These game names are weird!!!

[***PL***]

As of MAME 0.130 the following games now have 9 character names. Is this a MAMEDev screwup???

burningfh "Burning Fight (set 2)"
fightfeva "Fight Fever (set 2)"
lastbladh "Last Blade / Bakumatsu Roman - Gekka no Kenshi, The (set 2)"
pbobblena "Puzzle Bobble / Bust-A-Move (Neo-Geo) (set 2)"
puzzloopj "Puzz Loop (Japan)"
puzzloopk "Puzz Loop (Korea)"
puzzloopu "Puzz Loop (USA)"
samsh5sph "Samurai Shodown V Special / Samurai Spirits Zero Special (set 2, censored)"
samsh5spn "Samurai Shodown V Special / Samurai Spirits Zero Special (set 3, less censored)"
socbrawla "Soccer Brawl (set 2)"
tetrisp2j "Tetris Plus 2 (Japan)"
tophuntra "Top Hunter - Roddy & Cathy (set 2)"

[kranser]

Nope not a screw up - as of one of the updates in the 0.130 cycle, clones are allowed to have longer than8 character names. This allows the clone to have the same name as the parent (without skipping letters) and to add an extra letter to that name to identify the clone set. The parent set must still be 8 characters.
Kranser.

[Haze]

as stated, it's an intentional change, clones can now have a few more letters when strictly neccessary. It won't be changed back.

[***PL***]

as stated, it's an intentional change, clones can now have a few more letters when strictly neccessary. It won't be changed back.

OK, but the names I've listed above were already released and have been RENAMED, so why was that necessary? And why only those? There is no rhyme or reason!

[Haze]

as stated, it's an intentional change, clones can now have a few more letters when strictly neccessary. It won't be changed back.

OK, but the names I've listed above were already released and have been RENAMED, so why was that necessary? And why only those? There is no rhyme or reason!

As an example of what acceptable names are. Ie, not something like streetfighter2championeditionus120492revaturboalpha.zip but instead, using the letters in a sensible way.

[Chad]

not that anyone would know he answer but was it that 36^8 (3 trillion) possible names weren't enough to represent all arcade games in an 8 character form?

[Phil Lamat]

In an other way, have 8 characters names still sense since we don't play anymore under windows 95 ?

[kranser]

not that anyone would know he answer but was it that 36^8 (3 trillion) possible names weren't enough to represent all arcade games in an 8 character form?

Of course 3 trillion names would be enough - but some of the names wouldn't be very readable now would they!

I like the change and feel that it is much easier to read the names now (no missing letters) and to match the clone to the parent ROM.

Kranser.

[Tuncay]

I like the change also. The names are more human readable now. Parent can be easier guessed.

And about the 3 trillion possible names... are "bbbbbbbb", "bbbbbbbc", "bbbbbbbd" useful? Who needs 8 character names? Today, I think nobody. The change have more advantages than disadvantages. And think about, in future the 8 character support would less needed.