freeplay.ini missing games

[ghost]

Hello

I think your freeplay file is missing some games.
I generated mine and I have more games supporting free play.
The games not supporting free play are also missing. You could add them like I do in my file (for completeness of the file)

See file below.

[MACHINE HARDWARE] Free Play.zip

[AntoPISA]

I thank you for your concern.
In your ini file (I don't know how you generated it) there are a bit too many machines: you definitely need to remove all devices and all BIOS. Also, the node in the xml that you need to check is <dipswitch name="Free Play" ... when it is not present the game does not have Free Play mode.
In your file. for example, the game "005" is present but as you can see there is no item in the menu.

Instead, here is what it should look like:

However, you made a correct note to me; I have already talked to my programmer and from the next version of the file it will be complete (in total there are 3,395 games with this option).

[ghost]

• I generate all files using my SQLite database, programmatically with checks to the correct XML tag(s)/attribute(s). Since the data comes from MAME XML, there should be no wrong counts.

• there is not 1 machine too much in my file, although you have too little machines ;-) (see below for explanation)

• the BIOS and devices are inside the [No Free Play] folder for file completeness. All machines in MAME that don't support free play are inside this folder. So I include BIOS and devices because otherwise the sum of all machines in the complete INI file ([Free Play] and [No Free Play]) is not the amount of all machines inside MAME. BIOS and devices in theory don't support free play, as well as machines that support software lists (like game consoles). You can then discuss if you need to remove software list machines too, ...
  And what about pinballs, handhelds, ...? You can see where it's going...
  That's why in the [No Free Play] folder, everything else in MAME is stored (BIOS, device, software list machines, handhelds, pinballs, ... who dont have free play).

Statistics:

[Free Play] folder: 1095 games
[No Free Play] folder: 45370 games (including BIOS, device, software list machines, handhelds, pinballs, ... who don't support free play (explanation above))
=> 1095 + 45370 = 46465 which is the total number of machines in MAME 0.262.
I construct all my INI files like this for file completeness.

• the game 005 is present but if you look better, it's in the [No Free Play] folder which is correct... You also don't have a [No Free Play] folder which prevents users from looking at games that don't have free play.
  You will not be able to find a game in the [Free Play] folder which doesn't support free play because the file is auto-generated by code...

• the correct statistics for games who have "Free Play" for a dipswitch are: 1095 games as you can see in my file (I don't know where you get the wrong 3395 number of games). Those are indeed the XML tag you show.

• However there are also dipswitches with value:

1. "Free play" (notice the different writing, small symbol 'p', probably a typo) (= 1 game)
2. "Free Play & Invulnerability" (= 2 games)
3. "Free Play (EU & FR)" (= 4 games)
4. "Free Play (Ignore coinage)" (= 20 games)
5. "Free Play (Not Working)" (= 3 games)
6. "Free Play / Debug Mode" (= 2 games)

Those are not added in my file, since it are special cases.
Even if you should add those special cases of dipswitches, you don't have 3395 games, but 1095 + 1 + 2 + 4 + 20 + 3 + 2 = 1127 games.
No idea how you generate that number of games. It's definitely wrong! You can never have 3395 games.
If you upload your file with 3395 games supporting free play, I'm happy to indicate the wrong ones...

• You asked me how I generate my files, could you also explain how you do it? And how can I contribute to your DAT and INI files (see other github issue which you didn't reply to): what tools/method to use ?
  I ask this because I found in almost each of your INI files missing/wrong games. But if you don't tell me how to contribute to your files, I can not really help (except upload my own file here as I already did).

Don't hesitate to ask questions because your result for this file is very different from mine (1095 versus 3395 games!)

[AntoPISA]

I thought you only put the "Free Play" machines, my mistake.
The number I quoted comes from a simple search for the string (dipswitch name="Free Play") within the xml. It certainly needs to be investigated further.
I'm currently very busy updating snaps, which take a lot of time. I'll deal with that later. Thanks again.

[ghost]

This search can never give the number of games you told me because there are not that much :-)
If you explain how to contribute, then I would be happy to do that.

[AntoPISA]

I'll talk about it again when I have more time, thanks.

[AntoPISA]

I forgot: due to bad experiences in the past with people who wanted to collaborate on the site and then turned out to be unreliable (especially from a mental point of view) I would prefer to continue these conversations in private and via email, so you can also write to me who you are, nickname aside.

[ghost]

Email sent...

[AntoPISA]

Ok, thanks.