EmuTron - New Version 2.0.5

[PacManFan]

Hey everyone!
PacManFan Here,
For those of you who have been requesting, there is a new version of EmuTron v2.0.5 ready for download at: http://216.194.68.209/~admin17/ .
This new version has better video mode support, and supports the video mode 320x240 for all you Arcade Monitor people.
This version also supports joysticks for player 1 and 2, I've tested with an Analog gameport stick, and an Analog USB Stick.
Let me know how it goes for everyone!

-PacManFan

[eightbit]

I'm running XP pro, Windows command line mame v65, 2ghz p4 with 512mb of ram.
Some small problems with Emutron-

• When I run ETconfig emutron general config and launch script wizard are grayed out
• When I launch game catagories I'm not sure what to do with it, rom path won't let me select or type in a directory its looking for a file name.
• I can't get emutron to show anything except some default aircraft game list.

I've spent almost 2 hours poking at this and have gotten no where. I love the look of the screenshots on the website, this is the kind of front end that I want. Any help or tips would be most appreciated.

[PacManFan]

Hey eightbit,
I'm sorry you're having so much trouble. To address your problems:

-When I run ETconfig emutron general config and launch script wizard are grayed out

The Emutron general config and the script wizard are not quite ready for prime time yet. The disabled buttons are intentional.

The general config basically sets up the etoption.cfg file for you, allowing you to pick the script you want to start up with, setting screen size, key repeat rate, etc.. You can do this by hand(it's not hard)

The script wizard is a work in progress, It promises to write the scripts for you via a point and click , drag and drop interface. I hope to have it ready soon


-When I launch game catagories I'm not sure what to do with it, rom path won't let me select or type in a directory its looking for a file name.

You have to use the browse button to select your rom path,  And once you're in the rom path, you have to click on a rom file(I know , I know, this is not-self-evident) ETConfig will get the path from the file you click on.

As I type this, I'm working on an in-depth faq file on how to use the etconfig program and how to set up game lists. I'll copy and paste it at the bottom of this post.

-I can't get emutron to show anything except some default aircraft game list.

The current script you're probably running (mame.cfg) is set up for multiple catagories, the way to move bettween catagories is defined in the script. Here's the piece of code that defines it:

EVENT NextCategory
   KEYDEFS
      SCAN_LCTRL
   END_KEYDEFS
   ACTIONS
      SaveState()
      NextInList(categorys,1)
      fireevent("LoadCategory")
   END_ACTIONS
END_EVENT

So if you press the L_CTRL (aka left control button) on your keyboard, you can move on to the next game catagory. You can change this to be anything you want. I have defined all recognized key codes in the etscript.rtf file at the bottom. You can use mouse movement, joystick, gamepad, or keyboard.

Take a look at the scripting language to set up the script the way you need it. I know it's a little in-depth, however I want to be able to provide the flexability you need to configure / run multiple emulators /multiple catagories/ and multiple skins.

Basically, Emutron reads in list files, These list files are arranged in "columns" of information like a data base. Then, each column of info can be referred to in the script code for the current row. Each list can be 1 -10 columns wide. Based on the column info  for each row, you can generate screen shot names, art file names, screen text, etc...
I hope this all makes sense.


I'll be posting a link to the FAQ file I'm writing very soon.

-PacManFan

[PacManFan]

Emutron FAQ's
 
Under Construction....

Using etconfig:
1) Launch the etconfig program and click on "Game Catagories" use the browse buttons to select the mame.exe , rom path, and catver.ini file(to get game catagory info) , You need to click on a file in the rompath directory to set the path correctly, the file you click on will be ignored.

