> Seems like it would make more sense to launch hacks and other additions from software > lists rather than a bloated mame menu and the benefit to that would also be you could > then further add documentation that's commented out in the XML file itself.
A software list is a list of cartridges or cassettes or floppy disks that connect to a system via that same real connection. So a cartridge goes into a cartridge slot that existed on a real system. A floppy disk goes into a floppy-disk-drive that exists on a real system. And so on.
An arcade game has none of those things. And so software lists cannot be used. Honestly I thought you knew about that stuff.
Perhaps you're thinking of IPS. That would make more sense. There's no list with that though - you're free to use whatever IPS patches you can find. But I don't have the knowledge to implement it. And now that memory regions are read-only, it probably never will happen.