Main > Software Forum
MAMEWAH most wanted...
Minwah:
--- Quote from: Valence on May 21, 2004, 01:56:49 pm ---Doesn't the debug.log contain the game launched and not the one that is currently selected?
All is in this thread
--- End quote ---
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:
--- Quote from: Aceldamor on May 22, 2004, 02:08:47 am ---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. :P
--- End quote ---
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:
--- Quote from: Silver on May 23, 2004, 10:16:45 am ---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?
--- End quote ---
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:
--- Quote from: Silver on May 25, 2004, 09:17:52 am ---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?)
--- End quote ---
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.).