EmuTron - New Version 2.0.5

[SirPoonga]

i have to add, ok, I FINALLY figured out I have to edit the mame.cfg.   How do I know this is all working?
I read the rtf file, what are the keys?  I ket keys, any keys, nothing is happening.  I figured up and down would scroll me through the list of games, guess not.

[PacManFan]

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

Well it's a good thing I put it in the faq file then...

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.

As the faq says, You click on the "get game list from mame" , and then you can start manipulating / filtering the game list.

And I guess I am blind, I don't see anything to that effect on your downloads page.

My bad, I guess I already posted the change and took out the notice last night.

SirPoonga, I'm sensing a little hositility here, have I done something to pi$$ you off?

-PacManFan

[PacManFan]

The keys are all listed in the etscript.rtf file in the doc subfolder. When there is an unrecoverable error in the script, the program exits and tells you whats wrong in the game.log file.

-PacManFan

i have to add, ok, I FINALLY figured out I have to edit the mame.cfg.   How do I know this is all working?
I read the rtf file, what are the keys?  I ket keys, any keys, nothing is happening.  I figured up and down would scroll me through the list of games, guess not.

[SirPoonga]

SirPoonga, I'm sensing a little hositility here, have I done something to pi$$ you off?

Nope, just telling you the facts.  Since I can't even get the FE running right now I can't tell you what I like and don't like about it.

I did software testing for IBM, so I will be straight forward with anything I find.

It may seem hostile, but it isn't, it's just I am not impressed yet since I can't get anywhere in it.  There's alot of stuff you assume and don't point out.  Like knowing the keys are in the etscript.rtf.  I guess I'm use to having all the information to get a program running in either a readme file.  There's alot of hunting for the information needed.

[SirPoonga]

BTW, How do I get more than one rom path?

[SirPoonga]

BTW, in my opinion, I have to laugh.
You say on your site
"Well, let me tell you

[SirPoonga]

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

BTW, that's exactly what I am doing.  

I figured out why when I press a key nothing happens in the FE, I have to hold the key down for about a second, I can't just press a key.

IMHO, I think this FE will be decent once it matures.  For now it is too complicated to be practical.
Scripting is a cool feature, but the fact that you need to know the scripting in order to do any changes makes it not user friendly.  You definately need to make some wizards or sometype of redesign.

I'm pretty picky when it comes to frontends.  That's partly why I am making my own too.

[PacManFan]

Another thing I don't like, how you configure keys.  I see why you did it that way.

I'm confused, You do or you don't see why I do it that way? I think the key config is one of the easier parts. You can specify as many keys as you want to trigger the events by adding each one like:

KEYDEFS
      SCAN_LCTRL || SCAN_SPACE || JOY1_B1
END_KEYDEFS

To the event you want.

BTW, How do I get more than one rom path?

When you set up your game list, add the path to your roms before the game name. You can do this in the "Export" options.
Then, in the Launch_Game  event, change the line:
WriteToFile(mamename + " " + rompath + CurListItem(testgamelist , FILECOL) + ".zip")

To be:
WriteToFile(mamename + " " + CurListItem (testgamelist , FILECOL) + ".zip")

So you basically take out the rom path because you are specifying it in the game list file.

-PacManFan

BTW, in my opinion, I have to laugh.
You say on your site
"Well, let me tell you… I was upset by the many Front Ends I had downloaded and tested out to install on my Arcade Cabinet. Most of the Front Ends were not what I was looking for. Too Complex, Too simple, Not configurable enough, etc…"

Ok, what is to complex when compared to your FE?  Even advancemame is easier to setup and it isn't an FE!

I'm not saying it is bad, I'm just pointing that little bit of irony out.  

Lucky I do scripting for a careers, otherwise this would all be completely confusing.

Another thing I don't like, how you configure keys.  I see why you did it that way.

[SirPoonga]

I'm confused, You do or you don't see why I do it that way? I think the key config is one of the easier parts. You can specify as many keys as you want to trigger the events by adding each one like:

KEYDEFS
      SCAN_LCTRL || SCAN_SPACE || JOY1_B1
END_KEYDEFS

To the event you want.

