American Laser Games Bios stuff

[rdowdy95]

Hey guys it looks to be the Mame devs are working on the American Laser Games.  They have the roms and bios.  They do say laserdisc required.  Does that mean we would maybe need to get the CD-Rom versions of the game and extract the video and audio from them.  Man I would love to play some Mad Dog MCree!!!!

[Fozzy The Bear]

No it probably means that you'd have to connect a Laser Disk player to get them to work in MAME......

In any case, you can already play them, outside of mame. The PC versions are pretty good.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[rdowdy95]

Do you own a light gun and some of the American Laser Disc Games like Mad Dog Mcree?  Are they any good?  Also do you use s-video or component.  If I can't component to work, I am gonna get a s-video light gun.

[Fozzy The Bear]

Do you own a light gun and some of the American Laser Disc Games like Mad Dog Mcree?  Are they any good?  Also do you use s-video or component.  If I can't component to work, I am gonna get a s-video light gun.

I have....

Who Shot Johnny Rock
Mad Dog Mcree
Mad Dog Mcree 2
Space Pirates
Crime Patrol
Crime Patrol Drug Wars
The Last Bounty Hunter

Are all available from Digital Leisure..... But they're over priced from there!! $29.99USD each plus shipping.

The cheapest supplier is Hoots Loot.... www.hoots-loot.com $2.99USD each However they may now be out of stock.... an ebay search should turn them up significantly cheaper than anywhere else.

on a quick search I turned up this one from Hoots Loot:
http://cgi.ebay.com/HOOTS-MAD-DOG-MCCREE-2-NEWEST-VER-W95-XP-SEALED-NEW_W0QQitemZ180062242696QQihZ008QQcategoryZ62053QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

This is their E-bay Shop Page for Arcade/Pinball Games they have them listed on there:
http://stores.ebay.com/Hoots-Loot-Quality-Software_Games-Arcade-and-Pinball_W0QQcolZ4QQdirZ1QQfsubZ5608079QQftidZ2QQtZkm

Just make sure that you buy the CD-Rom versions, becuase they're Lightgun Compatible.... The DVD versions that get listed as playable on the X-Box Playstation and DVD Players are not!

And yes they work great.... and look pretty damned good too!

I don't use S-Video or Component... I use a PC Monitor and an LCD Topgun. The Topgun is available from: http://www.hkems.com/m_main.htm

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[rdowdy95]

Do you play these games on your cab or just at the computer?

[Fozzy The Bear]

Do you play these games on your cab or just at the computer?

On Both.....

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[rdowdy95]

Fozzy how do you start these games on your cab just through windows shortcuts for the cd games?  Do you have them in a front end somehow.  I use MAMEwah for Mame games, but just wondering what you do to get these games rolling.

[rdowdy95]

Also Fozzy is there a way to put these games on the hard drive so you dont have to  insert CD all the time?  Like could I copy the entire contents of the CD to the hard drive somehow??

[NoOne=NBA=]

Also Fozzy is there a way to put these games on the hard drive so you dont have to  insert CD all the time?  Like could I copy the entire contents of the CD to the hard drive somehow??

Yes.
That's how I have them loaded on my machine.
The other tweak I did was to replace the cursor with a small dot using a cursor editing program.
That makes it more like the original, but still allows you to see where the guns are shooting.

I'm not loading them from the front end though because they load at 320x240 or so, and have to be stretched to fit before playing.
You should be able to load them from a front end though.
I just haven't tried it.

[rdowdy95]

Anyone know how to load these bad boys from a frontend say like Mamewah?  I could just load them by clicking on icons on the windows desktop or Start Menu.

PS Fozzy I just bought them all from Hoots off of eBay.  $2.99 a game!  Sweet!

[Fozzy The Bear]

Anyone know how to load these bad boys from a frontend say like Mamewah?  I could just load them by clicking on icons on the windows desktop or Start Menu.

PS Fozzy I just bought them all from Hoots off of eBay.  $2.99 a game!  Sweet!

Glad you got your games.....

Yes, you can just copy them to the hard drive they run perfectly well and have no protection scheme.

