MAME XML Cheats Collection for MAME 0.129u5 (BETA Release)

This forum is for making announcements about updated cheat files (for any emulator), updated web pages and of course about improvements to the MAME/MESS cheat engine.
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Pugsy
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Post by Pugsy »

pepinos wrote:thanks stephh for your responce

can you tell me also, how i can make an xml file?

is there any faq link in the forum?
There is currently no faq in the forum/page with regards to making an xml file. For know you can look at the files for examples - xml files are just text files which you can open and edit in any text editor (eg notepadplusplus).

When cheat finding is re-added (some time in the future?) to MAME then MAME should make new xml files for games when you find cheats.
Pugsy

Servicing your cheating needs since 1985 8)

Grab the latest cheat collection:
MAME 0.259 XML cheat collection (6 OCTOBER 2023) from http://www.mamecheat.co.uk or direct from:-
https://mega.nz/file/q4dHGZ6K#i-EUiqIjH ... KMz7hnbTfw (ZIP Archive 3.76MB)
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Pugsy
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Post by Pugsy »

stephh wrote:
pepinos wrote:Pugsy

the F6 button doesnt work, if i want to deactivate the cheats of every game

can you fix it?
Pugsy can't fix it (he only works on the cheats, not on the functionalities), but he could report the bug on MAME Testers so Aaron can have a look ..
Well it's not actually a bug at the moment...as I see it it's just something that's not been coded (yet?). Like:-

Non-viewable comments
Non-wraparound select cheats
Select cheats (temp and perm) not operating as the old way with regards to pressing return to activate Set cheats
Cheat finding
Pugsy

Servicing your cheating needs since 1985 8)

Grab the latest cheat collection:
MAME 0.259 XML cheat collection (6 OCTOBER 2023) from http://www.mamecheat.co.uk or direct from:-
https://mega.nz/file/q4dHGZ6K#i-EUiqIjH ... KMz7hnbTfw (ZIP Archive 3.76MB)
ZED ZED
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Post by ZED ZED »

You may of seen this, but at MAME Chat board I brought up the subject of the cheat engine to gauge current level of progress (especially concerning cheat finding) and to alert/remind them of the outstanding issues.

anyway, I get told that cheat finding functionality is there! see quote below:-
That is entirely untrue. There is a debugger which can be used at any time with the normal builds (-debug). With observation and use of this debugger and it's integrated find and watchpoint commands - it's not difficult to find many basic + advanced cheats. In fact, all the new format cheats are essentially the same as actual debugger commands and it appears that the finder will be likely integrated into this debugger, not into the normal MAME menu:
how true the above is, i don't know.... :-?

and nice to know the bugs have been quashed - a good job just got better!
stephh
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Post by stephh »

Pugsy wrote:
stephh wrote:
pepinos wrote:Pugsy

the F6 button doesnt work, if i want to deactivate the cheats of every game

can you fix it?
Pugsy can't fix it (he only works on the cheats, not on the functionalities), but he could report the bug on MAME Testers so Aaron can have a look ..
Well it's not actually a bug at the moment...as I see it it's just something that's not been coded (yet?).
I think I found what is missing ... I'll try to find a "valid" way to code this tomorrow ... In the meantime, it could be mentionned somewhere as a reminder ...

BTW, if F6 toggles non-watches cheats ON/OFF, we could use Shift+F6 to open the search console when cheat finding is available ... What do you think about that ?
Like:-

Non-viewable comments
I still don't know if we'll have to convert them to comment cheats one day ... BTW, have you checked Aaron's answer about the UI bug ?
Non-wraparound select cheats
I guess this won't be done as it would completely change the UI (mainly the "Analog Controls" menu where values must NOT wrap ...
Select cheats (temp and perm) not operating as the old way with regards to pressing return to activate Set cheats
Again, this is specific to cheats and would "break" the UI handling ... It's just a question of (new) habit to learn ...
Cheat finding
Wait and see here ...

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ancients
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bug

Post by ancients »

hi everybody, I've found some bugs in king of fighter 2003, 2002,2000, 97 and in last blade2:

kof2003: every time you choose to play with a boss character you will find a rom error:

kof2002: rom don't work when the cheats are active

kof2000: rom don't work when cheats are active

kof97: rom don't work when cheats are active

lastblade2: rom don't work when cheats are active

I'm using mameui32 v127. Now i can't post images, i will upload them when i can post it.

p.s.: sorry for my bad english :wink:
stephh
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Re: bug

Post by stephh »

ancients wrote:hi everybody, I've found some bugs in king of fighter 2003, 2002,2000, 97 and in last blade2:

kof2003: every time you choose to play with a boss character you will find a rom error:

kof2002: rom don't work when the cheats are active

kof2000: rom don't work when cheats are active

kof97: rom don't work when cheats are active

lastblade2: rom don't work when cheats are active
You first need to also activate the "Skip RAM/ROM Checks" cheat, then activate your boss cheat(s), then reset the game ...

