MAMEWAH v0.96 Released!

[Minwah]

Here's whatsnew:

MAMEWAH v0.96 (23/09/03)

Bugs Fixed:

Trailing letters in options menu items may be cut off / incorrectly abbreviated (fixed),
NMS Files may not work depending on rom / NMS name case (fixed),
Message confirmation of game removal would display incorrect game description (fixed),
Removing the last (only) game in custom list would cause crash (fixed),
Using sound files would sometimes not allow MAMEWAH to exit (Win98) (fixed?).

Improvements (/Changes):

Automatic image aspect ratio 'fix' altered to work with any resolution not at ratio of 4:3 (previously only worked correctly at 640x288),
'Windows' style border removed from Options, Message and About screens (to allow for custom borders/graphics),
'Add Game to Custom List' option can now be used from a custom list (ie not just from the main list),
Added 'Add Game to Custom List' customisable key (default key is 'Z'),
Added 'Skip to Next Music Track' customisable key (default key is [Space]),
Added 'Exit MAMEWAH' customisable key (default key is [Escape]),
Slight change to layout system background image filenames (see Layouts.txt for details),
Altered sound effect support to be emulator / layout specific (see Layouts.txt for details),
Added version check when opening .CFG files to avoid crashes (due to old versions being used),
Added Lock State to the saved MAMEWAH.CFG, so the menu is locked/unlocked on next startup,
Added 'No. Emulators to Display' option (& altered the P2 Coin next emulator code accordingly),
Added 'No. Custom Lists to Display' option,
Renamed 'Only if parent is broken' clone filter to 'Only if better than Parent' and improved to take into account
imperfect / preliminary color & sound as well as preliminary driver status,
'ROM Folder vs Listinfo (M.A.M.E.)' List Generation Method now includes MAME -listfull's naming system (ie 'The ' appears at
end).
Added 'Verifysets vs Listinfo (M.A.M.E.)' List Generation Method (for merged roms),
Added ROM verification before screen-saver game launch to prevent games with missing/bad ROMs being launched (M.A.M.E only -
List Generation Method must be set to 'ROM Folder vs Listinfo (M.A.M.E.)' or 'Verifysets vs Listinfo (M.A.M.E.)'),
Fixed 'Auto Show' Show DOS Box setting (& renamed to 'Auto Show (M.A.M.E.),
Added 'Custom List Type' option to enable auto-generation of 'favorites' list(s),
Set default refresh rate to 60Hz and color depth to 16 bit (since these are not specified by layout).

There is also now a readme! Also, a 368x240 res layout is included in the download.

http://mamewah.mameworld.net

[SpamMe]

Here's whatsnew:
...
'Add Game to Custom List' option can now be used from a custom list (ie not just from the main list),
Added 'Add Game to Custom List' customisable key (default key is 'Z'),
Added 'Exit MAMEWAH' customisable key (default key is [Escape]),
Added Lock State to the saved MAMEWAH.CFG, so the menu is locked/unlocked on next startup,
Added 'Custom List Type' option to enable auto-generation of 'favorites' list(s),
There is also now a readme!

Woohoo!  

[Cave]

Wow, you've been busy  , Lots of great new stuff !!!, gonna have some fun with the sounds per layout.

Cave

[creatine28]

Minwah,


Will this new version copy over my existing version of mamewah?  I would like to keep my older version running until I'm sure everything is configured properly.  Can I just change the name of my old mamewah directory and just install the new one?

Thanks,


Steve

[Minwah]

Will this new version copy over my existing version of mamewah?  I would like to keep my older version running until I'm sure everything is configured properly.  Can I just change the name of my old mamewah directory and just install the new one?

OK, I would do this:

1) Make a new folder (say C:\MAMEWAH96)
2) Copy the 'old' \LAYOUTS folder into the above
3) Extract the new update into the step 1) folder too

The bottom line is so long as you have the 'installer' version installed (somewhere), then you just need the .EXE and the layouts.

Have fun people

[vitaflo]

Awesome.  One thing I noticed is that once when coming out of a game, my music stopped playing (the mp3s I had playing in the frontend).  Must be a bug, but I'm not sure how I did that.

One question.  How do I get clones to show up for MAME (I'm using merged romsets)?  I must be missing something, I'm sure it's blatently obvious.