Right, that's what I understand.  It may seem easy to you, but like I said, it RELIES on the fact that the user NEEDS to know the scripting in order to configure it.  That's isn't intuative or user friendly which means it is not easy.  That's why I don't like it.  But because of the way you setup your FE i completely understand why you did it.

BTW, How do I get more than one rom path?

When you set up your game list, add the path to your roms before the game name. You can do this in the "Export" options.
Then, in the Launch_Game  event, change the line:
WriteToFile(mamename + " " + rompath + CurListItem(testgamelist , FILECOL) + ".zip")

To be:
WriteToFile(mamename + " " + CurListItem (testgamelist , FILECOL) + ".zip")

So you basically take out the rom path because you are specifying it in the game list file.

-PacManFan

Huh?  I still don't know how to setup a gamelist.  Even with the ETConfig which still doesn't do anything, I get the listinfo creation stuff, but then nothing after that, the screen hasn't changed, no list of games, so I wonder what it actually does.

Again, another good reason to show your FE isn't easy to configure.  I understand what you are talking about but think of someone who hasn't used your FE before and comes across this thread will look at that response as a deterant to using your FE.

[SirPoonga]

Pacmanfan.  Just to make something clear.  I am not pissed off at you.  I'm only trying your FE out cause you told me too:)  To be honest, I didn't try your FE prior because I don't like the look of it.  It looks too busy.  But that won't stop me from trying it if someone asks.

I know I haven't said anything that would be considered "good".  I think all of what I said I good information.  But I haven't said what I like about it.  Well, that's in part because I haven't got by setup.  I'm sure if I can get by setup I will find something, like rotation.  BTW, rotation isn't working for me, I don't know how you rotate the image, but when I try and rotate I get stribes across the screen.  Not many people try to tackle that.

It shouldn't take hours to setup.
I followed the FAQ for etconfig.  I get nothing like what it says it is suppose to do.
"Then the catagory info is filled out and all games are listed in the grid below under the "All Games" tab. "
Nothing is listed.

[)p(]

BTW, rotation isn't working for me, I don't know how you rotate the image, but when I try and rotate I get stribes across the screen.  

ok i upgraded to 2.05. I was not sure what to keep so just replaced the old version. Can i next time only change the exe?

I got it up and running quickly with the default cfg files just like the first version. ie i did not try to change or make new gamelists...I just pointed the paths to my artwork and roms folders and it launches mame without any problems. It looks like the gamelist scrolling is a bit slower then the first version but works ok.

I had difficulties with the rotation though. i adjusted in etoptions.cfg orientation to 0 and adjusted the startupscript to mamevert.cfg. when i run emutron then it starts with an empty window and closes itself after a few seconds...maybe i missed another option i should adjust to get the rotation working?

peter

[Howard_Casto]

For the record when I tried the rotation option some wierdness occurred.  INstead of rotating the whole screen it seemed to rotate the "stage" it was on and squished the non-rotated graphics over in the corner.  A similar thing happened initially when I tried to change the screen resolution but that one worked itself out.  

Now maybe your understanding my point.... we have three programmers here and all three of us are having some difficulty setting it up.  That should say something about your ease of use claims.   Again, I'm not saying mine is easy either, but at least >p< and sirp could get it working.  

My suggestion towards the fe would be to concentrate all efforts towards the wizards and other helper apps before you go any further with the technical innovations.  It's one of the reasons I keep postponing the release of dxlaz. Right now it's fully useable and about 60% complete, but currently nobody would be able to get it running but me the setup is so complex.  So I'm going back and doing something I said I would never do.  I'm making setup wizards and intelligent error handling routines.

It's definately not the fun part, but sometimes it's necessary.    

