GAMES.XML

[KPreston2900050]

I know this is not your problem, it is for someone who can't figure it out.
First, I know where to get the roms, that is not an issue or a request.

I run into this same issue with WinUAE which is, they add updated BIOS's it can use.
I go to the usual distribution site for the updated BIOS.
They have the same date on every BIOS so you can't use that to sort out the latest version and NO ONE releases an updated .dat with the new CRC's. When they do it is by request and pulling teeth where a simple release the dat with the release of the BIOS.

Here we get to Supermodel 3 where there is no revision number other than someone from 2019/2020 says it's .3a or whatever then the dat goes back to 2020 and based off an old version of MAME.

This is a huge turn off for anyone who wants to dabble with this emulator when a simple release a .dat or have a built in function that says build .dat like in, I think RAINE...

There is no need for all of this and if I am wrong, and there is some feature or way to do all of this then write it in a manual somewhere.

It's frustrating because every time I update or try to use the thing, some games work and others I am missing a rom that was there at one time but some off the wall website like INSERTMORECOINS is out of date. Google is zero help unless you are trying to buy something off Amazon.

So, is it so hard to add the ClrMame Dat or something as simple as add a .DAT generator to the menu?

[trzy]

Understood. If someone wants to contribute this, I'd accept a PR. I don't have time unfortunately to look into it myself but it's an open source project.

Re: revisions, we do have revisions: the git sha is now used.

The real long-term solution is to fix the ROM loading so that it can handle any configuration of ROMs. It would theoretically be perfectly possible to specify a .zip file on the command line and then scan every other .zip file in the same folder for any missing files. I'd love to implement this when I have time but I'm slammed with contract work for the next couple months.

[trzy]

One additional point: the ROM sets don't really change. MAME just reorganizes them. Occasionally, once a year or two, some new revision of a game is dumped. I'm genuinely surprised this comes up as a problem so often because I basically have been using the same ROM set for years. Yes, we've had to update the Games.xml to conform to MAME and that has "broken" some of my ROMs (i.e., some drive board file is now required or present somewhere else and I have to copy it over) but once these occasional hiccups are rectified, everything is fine. I guess people have all of their ROMs from a broader MAME set? I keep mine segregated in a Model 3 directory that never changes unless I have to do the aforementioned shuffling here and there.

[CCCP1982]

MAME 0.251

[CCCP1982]

I know this is not your problem, it is for someone who can't figure it out. First, I know where to get the roms, that is not an issue or a request.

KPreston2900050
Updated the interface SM3UI_ver1108 , the developer removed the ROMS directory dependency there.

[aag-aag]

There's a proof of concept supermodel games.xml -> dat xlst transform here
https://www.supermodel3.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?t=139