various popular games like the Ms PacMan with speedup hack or alternate revisions of Mortal Kombat. So if I create my own tags for that purpose then I would imagine it's going to hide those tags as well. Also, Notepad++ will work good for removing static entries like "(Set 1)", but won't work for Capcom titles like "Street Fighter Alpha 3 (USA 980904)". A lot of their ROMs are dated :/ I've got a friend who's a programmer that I just talked to about this tonight. He's gonna write up something for me that will parse through an XML and remove all the tags. If and when that becomes a reality I'll post it on here somewhere, since I'm sure I'm not the only person that would have a need for such a thing.

I'm definitely planning on using that Custom XML Indexes option. I'm already using that for my console emulators. My OCD requires that games be listed in the order in which they're released. Mortal Kombat is a perfect example because the second game is the only one that uses a roman numeral, which throws off the ordering based on alphabetizing (i.e. Mortal Kombat -> Mortal Kombat 3 -> Mortal Kombat 4 -> Mortal Kombat II...which is obviously not in chronological order)

[slizzap]

After the suggestion by RodentVienna I spent some time figuring out how to use regular expressions in Notepad++ to get it to do what I want, and I was actually successful. I figured I'd share the details here in case anyone else would find them useful, but also as a means to document it for myself.

The main reason I did this is because I wanted a personalized list of games in my MAME set. I found a few specific games that were not included in the XML provided by HyperSpin and HyperList, so I wanted to start with a complete MAME database and pare it down from there. I first used the latest beta (4.3.25) of Don's HyperSpin Tools and used the "Create New HyperList.exe" tool. Using that I set the action to "Convert a mamelist.xml file to HyperList XML file", supplied the MAMEList.xml using the "mame -listxml" command output to a text file, and supplied the catver.ini file. That gave me a complete and working MAME database. I then used the latest stable version of Don's HyperSpin Tools (4.2.6) and used the "Don's HyperSpin List Generator.exe" tool to whittle down the selection in the complete database (for example I started by removing all "Fruit Machines" and "Casino" genre games).

Once I got the database to where I wanted it to be, I used Notepad++ to remove extraneous information from the ROM "Description" tag in the XML file. To do this download the latest version of Notepad++. Then open up the XML file and do a Search -> Find or Search -> Replace. Under "Search Mode" select "Regular expression". Then follow the 2 steps below:

Step 1: Remove all ROM tags from the <description> XML tag only in a HyperSpin MAME database (i.e. "Street Fighter II: The World Warrior (World 910522)" would become "Street Fighter II: The World Warrior")

Find what:

\s\(.*?\)</description>

Replace with:

</description>

Step 2: Find all ROM descriptions that contain alternate names (have a forward slash "/" in description) and strip out all that extra text (i.e. "Art of Fighting / Ryuuko no Ken (NGM-044)(NGH-044)" would become "Art of Fighting")

Find what:

\s/.*?</description>

Replace with:

</description>

Note on Step2: There are a handful of games that *should* have a forward slash in the title, so if you have these games in your database you might want to make note of those before you run that find/replace. Two examples offhand are "Metal Slug 2 - Super Vehicle-001/II" and "Tac/Scan". They should be easy to spot, as games that have alternate names are easy to spot.

[slizzap]

BTW it appears to me that the "index" and "image" tags are only used when the option in HyperHQ "Use XML Indexes" is enabled. Is that correct? All these HyperSpin tools don't even create these tags, which I thought were necessary, but skipping by letter still works just fine.

[Polemicist]

What happens when you get a game name that is listed with (USA) or (Jap) at the end of it and that is part of the rom name? Your expression would get rid of that as well wouldn't it?

Your OCD with chronological order will be tested greatly as you go through many of these systems. Since the official DB's have not been released yet I'm manually changing things and I see so many little things that make me want to go and change them but I'll end up having to change them again when the official DB gets released so I just tie my hands down and leave it alone. So tempting.

