[SOFT] Arcade Manager : install overlays and manage roms in a user-friendly, fast and cross-platform GUI

[cosmo0]

Main features

• Multi-platform, works on Windows, MacOS and Linux
• User-friendly and easy to use interface
• Download and install an overlay (bezel) pack, downloading only the files you need, for either Retropie or Recalbox
• Manage rom files:
  • copy specific roms from a romset, based on a games list
  • remove unwanted roms
  • keep only wanted roms
• Manage games lists files:
  • download pre-set games list
  • merge and split two files
  • convert a DAT or INI file
  • create a list based on an existing folder

Games lists

Several games list, for each emulator (FBA, MAME 2003/2010, AdvanceMAME), are provided:

• Classics lists for each emulator, with only the best and well-known games :
  • One "lite" version, containing about 50 games
  • One "normal" version, containing between 200 and 250 games
• A "lite" list, with only working games, no clones, and no console ports (PlayChoice 10, etc)

Each games list is is available in a "stick" (no analog controls) and "pad" (including analog controls) version.
Several other lists and filters are also provided, so you can customize your lists as you want.
They're just CSV files, so you can edit them by hand however you see fit.

User interface

A lot of work has been done on the interface, and the user experience. I hope it's easy to use, but if it's not, please file an issue describing your problem. I take user feedback very seriously, and I welcome any kind of feedback.

Download

The latest stable releases are available here: https://github.com/cosmo0/arcade-manager/releases/

Screenshots

[Gaetan]

@cosmo0 looks great !

[cosmo0]

Thanks

[paradadf]

@cosmo0 I still need to test this, but I highly appreciate your contribution!

[cosmo0]

If you have installed "artwork" overlays using this tool, quite a lot of games had broken config paths. It's now fixed.
A few "realistic" overlays had position problems (x and y were inverted), but not many.

You can just install the pack again and check "overwrite existing files".

[Olliko]

Is there a Special configuration to do? My Problem is, that games which have no bezels, Display the last one which was opened and covers parts of the game.

[cosmo0]

@olliko said in [SOFT] Arcade Manager : install overlays and manage roms in a user-friendly, fast and cross-platform GUI:

Is there a Special configuration to do? My Problem is, that games which have no bezels, Display the last one which was opened and covers parts of the game.

I'm sorry I'm not sure I understand your problem.
You have installed the bezels for your games, and when you go from one with a bezel to one without, it displays the bezel from the previous game, is that correct ?
Do you have an example, so I can try to reproduce the problem myself ?
Thank you

[Olliko]

@cosmo0 Yes, this is the Problem. Sorry for the bad english. The problem is in Mame and FBA, i use Recalbox on a raspberry 3. As i tested it, the problem comes in every case. For example i started 1941 with bezel and then balloon Brothers. The 1941 bezel is displayed in balloon Brothers. (FBA). But i have forgotten to thank you for the great program you did.

[Gaetan]

@cosmo0 Could you make a video to explain how your software works ?
That would be very nice

[cosmo0]

@olliko said in [SOFT] Arcade Manager : install overlays and manage roms in a user-friendly, fast and cross-platform GUI:

@cosmo0 Yes, this is the Problem. Sorry for the bad english. The problem is in Mame and FBA, i use Recalbox on a raspberry 3. As i tested it, the problem comes in every case. For example i started 1941 with bezel and then balloon Brothers. The 1941 bezel is displayed in balloon Brothers. (FBA). But i have forgotten to thank you for the great program you did.

Ok, I'll try to reproduce the problem at home, and see if I can find out what's happening.

And thanks

@gaetan said in [SOFT] Arcade Manager : install overlays and manage roms in a user-friendly, fast and cross-platform GUI:

@cosmo0 Could you make a video to explain how your software works ?
That would be very nice

I have noted this request, it's not a bad idea.
I'm also thinking about making a first-time, "I don't know much about arcade" wizard, but it looks like a pretty complicated feature.

[cosmo0]

New version : v4.1

https://github.com/cosmo0/arcade-manager/releases

This is a bugfix release.

