The ssf.txt
file format consists of 1000's of rom names combined with frame numbers to be skipped for that rom. When the a game is loaded in MAME, the plugin loads ssf.txt
and looks for the rom name to determine how many frames to skip. The format is as follows:
<rom_name>,<startup_frames>
Example:
...
radm,14
radr,79
radrad,439
raflesia,15
ragnagrd,243
raiden,42
raiden2,30
raiders,550
raiders5,1443
raimais,529
rainbow,376
rallybik,517
rallyx,760
...
❗ ❗ For any given game, if it's frame target is missing from ssf.txt
, it will default to 0
.
Nothing terrible will happen if you do, but any changes/customizations to ssf.txt
will be 💣 overwritten if you install a new version of this plugin. Instead, add customizations to ssf_custom.txt
.
Any customizations to frame numbers should be added to ssf_custom.txt
. The format is the exact same as ssf.txt
. Additionally, any changes made to frames in the Plugin Options menu in MAME will be saved to ssf_custom.txt
when you exit MAME.
❗ ❗ A rom entry in ssf_custom.txt
WILL TAKE PRIORITY over the same rom entry in ssf.txt
.
Example:
ssf.txt
containsgalaga,870
- You add
galaga,900
tossf_custom.txt
- When starting up
galaga
the plugin will skip900
frames instead of870
👉 When the plugin first runs, it will create a blank ssf_custom.txt
in the plugin directory.
- A startup is when you initially start a game with MAME
- A soft reset is when you press F3, which instantly resets the game
- A hard reset is when you press SHIFT+F3, which exits the game and immediately starts it up again
- This plugin treats a startup and hard reset the same but a soft reset differently
A small number of games go through different procedures with a startup (or hard reset) vs. a soft reset. In these situations a soft reset requires a different number of frames that must be skipped. An example of this is the 1984 arcade game Zwackery.
⭐ To faciliate different frame values for soft resets, ssf.txt
and ssf_custom.txt
both support an additional, optional format:
<rom_name>,<startup_frames>|<reset_frames>
Example: zwackery,750|120
When starting up zwackery
750 frames will be skipped. If you perform a soft reset (F3), only 120 frames will be skipped.
ssf.txt
is an old file that was filled with frame numbers back in 2004 by dedicated members of the Build Your Own Arcade Controls forum.
The majority of startup frames are most likely still accurate from 2004 but a lot can change since then. New roms have been added to MAME. Some old roms might have been changed or redumped, resulting in different startup procedures. If you find any startup frames in ssf.txt
to be inaccurate or missing, you can easily contribute changes to the project so everyone can use them.
💻 Fork the repository, commit your changes to ssf.txt
and create a pull request back to the develop
branch of this repository. If approved, changes will make their way into a future release of the plugin. ❤️
For more information on forks, commits and pull requests, see Github's official documentation.
ssf_custom.txt
. It is not to be included in distribution of the plugin in order to prevent overwriting anyone's customizations.