GameLists: Multiple emuls in same list work-around solution

[SGT]

I should point out that including the drive letter after cd does not affect the process.

It would make a difference if your mame.cmd file and the emulator you're trying to run were on different drives.  It will cause an error in that case.  However since the folder you're CDing to is on the same drive as the current drive, there's no error.  You can use the drive letter in the CD command but you have to add a /D parameter.  I knew it didn't contribute to your problem, but I wanted to correct it in case you reconfigure things down the road which might cause the error.

[TheManuel]

Gotcha.
I think I'm going to rewrite that so that it includes the /D parameter even if it is redundant right now so that I don't screw up in the future.

Would this be the correct syntax?
cd /D D:\MAME\Emulator\MAMEplus_Intel_0.104

[SGT]

Yep:

Code:

CD [/D] [drive:][path]

For just about any dos command, you can add a /? from the command prompt  to get the description and the syntax.  For example:

Code:

CD /?

Which yields:

Displays the name of or changes the current directory.

CHDIR [/D] [drive:][path]
CHDIR [..]
CD [/D] [drive:][path]
CD [..]

  ..   Specifies that you want to change to the parent directory.

Type CD drive: to display the current directory in the specified dr
Type CD without parameters to display the current drive and directo

Use the /D switch to change current drive in addition to changing c
directory for a drive.

If Command Extensions are enabled CHDIR changes as follows:

The current directory string is converted to use the same case as
the on disk names.  So CD C:\TEMP would actually set the current
directory to C:\Temp if that is the case on disk.

CHDIR command does not treat spaces as delimiters, so it is possibl
CD into a subdirectory name that contains a space without surroundi
the name with quotes.  For example:

    cd \winnt\profiles\username\programs\start menu

is the same as:

    cd "\winnt\profiles\username\programs\start menu"

which is what you would have to type if extensions were disabled.

[TheManuel]

Thank you.

[Cakemeister]

I think this whole thread may have been made obsolete.

Link to thread

[Lakersfan]

Hi SGT,
One follow-up question to my NES setup.... How would my cmd file look if I wanted to run multiple roms using fceu?

How would I add the rom named: "R.C. Pro-Am (USA) (Rev A).zip"

Code:

if "%2" == "I:\Arcade\emulators\fceUltra\roms" goto fceUltra
if "%2" == "I:\Arcade\emulators\daphne\roms" goto daphne

mame.exe %1
exit

:fceUltra
cd \Arcade\emulators\fceUltra
fceu.exe "I:\Arcade\emulators\fceUltra\roms\Super Mario Bros. 2 (USA).zip"
exit

:daphne
cd \Arcade\emulators\daphne
daphne.exe lair vldp -framefile "I:\Arcade\emulators\daphne\vldp_dl\lair\lair.txt" -fullscreen -nohwaccel -fastboot
exit

Thanks!!

[SGT]

Well, what should be easy is complicated by a couple of problems.  Normally for most emulators you would change the following line:

Code:

fceu.exe "I:\Arcade\emulators\fceUltra\roms\Super Mario Bros. 2 (USA).zip"

to:

Code:

fceu.exe %1.zip

This will in essence be translated when ran to:

Code:

fceu.exe "Super Mario Bros. 2 (USA)".zip

Unfortunately fecUltra doesn't like this for two reasons. 

Problem #1) fceUltra wants a path specfied to the rom.  I haven't seen an option in fceUltra to specify a default rom folder.


For problem #1 you'd think you could go with

Code:

fecu.exe %2\%1.zip

Which translates when ran to:

Code:

fceu .exe I:\Arcade\emulators\fceUltra\roms\"Super Mario Bros. 2 (USA)".zip

fceUltra doesn't like this because of

Problem #2) fceUltra wants quotation marks around the whole path and rom (not the rom), ala

Code:

"I:\Arcade\emulators\fceUltra\roms\Super Mario Bros. 2 (USA).zip"

Well we know we had to put quotes around the rom name because of the spaces in the rom name, so to get it like fceUltra wants it you think, let's add a third parameter to the Mala mame commandline.  So in Mala, instead of:

Code:

"%rom%" %path%

we add the path and rom name to a third parameter, and the command line becomes:

Code:

"%rom%" %path% "%path%\%rom%.%ext%"

Then we'll change the batch file to read

Code:

fecu.exe %3

This works!...........EXCEPT, when you close Mala, and re-open Mala, the command line is no longer there.  It has changed from:

Code:

"%rom%" %path% "%path%\%rom%.%ext%"

to:

Code:

%rom%" %path% "%path%\%rom%.%ext%

Notice the missing quotation marks at the start and the end of the string.  I tried the advanced command line option in Mala, but the %rom% and %path% variables are not translated at run time for some reason.   I guess we need to ask Swindus to change this behavior in Mala.  If he doesn't want to, I'll write a wrapper for ultraFCE so it isn't so picky about the command line.  Fact is, a wrapper may already exist for it.