2) Click on the "Get game List from mame" button. The program will now launch the mame.exe and get the list of games from mame. The mamescan program will then automatically run and parse this info into something friendly that my etconfig program can understand. The etconfig program will then load up all the games(removing games that you don't have if the checkbox is selected) from the rom path. Then the catagory info is filled out and all games are listed in the grid below under the "All Games" tab.
3) Now you are ready to generate one or more game lists/ catagories for mame. In the upper right, there are 2 lists, the list on the left is a few filters that I created to include /exclude games, You can click on the filter and move it over to the selected filters by using the left / right arrow buttons . You can also created your own filters , or modify the filters I have created by using the add/delete/edit filters buttons. Once you have selected the filters you want and moved them to the right, Click on the "Run filters" button. Games will then be automatically filtered from the "All Games" grid to the "Games in Category" grid. Click on the "Games in Category" tab to see all the games that came across. You can now sort the games based on rom name / game description /year / manufacturer /clone info/ etc... by clicking on the headings in the first row of the grid. You can also add games to this "Games in category list" by clicking on the row in "All games" and clicking on the "add to category" button at the bottom.
4) Once you have gotten a list of games that you like in the order you like, you can click on the "Export Game List" button at the bottom. This will bring up a dialog box with a few export options.  Under "save as", click on the browse button and choose where you want to same the new list too. I save all my game lists under the /lists subdirectory under the main EmuTron directory. Choose a filename and give it a .lst extension. To export the game list for the default configuration of Emutron, Click on the "Emutron Default" button. This will fill out the format field to be "%a%f%b%f%d%f" where %a is the game name %b is the description and %d is the cloneof field. The %f means "carriage return / line feed", So for every game in the "Games in Category" grid, it will export :
romname
description
cloneof

Leave the checkbox "add space on blank line" checked, This will created a space with a carriage return on lines with no info (EmuTron needs this to parse the lists).
As I noted before, EmuTron is HIGHLY configurable, This list format is just the default that I am using. You can also export addition information, however, you need to modify the script to read it, and take advantage of it.
Now you have created a game list, I bet you're asking "What do I do with this list?" Well, EmuTron has the ability to load list files. In side the script files such as mame.cfg, there are a few list variables declared , one of them is testgamelist and the other is categorys.

[PacManFan]

Using Lists / General configuration
When Emutron starts, It loads the script, compiles it, and calls the "EVENT SCSTART" to start the script. All the code in the SCSTART actions section is executed. The first action is:
NativeRes(640,480)
This sets the native script size so it can be stretched to other screen sizes. This is usually the size of the background image. For vertical scripts, this would probably be "480,640" or "600,800".
The second line in the SCSTART event action list is :
LoadList (categorys,AppDir + "lists\categorys.lst",2)
This line tells EmuTron to load the categorys.lst into the categorys list variable, The 2 on the end tells EmuTron that the list is 2 columns wide. Lists can be 1-10 columns wide, and store data in a grid-like fashion. If we look at the categorys.lst file, we see that:

Aircraft Games
airgames.lst
Driving Games
drgames.lst
Fighting Games
fightgames.lst
.......
........

The first line is a description, and the second line is the name of another list file. So the line :
LoadList (categorys,AppDir + "lists\categorys.lst",2)
Loads the entire category.lst file and stores the data in the category variable with 2 columns, the Description, and the listfilename as one entry in each row in the list.

So now, we have a list variable "categorys" that hold a grid-like list of descriptions and filenames. The next line in the SCSTART actions section is:
fireevent("LoadCategory")
This is basically a function call to the "LoadCategory" Event. So the first line in the LoadCategory Event is:
LoadList (testgamelist,AppDir + "lists\" + CurListItem(categorys,1),3)
This might look a little confusing, but let's look at it one piece at a time. Each list variable holds an internal index, telling what the current record is. This information can be accessed in the script by the CurListItem function. This CurListItem function takes 2 parameters, the name of the list, and the column of information we're interested in. So the statement:
CurListItem(categorys,1)
Means: Look at the list categorys, and return column 1 from the current record as a string. The lists are 0 indexed based, so the 1 really means the second column, 0 would be the first column.
Now if we look at this in context with the rest of the statement:
LoadList (testgamelist,AppDir + "lists\" + CurListItem(categorys,1),3)
This basically says: Look at the current list record of categorys, and use the second field as the filename for loading a game list into "testgamelist", This also specifies that we are loading a list of information that has 3 columns or "fields" of data. If you remember from our game export in etconfig, this information is:
Rom name , description, cloneof
So now we have loaded a list of games. The script is now ready to use this list of games to generate the display. The next line in the "LoadCategory" event-actions is:
fireevent("Load_Current_bitmaps")
This is another function call to the "Load_Current_bitmaps" event. The first line in this events action section is:
LoadBitmap(sshotbitmap,sshotpath + CurListItem(testgamelist,FILECOL) + ".png",sshotpath + CurListItem(testgamelist,CLONECOL) + ".png")
This too might look a little confusing at first, For a in-depth description of this and all other functions, refer to the "ETScript.rtf" file.

-PacManFan

[eightbit]

Well I'm several steps closer and it looks pretty. I can make lists and catagorys and have those lists show up. I have the screen shots, marquees, cabinets, and art stuff showing up.

