I'm developing a ROM set Frontend + Launcher

[stickynips]

I'm in the process of designing and coding a ROM verification tool + Emulator launcher. I'm coming to the community for ideas of what you'd like to see in a program such as this and what ROM sets to include. My initial ideas include:

• Check online for any updates in ROM sets and download any available DAT files.
• Scan and verify files in a local directory against a given DAT.
• Build a list of available ROMs with as much information as possible.
• Make this list searchable and sortable based on any available criteria (name, platform, region, flags etc.)
• Allow user to provide third-party emulators and configure command line launch options
• Launch valid ROMs from the interface using provided emulators
• Create a "favorites" list so users can quickly launch their favorite games

Those are just the basics that I'd like to get in the first release. Some more advanced features for later releases:

• Collect data from popular game websites to include in search (developer, publisher, year, genre, rating)
• Launch ROMs from within rar, zip, 7z archives
• Whatever you can think of...

What features do you like in the frontends you currently use and what do you wish they had? I already have a working proof of concept using the No-Intro sets. Some others I'm planning to include are Cowering's GoodSets and MAME. What others sets do you want to see? Furthermore, I'm planning on making the design modular so that I can easily add more ROM sets and DAT formats in the future. I'm thinking of using a sort of plug-in style, so that users can pick and choose what sets to include and download any new ROM set plug-ins without downloading an entirely new release.

 

[ulaoulao]

Wow first time anyone covered all of my basses... I use QuickPlay, the front end author is MIA so its dead. It was written in delphi so I have to give up continuing it. Its a good front end to get idea from IMO, Wish it was continued... Have a look at how it handles screen shots. A team and I made screen shots to match 7z collections. The front end just searches the screen shot dir for a match and displays it. Its a must have for me.

 

[FatTrucker]

You should also check out offline list.

 

[stickynips]

Wow first time anyone covered all of my basses... I use QuickPlay, the front end author is MIA so its dead. It was written in delphi so I have to give up continuing it. Its a good front end to get idea from IMO, Wish it was continued... Have a look at how it handles screen shots. A team and I made screen shots to match 7z collections. The front end just searches the screen shot dir for a match and displays it. Its a must have for me.

The idea for this project started because none of the current frontends did exactly what I wented. I guess you and I have similar needs. I've been toying with the idea of including screenshots, box art, pcb, etc. but that won't be in the initial release. First I'd like to get the core update/validate/search/launch features working before I add more.

And I'm putting Offline List of my list of rom sets to include.

 

[ulaoulao]

What ide are you dev'ing in? Need a c++ guy ?

 

[stickynips]

What ide are you dev'ing in? Need a c++ guy ?

I' do my development in NetBeans. I'm considering open sourcing the project and developing it to be cross platform since there seems to be a large demand for a good cross-platform frontend. Originally I was considering C# for the interface, but I'm not looking at a GUI toolkit, either Qt or GTK+. If you've got experience in either or any suggestions I'd love to hear them. For those following, here's a new list of features I've built with help from the online community:
Core features:

• Cross platform, open source (currently being researched)
• Check online for any updates in ROM sets and download any available DAT files.
• Scan and verify files in a local directory against a given DAT.
• Build a list of available ROMs with as much information as possible.
• Make this list searchable and sortable based on any available criteria (name, platform, region, flags etc.)
• Allow user to provide third-party emulators and configure command line launch options
• Launch valid ROMs from the interface using provided emulators
• Create a "favorites" list so users can quickly launch their favorite games

Some more advanced features for later releases:

• Collect data from popular game websites to include in search (developer, publisher, year, genre, rating)
• Launch ROMs from within rar, zip, 7z archives
• Custom set creation based on any available criteria.
• Mount/Dismount CD image files using a command-line driven tool
• Store and display artwork for games. Possibly automatically download missing artwork.
• Whatever you can think of...

 

[ulaoulao]

Mount/Dismount CD image files using a command-line driven tool

- May want to look in to a posible winmount tool kit or api. Win mount will mount a MOU file in just a few second. I use if for my iso's. I can take the ISO down to a mou file ( about the same as rar ) and mout it to play. No need to extract it. Winmount is x-plat for as I here. I have used JAva before but not enough to offer advice.