Anyone launching Raiden IV in Mala?

[BadMouth]

This is probably the most PITA of the Taito Type X games.
In my experience, to get it to run consistently, no other folders or windows can be open.

I made an autohotkey script that closes any open folders and launches the game.
It works fine outside of Mala.
But when launched from Mala, I get the same video error that it gives if other folders are open.

Before making a script that kills Mala, then restarts it after exiting the game, I thought I'd see if anyone else had a different way or if they had it working fine with Mala.

[empardopo]

First, you could try running this game with a bat file and then call this bat file from MALA.
Greetings!

[BadMouth]

It's a bit more complicated than that. Lol
It was meant to run on embedded XP and will not launch if other windows are open.  I ended up writing an autohotkey script that exits Mala & launches the game, then when esc is pressed, it exits the game and relaunches mala.  I was hoping there was some way to put Mala in an inactive state without exiting it.   it works fine, but isn't pretty.....yet.

[Wade007]

I fired up Mala and then MAME directly to see if I could help, but I don't even have Raiden IV listed as a possible game...working or not working.
Is this a newly added game to MAME? I'm using MAME v.145

Sorry I couldn't be of help.

[BadMouth]

I fired up Mala and then MAME directly to see if I could help, but I don't even have Raiden IV listed as a possible game...working or not working.
Is this a newly added game to MAME? I'm using MAME v.145

Sorry I couldn't be of help.

It doesn't run in MAME.
It is a Taito Type X game.  They are arcade games that ran on a standard PC stuck inside the arcade cabinet running Windows Embedded XP.
They will run on regular versions of Windows, but some of them are picky about the video card, screen orientation, and having other programs running.
Raiden IV won't run if there are any other windows open on your desktop and therefore won't run if Mala is running.
I thought maybe a programmer would know a way to suspend Mala without closing it completely.

I worked around it by making an autohotkey script that shuts down Mala, launches the game, then restarts Mala when the game exits.
It works, but isn't as pretty as I'd like it to be.  Had to do it for four or five of the Taito Type X games to get them working with Mala.

I'm somewhat reluctant to share the script, since this game is so finicky about when it works, but oh well.
The game is meant to run on a vertical screen.  Howard Costa wrote some wrappers to run them on a horizontal screen, but people had varying levels of success depending on their hardware.  You can find it in the software forum by searching Taito Type X.

Code: [Select]

sleep 1000
Process, Close, mala.exe

#notrayicon
;Gui, -caption border
;Gui, Color, ffffff
;WinSet, TransColor, ffffff
run, typex_loader.exe game.exe,, min
sleep 700 ; Adjust time here if it refuses to load. If you get IO error, reset your computer and try again.
WinClose, A
;gui, show
sleep 7000
;gui, destroy

ESC::
Process, Close, game.exe

cD = 32   ; bits (quality) - you can change to suit your requirments
sW = 1280 ; pixels - you can change to suit your requirments
sH = 720  ; pixels - you can change to suit your requirments
rR = 60   ; Hz (frequency) - you can change to suit your requirments

ChangeDisplaySettings( cD, sW, sH, rR )

Run, C:\Emulators\MaLa174\mala.exe


ExitAPP

Return

ChangeDisplaySettings( cD, sW, sH, rR ) {
  VarSetCapacity(dM,156,0), NumPut(156,dM,36)
  DllCall( "EnumDisplaySettingsA", UInt,0, UInt,-1, UInt,&dM ), NumPut(0x5c0000,dM,40)
  NumPut(cD,dM,104),  NumPut(sW,dM,108),  NumPut(sH,dM,112),  NumPut(rR,dM,120)
  Return DllCall( "ChangeDisplaySettingsA", UInt,&dM, UInt,0 )
}



All the mess at the end resets the desktop resolution.
I've  modified the part that relaunches Mala for the sake of posting it on here.
My real script launches another DaOldMan program, Malori3, which launches Mala in the correct orientation.
I needed this because I have a rotating monitor. 

[Wade007]

Tell me more about this Taito Type X emulator. I haven't heard much about it. Perhaps it's something I should look into for my "Super Arcade" cabinet. Best place to download? What kind of system specs are required? Separate roms from what is typically found with MAME?

