N00b help, please :-) (game tags)

[Cinemastique]

I'm relatively new to the world of emulation; I've been playing games for a few years, but never really went to much effort to put a good library together.

Now that I am, I'm wondering: Many, if not most, frontends display game data when you highlight a ROM. Screenshot, Box art, etc., as well as text describing the year, make, and game info. Some games even have a diagram for the default control scheme that displays before the game starts.

My question is: where is this information stored, and is there a way to edit it? Some games have one line of shoddy info ("superfun 3-D scroller for enjoy!"), others display a whole Wikipedia entry's worth of descriptive history. This inconsistency really bugs me. I'd like the ability to flesh out info for games where it is missing or poorly done.

Also, is it possible to change the display name of a game, so it just says "Contra," instead of "Contra (EURO)"?

Any help for a newbie would be great. :-)

[ulaoulao]

These are stored in dat files and I think only mame has its own. The rest are made from the front end system its self. This info is not from the rom files. Yes you can edit this, but those files get very big. I would not suggested using word or notepad. notepad++ is a good cheep and free editor, but there are better ones. Also note if you edit them its possible the front end will discard your changes if you use any of the tools.

[FatTrucker]

Also, is it possible to change the display name of a game, so it just says "Contra," instead of "Contra (EURO)"?

Any help for a newbie would be great. :-)

Not sure about the others but Mamewah allows you to create a filtered list that automatically removes all the words in brackets just leaving you with the game titles.

[Mavtak]

Somestimes information is stored in the filename itself. http://www.tosec.org/ has a very rigid spec for inserting information about a ROM in the ROM's file name. I make a ROM manager called FRI, and it includes Wikipedia integration. I don't know how other people do it, but I thought the way I did it was particularly clever. :-) When you select "look up in Wikipedia" the program sends you to a Google "I'm feeling lucky" search of the format "site:en.wikipedia.org/wiki game ROM_TITLE ROM_PLATFORM" where the last two bits of the query change depending on the ROM. More often than not it will bring you to the correct page.

BTW, I just released a new version of FRI here: http://forums.emulator-zone.com/showthread.php?t=13866