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[Specialt1212]

Hello, I did a search and didn't see this posted so hopefully I didn't overlook anything.

I was building a custom parent-clone dat and I'm trying to figure out how to make the parent display a different name than the files contained within. Here is an example from a Parent-Clone No-Intro DAT file which lists the archive as Knuckles' Chaotix (Europe)

Code: [Select]

<game name="Knuckles' Chaotix (Europe)">
<description>Knuckles' Chaotix (Europe)</description>
<rom name="Knuckles' Chaotix (Europe).32x" size="3145728" crc="41D63572" md5="4CE9E6B6E8883D8A678D90AABCE022D0" sha1="5C1A2E327A656217604D4BAE7E141764A7E59922"/>
</game>
<game name="Chaotix ~ Knuckles' Chaotix (Japan, USA)" cloneof="Knuckles' Chaotix (Europe)">
<description>Chaotix ~ Knuckles' Chaotix (Japan, USA)</description>
<rom name="Chaotix ~ Knuckles' Chaotix (Japan, USA).32x" size="3145728" crc="D0B0B842" md5="47B1095E68B053125CD2CD5B1AC4EB50" sha1="0C2FFF7BC79ED26507C08AC47464C3AF19F7CED7"/>
</game>
Is there a way to name the compressed archive Knuckles' Chaotix without the region tag, but still have the following roms contained within the archive
 - Knuckles' Chaotix (Europe).32x
 - Chaotix ~ Knuckles' Chaotix (Japan, USA).32x

I've tried a few different things but I can't seem to figure it out. Any help would be appreciated.

[Roman]

You can simply add a release tag to the parent set like <release name="Knuckles' Chaotix" region="EUR"/>.
In case of full-merged sets it will use that name then.

  <machine name="Knuckles' Chaotix (Europe)"> 
    <description>Knuckles' Chaotix (Europe)</description>
    <release name="Knuckles' Chaotix" region="EUR"/>
    <rom name="Knuckles' Chaotix (Europe).32x" size="3145728" crc="41D63572" md5="4CE9E6B6E8883D8A678D90AABCE022D0" sha1="5C1A2E327A656217604D4BAE7E141764A7E59922"/>
  </machine>
  <machine name="Chaotix ~ Knuckles' Chaotix (Japan, USA)" cloneof="Knuckles' Chaotix (Europe)">
    <description>Chaotix ~ Knuckles' Chaotix (Japan, USA)</description>
    <rom name="Chaotix ~ Knuckles' Chaotix (Japan, USA).32x" size="3145728" crc="D0B0B842" md5="47B1095E68B053125CD2CD5B1AC4EB50" sha1="0C2FFF7BC79ED26507C08AC47464C3AF19F7CED7"/>
  </machine>

[Specialt1212]

Thanks for the explanation.

Since I'm kinda of new to creating DAT files, I have a few additional questions

1. Does it matter if I type "machine name" vs "game name" in the DAT? Is there a difference?

2. What is the purpose of the "description" tag since it looks like it just repeats the same info in the "machine name" & "game name" tags with the exception of parent / clone relationship. Is the description tag necessary?

[Roman]

1) not really a difference....mame switched to machine a while ago, cmpro will parse both
2) the set name is usually a short name which is used for the file/archive (Mame still uses 8.3 naming in 99.9%). Description is a full descriptive name....which is not used for filenames though...it's more for frontends/cmpros output

[Specialt1212]

Thanks for the explanation, I appreciate it