[SirPoonga]

Yeah, I'm working on the wizard for my FE just so when I do release it I don't get too many setup questions, especially since I plan on not supporting it:)

[PacManFan]

OK everyone,
Let's see:
To address the rotation issue:
 To run EmuTron rotated to the left or right, set the Orientation flag in etoptions to be 90 or 270, That's it.. the normal mame.scr will be stretched to fit the long screen. If you don't want this stretching, use the mamevert.cfg file

However, you cannot use the mamevert.cfg when the Orientation is 0 or 180 (normal or upside down), It will cause an error.

As far as ETConfig goes, Install the program using the setup.exe file to a directory with NO SPACES in the name, or as SirPoonga described, the program will have problems importing the game list from mame.

And yes, everyone, I know that working with a scripting language can be a little confusing until your know the language. Not everyone wants to learn a new language to use a program. I'm well aware or this. The language is there for flexabilty.
    As I said before, there is a wizard / scriptwriter program that is coming shortly, that writes the scripts for you so the average user doesn't have to know a lick about the language to set it up and use it.
If writing or altering a script is too intimidating for you, you can wait for the ez-config.
-PacManFan

[SirPoonga]

OK everyone,
Let's see:
To address the rotation issue:
 To run EmuTron rotated to the left or right, set the Orientation flag in etoptions to be 90 or 270, That's it.. the normal mame.scr will be stretched to fit the long screen. If you don't want this stretching, use the mamevert.cfg file

As I said, I get striping.  Like a vertical hold not working on a TV.

As far as ETConfig goes, Install the program using the setup.exe file to a directory with NO SPACES in the name, or as SirPoonga described, the program will have problems importing the game list from mame.

No spaces, still does nothing.

[PacManFan]

What screen res / bit depth are you using? I thought I had fixed all those striping problems. Try another resolution / and - or bitdepth and see if that helps.


As far as the ETConfig not working, I'll take a look at the code. Yours is the first report of a problem with the game import.
Waht kind of system are you running?

-PacManFan

OK everyone,
Let's see:
To address the rotation issue:
 To run EmuTron rotated to the left or right, set the Orientation flag in etoptions to be 90 or 270, That's it.. the normal mame.scr will be stretched to fit the long screen. If you don't want this stretching, use the mamevert.cfg file

As I said, I get striping.  Like a vertical hold not working on a TV.

As far as ETConfig goes, Install the program using the setup.exe file to a directory with NO SPACES in the name, or as SirPoonga described, the program will have problems importing the game list from mame.

No spaces, still does nothing.

[PacManFan]

What screen res / bit depth are you using? I thought I had fixed all those striping problems. Try another resolution / and - or bitdepth and see if that helps.


As far as the ETConfig not working, I'll take a look at the code. Yours is the first report of a problem with the game import.
Waht kind of system are you running?

-PacManFan

OK everyone,
Let's see:
To address the rotation issue:
 To run EmuTron rotated to the left or right, set the Orientation flag in etoptions to be 90 or 270, That's it.. the normal mame.scr will be stretched to fit the long screen. If you don't want this stretching, use the mamevert.cfg file

As I said, I get striping.  Like a vertical hold not working on a TV.

As far as ETConfig goes, Install the program using the setup.exe file to a directory with NO SPACES in the name, or as SirPoonga described, the program will have problems importing the game list from mame.

No spaces, still does nothing.

[SirPoonga]

What screen res / bit depth are you using? I thought I had fixed all those striping problems. Try another resolution / and - or bitdepth and see if that helps.

1152x864 at 32bit at 75Hz, no, I will not change my desktop resolution to match what a program wants!

As far as the ETConfig not working, I'll take a look at the code. Yours is the first report of a problem with the game import.
Waht kind of system are you running?

PIII 500, ATI 128, 256megs of ram, XP
All I did was fill in the mame exe, the catver, and the roms dir, well, one roms dir to try it out on.
Then I clicke Get Gamelist from amme.  The listinfo capture dos window pops up then leaves.  That's it.