BTW it appears to me that the "index" and "image" tags are only used when the option in HyperHQ "Use XML Indexes" is enabled. Is that correct? All these HyperSpin tools don't even create these tags, which I thought were necessary, but skipping by letter still works just fine.

That sounds logical but I don't use that feature. I also don't use these tools that much either as I prefer to manually make my changes as many tags are not kept.

[slizzap]

Yep...it looks for any set of parentheses in the <description> tag and removes them and everything between. After I ran that through I manually tagged any ROMs that I wanted additional information included. For example, I have "Ms. Pac-Man" and "Ms. Pac-Man (Speed-Up Version)". I think that's the only one I modified, though. Before I removed this info I went through the list and kept only one set per game - either the parent or one specific clone, depending on the game (There are some oddball entries where a clone is a US release of a Japanese ROM - Green Beret vs. Rush 'n Attack, for example). So I had no need to keep (USA) or (Japan) in my ROM descriptions.

OCD and emulation do not mix well at all I use the "Use XML Indexes" for all the game consoles, which works well since I created all my databases myself. It was annoying to me that some games would be out of order (for example, NHL 2000 would come before NHL 94), so I manually ordered them. MAME is another story...there are just way too many games, so I'll probably just leave that one be.

Damn OCD...

[slizzap]

What happens when you get a game name that is listed with (USA) or (Jap) at the end of it and that is part of the rom name? Your expression would get rid of that as well wouldn't it?

Oh and just to clarify again, this only removes this information from the <description> tag. You were asking about (USA) or (Jap) in the ROM name, which wouldn't be modified. So if you wanted to use this for a Nintendo Entertainment System list and you had a ROM name of "Super Mario Bros. (Jap).nes" and the description was "Super Mario Bros. (Jap), the ROM tag would be left as is, but the description tag would be modified to be "Super Mario Bros."

One of the nice things about Notepad++ is that instead of committing to the Find/Replace, you can just do a Find and click on "Find All in Current Document". It will return a list of every match and highlight the exact change so you can preview it before applying the change.

[Polemicist]

Notepad++ is always on my PC's. Best damn program I've used. The Compare plugin has been fantastic for me. I haven't played with these expressions before so I am very interested now. Thanks for the info.

[mattgold]

Any word on if the last beta will be reborn as an "official" HyperApp?

Looks like honerbrink.com (where this was hosted) expired a couple days ago.

Seems like a great tool that would be sorely missed.

[vindic8r]

Indeed. I miss it already. Was just about to clean up my romsets and make some custom wheels for my cab.

Does anyone have the 4.2.6 or 4.3 beta package they could share, perchance?

[sandman7793]

Grab it while its hot!! Happy new year!! Will take it back down in a few days!!

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/vhh8prz2vt624cd/Z-E5rR9KkX

[original]

Can anyone who's used this tool help me out. I've looked through multiple threads, and haven't seen anyone having this issue (I'm sure I'm doing something wrong).

When I run the "Scan" on the List Generator, everything comes in fine except the "Game" column (which is the most important to me). Everything says "No". It's like it can't find the ROM. HyperSpin is configured correctly, cuz it launches just fine. All the other columns seem right too (Video, Wheel, etc.). Do the ROMs have to be in a specific directory? Any other things to try?

Thanks!

[sandman7793]

With this tool, you have to use hyperHQ to set rom path and ext. Even though now days we use hyperlaunchHQ for this. Just a heads up to ext in hyperHQ are separated by ,

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

[original]

THANKS A MILLION!!!

It did take me a many tries before the last two things mentioned actually sunk in.

1. ext - meaning extensions (not executable; not sure why I was thinking that).

2. the list is comma separated as you mentioned (after re-reading when figuring out point 1, then I finally put it together).

It all made sense when the "INI Settings" section actually populated after clicking "Scan". Was wondering why that was blank. Now I know.

Thanks again!