Project Scope: "Hello Klaus!"

Klaus has a problem. Klaus has obtained a full ROM set for the current MAME version sporting over 18.000 games with a total filesize of over 40 GB! Klaus is excited. He runs the first game on the list, 005. The result is frustrating. Klaus does like Retro-games but this game from 1981 is just a tad too retro, with even C64 games looking better.

Ok, next game, 10yard. Graphics look good but american football is nothing that hits his nerve. Next game, 11beat. A black screen, nothing else happening. Strange, the game was declared as "Emulation: Good". Next game, 18w. "THIS GAME DOESN'T WORK". Bummer. Next: 1941. Awesome, works and plays great.

And so Klaus keeps trying all afternoon but finds that only a few games are actually fun to play. Many games don't work, some need input devices such as trackballs or light guns which Klaus doesn't have, and some other games simply are crap. Klaus starts looking for good MAME-games and finds a few Top-10-Lists on the internet. A good reference point but doesn't meet his taste that well.

There must be a way to make a good pre-selection. Most frontends can mask games not emulated correctly. That helps somewhat but sometimes the games are not classified correctly. It is possible to sort by release year to avoid the oldies with crappy graphics or the new games which aren't emulated well. And then there are lists such as catver.ini allowing to filter by preferred genres, or other databases to filter games by input device or screen orientation. But somehow this still is unsatisfying. MAME frontends cannot take advantage of the information available and most cannot move favourite games to a different directory or delete all others.

Hello Klaus, nice to meet you.
Coincidence - my name is Klaus too.