Couple features I'd like to see:

- Random playing of songs (it just starts at the first one every time I got back to the frontend it seems)
- Pick up from where you left off on a song (instead of starting over)
- Ability to use a Trackball or Spinner to scroll through the game list (not sure if this is even possible, but it'd be cool)

I'm sure I'd have more but I'm just getting started using this app.  Awesome, awesome frontend so far though.

[Minwah]

>One thing I noticed is that once when coming out of a game, my >music stopped playing (the mp3s I had playing in the frontend).  >Must be a bug, but I'm not sure how I did that.

The music should stop when you start the game, and start when you quit the game...

>One question.  How do I get clones to show up for MAME (I'm >using merged romsets)?  I must be missing something, I'm sure >it's blatently obvious.

Set the List Generation Method to 'Verifysets vs Listinfo (M.A.M.E.)'

>- Random playing of songs (it just starts at the first one every >time I got back to the frontend it seems)

It should play randomly, as long as you have >1 track...

>- Pick up from where you left off on a song (instead of starting >over)

It should do this already too...

>- Ability to use a Trackball or Spinner to scroll through the game >list (not sure if this is even possible, but it'd be cool)

Not yet

What OS are you running?  The sound stuff works perfectly on my machines, but it seems to be a constant problem for some other people.

[vitaflo]

> The music should stop when you start the game, and start when you quit the game...

Then there is a bug somewhere.  I recall once last night when I exited a game and the music did not start playing again.  It stayed that way until I quit and relaunched MameWah.  I wasn't able to reproduce it though, it only happened once.

> Set the List Generation Method to 'Verifysets vs Listinfo (M.A.M.E.)'

Thank you, I knew I was missing something.

> It should play randomly, as long as you have >1 track... What OS are you running?  The sound stuff works perfectly on my machines, but it seems to be a constant problem for some other people.

I'm using Win2k.  This could be my fault.  I'm using 2, hour long, MP3s of ambient arcade room sounds, so it all sorta meshes together, and the two mp3s are pretty similar (they just have different games sounds playing in them, gives a nice full "arcade" effect).  So perhaps I'm just thinking they're starting over or not randomly playing when they really are.

I think what I'll do is grab a few actual music mp3s of different stuff and test it, just to make sure, and I'll get back to ya.

[Zakk]

What OS are you running?  The sound stuff works perfectly on my machines, but it seems to be a constant problem for some other people.

For what it's worth, the problems I was having with Mamewah went away after I did a fresh install of XP.  Damn, but I should have known it was a problem in MY setup..Cheers Minwah!!!!  

[Minwah]

Then there is a bug somewhere.  I recall once last night when I exited a game and the music did not start playing again.  It stayed that way until I quit and relaunched MameWah.  I wasn't able to reproduce it though, it only happened once.

I'm using Win2k.  This could be my fault.  I'm using 2, hour long, MP3s of ambient arcade room sounds, so it all sorta meshes together, and the two mp3s are pretty similar (they just have different games sounds playing in them, gives a nice full "arcade" effect).  So perhaps I'm just thinking they're starting over or not randomly playing when they really are.

I think what I'll do is grab a few actual music mp3s of different stuff and test it, just to make sure, and I'll get back to ya.

Well the first problem you encountered may well be a small timing bug or something...but I think the random stuff works OK (I did some thorough testing at the time).

Please let me know if you find anything more out - I may have to do some in-depth work to try and get rid of these sound problems.

[Minwah]

For what it's worth, the problems I was having with Mamewah went away after I did a fresh install of XP.  Damn, but I should have known it was a problem in MY setup..Cheers Minwah!!!!  

Nice one Zakk, great to hear some good news  

BTW I have had a few reports of a problem whereby the MAMEWAH screen is displayed in a small box in the top left of the screen - just after playing a game (or 2 games).  This *may* only affect XP (2k?) using 640x480 (or lower?)  resolution.  I have fixed the problem and will make a small update soon.  PM/email me if you desparately want this fixed version in a hurry...

[Setabs]

HI! MinWah you did a great job with mamewah.

  I have one problem:  After a leave a game I get an error.
                   "Runtime Error '62'"
                   "input past end of file"
I only have this problem with my MAME emulator.  And I have tried playing several diffrent games and when I exit the error still comes up.  After I press "OK" it goes back to my windows desktop and closes mamewah down.

