MAMEWAH most wanted...

[Minwah]

I am thinking of working on a relatively small MW update...I'm still pretty busy with my cab and other stuff so I won't be doing anything too major

Stuff so far:

Previous emulator and games list shortcut keys,
Increase max no. emulators (50?),
Improve IPAC .IPC support,
Joystick support *maybe*.

Please voice any requests

[stuzza]

This one is a must:

Previous emulator and games list shortcut keys,

Anything else is a bonus, imo  

[SpamMe]

This one is a must:

Previous emulator and games list shortcut keys,

Anything else is a bonus, imo  

Definitely my #1 as well.

I'd like to see the ability to have either a seperate background image for fav/gametype lists or (preferably) a emu?_list?-logo. layout filetype that would work like the current emu?-logo. file.

[arcadecab]

Such a MAMEwah update would be great!!  They all sound good--but I would most like to see the upgrade to 50 possible emulators and the Joystick support!!--the shortcut keys is also a nice feature.  Looking forward to seeing this update soon.  Thanks again for the great work with MAMEwah.
BTW, for probably the next major update, my requests are 1) motion video support using 3darcade's attract mode videos downloads  2) A return of the movie screensaver option.
Thanks.

[SaiNRuB]

Joystick support would be fantastic, that and creating and supporting a official vertical layout.

[MadEditor]

great...

Mouse and/or spinner to cycle games...

anyway the new release would be great...

[Brad Lee]

a Previous button for cycling emulators & gamelists definitely

What about tying the [esc] key from the main screen to the option that is picked? ie if you exitthru the menu you can choose to exit/exit+logoff/exit+shutdown, but if you hit esc it just dumps you out

Mouse/Spinner selection for games would be cool, as long as it's either optioned(x axis, y axis, mousewheel) or on the most common(x axis)

[screaming]

Please voice any requests

  I expect this thread to grow to at least 3 pages by the end of the day.  That was a dangerous request there, Minwah

/s

[Minwah]

Great so far...

arcadecab: I know you've not forgot about the video thing!  Not this time, but I will try to have a look at it for one of the subsequent releases...

SaiNRuB: The vertical support is still considered pretty major, so don't expect that in this release.

Various: Mouse support I will need also, so I will have another play around and might include if I am happy enough with it

Brad Lee: Good point, I'd forgot it even worked like that.  The 'Default Exit Button Action' option should make it to this release.

screaming: Hehe, I never promised anything tho

Seriously tho this is already helping me to get an idea of the more important features...many of which I am beginning to need myself, which is always good for my motivation  I'll keep an eye on the thread until it dies down and then put together final list of what-to-expect...

[DaveJ-UK]

I thought music shuffle each time you load MAMEWAH would be a good idea. And a previous track button would be useful.

I also thought the game list navigation could be improved slightly. atm the 4 functions:back/forward 1, 20, 100, 500. This could be changed to something like 1, 20, 1 letter, 2 letters. So if you're at the first game starting with D you press right on joystick 2 and it jumps to E. Would simplify navigating large lists but might not be so great for smaller lists. Just a thought.

[screaming]

I also thought the game list navigation could be improved slightly. atm the 4

  Come to think of it, I do find myself wishing I didn't have to hold the joystick so long to go from one end of the list to the other.  Next Letter and Previous Letter keys don't seem like they would too time consuming to implement.  

  Either that or having special keys that would work similar to Page Up and Page Down, only be able to go up or down a configurable number (50? 100?) .

What do you think?

/steve

[Minwah]

DaveJ-UK: What do you mean by music shuffle?  It does randomise what is played each time.  Previous track sounds like a good idea.

+screaming: Maybe if I add some options so that the 100/500 games thing can be adjusted to any figure you like, and add some other shortcuts to move a letter up/down.

[DaveJ-UK]

Minwah: I hadn't noticed it randomised each time it loaded. I've only got about 40 tracks but it did seem to always play certain tracks after others. Previous track button would be great.

Would be cool to have the track title and artist from the IDE tag displayed somewhere in the GUI, but hardly essential.

Skipping forward 500 games at a time is good until you get close to the one your after, then you have to think a bit. If you can skip forward 1 or 2 letters as well and you wanted to get to say Pacman, you know you have to skip 14 or 15 letters down, then it will be a few below. If you skip forward 500, then 100, then 25 you have to think more.

Keep up the good work mamewah rocks  

[Minwah]

Skipping forward 500 games at a time is good until you get close to the one your after, then you have to think a bit. If you can skip forward 1 or 2 letters as well and you wanted to get to say Pacman, you know you have to skip 14 or 15 letters down, then it will be a few below. If you skip forward 500, then 100, then 25 you have to think more.

I know what you mean having been using my cab for the first week

[Trenchbroom]

My only dislike about Mamewah--having the refresh games list so dangerously easy to hit.  I don't know how many times I've deleted tons of mahjong and other crap from a favorites list just to accidentally hit the refresh games list and POOF!  All the work is gone.  

You need to make a warning screen to prevent idiots like myself from being the idiots that we are.  Or at the very least move the refresh option down to the very bottom so it's harder to be an idiot.

[MrBond]

I justed started checking out Mamewah- and I think it's great!  Thanks for creating it!  It was VERY easy to setup, and I had no idea how to do it before trying- so cheers in making "user friendly".  I had MAME, NES, SNES, and Visual Pinball all setup in no time!  I'm having some issues with my sega emulator though- GensFE.  

Great ideas, I really like the trackball controlling the list idea -as in say gamelauncher or 3darcade- it's fun to slap the thing and have your games scroll by!  

The 'previous/next' emu/list and 'previous/next letter' ideas are also great.  I wouldn't mind the video preview implementation either!    

Seriously though, great job Minwah.

[hulkster]

okay heres my idea....

once you open mamewah, a video starts with 2 midgets doing cartwheels across the screen, which in turn starts the transformation of your regular old cab into a fully functional keg/arcade/home theater/women with huge boobs!!!  do you have to know C++ for that or can you just do that with HTML??  

no seriously, the only thing i can recommend is putting in some kind of filter to enable people to put their games into categories.  i mean like, having a category for 2 player games, 4 player simeltaneous, etc.  

[Magnet_Eye]

The ability to mix emulators! i.e. DAPHNE games in the same gamelist as MAME!