When I launch a rom the FE dissapears for a couple seconds and then it comes back.

[PacManFan]

It sounds like the emulator is not being lauched correctly. What you can do is open the ETLaunch.bat file in a text editor and see what it says. This file is written out for every game to be launched.
Inside the mame.cfg script file, there is an event called LAUNCH_GAME that writes the batch file. In the Actions sections of this, there is some code:

WriteToFile("cd " +mamepath)
WriteToFile(mamename + " " + rompath + CurListItem(testgamelist,FILECOL) + ".zip")
WriteToFile("cd " + emutronpath)
WriteToFile("emutron.exe")
WriteToFile("exit")


Check the mamepath variable, to see if it points to your directory mame is in.
Check to mamename variable to see if it is set to your mame.exe fiel
Check the rompath variable and see if it points to the path where your roms are.
All paths should have a trailing backslash \ at the end of them.

[Howard_Casto]

man, pacmanfan.....

No offense intended, but you really need to work on that wizard you were talking about.  For a guy who made his fe because other's are too complicated to setup, this has to be the most complex setup I've ever seen in a fe.  

Not that there's anything wrong with that (go check out peter and my config setups, they aren't exactly user friendly either).  But users are going to be totally lost.  

Also I have a question.... why are you writing batch files to launch apps?  You can use createprocess, shell and syncronize and a multitude of other methods which are much cleaner.  I'm just curious as to why you need to do it in such a way.  

[eightbit]

Check the rompath variable and see if it points to the path where your roms are.
All paths should have a trailing backslash \ at the end of them.

My rompath was- STRING rompath =  "d:\mame\roms"
It should be       - STRING rompath =  "d:\mame\roms\"

Its working!   Now I have to sort my games into Categorys.

Don't take this as a complaint because I love the look and the fact that you've made this available to the community and are willing to help me with it. I have nothing but respect for the guys that write front ends and make them available. Your frontend is highly configurable. So far I haven't liked that part of it. I like the look of the default configuration. Maybe I'll want to change it eventually and I'll be able to because of the way you built it. Then it will be a good thing.

[Superdude]

Complex?  Yes, but damn configurable.  I like it!

[Howard_Casto]

with a  few notable exceptions it doesn't have any major features that all other fe's already have

[rampy]

with a  few notable exceptions it doesn't have any major features that all other fe's already have

I'll bite...   so?

Rampy

[PacManFan]

Hey Howard,
You're right in saying that I need to work more on that ETScriptWriter program. In a nutshell, the script writer program is a drag and drop, point and click interface that code / configure 1 or more scripts together to form a unified cohesive EMU Front end / Program launcher / Jukebox application (hopefully) suitable to anyone's Cabinet needs. Script can be chained together, or launch from one master script, Each script can provide it's own skin, for each emulator, or application.

      As far as a complex setup, I think the script language is fairly straightforward. It might be a little intimidating for someone who has never written a line of code. The script language is well documented, and the scripts I've provided are a good place to start in coding your own. It's no more daunting than coding anything in VBScript, JScript, or HTML., although it's sort of like comparing apples and oranges.
     To set up the program after downloading, all you need to do is change a few paths and the name of the mame exe file.
Personallly, I'm glad I went with a full language instead of cryptic configuration flags and parms.
As far as batch files, they are a simple generic way to launch an application, and perform any pre/post actions neccessary. That's the beauty of a full language, I can add any other method for launching an application, without having to change the previous. I'll simply define and document a new function.

-PacManFan

man, pacmanfan.....

No offense intended, but you really need to work on that wizard you were talking about.  For a guy who made his fe because other's are too complicated to setup, this has to be the most complex setup I've ever seen in a fe.  

Not that there's anything wrong with that (go check out peter and my config setups, they aren't exactly user friendly either).  But users are going to be totally lost.  

Also I have a question.... why are you writing batch files to launch apps?  You can use createprocess, shell and syncronize and a multitude of other methods which are much cleaner.  I'm just curious as to why you need to do it in such a way.  

[PacManFan]

Actually, It does Howard,
First, It's a SCRIPTABLE frontend, meaning that I can add new features to the language, while maintaining backward compatibility, I don't require everyone to erase thier configurations every time I release a new version

Second, It works on Arcade monitors (or so I've been told)

Third, I've started putting in animation support for the language, Staring with the AnimateRect function, Images, Movies, and text can size/move around on the screen as defined by the script. Look for AnimateColor for color cycling animations in the next version

Fourth, I've got full screen rotation working for 0,90,180, and 270 degrees. You might be saying big whoop, but I've also got the AVI movies playing rotated as well, something that doesn't happen using the Windows Media Player OCX.

