_arcade-organizer

A simple script to automate organizing MiSTer's _Arcade directory based on your MRA files.

These scripts do not duplicate any cores or mra files; only soft symlinks are used.

Note: These sylinks only work on MiSTer. If you mount your SD card outside of MiSTer, these symlinks will not work.

This script looks at what MRA files you have, and the information in them, to organize MiSTer's \_Arcade directory.

If the XLM tags for Year, Manufacturer, and Category are included in the MRA file, this script will create an \_Organized Directory in \_Arcade and will create the following sub-directories with soft sysmlinks to organize it:

_Organized
├── _1 A-E
├── _1 F-K
├── _1 L-Q
├── _1 R-T
├── _1 U-Z
├── _2 Year
├── _3 Manufacturer
└── _4 Category

Features

You can browse by:

• Region
• Rotation (0-90-180-270 ± flip)
• Resolution (15-24-31kHz)
• Platform
• Series
• Move Inputs (8-way, 4-way, 2-way)
• Special Controls (spinner, wheel, etc)
• Number of Players
• Number of Buttons
• Decades
• Best-of Lists
• Homebrew
• Bootleg.

"Top Additional Directories" toggle:

Allows you to include the extra folders that you choose in the top level of the organized directory: Platform, Core, Year

"Chronological Sorting at the Botom" toggle:

By enabling this, every directory will include an additional chronologically sorted index at the bottom of the list.

Clean Folders sub-script:

Can be run to delete all the Arcade Organizer folders

MAD metadata support:

• Support for the MAD metadata format allows improving the metadata of a game without having to change the game's MRA, being thus more flexible and lightweight.
• MAD database option: The new MAD_DB ini field allows you to you use different MAD databases with different metadata (for example, different categories).
• For resources for creating your own MAD database see: https://github.com/theypsilon/MAD_Database_MiSTer

Instructions

Download the update_arcade-organizer.sh to the Scripts directory and run.

Alternately, run the update_all.sh script, and press Up on the keyboard to enter options, and access the arcade organizer suboptions which will look like this:

You can optionally toggle to activate/deactivate specific folders. Deactivating unwanted folders will boost the speed of the script.

Disclaimer:

You should back up your _Arcade directory before running this script. Use at your own risk. This script comes with no warranty.

Note if you use non-default folder paths:

This script uses:

a DEFAULT LOCATION for _Arcade at /media/fat/_Arcade

and

a DEFAULT LOCATION for \_Organized at /media/fat/_Arcade/_Organized

If your \_Arcade directory is in a different location you MUST use a /media/fat/Scripts/update_arcade-organizer.ini file

If you're not using the default locations for \_Arcade and \_Organized, you must add their locations in /media/fat/Scripts/update_arcade-organizer.ini

FAQ

Q: How can I set my own custom locations for MRA and _Organized Directories?

A: A /media/fat/Scripts/update_arcade-organizer.ini file may be used to set custom location for your MRA files (Scans recursivly) and _Organized files. Add the following line to the ini file to set a directory for MRA files: MRADIR=/top/path/to/mra/files/_Arcade Add the following line to the ini file to set a directory for Organized files: ORGDIR=/path/to/organized/files/_Organized

Q:Will this script over write files I already have?

A: NO, This script will not clober files you already have.

Q: What If I get new MRA/Core files?

A: You need to re-run the script to have them included in the Organized files.