MaLa question - launch external app on game start/exit?

[arzoo]

Hi,
Does anyone know if it's possible to launch an external app from MaLa when a mame game starts and then again when it exits (without coding a custom plugin)? I see that MaLa does have an option to launch a cp viewer when a games starts and I guess that could be used for any app - for example to set the DSR mode for a GPWiz49. But what about on game exit?

[loadman]

Hi,
Does anyone know if it's possible to launch an external app from MaLa when a mame game starts and then again when it exits (without coding a custom plugin)? I see that MaLa does have an option to launch a cp viewer when a games starts and I guess that could be used for any app - for example to set the DSR mode for a GPWiz49. But what about on game exit?

Yes (you have the right idea but use the encoder launcher) and yes (I think that where the default encoder conig Mala is used).
Options/controller/encoder 


Let me know what you need and I'm sure a plug-in can be whiped up in any case. Fatfingers has already written a plugin for the Ultrastick in C++ so I'm sure he could give us some tips 

Enjoy

[arzoo]

loadman,
I just downloaded Delphi 7 personal - I think I'll give the plugin coding a try myself. Might as well learn if I'm going to use MaLa!

[fatfingers]

It sounds like you guys have everything under control, but if I can be of any assistance, please let me know.

[edge]

loadman,
I just downloaded Delphi 7 personal - I think I'll give the plugin coding a try myself. Might as well learn if I'm going to use MaLa!

Arzoo,
You should also try Turbo Delphi.  I like the interface much better.  And it is also free.
http://www.turboexplorer.com/delphi

[arzoo]

loadman,
I just downloaded Delphi 7 personal - I think I'll give the plugin coding a try myself. Might as well learn if I'm going to use MaLa!

Arzoo,
You should also try Turbo Delphi.  I like the interface much better.  And it is also free.
http://www.turboexplorer.com/delphi

Actually, I've got Delphi 7 and 2005. Do you think turbo is better than 2005? Will any of them work with the MaLa plugin interface?

[edge]

They should all work.  I haven't tried 2005, but I think thats newer than the turbo version.

[loadman]

loadman,
I just downloaded Delphi 7 personal - I think I'll give the plugin coding a try myself. Might as well learn if I'm going to use MaLa!

Cool.  I use D7 personal and it works for me. I don't think the Plug-in is too fusy what version you use as it only needs to recognise the external calls.

Eg
On game Start  ..
On Mala Start
On Screen Saver Start

Etc

I'm sure you could make one in VB (but there is no template for that yet)

As long as you are having fun

[EDIT] Now I have been using D7 for a while I may try TurboD and see what I think.. I will let you know

[arzoo]

They should all work.  I haven't tried 2005, but I think thats newer than the turbo version.

I've been doing some reading on Delphi and I think Turbo is newer than 2005.

http://delphi.about.com/cs/azindex/a/dhistory_3.htm

[loadman]

I decided to stay with D7

Had troubles downloading turbo

[loadman]

I decided to stay with D7

Had troubles downloading turbo

Later...

Am now using Turbo Delphi 2006!

How did I live without this?  This is Gold!   

1) It appears Delphi 7 had a bug that caused me to look for a apparent prob with the Led-Wiz code that I now discover was never there AHHH! It works fine now 
2) It spoon feeds you tips and highlights potential coding problems to you on the fly

I LIKE IT SIR...  Yes I DO   

[millercentral]

Any Luck? Mala happily sets my 49ways to 2-way horizontal for Moon Patrol before it launches (thanks to calling Set49Way with the %rom% parameter), but when I quit and return to Mala the stick is still in 2-way horizontal mode, making it hard to scroll the game list in Mala...

[loadman]

Any Luck? Mala happily sets my 49ways to 2-way horizontal for Moon Patrol before it launches (thanks to calling Set49Way with the %rom% parameter), but when I quit and return to Mala the stick is still in 2-way horizontal mode, making it hard to scroll the game list in Mala...

Sorry are you suing a plug-in?
or if now how are you sending the command?

There is an encoder section in MaLa that was made for encoder keyboard encoders on game launch to diffrent configs but can just as easily be used to launch and set joystick configs as it's just command line based

If you send the command using the controller/encoder tab you can set a default config that can be loaded for MaLa use (default config)

[millercentral]

Yep, thats what I'm using and it works great for launching a game, but it doesn't "reset" the joystick back to 8-way after the game exits...

[loadman]

Yep, thats what I'm using and it works great for launching a game, but it doesn't "reset" the joystick back to 8-way after the game exits...

Can you post a screenshot of that encoder mala tab?

[millercentral]

Here you go (attached)...

[loadman]

As I suspected you have not set a default config (mala) that MaLa loads after you quit a game..

Try that