How to select Naomi Bios in Demul AHK script for Mala? [SOLVED VIA BATCH FILE]

[Wade007]

I'm using an Auto Hot Key script to launch my Demul (ver .57) arcade games in Mala.

The main launch code I'm using with Auto Hot Key is:

Run, C:\Arcade\Demul\demul.exe -run=naomi -rom=crzytaxi

Some games (IE: Crazy Taxi) will run under either a Japanese or a USA Bios. I'd prefer the USA BIOS since I'm English speaking.

Is there a way to call for the USA Naomi Bios within the AHK script so that I don't have to do it manually for each game? Otherwise every game is auto selected to be Japanese. I'd just like to control the Bios to be USA when possible.
What is the command line code for this? Does it exist?
I tried something like this with AHK "-bios=epr-215577g" but it didn't work.

Any thoughts or suggestions here? I'm trying to make this completely automated from within the MALA interface. No manual exit to set up Bioses or anything else. So far I've got it all straight...except for switching to a USA BIOS when possible without having to go into Demul manually to do so. Any help?

Thanks

[BadMouth]

Not that I know of, but Demul info is hard to come by for some odd reason. 

For Demul v.5.6 that I'm using on my cabs, I have a separate folder/copy of Demul set up for each bios that I want to use.


Not sure if it's the same or not, but looking at Demul.cfg for v.5.7 on my laptop, it has the lines:

naomiBiosAuto = true
naomiBios = 9

I would think you could change naomiBiosAuto to false and have a batch file swap in the correct bios, similar to what you did for the controls.
The bios number is 1 less than it's place in the drop-down list because the first one is naomiBios = 0.

[Wade007]

BadMouth,
Thanks for your reply. You've been a solid source of info on this forum.
You've got a couple of good ideas here. I can see how separate Demul folders would work. I'll have to play around with the other idea a bit to see if it'll work. I'll post back if I have any success. Also...thanks for the PM.

[Wade007]

Just got the following response (cut & paste) back directly from one of the Demul developers regarding the ability to switch BIOS's in the command line :

"no, it's impossible to select bios using command line. but you can
disable bios auto select in naomi bioses menu and select one of the
most recent US bioses, like H or G... you'll be able to run any gamy
with it, except thoose which needed EXP or JP bioses only... as for
"taxi", it will run then with US bios for sure."

So...there we have it. Not possible right now. I guess Badmouth's multiple folder suggestion or batch file idea (see above post) are the best options right now.

[Wade007]

It worked!!

I used the Batch file idea (Thanks BadMouth) to switch out (copy over) the Demul.ini file, which in turn defines which BIOS Demul will use for the currently loaded game.

I tested this over and over between Crazy Taxi (USA Bios) and Dynamite Baseball '99 (Japanese/Auto Bios). It worked like a champ!!

I set up one game manually for the USA BIOS (Crazy Taxi), played the game briefly, quit, and then re-saved the resulting Demul.ini file as "USABios_Demul.ini". Then set Demul up for "Naomi Auto Bios select" with a game I knew would only run with a Japanese or otherwise non-USA Bios (Dynamite Baseball '99). Copied and pasted that newly created Demul.ini file as "AutoBios_Demul.ini".

Then I created two batch files entitled "GetAutoBios.bat" and "GetUSAbios.bat" to switch out the saved Demul.ini files I had named "AutoBios_Demul.ini" and "USABios_Demul.ini"

These batch files are executed in the AHK file for each Demul game as:
Run, C:\Arcade\Demul\AHK scripts\GetUSABios.bat

Adjust your path in the code above accordingly.

Example code for USA Bios batch file:
@echo off
Copy /Y "C:\Arcade\Demul\Config\USABios_Demul.ini" "C:\Arcade\Demul\Demul.ini"

Keep the quotes shown in the code above. /Y will instantly answer the query "Are you Sure...?"

Anyway, I hope this can help someone else who has the same question or concern.

Now I just have to go through each and every Demul-Naomi game I already have set up for Mala and add the code to the AHK script accordingly.