[)p(]

To address the rotation issue:
 To run EmuTron rotated to the left or right, set the Orientation flag in etoptions to be 90 or 270, That's it.. the normal mame.scr will be stretched to fit the long screen. If you don't want this stretching, use the mamevert.cfg file

However, you cannot use the mamevert.cfg when the Orientation is 0 or 180 (normal or upside down), It will cause an error.

as i said i tried 90 with mamevert.cfg just to make sure i also tried setting my desktop to 1024x768x16. I don't see stripes in my case emutron opens an empty window and after a few seconds it closes. All works fine with 0 and mame.cfg. I am using a geforce 4 ti 4200 under win xp.

peter

[rampy]

What screen res / bit depth are you using? I thought I had fixed all those striping problems. Try another resolution / and - or bitdepth and see if that helps.

1152x864 at 32bit at 75Hz, no, I will not change my desktop resolution to match what a program wants!

well you could change it *briefly* just to help troubleshoot the issue.  Jeez SirP I'm surprised at you.

Rampy

[SirPoonga]

well you could change it *briefly* just to help troubleshoot the issue.  Jeez SirP I'm surprised at you.

 

What should I change it to?

[PacManFan]

I just did a quick check of rotation in EmuTron,
for some reason 1152x864 doesn't work corrently. 320x200, 320x240, 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, and 1280x1024 seem to work fine in either 16bpp or 32bpp.

-PacManFan

well you could change it *briefly* just to help troubleshoot the issue.  Jeez SirP I'm surprised at you.

 

What should I change it to?

[PacManFan]

Well, that's your desktop resolution, What resolution did you specify in the etoption.cfg file?

BTW, everyone, I don't have a video card capable of support hardware rotation, so I've had to write the rotation code in software for 16bpp and 32bpp (My card doesn't supprot 24bpp for some reason). All this type of testing is exactly what I need.
-PMF

as i said i tried 90 with mamevert.cfg just to make sure i also tried setting my desktop to 1024x768x16. I don't see stripes in my case emutron opens an empty window and after a few seconds it closes. All works fine with 0 and mame.cfg. I am using a geforce 4 ti 4200 under win xp.

peter

[)p(]

i tried the default 800 600 and i tried 1024 768 in etoptions.cfg

i also tried to lower my desktop to those resolutions before launching emutron

same result the empty window for a few seconds...no rotation works ok on all resolutions.

i will try to install it on my cab later and see what happends there...

peter

[PacManFan]

Take a look at the game.log file, if any errors happened, they should be reported in there.
-PMF

i tried the default 800 600 and i tried 1024 768 in etoptions.cfg

i also tried to lower my desktop to those resolutions before launching emutron

same result the empty window for a few seconds...no rotation works ok on all resolutions.

i will try to install it on my cab later and see what happends there...

peter

[)p(]

Take a look at the game.log file, if any errors happened, they should be reported in there.
-PMF

this is what the log says:
******************
      220 : Log System initted
      220 : Inited keyboard
      220 : Inited mouse
      230 : initing joystick 1
      250 : Enumertateing Joysticks Devices
      250 : Time to compile script 3
      260 : Initing screen X:800 Y:600 BPP:32 Rotation:90
      260 : game bit depth 32
      260 : initing video
     1171 : initing script
     1171 : addfromfile C:\emu\emuarc\EmuTron\lists\categorys.lst
     1181 : addfromfile C:\emu\emuarc\EmuTron\lists\drgames.lst
     1291 : Time taken to initialize script 115
     1291 : entering runloop

[PacManFan]

Everyone, Thanks for your help in helping track down several bugs related to full screen rotation and the etconfig program. Look for another version soon that addresses these issues.

-PacManFan

[wee beastie]

Finally I've found a frontend that can easily setup game lists EASILY!!!!!!

OK, a few problems
1- When I use your default game list  for all roms there's a bug.  If I page down for an extended period of time, Emutron crashes.  I haven't noticed this on any of my custom lists, but they are also much shorter than the "all games" list.

2- Is there any way to control the brightness of the screen shot behind the game list?  It gets really tough to read sometimes

3- Is there any way to turn off the shadow effect on the game list?  this also makes it difficult to read.

