DatFiles

If you want to use clrmamepro with other systems you can write a DatFile for that system, or - if a system has an option to create a filelist- modify the engine.cfg.  DatFiles for a lot of systems like emulators can be already found on my homepage.

It's easy to write a datfile for a different systems. Just take a look at so called -listinfo syntax. clrmamepro parses the following tags:

Standard tags:

set, name, cloneof, description, rom (name, size, baddump, nodump, crc, crc32, md5, sha1), sample, sampleof, year and manufacturer

The order and the case doesn't matter ! The space between a tagname and its attribute or a '(' or ')' is important. The description name has to be in quotation marks. If you're using quotation marks within a name, use '\"'.

Example:

set (
name pacman
cloneof pacman
description "PuckMan (Japan set 1)"
rom ( name namcopac.6e size 4096 crc fee263b3 md5 3f84d78d59147b9b3c816da72110e55f)
sample shot.wav
sampleof galaxian
)


clrmamepro is able to read ROMCenter DatFiles, too. Use them on your very own risk. ROMCenter is (C) by Eric Bole-Feysot.

clrmamepro specific tags

clrmamepro uses some datfile flags. These are:

• "header"
  Here you can specify a XML header definition which has to be used for the datfile. If the xml definition file isn't in clrmamepro's headers folder or is not actice, you'll see a warning when loading.
  Example: header nes.xml

• "rebuildto"
  Here you can specify a new rebuilder destination path
  for single sets. For example:

game (
...
    rebuildto namco\english
...
)

rebuilds the files of this set to: rebuilderdestinationpath + "namco/english"

• "forcemerging"
  This can be set to 'none', 'split' and 'full'. Other values will disable this feature. With this option you can force a scanner/rebuilder merge mode. (No merging, split and full merging). It has to be added to a datfile like this:
  
  clrmamepro (
  forcemerging none
  )
  
  "forcezipping" This can be set to 'zip' and 'unzip'. Other values will disable this feature. With this option you can force the rebuilder/merger to zip (or unzip) the created files. It has to be added to a datfile like this:
  
  clrmamepro (
  forcezipping zip
  )

"forcenodump" This can be set to 'obsolete', 'required' and 'ignore'. The values mean: obsolete = default (nodumps are marked as unneeded, missing ones are not shown); ignore = existing nodumps are not marked as unneeded, missing ones are ignored; required = existing nodumps are not marked as unneeded, missing ones are shown.

Some profiler specific settings

• "name"
  This is the name which will be displayed in the profiler's name field. E.g. "CPS2".
• "description"
  This is the string which will be displayed in the profiler's description field. E.g. "Capcom Play System 2"
• "version"
  This is the string which will be displayed in the profiler's version field. E.g. "20010511"
• "author"
  Here you can add a copyright string and email addresses. E.g. "Logiqx, http://www.logiqx.com/"
• "comment"
  Here you can add a comment line.

Engine.cfg

Normally you shouldn't modify engine.cfg !!! If you want to add a new emulator or new biosroms, you should contact me. But anyway...here is a short description of the engine.cfg syntax:

• engine ()

  Each engine starts with this keyword. Be sure to keep spaces between the keyword and the brackets.

• name

  Name of the current engine. This name will be displayed in the settings window.

• cachefile

  Filename of the cache-file in the <clrmamepro>\cache folder.

• gamelist

  For XML datfiles only. This specifies the gamelist tag.

• command

  Parameter for the binary to produce a datfile. If no command keyword is given, the engine will be a datfile engine. The enginename isn't a binary and will be handled as a pure datfilename.

• ignore x

  Mean that keyword x is ignored while parsing the datfile. E.g. you can forbid the usage of samples by: 'ignore sampleof' and 'ignore samples'. For a list of possible values of x look at 'replace x y'.

• replace x y

  Means that special keywords x in the datfile will be replaced by new keywords y. For example: replace crc32 crc will replace crc32 tags with crc. Of course you can only replace keywords. Available keywords for y are:
  

cloneof
romof
merge
description
game
name
crc
md5
sha1
rombaddump
biosbaddump
diskimagenodump
biosnodump
romnodump
diskimagenodump
romname
size
date
rom
romstatus
biosromstatus
diskimagestatus
sampleof
samplename
sample
manufacturer
year
sourcefile
resource
resourcexml
resourcexmlvalue
biosname
biosdescription
bioscrc
biosromname
biosdate
biossize
biosrom
biosmd5
biossha1
biosmanufacturer
diskimage
diskimagename
diskimagechd_md5
biosset
biossetname
biossetdescription
bios