And as I said before, EmuTron is a scriptable language. In the past 4 releases, I've added:  rotation ,bitmap tranparency, alpha blending, rectangle animation, and better video mode support. In the next releases, look for full screen 3d graphics(Ala Quakeish) completely controlled by the scripting language. Also look for generic math functions for variables(might be usefull)

with a  few notable exceptions it doesn't have any major features that all other fe's already have

[SirPoonga]

with a  few notable exceptions it doesn't have any major features that all other fe's already have

Again what HC said, other than the scriptable part there isn;t anything that hasn't been done in other FEs.

Not saying that is bad.  I have yet to try your FE:)

[PacManFan]

One of my initial goals when I started to code EmuTron was to take the best features I had seen in other front ends, and to tie them together into one package powered by a scripting language for flexability, In that, I think I've succeeded. The question is:
What one 1 FrontEnd are you referring to? Sure, you can point out single features from a dozen other front ends and say "That's been done before."

SirPoonga , I think if you took a look, you might like what you see. What FE do you use on your Cab now?

For everyone else looking in on this forum, the question I had asked everyone a few months ago when I started to code EmuTron was "What features do you want to see?"
I suppose this is still a valid question. I want to know what other configurable features else I could put in this FrontEnd to make it better / more suitable to everyone's liking. I know at the top of everyone's list will be: Easier Configuration

-more later
-PacManFan

with a  few notable exceptions it doesn't have any major features that all other fe's already have

Again what HC said, other than the scriptable part there isn;t anything that hasn't been done in other FEs.

Not saying that is bad.  I have yet to try your FE:)

[SirPoonga]

SirPoonga , I think if you took a look, you might like what you see. What FE do you use on your Cab now?

Pretty soon my own.

[Howard_Casto]

pacmanfan if you really want me to answer that i will

when i said every fe i meant that literally, and not one or two features from each one.....

mine does almost everything yours does, as does 3darcade, as does sirp's (we keep in contact so i know the features) as does lilwolfs and ect ect...

I mean no offesne what-so-ever I just wonder if the scripting was worth effort and the hassle that you and ultimately your users will have with it.

In our last fe "conference" a few of us threw around the idea of a xml based scripting language for configs and realized that it was much simpler to deal with plain old ini's as there is really no loss in flexibility.  The thing is, while event based scripting is a cool idea on paper, it rarely gets used but in a few key instances, all of which could be supplemented with config options instead.  

I commend you for taking such a complex approach, but practically speaking the new features you add don't outweight the exteremely complicated configuration setup at this point.  

My comment about other fe's having the same options wasn't a rib on you, it just find it hard to believe that users still seem to find "new" features that have been around for years.  Maybe we need to advertise or something because I still get email about raging dragon, which has been dead for almost 2 years now.  

[)p(]

Fourth, I've got full screen rotation working for 0,90,180, and 270 degrees. You might be saying big whoop, but I've also got the AVI movies playing rotated as well, something that doesn't happen using the Windows Media Player OCX.

not all fe's use the wmp ocx mine also rotates the video  

 

In the next releases, look for full screen 3d graphics(Ala Quakeish) completely controlled by the scripting language.

Could you elaborate on this. Are you planning to do something similar to the fps arcade in my fe?
peter

[PacManFan]

 

Could you elaborate on this. Are you planning to do something similar to the fps arcade in my fe?
peter

At this point, I'm not sure how the 3d will be used. My first goal is to put in a 3d rotating model view in place of the cabinet shot. The 3d engine I've written can render full screen, or into a bitmap that can then be blitted (with alpha and transparency) to the screen. I'll support multiple 3d viewports, multiple models, multiple camera, animated avi textures,3ds files, cob-scn files, etc.. Some of the 3d functionality exists in the current release, I just haven't documented on how to use it, And I probably won't until I'm happy with the performance / features.
I suppose it will be up to the end user as to how use it in thier script. It will be easy to put in a 3d rotating menu system, full screen arcade-like walkthrough, random 3d animations, multiple cameras doing path flythoughs of models, etc...
 All this will be fully scriptable from the script files.
I'm also looking into adding generic math functions +-*/ to the variables along with an "IF-THEN-ELSE" to allow more control in the script.