4- Stupid question, but is there any way to underline the list title?  I tried editting it in the category file, but when I save, it just saves it back to a text file, so I lose all formatting.

5- You mentioned multiple emulator scripts.  I've learned a little about the scripting language and don't feel that I'll ever be able to write my own.  Can you cut and paste various lines of code that would show users how to set up daphne, u64, zinc, zsnes, etc (common emus).  That would make it much easier.

6-  Finally, I've managed to redefine keys to move thru the game lists.  It looks like I should be able to use the mouse to do this as well when I look at the code.  Is this correct?  If it is correct, I can't get the mouse to control scrolling through the list.

OK, sorry that was so long.  I just really like this FE, and would like to set it up perfectly.  It looks like I have the ability to do all these things, I just need a little help to get it set up.  All in all, I'm extremely happy with it already!!!

wee beastie

[Howard_Casto]

I think I can help some on that....  

In order to use some of those fe's with emutron your going to have to use my wrappers.  No big deal as they are realitively easy to setup.  

Also be warned that at this point emutron only supports 1 rom directory (and i'm assuming that in the new version it supports 1 rom dir per emulator) so it might not be ready for prime time as far as multiple emulators are concerned.  

I believe that pacmanfan has choosen to use the mame keycode constants to use... so check your std.ini in your ctrlr directory for mouse constants.  

[wee beastie]

thanks HC.  I actually did end up getting the mouse to work.  Seems I was wrong, it does work.  I don't think I changed anything.  I also figured out how to make the screenshots more transparent.  Unfortunately, this seems to slow down the scrolling thru the list.  Any ideas how to speed up that process?

I also managed to figure out how to remove the shadow on the game list.  For anyone wondering how to do it, search thru the mame script file for "shadow", then delete that line from the code.  Deleting the shadow and changing the transparency of the screen shot made reading the list significantly easier for me.

wee beastie

[PacManFan]

I'll try to answer all of your questions, Let's see...


1) I haven't run into this before, what game list are you using? What are your system specs?

2) There is no way to control the screen shot brightness as of yet, I'm currently working on a way to draw the text with alpha blending.

3) Yes, all text and graphics are completely configurable, in the DISPLAY event,
 you can comment out the line:
DrawTextList(testgamelist , 1 , listrect, LISTITEMSPACING , NUMBEROFLISTITEMS , CENTERLISTITEM,black,black,font1) // shadow

By putting  // in front of it.

4) I suppose you could load a bitmap with a line in it and display it on the right position on the screen. Let me know if you need some code to help you with this. I can put in some flags with the font declare, so you can do italic, bold ,underline, etc.. Look for this soon.

5) Check out the download page of EmuTron http://216.194.68.209/~admin17/
You can download a script that supports multiple front ends from there. Let me know if you need help configuring it.

6) All the keys to redefine the default input can be found in the etscript.rtf file at the bottom. The events can be triggered by more than one input by separating the keys with a ||.

more later.
-PacManFan

Finally I've found a frontend that can easily setup game lists EASILY!!!!!!

OK, a few problems
1- When I use your default game list  for all roms there's a bug.  If I page down for an extended period of time, Emutron crashes.  I haven't noticed this on any of my custom lists, but they are also much shorter than the "all games" list.

2- Is there any way to control the brightness of the screen shot behind the game list?  It gets really tough to read sometimes

3- Is there any way to turn off the shadow effect on the game list?  this also makes it difficult to read.

4- Stupid question, but is there any way to underline the list title?  I tried editting it in the category file, but when I save, it just saves it back to a text file, so I lose all formatting.

5- You mentioned multiple emulator scripts.  I've learned a little about the scripting language and don't feel that I'll ever be able to write my own.  Can you cut and paste various lines of code that would show users how to set up daphne, u64, zinc, zsnes, etc (common emus).  That would make it much easier.

