Mamewah default list option?

[PhoneGuy]

Is there a way to have Mamewah load a specified list whenever it's launched?  The commandline switch /x will force it to load a specific emulator number.  I would like have it default to my favorites list in MAME.  I frequently forget and shut down my cabinet while in the main list.  My wife ends up turning on the cabinet and playing centipede bootleg or some other centipede clone if she can find a centipede version at all.    

[Minwah]

There isn't a way to do this atm...I'll add it to the todo list

[eightbit]

Is it possible to switch the lists around? Move your favorites to the main list and then create the secound list with all the games? I would like this feature also since for me making the short list is to make the cab more idiot proof and only listing the popular games that work without issues.

I have a cab in my in-laws basement and their is always people there playing it when I'm not there. When I made the entire list available people were always trying to play games I had never tried and every time I went their people were always telling me such and such game didn't work (usually it was they couldn't figure out how to play, not that it didn't work.) I got sick of this and set mame32 show favorites by default. Plus it takes to long to scroll through the whole list every time.

I've just started with mamewah and I want to switch all my cabinets to it.

[Rocky]

Posted by: eightbit  Posted on: Today at 03:38:55pm  
Is it possible to switch the lists around? Move your favorites to the main list and then create the secound list with all the games?

It is possible, but you have to do it yourself.  What I do is create a custom list and then just rename it (replace the base list). That way I can use filtered lists as my main list or even custom lists that I manually edit.


Rocky

[eightbit]

It is possible, but you have to do it yourself.  What I do is create a custom list and then just rename it (replace the base list). That way I can use filtered lists as my main list or even custom lists that I manually edit.

I'm home now and yes I can switch the order of the lists but whatever list I am in when I exit is the list it starts in when I restart it.

[Minwah]

Is it possible to switch the lists around? Move your favorites to the main list and then create the secound list with all the games? I would like this feature also since for me making the short list is to make the cab more idiot proof and only listing the popular games that work without issues.

I have a cab in my in-laws basement and their is always people there playing it when I'm not there. When I made the entire list available people were always trying to play games I had never tried and every time I went their people were always telling me such and such game didn't work (usually it was they couldn't figure out how to play, not that it didn't work.) I got sick of this and set mame32 show favorites by default. Plus it takes to long to scroll through the whole list every time.

I've just started with mamewah and I want to switch all my cabinets to it.

Rocky is right.  You could make a custom list (eg list 1) using filters to remove non-working games etc.  Then delete 'emu1-0.lst' (assuming MAME is your emulator 1), and rename emu1-1.lst to emu1-0.lst.

But as I said there is currently no way to force MW to start with custom list x.  All you can do is a) select the list you want before shutting down, or b) only use one list!

[papaschtroumpf]

MinWah,
I'm interested in doing this too, it seems that the current list is saved in the emuXX.cfg under the entry "Selected List" is that correct?
If so, all I need to do is write a script that will overwrite this entry before launching mamewah right?

If that's correct I can whip up a perl script or use m4 to do this...

[papaschtroumpf]

If anyone wants to give it a try, here's a perl script that will change the current list in the config file specified. Save the stuff between the #####.### below into a file called changelist.pl, then for example to change to list 3 in emulator2, do:

perl changlist.pl emu2.cfg 3

Perl is not installed by Windows, so you'll have to install it if you don't have it. This was tested with cygwin under XP Pro (well I only tested that the script does what I want, I actually haven't tested that mamewah will change list properly because at the moment I have only one list in mamewah and I don't have timeto try multiple lists right now)


#######################################################
#!perl
# papaSchtroumpf, 2003
#

if ($#ARGV != 1)
{
    print STDERR "usage:  perl changelist.pl <emuXX.cfg> <list#>\n";
    print STDERR "changes the current list entry in file emuXX.cfg to the number specified\n";
    print STDERR "for example  perl changelist.pl emu1.cfg 3\n";
    exit 1;
}

# copy the file to change to a temp file
rename "$ARGV[0x00]", "MWtemp123";

#copy every line except the "List Selected" line
open (INPUT, "MWtemp123");
open (OUTPUT, ">$ARGV[0x00]");


while(<INPUT>)
{
    if (/List Selected =/)
    {
   

[Minwah]

MinWah,
I'm interested in doing this too, it seems that the current list is saved in the emuXX.cfg under the entry "Selected List" is that correct?
If so, all I need to do is write a script that will overwrite this entry before launching mamewah right?

If that's correct I can whip up a perl script or use m4 to do this...

Yes that's right.  I don't see why your idea wouldn't work

[eightbit]

Hmmm, why perl? That seems like a lot of extra work. Why not just use a batch file to launch mamewah and have the batch file copy a copy of the cfg file that has the correct list in it.

[papaschtroumpf]

Because then you have to make sure you refresh the copy any time you change something else in the config, which I have been playing a lot with lately. Since Perl is on my computer and I use it all the time it's not much extra work for me, but like I pointed out, it's not necessarily for everyone.

[eightbit]

Because then you have to make sure you refresh the copy any time you change something else in the config, which I have been playing a lot with lately. Since Perl is on my computer and I use it all the time it's not much extra work for me, but like I pointed out, it's not necessarily for everyone.

Sorry I wasn't putting you down or anything. Its really cool that you did this and made it available to everyone. Its just most of us don't have Perl. Yes you would have to refresh the copy everytime you made a change. You could even do that in another batch file.  

My goal is to get this in my cab and stop making changes to it.

[papaschtroumpf]

My goal is to get this in my cab and stop making changes to it.

Yeah, that'll be my goal too for the next 99 years I'm afraid!  

All the solutions I could think of to edit the cfg file on the fly involved some kind of unix like solution, you could use sed or awk or even m4, but none of those are part of the windows install. If anyone has a suggestion on how to do this with stuff that's built in windows only I'd love to know for future reference (short of building a full blown application in VB or VC++ of couse).
Actually, this reminds me, there used to be some kind of perl-to-exe feature in Active Perl, maybe I'll research that sometime...

[PhoneGuy]

I have perl on my desktop pc but not on my arcade cabinet  pc.  I used the evaluation version of perl2exe (www.indigostar.com/perl2exe.htm) to make an executable of papaSchtroumpfs changelist.pl script.  I put it and the dll it needs in the Mamewah directory on the arcade pc.  I pointed the MAMEWAH shortcuts to a batch file that runs the changelist.exe then Mamewah.  There is a 2 second delayed screen dos box stating the exe is made with a trial version of perl2exe.   It works and will suffice until Minwah adds the default list option to MAMEWAH. Thanks papaSchtroumpf and Minwah.

[eightbit]

All the solutions I could think of to edit the cfg file on the fly involved some kind of unix like solution, you could use sed or awk or even m4, but none of those are part of the windows install.

Windows scripting maybe?

[BuZz880]

There isn't a way to do this atm...I'll add it to the todo list

While we are on the subject, I'd like to see this feature but with a HOME key/keys or combination thereof that will essentially restart Mamewah on the fly at the default emu/list - for guests that get lost looking for things.

[Minwah]

While we are on the subject, I'd like to see this feature but with a HOME key/keys or combination thereof that will essentially restart Mamewah on the fly at the default emu/list - for guests that get lost looking for things.

Noted