question about naming tables, flyers, screens, etc.

[gwent]

I'm a bit confused over the whole naming issues with visual pinball. My old pinball setup was such a mess, I decided to start over again. I have the roms from this site, and all the tables and screenshots from irpinball.org. But the tables (which, as you all know, come in .zip files) are such a mess. Often, each zip will contain flyers which are not named the same as the table itself, and often the rules, if any, are named something like "readme.txt" or "rules.txt".

With mame, it so simple because the roms have only 1 name, and all additional content (flyers,titles,marquees,screens) are named appropriately and can be verified through clrmamepro. With VP, as is the case with most emulators also, the same tables can be named pretty much anything depending on what site the table came from. So how do people here get the rules, flyers, and screens matched up to the tables? I'm assuming that the additional files should be named the same as the table, is that correct? If so, then shouldn't there be a more standardized method of grabbing matched tables and extras? I'm just trying to figure out how I should go about this. Thanks.

 

[yogiholzer]

As you apparently use a frontend for VP/VPM, you have to find out the naming conventions. Using VP-Man you need to name the associated files same as the table names, but with the right file extension (jpg/png) and put them into the right folders of VP-Man.

 

[gwent]

Actually, I am using VPLauncher. But what happens when a table gets updated? Often times the naming changes with each update. Does that mean that you have to rename the tables as they are updated to the old table name? Does VPLauncher work the same as VP-Man regarding renaming?

 

[Dragonslayer]

I need help,can someone tell me where can i downloaded the rules,screenshot and flyer pack for Vplauncher.Thanx. Sorry for my bad english....

 

[mwcrain]

I need help,can someone tell me where can i downloaded the rules,screenshot and flyer pack for Vplauncher.Thanx. Sorry for my bad english....

http://www.scholzroland.de/VPLauncher/

 

[yogiholzer]

Actually, I am using VPLauncher. But what happens when a table gets updated? Often times the naming changes with each update. Does that mean that you have to rename the tables as they are updated to the old table name? Does VPLauncher work the same as VP-Man regarding renaming?

I'm sorry, I'm not informed how VPLauncher works exactly in detail.

You can try this: View the VPLauncher.dat file and search for the tables you want to implement screenshots, flyers ... to. Look for the *.jpg entries to get the filenames.

I.e. entry for Addams Family Gold there:

Addams Family - Addams Family Gold\v7.1\$838571CB\PacDude / Boris\1992\Midway Mfg. Co., a subsidiary of WMS Industries, Inc.\VPinMame\Addams Family Addams Family Gold7.1.jpg/the_addams_family-1992-f-1.jpg/the_addams_family-1992-f-2.jpg\TAF_Rules\y\\

If the table still isn't in the VPLauncher.dat file, you have to create a new table entry yourself. The backslashes seperate the different table informations. If you don't know, don't put any data into the fields => \\.

 

[gwent]

Thanks, Pinball Nirvana Forums - View Profile: yogiholzer@@AMEPARAM@@View Profile: yogiholzer</title>@@AMEPARAM@@yogiholzer

I discovered that VPLauncher actually has a feature to import screenshots. So regardless of the names of the tables, I can play the table, hit printscreen on my keyboard, exit the table, and then right-click on the table listing in VPLauncher and select "Take over screenshot from clipboard". Then it is automatically saved as the same name as the table itself. The only thing is you have to do that for every single table. Of course, If I want to use the flyers and rules, I have to rename those to match individually. That's a royal pain.

The links on the site mwcrain referred to no longer works. The links to the screenshot/rules/flyer packs seem to link over to vpforums.com, which seems to be down. The thing with those packs is, aren't those assuming your tables are named a certain way? So if the tables in my directory don't match exactly as they should to the packs, then those won't work. That's the problem - I'd have to click on each separate "read_me.txt" rule file for every single game and rename it to match the table in order for it to work. The same with the flyers. That's a lot of work when you have close to a thousand tables.

Anyways, I appreciate the help. I wish there was an easier way to get this all set up. The packs are a great idea, but the naming thing kind of makes the whole thing so much more complicated.

 

[bob]

gwent, the flyers and ROMs are from real pinball manufacturers, but the VP and FP table conversions are just recreations by fans of Pinball tables. We name our own creations or table files whatever we feel like naming them, some of us fill in the info page and some of us don't, there are different author versions, mods of tables, etc.... Anyone can create a table, duplicates are welcome, but give it a different filename is all we ask.

Now, if you want to download a collection of screenshots and flyers, rules and other files and the VPLauncher Dat files, just login to VPForums.Org and then go to this page.

http://vpforums.org/index.php?automodule=downloads&cmd=viewcat&cat_id=17

 

[Phoenixx]

Roland (VPLauncher) has a Homepage too.

http://www.rolandscholz.de/

The site even has a link to email him in case somebody would like to ask him for an update to the VPLauncher.dat,...


As for the naming thing, not surprising, since it is virtually impossible to organize anything in this so-called community. Where other scenes have standards and organisation there is only ego here, and if my assessment is correct then this is not going to change anytime soon either,...