ATTN Ian : cheat engine bugs, questions and propositions ...

[Guest]

I'm currently using the OFFICIAL DOS build of MAME, and I can't check the source files for the moment

Do you remember the bug when you have multiple cheat databases in your MAME.CFG file (eg: "CHEAT.DAT;WIPCHEAT.DAT;CHEAT_UK.DAT") ? I though we had already fixed that, but when there seems to be a wrong reference when you save the watches Also note that they are saved with type 998 (which is IMO good though) ...

I also found a strange bug with the activation key : if you select a key from the keypad, it doesn't (for example) display "2 PAD", but "2" ... So, when you press '2' to start a 2 players game, it also activate the cheat BTW, why do you need to press "Enter" once you've selected the activation key ? Most of the time I press "Tab" to exit the sub-menu, and it displays "Tab" as the activation key and it doesn't exit

In the "Configure Watchpoints" menu, is there a way to copy a watch ? In the old cheat engine, you could do this by pressing "F4" ...

Could the watches for linked cheats be displayed as a n byte watch insted of using multiple watches ? Here is what I mean :

00 00 00

instead of

00
00
00

This would save watches, and they will be easier to read when you have MANY watches ON ...

Is there a way to create linked cheats from the watches ? For example, I have a watch at address 0x1234 and another at address 0x5678, and I want a linked cheat that uses these 2 addresses ... This doesn't seem to be possible, as you can't select types 500+ BTW, if you have a 3 bytes watch, does the cheat engine add it as 3 linked cheats ? I haven't made the test yet ...

Could you add an "autosave cheats on exit" option ? Even if you don't have it in the .CFG/.INI file, that I must turn it ON for each game, I REALLY need such thing ! What it should do is simple : save ALL cheats from the current game to the cheat file when you exit ...

"Tourniquet" needed a "reload cheat database" option ... This option is very useful, but I'd also like to have a "merge cheat database" option ... What it should do is simple : prompt the user for a cheat database name, then append the cheats to the end of the existing cheat list ...

Last question is about the "bit-related" cheat engine : when do you plan to include it in an OFFICIAL MAME release ? I need to know this because I'll then release a FULL cheat database, as if the previous MAME version was the "final" version before I convert it to the new format ...

To answer your question about adding a line in the .CFG or .INI file : this isn't really difficult, but the problem is that such thing is OS-dependant, so you must be sure that ALL versions can support it ...

Sorry for this long post ... Thanks by advance for what you can do ?

Steph from The Ultimate Patchers

e-mail : stephh@europe.com

[ianpatt]

On 2001-10-03 08:23, Anonymous wrote:

Do you remember the bug when you have multiple cheat databases in your MAME.CFG file (eg: "CHEAT.DAT;WIPCHEAT.DAT;CHEAT_UK.DAT") ? I though we had already fixed that, but when there seems to be a wrong reference when you save the watches Also note that they are saved with type 998 (which is IMO good though) ...

Fixed.

I also found a strange bug with the activation key : if you select a key from the keypad, it doesn't (for example) display "2 PAD", but "2" ... So, when you press '2' to start a 2 players game, it also activate the cheat

That's a problem with the keyboard input code (in the MAME core.) I'll look in to it.

BTW, why do you need to press "Enter" once you've selected the activation key ? Most of the time I press "Tab" to exit the sub-menu, and it displays "Tab" as the activation key and it doesn't exit

Fixed. Now the edit field automatically deactivates after you press a key.

In the "Configure Watchpoints" menu, is there a way to copy a watch ? In the old cheat engine, you could do this by pressing "F4" ...

Added. Press W in either the "Select Watch" or "Configure Watch" menus to duplicate the selected watch.

Could the watches for linked cheats be displayed as a n byte watch insted of using multiple watches ? Here is what I mean :

00 00 00

instead of

00
00
00

This would save watches, and they will be easier to read when you have MANY watches ON ...

Multi-byte watches can only watch consecutive memory addresses.

Is there a way to create linked cheats from the watches ? For example, I have a watch at address 0x1234 and another at address 0x5678, and I want a linked cheat that uses these 2 addresses ... This doesn't seem to be possible, as you can't select types 500+

Not using the current engine. You can't link type 998 cheats.

BTW, if you have a 3 bytes watch, does the cheat engine add it as 3 linked cheats ? I haven't made the test yet ...

It does now.

Could you add an "autosave cheats on exit" option ? Even if you don't have it in the .CFG/.INI file, that I must turn it ON for each game, I REALLY need such thing ! What it should do is simple : save ALL cheats from the current game to the cheat file when you exit ...

Is it OK if it saves all newly created cheats on close? I can also add an option which saves all the cheats, but I don't want to duplicate pre-existing cheats, making the cheat database grow every time you quit.