I am running:
windows XP
I upgraded to mamewah 0.96 and was using 0.955b
mame 0.74b

Can someone help?
what other info might be helpful to solve this problem?

[SpamMe]

I got this error when I accidentally had MW set as my shell in addition to having it in my docsandsettings/allusers/startup folder (so that it opened twice).
I closed both and opened my mamewah.cfg and found it was only about half there (was cut off mid-word). Deleted that file, and MW recreated it. No longer had the error. ::shrug:: probably not your deal tho

[Minwah]

 I have one problem:  After a leave a game I get an error.
                   "Runtime Error '62'"
                   "input past end of file"
I only have this problem with my MAME emulator.  And I have tried playing several diffrent games and when I exit the error still comes up.  After I press "OK" it goes back to my windows desktop and closes mamewah down.

All I can suggest is that you try deleting all the files from the \FILES folder, and start again...maybe something got messed up somehow?  Let me know if it doesn't work...

[vitaflo]

Please let me know if you find anything more out - I may have to do some in-depth work to try and get rid of these sound problems.

Just tested it with some other MP3s in there.  It works just fine, I guess I just thought it wasn't because of the ambient sounds I had selected before.  So it looks like there are no problems at all!  

[vitaflo]

Ok, I figured out what does the "no sound" bug.  If you get a windows error, the music will stop playing in the frontend, and not come back on again.

Now on to the other problem I'm having...It seems now that I've added clones into my list (I used merged romsets), when I try to launch a lot of the clones, I get an error message from MAME saying I should run MAME from the command line (the same error you get if you just double-click mame.exe from within Windows).  Any ideas on how to fix this?

[Setabs]

All I can suggest is that you try deleting all the files from the \FILES folder, and start again...maybe something got messed up somehow?  Let me know if it doesn't work..

It did work thanks!
Except I only deleted the files pertaining to my mame emulator, since that was the one giving me problems.

[Popcorrin]

I've just updated to the new version and for some reason I can not get my PC emulator to work.  I have set it up exactly the same as I had it on previous versions and I can't even get it to pull up the game list.  I'm probably missing something simple but if someone has some advice or has had the same problem let me know.  Thanks

[JackTucky]

 I have one problem:  After a leave a game I get an error.
                  "Runtime Error '62'"
                  "input past end of file"

I got this error when I accidentally had MW set as my shell in addition to having it in my docsandsettings/allusers/startup folder (so that it opened twice)

I get that error alot.  That's what my problem is I bet!  Can't wait to try.

Thanks

Art

[Fandenivoldsk]

I'm having problems when trying to navigate the options menu in MAMEWAH. The text is so big that I can't even read the menu's headline. How can I fix this to be able to access the menu?  

[Minwah]

Ok, I figured out what does the "no sound" bug.  If you get a windows error, the music will stop playing in the frontend, and not come back on again.

Now on to the other problem I'm having...It seems now that I've added clones into my list (I used merged romsets), when I try to launch a lot of the clones, I get an error message from MAME saying I should run MAME from the command line (the same error you get if you just double-click mame.exe from within Windows).  Any ideas on how to fix this?

What sort of Windows error do you mean?  When do these happen?

I will have to do some testing on the other problem - it sounds like it is not sending the romname, maybe because it thinks the romfile doesn't exist...should be fixed next version

[Minwah]

I'm having problems when trying to navigate the options menu in MAMEWAH. The text is so big that I can't even read the menu's headline. How can I fix this to be able to access the menu?  

I bet your European (?)  I'm not prejudice but MAMEWAH seems to be for some reason!!

If possible, try this:

Go into Control Panel > Regional & Language Settings,
Set the Language to 'English',
Set Decimal Symbol to '.' (not ',').

Try it...let me know if it doesn't work...

[vitaflo]

What sort of Windows error do you mean?  When do these happen?

I will have to do some testing on the other problem - it sounds like it is not sending the romname, maybe because it thinks the romfile doesn't exist...should be fixed next version

The windows error is the one I meantioned when trying to launch the clones from the frontend (the mame error).  This is when the music stops.  Otherwise the music works perfectly.

Yes, it does seem like it's not sending the romname for clones.  But the clones certainly are there.  They're just all merged w/ the parents.  Any idea when this next version will be?  My arcade is going to be in a gaming show towards the end of October and I'm using your frontend for it.  Would be great if it could be fixed before then, so clones can be playable.  If you're busy of course I do understand.