This other project, Multimame, has a lot of potential and will ultimately be a better solution if I can figure out how to use it.  I've looked at it a little bit, but I'm still confused.  Another solution would be if someone knows how to set up fceUltra so you do not have to specify a rom path on the command line.

[Lakersfan]

  Thanks for the detailed answer.... I tried to look a multimame as well, but as you can see by earlier threads, I need a lot of hand holding at this point and there isn't really any how-to documentation to get me started with it, so I went back to this thread coupled with your help. 

I'll give Loadman or Swindus a pm to see if they have any ideas why quotes disappear in mala...

Ya know, it's not really a BIG deal to get these few Nintendo roms running on my cab. I just wanted to replace a few of the mame playchoice games with these... If there is a better emulator for nes, I'd give it a shot.

Thanks, I really do appreciate all your help recently!

[SGT]

I think that Nestopia is arguably the most popular of the NES emulators.  I gave it a shot and it works like a charm.  This is the entry that I used in mame.cmd:

Code:

nestopia.exe %2\%1.zip

You will still need Mala's Mame command line to be:

Code:

"%rom%" %path%

If you give nestopia a shot, don't forget to remove the rom from the fceUltra folder before refreshing your game list.  You can change the exit key in nestopia to ESC after changing its default definition which toggles menus or something like that.  You can also set Nestopia to NOT confirm exit so it doesn't ask you if you are sure you want to exit.   Of course the path will need to be changed in mame.cmd, but you already know about that.

Here is the most recent version of Nestopia that I could find:
http://www.emulator-zone.com/doc.php/nes/nestopia.html

[Lakersfan]

Thanks buddy. I'll give it a shot!

[Lakersfan]

Up and running! Got all my keys mapped correctly and everything looks good to go!! Thanks man.

[SGT]

Up and running! Got all my keys mapped correctly and everything looks good to go!! Thanks man.

[jasonbar]

Hey SGT-

Great guide.  I bookmarked this months ago & finally got to this phase of my MAME cab development this week.

I got much of the way through this but am having an issue near the end.  I'm trying to incorporate my Daphne games first, & then I'll do the handful of MAME games that require different revs of MAME to run right (or at all).

I originally had Daphne set up in its own non-MAME list in MALA, w/ a launch bat for each file.

Here's an example:
C:\Emulators\Daphne\launch_bats\Astron_Belt.bat is:

C:\Emulators\Daphne\daphne.exe astron vldp -framefile C:\Emulators\Daphne\vldp\astron\astron.txt -min_seek_delay 1000 -seek_frames_per_ms 20 -homedir . -bank 0 00000000 -bank 1 00000000 -sound_buffer 2048 -fullscreen -x 800 -y 600


1 - did your additional.xml + mame.xml trick & put the various snaps, cabinets, panels, etc pics in my appropriate MAME directories.  My Daphne items show up great in the MaLa menu alongside my MAME games.

2 - set up MaLa with the %rom% %path% command line, pointed it to a 2nd rom path directory (C:\Emulators\Daphne\launch_bats) w/ dummy Daphne zip files, etc.

3 - made a mame.cmd file that looks like this (I'm using MAME 115, optimized for Pentium Pros, hence the funny executable name):

if "%2" == "C:\Emulators\Daphne\launch_bats" goto daphne

mamepp115.exe %1
exit

:daphne
start/wait C:\Emulators\Daphne\launch_bats\%1.bat
exit


4 - MAME games launch fine

5 - Daphne games flip to a blank screen then back to MaLa instantly.

6 - I added the echo code to my mame.cmd to see that the rom & path were being passed correctly to the mame.cmd script:
echo %1 > test.txt
echo %2 >> test.txt

creates this test.txt file:
Badlands_Laser
ECHO is on.

Shouldn't that 2nd line be the rom path that MaLa is passing to mame.cmd?  If so, the path obviously never looks like the path to my Daphne bats & zips, so mame.cmd is never getting to the daphne portion of that script.

I switched MaLa to not hide the command prompt window when launching games and, if I hold down the "1" key to repeatedly launch Badlands_Laser from MaLa, I can get  a better glimpse of the command prompt window and, indeed, it's still using the MAME app to try to launch the Daphne file (I can see it listing a few games that have approximate name matches).  I just tried this from the command prompt & confirmed it: mamepp115 Badlands_Laser returns the approximate name matches indeed.


