FiveCredits FE: Game Launcher style for vertical/cocktail cabs! (Upd. 5/30/05!)

[EndTwist]

Download here: FiveCredits Frontend

GameLauncher style, CocktailFE functionality -- and then some!

Update 5/30/05:
- Fixed a problem with the list loading freezing for some odd reason.
- It is now possible to have 2 "game start" buttons -- one for player one and one for player two. (Great for head-to-head cocktails)

New Features as of 5/12/05:
- Ability to add a "Random Game from list" list item
Example:

Code: [Select]

random:listname "Pick a Random Game"That will pick a random game from the list "listname" in the "lists" folder. This will not pick & load a random list -- only games!

- $e$ will force an item to the bottom of a list.
Example:

Code: [Select]

$e$load:listname "Load listname"or

Code: [Select]

$e$random:listname "Pick a random game"or

Code: [Select]

$e$gamename "Game Name""Load listname" will appear at the bottom of the list no matter what. (This feature is good for the "Random Game" listitem)

Features:
- As many lists as you'd like! Hundreds, thousands, BILLIONS -- if you want that many.
- Link lists together! A[n almost] never before seen feature! Want to make a Categories list and link to sub-categories? Go ahead! Link them however you like! (And this is in ADDITION to being able to scroll through lists you define in the configuration)
- Screen can flip to face player controlling the list! Just like CocktaiFE! (Can be turned off in config)
- Can be rotated 90 or 270 degrees
- Special effects when you change lists! -- Don't like it? Go ahead and turn it off!
- Customizable colors
- Supports and emulator -- also allows you to create lists that launch executables! (Just define the "executable" option in the list config as "apps". Just set dummy directories for any directory stuff you don't need [directory, roms_directory] )
- Compatible with GameLauncher's list cfg & map files! That means you can use the GameLauncher list generators already out there! Or even your lists from a current GameLauncher install!

Examples of lists and a playlist are included along with plenty of information in the fivecredits.ini file to get you started.

Notes:
1. Make sure you read everything in the fivecredits.ini file, it explains a lot (it is also the configuration file).
2. Unfortunately, everything absolutely needs use the same resolution as (or changes to a resolution greater than [eg: 1024x768 > 800x600]) the frontend's.
3. This frontend was made by me for me. Therefore, I don't really take feature suggestions, but I will accept bugs. Also, I know it is imperfect. If things aren't set up correctly, it may error out when trying to run it, but it shouldn't error out otherwise.

If you have any questions, just ask. Comments are welcome

[Thenasty]

supports Arcade Monitors and pure DOS ?

[EndTwist]

Win32 only, sorry.

Not sure about Arcade Monitors (don't own one). Give it a try - I have no idea.

[screaming]

- Link lists together! A never before seen feature! Want to make a Categories list and link to sub-categories? Go ahead! Link them however you like! (And this is in ADDITION to being able to scroll through lists you define in the configuration)

  This is a great feature!  I hope other FE devs (Minwah ) follow suit.

  Congratulations!

-sab

[youki]

- Link lists together! A never before seen feature! Want to make a Categories list and link to sub-categories? Go ahead! Link them however you like! (And this is in ADDITION to being able to scroll through lists you define in the configuration)

A never seen feature?...   I think it is what i called Multiconfig in my frontend. You can do that in 5 click with my multiconf wizard.

you can build categories and sub categories hierchies like :

Arcades
    Lazer Disc
    ZINC
    MAME
         Shoot them up
                        Vertical
                        Horizontal
          Fight
                        Capcom
                        NeoGeo
      Computeur Emulation
            Atari 800
                    Game Type 1
                    Game Type 2
           Commodore 64
       Console Emumation
            Atari 2600
            ...
         etc..etc..

You can build the tree as you want and browse directly from the list.

But i can be wrong i didn't tested yours.

[screaming]

A never seen feature?... I think it is what i called Multiconfig in my frontend. You can do that in 5 click with my multiconf wizard.

  Youki,

  Did you get the animated GIF/MNG/movie backgrounds working in AtomicFE yet?

-sab

[greven grevs]

Link lists together! A never before seen feature! Want to make a Categories list and link to sub-categories? Go ahead! Link them however you like! (And this is in ADDITION to being able to scroll through lists you define in the configuration)

this is also available on myHTPC , the front end I am using. I do like the clean look and once I get my cocktail up and running I plan to give it a try.

