Mala and Computer games

[jm_magic]

Has anybody had any luck with getting computer games executables to run within mala.  Sort of like all the popcap games and some of cool indie trackball games that are out there.  Just would like to get your opinion on how "cabinet pretty" it looks... .  Such as, if it is even possible in Mala, and if it is does it minimize out to windows to open the .exe.

Any input would be helpfull.

Thanks

[unclet]

I have Feeding Frenzy, You Dont Know Jack (YDKJ) games, Star Wars Rogue Squadron and some others on my cabinet and they work fine in MALA.

I simply generated a BAT file for each PC game.  First I created an ISO image of the PC game from disk and stored that on my harddrive.   Then I had the BAT file mount this image (using Daemon Tools) and then start the game by executing the EXE file.

Once I had all my BAT files (one per PC game) created, then I stored them into one directory (ie: PcGames).   I then went in to MALA and configured a new emulator called "PcGames", pointed to my BAT directory and set the Rom extension to "bat".   That was it.   I refreshed the game list in MALA and all the games (ie: names of the BAT files) were seen perfectly.  Once I selected a game to play, then MALA will run my BAT file for me.  Quite easy really.

Hope this is what you wanted .....  good luck

[Chunce DeLeone]

T can you post the text from your bat file as a reference?

[unclet]

No problem ..... here is the contents of my "YDKJ (Vol 1).bat" file which starts my "You Dont Know Jack (Vol1)" game:


c:
cd "C:\Program Files\D-Tools"
daemon.exe -unmount 0
daemon.exe -mount 0, "D:\Emulators\Romfiles\PCGames\myGames\YDKJ (Vol 1).iso"
d:
cd "D:\Emulators\PCGames\YOU DON'T KNOW JACK"
ydkj32


Notes:
1) I have Daemon-Tools installed in "C:\Program Files\D-Tools" location (which is the default location).

2) I manually install each PCGame using the CD into a common directory called "D:\Emulators\PCGames\" and inside this directory there is a unique directory for each PC game I have installed.   For example, I created the "D:\Emulators\PCGames\YOU DON'T KNOW JACK" directory and then installed the "YDKJ (Vol1)" game from the CD into this directory.

3) I put all my CD ISO images and BAT files into the "D:\Emulators\Romfiles\PCGames\myGames" directory.

4) I create a new "emulator" in MALA called "PCGames", set the Rom Path in MALA to point to the "D:\Emulators\Romfiles\PCGames\myGames" directory and set the Rom extension to "bat".

Now, when I refresh the MALA "PCGames" game list, all of the BAT file names are displayed as the game names in the list.    When I select a game to play then MALA will execute the associated BAT file for that game. 

Example:
If I select the "YDKJ (Vol1)" game to play then the BAT file above executes.   The drive is switch to "C:" and the directory is changed to where the Daemon-Tools program is located.  First the daemon tools EXE file is executed to unmount any previously mounted disk.   It then is used to mount the specific CD ISO image I want.  Once the disk has been mounted then the BAT file can continue by switching to the "D:" drive, switching to the directory where the game has been installed and then finally executing the EXE to start the game.

That's it..... hope it helps