MAMEWorld Forums - EmuChat - Re: Touching on Softlists for a second....

> > Why are they needed? Why can't console software be treated like Arcade stuff, where
> > you have an approved set of roms, with recognized hashes and a Parent/Clone
> > relationship?
> >
> > Parent: ngaiden (NTSC-J)
> > Clone: ngaiden (NTSC-U)
> > Clone: ngaiden (PAL-E)
> >
>
> as pointed out by anikom, this is exactly the reason why softlists exists: to
> document properly PCBs found in console (and computer) carts and to document the
> best-to-our-knowledge dump for each system and to introduce parent/clone relationship
> where it makes sense.
>
> as such the hash definitions are hardcoded, only they are hardcoded in separate
> external xml files instead of the internal source, so to reduce the exe size of the
> emulator. the fact we ship the XML together with the emu and it is the team to manage
> most of the softlist and not some external group should be a warranty that things are
> done properly. I cannot see anything missing in softlists among your requests.
>
> IMHO you are confusing the fact that we allow loading of non-hardcoded roms into the
> home system emulation (a must, since half of the fun of home computer emulation is to
> run homebrew games/utils that don't always belong to the software list, or to run
> your own programs into the emulated machine), with having a set of verified dumps.
> We have the latter, it is just physically distributed in the hash/ folder rather than
> inside the exe: this allowed for instance to add a lot of info fields (usage tips,
> original titles, part ID for multidisk software, etc.) that could not have fit the
> exe and it allows an easier way to external contributors to help the team without
> even the need to compile the emulator

Thanks for that explanation. I had been curious as to what purpose the hash folder served.

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