6-  Finally, I've managed to redefine keys to move thru the game lists.  It looks like I should be able to use the mouse to do this as well when I look at the code.  Is this correct?  If it is correct, I can't get the mouse to control scrolling through the list.

OK, sorry that was so long.  I just really like this FE, and would like to set it up perfectly.  It looks like I have the ability to do all these things, I just need a little help to get it set up.  All in all, I'm extremely happy with it already!!!

wee beastie

[PacManFan]

In order to use some of those fe's with emutron your going to have to use my wrappers.  No big deal as they are realitively easy to setup.  

Emutron Does not need any "wrappers" as far as I know. You can launch any program you need to by modifying the "Launch_Game" event. Emutron supports multiple Emulators. An example script file can be found at:
http://216.194.68.209/~admin17/
On the downloads page.

Also be warned that at this point emutron only supports 1 rom directory (and i'm assuming that in the new version it supports 1 rom dir per emulator) so it might not be ready for prime time as far as multiple emulators are concerned.  

Also not true, Emutron supports as many rom directories as needed, It's simply a matter of exporting the correct path(s) in the "Export game list" function of the ETConfig program, and taking out one line from the "Launch_Game" event that appends a path.

I believe that pacmanfan has choosen to use the mame keycode constants to use... so check your std.ini in your ctrlr directory for mouse constants.  

The keycode / joycode / mousecodes I have defined for EmuTron are not the same as the ones found in std.ini for mame, they are named differantly, The keycodes are defined in etscript.rtf at the bottom of the document.

Howard,
     I would appreciate if you would not attempt to field questions about Emutron when it is clear that you do not know the answers.

-PacManFan

[SirPoonga]

In order to use some of those fe's with emutron your going to have to use my wrappers.  No big deal as they are realitively easy to setup.  

Emutron Does not need any "wrappers" as far as I know. You can launch any program you need to by modifying the "Launch_Game" event. Emutron supports multiple Emulators. An example script file can be found at:
http://216.194.68.209/~admin17/
On the downloads page.

Um, do you know the purpose of HC's wrappers?  You tell me how you run zinc or the older impact with your emu then...

[PacManFan]

Here's a script file that will work for Zinc:
SCRIPT_START

// this is a script for zinc

STRING emutronpath   = AppDir // appdir is a program - defined string variable that holds the application directory that this program is being run from
STRING zincpath = "C:\EMU\zinc\"
STRING zincrompath =  zincpath + "roms\"
STRING zincname  = "zinc.exe"
STRING sshotpath  = zincpath + "snap\"
STRING WavePath  = emutronpath + "sound\"
STRING backgroundfile = emutronpath + "images\bckgrnd.jpg"
STRING LnchSound  = "game.wav"
STRING NextGameSound = "select2.wav"

Rect sshotrect =(216,82,629,377) // rect for screen shots
Rect listrect =(226,102,629,377) // rect for the scrolling list of games
Rect offsetlistrect =(228,104,631,379) // 2 pixels down and to the left rect of list rect
Rect previewrect =(216,391,625,471) // rectangle for the list of screen shot previews
Rect backgroundrect =(0,0,640,480) // the whole screen

Font font1 = ("Slicker",24)
Font font2 = ("Slicker",36)

Color red = (255,0,0)
Color blue = (0,0,255)
Color green = (0,255,0)
Color black = (0,0,0)
Color white = (255,255,255)

var DESCCOL = 0 // the column for the game description
Var   ROMINDEX = 1 // the column with the index of the game to start
var ARTCOL =2 // the column for the art snapshot filename

Var PREVIEWS_HORIZONTAL = 1 // for the display preview function

Var NUMBEROFLISTITEMS = 10 // # of items
var CENTERLISTITEM    = 4 // the center item to highlight
Var LISTITEMSPACING   = 22 // pixels

