Mamewah and PC games

[Brewser]

Is there a way to configure Mamewah to launch PC games?

[whatisk]

Yep. Look here for an example ini file. Is for Mamewah 1.62, but not too hard to rearrange for 1.61
http://www.emuchrist.org/cpviewer/pcgames.htm

[Brewser]

Thanks for the tip but I have a couple questions I can't figure out:

1. how do you create .lnk files with windows xp? I created shortcuts but I don't know if they have the .lnk ext.
2. How do you generate a list by the names in the PC games folder?
3. I see they list a pre and a post command which I don't think I need but I am confused by the command line -
PC "[rompath]\[name].[romext]"{dosbox}{safelaunch}
Why is there a 'PC' in front, should this be changed to something else?
Should the rompath be rom_path instead since it is refering to the rom_path listed on the top?
These are windows games so would you need dosbox?

Thanks for your help.

[gonzo90017]

Shortcut have .lnk extensions.

[Congui]

Hi there.

Im using mamewah v1.61, and this is the ini I'm using.  Never had any problems with it.

Just recently got my Ipac2, so I still haven't tested the IPC part.

Hopes this helps.

Cheers,
Congui

[Brewser]

Hi there.

Im using mamewah v1.61, and this is the ini I'm using.  Never had any problems with it.

Just recently got my Ipac2, so I still haven't tested the IPC part.

Hopes this helps.

Cheers,
Congui

How did you generate a list? Did you do this through Mamewah's generate list? None of my games are showing up. I am using an ipac but I dont believe I would need to use the pre and post config. Is this correct?

[whatisk]

Yep, you generate your games list through Mamewah.
Which version of Mamewah are you using? If it's 1.61 then use the one posted by Congui. You will obviously need to modify the path to where you store your shortcut files. Personally, I keep mine in a folder called 'links'.

If you are using 1.61, then the link I posted to the sample ini file won't work for you without some changes as it's for 1.62 and the format of the ini files have changed. If you are using 1.62, don't worry about the pre and post config parts. That is just if you need to run a program before or after the game is run - if you need to load a different key config, etc.

The 'PC' infront of the command line lets Mamewah know that you are running a PC game (lnk) as far as I am aware. You will notice that in Congui's ini file it's in there as well, but on it's own, not combined into the command line.

It pretty much all comes down to which version of Mamewah you are using. If you let us know that, then we can be of more help because it will let us know which ini file you should be using...

[Brewser]

I am using 1.61 at this time. I will have to play around with this a little more this evening.
Thanks for the help.

[Congui]

Brewster hi.

What is important here are the following settings:

rom_path                where the shortcuts are
rom_extension           all shortcuts are LNK
list_generation_method  rom_folder is the option that is   going to create your list
emulator_executable     PC (constant)
commandline_format      [name]{autodosbox}}{nosafelaunch} (constant)

With these setting you simple enter the gamelist option, then select generate list and, if all goes well, the PC game list is generated and you're ready to start playing them.

Cheers, 
Congui

[Brewser]

Thanks Gongui, I will give it a try later tonight and report back.

[Congui]

No problem.   Just glad to give back to the community.   

 
Congui

[somunny]

Congui,

Edit*  Let me rephrase that - Are you running both Dos based  and Windows based pc games with that .ini?

Steve

[Congui]

Somunny,

I'm running both Dos and Windows based games with no problem; that, including a jukebox program I did using C#.

I'm running Dos games thru Dosbox (had to make a separate bat file for each Dos game, and then a shortcut of that bat file), and the windows games (just a couple of them, including a Pong clone)  thru their respective shortcuts.

As long as a program can be run thru a shortcut, it can be executed successfully thru Mamewah (and other frontends).

Cheers,
Congui

[somunny]

Would you mind posting one or two of your .bat files?  I have some games (Wolf 3D, Dark Forces, Sam & Max) that I'd like to run through DosBox and would like to see how you did it.

Thanks,

Steve

[Congui]

No problem.

Besides the batch file (digger.bat), you'll need to make a config file in your dosbox directory (digger.conf).  Btw, I'm using DOSBox-0.63.

After that all you need is to create the shortcut to your bat file and that's it.

Hope this helps,
Congui

[somunny]

Wow!  That really helps out.  Thanks man!

