Attract Mode History Overviews

What it is.

Scrape History Overviews scans Gaming History’s History.dat to collect game information and export them in the Attract Mode overview format. SHO is compatible with revision 1.97 of History.dat but seems to work up to rev 1.99. History.dat has changed format in the past and will likely change again in the future, in that case, SHO might not work anymore.

How to use.

SHO need to be on the same folder as its Data subfolder.

From top to bottom on the main interface:

• History File button:
  Pick the History.dat file to use. If the file is on SHO root folder, it will be automatically selected.

• History.dat location box.
  The location of the History.dat file.

• Roms List button:
  Pick a list of roms for SHO to look for, especially useful when looking for arcade games (mame) as they have a lot of unused or unwanted roms. The list format is just a text files with a rom name on each line. A sample is bundled with SHO called RomsList.txt. If this file exists, it will be automatically selected.

• Roms List location box:
  The location of the roms list file.

• Clear rom list button:
  Clear the rom list box.

• Dump Folder button:
  Pick a folder to dump the created overviews .cfg files.

• Dump Folder input box:
  The location of the overviews dump folder.

• Systems box:
  A pull-down list to choose the system to look for. By default, it has all the systems available in the rev 1.97 of History.dat. It will search for all games on the selected system regardless of specific media tokens like “_cass” or “_cart” (if a rom list is selected, the games will be limited to that list). This list can be modified by editing Systems.dat on the Data subfolder. It has one system in each line with the following format:

  • Name|Token
    Where the Name is the system name and the Token is the History.dat token for the corresponding system. The token must start with “$” and have no media part like “_flop”.

• Get from History.dat button
  With new versions of the History.dat, more system may be added, this button will scavenger the file looking for all the system it can find. This way, a new systems list can be automatically created, as long as the History.dat remains compatible.
  When it finishes looking for the systems, it will save a SystemsList.txt file on the Data subfolder and ask to open it. To make it the new default system list just save it as Systems.dat or rename it afterwards. (SHO must be reopened for the new list to take effect)
  The search can be interrupted by pressing CTRL-Q.

• Use rom name check box
  When checked, SHO will save the overviews files with the rom names on the rom list (if there is one) instead of the game names it finds on History.dat.

• Add “\n” check box
  On some layouts (mines), Attract Mode do not show the first line of the overview if it is longer than the box it is in, by adding an “\n” (a line feed) at the very start of the text (right after “overview “) this can be fixed.

• Analysis only check box:
  Perform the search, show the information and build the log but do not save the overview files.

• Go button:
  Perform the actual search for the overview info.
  SHO will go through the History.dat file looking for games under the selected system token, get its information and save it as an AM overview file on the selected Dump Folder. It will look for all the games it finds unless the “Use rom name” has been checked, in that case it will only look for the game with rom names contained on the roms list.
  The overview file will be saved with the name found on the copyright line unless the “Use rom name” has been checked, in that case the name on the list will be used.
  A log file with the name SHO.log will be saved at the end.
  If there is not enough information, SHO will not save the overview file. The game will be logged with “No info”
  If there is a “(name)” line right after the main game name it is usually because the original name is in Japanese or the like. In this case, SHO will opt to get the Arabic name. This will be logged as “Alt name”
  If the game name contains a forbidden system character, it will be replaced by an “-“ so the file can be safely saved. This will be logged as “Illegal char changed to "-"” (the log will be made even if the rom list name is being used, the rom name. however, will not be affected)
  The log file contains information about all the games it finds (respecting the constrains of a rom list) including the start, ending and amount of lines the information found at Histori.dat has. It will also have some general statistics. A new search will replace an older log.
  The search can be interrupted by pressing CTRL-Q.

• Help
  Shows this.

Acknowledgements

Enjoy and send feedback.
Thanks.

SHO is offered as is with no guaranties whatsoever. We (I) will not be responsible for any harm it decides to do to your romlists, assets, Attract Mode, operating system, computer or life. I think, though, it will behave (mostly)