Bitmap backgroundbitmap
Bitmap sshotbitmap
BitmapList gamepreviews

List gamelist

// This Event is called by the program when the script starts


EVENT Load_Current_bitmaps
   ACTIONS
      LoadBitmap(sshotbitmap,sshotpath + CurListItem(gamelist,ARTCOL) ,sshotpath + CurListItem(gamelist,ARTCOL))
      LoadPreviews(gamepreviews,gamelist,ARTCOL,sshotpath," ",ARTCOL,sshotpath," ",5)
   END_ACTIONS
END_EVENT

EVENT User_Quit
   KEYDEFS
      SCAN_ESC
   END_KEYDEFS
   ACTIONS
      SaveState() // save the current position in all lists
      ExitProgram() // exit the program
   END_ACTIONS
END_EVENT

EVENT NEXT_GAME // this is the user defined name of the event
   KEYDEFS
      SCAN_DOWN || MOUSE_DOWN
   END_KEYDEFS
   ACTIONS // list of actions
      playwave (WavePath+NextGameSound)
      NextInList(gamelist,1)
      fireevent("Load_Current_bitmaps")
   END_ACTIONS
END_EVENT

EVENT PREV_GAME // this is the user defined name of the event
   KEYDEFS
      SCAN_UP || MOUSE_UP
   END_KEYDEFS
   ACTIONS // list of actions
      playwave (WavePath+NextGameSound)
      PrevInList(gamelist,1)
      fireevent("Load_Current_bitmaps")
   END_ACTIONS
END_EVENT


EVENT PAGEDOWN_GAME // this is the user defined name of the event
   KEYDEFS
      SCAN_RIGHT
   END_KEYDEFS
   ACTIONS // list of actions
      playwave (WavePath+NextGameSound)
      NextInList(gamelist,NUMBEROFLISTITEMS)
      fireevent("Load_Current_bitmaps")
   END_ACTIONS
END_EVENT

EVENT PAGEUP_GAME // this is the user defined name of the event
   KEYDEFS
      SCAN_LEFT
   END_KEYDEFS
   ACTIONS // list of actions
      playwave (WavePath+NextGameSound)
      PrevInList(gamelist,NUMBEROFLISTITEMS)
      fireevent("Load_Current_bitmaps")
      
   END_ACTIONS
END_EVENT

EVENT LAUNCH_GAME
   KEYDEFS
      SCAN_LALT  
   END_KEYDEFS
   ACTIONS
      playwave (WavePath+LnchSound)
      SaveState()
      OpenWriteFile ("ETLaunch.bat")
      WriteToFile("cd " +zincpath)
      WriteToFile(zincname + " " + CurListItem(gamelist,ROMINDEX))
      WriteToFile("cd " + emutronpath)
      WriteToFile("emutron.exe")
      WriteToFile("exit")      
      CloseWriteFile()
      Launch("ETLaunch.bat")
      ExitProgram() // the ETLaunch.bat file reloads emutron
   END_ACTIONS
END_EVENT


// This Event is called by the program every frame for display
EVENT DISPLAY
   ACTIONS
      DisplayBitmapStretchFit(backgroundbitmap,backgroundrect)
      DisplayBitmapStretchFit(sshotbitmap,sshotrect)
      DrawTextList(gamelist,DESCCOL,listrect,LISTITEMSPACING,NUMBEROFLISTITEMS,CENTERLISTITEM,black,black,font1) // shadow
      DrawTextList(gamelist,DESCCOL,offsetlistrect,LISTITEMSPACING,NUMBEROFLISTITEMS,CENTERLISTITEM,white,red,font1) // foreground
      DrawText("All Zinc Games",font2,225,78,black)
      DrawText("All Zinc Games",font2,226,79,blue)
      DisplayPreviewList(gamepreviews,previewrect,2,red,PREVIEWS_HORIZONTAL) // horizontal
   END_ACTIONS
END_EVENT

EVENT SCSTART
   ACTIONS // list of actions
      NativeRes(640,480) // this sets the native script size so it can be stretched
      LoadList (gamelist,AppDir + "lists\zincgames.lst" ,3) // 3 columns wide of info
      LoadState() // the state file tells where we are in the list
      LoadBitmap(backgroundbitmap,backgroundfile) // load the background image
      fireevent("Load_Current_bitmaps") // fire this event off to load the game bitmaps            
   END_ACTIONS
END_EVENT

