Custom per-game pause screens (with controller help, hints, etc)

[Jakobud]

Are there any MAME builds that support the ability to show a custom screen/image when pressing pause in a game? Basically I'm wondering about the ability to show the controls for the current game, maybe some hints for the current game, maybe some graphics like a flyer or something. Is this possible with any mame build?

Whenever I have random friends play my cabinet, it's never clear to them how to play any of the games. This would be a simple solution for it.

[lamprey]

Mame doesn't support that directly, that I am away of.

I think GameEX will allow you to do this..? I can't recall, but I think HyperPause or HyperLaunch3 or something in the "hyper" suite will do this too.

I thought someone came up with a way to do this with an AHK script, but I don't remember anymore. Maybe this thread would help?
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=100234.0

[JoeStrout]

I don't know how to do it in pause, but I was planning to have the launcher show instructions for each game and wait for you to hit a start button before actually launching it.  Have you tried that, and it doesn't work in practice (perhaps because players don't read it, and only later realize they have no idea what they're doing)?

[bulbousbeard]

A more elegant solution would be to embed a tablet monitor into your control panel and display controls on that secondary monitor while the game's running. Big Blue and Attract Mode are going to support multiple monitors.

[BorgDog]

A more elegant solution would be to embed a tablet monitor into your control panel and display controls on that secondary monitor while the game's running. Big Blue and Attract Mode are going to support multiple monitors.

just put it there next to the Tron stick, dual spinners and extra 4-way joy.      Oh and don't forget to angle it 

[Howard_Casto]

Well a more elegant solution is to have the front-end and/or mamehooker email you the manual to view on your tablet or phone.  I actually wrote a program but I never got it exactly how I liked, so I'm not sure if I released it.  *sigh*  I've abandoned more projects than most people have released when it comes to arcade stuff. 

[yotsuya]

Well a more elegant solution is to have the front-end and/or mamehooker email you the manual to view on your tablet or phone.  I actually wrote a program but I never got it exactly how I liked, so I'm not sure if I released it.  *sigh*  I've abandoned more projects than most people have released when it comes to arcade stuff.

I vaguely remember you working on that around the time Sandheaver was working on her Invisible Front End. 

[Howard_Casto]

Well that should help me locate it.  I'll take a look this weekend and see if it's finished enough to release. 

Mind you it DID work, it's just I wanted to make it a bit more complex.... perhaps read your inbox first and make sure the manual wasn't already emailed ect... but it's not worth the effort. 

[cack01]

I would look into the "Pause" feature for RocketLauncher.  It does something very similar to what you are looking for.  It's an offshoot of hyperspin, so do not expect setup to be as easy as clicking buttons.

[Jakobud]

Well a more elegant solution is to have the front-end and/or mamehooker email you the manual to view on your tablet or phone.  I actually wrote a program but I never got it exactly how I liked, so I'm not sure if I released it.  *sigh*  I've abandoned more projects than most people have released when it comes to arcade stuff.

Can you elaborate on what you mean? When you pause, the front-end emails you the manual?

[Howard_Casto]

Well it was a little command-line app coupled with a webserver.  So you could, in theory set it up however you liked, but how I used it was to have mamehooker go ahead and shoot me the manual when the game launched.  If your front-end supports running an app prior to launching a game you could just as easily ditch the mamehooker aspect.

It was setup like a automated spam server.  You sent an email to it with the caption "subscribe" or something like that and that phone would now be on the mail list and you could unsubscribe via email or request a particular document.  It wasn't feature-rich, but it got the job done.

You make a folder on the server end for each game (I used rom names, but it really doesn't matter) and the server could handle a bunch of images, a text file, pdfs or any combination of the three.  They can be sent via email and a bunch of attachments, or copied to your dropbox folder, ect.... 

In the end I preferred drop box because I could put the DB app on my tablet and I wasn't constantly spammed by emails if I was playing a lot.

[Howard_Casto]

Well I found the app, but it isn't working properly.  It depends upon a gmail account and I think google changed their api again.  It shouldn't be too hard to fix, but I've got to take the time to do it, so give me a week or so.  It's actually quite nifty when it works. 

[Howard_Casto]

Ok it seems to be on Google's end.  I got an email from my gmail account that said it blocked a login attempt. 

Apparently checking your email every minute on the minute is now "suspicious" 

I'll troll the nerd forums to see if there is a solution. 

[headkaze]

Well a more elegant solution is to have the front-end and/or mamehooker email you the manual to view on your tablet or phone.  I actually wrote a program but I never got it exactly how I liked, so I'm not sure if I released it.  *sigh*  I've abandoned more projects than most people have released when it comes to arcade stuff.

That's when I thought I came up with a more elegant solution with PdfServer rather than e-mail you the pdf.