If so, that's done now.

"Tourniquet" needed a "reload cheat database" option ... This option is very useful, but I'd also like to have a "merge cheat database" option ... What it should do is simple : prompt the user for a cheat database name, then append the cheats to the end of the existing cheat list ...

Can't this be done easily in a text editor? If it's important, I can add support for it, though.

Last question is about the "bit-related" cheat engine : when do you plan to include it in an OFFICIAL MAME release ? I need to know this because I'll then release a FULL cheat database, as if the previous MAME version was the "final" version before I convert it to the new format ...

Once I finish the user interface part. The core is 98% done, but the user interface is only 30% (estimate) done.

To answer your question about adding a line in the .CFG or .INI file : this isn't really difficult, but the problem is that such thing is OS-dependant, so you must be sure that ALL versions can support it ...

If I create the file using the same method that the rest of the core uses to store dip switches/input settings everything should be fine.

Sorry for this long post ... Thanks by advance for what you can do ?

It's fine, I just hope the board handles the long reply.

Will post the new version after testing it some.

- Ian Patterson

(cleaned up quote tags)

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: ianpatt on 2001-10-03 17:57 ]</font>

[ianpatt]

OK, I've tested everything and it appears to work correctly.

Also, I'm pretty sure the issue with the number pad and activation keys is only with DOS MAME, it didn't show up in MacMAME or normal MAME.

Update here.

- Ian Patterson

[stephh]

Thanks for your fixes ! As I don't know how to quote you, I'll try to correctly reply to your post ...

First thing I'd to know is if you have sent the fixes to MAME team ...

I'm wondering how you know how to save the "new" cheats only ... As for adding ALL cheats of the curerent game to the cheat database, this isn't a problem to me because I always save the cheats in an alternate EMPTY cheat database ... But after all, it's an option that should be set to "OFF" by default ...

The "merge" cheat database is useful : I don't want to always load my FULL cheat database, but it is sometimes needed when some cheats seem to be wrong (eg: clones with different addresses) ... This is also to be sure that I don't alter the cheat databases and/or the .cfg file each time ...

Dip Switches and Inputs settings are NOT in text file (and that's why it's hard to fix them without the source files !) ... The cheat databases MUST be UNZIPPED TEXT files !

Have a nice week-end ...

Steph from The Ultimate Patchers

e-mail : stephh@europe.com

[ianpatt]

On 2001-10-05 12:32, stephh wrote:
Thanks for your fixes ! As I don't know how to quote you, I'll try to correctly reply to your post ...

Press the "Quote" button below the message you want to reply to. Then, just make quote tags around the sections you want quoted. The BBcode FAQ has more information.

First thing I'd to know is if you have sent the fixes to MAME team ...

Not yet. I sent in the version just before these fixes, and I'm waiting to see if there are any other problems.

I'm wondering how you know how to save the "new" cheats only

When a cheat is created (except during load time) it is marked as a new cheat. On exit, all marked cheats are saved. I was considering having all _modified_ cheats be saved, but I often modify pre-existing cheats for temporary use, and I wouldn't want them to be saved.

As for adding ALL cheats of the curerent game to the cheat database, this isn't a problem to me because I always save the cheats in an alternate EMPTY cheat database ... But after all, it's an option that should be set to "OFF" by default ...

OK. So.. until there is some sort of options support, should I add it as a command in the Options menu?

The "merge" cheat database is useful : I don't want to always load my FULL cheat database, but it is sometimes needed when some cheats seem to be wrong (eg: clones with different addresses) ... This is also to be sure that I don't alter the cheat databases and/or the .cfg file each time ...

Oh. I just misread what the option should do. Added.

Dip Switches and Inputs settings are NOT in text file (and that's why it's hard to fix them without the source files !) ... The cheat databases MUST be UNZIPPED TEXT files !

I'm not planning on creating any binary files.

- Ian Patterson

[stephh]

Until I get official MAME source files to compile my own version with your fixes, I'm still working with MAME 0.55 cheat engine, and I found some new other "bugs" I'll also add some suggestions ...

When you edit a watch, and try to change the address, the 'A' and 'D' key are active ! This means that pressing 'D' removes the watch, and sets its address to 0

When you add a subcheat, it is ALWAYS first (why not ?), but it's address is 0 ! Couldn't you set it by default to the same address as the old first one ?

I may be dumb, but I haven't found any way to remove a cheat from the list : the 'D' key doesn't seem to have any effect when you are in the "activate cheat" sub-menu

About linked cheats, you told me that you couldn't use ONE watch ... But when the addresses are contiguous, can't you do so ? IMO, it shouldn't be difficult to test that address2 = address1 + 1 ...

