MAMEWAH Bug list.. POST HERE.

[Minwah]

Hey Minwah, just took a bit of time to play w/ the new release.  Very solid.  Fixes all the bugs I told you about from .96.  There is one new(?) bug though.

I recently set up MameWah as my shell in Win2k.  That all works fine, and it starts up, however, when it does the sound in the frontend does not play.  I know its not bad audio on my part since MAME pays game sounds just fine.  This also is not due to the issue I had w/ those big MP3s from 0.96 since I'm using the smaller version.

I did make another user that just has MameWah in the startup folder instead of the shell, and this works as expected, the sound plays in the frontend fine.  So it seems to be some sorta issue w/ setting the frontend to be the Shell.  I can live w/ it the other way, but just wondering if you had any insight?

Thanks for all the hard work!

I really don't know why it has a problem being the shell, I don't believe it used to have this problem.  I don't know what to do to alter this, if the program works at all then it should work as shell...but it doesn't seem to any more.

You will have to just have it in startup for now, and maybe when I've built my cabinet I will be more keen to find out what the problem is.

To everyone:  I apologise for all the problems that seem to have cropped up lately.  The big problem I have is that none of these problems/bugs happen on my system, which makes it very difficult/impossible for me to fix them.  It's also pretty frustrating for me since I would like to have it working perfectly for everyone.  Oh well hopefully one day it will be ok...

[Isometric Bacon]

The screen bug from 96 that I described here http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=12313

is still around in 962. Granted it doesn't happen nearly as much as before, but it still seems to happen.

I'm running 640 by 480 in Windows XP with the default layouts if that's any help.

Otherwise, it's been bug free for me Keep up the good work!

OK, are you just launching MAME?  Is there any pattern to when it happens?  It doesn't seem to do it on my system, tho I have my desktop set to 1024x768...

It doesn't seem soley related to MAME. It happens in other emulators too, (project 64 is the one i've noticed the most apart from mame, but then again those two are the ones I have played the most.)

I don't think it is a resolution problem, as I had the same problem with 800 by 600 previously.

To upgrade Mamewah from 9.6 (which originally had the problem as well) I simply overwrote the existing files and deleted the "Mamewah.cfg" Could this have anything to do with it perhaps?

[Minwah]

JoeB & Isometric Bacon: check your PM's...

[Rocky]

For those getting "Input past end of file" errors after playing a game, I found what fixed it for me.

I had to delete all the files in the "Files" folder.  I started by just deleting mamewah.cfg, but still got errors everytime I exited from my first game.

Now that I deleted all the files, it works great.

Running smooth now!

Thanks Minwah! Your frontend keeps getting better,

Rocky

[JoeB]

Hey Minwah..

don't dispair.. your frontend is top notch when it comes to customizability and playability on real arcade hardware in Windows!

We'll get all the bugs out, make it better, etc.. etc...

[Minwah]

For those getting "Input past end of file" errors after playing a game, I found what fixed it for me.

I had to delete all the files in the "Files" folder.  I started by just deleting mamewah.cfg, but still got errors everytime I exited from my first game.

Now that I deleted all the files, it works great.

Running smooth now!

Thanks Minwah! Your frontend keeps getting better,

Great, thanks for letting me know Rocky!

You have given me some insight should this ever be a problem again - I think it could be related to the automatic list creation stuff.  MAMEWAH records the no. of times and length of time each game is played after playing each game (in EMU?.FAV) - it must be related to that...

Incidentally, has anyone tried the new 'Custom List Type's for automatic list creation??

[vitaflo]

I really don't know why it has a problem being the shell, I don't believe it used to have this problem.  I don't know what to do to alter this, if the program works at all then it should work as shell...but it doesn't seem to any more.

You will have to just have it in startup for now, and maybe when I've built my cabinet I will be more keen to find out what the problem is.

To everyone:  I apologise for all the problems that seem to have cropped up lately.  The big problem I have is that none of these problems/bugs happen on my system, which makes it very difficult/impossible for me to fix them.  It's also pretty frustrating for me since I would like to have it working perfectly for everyone.  Oh well hopefully one day it will be ok...

Yeah, the shell runs fine actually, it just doesn't play any music.  That seems to be the only real bug with setting it up as a shell.  I certainly don't mind doing it the other way for now, since I have experience setting up kiosks w/ Win2k and can lock down the OS pretty tight w/out having to resort to using the shell method.

As for the bugs and whatnot, I have seen nothing but improvement since I've started using mamewah.  I honestly don't know what I'd do w/out it.  The fruits of your labor are definitely not being ignored.  I'm just grateful you're sticking with it and making it better.