The control over the 2d-3d will be powerfull enough to actually write a video game in EmuTron by using the scripting language.
I know this is a bit overkill, but hey, so what, configurabilty is a good thing.



BTW , I just added a new script download to the downloads page for EmuTron.  This shows how to support multiple Emulators by using multiple scripts.

http://216.194.68.209/~admin17/download/MultiEmu.zip

-more later
-PacManFan

[)p(]

 

Could you elaborate on this. Are you planning to do something similar to the fps arcade in my fe?
peter

At this point, I'm not sure how the 3d will be used. My first goal is to put in a 3d rotating model view in place of the cabinet shot. The 3d engine I've written can render full screen, or into a bitmap that can then be blitted (with alpha and transparency) to the screen. I'll support multiple 3d viewports, multiple models, multiple camera, animated avi textures,3ds files, cob-scn files, etc.. Some of the 3d functionality exists in the current release, I just haven't documented on how to use it, And I probably won't until I'm happy with the performance / features.
I suppose it will be up to the end user as to how use it in thier script. It will be easy to put in a 3d rotating menu system, full screen arcade-like walkthrough, random 3d animations, multiple cameras doing path flythoughs of models, etc...
 All this will be fully scriptable from the script files.
I'm also looking into adding generic math functions +-*/ to the variables along with an "IF-THEN-ELSE" to allow more control in the script.

Sounds cool! If you are planning to support our models at 3darcade please contact me as we will only make models available for use in fe's in two formats and we don't allow any other public use  or distribution of the models or variants of the models. You will probably be able to use the format that Howard is deciding on based on the .x format.

peter

peter

[eightbit]

Hmmm, I wonder what would happen if there was a collaberative effort to build a front end? Why must every debate about anything here detoriate into a mine is better than yours arguement?

Many people don't like mame32 but it works, its simple to set up, and it gets updated every time Mame gets updated. It was the first Windows mame front and is more likely than any other front end to still be around tomorrow. I was going somewhere with this but now I forget what my point was going to be...  

[PacManFan]

There had been a previous thread that sort of touched on this. Peoples needs for a FE can be quite differant. It's possible all us FE devs could collaborate on a project I suppose, I think that there might be a bit of conflict as to the architecture / design / goals / language of any such system. I think peoples egos also could get in the way as well.  If we could get past the design stage, I think coding could go relatively smoothly.

-PacManFan

Hmmm, I wonder what would happen if there was a collaberative effort to build a front end? Why must every debate about anything here detoriate into a mine is better than yours arguement?

Many people don't like mame32 but it works, its simple to set up, and it gets updated every time Mame gets updated. It was the first Windows mame front and is more likely than any other front end to still be around tomorrow. I was going somewhere with this but now I forget what my point was going to be...  :-[

[Howard_Casto]

Many people don't like mame32 but it works, its simple to set up, and it gets updated every time Mame gets updated. It was the first Windows mame front and is more likely than any other front end to still be around tomorrow. I was going somewhere with this but now I forget what my point was going to be...  

mame32 is NOT a front end.  It's a crappy delphi gui slapped on top of mame. (Not that there's anything wrong with that, but lets not call a piece of coal a diamond here.)  Once the inital framework was setup, new options and other views, ect can be added in like five seconds.  That's why it's regularly updated, because there is little work involved in doing so.  The more advanced, graphically a front-end is the harder it is to maintain, the harder it is to standardize and thus the harder it is for more than one person to work on it.  

But with that being said, we do cooperate with each other, particularly the trio of >p< sirpoonga and myself.  The thing is we each want something different in a front-end and thus it makes much more sense to have three different ones.  We do work together on a lot of things, however.  Some of our long term goals are rather secerative at this point, so lets just say...

wait........

But I wasn't trying to start "p*ssing contest" I merely saw the lengths to get emutron configured and had flashbacks of the horror that was advance mame, advance menu and arcade os.  Respectively, although I see great potential in the scripting system, I don't think the average user should ever have to see it, much less understand it.  It's simply too complex despite the impressive features that are a result of it.  I understand it because I am a programmer, but non-programmers are going to have a steep learning curve.  I was just trying to give the perspective of the "third man."  Although to pacmanfan a scripting language may be easy to follow, I think almost everyone would agree that well commented ini files make much more sense to the average user.  That's all I'm saying... I meant nothing by it.