PLEASE!

Also, the choosing emulators thing....I wish when I design a layout there was an object to place that was an Emulator List, and whan this is added to the layout, you have a spot where you can change emulators right there..how you move from the game list to the emulator list , i dunno. maybe a key that "tabs" you back and forth?

PS- Much thanks for the FE, and I owe you an ice cold beer or two, or three...  

[Aceldamor]

Not sure, but can you have Mamewah change gamelists via a button?

Example: I would like to have a "launch pad" on my arcade and want to have gamelists for emulators populate by hitting a button...can you do that?

If not, that would be a cool add.

[Stormy151]

Next/Previous keys to scroll through games by letter.

Previous game list, emulator keys definitely.

[stuzza]

Also, the choosing emulators thing....I wish when I design a layout there was an object to place that was an Emulator List, and whan this is added to the layout, you have a spot where you can change emulators right there..how you move from the game list to the emulator list , i dunno. maybe a key that "tabs" you back and forth?

I also think this would be a neat feature to have. Although I don't think it'd need to be interactive, just display the emulators.  Perhaps an "optional" Text box similar to the Games list box which had all the emulators listed in it and the current emulator would be highlighted.  This way you could keep a list on the page which showed all the systems users could play.  It would be good if this list could be displayed either vertically or horizontally on the page.  Don't know how hard this would be for you to do though?  Something to consider anyway..  

[btoddkelley]

I think the previous idea is good but I would hate to have to redo all the skins! keep backwards compatible if possible.


Todd

[JackTucky]

The ability to mix emulators! i.e. DAPHNE games in the same gamelist as MAME!
PLEASE!

Yes, add my vote for this one too.

Thanks, Art

[screaming]

Also, the choosing emulators thing....I wish when I design a layout there was an object to place that was an Emulator List, and whan this is added to the layout, you have a spot where you can change emulators right there..how you move from the game list to the emulator list , i dunno. maybe a key that "tabs" you back and forth?

I also think this would be a neat feature to have. Although I don't think it'd need to be interactive, just display the emulators.  Perhaps an "optional" Text box similar to the Games list box which had all the emulators listed in it and the current emulator would be highlighted.  This way you could keep a list on the page which showed all the systems users could play.  It would be good if this list could be displayed either vertically or horizontally on the page.  Don't know how hard this would be for you to do though?  Something to consider anyway..  

  If you have something like this, you really don't even need to be able to 'tab' back and forth from one list to the other.  You use the emulator Back/Forward buttons!

  Having an 'object' available like this in the layout would be neat, but I'd venture to say that most people don't have more than 7 or 8 emulators max.  Even less if you could mix them!

/steve

[stuzza]

Here is a very rough mockup of the emulator list idea:



It wouldn't be everyone's taste, however it would help let people who have never used your cabinet know all the various systems they can choose to browse through.  It would need to be an optional object like the other object boxes, so you could turn it off if you didn't want it.

The list could also then maybe be setup on a blank page so only it is displayed, a sort of main menu similar to the Ultimate Arcade Menu system.

[MadEditor]

Here is a very rough mockup of the emulator list idea:



It wouldn't be everyone's taste, however it would help let people who have never used your cabinet know all the various systems they can choose to browse through.  It would need to be an optional object like the other object boxes, so you could turn it off if you didn't want it.

The list could also then maybe be setup on a blank page so only it is displayed, a sort of main menu similar to the Ultimate Arcade Menu system.

As you just did it (for the example), you can draw it yourself in your layouts files and then with the previous/next emu buttons it will be perfect...

Actually just what i did... but the previous button will be handy

[hulkster]

hey what about the midgets!!!  "they prefer to be called little people" for those of you who watch conan obrien.

[SpamMe]

You can fake the emulator list now. Here's my current mamewah skin, the "list" is on the right (just a part of the background image).

[papaschtroumpf]

probably not a "quick" one but mixing emulators would be nice, for example I'd like to have a "pinball room" that could mix PC based, MAME, vpinMAME and GameBoy pinballs all on one screen.

Support for Howard's controls display utility would be great and maybe not too hard

I'd also like to have a parental-control feature that disables entire lists or emulators if enabledbut lets kids change lists and emulators they have access to. That seems easy enough to do.

[Minwah]

My only dislike about Mamewah--having the refresh games list so dangerously easy to hit.  I don't know how many times I've deleted tons of mahjong and other crap from a favorites list just to accidentally hit the refresh games list and POOF!  All the work is gone.  

You need to make a warning screen to prevent idiots like myself from being the idiots that we are.  Or at the very least move the refresh option down to the very bottom so it's harder to be an idiot.

I can relate to that, I did the same myself the other day.  I'm an idiot too    Perhaps an 'Are you sure?' prompt would be a good idea...

[Minwah]

no seriously, the only thing i can recommend is putting in some kind of filter to enable people to put their games into categories.  i mean like, having a category for 2 player games, 4 player simeltaneous, etc.  

Whats with the midgets hulkster?  Should we be worried?!

Well you can filter by catver's categories.  I could to some extent add no. players using mame -listinfo, and in future controls.dat - will probably do that when I next alter the LST format, not next release tho...

[Minwah]

Also, the choosing emulators thing....I wish when I design a layout there was an object to place that was an Emulator List, and whan this is added to the layout, you have a spot where you can change emulators right there..how you move from the game list to the emulator list , i dunno. maybe a key that "tabs" you back and forth?

Since SpamMe has shown how this can be done without me actually do anything, I I'll skip this one  

I know everyone wants to be able to merge emulators/lists, but it is quite a biggie.  Well not so much a biggie on it's own, but I need to change the LST format to do it, and I have some other changes to make so it makes sense to do it all together...ie it will become a biggie...

papaschtroumpf: you could somewhat achieve this parental control by using the 'Select Custom Lists to Cycle' option and the menu lock: just select the 'kids' ones to cycle, disabling the others.  Then lock the menu when the kids are there (so they have to use the next list button), and when you're there you can unlock the menu and select the list you want there.  
You could do similar to emulators by limiting the 'No. Emulators to Display'.

[MrBond]

A highscore type search feature (like )p('s 3d-arcade or HC's dragon king) would be cool as well.  ie, hit a key, enter a few letters like you would your initials when you get a highscore, then hit the key again and it goes to the first game with these letters.

