New program for your approval...

[DaOld Man]

I have written a new program for your home arcade.
The Launcher will launch your favorite front end (or just about any executable program), then shut down the machine when the executable finishes.
The Launcher is easy to set up, and allows you to create your own shutdown screen with option to cancel shutdown and return to windows.
You can create your shutdown screen (skin) with MSPaint that should come with Windows.
Sorry DOS users, it wont work in DOS (or Mac).
Check it out:
http://skennys_outpost.tripod.com/thelauncher/index.html
Best thing about it is its cost: FREEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!
Enjoy!

[More Cowbell]

So this will start the frontend and when you quit the frontend the computer will shut down automatically? Can it be set up to start upon bootup? Then when you switch on the cabinet it would boot into the Launcher which automatically launches your front end. Then when you quit it shuts it all down. I'm definitely seeing the possibilities here.

[(+_+)]

Can't you simply have your favorite front end launch automatically using windows startup or runonce? My front end has shutdown and restart built right into it. It seems like an extra layer for nothing unless I'm missing something. 

[DaOld Man]

To reply to both your questions:

More Cowbell:
You can place a shortcut in your startup folder to The Launcher to have it start on windows boot-up.
The big advantage to using this is that you can connect the keyboard and press a cancel key to cancel the shutdown and return to windows for maintenance.
This program was written for a dedicated(?) arcade machine that doesnt normally have the keyboard attached.

+_+:
Yes, you can have some frontends shutdown when finished, but the front end I use, GLaunch cant do that, unless you write a bat file to do it for you.
The bat file will work, but The Launcher gives you a neat "shutdown screen" that you can design yourself. Using MSPaint, you can select the color of the shutdown screen and even paste pictures onto it. Gives your arcade that personal touch that you gave it when you built it, or restored it.

Check out the link and the screenshots..
Thanks for your interest and your comments/questions..

[arcadefever]

i have a question for the pro !!!

what i can do start a computer and boot directly to one game on mame...
let's say tempest...

so when i turn on the pc, it go staright to the game ?

thanks

[FrizzleFried]

Write a bat file to launch mame and put it in your startup folder.

[More Cowbell]

Mala can also handle that. It's in the options to automatically start any game upon Mala startup. Just put Mala in the starup folder and it boot straight to the game upon turning on the computer. It works well for my dedicated MAME cabs (Defender, Hyper Sports, Berzerk).

[arcadefever]

Write a bat file to launch mame and put it in your startup folder.

thanks...

just one thing  how do i write a bat file  thanks ...

[DaOld Man]

The Launcher can also do that, got to the website I posted eariler and to the left, open and read the readme.txt file. I have an example bat file that might get you started.
You dont have to use The Launcher to just launch the one game on startup.

[Harakiri]

+_+:
Yes, you can have some frontends shutdown when finished, but the front end I use, GLaunch cant do that, unless you write a bat file to do it for you.
The bat file will work, but The Launcher gives you a neat "shutdown screen" that you can design yourself. Using MSPaint, you can select the color of the shutdown screen and even paste pictures onto it. Gives your arcade that personal touch that you gave it when you built it, or restored it.

Check out the link and the screenshots..
Thanks for your interest and your comments/questions..

I'm sorry to burst your bubble here but there are some windows hacking tools that make logon and logoff screens fully customizable.

I belive that most of the front-ends may be easilly triggered with batch commands or windows registry entries so i guess that your tool is more an acessory to simplify those tweaks.

As for those you like to take the best from CPU and Memory usage this seems like a unecessary tool, for the rest of the common mortals it comes in handy...


Anyways it was a nice contribution, thanks! 

[DaOld Man]

Trust me, no bubbles were busted in the making of this program. (No dolphins or fiddler spiders were killed either!)
And as for the thanks,
You are quite welcome my friend..