MALA exacute help

[MARINE1142]

Well thanks to loadman i now have mala config i think all the emulators come up on list and all the games come up but when i hit the number one on a any game nothing happens i thought its suppose to launch the emulator and start?

[loadman]

...I am still here (but logging off in a sec). Please post some screen shots of your set-up.  eg like the examples attached.  I'm sure someone can help you.

Have Fun!   

[MARINE1142]

Here are the screen shot

[MARINE1142]

and the other one

[MARINE1142]

Also how do you put the screen shot next to the game title?

[loadman]

Also how do you put the screen shot next to the game title?

1) You need to use a mala layout that includes a 'snap'
2) You need to tell MaLa what directory your snaps are
3) Your snap file name needs to match the rom name

[loadman]

Here are the screen shot

You have program files on your desktop? Odd I think. (or is that just me?) Anyway

Can you tell us the path you have typed in both the executable and rom path fields as they are so long we can not see it all...

[unclet]

I do not do this to often ,,,,,, but I was requested by a fellow BYOAC'r .... so I aim to please .... here goes ......


I never install anything in the generic "My Documents" folder or even on my desktop..... since this just does not allow everything to be organized very well in my opinion.

I have installed about 40 emulators in MALA (some listed below along with the emulator I use for the games).

Mame (mame.exe)
Atari2600 (z26)
Atari7800 (mess)
Nintendo (fceUltra)
Sega Genesis (fusion)
Super Nintendo (zsNes)


Some notes before I continue:

Layouts:
MALA is just one frontend which exists to help people start various emulators easily.  There are many other frontends which people use as well (MameWah, GameLauncher, AtomicFE, etc..).  Each of these frontends allow each defined emulator to be associated with a "layout" (background image used by the frontend so the display of the game listings and screenshots\snaps of the individual games can be presented over a nice graphic background.  Some layouts which were created for use in MALA exist at the (http://mala.arcadezentrum.com/layouts.html) site.   Now, MALA also has a "layout converter" (located at the same link) which allows a person to convert MameWah (another frontend) layout files into MALA compatible layout files (ie: allows you to use MameWah layouts in MALA).     Since MameWah has been around longer, there seems to be more MameWah layouts which currently exist on the web than do MALA layouts .... this is why the MALA layout converter was provided.  You can find a lot of nice MameWah specific layouts at "http://www.emuchrist.org/cpviewer/mamewahlayouts.htm"
This site has plenty of information regarding various emulators and was extremely helpful to me.  When you get a better understand of how to configure emulators and what all the lingo means, then I recommend going to that site and looking around a bit to see what it has to offer.  Anyway, after going to this site you should understand what layouts are now.....

Hacked EXE apps\wrappers:
Some consoles, etc.. have emulators which were not built for command line execution and/or did not include arcade-cabinet-friendly key mappings.  In order to make these types of emulators more compatible, the official EXE application was hacked to provide certain "upgrades".  Also for some emulators which were not command line driven, a "wrapper" was created,  A wrapper is a command-line application which interacts with the non-command line application, thus allowing it to be executed via the commnad line.   I do not want to get into specific wrapper verbage here.  Just letting you know that these special wrapper EXE files exist for certain emulators which would not be able to executed in a frontend without the use of the wrapper application.   You can go to jcrouse's site (http://www.emuchrist.org/cpviewer/applications.htm) to see some of the hacked EXE applications.   You can download them and read about what the "enhancements" were.  Some existing wrappers are also on jcrouse's site (http://www.emuchrist.org/cpviewer/commandlinewrappers.htm) for certain emulators.



HOW I DID IT:

The following is the format which I used to keep everything organized:
(I only listed some of my emulators to get you started)

1) Create the following folders:

- "C:\Emulators"

- "C:\Emulators\Mala\"
- "C:\Emulators\Mala\layouts\"
- "C:\Emulators\Mala\layouts\Mame\"
- "C:\Emulators\Mala\layouts\Atari2600\"
- "C:\Emulators\Mala\layouts\Atari7800\"
- "C:\Emulators\Mala\layouts\Nintendo\"
- "C:\Emulators\Mala\layouts\Sega Genesis\"
- "C:\Emulators\Mala\layouts\Super Nintendo\"

