Please Help! Want to transition a JAMMA XXXX-in-1 from MameWah to MALA Need help

[lfrank22001]

Hypothetically.... If someone had an arcade cabinet that was a JAMMA xxxx-in-1 (MAME and other emulators). The arcade cabinet was running Windows NT, but the users laptop was running Windows 7 Home Premium (Vista). The arcade cabinet direct boots to mamewah, but it's not called mamewah (it has been hidden as something else.) And Mamewah works fine with NT, but does not work with Vista (Windows 7) on the users laptop. So doing development on the cabinet is a pain. How would someone find out what is the boot up program (mamewah named as something else) on the arcade cabinet drive so they could disable it and install a new front end (MALA) that works on both the laptop and the arcade cabinet? The end goal being MALA installed as the new arcade cabinet boot up shell.

Thoughts?

Thanks!

Lee

P.S. I know there are "fancier" front-ends than MALA. But Mala is free and I just want to show a game screenshot, marquee, and I don't want to eat up lots of drive space with demo videos (i.e. Hyperspin).

[yotsuya]

Hypothetically? 

[Generic Eric]

Someone posted something similar recently.   Put you have 1 post.

Do you have a [X] in 1 pcb?  Or do you have a NT machine shelled to launch mamewah? 

You'll have to unshell it.  Did you configure it or adopt it?  Would it be easier to install a new HDD?  Do you have the windows key?  Gotta say you are all over on this.  What does the laptop have to with the NT machine? What do either have to do with your jamma multi game pcb?

I'll try to have a think about advice for unshelling.

[lfrank22001]

It is an XXXX-in-1 unit originally purchased from http://www.paradisearcadeshop.com/.

I believe it is a jamma board connected to a PC board and a hard drive.

I had a cabinet custom built for it. But the front end has never worked exactly how I want it to and I want to get into it and specifically configure emulators and game lists. Not to mention game config files.

The Hard Drive of the XXXX-in-1 unit is running Windows NT and is shelled to launch a version of Mamewah, but it's not called Mamewah.

I know it is Mamewah because I looked at the http://www.oilmist.com/helpfile/xxxx-in-1-help-file.pdf by Modcarz and as he said if I change the ski files to lay files I can modify them with MameWah layout etc....

How do I unshell?

I bought it, but I am not much of a hardware guy... so I paid a guy to build the cab. Unfortunately he wasn't much of a software guy... so it's in there, and works, but I can't do a lot of configuration with only arcade controls.

I don't know if it would be easier to load a new hard-drive. That's a possibility... I gotta think about it...

I do not have the windows key for the xxxx-in-1.

Sorry about the problem...

The laptop is the only machine I have with a keyboard that I can hook up to a hard drive (via an external drive bay) so I can type and easily make edits. No keyboard or keyboard interface on the XXXX-in-1.

I may have made a mistake. I assumed the XXXX-in-1 is part Jama. It's a babystar or similar system. I thought all those units have a jama interface...

Does this help you help me?

Thanks!

Lee

[Malenko]

there are USB ports on the XXXX in 1 board, you can plug a keyboard into it.

You wont have a windows key for the XXXX in 1 board because its running a Chinese bootleg OS.

Normally I'd point you to http://www.xxxx-in-1.com/ but they are down for maintenance .

[lfrank22001]

I tried plugging a Keyboard into the USB ports... didn't work.

I was able to get a mouse to work, but that wasn't very helpful.

Hence pulling the drive, putting it into an external drive bay and trying to do the modifications via a laptop that is reading the drive.

[lfrank22001]

I've been thinking about the hard-drive thing.

I could port the data from the old unit to a new drive.

But I'd loose the OS.

Any recommendations on a cheap OS (that is relatively easy to install) that runs emulation well. I'm most used to Windows, second most Mac. I'm not a Linnex guy, but maybe it's time to learn. ...

[Generic Eric]

Ok.
Don't know about those things.  Good luck.

[lfrank22001]

FWIW WOuld still rather keep the existing Win NT OS if possible.

Just want to change the boot up on it.

L

[Malenko]

I tried plugging a Keyboard into the USB ports... didn't work.

try a different port, or even seeing if you can hit "tab" while MAME is running.   I put a 21XX in 1 in the "Hung Donkey" so I know the keyboard works.