Mamehooker question

[langlem]

Hello.  I thought I had this all worked out but after changing vid cards I seem back to square one.

Basically I am wanting to know if Mamehooker will only display on a screen set to "display 2?"

OR does the mapping of the monitor location in MH tell the program where to display it?

Neither Windows or my Nvidea software allows me to change my monitor assignments. (Seems this is a frustrating issue for alot of folks.). My cheap video card allowed me to change assignments but this one does not.

My current main game display is hooked up via VGA and my Marquee display is HDMI....which can ONLY be monitor 1.

Hope that makes sense.

[Howard_Casto]

Take a look at the tutorials on my site.  To answer your question though mh can display stuff wherever you want, but it sounds like you are going to have other issues.  I believe mame allows you to run it on something other than the primary display, but many emulators and games don't.  You might look into some monitor management software, but I don't know if it will help.

[langlem]

Thanks Howard.  Great work on this by the way.

Yes...I have read and reread all tutorials.  Have probobly overlooked something extremely simple.

I am actually going to get a new graphics card with a little more juice as this setup seems to really tax my current one.

I really am out of my element on most of this but greatly enjoy teaching myself how to do new things.

Thanks again...appreciate your response ... and efforts to better this addictive hobby!

Matt

[langlem]

I have it working BUT am having a new issue.  If I put both HyperSpin and Mamehooker shortcuts in my Start up folder it will not load on start up.  I have to ctrl-alt-delete, close Mame and HS, re-open HS and it works about half the time.  Lots of times I have to open Mamehooker and "enable hooking" to get it to work properly.  As soon as I power down the above situation occurs.

If I take Mamehooker out of the startup menu then everything runs normally.

I have read, re-read and read again all tutorials and forum posts I could locate.  I am hoping I just have a setting wrong or something because when this works correctly it is a thing of beauty!

Anyone trying to do the same and having a similar issue?  As always any advice is most appreciated!

Thanks again,

Matt

[vwalbridge]

That's weird. I run Hyperspin and MameHooker in my windows startup folder and both fire up just fine. (I use mame hooker to trigger a relay and fire a solenoid for Qbert)

I can' t really help you specifically but I can tell you that my system runs just fine with Hyperspin and MameHooker in the startup folder.

[langlem]

thanks...  I have tried on 2 different machines with the same results so I have to have something set wrong?

Have deleted and reinstalled Mame (167), MH and HS fresh with the exact same results.

Running Win 7 (64), HyperSpin 1.4 and I DO NOT use HyperLaunch or anything like that as I only run 1 wheel (mame) in HyperSpin and it all works just fine.

It is good to know it works.  I just wonder if there is a setting somewhere that I have switched around?

Thanks again....sure hope I can figure this out so I can get to work on permanently mounting the marquee monitor!

[langlem]

hey VW... do you mind telling me what version of windows and mame you are running?

Thanks again.

Matt

[vwalbridge]

Sure thing!

I'm running MAME v0.166 on Windows 7 x64

I'm also curious if you notice if it matters what app opens first. For example, does it all seem to work when Hyperspin opens after MameHooker?

[Howard_Casto]

It probably does.  Both use directx and direct input.  Perhaps try a batch file?

[langlem]

I have been thinking the same thing... The order of things.

It has been since Win95 that I have even dabbled in writing a batch file.   

So I may need some folks to hold my hand!  I presume I could delete my current HS and MH shortcuts from the Startup folder and then add the created Batch file to the startup folder?

Do I need any kind of pause between them? 

Does something like this look closse to correct?

@echo off

start "mamehooker" "c:\mamehooker\mamehooker.exe"
start "hyperspin" "c:\hyperspin\hyperspin.exe"

Again...years since I did this...mainly just checking on the commands...

Thanks again!

[langlem]

So just a bit more info.  The batch file did not work from start up.

Anytime MH is loaded into the startup folder it will stall my Mame.

If I start computer....open and run HM...then either run Mame stand alone OR Hyperspin it works just fine. ..again with nothing in start up.

 If I either try to run HS or Mame with MH in the start up folder I have to CTRL Alt Delete to get out.

I noticed in the task manager Mame has a "No Driver Loaded [___empty]" message and of course the status is "Not Responding"

I am not trying to complain about this at all...just trying to figure it out.  Its a great looking setup when it works and I am 95% sure Im the one jacking it up.

Thx

[Howard_Casto]

Try .166 instead of .167 just as a test.  Mame sporadically changes stuff and I have to alter mamehooker. 

You also might want to try something other than the start command.... that often screws up the working directory. 

Try something like this:

****************************
timeout /t 30 /nobreak

cd\
cd mamehooker
mamehooker.exe
****************************


Go ahead and launch hyperspin normally.  I think the thing going on is mamehooker is being loaded before some random window service it needs is loaded.  So give a nice long timeout.... 30 seconds would be a good start.