[Minwah]

Any preference on default previous/next emulator/list keys?

[Brad]

I'd love to be able to boot into my arcade cab and have Mamewah startup with a System menu screen. Say for example with the following:

1 - Mame Arcade
2 - Sega Genesis
3 - SNES
4 - Jukebox
5 - Exit (Shutdown)

This are slectable via arcade controls and when sleced will load your appropriate lists etc. The real good part about this is when you escape from a particular system it boots you back to said menu system!

This menu would also be skinnale just like every other Mamewah list. If anyone already has a way to do this I'd really appreciate it.

Brad

[TimO]

Maybe have the option to get rid of the good tools format? because I have been manually changing it for the past 3 months   and I'm not even 1/4th done! lol

Also for the option to have custom lists from Mame such as the "Light Gun" games so we don't have to have a completely seperate mame program running along with just those light gun game roms.

[btoddkelley]

Any preference on default previous/next emulator/list keys?

I have a 4 player panel so the 4 button works well to cycle forward. I think 3 would work well to cycle back.


Todd

[Minwah]

Maybe have the option to get rid of the good tools format? because I have been manually changing it for the past 3 months   and I'm not even 1/4th done! lol

Also for the option to have custom lists from Mame such as the "Light Gun" games so we don't have to have a completely seperate mame program running along with just those light gun game roms.

Sorting your romnames is your job    

You can have custom lists already, knowing you and your skins I'm sure you mean list-specific layouts.  I'll take a look at that, shouldn't be too difficult...

[Minwah]

I have a 4 player panel so the 4 button works well to cycle forward. I think 3 would work well to cycle back.

That's how I have it at the moment I think, just wondered how most people would want it.  I only have a 2 player panel but personally I only need the 'next' button as I use 3 emulators...

[TimO]

knowing you and your skins I'm sure you mean list-specific layouts.

yeah that ... thats what i ment ... what did i say? lol

[Magnet_Eye]

Sorry to interrupt, but I have been wondering about this for a while now, and I just can't seem to find the right front end to do what I am after...What I am thinking, and let me know if I am streching here, is that it would be nice if there existed a program that would fetch a cold beer for me during intense gameplay, cuz man when I am into it, no way I want to run to the fridge, you know? Maybe a button on my cab that would signal my girlfriend or fire up some sirens and lights so someone in the house knows I need another cold one PRONTO! Hell, maybe we can have it conected to my wireless network and a robot could fetch my brews, since the people in my house are lazy.

Would this be possible in the next release of MAMEWAH?  

Thanks for your time.  

PS - This just gave me an idea, how about where the coin doors usually go, there is a dispenser for canned beverages...so, like the bottom half of the cab is a refrigeration unit/soda dispenser. But I could stock it with beer, and just hit a button on my cab, and a cold one drops down for me on demand! Woa....I think i am onto something!  

[Minwah]

Sorry to interrupt, but I have been wondering about this for a while now, and I just can't seem to find the right front end to do what I am after...What I am thinking, and let me know if I am streching here, is that it would be nice if there existed a program that would fetch a cold beer for me during intense gameplay, cuz man when I am into it, no way I want to run to the fridge, you know? Maybe a button on my cab that would signal my girlfriend or fire up some sirens and lights so someone in the house knows I need another cold one PRONTO! Hell, maybe we can have it conected to my wireless network and a robot could fetch my brews, since the people in my house are lazy.

Would this be possible in the next release of MAMEWAH?  

Thanks for your time.  

PS - This just gave me an idea, how about where the coin doors usually go, there is a dispenser for canned beverages...so, like the bottom half of the cab is a refrigeration unit/soda dispenser. But I could stock it with beer, and just hit a button on my cab, and a cold one drops down for me on demand! Woa....I think i am onto something!  

You build the hardware and I'll add support to MAMEWAH  

[hulkster]

Sorry to interrupt, but I have been wondering about this for a while now, and I just can't seem to find the right front end to do what I am after...What I am thinking, and let me know if I am streching here, is that it would be nice if there existed a program that would fetch a cold beer for me during intense gameplay, cuz man when I am into it, no way I want to run to the fridge, you know? Maybe a button on my cab that would signal my girlfriend or fire up some sirens and lights so someone in the house knows I need another cold one PRONTO! Hell, maybe we can have it conected to my wireless network and a robot could fetch my brews, since the people in my house are lazy.

Would this be possible in the next release of MAMEWAH?  

Thanks for your time.  

PS - This just gave me an idea, how about where the coin doors usually go, there is a dispenser for canned beverages...so, like the bottom half of the cab is a refrigeration unit/soda dispenser. But I could stock it with beer, and just hit a button on my cab, and a cold one drops down for me on demand! Woa....I think i am onto something!  

hey great idea!  this can go along with my midget/girls with huge boobs idea!  no i dont have an infatuation with midgets or anything gross....i just thought midgets doing cartwheels would be funny...and yes...it would be.

[btoddkelley]

That's how I have it at the moment I think, just wondered how most people would want it.  I only have a 2 player panel but personally I only need the 'next' button as I use 3 emulators...

You only have a 2 player panel?!!!How can you fully experience the wonders of mame (and mamewah) with ONLY A 2 PLAYER PANEL???!!! I thought this was Build Your Own BIG Arcade Controls! Would you like me to send you some extra buttons? A joystick?


Todd

[hulkster]

minwah -
is there a estimated release date of this build?  

[Minwah]

You only have a 2 player panel?!!!How can you fully experience the wonders of mame (and mamewah) with ONLY A 2 PLAYER PANEL???!!! I thought this was Build Your Own BIG Arcade Controls! Would you like me to send you some extra buttons? A joystick?

LOL, personally I have no desire to ever have a 4-player panel    The only 4 player game I really like is Gauntlet...

is there a estimated release date of this build?

Not sure yet.  I actually did quite a lot of stuff yesterday, but I have a couple of tricky (ie time consuming) things to do.  If the weather is bad enough then it might be done this week...if it is nice maybe not  

[Superdude]

2 Suggestions:
1) Random Movie (AVI or MPEG) Screensaver
2) Logging of games played, ala Advance Menu with a screen that pops up that lists stats.  This would be Randomly displayed during the screensaver.  (Kinda like High Score Board)

[hulkster]

You only have a 2 player panel?!!!How can you fully experience the wonders of mame (and mamewah) with ONLY A 2 PLAYER PANEL???!!! I thought this was Build Your Own BIG Arcade Controls! Would you like me to send you some extra buttons? A joystick?