Thanks for all the help!

[Fandenivoldsk]

yep it worked! Thanks!  

[Minwah]

What sort of Windows error do you mean?  When do these happen?

I will have to do some testing on the other problem - it sounds like it is not sending the romname, maybe because it thinks the romfile doesn't exist...should be fixed next version

The windows error is the one I meantioned when trying to launch the clones from the frontend (the mame error).  This is when the music stops.  Otherwise the music works perfectly.

Yes, it does seem like it's not sending the romname for clones.  But the clones certainly are there.  They're just all merged w/ the parents.  Any idea when this next version will be?  My arcade is going to be in a gaming show towards the end of October and I'm using your frontend for it.  Would be great if it could be fixed before then, so clones can be playable.  If you're busy of course I do understand.

Thanks for all the help!

Should be ready in time for your gaming show

[vitaflo]

Minwah, I seem to be getting this supid bug again where the music will stop playing in the frontend.  If I play one game and then quit the game, the music plays fine in the frontend.  But when I play a second game and then quit the game, the music in the frontend is stopped and doesn't come back on.

I'm also getting the windows taskbar when I hit the windows key on my computer, even though I have that option disabled in my config file.  I'll try deleting my config to see if that helps any.

EDIT:  It wasn't the config file.  I made a new one and it still happened.  Instead I put in smaller MP3s (normal 4 minute songs) and they worked fine.  It seems to be having a problem w/ my MP3s because they are quite large.  I have two of them that are 90mb each, about an hour and a half long each.  At least that's my thinking now.  I have no idea if this is right or not.  I think I'll just try breaking them up into smaller files if possible.

[Minwah]

Minwah, I seem to be getting this supid bug again where the music will stop playing in the frontend.  If I play one game and then quit the game, the music plays fine in the frontend.  But when I play a second game and then quit the game, the music in the frontend is stopped and doesn't come back on.

I'm also getting the windows taskbar when I hit the windows key on my computer, even though I have that option disabled in my config file.  I'll try deleting my config to see if that helps any.

EDIT:  It wasn't the config file.  I made a new one and it still happened.  Instead I put in smaller MP3s (normal 4 minute songs) and they worked fine.  It seems to be having a problem w/ my MP3s because they are quite large.  I have two of them that are 90mb each, about an hour and a half long each.  At least that's my thinking now.  I have no idea if this is right or not.  I think I'll just try breaking them up into smaller files if possible.

OK The Windows key / Alt+Tab etc. disabling stuff does not work in 2k/XP - this has always been the case  

I don't know why it should have a problem with large MP3's.  Did you download these MP3's or make yourself?  If there is somewhere I can download them from (?) I could give it a try...

[BlackThorne]

This is a little OT but since my question might be a bit stupid and i don't want to open a new thread for it, i'll just ask it here:
I'm planning to use Mamewah as frontend in my cab with an arcade monitor (actually TV/VGA-SCART-Hack/ArcadeVGA) and i'm wondering: Is there a recommended layout resolution for this configuration or can i use any resolution i want?

[vitaflo]

I don't know why it should have a problem with large MP3's.  Did you download these MP3's or make yourself?  If there is somewhere I can download them from (?) I could give it a try...

I downloaded them.  You can find them here (scroll to bottom of the page):

http://users.adelphia.net/~hofle/arcade/

There's 2 of them.  They're actually really cool, and go really well w/ the frontend I think.

[Minwah]

This is a little OT but since my question might be a bit stupid and i don't want to open a new thread for it, i'll just ask it here:
I'm planning to use Mamewah as frontend in my cab with an arcade monitor (actually TV/VGA-SCART-Hack/ArcadeVGA) and i'm wondering: Is there a recommended layout resolution for this configuration or can i use any resolution i want?

I would recommend 368x240 - this is what I use & it looks great.  I have included a layout in this resolution with the latest MAMEWAH version

FYI you can use any resolution the AVGA supports, but anything above 640x288 is interlaced and therefore will flicker.

[SpamMe]

I downloaded them.  You can find them here (scroll to bottom of the page):

http://users.adelphia.net/~hofle/arcade/

There's 2 of them.  They're actually really cool, and go really well w/ the frontend I think.

I use the very same ones (but I've got them split into about 10 tracks so that that MW doesn't always start at the same point when I load it).