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ancients
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Re: bug

Post by ancients »

You first need to also activate the "Skip RAM/ROM Checks" cheat, then activate your boss cheat(s), then reset the game ...
I have activated the "Skip RAM/ROM Checks" and now the rom works, but when I activate a boss code it automatically choose a non boss player, maybe the code is wrong.
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Post by Pugsy »

I was in the process of posting this last night when all ztnet sites went down....
ZED ZED wrote:anyway, I get told that cheat finding functionality is there! see quote below:-
That is entirely untrue. There is a debugger which can be used at any time with the normal builds (-debug). With observation and use of this debugger and it's integrated find and watchpoint commands - it's not difficult to find many basic + advanced cheats.
Yes, it is 'possible' to find cheats with just the debugger. But, it is actually difficult with the debugger alone ..there's no NOT in there. It requires knowledge of the cpu assembler and a lot of work looking through the code for even relatively simple cheats like select character/infinite time where you don't have any certainty on how it's been coded. Lives is easier as you can make a reasonable guess at the start value and use successive finds but as there's no copy in the debugger window you have to compare the lists manually to find the commonality that points to the suspect addresses. And there can be several thousand addresses to compare (not easy).

There are other methods that can be used to find cheats in MAME using external programs but the amount of work involved can still be relatively massive compared with the typical 30 secs it takes to make a simple RAM cheat with the old cheat engine.
ZED ZED wrote:
In fact, all the new format cheats are essentially the same as actual debugger commands and it appears that the finder will be likely integrated into this debugger, not into the normal MAME menu:
how true the above is, i don't know.... :-?
The cheat engine uses debugger expressions rather than commands as it's not possible to use a command like "bp 1234,1,{pc=1250;g}" afaik :(

It is true the cheat functionality to start with will be added to the debugger. However, even if it's in the debugger it will still be a cheat search that currently doesn't exist (as these features are not currently in the debugger either).
Pugsy

Servicing your cheating needs since 1985 8)

Grab the latest cheat collection:
MAME 0.259 XML cheat collection (6 OCTOBER 2023) from http://www.mamecheat.co.uk or direct from:-
https://mega.nz/file/q4dHGZ6K#i-EUiqIjH ... KMz7hnbTfw (ZIP Archive 3.76MB)
ZED ZED
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Post by ZED ZED »

thanks Pugsy for your reply. Rather worrying I thought!

Anyway, i put most of your points to the person at the other board and Arron Giles replied with this:-
There will be new cheat-specific debugger commands added, specifically the ones involving taking snapshots and looking for values. I suspect when I'm done, they will be far more powerful and flexible than the previous ones. And certainly less hacky.

Whether or not we develop a fancy new UI for them has not been decided, but that will come later, if at all. Worrying about it at this point is silly. I know the desired functionality and it will be back in one form or another eventually.
it appears we'll just have to wait and see :-?
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Post by Pugsy »

I'm actually in no great hurry to see the cheat search functionality added (cheat finding is at the bottom of my like-to-see list for now). I need to concentrate on getting the MAME 0.126 cheat file uptodate. I have no intention on updating two different cheat formats and there's a lot of work that still needs doing that'll be easier to do with the MAME 0.126 (and the old cheat.c).

Once that is all done ( a few months) the cheat search functionaility may exist, so searching for cheats on the new games and manual downsizing/simplifying of the generated cheats may start to happen.

So if anybody has any old format cheats that you think are good enough for inclusion into the cheat file now's the time to get them posted or remind me of them - this way they will get converted into the new format and won't get lost.
Pugsy

Servicing your cheating needs since 1985 8)

Grab the latest cheat collection:
MAME 0.259 XML cheat collection (6 OCTOBER 2023) from http://www.mamecheat.co.uk or direct from:-
https://mega.nz/file/q4dHGZ6K#i-EUiqIjH ... KMz7hnbTfw (ZIP Archive 3.76MB)
pepinos
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Post by pepinos »

pugsy

the conversion of old cheat.dat, how i can make it into the new cheat format?
because i have some cheats too, that either have been deleted here, or they havent been released here
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Post by Pugsy »

pepinos wrote:pugsy

the conversion of old cheat.dat, how i can make it into the new cheat format?
because i have some cheats too, that either have been deleted here, or they havent been released here
Send me the cheats you want converting...if they are good enough to add to the cheat dat file I will do so. I will convert whatever cheats I don't add into a large xml file for you to add manually.
Pugsy