LOL, personally I have no desire to ever have a 4-player panel    The only 4 player game I really like is Gauntlet...

is there a estimated release date of this build?

Not sure yet.  I actually did quite a lot of stuff yesterday, but I have a couple of tricky (ie time consuming) things to do.  If the weather is bad enough then it might be done this week...if it is nice maybe not  

cool....so is the merging of roms from different emu's in one list feasible at all?  you said it would be complicated, but is it feasible?  i mean, id like to have my daphne games in my arcade folder, etc.  is this possible?

[TimO]

Here's another suggestion, maybe some more sound options? Like bass, treble, or anything else that would be usefull  

[screaming]

Here's another suggestion, maybe some more sound options? Like bass, treble, or anything else that would be usefull  

  All that stuff is controlled through Windows' audio properties and the sound mixer.  If your sound card and sound card driver supports it, you'll have these options your Control Panel -> Sounds and Multimedia window.

/steve

[Magnet_Eye]

How about a built in MP3 player with all the basic controls so I can crank out the Van Halen and FALCO when I play!?

[Minwah]

2 Suggestions:
1) Random Movie (AVI or MPEG) Screensaver
2) Logging of games played, ala Advance Menu with a screen that pops up that lists stats.  This would be Randomly displayed during the screensaver.  (Kinda like High Score Board)

1) The release after next with any luck.  Thanks to David Butler (MAMEWAH Setup) for recently pointing me in the right direction

2) Well you can log games for the purpose of most frequently / longest played.  See the Custom List Type option...can't be used in screensaver tho

[Minwah]

cool....so is the merging of roms from different emu's in one list feasible at all?  you said it would be complicated, but is it feasible?  i mean, id like to have my daphne games in my arcade folder, etc.  is this possible?

Oh it is feasible, I hope to do it, but not until I am ready to alter the LST format.  This is a MAJOR change so I just can't do it yet

[Minwah]

Re: any sound-related requests:

There are some bugs related to the current sound code, which causes a few strange things to happen under Win98.  Due to this I hope to re-write the sound code at some point, for which I may try to enlist the help of a few Win98 users to help me make sure I get it right this time    Anyway my point being that until I sort this out I won't add any other sound stuff, for obvious reasons.

Good news is that I've done quite a bit tonight, I think a release will be ready within 2 days

[jcrouse]

1. I would like to be able to play a wav file WHILE the screen saver is running. Currently I think it only works if you are rotation through the snaps.

2. Also, fix the issue with playing of MP3 files.

3. Concatination of keys would be nice. (like ctrl + space for exiting).

4. Rotation from within MameWAH would be great. I just thought I'd mention this knowing that it is a HUGE task better left for a later date.

5. This has been discussed already. It would be nice to be able to select a different emulator while the menuing system REMAINS locked. Probably with hotkeys or something. The trick is that it needs to be controllable WITHOUT a keyboard.

Thanks for listening,
John

[Minwah]

1. I would like to be able to play a wav file WHILE the screen saver is running. Currently I think it only works if you are rotation through the snaps.

2. Also, fix the issue with playing of MP3 files.

3. Concatination of keys would be nice. (like ctrl + space for exiting).

4. Rotation from within MameWAH would be great. I just thought I'd mention this knowing that it is a HUGE task better left for a later date.

5. This has been discussed already. It would be nice to be able to select a different emulator while the menuing system REMAINS locked. Probably with hotkeys or something. The trick is that it needs to be controllable WITHOUT a keyboard.

1) Depends on what screen-saver you are using.  For 'blank screen' or 'slide show' you can have the music continue...

2) Which issue exactly?

3) I hope to do this at some point, I just can't think of a good way of doing it atm

4) Thanks to EndTwist & PMF I do have some pointers on how to do this now, I just need to find the motivation/time to do it!

5) This is already possible using the 'Cycle Emulator' key.  In the next release this will be replaced with 'Previous Emulator' and 'Next Emulator' shortcut keys

[jcrouse]

I would like to be able to choose to play sound files when an external screen saver is active.

I would also like to be able to play MP3 files. Currently there are no issues it seems with wav's but lots of issues with mp3's and win2000 and winxp. Search the forum (LOL, just kidding). There have been quite a few posts on the MP3 issue.

John

[Minwah]

I would like to be able to choose to play sound files when an external screen saver is active.

I would also like to be able to play MP3 files. Currently there are no issues it seems with wav's but lots of issues with mp3's and win2000 and winxp. Search the forum (LOL, just kidding). There have been quite a few posts on the MP3 issue.

By default the music stops when screensaver is launched...does your screensaver not use sounds??

I can't remember hearing of an issue with MP3's and WinXP - I use this combination myself.  There are issues with the sound functions with Win98, but not XP AFAIK.

[jcrouse]

Post 1: http://www.mameworld.info/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=arcadeospc2jamma&Number=44244&Forum=arcadeospc2jamma&Words=MP3&Match=Entire%20Phrase&Searchpage=0&Limit=25&Old=allposts&Main=44244&Search=true#Post44244

Post 2: http://www.mameworld.info/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=arcadeospc2jamma&Number=40949&Forum=arcadeospc2jamma&Words=MP3&Match=Entire%20Phrase&Searchpage=0&Limit=25&Old=allposts&Main=40949&Search=true#Post40949

Post 3: http://www.mameworld.info/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=arcadeospc2jamma&Number=33806&Forum=arcadeospc2jamma&Words=MP3&Match=Entire%20Phrase&Searchpage=0&Limit=25&Old=allposts&Main=33806&Search=true#Post33806

Just a few of the posts.

