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Frontend for DOS
bhille:
I've loaded up Game Launcher the other day. So far, I'm not that impressed. I like being about to put ROMS and SNAPS into different folders (Arcadeos's doesn't work), but it just seems slow. When I goto my z26 emulator (Atari 2600) it take forever to bring up the list. Scrolling through the list is painfull too. I thought I'd just make a .rom file...nope...thought okay, fast machine will help this. Let's work on the .map file....doesn't work. I looked in the z26.cfg file and made sure the pathes are right. Is there something obvious I'm missing?
Thanks,
Brian
ErikRuud:
Let's see, here are a few things to think about.
The pupose of the .map file is to give full names to the rom files. ie. bzone displays as "Battle Zone". Capitalization matters! The rom name in the map has to match exactly to the rom name in your rom directory. ie. If you have Bzone in your map but the actual file is BZONE on you hard drive they won't match. Do not include the file extension in the .map file. Just bzone not bzone.zip
The purpose of the .rom file is to create a list of roms that you want to use. If a rom is not in the list, GameLauncher will not display it. The names must be exact just like the .map file.
How many Atari roms in your list?
Double check the size of the snapshots, large snapshot files will slow it down. Try reducing the number of colors, most, snapshots do not need to be in 24bit color. Also try setting the snapshot delay to a higher number, this way it waits before loading a snapshot. This lets you zip through the list without GameLauncher trying to show you every snapshot along the way. You may also want to turn off the text animations. On slower machines they can be annoying.
bhille:
Ah, I think the caps in the .map file are what screwed me. I will try all caps and all lower case (not sure what DOS 6.22 thinks it is).
I have A LOT of Atari ROMS. That's why I thought the .rom file would help not having to scan the roms folder. Either it don't have the .roms file setup right, or it doesn't help.
I don't have any snaps loaded yet. I'm still trying to figure out which I like better...Arcadeos or Game Launcher. I didn't have any config issues with Arcadeos after I figured out the roms and emulators HAVE to be in the same folder...oh and the key remap doesn't work.
Do I need to load smartdrv to make this thing run better? I didn't try that because Arcadeos runs fine without it.
Say, is GameLauncher still under development?
Thanks,
Brian
ErikRuud:
smartdrv may help, I don't think I am using it.
DOS can be funny about caps. DOS itself is not case sensitive, but GL is. My files are apparently all lower case, but if I do a direcory listing in DOS they appear to be upper case. You best bet is to view the directory with windows expolorer and then rename the files to all lower case.
GL is under developement as far as I know. But I believe David only works on it as time allows.
Dave Dribin:
--- Quote ---Do I need to load smartdrv to make this thing run better? I didn't try that because Arcadeos runs fine without it.
--- End quote ---
Yes, I would think smartdrv would help a lot! How fast is your machine? I know I put all my Atari 2600 ROMs in one directory and there is no noticeable slowdown at all. That was even on a K6-2 300, if I remember correctly (these days I'm on a Duron 700). I'm using DR-DOS 7.03 vs. MS-DOS, but that should not be much of a difference. DR-DOS uses NWCACHE instead of SMARTDRV, though.
--- Quote ---Say, is GameLauncher still under development?
--- End quote ---
Yes, but at a glacial pace, these days. Just too many things to juggle in my spare time.
I'm aware of the whole caps thing and plan to make GL have an option for case-insensitivity in places where it makes sense (i.e. when comparing file names under DOS).
-Dave