Yes, there is a way to load them up from your front end, and have them start up full screen instead of in a box at 320X240

Cananas wrote a little launcher that you can run from your front end to start them up in the correct mode. You need to google for a copy of a program called AutoHotkey run the following script in it and then use AutoHotkey to create an .exe file.  start that file from your front end and all will be good! This will start them up at full screen and when you re-load the gun it will not drop the cursor to the bottom corner.

Code: [Select]

Run,mdm.exe ; Run MadDog McCree
IfWinNotExist,Mad Dog McCree
{
   
   winwait,Mad Dog McCree,,100
   WinActivate,Mad Dog McCree
   Send f ; Fullscreen
   Send r ; reload don't move the cursor down
   return
}
else
{
   
   WinActivate,Mad Dog McCree
   Send f ; Fullscreen
   Send r ; Reload don't move the cursor down
   return
}

*1::Send {LControl}; like LControl starts the game I remap to the '1' key

*Escape::
Send !{F4} ; Press ALt+F4 to exit
ExitApp ; Kill this script
return
After you use AutoHotkey to create the exe Mamewah is quite happy to run it and start them up full screen.

Alternatively, you can use the ALG Launcher program written by Eric Rudd... that has the same result but lets you launch any ALG game and sets them up properly with only a single launch program. Here's the link for that:
http://erikruud.freeservers.com/arcade/ALGLaunch.zip


Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[rdowdy95]

Once I get the little .exe file created do you know how I would get Mamewah to load the little list of new .exes I made?  Also I guess I would need to try the thing called change emulator or something.

Which program do you use to do your stuff in Fozzy do you run the autohotkey thing or just the l;auncher program that guy made.  The second one seems pretty easy.

[rdowdy95]

I am going to attempt to use the second program and try to get it to work in Mamewah.  I don't nknow how the generate list thing will work though.  I wonder if there is a way I can just add game, then type in like C:\Program Files\MDM\MDM.exe or to that kind of extent.  Where actually I would type in ALGlauncher\alg.exe mDM or something like that.  Can MAMEwah do something like that once I have the ini-s all fixed up.  Just click on add game.  Cause I don't think there is a way to generate a list with the ALG launcher.  I don't know I will have to tinker with it.

[torez]

Ah, Hoots Loot ... they charge little for a cd (because noone is buying them), but then stiff you on shipping and handling.  Be careful and only get the stuff you really need.  A while back I ordered about 40 cdroms (no boxes, just plastic or paper sleeve) and they wanted about $160+ for shipping it plus the cost of the cds.  Long story short, I got quite a few strikes for that one.  They called that "combined shipping" 

[patrickl]

is there a difefrence between the games on hoot costing 2.99 and the ones costing 1.90?

[rdowdy95]

Yeah after I ordered all those games it was like $43.00 total.  dang shipping, and I know it won't really cost them that much to ship.  Oh well it is still cheaper than buying them from Digital Leisure.

[torez]

There should be some rule on Ebay that does not allow this kind of stiffing on shipping charges.  After all they do, they are still allowed to leave bunch of strikes for you for $1-3 items.   This is just not right.  Recently I got similar treatment from other Ebay sellers.  My advice would be to ask them first before bidding.

[patrickl]

It's not like they don't mention the shipping (and handling) prices in advance.

[rdowdy95]

Guys its cool I dont care I would just like easy ways to get the games I have to load from withing MAMEwah.  That is why I need those questions answered about how to run the .exe file from MAMEwah to tell it to run the games I want.

[Fozzy The Bear]

Guys its cool I dont care I would just like easy ways to get the games I have to load from withing MAMEwah.  That is why I need those questions answered about how to run the .exe file from MAMEwah to tell it to run the games I want.

You launch them the same way that you launch any other PC Game in Mamewah.  You'll find the details of how to do that in the Mamewah documentation.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[Fozzy The Bear]

My advice would be to ask them first before bidding.

They clearly list their shipping prices before you buy them.... So if you didn't take any notice of that, it's rather much your own fault that you got negative feedback when you didn't pay for them.