John

[Minwah]

Post 1: http://www.mameworld.info/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=arcadeospc2jamma&Number=44244&Forum=arcadeospc2jamma&Words=MP3&Match=Entire%20Phrase&Searchpage=0&Limit=25&Old=allposts&Main=44244&Search=true#Post44244

Post 2: http://www.mameworld.info/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=arcadeospc2jamma&Number=40949&Forum=arcadeospc2jamma&Words=MP3&Match=Entire%20Phrase&Searchpage=0&Limit=25&Old=allposts&Main=40949&Search=true#Post40949

Post 3: http://www.mameworld.info/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=arcadeospc2jamma&Number=33806&Forum=arcadeospc2jamma&Words=MP3&Match=Entire%20Phrase&Searchpage=0&Limit=25&Old=allposts&Main=33806&Search=true#Post33806

Wow, I don't even remember those, perhaps I should cut down on the old green stuff...  

I think Post 2 is not the same problem, the guy is trying to launch MP3's via a player, he said the built-in player works.

So it seems you have the problem with 2k, Fat-Jonny in XP and Nikoms in '98.  I have heard a LOT of problems in '98, but AFAIK (ok so my memories not great!) this is the only prob in XP and 2k.  Perhaps you are the first I've heard with problems in 2k as not many people use 2k in MAME cabs?  I don't have a 2k machine to test on unfortunately.

Anyway, as I said a few posts up, I am going to do a complete re-write of the sound stuff at some point - please inform me after this if your problem persists, and I will endevour to sort it

[EndTwist]

Minwah -- I could give you my code if you want it. No one likes mine (most unpopular sticky) so I'll toss the source to you. Just PM or email me, and I'll upload it.

[jcrouse]

I also know two other people who have the same problem. One uses 2000 and the other XP Home.

[Buddabing]

How about a Linux port? If you use the SDL library, porting to Linux might not be too difficult.

There aren't enough front ends available for Linux.

[EndTwist]

Buddabing - I think I can answer this for Minwah:

MameWAH was created in Visual Basic, a language created by MS. It would be VERY hard to port it to Linux.

[Aceldamor]

Minwah -- I could give you my code if you want it. No one likes mine (most unpopular sticky) so I'll toss the source to you. Just PM or email me, and I'll upload it.

Twist...

I don't think your FE is unpopular, but you can't compare the total number of mamers to the hit count.  Statistically, you're prob in good shape, considering there aren't allot of folks out there with a verticle cab style...

[Minwah]

Minwah -- I could give you my code if you want it. No one likes mine (most unpopular sticky) so I'll toss the source to you. Just PM or email me, and I'll upload it.

I agree with Aceldamor - you've had a load of views, people don't tend to reply unless they find something wrong...Also your FE is pretty new, I've been writing mine since 2001, and I'd say it only became popular last year.  I don't intend to look at the vertical aspect yet (time), but when I do if the offer is still open I may ask for a look at your code, it would be pretty cool to combine the two.  I liked the change of name btw

jcrouse: Thanks for the heads up, I didn't realise it was such a widespread problem.

Buddabing: EndTwist is spot on...I agree about the lack of Linux FE's, I just don't have the knowledge/time to do anything about it

[JoeB]

Here's something a bit out there...

How about adding the ability to read the controls from a custom file and displaying it to the end user?

So when I scroll through games, I want the ability to see my joystick layout on screen with the definition of what each button does in the game.

People are working on doing this via LCD.. but I think it should be done on screen.

Better yet.. if you give us the ability to expand MAMEWAH ourselves (some programs do this via build in script language or even exporting header files that other tools can use to modfiy and return to the program) the possibilities could be endless.

I know it all sounds technical, but these could be long term projects.  

As far as short term, the ability to scroll down the emulation list is #1 on my list.  (i.e. EMU3 -> EMU2 -> EMU1 -> EMU10)

[MrBond]

Maybe have the option to get rid of the good tools format? because I have been manually changing it for the past 3 months   and I'm not even 1/4th done! lol

Sorting your romnames is your job    

Actually, how hard would it be to code a 'truncate' feature that would not display anything after '[' or '(' for the goodtools format AND the MAME clones naming system

Super Mario Bros 3 (U) (PRG 1).zip --->  Super Mario Bros 3
Asteriods Deluxe (rev 2)                 --->  Asteriods Deluxe

Possible Minwah?  I would greatly appreciate it!

[yeets]

Definitely!  If the wheel or trackball can be made to accelerate that would be even sweeter.  Kind of the way the ipod wheel accelerates.  That way you can sift through thousands of roms with just a few quick movements.

great...

Mouse and/or spinner to cycle games...

anyway the new release would be great...

[Minwah]

How about adding the ability to read the controls from a custom file and displaying it to the end user?

So when I scroll through games, I want the ability to see my joystick layout on screen with the definition of what each button does in the game.

As far as short term, the ability to scroll down the emulation list is #1 on my list.  (i.e. EMU3 -> EMU2 -> EMU1 -> EMU10)

I will eventually be supporting controls.dat, so that controls can be displayed, and filtered on etc.  This will be pretty major, and I will need to change the LST format, so will also include some info available from mame -listinfo that isn't there already...

In the meantime it shouldn't be too hard for me to add a shortcut key to launch Howards controls.dat viewer.  Or I could have it pop up in between hitting P1 Start and the game being launched.

The previous emulator key is done now

[Minwah]

Actually, how hard would it be to code a 'truncate' feature that would not display anything after '[' or '(' for the goodtools format AND the MAME clones naming system

Super Mario Bros 3 (U) (PRG 1).zip --->  Super Mario Bros 3
Asteriods Deluxe (rev 2)                 --->  Asteriods Deluxe

Possible Minwah?  I would greatly appreciate it!

This is already there set by default for MAME (generate a custom list and see).  The option is 'Display Clone Info (in Custom Lists)'.

I don't think it works with [square brackets], and for your Mario example I think it would only remove the last set of bracketed text, ie 'Super Mario Bros 3 (US)'.  Shouldn't be too hard for me to improve on this...

[Minwah]

Definitely!  If the wheel or trackball can be made to accelerate that would be even sweeter.  Kind of the way the ipod wheel accelerates.  That way you can sift through thousands of roms with just a few quick movements.

Yeah I am keen to add this for my 360 wheel panel, I don't think it will make it into this next release - hopefully the one after if all goes well...

[spauldingd]

My request is really simple, and if its already in there somewhere, please tell me how to enable it.  I would like to limit the number of games that are automatically added to the FAVORITES list.  My 4-year-old will play anything and everything so there are like 300 games on the favorites list.   I'd like to limit it to the top 20 or some user-configurable number.

