here is a preliminary version of my guide to get hi scores displayed via the MaLa info window. This may change depending on how Loadman implements the remaining parts and is currently based on the .txt files being read from the mame/hi folder. Fyrecrypts may want to add to/change the way that hiToText is being called.
Please NOTE that this technique does not currently work and may not ever - depending on Loadman's decision as to how/if he's going to implement this idea!
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Step #1:
Obtain a command line version of MAME that has the "no nag" (optional) and "hi score" (required) hacks compiled into it.
You have to compile that yourself - there are detailed instructions on the MAME site, so I won't go into those details here
Step #2:
You need two files from the hiToText project. These can be obtained from this thread
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=83614.0 download the hiToText.exe and hiToText.xml files
put both these files in the "hi" folder underneath MAME
Step #3:
create a hi folder subordinate to your MaLa folder
Step #4:
create a hi.BAT file that looks like this
echo off
cd c:\emulators\programs\mame\hi
hitotext -ra %1 > \emulators\mala\hi\%1.txt
cd\emulators\mala
NOTE: the paths used above are for my config - adjust accordingly to fit yours
Step #5:
save the BAT file you created in the hi folder you created in Step 3
Step #6:
Access MaLa options, GUI tab, Info Window tab
and create a new Info page of type Hi Score
See mala-options-2.png attached
Step #7: (especially if upgraded from a previous version (<1.713) of MaLa
Access MaLa options, Controller tab, Advanced tab
and specify your desired Info Left and Info Right keys
See mala-options-3.png attached