MameWah Qustions

[JackTucky]

I've got my new cabinet standing, and I'm testing different software, etc., with my setup.  I have a walmart 1.2Ghz Linux PC (That I put Win98 on), a GeForce 440 Card using S-video Out to a 25" TV.  I couldn't get a 25" tv with S-video that would fit, so I'm using an S-Video to Composite adapter.

I've seen now the monitors on HappControls.com, and I've got my eye on the 27" one, maybe for Xmas.  Until then, I'd like to try and make the TV workable.

The gameplay video is OK, but as expected, in Windows, or ARCADEOs, the font is really fuzzy and hard to read.  I found out that Mamewah would let me customize the fonts, etc, so I downloaded it.

It installed into Program Files/mamewah.  When I start it, it comes up with a nearly blank screen.  I can press "2" to get into options, but nothing but "2" works from there.  

I read all the Docs and it says that I can set the configuration in mamewah.cfg, but I can't find out how what to put in there.

My mame is installed in c:\mame, my roms c:\mame\roms.

Are there any other Docs or FAQ I can use to find out how to config Mamewah?  

Also, I called up the designer and found the standard .Lay files, modified the game list font, and saved it as layout.lay in (I think) the correct directory, and it doesn't look like that took.

Thanks for any help.

[tmasman]

in Mamewah "2" brings up the menu...
After that "1" selects the highlighted option and "2" backs out to the previous menu list.

You'll need to set up mamewah to run Mame...
I can't remember all the options you need right now (I'm at work...).
Just run through all the menu options and fill in the information you need.

I also had problems getting the games list filled in...
I did the same thing intructed in this post to get it to work.

[Bill_S]

Did you remember to unzip the compressed file Minwah put in there after the installation?
I know I forgot to unzip that and had issues until I remembered.

[JackTucky]

Thanks for the reply.  My problem is though, that I hit "2" and then "1", and I see not options to choose.  I get to "Select Emulator", and I see emulator 1 at the bottom, but then what?  NO keys work  , except for "2" to back out.

Thanks again

[JackTucky]

Bill_S.  That did the trick.  I had unzipped the layouts.zip last night on my notebook (to test and fool with it), and it didn't help.  but on the mame PC, I can now see options.

I'm going to try and load my games with the .dat file technique posted above, and hopefully I'll be OK.

Thanks.

[JackTucky]

The .Dat file technique didn't work, but specifying my roms folder did!  This is great.  I can see the game names  

What is the standard way to run MameWah?  Put it in Startup folder?

Thanks.

[JackTucky]

Mamewah working good for me now.  I have just one problem.  I'm getting lockups.  I have to shut the PC down.

It happened once when my kid hit enter on the keyboard.  I still have the keyboard out during testing/remaining building.

It happened when we tried to run the superman rom.

Other times, my kids were just scrolling through the list of games.

Is this because some ROMS are bad?    I just setup mamewah as my shell in systems.ini, that did not help.

I'm running Win98, I downloaded Mamewah a last week, it's the beta that's out.

Thanks.

Art

[Minwah]

The only time I know of when it will appear to lock-up, is when launching a bad rom.  Try switching 'Show DOS Box' to 'Yes' and try one of the problem roms to check if that is the case...

[JackTucky]

Minwah:

Thanks for the reply.  Once I set Dos Box = Yes, the superman rom worked.  But, Tetris did lock it up.  I did see the warning.  I guess I just have to weed out the bad roms then?

Thanks for a great FE.

Art

[Minwah]

I guess I just have to weed out the bad roms then?

Well yes, or leave 'Show DOS Box' on (but it doesn't look very pretty).

The perfect solution is to compile your own MAME so that it skips that part - if you can

[JackTucky]

Oh, there will be no compiling C by me.  I'm an RPG Programmer.  You can find that language if you look really hard.

Actually, I turned Dos box to Autoshow and superman still works.  

Golden Tee II for trackball (gtg2) was the latest to lock up.  But I don't have a trackball, so I can deal.

I've got the MP3 going and the screensaver with snaps.  It's really cool.

Is there a way to adjust the sound of the MP3's seperate from the game play?  I'd like the browsing MP3 to be quite low, but I like the game sounds set high  

Art

[Minwah]

Oh, there will be no compiling C by me.  I'm an RPG Programmer.  You can find that language if you look really hard.

Actually, I turned Dos box to Autoshow and superman still works.  

Golden Tee II for trackball (gtg2) was the latest to lock up.  But I don't have a trackball, so I can deal.

I've got the MP3 going and the screensaver with snaps.  It's really cool.

Is there a way to adjust the sound of the MP3's seperate from the game play?  I'd like the browsing MP3 to be quite low, but I like the game sounds set high  

Art

I don't program C either, but it's not difficult following mame.net 's tutorial

Superman ROM's are fine as far as I know, so perhaps a bad example - try with Great 1000 Miles Rally, it has bad dumps.  The Auto-Show option doesn't actually do anything atm, so beware of that (I think it will just not show the box all the time).

I tried Golden Tee II (trackball), and it seems to run fine too for me (no bad dumps) - are you sure you have up to date romsets?  Try running these problem games from a commandline to see what message is given.

The new Sound / Music Volume option only adjusts the sound level within MAMEWAH - ie when a game is launched the volume level is returned to normal.  So, adjust the sound level of your mixer / speakers during gameplay, and then alter (lower) the volume in MAMEWAH accordingly.  Still trickier than it sounds as most games in MAME have different volume levels

[JackTucky]

I'm definitely having a problem, and it's not related to a specific rom.  The more I play/test,  I'm getting lockups.

Sometimes a ctrl-alt-del reboot won't help a lockup, I have to power off first.

Other times, I'll exit a game, and the mamewah screen doesn't redisplay.  It's working though, because if I hit player 1, the game will start.  If I exit the game again, it's still not visible.  I have to ctrl-alt-del and end the program with End Task, then restart Mamewah.

Open to suggestions.  Thanks.

Art

[Minwah]

I'm definitely having a problem, and it's not related to a specific rom.  The more I play/test,  I'm getting lockups.

Sometimes a ctrl-alt-del reboot won't help a lockup, I have to power off first.

Other times, I'll exit a game, and the mamewah screen doesn't redisplay.  It's working though, because if I hit player 1, the game will start.  If I exit the game again, it's still not visible.  I have to ctrl-alt-del and end the program with End Task, then restart Mamewah.

Open to suggestions.  Thanks.

Did you try running any of the problem games from a commandline?  If it is a MAME problem, then it will be displayed here.  This is the usual cause of presumed lock-ups...

As for the other problem, do you have any other programs running as well as MAMEWAH?  If so, it sounds as if MAMEWAH is loosing focus to another program for some reason.

Also, what OS are you using?  I heard of a similar problem sometimes under Win98...

[JackTucky]

It's been happening on most of the games I try, although it's not consistent.

The next time it happens, I'll try to run that game from the command line.

It's almost always when I try to escape out of a game by using Player 1 & Player 2 buttons together.  The escape won't work the first time, but after a couple of tries, your back to either a locked up mamewah or a blank mamewah.

How could it be that it is losing focus if the start player 1 button still fires up a game?

I'm using Win98.  I'll try to get more definite information and figure out what's happening.

Thanks.