[screaming]

My request is really simple, and if its already in there somewhere, please tell me how to enable it.  I would like to limit the number of games that are automatically added to the FAVORITES list.  My 4-year-old will play anything and everything so there are like 300 games on the favorites list.   I'd like to limit it to the top 20 or some user-configurable number.

Oooh, yeah that's a great idea.. And then if you configured it for a max of '0' it would be unlimited, or something.  I see this as a potential maintenance problem in about a years time of playing my arcade..

-steve

[Minwah]

My request is really simple, and if its already in there somewhere, please tell me how to enable it.  I would like to limit the number of games that are automatically added to the FAVORITES list.  My 4-year-old will play anything and everything so there are like 300 games on the favorites list.   I'd like to limit it to the top 20 or some user-configurable number.

Sounds like it shouldn't be too difficult...

Just an update on my progress: I've done just about all I intend to for this release now, except for a few finishing off things.  Hopefully I should be ready to upload a new version tomorrow (Sat)

[jcrouse]

MinWAH....I run my skin in vertical mode because it's in a cocktail cabinet. My snaps didn't display properly so you sent me a "fixed" exe file. Will those fixes be incorporated in the new version?

Thanks,
John

[MisterB]

If you could implement a default IPAC config file file, that would be great.  I am always running into the problem of programming a game or emulator with a set of buttons that aren't compatible with my MAMEWAH settings, so when I quit the game, I'm not able to navigate through MAMEWAH again.  If you could launch an emulator-specific .ipc file when starting a game, and the option to laun ch a MAMEWAH-spevific one when you quit the game, that would be great.

[Minwah]

MinWAH....I run my skin in vertical mode because it's in a cocktail cabinet. My snaps didn't display properly so you sent me a "fixed" exe file. Will those fixes be incorporated in the new version?

Yes, that was the first update to be completed actually

[Minwah]

If you could implement a default IPAC config file file, that would be great.  I am always running into the problem of programming a game or emulator with a set of buttons that aren't compatible with my MAMEWAH settings, so when I quit the game, I'm not able to navigate through MAMEWAH again.  If you could launch an emulator-specific .ipc file when starting a game, and the option to laun ch a MAMEWAH-spevific one when you quit the game, that would be great.

That's done too  I haven't tested this as such, since I'm using my IPAC in PS/2 mode, and it seems to not want to program atm

Please let me know if it doesn't work properly or if I've forgot to do something...

[arcadecab]

Minwah,

It was mentioned before about the ability to cut off the excess stuff at the end of console rom names:  for instance just seeing Super Mario Bros.  in the gamelist instead of Super Mario Bros. (USA) [o1], etc.   You mentioned it may not be that hard to do--this would be a GREAT addition I think as I truly hate looking at the extra stuff in trying to make my setup look as "professional" and "non-pc" as possible.  Any chance in the next release?
Thanks.

[Minwah]

Minwah,

It was mentioned before about the ability to cut off the excess stuff at the end of console rom names:  for instance just seeing Super Mario Bros.  in the gamelist instead of Super Mario Bros. (USA) [o1], etc.   You mentioned it may not be that hard to do--this would be a GREAT addition I think as I truly hate looking at the extra stuff in trying to make my setup look as "professional" and "non-pc" as possible.  Any chance in the next release?
Thanks.

I've already done that too...

This is getting easy  

[MisterB]

All these wonderful changes already done...when can we play with it?  

[Minwah]

All these wonderful changes already done...when can we play with it?  

In 2 minutes

[bdsjake]

you know my vote:

Vertical!

you get mamewah going vertical, you will have created the perfect frontend.

 

[EndTwist]

Trust me, that's not gonna happen unless Minwah gets some real motivation. That takes a lot of work! In the meantime...use mine (VertiWAH) as it is natively vertical. I have a new version (big updates) coming out in the next couple days.

[Minwah]

Trust me, that's not gonna happen unless Minwah gets some real motivation. That takes a lot of work! In the meantime...use mine (VertiWAH) as it is natively vertical. I have a new version (big updates) coming out in the next couple days.

LOL, EndTwist is right, use VertiWah

I like the vertical idea, one step at a time tho....

[Onji]

Great new release Minwah! Thanks alot.
I'm probably way late for this, OR mamewah may do thsi already and I might not know.

It would be nice to have it where when you set the screensaver option to start a random game, and after a certain amount of time, that game would stop and it would start a different one.

example: screensaver kicks in, pacman starts, the pacman demo runs for 5 minutes, then pacman stops and then the galaxian demo starts etc.

I know about the 'start random game options' Ive also noticed 'start random game with wrapper' what exactly is this? I didnt find it in the documentation anywhere.

Anyway thanks again Minwah for a great frontend

[Minwah]

Great new release Minwah! Thanks alot.
I'm probably way late for this, OR mamewah may do thsi already and I might not know.

It would be nice to have it where when you set the screensaver option to start a random game, and after a certain amount of time, that game would stop and it would start a different one.

example: screensaver kicks in, pacman starts, the pacman demo runs for 5 minutes, then pacman stops and then the galaxian demo starts etc.

I know about the 'start random game options' Ive also noticed 'start random game with wrapper' what exactly is this? I didnt find it in the documentation anywhere.

Anyway thanks again Minwah for a great frontend

The wrapper is exactly what you need to do this  Grab Howards 'Emusaver' wrapper from www.oscarcontrols.com/lazarus .  I can't remember exactly how to set it up atm, and Howard has released a new version or 2 since I last tried...

[Onji]

Sweet! Thanks so much, thats what I wanted to know.

[Minwah]

Sweet! Thanks so much, thats what I wanted to know.

If you get stuck let me know and I'll give it a go, I've been meaning to do it anyway...

[Magnet_Eye]

Hey Minwah, are we gonna get some layer usage with the Layouts anytime?

[Aceldamor]

Minwah.....Lovin' the updates to far, thanks for a great fe....

One question. Can you set Mamewah to play an intro movie before you get into the main skin?

Example:  I have the short version of Arcade 84 (thanks to Dave Dries) and would like it to run before the main interface comes up.

If it doesn't do it now...can you put that on the "to do" list?  

*edit*

Also wondering if you can assign key's to gamelists...