- "C:\Emulators\Programs\"
- "C:\Emulators\Programs\mame\"
- "C:\Emulators\Programs\z26\"
- "C:\Emulators\Programs\mess\"
- "C:\Emulators\Programs\fceUltra\"
- "C:\Emulators\Programs\fusion\"
- "C:\Emulators\Programs\zsNes\"

- "C:\Emulators\RomFiles\"
- "C:\Emulators\RomFiles\Atari2600\"
- "C:\Emulators\RomFiles\Atari7800\"
- "C:\Emulators\RomFiles\Nintendo\"
- "C:\Emulators\RomFiles\Sega Genesis\"
- "C:\Emulators\RomFiles\Super Nintendo\"

- "C:\Emulators\Screenshots\"
- "C:\Emulators\Screenshots\Atari2600\"
- "C:\Emulators\Screenshots\Atari7800\"
- "C:\Emulators\Screenshots\Nintendo\"
- "C:\Emulators\Screenshots\Sega Genesis\"
- "C:\Emulators\Screenshots\Super Nintendo\"



INSTALLING MALA
================================================================
Download the latest version (RC7) of MALA from here (http://mala.arcadezentrum.com/download.html).  Execute the self extracting EXE to a TMP folder somewhere.  After it unpacks everything, then go into the "MaLa v1.0 RC7" folder (which it created) and move all files from within that folder into the "C:\Emulators\Mala\" folder you created previously.

** I believe MALA was created originally just for MAME, so this is why MAME must be configured when you start the MALA.EXE application.  Based on this thread, I believe you already know how to install MAME and configure it in MALA so I will not describe how to install Mame here, however, you might want to consider reinstalling MAME into the "C:\Emulators\Programs\mame\" folder instead.

Also, download the MalaLayoutConverter.exe from (http://mala.arcadezentrum.com/layouts.html) since you will need it later.


OBTAINING EMULATOR FILES
(Note: I will use the Atari2600's "z26" emulator as an example)
=========================================================================

- Download the z26 emulator program and install the program into the "C:\Emulators\Programs\z26\"  folder.  The z26 emulator has a "hacked" version located at jcrouse's site.  I believe I use that version.

- Obtain your Atari2600 ROM file images from somewhere on the internet and place them in the "C:\Emulators\RomFiles\Atari2600\" folder.   Some emulators require the ROM images to remain in a ZIP'd format, others require them to be unZIP'd.  Some emulators require the ROM images to have certain extensions as well.  You will need to read the documentation which comes with the emulator to determine what is required for each (ie: you might need to download bios files or other support files to use in the emulator as well).

- Obtain screenshots (aka snaps) for the Atari 2600.  A great source for screenshots are from the (http://localarcade.com/screenshotarchive/) site.  If you need screenshots for games which do not exist here, then you can usually find them online somehow by searching around a bit.  If you can not find screenshots that you want to use, then the emulator usually has a built in "take a screenshot" option which you can use to generate your own images.

- Optional: Obtain a "layout" set of files associated with the Atari2600.  I went to the
  "http://www.emuchrist.org/cpviewer/mamewahlayouts.htm" site and clicked on the "800 x 600 individuals page" link so I can see all of the "MameWah" specific layout packages which were available.  I found the Atari2600 layout and clicked on the image and downloaded it which was in a file called "atari2600_c.zip".   



CONFIRMING EMULATOR WORKS VIA COMMAND LINE BEFORE ADDING IT INTO MALA:
(Note: I will use the Atari2600's "z26" emulator as an example)
=========================================================================

MALA (as with most other frontends) executes command line applications for you, so you
must first confirm the application actually works via the command line.  This is also advantageous since you can play around with the available command line options an emulator offers to determine which options you might like to use (ie: -fullscreen, -resolution x,y, etc..).

Usually the emulator install files include good documention which details what the command line options are and how they are used.   However, for the Atari2600 (z26) emulator I found that the (http://www.whimsey.com/z26/z26.pdf) document online had a much better explanation.

After deciding what command line options I wanted to use, I executed the following steps to verify the emulator worked for me (actually allowed me to play a game).

1) Opened a command line prompt window (ie: Start\Programs\Accessories\Command Prompt)
2) Changed to the Atari2600 program folder by performing the "cd C:\Emulators\Programs\z26\" command
3) Executed the z26 emulator EXE application with the options I wanted as follows:

    C:\Emulators\Programs\z26> z26 -v8 "C:\Emulators\RomFiles\Atari2600\Adventure.bin"

If the emulator executes exactly how you like it, then you can now add it into MALA.  If it
does not behave how you like it, then try again and play around with some options, etc...



