MaLa v1.0 RC5 available

[swindus]

Improvements
- Option to use a fullscreen picture instead of starting window.
- Layout: Different count of games under and over the selected game in the game list.
- Layout: Diagonal display of the game list.
- Layout: Peaked display of the game list.
- Layout: Curved display of the game list.
- Layout: Text size gradient in the game list.
- Layout: Background color for the selected game









Bugfixes
- Windows not shutting down on pc power button when MaLa is running.
- MalaGamelist: Multiselect and delete in destination listbox not working (index out of bound error).
- Some more minor fixes.

http://mala.arcadezentrum.com/download.html

[edge]

The curved skin looks cool.  Nice addition.

[gamecreature]

Awesome! Just what I was looking for!

[swindus]

A bugfix update is available:
- Auto layout switch not working.
- 'Game list not found' error when selecting the last emulator from the MaLa menu and the jukebox is disabled.

http://mala.arcadezentrum.com/download.html

[leapinlew]

Holy cow!

the racing one is perfect! Just what I needed.

[Hiub1]

Man, this is looking gooood!

[Dustin Mustangs]

Wow, I am impressed with how nice and user friendly this FE is!  I have a couple of questions that I couldn't find by searching or by briefly trying it out:

-Is it possible to have Mala automatically launch an application upon exit?  (ie. in order to shell Mala and have it launch explorer when exiting)

-Is it possible to setup Mala to run a random game as a screen saver?

 

[Cananas]

One request (I Don't know if it could be considered a bug):

Before Mame start, MaLa show the fullscreen Get Ready screen. But when Mame exits, the get ready screen is still here. Is there any way to fix this?

[swindus]

-Is it possible to have Mala automatically launch an application upon exit?  (ie. in order to shell Mala and have it launch explorer when exiting)

Not at the moment. But I will add this in the next release.

-Is it possible to setup Mala to run a random game as a screen saver?

No and I don't want to add this feature. But I think I will add video display to the screensaver.

[swindus]

One request (I Don't know if it could be considered a bug):

Before Mame start, MaLa show the fullscreen Get Ready screen. But when Mame exits, the get ready screen is still here. Is there any way to fix this?

You mean the picture is still visible when quitting mame and then disappears?

[loadman]

-Is it possible to setup Mala to run a random game as a screen saver?

No and I don't want to add this feature. But I think I will add video display to the screensaver.
[/quote]

Cool ...even better idea SWINDUS   

You mean the picture is still visible when quitting mame and then disappears?

I got a flash of it to using the latest mame versions, but earlier ones not a problem . I guess due to file size..

Any any case I got around it by having the pic the name of my cab not a 'game launching' picture

[Cananas]

One request (I Don't know if it could be considered a bug):

Before Mame start, MaLa show the fullscreen Get Ready screen. But when Mame exits, the get ready screen is still here. Is there any way to fix this?

You mean the picture is still visible when quitting mame and then disappears?

Yes, that is.

[unclet]

I like the option to use another image other than the "Starting" window.

It comes in real handy when I start some of my "PC Games" in which do not play fullscreen.   Previously I would be playing these games and still see the MALA display in the background.  It seems I will now be able to use an image (ie: all black 1024x768 image), to display first, then start the game.   This will result in me being able to play my PC Game and simply seeing a black background now.  Anyway, just wanted to let you know, that this feature solved a problem for me other than just trying to replace the "Starting" window with some other picture...... I am using the feature to make sure the background is BLACK for non-full-screen PC Games..... thanks.


I am not home right now, so I can not test this with my encoder and with emulators which use pre-post commands....... so I was wondering whether this image will be displayed only in place of the "Starting" window ..... or will the image be displayed over the "Encoder Config" and "Pre/Post Command" windows which MALA displayed as well when an encoder is being configured and when pre-post commands are used?  I would personally prefer that the new starting image would be displayed in place of the "Starting" window only.

Anyway, since other people might not want to see the "Encoder Config" and "Pre-Post Command" windows being displayed either, then perhaps it might be worth adding a couple of options to offer whether they want the "Encoder Config" and "Pre/Post Command Executing" windows to be displayed at all.   Actually, having separate options to indicate whether the "Starting", "Encoder Config" and "Pre-Post Command" windows should be displayed would be nice for some people i guess.

People like me..... who use the KE72 encoder (which takes about 7 seconds to load), like to see the "Encoder Config" window popping up so the user can understand what it taking so long .....

Anyway, just an idea ....

[camsauce]

First of all, this emulator is pure genius.  It opens quick (unlike GameEx), has lots of unique features and overall just kicks ass.  That being said, I have some requests:

- Support MNG's for video previews
- Support animated GIFs (would be nice to see this available with the definable's in the layout editor)
- A way to supress the command line window (ie. When MAME is starting a game)
- Key mappings to support selection between emulators and the jukebox, ie. I map a key to page/scroll through my emulators in a left/right/up/down type manner (this might already be possible with the Wrap Emulators option?)
- A way to suppress extra information in game titles, ie. (World) or (2-player) etc.

Keep up the good work!

-Camsauce

[unclet]

First of all, this emulator is pure genius.  It opens quick (unlike GameEx), has lots of unique features and overall just kicks ass.