Changelog

• Displays file size when copying rom files (copying large files would make it look like it crashed)
• Activates the menus on MacOS so you can now copy/paste
• Fixes the "only keep roms" feature, which didn't work at all (small typo in the code)
• Changes the files order in the "download CSV file" screen

[cosmo0]

@olliko said in [SOFT] Arcade Manager : install overlays and manage roms in a user-friendly, fast and cross-platform GUI:

@cosmo0 Yes, this is the Problem. Sorry for the bad english. The problem is in Mame and FBA, i use Recalbox on a raspberry 3. As i tested it, the problem comes in every case. For example i started 1941 with bezel and then balloon Brothers. The 1941 bezel is displayed in balloon Brothers. (FBA). But i have forgotten to thank you for the great program you did.

I'm sorry but I can't reproduce the problem. I have launched a game with overlay then one without, and I have no overlay in the second game.
I'm using Recalbox 18.04.20 with no configuration or tuning whatsoever.

[Olliko]

@cosmo0 thanks for your effort. I use the same version. Maybe i have something damaged in the past. I have the share partition on a usb stick. I think i install recalbox again, also the roms.

[cosmo0]

@olliko said in [SOFT] Arcade Manager : install overlays and manage roms in a user-friendly, fast and cross-platform GUI:

@cosmo0 thanks for your effort. I use the same version. Maybe i have something damaged in the past. I have the share partition on a usb stick. I think i install recalbox again, also the roms.

Do you use fba or fba_libretro ?

[snwfrd38]

I manually managed my overlays and tried your app with a lot of enthusiam as it can really be great for the overlays.
It seems it creates well the .cfg and .png file howevet thr .zip.cfg was not created in my case.
Thus it didn’t work so far.

The second topic is that the overlays are 1920x1080 and my config is in 1280x1080 so i wonder if it can manage it. Keep the good work it looks promising!

[cosmo0]

@snwfrd38 said in [SOFT] Arcade Manager : install overlays and manage roms in a user-friendly, fast and cross-platform GUI:

I manually managed my overlays and tried your app with a lot of enthusiam as it can really be great for the overlays.
It seems it creates well the .cfg and .png file howevet thr .zip.cfg was not created in my case.
Thus it didn’t work so far.

Where did you check the .zip.cfg creation ? They should be saved in the share/overlays/, not alongside the roms.
Have you tried the games, to see if they had the overlay?

The second topic is that the overlays are 1920x1080 and my config is in 1280x1080 so i wonder if it can manage it.

No, they are 1080p (1920x1080). I should write that somewhere...

Keep the good work it looks promising!

Thanks

[SuperMagicom]

@cosmo0 I noticed your program wasn't finding a lot of the overlays for my games. It turns out I was using the U.S. versions of many roms and the software is only looking for the parent rom, which is usually the "World" version. For example, I had sf2ceua.zip for Street Fighter II: Champion Edition and it wouldn't add the overlay. When I replaced it with the "World" version sf2ce.zip it worked fine. If people are having similar problems that might be why.

[cosmo0]

New release : v4.2

Fixes the rom copy (sorry...)

https://github.com/cosmo0/arcade-manager/releases

[cosmo0]

@supermagicom said in [SOFT] Arcade Manager : install overlays and manage roms in a user-friendly, fast and cross-platform GUI:

@cosmo0 I noticed your program wasn't finding a lot of the overlays for my games. It turns out I was using the U.S. versions of many roms and the software is only looking for the parent rom, which is usually the "World" version. For example, I had sf2ceua.zip for Street Fighter II: Champion Edition and it wouldn't add the overlay. When I replaced it with the "World" version sf2ce.zip it worked fine. If people are having similar problems that might be why.

Yeah, installing overlays for clones is a feature I plan to implement some day.
It's a bit complicated because each MAME version has slightly different clones, but I can still do something.
I'll b*mp up the feature in the TODO list

[Olliko]

@cosmo0 i use fba_libretro.