use mala to launch a pc game?

[bartre]

well, i've been using MaLa for a while, and i think it's great.
but i've got a question, i want to add a couple of pc games to my cabinet, and i was wondering if i could use MaLa to launch it.

[Neverending Project]

Yes you can.

Check the MaLa wiki (link) for more info, specifically on the "How to setup other Emulators" link.

[bartre]

wow, that was fast!
thanks a lot!

[Stormrider]

There's a another way that may interests you: adding pc games to your main gamelist and loading them like if they were normal roms. I recently added my mugen.

Create a text file called mala.cmd in your MaLa folder. Now, in options, basic, mame executable, instead of mame.exe write the path to your .cmd file (eg. d:\mala\mala.cmd). Edit mame.cmd and add this (edit your mame path). MAME will be used for all roms, but for 'mugen'.

if %1==mugen goto mugen

d:
cd\
cd d:\mame
mame %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6
goto end

:mugen
d:
cd\
cd "d:\Mugen"
mugen.cmd
cd\
goto end

:end

--

Now edit mame.xml and add something like this:

<game name="mugen" sourcefile="mugen.c">
<description>Mugen Fighting Evolution</description>
<manufacturer>Stormrider</manufacturer>
<year>2008</year>
<chip type="cpu" tag="maincpu" name="PC"/>
<chip type="cpu" tag="audiocpu" name="PC"/>
<display type="raster" rotate="0" width="320" height="240" refresh="60.000000" />
<sound channels="2"/>
<input players="2" buttons="6" coins="1" service="no">
<control type="joy8way"/>
</input>
<driver status="good" emulation="good" color="good" sound="good" graphic="good" savestate="unsupported" palettesize="65536"/>
</game>

--

Add this to catver.ini

mugen=Fighter / Versus

--

Create a text file in your roms folder and rename it to mugen.zip

Refresh your rom list and create again the game lists.

Now your Mugen game is listed and can be run. I decided to run it with mugen.cmd instead of mugen.exe because it sometimes fails to close on exit. So my mugen.cmd has a final line with exit. If you want to have a snapshot for your mugen, press print screen when in the game. Create a new image in Photoshop, paste, crop the picture and save it as mugen.png in your snaps folder. Yo can do this with other pc games.

[pitw]

There's a another way that may interests you: adding pc games to your main gamelist and loading them like if they were normal roms. I recently added my mugen.

Create a text file called mala.cmd in your MaLa folder. Now, in options, basic, mame executable, instead of mame.exe write the path to your .cmd file (eg. d:\mala\mala.cmd). Edit mame.cmd and add this (edit your mame path). MAME will be used for all roms, but for 'mugen'.

if %1==mugen goto mugen

d:
cd\
cd d:\mame
mame %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6
goto end

:mugen
d:
cd\
cd "d:\Mugen"
mugen.cmd
cd\
goto end

:end

--

Now edit mame.xml and add something like this:

<game name="mugen" sourcefile="mugen.c">
<description>Mugen Fighting Evolution</description>
<manufacturer>Stormrider</manufacturer>
<year>2008</year>
<chip type="cpu" tag="maincpu" name="PC"/>
<chip type="cpu" tag="audiocpu" name="PC"/>
<display type="raster" rotate="0" width="320" height="240" refresh="60.000000" />
<sound channels="2"/>
<input players="2" buttons="6" coins="1" service="no">
<control type="joy8way"/>
</input>
<driver status="good" emulation="good" color="good" sound="good" graphic="good" savestate="unsupported" palettesize="65536"/>
</game>

--

Add this to catver.ini

mugen=Fighter / Versus

--

Create a text file in your roms folder and rename it to mugen.zip

Refresh your rom list and create again the game lists.

Now your Mugen game is listed and can be run. I decided to run it with mugen.cmd instead of mugen.exe because it sometimes fails to close on exit. So my mugen.cmd has a final line with exit. If you want to have a snapshot for your mugen, press print screen when in the game. Create a new image in Photoshop, paste, crop the picture and save it as mugen.png in your snaps folder. Yo can do this with other pc games.

Thank you. Been trying to find a way of doing this for ages.

[bangiiz]

Thank you for the solution 

[thaddeussmith]

what causes MaLa to launch a game in the background? Everything I try to search for ends up talking about background music and other irrelevant crap.

Trying to play the new Street Fighter x Megaman on my cabinet. I've got MaLa launching it just fine, but it doesn't switch over to the game window. :/

[bmanbdaman]

what causes MaLa to launch a game in the background? Everything I try to search for ends up talking about background music and other irrelevant crap.

Trying to play the new Street Fighter x Megaman on my cabinet. I've got MaLa launching it just fine, but it doesn't switch over to the game window. :/

I had to be sure all my PC launches were lnk (Windows Shortcut) files and the "Window State" in Execution  was set to Normal to ensure games did not hide in the background. Causes a temporary black window if using a bat file, but worth the hassle to avoid Alt-Tab.