inigomonyota/openhi2txt

OpenHi2txt is a small utility built for people who run classic arcade game emulation using MAME, the widely used arcade machine emulator. Many old arcade games store their high scores in a special format inside the emulator's save files, and a set of XML definitions called hi2txt describes how to read those scores out for a specific game. This project reads that data and is compatible with existing hi2txt XML definitions, so anyone who already has those definition files can use them here too. It comes in two forms. The first is a C++ library that other programs, such as arcade game launchers, frontends, and scraping tools, can embed directly into their own code to pull high score data programmatically. The second is a standalone command line tool that works the same way the original hi2txt command line tool did, accepting many of the same arguments, so it can slot into existing scripts and workflows without much change. A typical use in a frontend application involves loading all previously saved score data at startup, then refreshing a specific game's score right after that game closes, so the displayed high scores stay current. The command line version supports filters and display options inherited from the original hi2txt tool, plus a trace mode for debugging. The project is written in C++17 and built using CMake, with support for both Visual Studio on Windows and Ninja on Windows or Linux. It bundles a header only XML parsing library and relies on zlib and minizip for reading compressed archive files, with the command line tool being optional if you only want the library.