CONFIGURING LAYOUTS IN MALA:
=========================================================================
I set up MALA to store all of my layouts in a separate directory rather than having the layout files all being placed in the MALA install directory, thus allowing the files to be a bit more organized in my opinion.  Here are the options you need to set to have MALA do this ..... (only need to do this one time).

- Double-click on the MALA.EXE application to start it up

- Right click on the mouse and select "Options" to bring up the Options menu

- Click on the "GUI" tab

- Click on the "Layouts" tab

- Set the "Layout Folder" path to be "C:\Emulators\Mala\layouts\"

- Set the "Auto layout switch" setting

- Set the "Use layout names for directory names" settings

- Click OK and exit the options menu

- Exit the MALA application


Converting a MameWah layout into a Mala layout:

- UnZIP the "atari2600_c.zip" layout files into the "C:\Emulators\Mala\layouts\Atari2600\" folder

- UnRAR the "MalaLayoutConverter.rar" application into the "C:\Emulators\Mala\" folder

- Start the "MalaLayoutConverter.exe" application

- Click the "Load MameWah layout" button

- Select the LAY file associated with the Atari2600 layout files
  (ex: "C:\Emulators\Mala\layouts\Atari2600\02atari2600.lay")

- Click the "Save Mala layout" button

- Name the "MLL" file "Atari2600.mll" and save it into the "C:\Emulators\Mala\layouts" folder
 
** You can save your emulator MLL file (Mala layout file) under any name you want, but the filename you choose (ie: "Atari2600") must have the same name as the directory name you created to store the emulator layout files in (ie: "C:\Emulators\Mala\layouts\Atari2600\").   Also, the filename you choose must also be the same name you use to configure the emulator in MALA (see below).  This way MALA can take the name of a configured emulator and know exactly which layout is related to it.




INSTALLING NON-MAME EMULATORS IN MALA (I will assume MAME has already been installed):
(Note: I will use the Atari2600's "z26" emulator as an example)
=========================================================================
- Double-click on the MALA.EXE application to start it up

- Right click on the mouse and select "Options" to bring up the Options menu

- Click on "Other Emu Config" tab

- Click on the "Basics" tab

- Click "NEW" button and enter the name "Atari2600", click OK
  (NOTE:  This name must be the same exact name as you used to store your layout file)

- Enter the "Executable" as "C:\Emulators\Programs\z26\z26.exe"

- Enter "RomPath" folder as "C:\Emulators\RomFiles\Atari2600"

- Confirm the "Rom Extensions" field now lists the correct extension(s) of the ROM files

- Click on the "Execution" tab

- Enter the command line parameters ==>  -v8 "%path%\%rom%.%ext%"

- Click on the Options tab

- Enter "Snap" folder as "C:\Emulators\Screenshots\Atari2600"

- Click OK and exit the options menu

- Right click on the mouse and select "Select Emulator" and choose "Atari2600".  You should see the layout image displayed without any games listed yet.   

- Right click on the mouse and select "Refresh game list" and this should produce the gamelist for you.

- Scroll to a game and play.....



HOPE THIS HELPS YOU OUT!!!!

[MARINE1142]

Ok i changed the location of all my emulators and roms as per the example when i launch mala i get game lists and emulator lists and screen shots but unable to play game any game

[MARINE1142]

one more screen shot

[unclet]

Observations:

1) I see you are using Mame32 rather than command line Mame.   I do not use Mame32, however, I thought you would need to store your Mame ROM ZIP files in the "\Mame32\roms" directory rather than the "C:\Emulators\RomFiles\Mame" directory.    I would recommend (for the Mame emulator only) to store your Rom files in the "roms" directory located within the Mame32 install directory, then see if you can play Mame games once again ........ if you were ever able to play Mame games ... not sure.

2) You are using "stella" for your Atari2600 emulator.  I have never used this emulator so I am not familiar with the interface to it (ie: do not know what command line options to use ... if any).


Questions:

1) Are you unable to play any game from "any" of the emulators listed ... or are you just trying having trouble playing games from the "Atari 2600" emulator so far?

2) What happens to the screen when you select a game to be played in MALA?   Does the screen go black?  Does nothing happen and the gamelist is still being shown?