If you bought something from me and then didn't pay for it you'd get a negative feedback. Don't forget that it costs sellers to list items and they also get charged a final value fee when they sell items. When you don't pay they lose money to E-Bay.

The fact is that they're still significantly cheaper than buying them from Digital Leisure....   

They're not expensive from Hoots Loot even when you add the shipping. I got all seven games +  Shipping to the UK, for about the same cost as a single chart PC game!  That's pretty damned good value for money as far as I'm concerned.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[rdowdy95]

Thanks fozzy.  I found it here: http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Mamewah_Other_Apps

I am going to be using the ALGLauncher program and either just make shortcuts or I will use the launcher some how with its own ini file in Mamewah.  Thanks man!

[rdowdy95]

Well got a crash of the autohotkey program.  Also it ran siome crazy icon down in my system tray when I tried to run it.  I love the ALGLaunch program.  That is awesome.  However when I loaded those though Mamewah I would get from the alglaunch program would say invalid game pameter.  So when I run the shortcut by itself it works great.  Games go at full screen. When I ru them through mamewah I get the invalid parameter.  The reason it is doing this.  The normal shortcut is "C:\ALGLaunch\alglaunch.exe MadDog"

But when I run that shortcut in Mamewah it is only giving me "C:\ALGLaunch\alglaunch.exe"  That is why I get the invalid game parameter error in ALGLAunch.  Anyway for Mamewah to read the full shortcut insead of just up to the .exe file?  Could I have something I need to add in the ini file in MAMEwah that I made for these American Laser Games?

Could someone forward this to minwah or maybe some other pros of Mamewah?

[Fozzy The Bear]

when I loaded those though Mamewah I would get from the alglaunch program would say invalid game pameter.

Check that you are running an .LNK file and not trying to run the alglaunch directly from Mamewah.... Check your paths to makesure that they are set correctly to the rompath and that those point directly to the software for each game. You may be getting the error as a result of Mamewah not understanding your rompath instruction.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[rdowdy95]

They are all .lnk files aka shortcut files.  Rom path is correct rom type aka lnk is correct.  Pretty much the ini is kind of like how it would be if I were to set up PC Games on mamewah.  MameWah is reading the ALGLaunch.exe but it is not reading the extra game parameter I have.  It should read the lnk file like this C:\ALGLaunch\alglaunch.exe MadDog

It is not reading the Game Parameter aka the MadDog part.

PS It is generating the list just fine.  Just when I  try to run the game it runs an ALGLaunch Error message that comes up and says Invalid Game Parameter.  I have replicated this error in the Run Command box of Windows when i do not put the game parameter after the alglaunch.exe file.

I tried to put quotes around the file loaction in actual shortcut but it wont let me.  Thing is anyways if I double click the exact same shortcut in Windows it opens the file.  It is almost as if Mamewah is only reading the C:\ALGLaunch\alglaunch.exe and leaving off the game parameter that would be MadDog, DrugWars, etc...

[Fozzy The Bear]

It is almost as if Mamewah is only reading the C:\ALGLaunch\alglaunch.exe and leaving off the game parameter that would be MadDog, DrugWars, etc...

Have you tried putting either a forward slash or backslash into the .LNK file before the required parameter.... OR enclosing the parameter with speach marks "Parameter name" and leaving no spaces before the parameter...  For example:
C:\ALGLaunch\alglaunch.exe/MadDog
OR
C:\ALGLaunch\alglaunch.exe\MadDog
OR
C:\ALGLaunch\alglaunch.exe"MadDog"

If I remember rightly the game name is supposed to be surrounded by speach marks like that anyway... Could be wrong there... It's a while since I looked at it.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[rdowdy95]

Thanks Fozzy.  I will try those in my shortcuts when I get home today.  I will let you know.  Hey I got some Daphne games installed.  I haven't set them up in mamewah yet, but I got Dragon's Lair and Space Ace.  They look pretty cool.

[rdowdy95]

Still didn't work for me.  Oh well don't worry about it.  I changed all shortcuts to run the games like that and it said can't put /, \ or " in a shortcut.  So I am just going to run the games from the desktop.

Thanks for the help though.  AlgLauncher is still the way to go to launch those programs.  Thanks man.