[Minwah]

I downloaded them.  You can find them here (scroll to bottom of the page):

http://users.adelphia.net/~hofle/arcade/

There's 2 of them.  They're actually really cool, and go really well w/ the frontend I think.

Great, I didn't realise the guy now had someone hosting the full files.

I now have the 1981 file, and it seems to work fine with MW.  What OS are you running vitaflow?

Edit: Oops, you're using Win2k...I will try to test it on a 2k machine for you...

[Xochi]

One question: Is the new mamewah version supposed to be backward compatible with previous version (can't remember the exact version, it was the 'full' one you have on your site) config files (CFG LST)?

Here's the reaons I ask:

When I upgraded to the new one, I backed up all of my config files, loaded the new version over my old one and tried to fire up MAMEWAH. It bailed... brought up an error box and the program closed. I looked at the mame cfg file MW had created and it looked like none of the keywords had really changed (might have been a couple of new ones). Anyway, after much trying to get it to use my previous files, I gave up and manually updated all nine of my config  files having mamewah generate new blanks and then manually editing in them (had to do my custom lists too! What a pain!).  Since the box I was working on is inside a real cab and doesn't have very good keyboard access, it was much longer and more painful than it needed to be (I had to edit files across my network, then go into the cab and test things, etc). A two minute task took several hours.

So, what I'm getting at is, if MAMEWAH is not meant to read old files and bring them forward with new versions please consider how difficult not having this implemented can be for your loyal and loving user base.

If it is meant to migrate old files and there was just something funky about my old file set, I can deal with that. I just hope to be able to upgrade to new versions without this much hassle since there always seems to be something in the next rev I can't live without!
 
Thanks for all of your hard work Minwah. I love how cool my cab looks running your frontend as the main interface!!

[Minwah]

One question: Is the new mamewah version supposed to be backward compatible with previous version (can't remember the exact version, it was the 'full' one you have on your site) config files (CFG LST)?

Here's the reaons I ask:

When I upgraded to the new one, I backed up all of my config files, loaded the new version over my old one and tried to fire up MAMEWAH. It bailed... brought up an error box and the program closed. I looked at the mame cfg file MW had created and it looked like none of the keywords had really changed (might have been a couple of new ones). Anyway, after much trying to get it to use my previous files, I gave up and manually updated all nine of my config  files having mamewah generate new blanks and then manually editing in them (had to do my custom lists too! What a pain!).  Since the box I was working on is inside a real cab and doesn't have very good keyboard access, it was much longer and more painful than it needed to be (I had to edit files across my network, then go into the cab and test things, etc). A two minute task took several hours.

So, what I'm getting at is, if MAMEWAH is not meant to read old files and bring them forward with new versions please consider how difficult not having this implemented can be for your loyal and loving user base.

If it is meant to migrate old files and there was just something funky about my old file set, I can deal with that. I just hope to be able to upgrade to new versions without this much hassle since there always seems to be something in the next rev I can't live without!
 
Thanks for all of your hard work Minwah. I love how cool my cab looks running your frontend as the main interface!!

The CFG files are generally not compatible among versions (unless I didn't change the format, which hasn't happened for a long time).

This is how it now works:

If you have any old CFG files, MW should delete them.  Otherwise it will crash & I get bugged with questions on why did it crash...

To make this as painless as possible, I would recommend backing up your old CFG's, update MW, then edit the new CFG's accordingly.  I appreciate this is a pain, but since I have been changing the format every new version lately it's just the way it is    FWIW I could program it to recognise old settings, but it is a LOT more effort/code than current, and I'd rather spend the time doing more fun stuff like adding features

However, the LST files have not changed format for a long time.  These will still work with newer versions, BUT you must back them up, then copy them into the FILES folder AFTER running the new version.  (As MW creates new EMU?.CFG files it thinks there is no emulator set up, so should be no LST's).  I will alter this part so that the LST files are no longer deleted.

Also FWIW I probably will make MW able to read old versions once I am happy with the format for v1.0.  The format is probably almost there - in fact, I doubt it will change for the next release...

[Popcorrin]

Has anyone else had problems trying to get pc games to launch thru the new version of mamewah, I had it working on the last few versions and I have set up everything the same but can't seem to get it to work.  Any help would be appreciated, thx

[Minwah]

Has anyone else had problems trying to get pc games to launch thru the new version of mamewah, I had it working on the last few versions and I have set up everything the same but can't seem to get it to work.  Any help would be appreciated, thx

Yeah, sorry, it's broken...I have fixed it tho so it will be OK next release...