Couldn't there be a way to enter the "edit cheat" sub-menu when you are in the "activate cheat" one (with Ctrl + Enter for example) ? It's a pain to have to press Tab, change the menu each time Furthermore, you could easily do this with the old cheat engine by pressing F3 ...

Now that you have added the possibility to copy the watches, couldn't you do the same to copy the cheats while you are in the "activate cheat" sub-menu ?

Last request (for the moment) : when one match is found, you automatically add it to the cheat list (that's a good idea here !) ... But could you also add it as a watch ? This is useful for timer/energy cheats to check what is the max. value ...

I hope that this won't be too much work ...

Steph from The Ultimate Patchers

e-mail : stephh@europe.com

[ianpatt]

On 2001-10-10 07:43, stephh wrote:
When you edit a watch, and try to change the address, the 'A' and 'D' key are active ! This means that pressing 'D' removes the watch, and sets its address to 0

This is fixed in the latest version.

When you add a subcheat, it is ALWAYS first (why not ?), but it's address is 0 ! Couldn't you set it by default to the same address as the old first one ?

Yes, but I'd rather have it create an empty subcheat. It's a bit less confusing. You should be able to just type your new address in pretty fast...

I may be dumb, but I haven't found any way to remove a cheat from the list : the 'D' key doesn't seem to have any effect when you are in the "activate cheat" sub-menu

Try the "edit cheat" menu. You can't make any changes from the "activate cheat" menu; I don't want people who don't mean to be editing cheats adding/erasing cheats (especially now that the engine saves new cheats.)

About linked cheats, you told me that you couldn't use ONE watch ... But when the addresses are contiguous, can't you do so ? IMO, it shouldn't be difficult to test that address2 = address1 + 1 ...

Yes. Updated.

Couldn't there be a way to enter the "edit cheat" sub-menu when you are in the "activate cheat" one (with Ctrl + Enter for example) ? It's a pain to have to press Tab, change the menu each time Furthermore, you could easily do this with the old cheat engine by pressing F3 ...

With the way that the MAME menu system works, this is actually much harder than it sounds. If I can figure out a way to do it without adding a dirty hack, OK.

Now that you have added the possibility to copy the watches, couldn't you do the same to copy the cheats while you are in the "activate cheat" sub-menu ?

I don't want the "activate cheat" sub-menu to have the possibility of creating new cheats. Press Shift-A in the "edit cheat" menu to duplicate a cheat.

Last request (for the moment) : when one match is found, you automatically add it to the cheat list (that's a good idea here !) ... But could you also add it as a watch ? This is useful for timer/energy cheats to check what is the max. value ...

I think there are too many cases where you would not want a watch added.

...

I will post a download link once I can get the new source up. (sent e-mail to Pugsy)

- Ian Patterson

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: ianpatt on 2001-10-11 22:33 ]</font>

[Pugsy]

The latest cheat engine source is up at:-

http://cheat.retrogames.com/ian/cheat.zip

[stephh]

Steph: When you add a subcheat, it is ALWAYS first (why not ?), but it's address is 0 ! Couldn't you set it by default to the same address as the old first one ?

Ian: Yes, but I'd rather have it create an empty subcheat. It's a bit less confusing. You should be able to just type your new address in pretty fast...

Now that there is no bug with the keys, this should be OK

Ian: Try the "edit cheat" menu. You can't make any changes from the "activate cheat" menu; I don't want people who don't mean to be editing cheats adding/erasing cheats (especially now that the engine saves new cheats.)

I see your point of view ... Even if I have read the FAQ (which should be updated IMO), this cheat engine is new to me : I still have some (bad) habits of the old one

Steph: About linked cheats, you told me that you couldn't use ONE watch ... But when the addresses are contiguous, can't you do so ? IMO, it shouldn't be difficult to test that address2 = address1 + 1 ...

Ian: Yes. Updated.

Really cool

Steph: Couldn't there be a way to enter the "edit cheat" sub-menu when you are in the "activate cheat" one (with Ctrl + Enter for example) ? It's a pain to have to press Tab, change the menu each time Furthermore, you could easily do this with the old cheat engine by pressing F3 ...

Ian: With the way that the MAME menu system works, this is actually much harder than it sounds. If I can figure out a way to do it without adding a dirty hack, OK.

Now that I have your last source file, and that I should be able to compil my own version of MAME, I'll have a look and let you know ...

Steph: Now that you have added the possibility to copy the watches, couldn't you do the same to copy the cheats while you are in the "activate cheat" sub-menu ?

I don't want the "activate cheat" sub-menu to have the possibility of creating new cheats. Press Shift-A in the "edit cheat" menu to duplicate a cheat.

I'll give this a go ...

I hope that you'll see the quotes ...

Steph from The Ultimate Patchers

e-mail : stephh@europe.com