Save HighScores when shutting down with MAME open

[Steveearle86]

Hi all,
I have a working Attract Mode / MAME arcade machine with MAME Hiscore running on Windows 7.

This works great and when I exit MAME back to Attract Mode, the hiscore board changes are saved. However, if I shut the machine down with MAME running, the changes to the hiscore board are not saved, presumably the save function is triggered on MAME exit and when shutting down, this is bypassed and MAME is shutdown "ungracefully"

I want to (if possible) make it so that when I shutdown the PC from MAME, the scoreboard is saved. I thought maybe I could send an exit command to MAME on shutdown so I created a VBScript which sends an escape key command and used gpedit to run this on both shutdown and log off (the escape key should cauase MAME to exit and therefore saving the hiscore) but this has not worked (i assume it is being run after MAME has been closed by the shutdown)

The cabinet has a button that is wired to the power header of the motherboard and is used to startup / shutdown the PC.

Does anyone have any ideas of how I can do this, clearly at the moment, the workaround is always to escape to the menu before shutting down but would like to not have to remember to do this

[headkaze]

You can't send keys to MAME because it uses Raw Input. You can compile MAME to use DirectInput but there is an easier way. Check out ProcessUtil and try it with the command line option to send the WM_CLOSE message to close MAME "gracefully".

[Steveearle86]

Thanks for your help. I will give this a try tomorrow. Looks like I wouod create a batch file with the command "process -q mame.exe" and run that via gpedit

[Steveearle86]

Ok, I have downloaded the utility and tested as follows:

Open MAME,
Open command prompt
run following command in command prompt -

Code: [Select]

"C:/process.exe" -q mame64.exethis is fine when in MAME's game selection list and closes MAME straight away, however, when I try running the above command in the prompt when MAME is playing a game, it times out and says

Code: [Select]

"mame64.exe (PID 15408) failed to respond to WM_CLOSE. Terminating Now."
Is something else running when MAME loads a game that needs to be closed first?

Unortunately, a Google search hasn't brought much clarity

[Steveearle86]

OK I have done so more testing. I created a batch file with the line

Code: [Select]

"C:/process.exe" -q mame64.exe >> C:/test.txt and set it as both the log off and shutdown script using gpedit

If I open mame and then shut down, and then restart and look in the text file above I can see two entries (since the script is running at both log off and shutdown) but each time it says the mame64.exe process does not exist, this makes me think Windows has already killed the task before the log off script is run?