Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum

Main => Software Forum => Topic started by: btoddkelley on April 17, 2004, 11:36:47 am

Title: mamewah and arcadejukebox
Post by: btoddkelley on April 17, 2004, 11:36:47 am
I was thinking about integrating arcade jukebox 8 into my cab and was wondering if there was a way to make arcade jukebox start when it was cycled to. In other words, you press "4" to cycle through your emulators and when you get to arcade jukebox it automatically starts and displays songs which can be selected and played.
     Arcade jukebox could be either the first or the last one in the cycle if this would make it easier. (I personally think that the ideal cab would boot to the jukebox and then you could cycle to emulators from there. Arcade jukebox could could read the same music file mamewah does when it plays songs automatically.)
Any thoughts?

Thanks
Todd
Title: Re:mamewah and arcadejukebox
Post by: Minwah on April 18, 2004, 09:26:11 am
I was thinking about integrating arcade jukebox 8 into my cab and was wondering if there was a way to make arcade jukebox start when it was cycled to. In other words, you press "4" to cycle through your emulators and when you get to arcade jukebox it automatically starts and displays songs which can be selected and played.
     Arcade jukebox could be either the first or the last one in the cycle if this would make it easier. (I personally think that the ideal cab would boot to the jukebox and then you could cycle to emulators from there. Arcade jukebox could could read the same music file mamewah does when it plays songs automatically.)
Any thoughts?

Sorry, you can't do this in MW :(

Personally I don't think arcade cabs should have jukeboxes, they're for playing games!  Jukebox cabs seem to be pretty popular round here tho so what do I know  ::)  :)
Title: Re:mamewah and arcadejukebox
Post by: papaschtroumpf on May 04, 2004, 03:19:24 pm
Actually it's one of the reasons I got the wife to agree to the cab project in the first place  ;)
I personnaly think that if you have an arcade cab with decent speakers, adding a jukebox to it is a great way to maximize its use, especially if (like me) your cab is located in a game room where you could be doing other things (play darts, pool, ...)

I guess I never had a problem with having a jukebox "emulator" screen in mamewah with a single entry that says "listen to music". It's just one extra keypress to start the jukebox.
Title: Re:mamewah and arcadejukebox
Post by: SpamMe on May 04, 2004, 04:34:02 pm
I did something kinda similar, dunno if it's what you're looking for:
Link (http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=5;action=display;threadid=16297;start=msg128713#msg128713)

Instructions are a few posts below that one.
Title: Re:mamewah and arcadejukebox
Post by: btoddkelley on May 04, 2004, 07:06:45 pm
I like what you have done Spam. Let me tell you what I had invisioned and you guys tell me what you think.(and if it can be done) Most here have seen Arcade jukebox. What I think would work well in a cab would be to have AJ merged with mamewah. When mamewah starts the first thing you would see would be AJ. You could coin up songs(or set for free play), have a que, sort ect. Pressing the 4 button would cycle emulators just like it does now but the selected music would continue playing. When you cycled back to AJ. The que would show you what song is up next and you could coin up and pick more songs.
     It would also be possible to have music picked at random like mamewah does now, only it would be displayed in AJ's que. Music could be set to play during games or like it is now. Exiting games would return to the song and previous que.
     Now this is only an idea I have. I do not have the programming skills to make this happen and the authors of the 2 programs may object to someone hacking up there software (in which case it should not be done). Min has said he does not see the need for a jukebox in a cab so it is unlikely that he will be interested. But I would like to know how he feels about the proposed modifications. Also, Are the 2 programs written where this is even possible? Mamewah is written in VB, what about AJ?

Thoughts anyone? Min?


Thanks
Todd
Title: Re:mamewah and arcadejukebox
Post by: Minwah on May 06, 2004, 05:28:08 am
I like what you have done Spam. Let me tell you what I had invisioned and you guys tell me what you think.(and if it can be done) Most here have seen Arcade jukebox. What I think would work well in a cab would be to have AJ merged with mamewah. When mamewah starts the first thing you would see would be AJ. You could coin up songs(or set for free play), have a que, sort ect. Pressing the 4 button would cycle emulators just like it does now but the selected music would continue playing. When you cycled back to AJ. The que would show you what song is up next and you could coin up and pick more songs.
     It would also be possible to have music picked at random like mamewah does now, only it would be displayed in AJ's que. Music could be set to play during games or like it is now. Exiting games would return to the song and previous que.
     Now this is only an idea I have. I do not have the programming skills to make this happen and the authors of the 2 programs may object to someone hacking up there software (in which case it should not be done). Min has said he does not see the need for a jukebox in a cab so it is unlikely that he will be interested. But I would like to know how he feels about the proposed modifications. Also, Are the 2 programs written where this is even possible? Mamewah is written in VB, what about AJ?

Thoughts anyone? Min?

I think it would be a bit tricky to do exactly as described...

Quote
Pressing the 4 button would cycle emulators just like it does now but the selected music would continue playing

Since MAMEWAH really only launches apps, and receives focus back once the app has terminated, this is unlikely to happen.  So really you would have to quit AJ (thus music stops) in order to cycle emulators etc.  The only way to achieve what you want I think would be to incorporate a full jukebox into MAMEWAH, which I'm not keen to do  ::)  Apart from lazyness my reason for this is that a separate jukebox app will always be superior IMO.

I guess I could add some kind of 'auto-launch' option so that when MW starts it could launch the jukebox, but bearing in mind the other stuff won't work as you intend I don't know if it would be much use...
Title: Re:mamewah and arcadejukebox
Post by: btoddkelley on May 06, 2004, 09:41:39 am
How about tying the built in music to some kind of launch screen with a que. People have already set up mamewah to act as a "music launcher" using windows media player. Is there any way to add a que that would be visible in the front end?
     There is a post here where someone even had the advantages and disadvantages of this listed. How many of the disadvantages could be easily worked around?
Either way I think this is a great front.

Thanks
Todd
Title: Re:mamewah and arcadejukebox
Post by: Minwah on May 06, 2004, 02:09:49 pm
How about tying the built in music to some kind of launch screen with a que. People have already set up mamewah to act as a "music launcher" using windows media player. Is there any way to add a que that would be visible in the front end?
     There is a post here where someone even had the advantages and disadvantages of this listed. How many of the disadvantages could be easily worked around?
Either way I think this is a great front.

Without coding essentially a basic jukebox there's no way to create a queue in MW...

I can't remember the thread you're referring to, advantages + disadvantages of what?
Title: Re:mamewah and arcadejukebox
Post by: btoddkelley on May 07, 2004, 01:24:59 am
Spamme's link up above.  The advantages and disadvantages of using windows media player in mamewah are listed. Maybe some of the disadvantages could be eliminated?
Sorry I wasn't more clear in my last post, been a long day.


Todd
Title: Re:mamewah and arcadejukebox
Post by: Minwah on May 08, 2004, 05:52:56 pm
Spamme's link up above.  The advantages and disadvantages of using windows media player in mamewah are listed. Maybe some of the disadvantages could be eliminated?
Sorry I wasn't more clear in my last post, been a long day.

I think to make it satisfactory I'd have to add some extra objects in for track names and stuff, which I don't want to do atm (would meaning changing the layout format).  I will probably have to change the format at some point to make some other improvements, so I will consider it more then...