[Arcade] PFEMame 3.9.2 05/10/26

pfeMame 3.9.2 5/10/26

• Removed some excessive use of the message window flasher if alert flashing is enabled.
• Fixed the status bar messages not showing on Linux while the ROMs database is built.  The progress bar was a separate window laid over the whole status bar, and on Linux it covered the messages.  It now has its own place in the status bar next to the message, and the messages update from the start, including while the machine list is first read from MAME.
• The Please Wait window is back when the ROMs database is built or refreshed.  It closes once the progress bar takes over.
• In the ROM download source window, any source that has credentials stored is now ticked by default, along with archive.org.  Adding credentials for a source also ticks it.
• Fixed the message window alert flash on Linux.  Only the background around the text flashed; now the whole window does, as on Windows.
• Fixed the retroroms.net ROM source never finding anything with older versions of MAME.  retroroms only keeps the latest MAME set, so pfeMAME now uses the set for your MAME version if it is there and otherwise the latest set.  The credentials Test button does the same.  ROMs from a newer set are marked as such in the results and are still checked against your MAME before you download them.
• Searching for a ROM online now shows each step in the status bar and the Please Wait window (connecting, logging in, checking archive.org item 3 of 25, downloading and checking each result with MAME, etc.).  The Please Wait window has a Cancel button for the search and for the final download.  The archive.org search now stops checking items after a minute, and checking a result with MAME gives up after two minutes, so a slow site can no longer make the search look stuck.
• Fixed the 'can't find default.cfg' message (when making a ROM's .map file) never appearing - an error was raised instead, so nothing seemed to happen.  Also fixed a failure to save the categories.dat file causing a second error instead of being logged.

pfeMame 3.9.1 29/09/26

• Fixed the Set Defaults button in the Alternate Emulators window.  It always reported ‘No emulators found in defaults file’ because the code looks for each engine wrapped in an <emulator> element, but non_mame_defaults.xml listed the fields one after another with no wrapper.  The file now wraps each engine in <emulator> (file version 1.1) and the reader accepts both layouts, so an older copy of the file still works.
• The Set Defaults button now reads non_mame_defaults.xml from the pfeMAME folder rather than the current working folder, so it works however pfeMAME is started.
• Added Rustrum ZX (ZX Spectrum 16K to +3 and ZX81 emulator) to the alternate emulator defaults: tape, snapshot, disk and microdrive extensions, with --frontend as the extra command.  That starts it fullscreen, Esc quits, and holding Start+Select on the gamepad for a second quits, so it can be launched and left from Tile View with a joystick.
• Software updates are now much faster.  SourceForge limits each download connection to about 300 KB/s for anything that isn't a web browser, so the updater now downloads in 8 parallel parts (125 MB in around 40 seconds instead of 6 to 7 minutes).  The updater window shows the speed and time left, has Cancel and Retry buttons, and retries automatically if the connection drops.
• Updates now only download the files that have changed.  The updater reads the list of files at the end of the release zip, compares it with your installed files and fetches just the changed ones - typically a few MB instead of 125 MB.  If anything unexpected happens it falls back to downloading the whole release.
• Every update is now checked against the checksum SourceForge publishes before anything is installed, and the update check now uses SourceForge's release information rather than reading the web page.
• Fixed a serious bug in the Linux / macOS updater that could delete your favourites, ratings, settings, ROM source logins and database cache during an update.  The updater also now cleans up its temporary files, and on Windows a failed copy is reported instead of being ignored.
• Installed versions now keep your settings and data files in your user profile folder (%APPDATA%pfeMAME on Windows, ~/Library/Application Support/pfeMAME on macOS, ~/.local/share/pfemame on Linux) so an update can never overwrite them.  They are copied there automatically the first time.  To keep everything in the pfeMAME folder instead (e.g. a copy on a USB stick), create an empty file called portable.txt in the pfeMAME folder.
• Rewrote the ROMs database build.  MAME's machine list is now read as it streams in rather than kept as a 330 MB xmlcache.dat file (the new cache is about 5 MB), memory use has dropped from over 700 MB to under 100 MB, and the build runs in the background so the window stays usable.  A rebuild from the cache takes about a second.  The multi-processor option is no longer needed and has been removed.
• Default slot settings now include sub-slots.  Loading the MAME defaults (or opening a system with no saved slots) now also adds the slots of each default device, e.g. the floppy drives on an IBM PC floppy controller card, to any depth.  Saved slot setups with sub-slots of sub-slots now reload correctly too.
• The slot device drop-downs now show the device name (e.g. 5.25" double density floppy drive (525dd)), and changing a device only replaces that slot's own sub-slots - it used to delete every slot row below it.
• Added slot presets.  You can save, load and delete named slot setups for each system, and copy the current setup as MAME command line options.
• Backups are now a single time-stamped zip file.  You are asked whether to include your saved online ROM source logins, your current files are saved before a restore, and pfeMAME restarts after a restore so everything is reloaded.  Older backup folders can still be restored.
• Fixed the view drop-down (All / Favorites / Exists / Watchlist) showing the Missing list in every language other than English.
• Fixed not being able to type a capital F in the search box.  Ctrl+P now opens the pfeMAME Preferences tab, Ctrl+Shift+P the ROM preferences, and F11 the full screen video player.
• The search box now understands field searches, e.g. cat:shooter, mfr:namco, year:1984, year:1980-1985, year:>1990, rating:>=4, runs:>10, is:fav, is:missing and is:system.  Put a - in front of a term to exclude it.  Hover over the search box for the full list.
• Added play statistics.  pfeMAME now records how long you play each ROM and system program, shows it in the status bar when you select one, and has two new views: Recently Played and Most Played.
• Added a software list browser (Tools tab, or right-click a system).  It lists everything in the system's software lists with its year, publisher and how well MAME supports it, shows which ones you have, and lets you play them from there.
• Added What's New in MAME (View tab).  After you update MAME, the next database build lists the new machines, the ones that now work and the ones that have been removed.
• ROM sets stored as folders (and CHD-only games) now show as existing, and multiple ROM folders in mame.ini (e.g. rompath roms;D:More ROMs) are now fully supported, including relative paths.
• Fixed ROMs and system programs with &, ^, | or % in their file name (e.g. Tom&Jerry.zip) not starting.  MAME is no longer started through the Windows command shell.
• Fixed a system's own INI file being lost if pfeMAME closed unexpectedly while a system program was running, and a system without its own INI file keeping a program's settings afterwards.  An INI file left over from a crash is now put back on start-up.
• Fixed system program favourites being saved under the system's name, and errors when removing a system program from favourites or adding one to the watchlist.
• Fixed the number of runs being added to whichever ROM was selected when a game finished rather than the one that was played.
• Online ROM and image searches now check website certificates, and your ROM source logins are never sent to a different website when a download is redirected.
• pfemame.ini and mame.ini are now saved safely so a crash can't leave a half-written file, and pfemame.ini is recreated if it is missing.
• Fixed Make mame.ini leaving pfeMAME working from the MAME folder, and a crash if the main window was closed while it was fading in.
• ffmpeg and ffprobe are now looked for in the pfeMAME folder and then on the system path.
• Added an automated test suite (the tests folder - run it with python -m pytest tests).
• Updated the language files with the new text.