Game Launcher v0.9.8 Released

[Dave Dribin]

Game Launcher version 0.9.8 has been released.  Here are the changes:

• Ported to Win32 and Unix.
• Created rudimentary screen saver.
• Added keys to restart and skip current MP3.
• Added pre-/post-commands that are run before/after a game is run.
• Added mouse (trackball and trackwheel) support.
  

Get it from here:

http://www.dribin.org/dave/game_launcher/

Please direct any support questions to the mailing list.

-Dave

[Curbob]

Let me be the first on here to say WOOHOO! Windows and GL !

[Howard_Casto]

Looks great man!   Near perfect port.  I got some wierd artifacting at one point though when I was scrolling through the list.  My machine is still being re-built though, so I'll check out everything on my end before I send in a snap though, might be some wierd driver issues.  

Finally some similar competition on a level playfield.

This summer is gonna be fun.
he he

[Dave Dribin]

Thanks!  For the record, all the graphics and sound code worked just by recompiling, thanks to the great Allegro library and the hard work of its developers:

http://alleg.sourceforge.net/

It doesn't get as much press as SDL, but it is very stable and complete for 2D graphics.  The hardest part of the port was learning how to spawn a program with the Win32 API (I already knew how to do it under Unix).

I am very interested in feedback on the Windows version.  I've had good luck with it on my Win98 machine, but being the first release, I expect some problems.

-Dave

[mrhowell]

Best frontend out there, IMHO.  Easy to setup and configure.  

[Howard_Casto]

yeah allegro rocks!  I use modded graphics libraries from it in mine now.  That artifacting thing I mentioned before was on my end.  I had an outdated vid card driver that gave me heck...

anyway, keep up the good work!

Btw do you mind if i ripp-off your font style for a skin I'm working on?  

[Dustin]

thanks for the Unix port.  That is music to my ears.  Will have to try to compile this afternoon.

Dustin.

[Dave Dribin]

Btw do you mind if i ripp-off your font style for a skin I'm working on?  

Nope.  If you use the font, check with Doug Eleveld as I got slicker.ttf from this distribution:

http://huizen.dds.nl/~deleveld/allegttf.htm

-Dave

[Dave Dribin]

thanks for the Unix port.  That is music to my ears.  Will have to try to compile this afternoon.

Some of the external libs can be a PITA to compile, so be prepared for a bumpy ride.  I'm working on an autoconf (configure script) version so it will hopefully be a little easier to compile GL itself, too.

-Dave

[Jakobud]

Windows Port and a screensaver! Dave you are the man!  You really do have THE BEST frontend for arcade cabinets.  I love it because it's simple, yet configurable.  I have been wishing for this win port for a while  Keep up the EXCELLENT work.

Jakobud

[richattri]

Dave -- just tried your frontend for the first time. It is EXACTLY what I've been looking for! Too many I've tried are not only overly complicated, but simply not attractive as a frontend for a cab. Thanks for the vertical support as well.

If you are open to feedback, I've read your notes and I don't feel that you should knock yourself out adding a setup/config interface. The files are very well documented and easy to use. My only suggestion would be somehow capturing and reporting any output from MAME/emu itself. Some of my games were reporting errors, and the only way to figure out why they weren't running was to run them by hand on the command line to get the output. If there is any way you can redirect and capture output from a sublaunch, that would be nice (maybe just add a key to show the last command line output).

Rich

[Dave Dribin]

If you are open to feedback, I've read your notes and I don't feel that you should knock yourself out adding a setup/config interface. The files are very well documented and easy to use.

Yeah, I pretty much feel the same way.  There's little benefit to the amount of work it would take to implement a GUI.

My only suggestion would be somehow capturing and reporting any output from MAME/emu itself. Some of my games were reporting errors, and the only way to figure out why they weren't running was to run them by hand on the command line to get the output. If there is any way you can redirect and capture output from a sublaunch, that would be nice (maybe just add a key to show the last command line output).

First off, check the "runit.log" file in the "logs/" directory.  That should contain the output of the last command run.  An even better way is to turn on debug mode in "glaunch.cfg".  That should show you exactly what is going on as the game is being launched.  I would like to add a new key binding that will launch the selected game in debug mode regardless of the setting in "glaunch.cfg", too.

-Dave