Example: I would like to use a launchpad and have buttons for each emulator..when I hit the button I get that emulators game list.

is that possible?

[Minwah]

Hey Minwah, are we gonna get some layer usage with the Layouts anytime?

Can you explain a bit more please  

[Minwah]

One question. Can you set Mamewah to play an intro movie before you get into the main skin?

Example:  I have the short version of Arcade 84 (thanks to Dave Dries) and would like it to run before the main interface comes up.

If it doesn't do it now...can you put that on the "to do" list?  

*edit*

Also wondering if you can assign key's to gamelists...

Example: I would like to use a launchpad and have buttons for each emulator..when I hit the button I get that emulators game list.

Can't do either atm

I'll be adding movie screensaver/preview support at some point so I'll look into that then.

I'm not sure the best way I could add shortcuts for each emulator as it would now require 50 keys!

[Magnet_Eye]

Hey Minwah, are we gonna get some layer usage with the Layouts anytime?

Can you explain a bit more please  

I mean, more than just a background image and the objects on top. how about a background, then objects, then ability to lay other images or objects on top of those? multi-layered.

AracdeFX had this, and it was key to making great skins.

[Minwah]

I mean, more than just a background image and the objects on top. how about a background, then objects, then ability to lay other images or objects on top of those? multi-layered.

AracdeFX had this, and it was key to making great skins.

Not likely, unfortunately it just wouldn't work using VB's GDI  That's partly why Howard ditched Lazarus and made Dragon King I believe...

[Onji]

If you get stuck let me know and I'll give it a go, I've been meaning to do it anyway...

Well I messed with it last night, I got it halfway working, It will launch a game, then when the time interval is up, it will attempt to switch to another game, but it just drops to the desktop. Not sure whats going on. I'm going to mess around with some settings tonight though.

[Aceldamor]

One question. Can you set Mamewah to play an intro movie before you get into the main skin?

Example:  I have the short version of Arcade 84 (thanks to Dave Dries) and would like it to run before the main interface comes up.

If it doesn't do it now...can you put that on the "to do" list?  

*edit*

Also wondering if you can assign key's to gamelists...

Example: I would like to use a launchpad and have buttons for each emulator..when I hit the button I get that emulators game list.

Can't do either atm

I'll be adding movie screensaver/preview support at some point so I'll look into that then.

I'm not sure the best way I could add shortcuts for each emulator as it would now require 50 keys!

Heh..I don't mean a button for every emulator, I mean being able to assign a hotkey to launch a gamelist for an emulator....I personally don't use 50 emulators....good god that is too many. I only use about 10ish..(which is still horrible)  

[SaiNRuB]

Well I messed with it last night, I got it halfway working, It will launch a game, then when the time interval is up, it will attempt to switch to another game, but it just drops to the desktop. Not sure whats going on. I'm going to mess around with some settings tonight though.

I have the same predicament Onji, here is the thread i was using for feedback in case your interested.

Help needed for Emusaver 3.0 please

[Minwah]

Heh..I don't mean a button for every emulator, I mean being able to assign a hotkey to launch a gamelist for an emulator....

Sorry I don't know what you mean?  Isn't that the same thing?

I personally don't use 50 emulators....good god that is too many. I only use about 10ish..(which is still horrible)  

I agree (I use 3 atm), but I'd still have to make whatever functionality available for all 50 possible emulators...

[Valence]

These have been asked for in other threads but I wanted to make sure they were included.


Different background images based off of game launched on the msg screen.


Selected game broadcasted to main window ( Mamewah window title - something like   'mamewah - pacman' , 'mamewah - metal slug 2')

[Minwah]

These have been asked for in other threads but I wanted to make sure they were included.


Different background images based off of game launched on the msg screen.


Selected game broadcasted to main window ( Mamewah window title - something like   'mamewah - pacman' , 'mamewah - metal slug 2')

The background image thing won't happen until the layout format next changes (I don't really plan to do this unless something really killer comes along).

The broadcast thing doesn't sound too difficult, but remind me why?  Could you not read the debug.log file to do what you want?

[Valence]

Doesn't the debug.log contain the game launched and not the one that is currently selected?

All is in this thread

[Aceldamor]

Heh..I don't mean a button for every emulator, I mean being able to assign a hotkey to launch a gamelist for an emulator....

Sorry I don't know what you mean?  Isn't that the same thing?

I personally don't use 50 emulators....good god that is too many. I only use about 10ish..(which is still horrible)  

I agree (I use 3 atm), but I'd still have to make whatever functionality available for all 50 possible emulators...

You don't have to accomadate all 50 emulators...mamewah could only accomodate 26 emulators anyway couldn't it? Can you set a limit on the number of hotkeys for gamelists you can have?

for example: Say I have a series of buttons on my cp (or bottom of monitor bezel) set for each emulator I use. I would like the ability to hit the button and load that gamelist for that emulator. Granted, you couldn't accomodate those users with 50 emulators, but mamewah can't support more than 26 gamelists anyway can't it? Mabye the ability to "quicklaunch" 10 gamelists or so...Does that make much better sense? Sorry, I'm not very good at explaining things.  

I don't know...mabye my idea is too far fetched...I'm just trying to set up my arcade so anybody can walk up to and use it... If it's unrealistic or not very easy..i'll search for an alternative...(though I do love mamewah, great fe  )

[Silver]

Hey I posted this in the "serial LCD project" thread but realised that you may not be reading it - excuse me for copy/pasting the comments over as I had not seen this thread before....

"
Also Minwah -  if you read this - I am keen to implement this feature in my setup, ideally without making up millions of batch files for each game/emu. I was thinking of writing an app in VB to run in the background and catch commands to load romd and then kick out the right file to the LCD, but realise that its far from ideal. Is MAmewah written in VB? Would you be interested in sticking an option in to allow sending a txt file to the com port on loading a game? (extremely easy if you're using mscomm.ocx in VB). Then anyone with an LCd can work out what control characters their LCD requires and stick it their txt files.

Oh - and I'm only picking on you as I love Mamewah so much! ;-)
"

EDIT:
 
Doh! Sorry now read thread and I see MAmewah is in VB. Good news (I hope). Would this option be considered a big update/interesting/possible/pure hassle to you?

[Minwah]

Doesn't the debug.log contain the game launched and not the one that is currently selected?