[vitaflo]

Incidentally, has anyone tried the new 'Custom List Type's for automatic list creation??

I have, and it's AWESOME!  I  have a default Mame list that has every game, and then a filtered list that takes out various games (mahjong games, prelim drivers, etc).  What a godsend.  I thought I'd be spending days filtering out my roms.  This only took me a couple minutes.

[Minwah]

I have, and it's AWESOME!  I  have a default Mame list that has every game, and then a filtered list that takes out various games (mahjong games, prelim drivers, etc).  What a godsend.  I thought I'd be spending days filtering out my roms.  This only took me a couple minutes.

Sounds like you have filtered the list...

What about the 'Most Frequently Played' or 'Longest Played' Custom List Type auto-generated 'favorites' lists?

[vitaflo]

Sounds like you have filtered the list...

What about the 'Most Frequently Played' or 'Longest Played' Custom List Type auto-generated 'favorites' lists?

Wow, I didn't even realize I could do that.  I'll try that out tonight, sounds really cool.

EDIT:  Just tried it.  It's sweet!  Is there any way to have it show how many times, or how long I played each game in these lists?

[Fuzzguitar]

Thanks Minwah, as soon as I put my rom path in "quotes" it all worked fine. I really dig your front end and might post my bubble bobble themed layout somewhere soon. It is really for other Aussies because it has a 20c piece scanned in for the credit instructions - just like the old days!

[Minwah]

Wow, I didn't even realize I could do that.  I'll try that out tonight, sounds really cool.

EDIT:  Just tried it.  It's sweet!  Is there any way to have it show how many times, or how long I played each game in these lists?

Sorry, no .

In an ideal world I would change the LST format to include this info, and add the option to display the times played, and duration played for the current game - similar to the romname/input type etc.  I do not want to change the LST format atm however, so this info is not held in memory for each game (only read when the list is displayed).

[Minwah]

Thanks Minwah, as soon as I put my rom path in "quotes" it all worked fine. I really dig your front end and might post my bubble bobble themed layout somewhere soon. It is really for other Aussies because it has a 20c piece scanned in for the credit instructions - just like the old days!

Cool, I expect Stuzza (http://members.lycos.co.uk/stuzza12/skin.htm) would host your layout if he has any room left...I'd like to see it

[JackTucky]

Sounds like you have filtered the list...
What about the 'Most Frequently Played' or 'Longest Played' Custom List Type auto-generated 'favorites' lists?

I used the Most Frequently played as soon as I installed your latest update.  Went into my full list, started up about 10 games, and now my kids can find what they want.  Awesome.

I got bit by the Xp Welcome screen and running Mamewah as a shell corrupted CFG file.  Turning off the welcome screen worked for me too.

I even got the Daphne.NMS file working!

Thanks for the work, Minwah.

Art

[Minwah]

Sounds like you have filtered the list...
What about the 'Most Frequently Played' or 'Longest Played' Custom List Type auto-generated 'favorites' lists?

I used the Most Frequently played as soon as I installed your latest update.  Went into my full list, started up about 10 games, and now my kids can find what they want.  Awesome.

I got bit by the Xp Welcome screen and running Mamewah as a shell corrupted CFG file.  Turning off the welcome screen worked for me too.

I even got the Daphne.NMS file working!

Thanks for the work, Minwah.

Great, I'll have to note in the Readme to turn off the welcome screen when 'shelling' MAMEWAH.  How did you turn it off?

[kujina]

You must have an account that is part of the administrators group to turn on or turn off  the Welcome screen feature.

Do the following:

Open User Accounts in Control Panel.

Click - Change the way users log on or off.

To specify that users log on to the computer without using the Welcome screen, clear the Use the Welcome screen check box.  The Welcome screen will no longer appear when you start the computer.

(note: you can not use fast user switching when you turn off the welcom screen)

[papaschtroumpf]

Minwah, I think I found another bug:
I was experimenting on my main machine to see how much better things run with a"modern" computer, so I installed MAME in a directory called "My downloads\mame", and the roms in "My dowloads\mame\roms".

Because of the space in the filename, mame can't properly parse its command line. MameWah needs to add quotes (") around the argument list to mame, to generate something like:

My downloads\mame\mamepp.exe "My dowloads\mame\roms\1941".

Not a big deal, I just moved mame to the root folder, but I figured you'd like to know.

[Minwah]

Minwah, I think I found another bug:
I was experimenting on my main machine to see how much better things run with a"modern" computer, so I installed MAME in a directory called "My downloads\mame", and the roms in "My dowloads\mame\roms".