3) Did you confirm the emulator works via the command line using a command prompt window before adding it to MALA (see my description I provided above)? 

Basically, did you open a command prompt window, go to where the stella.exe file is using the "CD" command and then try the following command (assuming you own the game Adventure.bin):

C:\Emulators\Programs\Stella> stella "C:\Emulators\Rom Files\Atari 2600\Adventure.bin"

The above command is what I believe MALA is trying to execute for you (based on your setup).  See if it works when you type it in manually in a command window.

[MARINE1142]

I moved the mame roms to the mame32 rom file nothing. I have never been able to have mala launch any emulator or play any game from that starting point. If i go to the nes emulator which is the same you have listed and open it my self (it looks like a nes Picture) click it then hit open file all the games are there and can be played but through mala nothing i m more then willing to change atari emulators just want the front end mala to launch the proper emulator and rom. Also what do you mean by command propt like dos?

[unclet]

I just installed Stella and it works perfectly in Mala, so something must be wrong with your set up.

Lets stick to "stella" and try to get that emulator working ..... lets not worry about Mame or NES yet.

Also, you never answered the following question:

2) What happens to the screen when you select a game to be played in MALA?   Does the screen go black?  Does nothing happen and the gamelist is still being shown?

THERE ARE 3 THINGS TO TRY:

1) In WinXP, the command prompt window can be obtained by clicking your "Start button, then selecting "Programs" and then selecting "Accessories", then selecting "Command prompt".  This is not true DOS, but you can move around the folders you created on your harddrive and try to run executables manually.

Once the command prompt window has been opened, you should see a prompt like the following:

C:\>

At this prompt type in the following text and press the ENTER key

cd C:\Emulators\Programs\stella

Now your prompt should have changed to be like the following:

C:\Emulators\Programs\stella>

Now type in the following stella command to launch a game (assuming you own "Adventure.bin" as the example):

stella -fullscreen 1 "C:\Emulators\Rom Files\Atari 2600\Adventure.bin"


**  The "-fullscreen 1" part of this comand indicates stella should start up in fullscreen mode. 

NOTE:  Let me know exactly what happens for each step:

2) You can then try to launch a game from MALA again but first turn on logging.  Right click on the mouse and select "Options" to get to the Options Menu, then click the "Help and Credits" tab and select "Enable debug log" option (lower right side).    Now go into the Atari2600 emulator gamelist and select a game to play.   When the game does not start, exit MALA and go into the MALA install directory and see that a "mala.log" file has been created.  Post the contents of that file so we can see if anything looks weird....

3) Try to launch an Atari2600 game in MALA and when it does not start DO NOT EXIT MALA.   Instead, press "Ctrl-Alt-Delete" and a window should come up .... click the"Task Manager" button.   Once the task manager window is then displayed, select the "Processes" tab to list all active processes running on your compuer.   Sort the "Image Name" column by clicking on the "Image Name" text button above the column.  Now look to see if you have a "stella.exe" application running or not.  You can then close the task manager by clicking the "X" on the top right of the window.


Make sure you indicate exactly what happens in all of these steps ..... so we can continue to help you.  The more information you can supply the better......

PS:  Keep stella as your emulator ... I think I might switch from z26 to stella .... it looks real solid.

[MARINE1142]

When i start the atari emulator from mala nothing happends the screen stays the same i still can scroll down the game list and switch emulators.

When i entered the command prompt info (i did not have adventure but used kangaroo.bin) it launched the emulator in full screen and launched the game. ( weird when the game comes up for about 2 min then it gets min at the bottom of my task bar?)  I will now try step two

[swindus]

Enable 'debug log' on the help tab in the options dialog and start a game with MaLa.
Then you should find something similar in the MaLa log file:

2006.07.03  13:35:13.33   Info: Starting: Set dir: E:\atari\
2006.07.03  13:35:13.35   Info: Starting: Create process: stella.exe game
2006.07.03  13:35:32.77   Info: Starting: Set dir: E:\MaLa\

Post it please.

[MARINE1142]

i click the log  tried a game nothing happend exited out and looked for the log but could not find it. I then did a search and still could not find mala.log?

[MARINE1142]

I think i found it. It was labled mala exe is this it

[swindus]

In the log is no info about starting a game at all!
How do you start a game in MaLa?
The default key is '1' or Player 1 Start.

