WinIpac and Mala (reprogramming based on emulator)

[g00ber]

Is there any alternative to using WinIpac to reprogram your i-pac or j-pac?  I use mala to run the windows tool and specify the .ipc file to load for each emulator (not game specific).

I'm finding that when loading or exiting games, I keep getting a popup from WinIpac that tells me it is reprogramming.  I would just like it to do that without a notification in windows, and there doesn't seem to be any way to disable that with the WinIpac tool.  If there is a version that just loads the .ipc file without notification, that would be awesome.  Perhaps the DOS version of this program would do what i'm looking for?

Anyone out there encountering this?

[g00ber]

I guess there may be no alternate option for this.

I may petition the Ultimarc guys to add an option to 'silently' reprogram the j-pac to their tool so a popup doesn't appear.

[Neverending Project]

I would assume that Mala is using the winipac utility as shown on the instructions here. Have you tried programming it as shown in the example at ultimarc site to see if the same thing happens? Also, have you tried the command-line mode of the ipacutil, seen here? I haven't tried it, but it may give different results.

[g00ber]

I contacted Ultimarc, and they said that they need you to see that notification in case there is any error in loading the .ipc file.

The other option is to program it using the autohotkey program to launch it with transparency settings so the windows appear as completely transparent and not visible when loading.  I'll play around with that and see if it works out.

For now it's not much of a bother, and everything else on my Mala setup is working perfectly otherwise.  I also compiled my own copy of mame and disabled the all the whiteboxes and warnings you get on the normal build.  It's also slightly faster than their compile, which i'm thinking is due to some optimizations you can do in compiling for your processor optimizations.

The possibilities are endless with running your own home arcade...  I'm sure i'll find something else to fiddle with in the next few days.  I'm expecting my Tornado spinner to arrive soon (joy!).

Later.