Advice please on ROM testing

[LazerTag]

I'd like to really jump in and help Federelli with the INI he is building. I have yet to ever do testing like this myself, but I have about 50 ROMS that are not in his INI and figured what the hell. It's about time to give back to a community that has given me and my kids a bunch of fun.

So for those who have, What are some good steps to follow while testing?

I had been doing it like this using only [!] roms

1) Try it flat out
2) Switch Video plugins
3) "Compilermode=*" (trying modes 1 through 5)
4) "EEPromSize=2048" (without Compiler mode)
5) "Compilermode=*" (trying modes 1 through 5) and "EEPromSize=2048
6) Steps 3 through 5 with different video plugins


Is this too much or too little?
Should any of the steps be moved around?
What exactly is the comment for?
Is the "Freindly name" usually the exact game name?

How does the INI link each game to the ROM? (for example)

[Super Mario 64]
Friendlyname=Super Mario 64
Comment=E | Fully Playable

How does this entry know to look at my Super Mario 64 ROM image? Is it done by CRC somehow?

Any help would be great. I just want to make sure that I am being thourough, but not wasting time also. I also appear to be stupid on a few points of how the INI works.

 

[Lemmy]

Select the rom in the main window then click plugins|show rom settings

it will show three boxes with settings
[default] is for every game - less specific
second box is for every game with the same name
third box is for every game with THIS crc

a setting in box 3 will overwrite box 2 settings and box 2 and 3 overwrite 1 of course

 

[Harteex]

[Super Mario 64] means that the internal name in the rom is "Super Mario 64". That's how it knows the rom.

I prefer working in the ini file

 

[LazerTag]

Great! Thanks for helping to clear that up for me.

So does the way I am testing seem to be the most proficient while still being very thourough? or could I change something to work a bit faster without losing out on being accurate?

 

[Harteex]

I don't think you need to try EEPromSize=2048 with all compilermodes... just try it and see if there's any difference.

And since we're multiplugin, we choose the best result (usually Jabo's). So if it's perfect with Jabo's there's no need to try other plugins.

 

[Lemmy]

Well you really don't need to test all CompilerModes. Usually its ok to just test 3, as its the most compatible in theory. Of course if some game fails because of a bug you won't notice that way. But I don't think thats very likely.

CompilerMode=1 is default so no need to test that.

And about plugins: They usually don't affect compatibility (with donkeykong64 as an example). Just use whichever you like best.

 

[Federelli]

just test the roms, and if they work with at least one plugin, and perfectly, then the emu fully supports it

So far, the ini is only emulator wise, that's why it's multiplugin
but when we make it plugin wise, meaning, one ini per plugin... that will rock