[kujina]

Hello Minwah

I've come across an odd bug/problem with version 0.96.

OS - windows xp


Edited the registry to make mamewah the shell in xp.

Logged in as the user this applies to and mamewah will not load/start.

Took a look at MAMEWAH.CFG and more than half of it has gone??

;MAMEWAH v0.96 GENERAL CONFIG

;CONTROL OPTIONS
Joystick Sensitivity (Milli-Seconds) = 125
Double-Game-Jump Fix (Milli-Seconds) = 50
Control Keycode 1 = 38
Control Keycode 2 = 40
Control Keycode 3 = 37
Control Keycode 4 = 39
Control Keycode 5 = 49
Control Keycode 6 = 82
Control Keycode 7 = 70
Control Keycode 8 = 68
Control Keycode 9 = 71
Control Keycode 10 = 50
Control Keycode 11 = 52
Control Keycode 12 = 51
Control Keycode 13 = 16
Control Keycode 14 = 17
Control Keycode 15 = 18
Control

The previous version of mamewah worked ok as a shell.
I only use xp so I dont know if the same problem would occur with other OS.

This isnt as important but the option to make the music stop playing when the screen saver kicks in doesnt seem to be working (I was using that active media player screen saver).

[Minwah]

kujina:  I think a few other people had this problem when they made MAMEWAH their shell...I think the problem was either that they also had MW in Startup, or something else which made MAMEWAH load up twice on startup.

Make sure you only have one instance of MW running...

[kujina]

There is definitely something up with v0.96 I have tested this on two different computers and the results are the same. Reverting to an older version of mamewah allows it run as a shell. Updating back to v0.96 reproduces the problem. I did make sure that v0.96 worked beforehand by executing it in a normal fashion.

On a more minor issue I can also confirm that the option to make the music stop playing when the screen saver kicks in doesnt work with .scr's, the music carries on playing (this happened in the older version of mamewah too).

[Minwah]

There is definitely something up with v0.96 I have tested this on two different computers and the results are the same. Reverting to an older version of mamewah allows it run as a shell. Updating back to v0.96 reproduces the problem. I did make sure that v0.96 worked beforehand by executing it in a normal fashion.

On a more minor issue I can also confirm that the option to make the music stop playing when the screen saver kicks in doesnt work with .scr's, the music carries on playing (this happened in the older version of mamewah too).

Are you sure that you don't have it set as shell for 'All Users' as well as a specific user?

I can't think of any other reason for this to happen.  I haven't changed how the config is written, ever.  If it works OK not as a shell this suggests something else is the problem.

I will check the .SCR music thing...

[kujina]

Hi

In this entry in the registry

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

I added a string value called "Shell" and d:\mamewah\mamewah.exe

When I log in all I get is the windows background, I check processes in task manager and there are no instances of mamewah running. Then looking at the mamewah config most of it has gone. I can then replace the .exe with the previous version of mamwah, delete the cfg files, logout, log back in - it works.
Upgrading back to 0.96 - same problem again.

[papaschtroumpf]

Where can I read more about using mamewah (or other front ends for that matter) as a shell? What are the advantages of doing this? I tried running mamewah as a shell by changing the shell= in my windows system.ini (I'm running Win98SE) and I'm not sure what the benefit is: you still see the windows backgroud while the shell satrts, then you can't exit to windows or boot to windows to do maintenance, like adding new roms

[vitaflo]

Where can I read more about using mamewah (or other front ends for that matter) as a shell? What are the advantages of doing this? I tried running mamewah as a shell by changing the shell= in my windows system.ini (I'm running Win98SE) and I'm not sure what the benefit is: you still see the windows backgroud while the shell satrts, then you can't exit to windows or boot to windows to do maintenance, like adding new roms

You can get rid of the windows background if you want, there are various ways to do this.  And you can do maintenace as well.  Just do ctrl-alt-del to log off and log in as a different (admin) user that doesn't have Mamewah as its shell.

[papaschtroumpf]

OK, but what are the advantages? does it run faster/better or is it purely cosmetic?
I was wondering if running it as a shell would prevent other stuff from loading (stuff that wouldn't be used for gaming but for maintenance maybe?)