Best of luck with your script and getting it to work well in Mala. Maybe I'll be coming back to you for the same help later. 

[BadMouth]

Tell me more about this Taito Type X emulator. I haven't heard much about it. Perhaps it's something I should look into for my "Super Arcade" cabinet. Best place to download? What kind of system specs are required? Separate roms from what is typically found with MAME?

They aren't roms and they aren't in the MAME romset.
They are arcade games which were written from the beginning to run on a windows pc.
Originally they required a USB security dongle, but the versions floating around on the interwebs have been hacked to eliminate the need for it.

Since these are just running on your computer and not being emulated, the requirements are fairly low by today's standards.
You can check out the original hardware's specs here:
http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=677
and here for Taito Type X2
http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=903

Can't tell you where to find them.  That would violate forum rules.
They are also far from abandonware.  The games are as new as 2011.
There are torrents of full sets floating around, often with a front end called ArcadePCLoader.
It also includes the Examu game Arcana Heart 3, which is not Taito Type X.
I imagine that they might be lablelled as roms, although it drives me nuts when people do that.

Although these were made to run on a PC, they were made to run on a specific PC.
People have had trouble getting some of the games to run with ATI cards.
Here is the main thread on BYOAC.
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,112702.msg1196290.html#msg1196290
Getting them all working isn't for the faint heart. 

[Wade007]

Thanks for the info BadMouth. Certainly don't want you to violate the rules here with too much info. I think you've set me on the right path. Thanks again.

[brad808]

I'm having a hard enough time trying to get this game to work without a front end. I've only had success with it 1 or 2 times. Raiden 3 works perfect every time but for some reason raiden 4 is a different beast all together.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

[BadMouth]

I'm having a hard enough time trying to get this game to work without a front end. I've only had success with it 1 or 2 times. Raiden 3 works perfect every time but for some reason raiden 4 is a different beast all together.

Yup, that's why it's the biggest PITA!

I honestly have no idea what I did right aside from having no other windows open and using the first part of the AHK script above.
It has a strange thing where if you get an I/O error, you need to reboot the computer to clear something out. 
It absolutely will not work again until you reboot.

Another very strange thing is that it won't work unless something is plugged into the line out or headphone jack on the PC.

It's been solid for me since incorporating it into Mala with the script above, but the transition is very ugly.
I'll post a video of it this weekend.

EDIT: Just realized that the GUI lines are commented out in the script I posted above (

[brad808]

So this last weekend I sat down and finally got raiden iv working 100%.

For some reason I had to delete the settings that get left by the type x games in the d dive. Something must have been interfering with another one. As soon as I cleared those it worked right away.

I've also found that by using RaidenIV_Launcher (created by someone) I'm able to get it working regardless of what is open and without changing anything else. Just throw it in the folder with the rest of the files and open it. Might help with your mala situation badmouth to try it out. If you aren't able to find it I can toss it on dropbox.


Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

[BadMouth]

So this last weekend I sat down and finally got raiden iv working 100%.

For some reason I had to delete the settings that get left by the type x games in the d dive. Something must have been interfering with another one. As soon as I cleared those it worked right away.

I've also found that by using RaidenIV_Launcher (created by someone) I'm able to get it working regardless of what is open and without changing anything else. Just throw it in the folder with the rest of the files and open it. Might help with your mala situation badmouth to try it out. If you aren't able to find it I can toss it on dropbox.


Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

There are versions out there that save to their folder instead of the D drive.

I'll see if there is a different RaidenIV_Launcher out there than the one I already have.
(pretty sure that is what it is named)

I've tweaked the script so it's a smoother transition now.
I still get a flash of the desktop, but I plan to make the background the same as my loading screen and hide the icons.

[brad808]

I came across two different launchers both with similar names (not the same name though), seemed to do different things. One came I got out of a torrent (using this one), the other came with arcadepc loader. I couldn't use the one out of arcadepc loader because it forced rotation and weird centering, but my monitor is vertical so it was only problems.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus