English COMMAND.DAT History

2/17/2007 Well... after nearly a two year hiatus, I discovered that Fabricio da Silva Coroquer had been providing massive updates and corrections to the command.dat and I figured I should incorporate them in to the official file. His work was a sweeping touch-up to nearly every fighting game in the file, as well as some new additions of his own. However, he did not provide other info such as Non-Fighting game instructions, or any of the Mini-Manuals, so I merged his changes into the official file, and have produced an update, but only for the shorthand version of the file, as I dread to attempt a conversion back to long hand. Personally, I have been dedicating a lot more of my time as a contributor to StrategyWiki, where we are also building a set fighting games moves list (and we would love some more contributors). Anyway, for the few who still care about this file, here's an update with all of the missing Neo Geo games added in.

5/25/2005 Here it is, the new revision of the command.dat. All of the old codes have been replaced by the new codes, and the file has been optimized to take advantage of the changes. This is only the beginning, more changes will be coming to take advantage of the updates. The latest additions from Minoplis have been added to the shorthand version, and Andre has submitted the longhand version of Top Hunter, as well as a new entry for Asura Blade. That is the last update that has made it in to the legacy version of the command.dat.

5/18/2005 OK, sorry for the delay on this update, there has been a lot of work being done to the source code that supports the command.dat so there is a big change coming up. As you can see on the main home page for the dat, this is the last release for any MAME that is version 0.96u1 or below. As of v0.96u2, there will be improved support for the dat but the codes have changed slightly, so if you try the original dat with the new version it won't look right. Anyway in this version we have a lopsided update. Minoplis added Fight Fever, Final Fight Revenge, Golden Axe - The Duel, Mortal Kombat 4, and War Gods. The thing is they are currently only in the long hand version. Additionally, Andre provided more corrections to King of Fighters 95 as well as a new entry for Top Hunter, but that entry can only be found in the short hand version. I will have this straightened out after the next release hopefully. Hang in there.

5/11/2005 This will teach me not to put off adding Minoplis's updates to the dat for too long... get a load of this: he's added Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition, Samurai Shodown 64, Fighter's History, Virtua Fighter 2, and Sonic Champions. (Please note that SS64 is not officially added to MAME at this time.) If that weren't enough, he also fixed up Tattoo Assasin's, Survival Arts, Dragon Ball Z 2, Jojo's Venture, Power Instinct 1, 2, and 3, Street Fighter: The Movie, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Unbelievable. Additionally, a new contributor, Andre Luiz Dias da Silva contributed some very important fixes to King of Fighter's 94. Thanks Andre. And lastly, I've put up the first part of the author's guide. I still have to add pictures to it, so it's not complete, but take a look at it for a preview of the final product.

5/10/2005 The entire page is updated and reformatted! Now there is an official Game's List on the site that credits each author. The Author's Guide is coming soon.

5/8/2005 The shorthand command.dat is officially released!

5/6/2005 part 2: The command.dat gets even more legit with a readme.txt file and a command.txt file that lets you know every game that is supported by the command.dat so far. This is all in preperation for the big debut of the shorthand version. Hopefully I'll be able to whip this site in to shape too...

5/6/2005: It's almost ready... the short hand version is just days away from being released. In the process of working on the shorthand version, I have been able to find a number of mistakes and errors in the original version, so I'm posting an update tonight that has no new content, just corrections.

5/4/2005: I never thought I'd actually see the day when the command.dat was this complete. Of course, the command.dat will never truely be complete, but it now covers every fighting game that most people have the slightest familiarity with, and thanks to all of the contributers, many more. Today's update is courtesy of myself and Minoplis again. Minoplis has added an entry for Street Fighter I, as well as submitting fixes for Global Champions and Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. I added in more Mini-Manuals for Dig Dug, Jr. Pac-Man, Mario Bros., Q*Bert, Stargate, and Super Pac-Man. Enjoy!

5/3/2005: Minoplis's tireless efforts had come through again. I can't believe how much he added this time. Try: Jojo's Venture/ Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (Two CPS3 games), Global Champions/Kaiser Knuckle/Dan-Ku-ga, Primal Rage 2, Burning Rival (a system 32 fighting game from SEGA), Martial Champion (From Konami), Dragonball Z and Dragonball Z 2 - Super Battle (these two were made by Banpresto). And as if that wasn't enough, some fixes for KOFs 94, 95, 96, 97, tattoo Assasins and Fatal Fury 3. I also added Mini-Manuals for Frenzy and Millipede, and fixed up a little formatting.

5/2/2005: My eyeballs feel like they're on fire... I transcribed FAQs for the movelists of Killer Instinct 1 and 2, and for Plasma Sword. The move to the shorthand list will come very very soon. Minoplis will soon be submitting the rest of the missing games, as well as some extras.

5/1/2005: I have a whopper of an update today, mostly thanks to Minoplis who manages to do a fantastic job uncovering rather obscure games that I was for the most part completely unaware of. This time around, he's added Power Instinct 1, 2, and 3, Holloseum, Survivor Arts, and Street Fighter: The Movie (this one has to be seen to be believed...), as well as fixing some typos id Tattoo Assasins. I personally added Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, as well as four new mini-manuals: Asteroids Deluxe, Berzerk, Centipede, and Defender. Enjoy!

4/27/2005: After a healthy break, I have returned with a healthy update, four new fighters. I added Star Gladiator, and Street Fighter III part 1 and 2. And Minoplis is back in action with his obscure contribution of a Mortal Kombat like fighter that never made it past prototype, Tattoo Assasins. So few fighting games left. Keep the contributions coming!

4/21/2005: Who knew writing mini-manuals could be so much fun? I enjoyed writing them so much, I wrote six more. Asteroids, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Galaga, Galaxian, and Space Invaders. More will be on the way. No new fighters tonight :)

4/20/2005: I'm beginning to think I'm starting to have too much fun with this file now. Today I added Battle Arena TohShinDen 2 to the dat, as well as finishing up adding some Common Commands to the games I first did. However, I took a drastic departure today as well, and wrote up an entry for Pac-Man, and Ms. Pac-Man. Yes, you read that right. I'm going to start doing mini game manuals for some of the more popular classic games. Unlike the MAMEInfo.dat and History.dat, which write a little bit about every game, I plan to write a large entry, but only about a few games. If you're a big video game history buff and would like a little laugh, check out Pong.

4/19/2005: Where to begin for today? Well, for one thing, I've added Rival Schools and Primal Rage. I never realized how weird Primal Rage's command system is, requiring the player to hold buttons down first, and then enter the move. Makes for some interesting motions. Moreover, I did a top to bottom search for some mistakes, particular comma errors, and patched as many as I could find. I corrected the buttons in Cyberbots, and then I finally began to add Common Commands for many of the original Capcom games I worked on when I first began the English command.dat. A lot of authors have surpassed me in thoroughness so I'd like to try to catch up. I only got through about half of them tonight, I will finish the rest tomorrow. Also, does anyone know a good source for Primal Rage II moves? I couldn't find any on gamefaqs.com. Thanks.

4/18/2005: OK, this is a very serious update today. After a discussion with Haze and R. Belmont, I have decided to bring the command.dat in line with MAME dev regulations by removing entries that pertained to games which are not officially supported by MAME, specifically the most recent Neo Geo games. They will return as soon as those games are added to MAME. However, the good news is that I have added my first personal submission in quite a while. I added the Street Fighter EX series. I know these games are difficult to play in MAME, but it's a tiny step closer to completing the file.

4/17/2005: Woo-hoo, an update in two days, now this is more like it, huh? ^_^ OK, this time, Hanzo resubmitted his KOF2003 and SamSho5 commands in long hand format, which is great because the conversion process to making the entire file short hand will be much easier as a result of this. We're down to just one more missing Neo-Geo game, but it sounds like Hanzo will be wrapping that up for us in the near future.

4/15/2005: OK, so it's been a little while, huh? Well, this update is about half a year late. Minoplis sent an update to me on October 7th, but unfortunately I fell off updating the dat so the update sat forever until I decided to clean out my email. Anyway, he added Power Instinct 4: Matrimelee and SNK vs Capcom Chaos, as well as updating KOF 94, 95, 96, and 97. So download away. There are so few fighters remaining, please consider adding to the dat if you have some time. Thanks.

10/4/2004: Whoops... looks like I messed up when I was updating the file. Turns out I was updating an older version, so I lost the changes I made on 8/09 and 8/10 of this year. So I spent the night fixing it back up. Enjoy.

10/2/2004: Minoplis strikes again. In addition to reformating the first four KOFs, he has submitted lists for the final missing Neo Geo game, Fatal Fury 3, and Waku Waku 7. This means all Neo Game games supported by the standard build of MAME are complete. "Future" game lists are still welcome. And finally, Minoplis also submitted lists for MK3, Ultimate MK3, and our first 3D fighter submission, Virtua Fighter. Way to go Minoplis!

9/27/2004: Sorry for the lack of updates... but here's a good one. Minoplis has been kind enough to add all of the King of Fighters missing from the beginning of the series. That's '94, '95, '96, and '97. In addition to that, I have added Hanz0's submissions of King of Fighters 2003 (bootleg) and Samurai Shodown 5, although few of you will be able to benefit from it. Those of you who can should enjoy this submission. Please note that these last two submissions are currently coded in "shorthand" glyphs, which is a format that the whole command dat will one day be available.

8/24/2004: MAME 32 Plus has been updated and the glyph source has been brought in line with the source in MAME 32 FX, so both versions contain the latest glyph set. Versions of MAME below version 0.86 are no longer supported by all future updates of the command.dat

8/10/2004: The World Heroes Series is in, courtesy of T65Will. Still waiting on an update to MAME 32 Plus, but the dat is looking good in MAME 32 FX. If anyone else can help out with the games that are still MIA, please get in touch. Thanks!

8/09/2004: Finally, an update!! This update finally fixes the few Neo-Geo games (including all of the King of Fighters curretnly supported) that were not spaced properly. In addition, all the numbered buttons were changed to LP, MP, ..., HK buttons (this may have screwed up a few non-fighting games, I will repair them), all "air"s were changed to the new AIR glyph, and all bracketed arrows were changed to the new charge arrows. As MAME 32 Plus is not updated to the new glyphs yet, this won't look properly until that version is updated. I will be sure to let you know when. There should be one more update tonight as I incorporate T65will's World Heroes command lists!

8/08/2004: Mamesick has released a new version of MAME 32 FX v0.85, containing the finalized new version of the glyphs. An updated command.dat will be coming shortly to take advantage of the changes. The changes are as follows:

The LP, MP, SP, LK, MK, and HK have been given new colors to make them more easily distinguishable. LP, MP, and SP start out as yellow and get more red (hotter) as they get stronger. LK, MK, and SK start out silver and get more blue (colder) as they get stronger.

There is a new AIR glyph, assigned to _^

There are five new charge glyphs to represent holding a direction for a couple of seconds. The arrows are hollow, followed by a dot or a period. Consult the chart to see the correct codes for each of them

8/02/2004: A new version of MAME 32 Plus came out, v0.84u5 that contains updated glyph data. However, there are mistakes with them and I have submited a revision, so I will hold off reporting the changes until the next version comes out with the corrections. They will be worth the wait.

7/10/2004: I finally had time to site down and combine the T65will's latest contributions with the revisions that Mamesick made. In addition, I converted all the dashed lines to an uninterrupted line as T65will had done the first time he released a new command.dat. So all in all, this should be a rather complete revision of the dat. Enjoy!

7/08/2004: Mamesick of MAME32FX fame has contributed to the command.dat project, not by adding games, but by helping with some formatting revisions. Thanks to Mamesick, more games will properly fit inside the display window.

7/05/2004: T65Will adds his newest contribtions, Double Dragon for the Neo-Geo, Fighter's History Dynamite, Ragnagard, Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer, bringing the remaining Neo-Geo misses to a dwindling few. All we need are the early KOF games, all of World Heroes, and Waku Waku 7!

6/24/2004: For an unbelievable third day in a row, T65Will has contributed yet three more games, Kizuna Encounters, Savage Reign, and Galaxy Fight. Thank you T65Will for the outstanding dedication!

6/23/2004: T65Will knocks another one out of the park, adds Art of Fighting 1, Breakers and Breakers Revenge, and Kabuki Klash, in addition to correcting some mistakes he found in Garou: Mark of the Wolves. Thanks again T65Will.

6/22/2004: Back again for the first time, adding T65Will's new additions; Real Bout Fatal Fury 1/2/Special, Ninja Masters, and Samurai Shodown 1/2. Thanks to T65Will for renewing my interest in the file. By the way, thanks to Whack's efforts, we have an extended character set. One of the first things I may work on is transfering from the old methods such as _2_3_6 for a quater circle forward, to _t.