Running Daphne?

[ItzMR2u]

OK so I've got Daphne set up to run lair, lair2 and ace via batch files.  Now how do I get Mala to run them? 

[BadMouth]

Put all the batch files in a folder.

In MALA, go to Options>Other Emu Config
Add Daphne. 

On the Basics tab,

Executable = Leave Blank
Rom Path = Path to the folder the batch files are in
Rom Extensions = bat

On the Execution Tab,

Command Line = "%path%\%rom%.%ext%"

(the preset for Daphne may be wrong in V 1.05 of MALA)

Click OK, then refresh the game list.
If they worked from the batch file, they should work from MALA now.

[BadMouth]

Speaking of Daphne, I had a hard time getting Road Blaster to work.
Here are the steps I took to get it working for anyone having the same problems:

You MUST have the 02.bin file that wasn't needed for earlier versions of Daphne.
Rename 03.bin to 03-06.bin
Rename 04.bin to 04-07.bin
Rename 05.bin to 05-08.bin

For some reason, it refused to work with the mpeg, ogg, & dat file their own subfolder (didn't have this issue with any others).
I guess if I were more savvy when it came to software, I could have changed a path to fix that, but I couldn't find the option in Daphne.
Anyways, moved those files to C:\Daphne\Mpeg
(no subfolder) and it worked.

I loved that game as a kid. 

[ItzMR2u]

Put all the batch files in a folder.

In MALA, go to Options>Other Emu Config
Add Daphne.  

On the Basics tab,

Executable = Leave Blank
Rom Path = Path to the folder the batch files are in
Rom Extensions = bat

On the Execution Tab,

Command Line = "%path%\%rom%.%ext%"

(the preset for Daphne may be wrong in V 1.05 of MALA)

Click OK, then refresh the game list.
If they worked from the batch file, they should work from MALA now.

This worked except I had to leave the batch files in the Daphne root directory, when I placed them in their own folder the games wouldn't load?  

Thanks for the help!

[Neverending Project]

This worked except I had to leave the batch files in the Daphne root directory, when I placed them in their own folder the games wouldn't load? 

This is probably because you need the entire path to the daphne.exe in your batch file (or in your path environment variable). Try using "c:\path\to\daphne\daphne.exe" instead of just "daphne.exe" and you should be able to put the batch files wherever you want. But make sure you tell MaLa where you but them (Rom Path under emulator options).

[I/O]

On the Execution Tab,

Command Line = "%path%\%rom%.%ext%"

(the preset for Daphne may be wrong in V 1.05 of MALA)

It is also wrong in the tutorial. I could not figure out what the problem was until I looked here and the fates blessed me. As for the line, it has to be like the following (here shown in sections, but in your file will be one line, each section spaced from the other)

C:\games\daphne\daphne.exe
lair
vldp
-framefile "D:\games\daphne\vldp_dl\lair\lair_dvdrom.txt"
-fullscreen
-x 640
-y 480
-fastboot

[R5]

I thought it'd be cool to have Daphne integrated with the list of Mame ROMs in Mame.  As usual, I was not alone in this thought.  There's a thread devoted to this here: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=68419.0 , but here's my solution, also posted in that thread:

Here is a solution I wrote in C# using the freely downloadable Visual Studio Express from Microsoft.  All I cared about was Daphne, specifically Dragons Lair and Space Ace.  I didn't want multiple emulators for 2 games.  Oh, and I just found out about MulitMAME right before I typed this, but I figure the time spent writing this app was less than figuring out MultiMAME.  I tried the batch file thing, but was having issues with additional command line parameters, and once again, the C# app seemed easier.

I'm running 1.05 of MaLa, there's a bug with it that assumes the name of the .ini file is the same as the mame exe, but only until you try to change aspect ratios, where it only uses mame.ini.  So, I renamed mame.exe -> mamedaph.exe and called my program mame.exe and put in the same directory as Mame.  All good, no reconfiguration needed in MaLa.  I added 2 entries into the xml file for dragonslair and spaceace (actually, I just copied their existing entries, renamed the rom file and set their status to 'good') and put two bogus zip files in the rom directory (dragonslair.zip and spaceace.zip).  If my program sees either of those two roms being run, it passes the job off to daphne, otherwise passes everything else to mamedaph.exe (the original Mame).  You could easily add more emulators here, and it could read other files, but like I said, this solved my problem.

So, I'm a hack, somewhat lazy, and I realize this program could be much better (it's probably how MultiMAME got so flexible), but this worked for me, and if it works for you, enjoy!  If someone wants me to post the Visual Studio Solution, I will, otherwise here's my source for the command line application, just create a new Command Line application in Visual Studio, paste everything here, and build.  Your exe will be in the bin directory for your project.

Code: [Select]

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Diagnostics;

namespace mamedaph
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            DetermineEmu(args);
        }


        static void DetermineEmu(string[] args)
        {
               if (args[0] == "dragonslair")
                    {
                        string daphneCMD = "lair vldp -fullscreen -framefile C:\\daphne\\vldp_dl\\lair\\lair.txt -blank_searches";
                        LaunchCommandLineApp("daphne", daphneCMD);
                    }
                    else if (args[0] == "spaceace")
                    {
                        string daphneCMD = "ace vldp -fullscreen -framefile C:\\daphne\\vldp_dl\\ace\\ace.txt -blank_searches"; ;
                        LaunchCommandLineApp("daphne", daphneCMD);
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        LaunchCommandLineApp("mame", myCommandLine(args));
                    }
        }

        static string myCommandLine(string[] args)
        {
            string myCommandLine = "";
            foreach (string arg in args)
            {
                myCommandLine += " " + arg;
            }
            return myCommandLine.Trim();
        }


        static void LaunchCommandLineApp(string emulator, string CommandLine)
        {
            ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo();
            if (emulator == "mame")
            {
                startInfo.CreateNoWindow = false;
                startInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
                startInfo.WorkingDirectory = "c:\\mame";
                startInfo.FileName = "c:\\mame\\mamedaph.exe";
                startInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
                startInfo.Arguments = CommandLine;
            }
            else
            {
                startInfo.CreateNoWindow = false;
                startInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
                startInfo.WorkingDirectory = "c:\\daphne";
                startInfo.FileName = "c:\\daphne\\daphne.exe";
                startInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
                startInfo.Arguments = CommandLine;
            }

            try
            {
                using (Process exeProcess = Process.Start(startInfo))
                {
                    exeProcess.WaitForExit();
                }
            }
            catch
            {
                // Log error.
            }
        }
    }
}


[I/O]

When loading Daphne games from Mala, a cmd box showing the batch file contents appears, then the game displays. Does this happen to anyone else?

[Neverending Project]

There is a setting in the Mala emulator config for the Window state during launch. Is this set to Hidden (not the circled areas - this screenshot is from the MalaFE site)?

[I/O]

Thank you. I had not really looked at that part. I had thought  selecting 'minimized' in the file's properties would have an effect, so I was on the right track.