Now my fe has never been easy to setup. But then again I've never claimed that's one of my ultimate goals.  I was just calling him on his mark.  As I do everyone.  

[eightbit]

mame32 is NOT a front end.

It looks like a front end, its acts like a front end many people use it as a front end. I guess I'm confused as to what a friend end is if mame32 isn't one.

This is exactly what I meant by a lot of people not liking it. It gets a bum rap but it works.

PacManFan's front end isn't done he's working on simplyfying the scripting but if all people due is beat him up he's not going to have much incentive to do it. I honestly haven't tried your front end. The screen shots are saw aren't the look that I have been looking for. I was also searching for something easy to set up, which I certainly didn't find in Emutron but if I can get it to work it can't be that hard. Its actually kind of nice since its a learning experience that has taught me a bunch of things about mame that I either didn't know or didn't understamd.

[)p(]

Hmmm, I wonder what would happen if there was a collaberative effort to build a front end? Why must every debate about anything here detoriate into a mine is better than yours arguement?

It is not that bad isn't  

hehe actually if you have been following the development here of fe's on this board closely you will also have seen that we may make harsh comments occasionally but we always help each other out...pacmanfan will be no exception to that...hey i just offered him access to our models and yes I was a bit offended when he introduced himself here by saying more or less your fe's are crap...

peter

[rampy]

mame32 is NOT a front end.

It looks like a front end, its acts like a front end many people use it as a front end. I guess I'm confused as to what a friend end is if mame32 isn't one.

Oooh goody another semantics arguement! Is making a FE a sport?  What if HC keeps score or is that considered judging and therefore no longer a sport?

Sadly, I can actually see HC's point AND eightbits but I'm leaning with eightbits.

What is the definition of a FE? MY definition:

"A front end is a program designed to be a visual*/more user friendly  interface to a command line driven program"  

*I'd say gui, but that makes it seem like it has to be windows point and click where'as old skool front ends were very DOS-ey, Text-ey BBS style looking =P

Now ONE (*cough*) could argue that a  Front End is ... "a SEPARATE program designed to be... yadda yadda yadda"

But I'm of the opinion that if looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, even if the duck is coded in delphi, it's still probably a duck =)

I guess the question is when is something just a GUI and no longer a FE?  No one considers Word a FE... *shrug*

Rampy

[eightbit]

hehe actually if you have been following the development here of fe's on this board closely you will also have seen that we may make harsh comments occasionally but we always help each other out...pacmanfan will be no exception to that...hey i just offered him access to our models

That was a nice gesture.

I haven't followed the development closely because untill recently Mame32 satisfied what I wanted to do. I may even go back to it since I'd rather have a working front end than a flashy buggy out of date front end. Though the idea of a 3d virtual arcade sounds really cool and might be worth a little hassle.  

You FE developers don't get enough credit for what you do. I might suggest a feature or question a problem but you won't get an email from me complaining about your front end not working or demanding features.

[)p(]

a flashy buggy out of date front end.

I hope you are not talking about my fe  

lol

peter

[)p(]

You FE developers don't get enough credit for what you do. I might suggest a feature or question a problem but you won't get an email from me complaining about your front end not working or demanding features.

Actually we don't care that much about complaints as most of us use our own fe's on a daily basis we know that they are not buggy  

And if there is a real nug i myself like to smash it as soon as possible so feedback even negative is always welcome  

peter

[PacManFan]

Peter,
   Thanks for your offer of the models, I would like to use them once I figure out how the 3d is going to be used in my FE. I would like that option to put them in.

 My intent here is not to ruffle anyone's feathers. No offense Peter , but I believe you are clearly misquoting me. I NEVER said anyones FE's are a bunch of crap. At that point, I hadn't even tried out Emulaxian or Lazarus. If you search the board, I was responding to a thread called "Shocked" about the complexity of FE's to set up relating to documentation quality and the specific features sets of them.
    I'm here on these boards because I love to play video games, and because I am a programmer (A good one), I wanted to make some sort of contribution back to the BYOAC for all of the good information I've learned here in the past few years.(Yes, I've been here that long, I was lurking).  
    I realize that I've been pushing people to check out my front end, but that's only because I'm proud of it, and I believe people would like it if they use it.

-PacManFan

Hmmm, I wonder what would happen if there was a collaberative effort to build a front end? Why must every debate about anything here detoriate into a mine is better than yours arguement?

