-nofilter = disables the fuzzy default filter
This makes me happy.
I'm gonna go (sorta) off-topic for a minute: I just discovered the other day that I like it better to keep the default filter off too, I think the games look great "raw." I noticed that the colors are brighter and sharper, and I have no problem with classic arcade games looking "pixelated". They look pixelated because they're low-res, there's nothing wrong with that.
I could tell when playing with the more advanced HLSL and GLSL stuff that I'm just not interested in the shaders and filters, which are attempting to get an LCD to look like a CRT, for "nostalgia" purposes, since that's the type of display that the games originally used.
From my seat (<FF>), A CRT is a CRT, which displays a certain way, and an LCD is an LCD, which displays another way. They both have their plusses and minuses and each creates a certain ambiance, but as someone who plays these games because I like the games, and not "out of nostalgia", I don't need to make them look like they're displaying on a CRT, any more than I need a Blu-ray of Back to the Future that looks like it's playing from a VHS tape.
So anyway, I just thought it was cool that you turn the filter off too.
My record batch file is simpler, since I do most of the stuff that you do just by setting the defaults in my mame.ini, but here it is:
0169w %1 -record "169 - %1 %date:~0,4%-%date:~5,2%-%date:~8,2% - %time:~0,2%.%time:~3,2%.%time:~6,2%.inp" %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9
- 0169w: this is my MAME executable (I have all my MAMEs in the same folder, using a shared mame.ini, and just rename them by version (with a "w" if it's WolfMAME).
- %1: variable for the game name
- -record: the record command (which I guess could be -rec too)
- %2-%9: any additional switches I wanna throw in there.
In the command window I just type "record <gamename> -<options>", and the output file will be something like "169 - dkong 2016-02-20 - 1.25.14.inp"
I have cfg and nvram turned off by default.
My MAME.ini cfg path is "NUL;cfg/important".
That says "first look in NUL (which means, nowhere, as in, don't load it), second, look in "cfg/important".
For most games, I don't need a custom cfg, and I don't like that MAME automatically creates a file for every game that I run. I also don't like that it overwrites these files on exit. Sometimes I wanna just test something, but then go back to the way it was before, but then it writes the changes when I exit.
So my solution is that if I DO have a specific set of settings for a game, I will turn cfg on temporarily, tweak my settings, then put the file in "cfg/important." From then on, MAME will look only in cfg/important, and if it finds <gamename>.cfg, it will load it, otherwise it will go defaults. And on exit, it will NOT write any changes anywhere, since the default path is "NUL".
Nvram (usually) just causes a bunch of problems, and, again, is auto-created by tons and tons of games, most of the time being useless. So if I need it to run a game a certain way (like Williams games with custom settings), I just add an nvram directory to the command line, make or load the nvram that I need, and go from there.