All is in this thread

Yes, I remember now.  OK well assuming it doesn't have any ill-effects I'll set the caption of the main form to be the name of the game...perhaps romname then description?

[Minwah]

You don't have to accomadate all 50 emulators...mamewah could only accomodate 26 emulators anyway couldn't it? Can you set a limit on the number of hotkeys for gamelists you can have?

for example: Say I have a series of buttons on my cp (or bottom of monitor bezel) set for each emulator I use. I would like the ability to hit the button and load that gamelist for that emulator. Granted, you couldn't accomodate those users with 50 emulators, but mamewah can't support more than 26 gamelists anyway can't it? Mabye the ability to "quicklaunch" 10 gamelists or so...Does that make much better sense? Sorry, I'm not very good at explaining things.  

Remember I have to allow for the maximum possible tho: with 50 emulators with 51 games lists each (inc. main list), that's 2550 games lists you could have.

The best (max functionality and future proof) way I could do what you want is to have a hotkey for each list, which obviously isn't possible given the numbers.  The next best thing would be to have say 10 hotkeys which you could assign to open any emulator/list you want...the problem then is someone will whine that they have 11 games lists and want another hotkey added...so I'll up it to 15 and then someone will want 20, and so on.

Sorry but in this case I think it is best left the way it is: 99% of people use sticks + buttons to select an emulator, or the previous/next emulator/game list shortcuts.  Why not use the buttons you have under your monitor for the previous/next emulator/game list shortcut buttons?

[Minwah]

Hey I posted this in the "serial LCD project" thread but realised that you may not be reading it - excuse me for copy/pasting the comments over as I had not seen this thread before....

"
Also Minwah -  if you read this - I am keen to implement this feature in my setup, ideally without making up millions of batch files for each game/emu. I was thinking of writing an app in VB to run in the background and catch commands to load romd and then kick out the right file to the LCD, but realise that its far from ideal. Is MAmewah written in VB? Would you be interested in sticking an option in to allow sending a txt file to the com port on loading a game? (extremely easy if you're using mscomm.ocx in VB). Then anyone with an LCd can work out what control characters their LCD requires and stick it their txt files.

Oh - and I'm only picking on you as I love Mamewah so much! ;-)
"

EDIT:
 
Doh! Sorry now read thread and I see MAmewah is in VB. Good news (I hope). Would this option be considered a big update/interesting/possible/pure hassle to you?

I had read the start of the thread but not this far in...

I'll be more than happy to add some kind of support like this in if you're willing to give me a hand.  I have an idea how to use the MSCOMM control, but since I have no LCD hardware I'd be programming blind somewhat...

One thing I am curious about, once the file is sent to the COM port and thus LCD, what happens after?  Does the display scroll whatever was sent?  Or do you have to make sure the text fits on the screen?

[Silver]

Well I'll throw you some source that will do the trick in a bit....

how the text is displayed is basically down to the the controlling microchips/firmware on these LCD's. They tend to have a RS232 interface built in so the hard part is already done.

The fonts/scrolling can be setup in commands at the start of each line. for example when generating the text to send, if its greater than 24 characters (on a 24 character width LCD) then you can simply insert a scroll command at the start of that line, and that line only will scroll. However, as this changes depending on brand of LCD, I suggest that mamewah does not deal with that.

...basically all that can be setup beforehand in a txt file for each game - so all mamewah would have to do is open the txt file, open and setup a port (e.g. com1, 19200baud, etc..) and send the file to it. (and perhaps some error handling, such as revert to a default txt file). There is no fancy comms checking as it all the comms can be one way.

This method also means that people can customise the txt files to work with their lcd and match their own control setup.

I'm having a go now at knocking together an app in VB similar to the one maraxle had for generating the txt files before he took it down. (unfortunately parsing xml files in VB6 is new to me... anytips?)

[Minwah]

Well I'll throw you some source that will do the trick in a bit....

blahblahblah

This method also means that people can customise the txt files to work with their lcd and match their own control setup.

I'm having a go now at knocking together an app in VB similar to the one maraxle had for generating the txt files before he took it down. (unfortunately parsing xml files in VB6 is new to me... anytips?)

Cool, drop me an email if you would

Thanks for explaining, I agree it best to just send whatever's in the text file for user customisations sake...

Is XML the -listinfo format?  I think my method is possibly not the most technically correct, but it's pretty quick and does the job - I can send it you if you like, you might just need to add a few lines to get the info I don't currently use in MW (no. buttons etc.).

[Aceldamor]

Minwah....that's cool..I'll figure something out.

BTW...I have an extra LCD screen that I could send you as a "loaner" so you could add that functionality to Mamewah...it's the least I could do to "help out"  If your interested let me know and I'll send it to you so you can play around/test with it  

[Minwah]

Minwah....that's cool..I'll figure something out.

BTW...I have an extra LCD screen that I could send you as a "loaner" so you could add that functionality to Mamewah...it's the least I could do to "help out"  If your interested let me know and I'll send it to you so you can play around/test with it  

Thanks for the offer  What I will do is try to do it blind with the help of some testers, and see how it goes...if I'm struggling I'll give you a shout!

[Aceldamor]

thats cool...if you need beta testers or whatever..let me know and i'll test  

[FoX]

Any chance you have that skin up anywhere spamme?

I love how clean it looks.

[Richy]

How about limitinga game's time played to only count the first hour or so, because I sometimes leave games playing for hours at a time and it pushes them up my longest played list.
by the way, does anyone know how to reset this on individual games, or even at all?

[Minwah]

How about limitinga game's time played to only count the first hour or so, because I sometimes leave games playing for hours at a time and it pushes them up my longest played list.
by the way, does anyone know how to reset this on individual games, or even at all?

Hey you just emailed me with this one!...

For the benefit of the others, I don't want to limit this for the sake of games purposely left (I think the majority of the time people don't leave disliked games running).

You can edit the .FAV file and alter (reduce) the figure which applies to the time played (you should be able to tell which this is).  I haven't tried it but I can't see why it wouldn't work...

[Minwah]

I am going to try to get this thread locked, since it has served it's purpose (v0.97 is out).  I already know the most wanted features for the next release, and a few not-so-most-wanted.  Of course feel free to email me if you have a good idea which hasn't been mentioned