Steve

[Congui]

No problem. 

Cheers,
Congui

[Brewser]

This is so frustrating, I just don't get why I can't get this to work. I tried for about an hour tonight with just about every variable I could think of and now I am at least able to generate a list of games but when I select the game it doesn't do anything. I checked the Mamewah. log file and at first it said it didn't understand my emulator executable so I put in c:\PCGames\*.lnk.
Now it shows in the log that I am running commandline PC C\PCGames\gridwars.lnk
but nothing happens. nothing launches. I see a quick launching gridwars but it doesn't launch the game.
Could someone please post their ini file for 1.61? There has to be something I am missing. Everytime I change something in the commandline I get a different flag number in the log.
Thanks for your help.

[Congui]

Brewster hi.

Maybe you could post your ini file so we can see if you're missing something, after all, 4 eyes se better than 2.

Cheers,
Congui

[Brewser]

Brewster hi.

Maybe you could post your ini file so we can see if you're missing something, after all, 4 eyes se better than 2.

Here is my ini file. Thanks again
### mame.ini (mamewah v1.61) ###

emulator_title                            PC Games

### List Generation Settings ###
rom_path                                  c:\PCGames
rom_extension                             lnk
dat_file                                 
nms_file                                 
catver_ini_file                           
list_generation_method                    rom_folder

### Execution Settings ###
emulator_executable                       c:\PCGames\*.lnk
commandline_format                        PC "[rompath]\[name].[romext]"{dosbox}{safelaunch}
alt_commandline_format_1                  [name]{autodosbox}{nosafelaunch}
alt_commandline_format_2                  [name]{autodosbox}{nosafelaunch}
game_specific_config_path                 

### Artwork Locations ###
artwork_1_image_path                     
artwork_2_image_path                     
artwork_3_image_path                     
artwork_4_image_path                     
artwork_5_image_path                     
artwork_6_image_path                     
artwork_7_image_path                     
artwork_8_image_path                     
artwork_9_image_path                     
artwork_10_image_path                     
movie_preview_path                       
movie_artwork_no                          1

### Screen-Saver Settings ###
enable_music_in_screensaver               1
saver_type                                slideshow
movie_path                               
movie_fullscreen                          1
quit_delay                                30
wrapper_executable                       
wrapper_commandline_format                [name]{nodosbox}{nosafelaunch}
scr_file                                 

### External Application Settings ###
ipc_file_or_path                         
app_1_executable                         
app_1_commandline_format                 
app_2_executable                         
app_2_commandline_format                 
app_3_executable                         
app_3_commandline_format                 
auto_launch_apps                         

### Additional Settings ###
music_path                               
lcd_display_file_path                     
lcd_fe_text                               

### Settings used by MAMEWAH ###
current_list                              0

[Congui]

Brewser hi.

Have you tried changing this:
emulator_executable                       c:\PCGames\*.lnk
for
emulator_executable                       pc

And perhaps
commandline_format                        PC "[rompath]\[name].[romext]"{dosbox}{safelaunch}
for
commandline_format                        [name]{autodosbox}}{nosafelaunch}

Let me know how everything goes.

Cheers,
Congui

[Brewser]

It worked. This ini is nothing like the one suggested earlier. I was trying to mirror the new ini file.
This is great. Thanks again for all your help.
Now to wait on the UPS guy for my new SlikStick blank to change out and redo my CP. It's amazing what you learn over a year and how a different layout would be better. Another $200 learning curve.

[Congui]

Brewser, glad to hear it worked.

Cheers,
Conrad

[Level42]

OK, I got Mamewah to generate my games list (only HOTD2 and Spacebirdz for now). I can launch the games. In HOTD2 everything SEEMS fine, but as soons as I want to fire the first zombie,it freezes completely  .

With Spacebirdz, the controls do weird things.Also the Mamewah background mp3 seems to keep running....

What 's wrong ?

[MrQuan]

With Spacebirdz, the controls do weird things.Also the Mamewah background mp3 seems to keep running....

What 's wrong ?

Did you add {nomusic} to the commandline_format entry in your ini file?  This will pause music during gameplay (music resumes when to exit back to MameWah).

I think the default is to run without music if you put nothing there, so maybe you have {music} in your commandline_format?