New Software - Random MAME Launcher (looking for beta testers?)

[emb]

Hey guys,

I made a nifty little program that will let you launch a random MAME rom every few hours or so. I have been testing it for a couple weeks on my cabinet and appears to be pretty stable.

Brief Description:
Random MAME Launcher provides several configuration options which allow you configure the delay time to sleep before exiting the current game and launching a new random game. Additionally, it includes a ROM list editor, and a log file to keep track of what the launcher is doing. It also supports the ability to launch a different application(e.g. another frontend), reload a new random ROM, or return back to the GUI if you prematurely exit the game prematurely. Also if MAME crashes, the application will return you back to the GUI automatically. The launcher saves all your options to a preferences file.

Currently, I do not have the source code and API documentation uploaded yet. I will upload it within the next couple days.

If you want to use it, you will need java installed (www.java.com).

Project summary:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/mamelauncher/

Download page for RandomMAMELauncher-0.1:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=218839&package_id=264010

Included in the zip file is a README file on using the utility.

TODO (for the next version):
    - Allow MAME pre and post parameters
    - Redesign the rom list entry system. Maybe provide some kind of auto-populating system
    - Clean up log output
    - More command line support (currently only supports -autostart)
    - Option for running ROMS sequentially
    - Support for setting the initial time to start the sleep process (e.g. you want a new ROM
            to load at midnight every night)
   
This is the first version of this application. So if you encounter any bugs, or would like me to add any features into the next release, post to this thread, or submit a request on my sourceforge project page.

Hope you will enjoy it!

[ahofle]

This is a neat idea!  I will definitely be checking it out.  If I may suggest a feature that would make this PERFECT, could you have the option of checking for keyboard/mouse input and NOT exit the game if someone starts playing it?  Like maybe a configurable idle time which must be exceeded in order to exit.  This way, you can have the random list going and if someone starts playing one of the games at the last minute of the cycle, it won't exit on them.  This would be a great feature for parties.

[youki]

it will be also a nice feature for whom wants exploit mame... 

[emb]

This is a neat idea!  I will definitely be checking it out.  If I may suggest a feature that would make this PERFECT, could you have the option of checking for keyboard/mouse input and NOT exit the game if someone starts playing it?  Like maybe a configurable idle time which must be exceeded in order to exit.  This way, you can have the random list going and if someone starts playing one of the games at the last minute of the cycle, it won't exit on them.  This would be a great feature for parties.

That sounds like a great idea, and would be EXTREMELY useful to have. I will have to do some thinking about the design of how it would work (it would be somewhat difficult to implement). When MAME is launched , it launches it in its own separate thread, and the RandomMAMELoader loses they keyboard focus. I'm sure I can come up with some idea in time. 

[TheShanMan]

This sounds a lot like TacoBird's screensaver to me (which could be launched as an application rather than a screensaver if you want). Does this have something that the TB screensaver doesn't?

[ahofle]

That sounds like a great idea, and would be EXTREMELY useful to have. I will have to do some thinking about the design of how it would work (it would be somewhat difficult to implement). When MAME is launched , it launches it in its own separate thread, and the RandomMAMELoader loses they keyboard focus. I'm sure I can come up with some idea in time. 

I did something similar with the volume control application I wrote a little while ago (C# application though).  Basically it uses global windows input hooks to get notification when input occurs.  I'm not sure how hard it would be to do this in Java.  Although Java may already be able to globally capture keystrokes/mouse input when not focused, I'll have to look.

[emb]

This sounds a lot like TacoBird's screensaver to me (which could be launched as an application rather than a screensaver if you want). Does this have something that the TB screensaver doesn't?

I've never heard of TB. Do you have a link? I was unable to find any results googling it. Maybe there are some unique ideas from there I could implement into the launcher.

[emb]

That sounds like a great idea, and would be EXTREMELY useful to have. I will have to do some thinking about the design of how it would work (it would be somewhat difficult to implement). When MAME is launched , it launches it in its own separate thread, and the RandomMAMELoader loses they keyboard focus. I'm sure I can come up with some idea in time. 

I did something similar with the volume control application I wrote a little while ago (C# application though).  Basically it uses global windows input hooks to get notification when input occurs.  I'm not sure how hard it would be to do this in Java.  Although Java may already be able to globally capture keystrokes/mouse input when not focused, I'll have to look.

I am not aware if java does have global input hooks. I'll check out their API to see if I can find something. I am sure this question has been brought up before for a different application (for java), I'll google around to see what other people have done.

I have a pretty good idea on where I can start looking. Thanks for the tip!

[headkaze]

Similar program called Mame Screensaver

BTW This feature is built into GameEx and I really like it. You can also insert a coin and start playing the game too. So yeah, this idea has been done before 

[waveryder]

BTW This feature is built into GameEx and I really like it. You can also insert a coin and start playing the game too. So yeah, this idea has been done before 

And before that it was in ArcadeOS.

