mamewah "run_game_and_quit"

[papaschtroumpf]

I'm really liking cdbrown & other's gameplay videos for use in mamewah.
The other use for videos in my cab was to use them in the screensaver, whci I can still do with these videos too, but they don't look that great at full screen on my 19" monitor.
I have been experimenting with the "run random game and quit"screensaver built in mamewah, and it seems to work great with 2 smalll problems:

- by default my desktop resolution is higher than mamewah's and when the game quites, the resolution is restored to the desktop resolution, not mamewah's. easy to fix by making the desktop resolution the same as mamewah.

- running the games in as a screensaver is a little too loud, while I like to hear the attract sounds, I'd like them at 50% volume or so. I found a volume for the movies, but is there a setting to run the games at a lower volume during the screensaver?

[Minwah]

- by default my desktop resolution is higher than mamewah's and when the game quites, the resolution is restored to the desktop resolution, not mamewah's. easy to fix by making the desktop resolution the same as mamewah.

Doesn't seem to be a problem for me (I run 640x480 desktop & Mamewah at 368x240).  What version of Mamewah are you running?

- running the games in as a screensaver is a little too loud, while I like to hear the attract sounds, I'd like them at 50% volume or so. I found a volume for the movies, but is there a setting to run the games at a lower volume during the screensaver?

Not as such, but there is a way you could achieve it (you probably need the latest beta):

(mame.ini):

select_random_game                        1
saver_type                                saver_commandline
quit_delay                                300
saver_commandline                         c:\mame\mame.exe [name] -volume -16

[papaschtroumpf]

I'm running 1.61

So the saver_commandline will automatically pass a random game name to it? I hadn't realized that. I'll give it a try.

[papaschtroumpf]

I hadn't seen your comment about using the latest beta.

Will using the saver_commandline option quit the game after a few minutes?

How about using run_random_game_using_wrapper instead? set the wrapper to be MAME and add the volume on the command line. Will it quit after a few minutes or does it assume that it's the wrapper's job? maybe I can use the -ftr option to make it quite after a while. It would be dependent upon the game frame rate but it might still be OK.

[Minwah]

Will using the saver_commandline option quit the game after a few minutes?

Yes, see the 'quit_delay' - this is in seconds.

How about using run_random_game_using_wrapper instead? set the wrapper to be MAME and add the volume on the command line.

This option has now gone since it is obsolete.  You can achieve what you want using the settings I posted, I'm not sure why you would want to use a wrapper.

[papaschtroumpf]

I'm still using 1.61 and you said the other option required the new beta. I was trying to do something similar with the options available in 1.61

It seems like the closest thing to it is to pretend you're running a wrapper, but point it to mame as the wrapper (wrapper executable) then put [name] -volume -12 as the command line for the wrapper.

It's close to waht I want but not quite: the game does run for a few minutes, but then it sits in mameah for several minutes before it runs the next random game.

Maybe I'll haveto upgrade to the 1.62 beta. I was trying to hold off till it was released in case the ini files changes some more, since I run 5 different emulators, with alternate apps (cp viewers) and stuff, so redoing the command line section for the new ini format is a bit of a pain.

[Minwah]

I'm still using 1.61 and you said the other option required the new beta. I was trying to do something similar with the options available in 1.61

It seems like the closest thing to it is to pretend you're running a wrapper, but point it to mame as the wrapper (wrapper executable) then put [name] -volume -12 as the command line for the wrapper.

I see what you mean...that would probably work.

It's close to waht I want but not quite: the game does run for a few minutes, but then it sits in mameah for several minutes before it runs the next random game.

Yes, this is how it works...still the same in the beta's...

Maybe I'll haveto upgrade to the 1.62 beta. I was trying to hold off till it was released in case the ini files changes some more, since I run 5 different emulators, with alternate apps (cp viewers) and stuff, so redoing the command line section for the new ini format is a bit of a pain.

Yeah sorry.  I doubt the ini structure will change any more, but I've said that before!  You may as well wait really, but I will probably release a new beta fairly soon (next weekish), and probably one more after that (need to try to get unsupported joystick controllers to work).

[papaschtroumpf]

Keep up the good work. I'm really getting into "nitpicking" issues at this point. Heck, if I have to I'll write my own wrapper. I've been thinking about it anyway because I would like any key to exit the screensaver, not just ESC, so I'd need to write an AHK wrapper than sends ESC to MAME on any key.