Lets get down to brass tacks here before I jump ship and start from scatch with GoovyMAME. The solution to the Windows 7 issue is listed as
There are also 3 useful utilities which can be downloaded [on ultimarc website
http://ultimarc.com/avgainst.html]. These are simple programs which change to the specified res. So, you can configure a front end to run 640x288.exe to change to this resolution before starting the game. Once this has happened, Mame will then be able to invoke the correct resolution for the game.\
So how do you configure a front end to make this happen? A separate forum lists this as the solution... But what file do you edit and how do you edit the file...
else if (systemName = "MAME" && executable = "mame.exe")
{
hideDesktop()
Hotkey, %exitEmulatorKey%, CloseProcess
Runwait, c:\Emu\Mame\640x288.exe, Hide UseErrorLevel
Runwait, %executable% %romName%, %EmuPath%, Hide UseErrorLevel
Process, waitClose, %executable%
Runwait, c:\Emu\Mame\640x480.exe, Hide UseErrorLevel
exitapp
}
Change the path names to 640x288.exe and 640x480.exe, to your mame installation, before saving.
Download Autohotkey from here:
http://www.autohotkey.com/download/Install it and run the compiler. (Compiler\Ahk2Exe.exe)
Select the new hyperlaunch.ahk and compile it into a new hyperlaunch.exe.
Replace the old hyperlaunch.exe with the new one you made. (Remember to always make a backup first)
And now DirectDraw in MAME under windows 7 works.
I searched my directory for an .ahk file and came up with nada. I am using RocketLauncher... but there is no Rocketlauncher.ahk ... is there a go around to access this code and change it to what is listed above?