Main Restorations Software Audio/Jukebox/MP3 Everything Else Buy/Sell/Trade
Project Announcements Monitor/Video GroovyMAME Merit/JVL Touchscreen Meet Up Retail Vendors
Driving & Racing Woodworking Software Support Forums Consoles Project Arcade Reviews
Automated Projects Artwork Frontend Support Forums Pinball Forum Discussion Old Boards
Raspberry Pi & Dev Board controls.dat Linux Miscellaneous Arcade Wiki Discussion Old Archives
Lightguns Arcade1Up Try the site in https mode Site News

Unread posts | New Replies | Recent posts | Rules | Chatroom | Wiki | File Repository | RSS | Submit news

  

Author Topic: [SOLVED] How to run Demul with Mala; Full screen, Auto controls switching & ESC  (Read 10374 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Wade007

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 309
  • Last login:April 06, 2017, 01:33:35 pm
  • A MAME cabinet at home is heaven
    • bit.ly/1cWnoIC
    • Cheapskategamer.com
I already posted this at the end of the following link here:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=117828.msg1275196#msg1275196

but felt like it might server others better if I made it a separate post with a new Subject title and all (for searching).

I got Demul to work perfectly on Mala, goes full screen, loads custom controls for each game automatically AND has a custom 2 button/keystroke escape function to jump back to MALA seamlessly. Basically, it now works like MAME does. It's a bit of a compilation between Auto Hot Key, a Batch file and Mala. I'm using Demul x86 version 0.57.

Here's how its done kids:

AUTOHOTKEY
First of all you need the Auto Hot Key program in order to get Demul to run full screen after launch and to set up the exit/quit commands. Auto Hot Key is found here: http://www.autohotkey.com/

An example of the Auto Hot Key script I used for each game is the following (for Crazy Taxi/Naomi). DON'T include text in parathesis:

Run, C:\Arcade\Demul\AHK scripts\GetDrivingCtrls.bat   (batch file to switch controls automatically runs first)
Run, C:\Arcade\Demul\Demul.exe -run=naomi -rom=crzytaxi (the 'run' options are naomi, atomiswave or dreamcast)
sleep, 4000
Send, {ALTDOWN}{ENTER}{ALTUP} (this is to force Demul to run full-screen through Windows by pressing ALT & ENTER together)
~2 & ~4:: (These are my two chosen exit keys; 2 & 4 together. Choose your own key(s) if you want.)
Process, Close, demul.exe
ExitAPP
return

The Auto Hot Key script launches the Batch file which switches the controls, then launches the emulator with command line info, waits for a bit (4000 milliseconds) and then presses ALT & ENTER together for you so Demul goes full screen. Meanwhile it waits patiently for you to finish your game. When it receives the keystokes 2 & 4 together it quits Demul and kicks you right back to the Mala interface.

BATCH FILE
Now you need to create a batch file to switch out the controls on the fly. Demul games (Naomi & Atomiswave games in my case) really only use 6 or 7 different control schemes. One for driving games, one for fighting games, one for standard, etc. Some use digital, some analog, etc, etc. Figure this out on your own or see these posts for more explanation and the listings for each game:
http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showthread.php?9734-Demul-Paddemul-ini-recommendation&p=88692#post88692
http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showthread.php?4988-Naomi-Performance-Benchmark-Testing!&p=86093#post86093

So, after loading say...Crazy Taxi through Demul (Not Mala) set your controls how you want them. Exit Demul. Now save the PadDemul.ini file that was just created and copy and paste it to another folder. In my case I copied them into a new folder in the root directory of Demul called "Controls". Now rename that file "driving_paddemul.ini". Repeat this for each type of game. IE: Dolphin Blue to create "standard_paddemul.ini" etc. You want to create the 6 to 8 standard sets of controls that all the games commonly use.

The batch file code to automatically switch the controls for each game (since Demul won't do this for you) is the following:

@echo off
Copy /Y "C\Arcade\Demul\Controls\driving_paddemul.ini" "C:\Arcade\Demul\PadDemul.ini"

Keep the quotes shown in the actual coding.

The /Y means overwrite the destination file without prompting you with the "Are you sure" dialog box.
The two paths are in double quotes since they have spaces in the directory names. If you didn't have any spaces you could leave out the double quotes.
The first path is the source file and location
The second path is the destination location and new file name. It copies over the PadDemul.ini file Demul uses each time a game is loaded.

Save this as "GetDrivingCtrls.bat" and place into the same folder as the AHK scripts.

MALA
In Mala, "Other Emu Config" tab, Demul; Basics tab, set your executable to "explorer.exe" and your ROM path to where you keep your AHK scripts for each game. This fixed a focus issue I had. The clue was in the second post by SGT here:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=68772.msg701550#msg701550

Rom extensions is "ahk".

Under the "Execution" tab of the same area set your command line to "%path%\%rom%.%exe%" (include quotes).

OK...So this is how it worked for me. I'm only emulating the arcade games. No console/dreamcast games.
If anyone has a more efficient way to do this, please post. I'd be thrilled to read other options.
« Last Edit: May 16, 2012, 10:39:40 am by Wade007 »
My Super Arcade cabinet project:
Software blog article: http://bit.ly/1cWnoIC

Hardware blog article: http://bit.ly/1dWxjvP

YouTube video: http://bit.ly/1N818Xm

Super Arcade Cabinet Progress thread (Now Complete):
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,123292.0.html

Frontend Video Intro: http://bit.ly/1P9HPDN