New working software list additions
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Maniac Mansion [The Good Old Days]
Tunnels & Trolls: Crusaders of Khazan [The Good Old Days]
Valhalla - Ragnarok [The Good Old Days]
Cyrus 3-D Chess (shareware, Titanium Seal release) [Archive.org]
VGA Slot Machine (Titanium Seal release) [Archive.org]
New working software list additions
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ibm5150: Hare Raising Havoc (USA)
ibm5150.xml: Updated: [carmnpst35] -> clone of [carmnpst]
Added: [dicktrcs] Dick Tracy: The Crime-Solving Adventure
Added: [ducktale] DuckTales: The Quest for Gold
Added: [simcityclg] SimCity Classic Graphics (add-on for Classic version)
Added: World Championship Soccer (5.25")
Added: World Championship Soccer (3.5")
Redumped: [simcitycl] - SimCity Classic (3.5", v2.00) -> The old set has a modified root and OEM ID
Renamed: [paprboy2] Paperboy 2 -> [paperbo2] Paperboy 2 -> standardize name, like the others software lists (megadriv, snes, amigaocs_flop)
Added: Alien Syndrome, California Games 2, Double Dragon 3 - The Rosetta Stone (3.5"), Omega
Redumped: [ppersia35b] Prince of Persia (3.5", v1.0) - prior version has a modified root
Added: Super Space Invaders (3.5"), Super Space Invaders (5.25"), Super Tetris (5.25")
Redumped: [stunts35] The old set has a modified OEM ID and config files saved.
Renamed: [supertet] Super Tetris => [stetris35] Super Tetris (3.5")
Added: Battle Chess (5.25", VGA version), Battle Chess (3.5", EGA version - first release), Battle Chess (3.5", EGA version - second release), Battle Chess (5.25", EGA version)
Added: Silent Service 2 (v457.03, 5.25"), Silent Service 2 (v457.01, 5.25"), Silent Service 2 (v457.01, 3.5"), Sex Vixens from Space
Marked: "fireforget2" -> marked as bad dump (modified root)
Added: 4D Sports Driving (3.5", Euro), 4D Sports Driving (5.25", Euro)
Redumped: [stunts] (the old one has a modified OEM ID)
Misc: [stunts] and [stunts35] are now clones of [4dsdrv] ; Renamed developer info on [cadaver], [menace], [caveugh], [indycrus35], [serenia], [kingqst], [mineshft]
Added: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade - The Graphic Adventure (Germany), Space Harrier, Test Drive III - The Passion (5.25")
Reuploaded a redumped [martmemo] set (the old one has a modified OEM ID and modified root)
Reuploaded a redumped [td3] set (the old one has configuration file - TD3.CFG)
Renamed set [td3] Test Drive III - The Passion --> [td3_35] Test Drive III - The Passion (3.5")
Added: Prince of Persia (3.5", v1.1), Wolfpack (USA)
Renamed [ppersia35a]: Prince of Persia (3.5", v1.1) --> Prince of Persia (3.5", v1.1, Hit Squad release)
Dragon's Lair (5.25"), Leisure Suit Larry Goes Looking for Love (in Several Wrong Places) (5.25"), Leisure Suit Larry Goes Looking for Love (in Several Wrong Places) (3.5")
---------
Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards
Mario Andretti's Racing Challenge
TV Sports Basketball (5.25", UK, VGA version)
TV Sports Basketball (5.25", UK, EGA/TANDY version)
TV Sports Basketball (3.5", USA, VGA version)
TV Sports Basketball (3.5", USA, EGA/TANDY version)
---------------------------------------
ibm5150: 3-D FloorPlan Designer V2.0, Ad Lib Instrument Maker V1.51, Ad Lib Juke Box V1.5, Ad Lib Juke Box V1.6, Ad Lib Juke Box V1.64, Ad Lib Juke Box Registration Bonus Disk V1.51, Ad Lib Juke Box Registration Bonus Disk V1.62, Ad Lib Visual Composer V1.51, SYSGRATION Mouse Driver 7.03 (5.25"), SYSGRATION Mouse Driver 8.00 (5.25"), SYSGRATION Mouse Driver 8.00 (3.5") [Justin Kerk]
New not working software list additions
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ibm5150: Mouse Software Test/Demo [Justin Kerk]
(nw) moved some compatible mouse drivers to ibm5150.xml from ibm5170.xml, mark sicmouse as a bad dump, make 5.25" version the parent for indycrus to match the rest of the ibm5150 softlist
The free-for-all on labels in software lists is not working. There's no
consistency, labels are getting excessively long, people are starting to
use non-ASCII characters in labels making it harder for others to type
them when manipulating files on the command line, and there's too much
markup being put in labels.
The length limit is 127 characters, same as for labels in MAME itself.
This should be long enough to be descriptive. Remember that the Win32
path limit is 260 characters, and many applications and frameworks have
issues with longer paths, including Windows Explorer and the .NET
framework. Labels are used as filenames, so concessions need to be
made for this.
I have not abbreviated excessively long labels myself - they're
currently causing 135 validity errors. Someone else can fix them.
Printable ASCII characters are allowed, with a few exceptions. The
exceptions are limited to characters most likely to cause issues for
interactive shells and scripts:
* ! - csh event substitution (very difficult to escape properly)
* $ - sh varibale expansion
* % - csh job control, cmd variable expansion
* / - UNIX directory separator
* : - sh path separator, Windows drive qualifier
* \ - sh escape, Windows directory separator
Most of the labels that had to be edited were using ! for markup, or
using ! and % for titles in labels. Strangely, titles in labels are
often forced to lower case, despite this never being enforced for
software lists. There are also various other edits to titles used for
labels, such as moving articles to the end (with or without a comma),
or replacing spaces with underscores. As I already said, there's no
consistency at all.
There is far too much markup in labels. They're even being used for
notes in some cases (e.g. at least one case where a dumper's name is in
the label). The XML schema supports metadata - use it. For example,
you can use part_id for an unrestricted display name for a software
part. You can also use XML comments for notes.
And while on the topic of metadata, vgmplay.xml is putting the same
thing in the part_id as well as the label. The part_id should have
the actual title, not the title mangled to make it more suitable for
use as a filename. Addressing this would be a lot of work, given how
large the file is.
For now, empty data areas in software lists cause a verbose message
rather than a validation warning. There are thousands of software
lists using empty data areas to indicate the size/width of cartridge
RAM/EEPROM/etc.
romload.cpp: reduce copy-pasta (nw)
(nw) I fixed the errors found by adding validation to software list data areas.
Most of them seem to be simple copy-paste errors hidden by the fact that the
default device_image_interface loader ignores the data area size (as opposed to
the "ROM" loader). There was one C64 cartridge with a missing zero on the data
area size that was pretty clearly wrong.
Dyna Blaster, Test Drive III - The Passion, Martian Memorandum, The Secret of Monkey Island (5.25", EGA version), The Secret of Monkey Island (3.5", EGA version)
Vas Crabb