[EndTwist]

- Link lists together! A never before seen feature! Want to make a Categories list and link to sub-categories? Go ahead! Link them however you like! (And this is in ADDITION to being able to scroll through lists you define in the configuration)

A never seen feature?...   I think it is what i called Multiconfig in my frontend. You can do that in 5 click with my multiconf wizard.

you can build categories and sub categories hierchies like :

Arcades
    Lazer Disc
    ZINC
    MAME
         Shoot them up
                        Vertical
                        Horizontal
          Fight
                        Capcom
                        NeoGeo
      Computeur Emulation
            Atari 800
                    Game Type 1
                    Game Type 2
           Commodore 64
       Console Emumation
            Atari 2600
            ...
         etc..etc..

You can build the tree as you want and browse directly from the list.

But i can be wrong i didn't tested yours.

I think mine is a bit different than that.

Let me explain this feature:
- You make a few lists for various types of games / game orientations / systems / whatever you want (anything...)
- You then can either open an existing list that has games on it already or make a new list
- On this list, you add

Code: [Select]

load:listname "List Name"- Done.

Now, when you go to that item and hit your "start game" button, it will load that list for you.

Just to clarify, your final list could look like this:

Code: [Select]

game1 "This is a game"
game2 "This is some other game"
game3 "One more game!"
load:list1 "Load List 1"
game4 "More games!"
load:somethingelse "Load some other list"

or can just simply be a list of lists to load:

Code: [Select]

load:list1 "List 1"
load:list2 "List 2"
...and so on
Now, just to note, if you do make a list that just contains load: commands, you still need to make a .cfg file. Something like the below will work fine:

Code: [Select]

[EMULATOR]
name = Arcade Games
directory =
executable =
global_options =
pre_command =
post_command =
screen_shot_directory =
rom_directory =
use_extension = no
use_rom_directory = no
rom_extension =

[EndTwist]

Updated with a couple new features 

[Howard_Casto]

- Link lists together! A never before seen feature! Want to make a Categories list and link to sub-categories? Go ahead! Link them however you like! (And this is in ADDITION to being able to scroll through lists you define in the configuration)

A never seen feature?...

[EndTwist]

New update to fix some problems with freezing when loading lists.

Also made it possible for Player 2 to have their own start button.

[M3talhead]

Has anyone tested this on an arcade monitor yet to determine its compatibility (640x480)?

[88mph]

Hi there,

I really like the features on this frontend, and was able to set it up properly on my cocktail setup.  My only problem is that it really slows down my system.  Game selection goes kinda slow, and then when I'm running MAME with the frontend in the background, the games get major slowdown to the point where they are unplayable.  I'm using one of those mini-ITX boards, so I don't have much horsepower.. (Win2K, 833 Mhz, 256 MB ram!)  I'm wondering if I'd see better performance with this program if I bumped up the ram a bit... or maybe it's a driver issue..

Right now I'm using Gamelauncher, and with that frontend, everything runs very fast and very smooth.

If anyone has any recommendations (apart from buying a new mobo!) I'd love to hear em. 

Regardless, great job on the frontend!

-88mph

[EndTwist]

Hi there,

I really like the features on this frontend, and was able to set it up properly on my cocktail setup.  My only problem is that it really slows down my system.  Game selection goes kinda slow, and then when I'm running MAME with the frontend in the background, the games get major slowdown to the point where they are unplayable.  I'm using one of those mini-ITX boards, so I don't have much horsepower.. (Win2K, 833 Mhz, 256 MB ram!)  I'm wondering if I'd see better performance with this program if I bumped up the ram a bit... or maybe it's a driver issue..

Right now I'm using Gamelauncher, and with that frontend, everything runs very fast and very smooth.

If anyone has any recommendations (apart from buying a new mobo!) I'd love to hear em. 

Regardless, great job on the frontend!

-88mph

What games are you playing that are running slowly? The program shouldn't be slowing down MAME. I've had no problems with it on the 450MHz PC w/384mb RAM (running Win 98SE), so it shouldn't be an issue with the hardware.

As for the scrolling, well...I know the list scrolling is a bit on the slow side - I never really bothered to optimized it much.

Edit: Also -- It might help to split up your lists into smaller lists for different game types (Shooter, Platform, etc). Smaller lists means faster scrolling. This is how I have mine set up and it's both useful for finding a game quickly, and making the list scrolling faster.

These tools will work with my frontend and will make lists (split into categories if you get catver.ini) automatically for you.

[loadman]

Hi,

I have a vertical Cocktail table

I was so happy when I found this, No work has been done on GameLauncher

[MadWRX]

Great work on the front end!  One question, is there any mouse support for scrolling through the list?  I'm assuming no since I didn't see any reference in the INI file but wanted to ask just to be sure.  Thanks!

[EndTwist]

Great work on the front end!  One question, is there any mouse support for scrolling through the list?  I'm assuming no since I didn't see any reference in the INI file but wanted to ask just to be sure.  Thanks!

Nope, sorry. Too lazy to implement it since I built it mostly for myself (no trackball on my cab!).