It is not that bad isn't  

hehe actually if you have been following the development here of fe's on this board closely you will also have seen that we may make harsh comments occasionally but we always help each other out...pacmanfan will be no exception to that...hey i just offered him access to our models and yes I was a bit offended when he introduced himself here by saying more or less your fe's are crap...

peter

[)p(]

My intent here is not to ruffle anyone's feathers. No offense Peter , but I believe you are clearly misquoting me. I NEVER said anyones FE's are a bunch of crap. At that point, I hadn't even tried out Emulaxian or Lazarus. If you search the board, I was responding to a thread called "Shocked" about the complexity of FE's to set up relating to documentation quality and the specific features sets of them.

ok i put that to harsh...it was more the negative connontations that offended me a bit..and i mean a 'bit'...no harsh feelings here...look at what I have said about your fe...i think i only made real balanced comments...

   I realize that I've been pushing people to check out my front end, but that's only because I'm proud of it, and I believe people would like it if they use it.

proud of our fe's we are probably all... and rightly so
what i do not partially like is when you advertise your fe in a thread that goes about a problem with another fe..like you did in a thread about lazarus recently...but that is just my opinion...


updated the quoting..damn cutting and pasting mistakes  

peter

[Howard_Casto]

Just clarification.... I few of you were offended by the fact that I don't consider mame32 a front-end.. this is why.  

When you make a windows app, you have a set of pre-rendered controls you place on a form.  There is zero work in getting them to operate and display properly. It's literally drag and drop in most cases.  When you make a windows app that doesn't use the default windows controls, it requries extra work every step of the way, including creating your own object types and drawing graphics by hand.  

To any non-programmers out there, trust me... if the gui is windozed then it didn't take a whole lot of time to make.  Now the initial design and the initial interface to the command-line app might take a bit of time in the beginning, but I already stated that was the case.  Now for what it is, it's very good. But all it does is merely take ini file entries and put a check box or text box on top of them.  

So in terms of regular computer applications you might consider mame32's gui a fe of sorts.  But in emulation terms, it defintely is not.

Oh and pacmanfan, btw... the reason I am so hard on you is exactly what >p< said.  Your comments initally and the fact that you seem to throw your fe out there whenever someone else has a problem with one of ours.  It's extremely disrespectful.  

I only suggest someone use another fe when the one they are trying to use is super old, or not suited for what they want at all.  Even then I rarely suggest my own but rather suggest a few.  

[rampy]

Just clarification.... I few of you were offended by the fact that I don't consider mame32 a front-end.. this is why.  

When you make a windows app, you have a set of pre-rendered controls you place on a form.  There is zero work in getting them to operate and display properly. It's literally drag and drop in most cases.  When you make a windows app that doesn't use the default windows controls, it requries extra work every step of the way, including creating your own object types and drawing graphics by hand.  

To any non-programmers out there, trust me... if the gui is windozed then it didn't take a whole lot of time to make.    

So... your saying the amount of time/effort put into a front end justifies whether it is a "true" in the emulator sense, a front end?

Just because there are tools that make application development drag and drop simple, or doesn't use hand made controls/etc... shouldn't effect it's legitamacy (although it will probably effect it's audience size =P )

*shrug* Your front end is NOT cool becaue of some fancy routine you wrote, or which controls/objects you implemented -> rather it's cool because it's useful (or so I'm told) and looks professional/clean/and of course non-windowsy... and it has useful/neato features, etc...

I think the sub-discussion as to whether mame32 is a FE or not is silly... and i'm sorry to be perpetuating it.  HC generally posts interesting/informative comments that share the knowledge he has garnered.  But every so often there's this little bit of ridiculousness passed off as fact in the middle of all the "good/informative stuff" ... and i guess it drives me crazy, as I always reply to it to point it out =)

HC is always right, from a certain point of view.. I just don't always share his point of view.

Rampy

[PacManFan]

Howard, Peter,

   I think we got off to a bad start here, I really didn't intend any disrespect for either of you or your FE's. As far as recommending my FE in a topic you started, my apologies... I'll advertise EmuTron only when someone's asking. I do commend you both for releasing and supporting great FE's.

-PacManFan

Just clarification.... I few of you were offended by the fact that I don't consider mame32 a front-end.. this is why.  

When you make a windows app, you have a set of pre-rendered controls you place on a form.  There is zero work in getting them to operate and display properly. It's literally drag and drop in most cases.  When you make a windows app that doesn't use the default windows controls, it requries extra work every step of the way, including creating your own object types and drawing graphics by hand.  