Because of the space in the filename, mame can't properly parse its command line. MameWah needs to add quotes (") around the argument list to mame, to generate something like:

My downloads\mame\mamepp.exe "My dowloads\mame\roms\1941".

Not a big deal, I just moved mame to the root folder, but I figured you'd like to know.

I don't think this is a MW bug.  MAMEWAH doesn't sent the rompath for MAME (unless you configured it to).  Perhaps you need to check your rom path in MAMEPP.INI?

Check \mamewah\debug.log to see exactly what is being sent to the commandline.  It should be something like 'Mydownl~1\mame\mamepp.exe 1941'.

[Minwah]

You must have an account that is part of the administrators group to turn on or turn off  the Welcome screen feature.

Do the following:

Open User Accounts in Control Panel.

Click - Change the way users log on or off.

To specify that users log on to the computer without using the Welcome screen, clear the Use the Welcome screen check box.  The Welcome screen will no longer appear when you start the computer.

(note: you can not use fast user switching when you turn off the welcom screen)

Thanks Kujina

[papaschtroumpf]

I don't think this is a MW bug.  MAMEWAH doesn't sent the rompath for MAME (unless you configured it to).  Perhaps you need to check your rom path in MAMEPP.INI?

Actually in my case it does, that's how I figured out the problem in the first place, by looking at the debug.log
I followed Stuzza's instructions from the link posted on the mamewah news page, and it says to set Send Rom Path to True, so I did.

I'll try it tonight with "Send Rom Path" to false.
By the way, I don't have a mamepp.ini either, I never bothered to run "mamepp -cc" since everything appeared to work fine without it.

Also while we're on the subject, what does "Use Long Filenames" do? Is it ignored for MAME? it doesn't seem to make a difference either way, and Stuzza's page says to set it to True in one place, and flase in another.

Stuzza, if you're monitoring this thread, maybe you can change your page to reflect this situation.

Cheers!

[Minwah]

Actually in my case it does, that's how I figured out the problem in the first place, by looking at the debug.log
I followed Stuzza's instructions from the link posted on the mamewah news page, and it says to set Send Rom Path to True, so I did.

I'll try it tonight with "Send Rom Path" to false.
By the way, I don't have a mamepp.ini either, I never bothered to run "mamepp -cc" since everything appeared to work fine without it.

Also while we're on the subject, what does "Use Long Filenames" do? Is it ignored for MAME? it doesn't seem to make a difference either way, and Stuzza's page says to set it to True in one place, and flase in another.

OK...

You can leave those settings as MAMEWAH's defaults for MAME.  This means Send ROM Path = False, Send ROM Extension = False (can't remember about long filenames, but it doesn't really matter since MAME uses short filenames anyway).

If you set Use Long Filenames to False (with Send ROM Path=True), then you should see your 'long' rom path be converted to something like 'Mydowlo~1\mame\roms\1941'.

Let me know if you still have problems...

[vitaflo]

Hmm..seems I'm having sound issues again.  The music will play in the FE when MameWah starts, but after 5mins (the legth of a song) it stops playing, and doesn't return.  Seems to only play one song and then not any others.  This is only if I leave the FE on and idle.  If I play a game and come back to the FE it seems to work fine (I think).

So there's still sound issues it seems.

[Minwah]

Hmm..seems I'm having sound issues again.  The music will play in the FE when MameWah starts, but after 5mins (the legth of a song) it stops playing, and doesn't return.  Seems to only play one song and then not any others.  This is only if I leave the FE on and idle.  If I play a game and come back to the FE it seems to work fine (I think).

So there's still sound issues it seems.

OK.

I might do a total re-write for the sound stuff at some point - it seems to be a total headache-causer the way it is  

[BlackThorne]

I have a strange problem with the screen saver. The pictures in slide-show mode are way too big. I don't know if this is a bug but it really starts bugging me.

[Minwah]

I have a strange problem with the screen saver. The pictures in slide-show mode are way too big. I don't know if this is a bug but it really starts bugging me.

Which layout are you using?  Whatever, open it in the Layout Designer and check the size of the artwork image object on the screensaver form...

[BlackThorne]

Thanks! Everything's fine now .

[Fuzzguitar]

Minwah, just wondering how does Mamewah handle the event sounds? I'm using my own custom sounds, correctly re-named and I've noticed some are louder/softer than others on average. I'm referring mainly to the Game Launch sound. We used Cool Edit Pro to even up the volume of each file but this one is still very loud - does Mamewah boost the volume for effect?
 

