Mala/ArcadePerfect

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Now that I want to use ArcadePerfect, I have run into some Mala issues.  Any suggestions would be appreciated.

ArcadePerfect needs to be run before the game starts so that the resolution is adjusted accordingly.  I cannot find any option to run an app. before MAME starts.

I did find it in Other Emus., so I set up MAME there and chose ArcadePerfect to run in the PRE window.  This works, however:

Now my game list shows up as the zip file names like 'vhunt2' instead of 'Vampire Hunter 2: Darkstalkers Revenge'.  Also some of my definable fields are now missing like resolution, year, etc...

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What is ArcadePerfect?

[clutch]

http://www.ultimarc.com/arcadeperfect.html

[clutch]

You mean in the whole history of Mala, no one has had to run an application before-hand?  

Edit:  Think I figured it out.  Will have to test.  Use a batch file to run AP & MAME.  Point to it instead of MAME.EXE.  But now I think that I may have a problem going back into Mala once MAME is finished.  The resolution will stay at whatever AP made it which is usually lower than my Mala resolution which is 640x480.  Ugh.  I think the MAME portion of it needs to have a run app. before and a run app. after like there is on the Other Emus. tab.

Edit2: I think I can use /wait in the batch file to wait until I exit MAME, then run AP one more time to reset the resolution back to 640x480! 

[Gray_Area]

I got the idea that ArcadePerfect was meant to be used manually, for a desired game, which would then use those settings in future game loadings.

[clutch]

It is, but it has to be run for each game that you set it for.  That is why it has to be run first with the corresponding .rsl file for the game you are playing.  The resolution gets set, you play the game, the resolution gets set back.

Here is a batch file that I'm working on to do this.  It will be called instead of MAME.EXE on the mame tab. %1 is the rompath, %2 is the romfile, %3 is the rom file extension.

c:\progra~1\ArcadePerfect\ArcadePerfect.exe %1\%2.rsl

start /wait c:\mame\mame.exe %1\%2%3

c:\progra~1\ArcadePerfect\ArcadePerfect.exe %1\640x480.rsl

[clutch]

Works like a charm.  However I couldn't get Mala to send the rom path as a parameter to save my life.  So it ended up being

c:\progra~1\ArcadePerfect\ArcadePerfect.exe c:\mame\roms\%1.rsl

start /wait c:\mame\mame.exe %1

c:\progra~1\ArcadePerfect\ArcadePerfect.exe c:\mame\roms\640x480.rsl

The only parameter I have in mala interface is %rom%.  I also forces you to put a rom directory in, which isn't a problem if you follow the above format.  My .rsl files have the exact same name as the rom files.

[robneal81]

Thanks for posting!  I made one addition to your script:  If there isn't an .rsl file available for the game, it just launches mame.  I found that many games look great at 320x240, so I only a few need custom rsl files to make the games look good (Mortal Kombat is definitely one of those games!).  I hope other people can benefit from this too:


IF NOT EXIST c:\mame\roms\%1.rsl (
c:\mame\mame.exe %1
pause
) ELSE (
c:\progra~1\ArcadePerfect\ArcadePerfect.exe c:\mame\roms\%1.rsl

start /wait c:\mame\mame.exe %1

c:\progra~1\ArcadePerfect\ArcadePerfect.exe c:\mame\roms\320x240a60.rsl
)
taskkill /im mame.exe