Potential app... is it needed?

[Lilwolf]

I was thinking of writing an application which configure the databases xml file. This would basically setup a small webserver on your cabinet, and allow for remote additions.

The basic idea was that you would have full version of mame and all the games, and as the themes came available... or you felt the game was 'cabinet ready' you could turn them on, and it would add or remove the game.

Will there ever be a way to specify a theme for a game by hand? (ie, say sf2ex can use the genericsf theme in the xml file)? (and if so, any clue on the interface?)

Also, would there be interest in adding a rss/bit torrent style interface for it? The rss could be for new themes, containing the information for the new theme... then I could download the theme (ie, setup a bit torrent). The other way to do this might be to look for the webpage here and get a list of available files and automatically download them. But a lot of websites hate this, especially if there is advertisers on the webpage... but I could always just put a link I guess (might be a super easy fast start)

Anyway, would there be interest? I'm looking for a new project, and this seems like it might be a good one.

Thanks

Lilwolf

[brian_hoffman]

For MAME our goal is to have a theme for all parent roms.
You program sounds interesting. I personally dont have my cab online.. Ill RDP into it from time to time. How exactly would you go about this?

[dja1ien]

This program would be of great use to me... I have difficulty manually updating my install since I'm running an arcade monitor at 640x480; navigating, downloading, installing, and editing the DB to include new themes is quite cumbersome at that resolution.

[Lilwolf]

If you can RDP, you would be able to use my app... but you wouldn't do that.

What I was going to do is take a Java JSP/webserver to run the frontend of a simple little app to create the xml files. I have written a few java based frontends to mame in the past, so most of it is basically written.

But for you, you would bring up a webpage hosted on your cabinet (http://192.168.1.101/index.html or something similar). This would then show you a list of the xml files available... click one and it would show you a list of game inside... Then you could click add (or something) and fill in the info for the next game... hopefully I would have already parsed the listinfo xml file so you only have to type in the rom name... then that should be it.... it would recreate the xml file.

I would love to add some way to automatically download the themes...but I would have to get promission to do so from those hosting the files since I could steal online revenue... but I will definately give the ability to add links to the download pages.

For MAME our goal is to have a theme for all parent roms.
You program sounds interesting. I personally dont have my cab online.. Ill RDP into it from time to time. How exactly would you go about this?

[Lilwolf]

btw, is there plans for a default theme?

And your only getting the parent from the xml file right? your not parsing the listinfo. So if I'm adding the xml data, I could just add whatever parent I wanted right? (ie, I could say that sfex2p's parent is sf2ce.... and you would just load that theme)

For MAME our goal is to have a theme for all parent roms.
You program sounds interesting. I personally dont have my cab online.. Ill RDP into it from time to time. How exactly would you go about this?

[BadBoyBill]

Hi, this program sounds pretty interesting and I'd love to test it out, I could make a section in the download section for useful apps, for stuff like this. I would be willing to help you if you need any info etc... If you feel that it could help installing themes easier then Im all for it.

As for parent gamses. Yes we do themes for parent games only unless theres a clone that has different artwork etc... I have a "clone of" field in the xml its just not implimented yet. HyperSpin will look at that and use the theme for the game thats listed in that field. I just been so busy with the current projects and fixes that I havent added that in yet but I will for sure. I personnaly won't be using that feature but its good for the people that just gotta have every game I guess, Im just not into that. I want to have unique themes for all my games and not see the same theme over and over again.

[dja1ien]

The "clone of" field could be quite useful; for a number of games (Sunset Riders and TMNT come to mind), a clone is a more appropriate set than the parent for me. For example, the Sunset Riders parent set is a 4 player set, but I like the 2 player set where the player character can be selected. For now, I edited the theme, artwork, and video names to match the clone I want to run.

This sounds like an interesting little app, I definately like the possibility of seeing when new themes have become available. Some of these games I've never given a second glance before, and they're fast becoming favorites. To prevent any issues with an auto-download you could have it pick up theme zips in a local directory, unzip to the appropriate folders, and add to the list of available games for entry into the appropriate xml. With the current differences in folder/file structure of the themes though, I could see an auto-install being somewhat difficult.

[The Loafer]

It sounds very interesting. On the clone issue, I agree that most of the time the parent set it sufficient. But darn it, I still would rather play "Pacman" then "Puckman" ;)