[MARINE1142]

i use one this is the same key that picks an emulator and when i hit esc it chooses quit.

[swindus]

I think you picked up the the wrong log file. The file is named MaLa.exe.log and it must be in your MaLa folder.

[MARINE1142]

This is the mala folder

[swindus]

Ok, no mala.exe.log there.

I noticed the MaLa folder is on your desktop. Move your MaLa folder to c:/MaLa or something else and try again.

[MARINE1142]

Ok i moved the folder to the c:/mala do i delete the old log and start over or just stay with the same log?

[swindus]

Whatever. MaLa appends the messages to the log.

[MARINE1142]

here is the new log

[swindus]

Still no game start ...

I think you should check your keyboard setup in the options dialog. Choose different keys for switching the emu and game start! Have a look: http://mala.arcadezentrum.com/controllerconfig.html

[MARINE1142]

Changed it to enter here is the list

[MARINE1142]

Maybe i should uninstall the mala and reinstall

[swindus]

Looks strange indeed. No starting action ...
Move all emus from the desktop to c: or something. Then point to the new location of the executable in the emu setup. I don't think that it is necessary to reinstall MaLa.

[MARINE1142]

Done

[MARINE1142]

Still nothing 

[MARINE1142]

What do i do now

[unclet]

Is there any setting which can be set in an operating system which prohibit one application from starting another one ..... (ex:  Mala application starting stella.exe)?   

Maybe permissions are set incorrectly on the folders (read /write access somehow wrong)?

Are you running out of free harddrive space on your C: drive?

Are you sure the "stella.exe" file is located in the correct location on your computer?

I would never install programs on my Desktop .... I would recommend uninstalling everything and starting from scratch.   Remove MALA and also make sure you uninstall stella from your computer (by clicking on the "unins000.exe" file in the stella install directory).   Not sure which other emulators you are using for the other names you have listed in MALA, but uninstall of them.   If an emulator comes with an uninstall EXE, make sure you execute that rather than simply deleting files.  Then, install MALA from scratch (should take one or two minutes) and then try reinstalling "MAME" only.   Lets try to get your Mame game working before we try anything else.   Somehow I think that if Mame is not configured correctly then maybe MALA might have trouble with other emulators .... just a guess .... not sure at all.   Possibly interfacing with Mame32 is a problem as well..... I would try command line Mame if I were you.

How to install Mame:

1) Goto http://www.mame.net/downmain.html and download "mame0106b.exe"
2) Install Mame into the "C:\Emulators\Programs\Mame" folder
3) Move your ZIP'd rom files into the "C:\Emulators\Programs\Mame\roms\" folder
4) Move your unZIP'd screenshots (snaps) into the "C:\Emulators\Programs\Mame\snaps\" folder
5) Open a command prompt window (told you how to do this previously).
6) At the command prompt type in the cd "C:\Emulators\Programs\Mame" command
7) At the command prompt type in mame dkong.zip (assuming you have Donkey Kong as the rom file)

[MARINE1142]

I dont know about the settings about one program not allowed to start another were would that be? The stella.exe is in the specified path i go throught the same folders to get to it and play it. Is there a setting in windows that takes my emulators down to min then i have to go the task bar to max an cont play?

[unclet]

Perhaps your emulator games are running from MALA, but you can not see them since they are minimized behind the MALA screen?

Did you start an Atari 2600 game with stella and then check the Task Manager like I recommended?  You really should check the task manager after starting a game in MALA and checking whether "stella.exe" is a listed proess.   I explained what you should have done in an earlier post.

If this showed that "stella.exe" is not a running process, then you should do what I recommended in my very last post ......

[MARINE1142]

I thank your for all the time and help you are giving me i will uninstall everthing does mala have a uninstall? or do i just delete the files

[swindus]

just delete the folder.

[MARINE1142]

Did exactly what you said except i used snakepit.zip and it opened the game up no problem and it works now what.

One thing thou if you try to play the game for about 1-2min the screen minimizes any idea why?

[MARINE1142]

Now do i just download mala and install that also what directory do i put it in

[MARINE1142]

Installed mala now it launches mame with the game list it seems to work. Thank you for your help no way in hell i would of been able to do this on my own. One thing has anyone ever seen the problem of the game minimizes in the middle of play or when ever it feels like it?