Anyway I think it's better to have the FE deal with this sort of thing which is basically what GameExtender for GameEx does.

[Howard_Casto]

We are going to have to differ on opinion on this one.  If I wanted to browse a website to find the manual manually, I'd just check gamefaqs on my phone. 

[headkaze]

We are going to have to differ on opinion on this one.  If I wanted to browse a website to find the manual manually, I'd just check gamefaqs on my phone. 

Nothing to me seems more convoluted than using an e-mail attachment to send each manual to your phone. Talk about using the wrong tool for the job. Anyway let's just agree to disagree then shall we 

[Howard_Casto]

Well the whole point is you don't have to do anything.  With your method you do.  With mine you don't.  So which is more convoluted again?  That's the strangest thing I've ever heard of.... people get emails with attachments all the time... what's convoluted about it?  It's absolutely the right tool for the right job.  On the other hand a pdf server that just lists all the pdfs on a computer... well that's just a webserver... it's completely redundant.  I like you man, so understand that I would have never spelled it out that way if you hadn't accused me of making something cumbersome.... pot calling the kettle black if you ask me. 

Email attachments is just one of the options.  It can create a webpage on a webserver... refresh the page to get just that manual... or send the files to a folder on a dropbox account.  Shoot you can even have the whole set of manuals on a webserver and just have the app email you a link to the manual you need.  It's all about giving the user options.... that's the right way to write something like this.

While we are on the subject, I've been doing this for many years and I assure you it's never a good idea to integrate this sort of things into the FE.... that comes with the arrogance of thinking people will actually use your FE of choice if you add enough features.  I learned that lesson the hard way, people just like what they like, so if you want to make something truly useful, you write it so that it'll work on anything. 

[Jakobud]

FYI I found the solution for this whole thing: CPWizard. It can generate your controls images and export them as bezel images and then you patch MAME to show the game's bezel when you pause the game. Haven't messed with it yet, but pretty straightforward sounding.

[headkaze]

Well the whole point is you don't have to do anything.  With your method you do.  With mine you don't.  So which is more convoluted again?  That's the strangest thing I've ever heard of.... people get emails with attachments all the time... what's convoluted about it?  It's absolutely the right tool for the right job.  On the other hand a pdf server that just lists all the pdfs on a computer... well that's just a webserver... it's completely redundant.  I like you man, so understand that I would have never spelled it out that way if you hadn't accused me of making something cumbersome.... pot calling the kettle black if you ask me.

I apologise if I came across as belittling your idea. It was, after all, the discussion we had that spawned the idea for PdfServer. It's just my opinion that sending a manual through e-mail is problematic. The first issue is filling your inbox with pdf's, taking up space, and redundantly sending a manual for the same game twice, not to mention the security and spam issues you had during your recent test. With PdfServer the pdf remains on the PC and serves up the individual pages of the pdf as an image to your phones browser. If you're referring to the fact that currently you must scroll to the game in the list to view the manual, I don't really see how it takes more time than opening your e-mail program, downloading the attachment and then opening it in some pdf viewer. PdfServer could easily be improved to serve up the current game by implementing command line arguments. That or you could send a link to the pdf via e-mail (but I don't like this idea because it would mean you would need to exit your browser to open the link).

Email attachments is just one of the options.  It can create a webpage on a webserver... refresh the page to get just that manual... or send the files to a folder on a dropbox account.  Shoot you can even have the whole set of manuals on a webserver and just have the app email you a link to the manual you need.  It's all about giving the user options.... that's the right way to write something like this.

Again, no offense intended, I just don't think e-mail should be one of the viable options for this sort of thing. A server, DropBox and sending the data over via WiFi to an app on your phone are all good options IMHO.

While we are on the subject, I've been doing this for many years and I assure you it's never a good idea to integrate this sort of things into the FE.... that comes with the arrogance of thinking people will actually use your FE of choice if you add enough features.  I learned that lesson the hard way, people just like what they like, so if you want to make something truly useful, you write it so that it'll work on anything.

I humbly disagree with you on this point also. Over the years I've been doing this I find there is a huge variety in what people want from a FE. People don't necessarily want to have to install a bunch of different programs. What makes better sense; to have your FE, LEDBlinky, HyperLaunch, CPWizard and MameHooker all doing different jobs or having your FE with a few plugins enabled do the same job? I know what I would prefer.

FYI I found the solution for this whole thing: CPWizard.

FYI CPWizard will be integrated into the new GameEx Evo. So IMHO this along with GameExtender will be pretty much the ultimate multi-monitor or mobile phone solution to viewing game information.

[Jakobud]

What is GameExtender?

Also, unless I'm mistaken doesn't CPWizard just generate images for you? What is the point of integrating that kind of functionality into a frontend? I'm probably misunderstanding.