Any ideas?


Thank you very much,
-Jason

[SGT]

That's really strange.

You're right.  As long as the Mame command line in Mala is:

%rom% %path%

...then Mala should pass the path to your batch file as the %2 parameter.  I would go to the game list editor and edit the game list that you are using for this game and choose edit for that game.  Mala will display something like the attached screen shot.

Note that I use badlands2  for Daphne since Mame already has a badlands rom.  Anyway, is the path that is displayed in the game list editor for that game, blank?

[jasonbar]

 

SGT, you are the foshnizzle of the hizzle on my lazizzle Daphne games.  (I think I complimented you)

Indeed, I did not fill in the path & "zip" for those entries I'd added.

That made it work!

Still needed some tuning.  Since MaLa is set to hide the mame.cmd file it's launching, that command prompt window never shows.  But, since I was launching an individual bat *from* mame.cmd, that bat file was peeking up briefly.  Ugly clutter.

Just an easy matter of bring my 15 Daphne files into mame.cmd w/ 15 if-thens.  Unfortunately, I can't go back to using a clean 1-line daphne launch that has %1 in it, since some of my Daphne bats vary (dip switch settings seem to be the main offender, to the best of my memory).

No matter--I seem to be in business!

Next up, getting 2-3 more MAME versions in there to run the handful of troublesome games that that MAMEPP115 isn't running to my liking (or at all).

Thanks!!!
-Jason

[loadman]

[SGT]

Indeed, I did not fill in the path & "zip" for those entries I'd added.

You shouldn't have had to fill that in as Mala does it automatically when it finds the rom.  Not sure what's going on there.  Glad you got it going anyway.   

[SGT]

LOL, Loadman.  I take care of your light stuff.  In regards to Mala, you're Batman, I'm Robin. 

[youki]

 

[SGT]

Dead?  I don't think so.  Loadman has something for you, Youki:

[jasonbar]

I miiight know why the path & "zip" fields weren't filled in in MaLa Game List.

At first, I had spaces in my Daphne bat filenames & the "launch bats" directory.

When troubleshooting my mame.cmd, I knew that there was a problem either with my if/then logic or the launch command, so I had to narrow it down to find out which of those 2 items was causing my problems.

So, I copied & pasted the launch command into a command line window & it was clearly barfing on the spaces in my folder & file names.


Soooo, I had to go back & rename *a lot* of files (fake ROM zip, cabinet pics, cpanel pics, snap pics, etc.).  Perhaps MaLa took offense to the fact that I'd created the Daphne entries in my truncated game list & then gone & changed their locations...so those fields that were supposed to be populated automatically might've become blanked out...


Thanks again, Caped Crusader & Boy Wonder!  Next up, putting 2-3 more MAMEs in my cab for the handful of troublemaker games, then trying to compile them to remove the nag screens...

-Jason

[loadman]

LOL, Loadman.  I take care of your light stuff.  In regards to Mala, you're Batman, I'm Robin. 

Together we will defeat the evil Youki   

[youki]

Your last picture is quite comprising... 

[loadman]

Your last picture is quite comprising... 

It looks cold up on that building. I'm sure they were just trying to stay warm and cuddle up   

[Ego-X]

Any way to do this using relative paths to compare against %2 in the cmd file? I've tried to do it but it seems to take whatever you type literally so .\folder2 become just that and not drive\folder1\folder2

[TheShanMan]

Hey loadman,

Any chance the next version will have built in support for merged emulator lists? I hate having Dragon's Lair separate from mame games. I know I could do this hack (and may if I ever get around to it), but it would be so nice to have direct support for it.

[loadman]

Hey loadman,

Any chance the next version will have built in support for merged emulator lists? I hate having Dragon's Lair separate from mame games. I know I could do this hack (and may if I ever get around to it), but it would be so nice to have direct support for it.

Not the next version but will be on the Wish List. I would try the work-around for now as that works well

[jasonbar]

Hey loadman,

Any chance the next version will have built in support for merged emulator lists? I hate having Dragon's Lair separate from mame games. I know I could do this hack (and may if I ever get around to it), but it would be so nice to have direct support for it.

As a software/config flunky, let me endorse this method as a good way to combine multiple MAME + Daphne games (and whatever else you want) into 1 list.  It's not too hard after you start working on it, and SGT & Loadman are always patient & helpful w/ people like me, who have lots of basic questions.  It should take only a few hours to figure out, max.

Bottom line: if I can do it, then anybody can do it. 

-Jason

[Infinity_Yak]

Doh!  If I had known you could have done this kind of stuff in MaLa, I probably wouldn't have written my own frontend from scratch just to support multiple emulators in a single list... Oh well!

[TheManuel]

Hi SGT.

I hope you are still keeping an eye on this topic.
If I have merged ROM's, can I still do this or am I basically screwed?

I think MALA does not separate out all the clones from merged set but to use the method described here, I have to let Mala generate the game list.

I can always un-merge the set but if there is a way to make it work as is, I would like to know.

Thanks.

[TheManuel]

Before I waste anybody's time, I just realized there are many ways to skin this cat.
I could either force Mala to to include all games and not just the ones found in the directory or generate a MAME only list using ROMlister and a non-MAME list using Mala and then combining  both with the Gamelist editor.

I still reserve the right to ask for help if I get stuck 

[TheManuel]

Well, the solution to the problem was a variation of the alternatives on my last post.

When you tell Mala to refresh the main game list and unckeck the says "only include games found in the rom directory", Mala adds all the games from MAME's xml file but does not add the paths so all games from your "Other Emu" subdirectory will be sent to your main MAME executable which is not what I wanted.

If you have a merged MAME rom set and want to apply SGT's method, here is what you must do:

1. If you want to play some of the games on a different version of MAME, you must split those roms.  If you leave them merged, Mala will only pickup the master when generating the games list.
2. Generate a Mala gamelist by specifying only the directory with the main roms set and uncheck the box: "only include games found in the rom directory"  This will create a Mala list with the full MAME found the main MAME xml file but with no paths but no problem because Mala will go to that path by default if you followed SGT's method correctly.
3. Save the gamelist under a name you will be able to find (you don't want to leave it as "All Games" or it will be overwritten in the next few steps.
4. Open up the new gamelist with the gamelist editor and remove those games that you want to play with a different version of MAME or a different emulator, clones and all
5. Now specify the "Other Emu" directory with the roms for the other emulators and MAME versions and create the gamelist again but first check the box "only include games found in the rom directory".  This will create a new small gamelist with paths.
6. Now open up the gamelist editor and add the gamelist you created in steps 2 and 3.
7. Done.  Now you should have everything on the "All Games" list or whatever you want to call it.

This will probably not be useful for a lot of people but let me know if you have this situation and have problems figuring all this out.

[swamprat96]

OK I've had this solution working fine for just M2 and mame. I went to add big buck hunter today- all four versions. I am using pretty much SGT's layout so I have the roms as so

c:\emulators\other_emus\m2
c:\emulators\other_emus\pc_games

Problem 1 -games don't appear in the all games list in Mala

In the pc_ games directory I have four dummy roms- bbh1.zip, bbh2.zip,bbh3.zip and bbh4.zip.

I have added 4 entries to mame.xml and renamed it to combined.xml. Also pointed Mala to this
Entries are

<game name="bbh1">
   <description> Big Buck Hunter 1</description>
   <year>2001</year>
   <manufacturer>Midway</manufacturer>
   <driver status"good" emulation"good"/>
   </game>
        <game name="bbh2">
   <description> Big Buck Hunter 2</description>
   <year>2002</year>
   <manufacturer>Midway</manufacturer>
   <driver status"good" emulation"good"/>
   </game>
   <game name="bbh3">
   <description> Big Buck Hunter Shooters Challenge</description>
   <year>2004</year>
   <manufacturer>Midway</manufacturer>
   <driver status"good" emulation"good"/>
   </game>
   <game name="bbh4">
   <description> Big Buck Hunter Call of the Wild</description>
   <year>2006</year>
   <manufacturer>Midway</manufacturer>
   <driver status"good" emulation"good"/>
   </game>

I have refreshed the all games list and none of these entries appear. I can't workout what I'm doing wrong. remember that my M2 entries are just fine
Problem 2- I can't start them via my Mame.cmd

if "%2" == "C:\emulators\other_emus\m2" goto m2
if "%2" == "C:\emulators\other_emus\pc_games" goto pc_games

mame.exe %1
exit

:m2
CD\
cd\emulators\m2emulator
closemul.exe emulator.exe zip %1 rar
exit

:pc_games
cd emulators\pc_games
%1.cmd
exit

I really don't understand the.cmd file here. The four games are in C:\emulators\BBH1,C:\emulators\BBH2 etc. How does the .exe get fired by the mame.cmd? I suspect I need some path changes and additional entries here susch as cd emulators\BBH1 etc?

[fargo]

What do you have set up in MALA under Options -> Basics tab...  Rom path?  You have a path set to c:\emulators\other_emus and have the 'search in subfolders' checked?

As for the command.com - that's just a batch file where you set up whatever is needed to launch your game command-line style.  What you have to work with appears to be %1 and %2 variables which are rom name and rom path.  So assuming you do get your games to appear in the list, what will be passed to command.com would be  %1 = bbh1  and %2 = c:\emulators\other_emus_pc games.  Not really enough info to launch without adding in some additional logic.

you first need to know how to launch these from command line.  from there, you could script that into your pc_games section.  You could do an if statement for each...   like   if "%1" == "bbh1" <do this... what ever it takes to launch>
and so on...

[swamprat96]

Yes I have the subfolders checked. Its set up the same as my m2 roms which appear.

As to the .cmd- that will be easier to work out once I have the names appearing

[swamprat96]

I cheated. I used romlister to make a mala game list and so now have the games appearing on the games list

Now I'm wrestling with the mame.cmd file

[SGT]

Here is my mame.cmd:

Code:

if "%2" == "E:\emulators\other_emus\radikalb" goto rAdikalb
if "%2" == "E:\emulators\other_emus\M2" goto m2
if "%2" == "E:\emulators\other_emus\daphne" goto daphne
if "%2" == "E:\emulators\other_emus\zinc" goto zinc
if "%2" == "E:\emulators\other_emus\pcgames" goto pcgames
if "%2" == "E:\emulators\other_emus\mjolnir" goto mjolnir
if "%2" == "E:\emulators\other_emus\vivanonno" goto vivanonno
if "%2" == "E:\emulators\other_emus\nestopia" goto nestopia

mame.exe %1
exit

:radikalb
cd ..\radikal
closemul.exe radikalb.exe
exit

:m2
cd ..\m2emulator
closemul.exe emulator.exe zip %1 rar
exit

:pcgames
cd ..\pc_games\roms
%1.lnk
exit


:daphne
cd \emulators\daphne
if "%1" == "badlands2" goto badlands
IF "%1" == "ace2" goto ace
start/wait daphne.exe %1 vldp -framefile E:\emulators\Daphne\framefile\%1.txt -fullscreen -blank_skips -blank_searches -preset 1
exit
:badlands
start/wait daphne.exe badlands vldp -framefile E:\emulators\Daphne\framefile\badlands.txt -fullscreen -blank_skips -blank_searches -preset 1
exit
:ace
start/wait daphne.exe ace vldp -framefile E:\emulators\Daphne\framefile\ace.txt -fullscreen -blank_skips -blank_searches -preset 1
exit


:zinc
cd ..\zinc
cmd-launch7.exe %1
exit


:mjolnir
cd ..\mjolnir
mjolnir.exe %1
exit


:vivanonno
cd ..\vivanonno
if "%1" == "ridger2a" AutoVivanonno rrs1
if "%1" == "raveracw" AutoVivanonno rv2
exit


:nestopia
cd ..\nestopia
nestopia.exe %2\%1.zip
exit

:set_resolution
cd ..\utilities\qres
qres.exe /x 1440 /y 900
exit

As you can see, I have shortcuts to the pc games themselves.  Shortcuts have the extension LNK.  The shortcuts have the same name as the dummy rom.  The difference is the dummy rom has the extension ZIP and of course the shortcut has the extension LNK.  I used to use CMD files which uses the same concept.  You need one folder with name.zip files and another folder with name.cmd files.  LNK files are just easier for some in that you don't have to create a CMD file for each PC Game, but just let windows create the shortcut for you.  Notice that my dummy files folder is pcgames and is located here:

Code:

E:\emulators\other_emus\pcgames

My lnk folder is pc_games:

Code:

E:\emulators\pc_games\roms

Probably a little more confusing than it should have been.  Hope this helps.

[SGT]

Also regarding why they're not showing up in the game list.  I notice the xml entries has:

Code:

   <driver status"good" emulation"good"/>

There are equal signs missing, and if you have the option to only have working roms, Mala may be filtering these back out because it doesn't recognize that the driver status="good".  Example:

Code:

<game name="tigerwoods">
<description>Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07</description>
<year></year>
<manufacturer></manufacturer>
<driver status="good"/>
</game>

Now I haven't analyzed later versions of Mame.  So if mame devs have changed the format of mame.xml, disregard my drivel.

[swamprat96]

Thanks SGT- that XML was the problem. I also got the cmd file going now based on your input. 

[SGT]

     I'll have my martini shaken, not stirred.