[Minwah]

Minwah, just wondering how does Mamewah handle the event sounds? I'm using my own custom sounds, correctly re-named and I've noticed some are louder/softer than others on average. I'm referring mainly to the Game Launch sound. We used Cool Edit Pro to even up the volume of each file but this one is still very loud - does Mamewah boost the volume for effect?

MAMEWAH reduces the overall sound ouput of your PC based on the 'Sound / Music Volume (%)' setting.  Before launching a game (or quitting MW) it restores the original level (ie 100%).  After exiting the game it should reduce the level again.

I haven't noticed anything working incorrectly on my system, but I will check that I didn't accidentally restore the sound level before playing the Game Launch sound (rather than just afterwards)...

Edit:  I just checked, and you're right - it does get louder.  I think the problem is that it restores the volume after the sound is set to play, but before the sound has finished.  It's on my bug-list...

[vitaflo]

Just curious, can I set my controls in MW to recognize a character that uses a modifier key to display?

What I mean is, I want to have exit MW to be the underscore character.  Thus the person has to use "shift-minus" (two buttons) on the control panel to get and underscore and trigger the exit MW key.  But when I go to set up MW to use underscore, pressing the shift key first of course makes exit MW the shift key.

I notice you're using numbers in the config to store the values for the keys.  Are these just ASCII values?  If I use the ASCII value for underscore and hand type into into my cfg file would that work?

[Pungo76]

I'm currently having two issues when running Mamewah.  First off are all the details:

Mamewah .962 (the latest I believe)
Arcade Monitor with ArcadeVGA
Keywiz
Windows XP Pro
AMD 1300 PC

I currently have the keywiz uploader in my startup, so that upon booting the pc the software uploads to the keywiz then it runs Mamewah.  Everything seems fine, but after selecting and exiting the first game I get the following error:

Runtime Error '384'
A form can't be moved or sized while minimized or maximized.

I then can hit OK and then open back up Mamewah and everything works fine.  However, when I exit Mamewah and go back to windows, then return to Mamewah again I can no longer see my artwork (snaps and marquees).

Have any thoughts?

Thanks,

[Minwah]

Just curious, can I set my controls in MW to recognize a character that uses a modifier key to display?

What I mean is, I want to have exit MW to be the underscore character.  Thus the person has to use "shift-minus" (two buttons) on the control panel to get and underscore and trigger the exit MW key.  But when I go to set up MW to use underscore, pressing the shift key first of course makes exit MW the shift key.

I notice you're using numbers in the config to store the values for the keys.  Are these just ASCII values?  If I use the ASCII value for underscore and hand type into into my cfg file would that work?

You can't really do what you want using the current system  The numbers stored are keycodes; some of which (a-z, 0-9 etc.) happen to be the same as ASCII codes, but they are keycodes nevertheless.

It will always just recognise the first key pressed.  Some MW users may recall before v0.95 I used shifted keys by default a lot, but due to this limitation this is no longer the case.  FWIW multiple keys are on my v2.0 things-to-add list...

[Minwah]

I'm currently having two issues when running Mamewah.  First off are all the details:

Mamewah .962 (the latest I believe)
Arcade Monitor with ArcadeVGA
Keywiz
Windows XP Pro
AMD 1300 PC

I currently have the keywiz uploader in my startup, so that upon booting the pc the software uploads to the keywiz then it runs Mamewah.  Everything seems fine, but after selecting and exiting the first game I get the following error:

Runtime Error '384'
A form can't be moved or sized while minimized or maximized.

I then can hit OK and then open back up Mamewah and everything works fine.  However, when I exit Mamewah and go back to windows, then return to Mamewah again I can no longer see my artwork (snaps and marquees).

Have any thoughts?

Thanks,

This is a bug which I think I've now fixed.  If you (or anyone else) would like a modifed version which fixes just this bug, then let me know you email address

[Isometric Bacon]

Minwah... the problems I mentioned before (screen size bug) still exist, but that is the least of my problems atm.

I'm running your modified version of 962 you sent me via PM.

I noticed that when selecting "Shutdown computer" My PC for some reason simply resets, and doesn't go to the "It is now safe to turn off your computer". screen as it should.

Last time it did this, I impatiently turned the computer whilst it was resetting. Now, turning on the PC again, Windows XP came up with the screen "your disk has not been shutdown, checking drive for integrity" I let it run through it's course, (I usually just skip it) but it suddenly said there was a problem with "Mamewah.cfg" and it would have to be truncated. Upon loading XP, and Mamewah in the startup folder, all the previous config data was lost leaving Mamewah with just the generic "Emulator 1, Emulator 2" information with no actual data in it.

[Minwah]

Minwah... the problems I mentioned before (screen size bug) still exist, but that is the least of my problems atm.