[headkaze]

And before that it was in ArcadeOS.

Well it's not suprising, it's a good idea But as a standalone program Mame Screensaver was the first I guess. Not that it matters.

[youki]

This feature is built in in Atomic too, and you can also insert coin and play the game . 

[headkaze]

This feature is built in in Atomic too, and you can also insert coin and play the game . 

I always thought it was better than running videos. Do you run attract mode with real Mame on your cab, or video's or both? I used to run both but then I got sick of the videos and now I just have Mame running random games. The videos I was running were stuff like "Beyond the Minds Eye" not Mame avi snaps. I don't see the point to running avi snaps when you can run the real attract mode by launching Mame.

[youki]

I run mame game as screensaver.

In fact it is a really good way to discover new games.  As i don't have time to try all. I just let the screensaver choose for me... if there one i don't know , i put a coin and i play.

I'm not fan of mame avi file. i didn't put them in my cab. Just Snap on the layout.

[emb]

One major reason why I "re-invented the wheel" was for platform independence. I realized that GameEx and atomicFE implemented these (That mame screensaver app looks pretty sweet!  ) and they implement them well, but they only run on windows.  Also, another reason why I made this utility was out of shear boredom.  I am a unix and OS X geek at heart  , and most of the applications out there that implement this only run on windows. I know of a few people who have  older machines running OS X in their cabinet, and they had some troubles finding a decent app that does what the launcher does. Plus this is just the first version, more features will be added as time goes on.

 

[headkaze]

One major reason why I "re-invented the wheel" was for platform independence. I realized that GameEx and atomicFE implemented these (That mame screensaver app looks pretty sweet!  ) and they implement them well, but they only run on windows.  Also, another reason why I made this utility was out of shear boredom.  I am a unix and OS X geek at heart  , and most of the applications out there that implement this only run on windows. I know of a few people who have  older machines running OS X in their cabinet, and they had some troubles finding a decent app that does what the launcher does. Plus this is just the first version, more features will be added as time goes on.

 

Sorry I didn't mean to diminish what you've made. I often forget about other OS's although XP is by far the most common OS used in this hobby (and you can see this trend by viewing Randy's OS poll in the Main forum). But I was mentioning other programs that do this, and sometimes it can help to see what other people have done.

youki: That's exactly why I like the Mame attract mode too! Finding new games!

[emb]

Sorry I didn't mean to diminish what you've made. I often forget about other OS's although XP is by far the most common OS used in this hobby (and you can see this trend by viewing Randy's OS poll in the Main forum). But I was mentioning other programs that do this, and sometimes it can help to see what other people have done.

youki: That's exactly why I like the Mame attract mode too! Finding new games!

Thats perfectly alright. No need to apologize, I knew that was not your intention   

[emb]

That sounds like a great idea, and would be EXTREMELY useful to have. I will have to do some thinking about the design of how it would work (it would be somewhat difficult to implement). When MAME is launched , it launches it in its own separate thread, and the RandomMAMELoader loses they keyboard focus. I'm sure I can come up with some idea in time. 

I did something similar with the volume control application I wrote a little while ago (C# application though).  Basically it uses global windows input hooks to get notification when input occurs.  I'm not sure how hard it would be to do this in Java.  Although Java may already be able to globally capture keystrokes/mouse input when not focused, I'll have to look.

I am not aware if java does have global input hooks. I'll check out their API to see if I can find something. I am sure this question has been brought up before for a different application (for java), I'll google around to see what other people have done.

I have a pretty good idea on where I can start looking. Thanks for the tip!

Bummer... after looking into it more I would have to use the JNI (Java Native Interface) framework, which would require coding some c/c++ hooks. I am very comfortable with c and c++, but then it defeats the whole purpose of the application being platform independant. I wonder if mame has some built-in functionality that the utility could check periodically to see if there has been recent user activity.

I'll keep my eyes peeled to see if I come across any alternative solutions.

[headkaze]

Bummer... after looking into it more I would have to use the JNI (Java Native Interface) framework, which would require coding some c/c++ hooks. I am very comfortable with c and c++, but then it defeats the whole purpose of the application being platform independant. I wonder if mame has some built-in functionality that the utility could check periodically to see if there has been recent user activity.

I'll keep my eyes peeled to see if I come across any alternative solutions.

GetAsyncKeyState is all you need not a global key hook but it's a Windows API function and not platform independant anyway.

[TheShanMan]

This sounds a lot like TacoBird's screensaver to me (which could be launched as an application rather than a screensaver if you want). Does this have something that the TB screensaver doesn't?

I've never heard of TB. Do you have a link? I was unable to find any results googling it. Maybe there are some unique ideas from there I could implement into the launcher.

http://home.comcast.net/~tacobirds/

[DeLuSioNal29]

This neat feature is built into the Maximus Arcade front end and can be selected as the screensaver.

~ DeLuSioNaL