To any non-programmers out there, trust me... if the gui is windozed then it didn't take a whole lot of time to make.  Now the initial design and the initial interface to the command-line app might take a bit of time in the beginning, but I already stated that was the case.  Now for what it is, it's very good. But all it does is merely take ini file entries and put a check box or text box on top of them.  

So in terms of regular computer applications you might consider mame32's gui a fe of sorts.  But in emulation terms, it defintely is not.

Oh and pacmanfan, btw... the reason I am so hard on you is exactly what >p< said.  Your comments initally and the fact that you seem to throw your fe out there whenever someone else has a problem with one of ours.  It's extremely disrespectful.  

I only suggest someone use another fe when the one they are trying to use is super old, or not suited for what they want at all.  Even then I rarely suggest my own but rather suggest a few.  

[PacManFan]

This post is getting WAAAAY off topic. Does anyone else have anything to say about the new 2.0.5 release and features of EmuTron? http://216.194.68.209/~admin17/
Any questions on the new functionality? Multiple EMU scripts? Arcade monitor support? Rotation? Joysticks? Script help?
If not, I'll lock this topic and we can take this to "Everything Else" if anybody wants to.

-PacManFan

[)p(]

This post is getting WAAAAY off topic. Does anyone else have anything to say about the new 2.0.5 release and features of EmuTron? http://216.194.68.209/~admin17/
Any questions on the new functionality? Multiple EMU scripts? Arcade monitor support? Rotation? Joysticks? Script help?
If not, I'll lock this topic and we can take this to "Everything Else" if anybody wants to.

-PacManFan

great idea  

[SirPoonga]

Ok, actually opinion:)

Your FE is very NOT intuative.  It isn't that easy to setup.  Also, does it support multiple rom folders?

ETConfig really confused me, I guess I didn't get the purpose or how to use it.

You say "It's fairly self-explainitory  (sorta). " not really.  Ok, I first browsed for the mame exe, then the ONE rom path (even though I have like 10) and catver.ini.  Then what,  I start pressing other buttons and don't see anything happening.

[PacManFan]

OK, fair enough,
ETConfig's main purpose at this point is to help you generate lists of Games to use in EmuTron. It supports 1 rom path, Although you could re-run it using 1 path at a time for your 10 paths.
The current script uses only 1 rom path, although it could be changed to account for more.

Why so many rom paths? What's the advantage of splitting up your roms?

There are a fair amount of directions on using ETConfig previous in this thread. You can create use it to create one master list of games, or start creating game catagorys by using inclusion / exclusion filters.

As far as nothing happening, the installation path must not have a space in the name, so the default "Program Files" doesn't work. I noted this on the downloads page. I've fixed this last night, I'll be posting an updated ETConfig setup program soon.

-PacManFan

Ok, actually opinion:)

Your FE is very NOT intuative.  It isn't that easy to setup.  Also, does it support multiple rom folders?

ETConfig really confused me, I guess I didn't get the purpose or how to use it.

You say "It's fairly self-explainitory  (sorta). " not really.  Ok, I first browsed for the mame exe, then the ONE rom path (even though I have like 10) and catver.ini.  Then what,  I start pressing other buttons and don't see anything happening.

[SirPoonga]

OK, fair enough,
ETConfig's main purpose at this point is to help you generate lists of Games to use in EmuTron. It supports 1 rom path, Although you could re-run it using 1 path at a time for your 10 paths.
The current script uses only 1 rom path, although it could be changed to account for more.

Why so many rom paths? What's the advantage of splitting up your roms?

You aren't a mame poweruser, huh?

There are several reason.  For one I have a test roms folder for test drivers.  Second, I have a folder for each version since I started regularly using clrmame.  I compile several version of my own mame and I can't have version conflists in roms.  I also keep the roms in folders less than 750 megs so I can back them up to CD easily.

There are a fair amount of directions on using ETConfig previous in this thread. You can create use it to create one master list of games, or start creating game catagorys by using inclusion / exclusion filters.

Right, but not in your readme, I'm not going to come to this thread everytime I want to run ETConfig.

As far as nothing happening, the installation path must not have a space in the name, so the default "Program Files" doesn't work. I noted this on the downloads page. I've fixed this last night, I'll be posting an updated ETConfig setup program soon.

You didn't understand what I said.  It isn't intuative on what to do after you select a rompath, mame executble, and catver.ini.
And I guess I am blind, I don't see anything to that effect on your downloads page.