I'm running your modified version of 962 you sent me via PM.

I noticed that when selecting "Shutdown computer" My PC for some reason simply resets, and doesn't go to the "It is now safe to turn off your computer". screen as it should.

Last time it did this, I impatiently turned the computer whilst it was resetting. Now, turning on the PC again, Windows XP came up with the screen "your disk has not been shutdown, checking drive for integrity" I let it run through it's course, (I usually just skip it) but it suddenly said there was a problem with "Mamewah.cfg" and it would have to be truncated. Upon loading XP, and Mamewah in the startup folder, all the previous config data was lost leaving Mamewah with just the generic "Emulator 1, Emulator 2" information with no actual data in it.

Sorry to hear about your probs  

Does is matter how you shut down (menu or default exit action)?  Also, are you running as a shell?  Does this affect it?

It seems to work OK on my system (not running as shell)...

[Syxx]

i get an error when i refresh the game list i get multiple error types, one said something about argument or something, another was a invalid proceedure, and now last few times it has said nothing and just crashed...

any idea whats up?

[Minwah]

i get an error when i refresh the game list i get multiple error types, one said something about argument or something, another was a invalid proceedure, and now last few times it has said nothing and just crashed...

any idea whats up?

Maybe some of your CFG got messed up somehow...try deleting all stuff in your \FILES folder and try again.

Failing that, let me know exactly what errors you get and when and I'll try and see whats wrong...

[Buddabing]

Unfortunately, I can't get MAMEWAH to work, I hear it's a great front end.

I installed the .954 full version into \program files\mamewah, then downloaded the .962 patch on top of it. MAME v0.74 is installed in \mame.

I created a shortcut to \program files\mamewah\mamewah.exe. When the program is launched, it comes back with a Run-Time Error 13 dialog box, and a red "No Games Available" at the bottom. Then my screen is resized to 640x480 and the program aborts.

My system is pretty normal. Windows XP Professional, Geforce 2 Ultra video card, Athlon 1700XP, Asus Nforce2 based motherboard. I normally run my monitor (Samsung SyncMaster 750s 17") at 1024x768.

I expect MAMEWAH to run out of the box if all the settings were set at default.

TIA,
Buddabing

[Minwah]

Unfortunately, I can't get MAMEWAH to work, I hear it's a great front end.

I installed the .954 full version into \program files\mamewah, then downloaded the .962 patch on top of it. MAME v0.74 is installed in \mame.

I created a shortcut to \program files\mamewah\mamewah.exe. When the program is launched, it comes back with a Run-Time Error 13 dialog box, and a red "No Games Available" at the bottom. Then my screen is resized to 640x480 and the program aborts.

My system is pretty normal. Windows XP Professional, Geforce 2 Ultra video card, Athlon 1700XP, Asus Nforce2 based motherboard. I normally run my monitor (Samsung SyncMaster 750s 17") at 1024x768.

I expect MAMEWAH to run out of the box if all the settings were set at default.

Couple of things:

Did you run v0.954 before overwriting?  It sounds like you didn't, but if you did, you'll need to delete everything from the \MAMEWAH\FILES folder.

What regional settings do you use?  In particular, if you have your Decimal Separator set to ',' (as opposed to '.'), then MW will not like it.  Try changing it from Control Panel.

Let me know how you get on...

[jkam]

New Bug? Alright I setup Mamewah and I love it...it is a great front end. The ability for different layouts is awesome. Anyway I am having a problem....when I run a mame rom file through mamewah...it changes the colors of my mame rom. They are wrong. When I run them directly through mame they work like a charm. I heard a few people say they run batch files instead of the actual roms...is this what I should do to fix the problem? Any help would be appreciated.

[Minwah]

New Bug? Alright I setup Mamewah and I love it...it is a great front end. The ability for different layouts is awesome. Anyway I am having a problem....when I run a mame rom file through mamewah...it changes the colors of my mame rom. They are wrong. When I run them directly through mame they work like a charm. I heard a few people say they run batch files instead of the actual roms...is this what I should do to fix the problem? Any help would be appreciated.

You don't need to run a batch file, it should just work OK.

MAMEWAH will not change colors (all it does is launch MAME as normal).  All I can think of is that MW will quite possibly be running in 16bit color, and when you run MAME if it does not switch color depth the games may be displayed not in all their glory.

Make sure you have this in your MAME INI:

switchres               1
switchbpp               1

This will allow MAME to switch resolutions and color depth.

Alternatively, use the layout designer to make a layout which uses 32bit color.

Let me know if that doesnt work...