Desktop shortcut to individual game?

[Crazy Cooter]

Is it possible to shortcut directly to a ROM and have it open through MAME32?  Kind of like having a doc file shortcut that opens word?

I don't think it is but maybe someone has done it?

The zip file itself would open winzip.
The rom files are not associated with anything.  Plus which ROM file would you link to?

My reasoning is that I could use Talisman or something to create my own GUI instead of using explorer.

[edit] Using win98se core and a Talisman interface, could I call the dos version of mame and direct it to run a specific rom?  That would avoid even seeing mame... [/edit]

[Bgnome]

why use mame32 then?  just use the windows version of mame, make a shortcut of it, then edit the command line by tacking on the game name on the end..  lots of people do this for their frontend setup.

[Crazy Cooter]

Got it.  Now I just have to do a bunch of settings adjustments and such...

[D_Zoot]

You can't shortcut a rom directly, but you can create a shortcut that starts mame and loads a rom.

The command line version of mame (dos ver) does everything you want for sure.

The command line of your shortcut would look similar to this:

c:\mame\mame [name of the game to run] [options]

for example:

c:\mame\mame mspacman -nosound

...will run Ms Pac Man without sound



Mame32 DOES support command line as well, you could:
C:\mame32\mame32 mspacman    and it will start the game without you ever seeing the GUI,  but I don't know if all the options/switches are available via the command line (I assume they are).   If you game properties were already configured in mame32 I suppose mame would use the config settings already set there, but I have never tried it or read the documentation about it.


D

[Crazy Cooter]

C:\mame32\mame32 mspacman

That's what I tried and it does work.  It goes right to Ms PacMan.  I unzipped the icons and placed a nice shortcut on my desktop.  I'll run through the docs to see what options I can use through these shortcuts.  Hopefully everything I need.  I'm looking at a few shell replacements now because I'd like to be able to view some pics and what not when selecting a game.  I'd like to set something up similar to mamewah, but with my own wallpaper and stuff.  If I remember right, winamp can be integrated into the talisman desktop and would work real nice for playing some mp3's too.