MAMEWorld Forums - EmuChat - Re: Making new hash files for MAME (ZX Spectrum)

> > Ok, so I've done all +3 categories except for "Games" and "Compilations - Games".
> > Please let me know if you notice anything incorrect in the attached files.
>
> Look, I'm sorry but I tend to agree with Pernod - trying to do this automatically is
> going to get us a pile of unsorted stuff of indeterminate quality that's going to be
> more time-consuming to clean up properly later.

I disagree, just based on the amount of data.

It's literally impossible for one person to do all this work, at least if you're looking at the cassette side of things; there are more tapes than somebody could actually load up and properly test in a lifetime.

The only way it's going to get done is if somebody does bulk convert a lot of it, then a bunch of people refine it over time, replace dumps with better ones, document all the different loader schemes used etc. It's a lifetime project for a whole group of interested people.

It *is* an issue if nobody continues the work by doing that refinement after the initial check-in, freeing the original devs to do other things (as no main dev really wants to commit their entire life to doing one thing that's easily done by non-programmers) but that's kinda where the supporting community around MAME do end up letting us down sometimes, as those are tasks that almost anybody could do.

The disk situation is a bit easier and could be handled by hand as disks weren't the primary platform here, plus 3 wasn't too common, and hardly anybody had a drive for the older model, but I'm looking at the bigger picture here.

Something does need doing in terms of lists for these systems tho, there is Software being developed today (tested on real systems) and lost just as quickly because nobody is documenting it, revisions of it, or anything else. It needs to be made clear that the lists here are open for contribution, and that attempts to contribute to them aren't going to be met with hostility at least.

To get people interested in refinements the Spectrum emulation probably needs to be a lot more solid however, that patch posted on bannister.org did do wonders for that, but the way it was implemented was definitely questionable. MAME also faces competition from things that simply HLE all the loading, which is a problem I don't think much can be done about, but does make it less favourable to people which might mean less people want to help out.