New Dat Program: ZapManager

[FitzRoy]

You might be interested to know that a friend and I have developed a new auditing tool called "ZapManager" as an alternative to clrmamepro and RomCenter. Check it out at: www.zapatabase.com

First, it uses a much simpler formatting to make manual editing more pleasant:

1 line per entry instead of 3-5 lines per entry, shortening dats significantly, thereby reducing scrolling significantly and ending the need to indent.
Since value types are easy to identify without tags and are always in the same order, a format with universal separators is used (CSV), ending the need to tag.
Redundant "name, description, rom name" consolidated into just "filename".
Seemingly pointless use of three hash values consolidated into one currently unspoofable hash (SHA-256).

The program also performs checks against formatting errors and will tell you the error type and location (read the included text file for info on these checks). So if you've ever accidentally screwed something up while mass replacing text, you'll no longer be clueless as to where.

I work on a modest number of Nintendo systems and this project was borne of that, but any project is free to create and distribute their own ZapManager CSV databases.

[ghost]

I'll give it a try thanks, but from the looks of it, it definetely needs more features. I understand is still v1.0 but atm I don't think it can replace clrmamepro. And I hate that thing.

BTW are you interested in a dumping software too? 

[FitzRoy]

I'll give it a try thanks, but from the looks of it, it definetely needs more features. I understand is still v1.0 but atm I don't think it can replace clrmamepro. And I hate that thing.

Thanks much for trying it. I'd like to keep it simple, but am very open to suggestions. For 1.01, I'm definitely going to make folder navigation start in the executable's folder. Bit of an oversight, really.

BTW are you interested in a dumping software too? 

I've considered a program that reads headers, but GameHeader is already pretty good. It just doesn't output to rows of cells, every game is a 20-line list of values. What kind of dumping software is needed? I can't do much with "needs features" and "need dumping software." More substance would help.