It's a command line update
With absolutely NO PICTURES.
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STRIKTLY OLDSKOOL | NOT FOR THE XP/VISTA orientated .. ;0)
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AUTOEXEC, The front-end to front the front-ends?
Someone on the forums, might have been @ Main, maybe a couple of weeks ago told he wrote a Perl program allowing him to select the preferred function (IE. MAME/Jukebox/??) pushing just one button....... Can't really remember who, where or when ..but come on:
As long as we have autoexec.bat...
Tomatocade has DOS 6.22 & WIN95B and Bombjack runs WIN98SE with DOS jukebox, DOS MAME, WINDOWS pinball & WINDOWS MAME.. switching between the two OS's I'm using variations of the following on both builds.
To manage all the options on Bombjack - IE. selecting operation modes within DOS and/or WIN98SE and switching back and forth between the OS's I'm using the plain old DOS autoexec.bat, with one button selection.. Hey, it comes built in on every PC with DOS/WIN
Just blame me if it doesn't make any sense..
Bombjack's autoexec.bat logic (see below) goes like this (screen formatting (echo, echo., space) omitted, pics on the next/final(?) update:
- After the boot sequence the machine starts up in Win98SE version of DOS and gives the user three basic options centered on a otherwise black screen:
I
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CHOOSE YOUR PLEASURE
LOADING ARCADE MODE IN 10 SECONDS
JUKEBOX .................................Credits Button
PINBALL ARCADE / ANALOG ACTION .........Player 1 Button
ADVANCED OPTIONS ...........Shazaaam! + Player 2 Button
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Default is MAME (ARCADE MODE) and the 10 second delay can be bypassed with the right flipper button.
- Advanced options screen gives you these additional options:
II
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************************************** ADVANCED OPTIONS
(BACK TO MAIN MENU IN 10 SECONDS)
BACK TO MAIN MENU .......................Credits Button
MAINTENANCE - DOS ......................Player 1 Button
SHUTDOWN ...................Shazaaam! + Player 2 Button
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The beauty of the autoexec is that it allows for easy switching between different programs within the DOS and to some extent between the DOS & WIN98SE (also WIN95/ME?) environments. With the menu & option settings in the autoexec the machine starts the preferred program/front-end with one button press and after quitting returns to the original menu, always. Always. No wrappers or like needed so far..
So, where's that WIN98SE autoexec.bat part?
Couple of places:
1st: It's at the screen I: PINBALL ARCADE / ANALOG ACTION .........Player 1 Button
Select that and the machine tells you to "wait a week"
and loads WIN98SE with MALA. The MALA front-end hosts Visual Pinball & the Windows version of MAME.
After torturing the controls on Windows one might want to return to the jukebox or to just shut down that infernal machine? Yes ..!
Setup for both DOS and WINDOWS use and to be easily switched between them, the MALA options of (just) shutting down aren't necessarily what is needed?
2nd: Add another .bat - In the MALA GUI shutdown options Bombjack uses another DOS based solution.. a batch file that on execution does not shutdown the machine but restarts it ..to the DOS menu I already shown above. This way you can always keep on abusing the machine or shut it down through the DOS "advanced options" screen.
And yes, the machine shutdown is done with yet another DOS program, the ATXOFF.COM. WIN98SE shuts down nicely if needed, but as that's not needed in this case...
Here's the autoexec.bat logic along with Bombjack's basic DOS setup...
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CLS
@ECHO OFF
LH /L:2,38208 c:\mouse.com
PROMPT $p$g
PATH C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND;C:\DOS
SET TEMP=C:\TEMP
SET TMP=C:\TEMP
mode con codepage prepare=((850) C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\ega.cpi)
cls
mode con codepage select=850
cls
keyb su,,C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\keyboard.sys
path=c:\windows\command;c:\windows
LH /L:0;2,41344 /S C:\WINDOWS\SMARTDRV.EXE
SET SOUND=C:\SB16
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 T6
:MENU
CLS
@ECHO OFF
CHOOSE YOUR PLEASURE
LOADING ARCADE MODE IN 10 SECONDS
JUKEBOX .................................Credits Button
PINBALL ARCADE / ANALOG ACTION .........Player 1 Button
ADVANCED OPTIONS ...........Shazaaam! + Player 2 Button
CHOICE /C:aj10 /N /T:a,10
IF ERRORLEVEL 4 GOTO ADVANCED
IF ERRORLEVEL 3 GOTO WIN98
IF ERRORLEVEL 2 GOTO JUKEBOX
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO ARCADE
:SHUTDOWN
CLS
C:
CD..
SMARTDRV /C
ATXOFF.COM
:DOS
CLS
C:
CD..
CLS
C:
GOTO END
:ARCADE
CLS
@ECHO OFF
C:
CD\gl
gl
GOTO MENU
:JUKEBOX
CLS
@ECHO OFF
C:
CD\dc
doscab
GOTO MENU
:WIN98
CLS
@ECHO OFF
PINBALL ARCADE / ANALOG ACTION
LOADING
.. WAIT A WEEK ..
WIN
CLS
:ADVANCED
CLS
@ECHO OFF
************************************** ADVANCED OPTIONS
(BACK TO MAIN MENU IN 10 SECONDS)
BACK TO MAIN MENU .......................Credits Button
MAINTENANCE - DOS ......................Player 1 Button
SHUTDOWN ...................Shazaaam! + Player 2 Button
CHOICE /C:j10 /N /T:j,15
IF ERRORLEVEL 3 GOTO SHUTDOWN
IF ERRORLEVEL 2 GOTO DOS
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO MENU
:END---------------------------------------------------------------------
Questions / comments? Feel free to..
L8r. Got a PinBox to build
psychotech