I have also told Swindus about how nice MALA was and also gave a little via the Donate button .....

A way to supress the command line window (ie. When MAME is starting a game)

If you go into Mame Config/Options/Window State then you can set it to "Hidden" and this should hide the command window when starting a Mame game.   Mala offers this option for each emulator....

A way to suppress extra information in game titles, ie. (World) or (2-player) etc.

This is possible if you go into the "Gamelists" tab and select a gamelist (ex: Mame's "All Games" gamelist).  Then goto into the "Games" subTab  and click the "Edit Game list" button.    This will open the MalaGameList application and let you do tons of stuff to manipulate your gamelist.    To remove brackets and such, just go into the Gamelist menu option and select "Remove brackets from name".   This does not rename your actual Rom files, but simply edits what game name should be displayed in Mala.

[loadman]

First of all, this emulator is pure genius.  It opens quick (unlike GameEx), has lots of unique features and overall just kicks ass.  That being said, I have some requests:
- Support MNG's for video previews

Just convert your videos to another format. Plenty of free bulk converters available on the net

- Key mappings to support selection between emulators and the jukebox, ie. I map a key to page/scroll through my emulators in a left/right/up/down type manner (this might already be possible with the Wrap Emulators option?)

Yes you can scroll through emulators already. Define whatever key you want to do this.

[loadman]

- Key mappings to support selection between emulators and the jukebox, ie. I map a key to page/scroll through my emulators in a left/right/up/down type manner (this might already be possible with the Wrap Emulators option?)

-
Yes you can scroll through emulators already. Define whatever key you want to do this.

(not the Jukebox I don't think)

[swindus]

Jukebox too, if it is enabled in the options dialog. The jukebox is always the last 'emulator' in the emulator list.

[loadman]

Jukebox too, if it is enabled in the options dialog. The jukebox is always the last 'emulator' in the emulator list.

Ahh so it does.   

SWINDUS you may want to check this minor problem. 

When I was scrolling through the emulators with 'use most played game list' checked.

Mala had a problem when I got to the Jukebox.  If I hit the 'next list' button it will come up with errors.
...I would assume that the Jukebox would not have a 'most played list' to switch too hence the error?

[swindus]

Thanks, I will check this.

[millercentral]

Love the new features, this is a great FE. A couple of other requests:

- Ability to select "preferred version" of a game. I don't want to show all clones, but there are times when I prefer a specific version of a game that is not the parent (Midway Pac-Man for example). For each set I'd like the option to define the preferred version to show from that set (defaulting to the parent otherwise).

- Second the request to hide the parens (ie, "(world)") part of game names in the listings.

[unclet]

- Second the request to hide the parens (ie, "(world)") part of game names in the listings.

As I listed earlier in this same thread ....... to remove brackets and parenthesis ......

"..... go into the "Gamelists" tab and select a gamelist (ex: Mame's "All Games" gamelist).  Then goto into the "Games" subTab  and click the "Edit Game list" button.    This will open the MalaGameList application and let you do tons of stuff to manipulate your gamelist.    To remove brackets and such, just go into the Gamelist menu option and select "Remove brackets from name".   This does not rename your actual Rom files, but simply edits what game name should be displayed in Mala."

[swindus]

http://mala.arcadezentrum.com/malagamelist.html

[loadman]

- Ability to select "preferred version" of a game. I don't want to show all clones, but there are times when I prefer a specific version of a game that is not the parent (Midway Pac-Man for example). For each set I'd like the option to define the preferred version to show from that set (defaulting to the parent otherwise).

Yes, Set up a game list for your favourite versions and keep a complete list of all versions. You can setup any button or joystick movement to switch lists.

As SWINDUS is directing look here for how to use game list editor:
http://mala.arcadezentrum.com/malagamelist.html

[camsauce]

Thanks for the info.  I googled for a bit to find a MNG > AVI converter.  I found a couple of PNG/MNG workshop type applications that claimed conversions were possible, but alas no such luck getting them to work.  Has anyone here converted from MNG to AVI in a batch type manner?  I might not need to go this route if someone is aware of an AVI download set that contains in-game footage (I'm aware of the intro videos available). 

Anyone else download the crashtest mng's from here: ?

http://www.mameworld.net/icons/pages/mameicons.html

[loadman]

You could get a full set from here (as I did)

[Buddabing]

Thanks for the info.  I googled for a bit to find a MNG > AVI converter.  I found a couple of PNG/MNG workshop type applications that claimed conversions were possible, but alas no such luck getting them to work.  Has anyone here converted from MNG to AVI in a batch type manner?  I might not need to go this route if someone is aware of an AVI download set that contains in-game footage (I'm aware of the intro videos available). 

Anyone else download the crashtest mng's from here: ?

http://www.mameworld.net/icons/pages/mameicons.html

I wrote a mng to avi converter to support creating an attract mode video from the MAME -mngwrite output. Rather than using a converter, I recommend just deleting the Crashtest videos and using cdbrown's videos. I downloaded a few of the Crashtest videos and, frankly, they are inferior to cdbrown's videos. I admit bias, however.