Servicing your cheating needs since 1985 8)

Grab the latest cheat collection:
MAME 0.259 XML cheat collection (6 OCTOBER 2023) from http://www.mamecheat.co.uk or direct from:-
https://mega.nz/file/q4dHGZ6K#i-EUiqIjH ... KMz7hnbTfw (ZIP Archive 3.76MB)
pepinos
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Post by pepinos »

thanks pugsy

untill midnight i will sent you the cheats
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Re: bug

Post by Pugsy »

ancients wrote:
You first need to also activate the "Skip RAM/ROM Checks" cheat, then activate your boss cheat(s), then reset the game ...
I have activated the "Skip RAM/ROM Checks" and now the rom works, but when I activate a boss code it automatically choose a non boss player, maybe the code is wrong.
What's the cheat called exactly and what game is it? 'Boss code' is not enough info
Pugsy

Servicing your cheating needs since 1985 8)

Grab the latest cheat collection:
MAME 0.259 XML cheat collection (6 OCTOBER 2023) from http://www.mamecheat.co.uk or direct from:-
https://mega.nz/file/q4dHGZ6K#i-EUiqIjH ... KMz7hnbTfw (ZIP Archive 3.76MB)
asper
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THANK YOU VERY MUCH !

Post by asper »

Your effort is really appreciated ! THANK YOU ALL !
ferlanga
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Post by ferlanga »

Theres another bug in Last Blade 2: both characters have 3 win marks each (just a graphical bug, doesnt affect the gameplay)


EDIT: found another bug in Asura Blade concerning cheat.zip; the game completely skips the character selection screen.
Cibomatto2002
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Galaga(Namco rev. B) and clones

Post by Cibomatto2002 »

This game will not boot up all the way with the Cheat.zip in the MAME folder.

I get RAM OK ROM 01

Now if I take the cheat.zip out of the folder the game will run.
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Re: Galaga(Namco rev. B) and clones

Post by Pugsy »

Cibomatto2002 wrote:This game will not boot up all the way with the Cheat.zip in the MAME folder.

I get RAM OK ROM 01

Now if I take the cheat.zip out of the folder the game will run.
This is related to this Mame Testers bug report:-

http://mametesters.org/mantis/view.php?id=2188

For it to work you will need to delete the Select Starting Stage cheat from the xml for the time being. Hopefully there will be a fix in u3.
Pugsy

Servicing your cheating needs since 1985 8)

Grab the latest cheat collection:
MAME 0.259 XML cheat collection (6 OCTOBER 2023) from http://www.mamecheat.co.uk or direct from:-
https://mega.nz/file/q4dHGZ6K#i-EUiqIjH ... KMz7hnbTfw (ZIP Archive 3.76MB)
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Pugsy
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Post by Pugsy »

ferlanga wrote:Theres another bug in Last Blade 2: both characters have 3 win marks each (just a graphical bug, doesnt affect the gameplay)


EDIT: found another bug in Asura Blade concerning cheat.zip; the game completely skips the character selection screen.
These are likely to be both related to the same cheat engine bug/feature too. Hopefully there will be a fix in u3.
Pugsy

Servicing your cheating needs since 1985 8)

Grab the latest cheat collection:
MAME 0.259 XML cheat collection (6 OCTOBER 2023) from http://www.mamecheat.co.uk or direct from:-
https://mega.nz/file/q4dHGZ6K#i-EUiqIjH ... KMz7hnbTfw (ZIP Archive 3.76MB)
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Pugsy
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Post by Pugsy »

The Cheats XML Collection has now been updated to take into consideration the fact that 0.127u3 contains the fix for the OFF default option. This is a minor change to the converter so hopefully the minimum testing I've done on the changes should be sufficient. Any issues let me know.

I've updated the links in the OP (Original Post) to point to the newest collection. Use it with 0.127u3 or later.
Pugsy

Servicing your cheating needs since 1985 8)

Grab the latest cheat collection:
MAME 0.259 XML cheat collection (6 OCTOBER 2023) from http://www.mamecheat.co.uk or direct from:-
https://mega.nz/file/q4dHGZ6K#i-EUiqIjH ... KMz7hnbTfw (ZIP Archive 3.76MB)
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