New Front End Announcement

[PacManFan]

Hey everyone, I know you've all been waiting for this,
EmuTron, the newest Front End for Windows is now available for download at:

http://www.geocities.com/pacmanfan123/

I'd like to hear lots of feedback from everyone.

-PacManFan

[Jakobud]

The web site you are trying to access has exceeded its allocated data transfer. Visit our help area for more information.

[rampy]

happend to me too... just as the screenshot was going to load. =(

*plug*
If you want cheapo hosting that doesn't do that drop me a line at hosting@randomdrivel.com or PM me here  (talking  4 $ month (preferrably paid in 6 month or 1 year installments)
*/plug*

Of course there are a billion other cheapo/cheaper providers out there but anything is better than geosh*ties =)

rampy

[PacManFan]

Hey Everyone,
PacManFan here,
Well, my free geocities account just couldn't handle the bandwidth, Would anyone here like to offer EmuTon a free home while I locate and set up a new Web Page? In the mean time, email me and I'll see if I can send out a version to you. Specify if you need the VB6 runtime files.(Needed for the ETConfig / Listgen program)

-PacManFan

[PacManFan]

Hey everyone,
PacmanFan here,

Many thanks go to Rampy for helping me out with web hosting. You can now download the Beta 1.1 version of Emutron
here:

http://216.194.68.209/~admin17/

Don't use the previous version from the geocities page, it was missing a few runtime dll's.
Also check out the instructions for the etconfig program on the downloads page.

I'd like to here from everyone about this new Front End.

-PacManFan

[Jakobud]

Scriptable frontend huh? I will have to give this a shot soon.

[atog]

I am going to try this out tonight, I like the look and how you integrated the snapshot, marquee and flyer files.  After I fiddle with it for a while I will write down some thoughts and opinions on it.  

[)p(]

I gave it a quick run...only found maybe one bug

I adjusted the screen settings to
XRes 1280  # The Width of the Screen
YRes 1024  # The Height of the Screen
Bpp 32    # the color bit - depth
that did not seem to work.

-The scripting language looks nice and clean.
-I did not saw any provisions in your gamelist format for the info from mame's -listinfo. I may have overlooked it but if not it is probably a good idea to add it now you will want to use it in the future i am sure for filters.
-It could use a better skin but you probably know that allready  

peter

[PacManFan]

If you check out the ETConfig program, It gets the listinfo from the mame exe, My mamescan.exe program parses it into something simpler, and then the ETconfig program loads it up and displays it so you can sort and filter it. You can play around with the export options in the etconfig.exe after you generate a category game list . Right now, I'm exporting the game name, game description, and cloneof fields. The cloneof field is there so the clones can load images from thier parents files. You can change all this around in the script if you like to include year, manufacturer, category info, etc...

As far as the screen mode goes, the current script is written for 640x480, You'll have to change the positions/sizes of the rectangles for the bitmaps.

I didn't check any screen resolutions above 1024x768.


-PacManFan

I gave it a quick run...only found maybe one bug

I adjusted the screen settings to
XRes 1280  # The Width of the Screen
YRes 1024  # The Height of the Screen
Bpp 32    # the color bit - depth
that did not seem to work.

-The scripting language looks nice and clean.
-I did not saw any provisions in your gamelist format for the info from mame's -listinfo. I may have overlooked it but if not it is probably a good idea to add it now you will want to use it in the future i am sure for filters.
-It could use a better skin but you probably know that allready  

peter

[PacManFan]

Hey!
PacManFan here,

So, has everyone had a chance to check out EmuTron? I'd like to hear some feedback from everyone on the functionality and scriptable interface.

All comments are welcome.

PacManFan

[)p(]

As functionality concerns I see nothing new yet. it works like most fe's and does a pretty good job.

The scripting approach you took is for now the interesting part. If I remember correctly Dave from Gamelauncher was planning to make a scripting language for his fe but yours is the first out in the wild  

As I said above the scripting looks nice and clean. As for its functionality the most interesting part is the event structure. The other stuff in the scripts most other fe's cover in their skins but as far as I know none of them expose their event structure. Do you als think this is the part that sets your fe apart from the other ones?  And how do you feel it will benefit users?

peter

[Howard_Casto]

I tried it and I also am intrigued by the scripting interface but also curious as to what benefit event based scripting has to the general public.  Mind you I would use it, but I'm not sure about average joe who wants an easy setup.  And as you said, you goal is to make the setup easier.  

Also some minor annoyances but they are fixable.  

Your script files probably should not be given a "scr" extension because that is a reserved extension in windows (for screensavers) and it could potentially cause all kinds of heck, not to mention the fact that in xp you have to rename the file before you can open it in notepad.  

Also when I change the resolution the screen res is changed but not the area of the screen that the skin takes up.  Scaleable skins is a must as users won't bother if they have to remake a skin just for their res.  I figure that's just a glitch though.

[PacManFan]

Hey Guys,
PacManFan Here,
     I'm glad you guys are asking about the scriptable front end, I thought no one had noticed the scripting support. The script interface is there for a good reason, It's called "Expandability". Sure, I could have coded a Front End with support for List mode ,full, mixed, mixed list, etc... But who am I to anticipate what the end user wants to see on the screen. How do I know that I should launch an emulator in steps A,B,C with parameters E,F,G? Sure, I could try to bang my head against the wall and put in support for every emulator and/or program out there, but I don't have to.
    With a scriptable front end, the average user can configure a script to look and behave exactly as they want. Full screen screen shot? No problem. Cabinet, Flyer, marquee, title, screen shot? No Problem.  50 screen shot images simultaneously? No problem, Game description, year, manufacturer, trivia info? No problem. Anywhere on the screen, displayed at any time as defined by the script.
    The 2 events currently called by the program automatically Script load and Display. All events are defined by the user for the user's own intentions.
   Now, I know you guys are going to say that the average user doesn't want to learn a scripting language, Or it's too complex, or debugging is a hassle.
  The answer to that is ETScriptWriter, This is a soon to be released program that writes the script code for you via a point and click VB app I wrote. It contains a treeview of all scripts, lists, variables,events etc..
  The user can create new events, bind them to keycode/mousecodes/joycodes, select actions to perform, etc.. The user can also create the on-screen layout of images by moving / sizing rectangles on screen. Writing a new script literally takes minutes.

  Things to look for in a few upcoming versions are:
-Image alpha blending
-Rectangle / Image  Animation (scale /move/rotate)
-Smooth text scrolling
-Anything cool I can think of


Howard, you're right about that resizable blit, I was swapping code around at the last minute, and I didn't see that.
I'll probably change the .scr extension to something else, I was having problems with that too.

Well, thanks for the feedback guys, keep it coming.

-PacManFan

[)p(]

I am not sure users even want a lot of control besides the basic skinning most fe's support now.
For example with my fe allmost anything is also externally exposed. The flexibitlity is huge. But most users will make only a few small changes. I have come to the conclusion that flexibility you do mostly for yourself and that is not a bad thing at all  

It will be interesting to see if the scripting will add to the functionality and flexibitliy in the future and allow it to do theings others fe can't or with more ease.

 Personally for the scripts I think a complete xml configuration script would be best and most clean...I was tempted to do that when I made the internal cfg utility recently but concluded that it was not the worth the effort as it would not add any functionality but it would have been more beautiful  

peter