SCRIPT_END

[PacManFan]

And here is the list file "zincgames.lst" for all zinc games. Put this list file in your /lists directory and the previous posting's file in your script directory.
You need to fill in the name of the snapshot file for each game. I personally don't use Zinc, however all this will work.
The format of this list is:

GAME DESCRIPTION
ZINC INDEX #
ART FILE(SNAPSHOT) NAME

I hope this helps everyone who uses the old Emu's that refer to game index #'s instead of rom names.

-more later
-PacManFan


--------------file begin--------------------
Street Fighter EX (JP)
1
ssfex.jpg
Street Fighter EX (ASIA)
2
 
Street Fighter EX Plus (USA)
3
 
Street Fighter EX Plus (JP)
4
 
Street Fighter EX 2 (JP)
5
 
Street Fighter EX 2 PLUS (JP)
6
 
Star Gladiator 2 (JP)
7
 
Rival Schools (ASIA)
8
 
Justice Gakuen (JP)
9
 
Strider Hiryu 2 (JP)
10
 
Strider 2 (USA)
11
 
Kikaioh (JP)
12
 
Battle Arena Toshinden 2 (JP)
13
 
Tetris The Grand Master (JP)
14
 
Sonic Wings Limited (JP)
15
 
Beastorizer (bootleg)
16
 
Psychic Force (JP)
17
 
Magical Date EX (JP)
18
 
Soul Edge (JP) Ver. A
19
 
Soul Edge (JP) Ver. C
20
 
Tekken (JP) Ver. A
21
 
Tekken 2 (JP) Ver. B
22
 
Dancing Eyes (JP) Ver. A
23
 
Xevious 3D/G (JP) Ver. A
24
 
Star Sweep (JP) Ver. A
25
 
Kosodate Quiz My Angel 3 (JP) Ver. A
26
 
--------------file end--------------------

[SirPoonga]

Ok, cool, but what about a GUI emu like impact.  Yeah, zinc is the updated emu, but impact supported network play!

There are others, would have to ask HC why he made all those wrappers.  At least his impact wrapper made impact "command-line" based


You test our scripts and post them.  A normal user will not know how to do what you just posted.

[Howard_Casto]

I stand corrected.... gee now your fe is even more user unfrinedly that I originally thought.  

So you don't use ascii codes, you don't use scancodes, you don't use std.ini constants based on c++ scanblocks.  You decided to make up your own proprietary constants instead??  Is there any logic behind that at all?  

Also your still using bat files as your primary launching system which is a 20 year old technology and should be used as little as possible.  There's nothing wrong with bat files, but you never answered my question before.  Why not use an api or the famous shell command to launch apps??  It's much cleaner... frees up the memory your fe was using while the game is playing and not to mention it doesn't leave bat files everywhere.  

Also that scripting to get zinc to work is hideously over-complicated.  Notice the lack of any in script comments explaing to you what each thing means.  I suggest you download one of my wrappers and use it as a guide so that you can make your scripts user friendly.  

And finally no where in your manual that I can find does it mention the option of having multiple rom directories.  I believe at one point you even laughed at sirp in a reply and said "why would you ever need more than one rom directory" or something to that effect.  

In conclusion excuse me for trying to help.  My wrappers are still much more efficient than your bat file system.  And I suggested them so maybe you would understand that and incorporate them as virtually every other fe developer has.  They were made external so other fe developers don't have to fool with complicated launching sequences.  

So excuse me for trying to help, I won't make that mistake again.  

[Howard_Casto]

Ok, cool, but what about a GUI emu like impact.  Yeah, zinc is the updated emu, but impact supported network play!

There are others, would have to ask HC why he made all those wrappers.  At least his impact wrapper made impact "command-line" based

Exactly sirp!  The user asked about running u64emu.  U64emu(aka Kiame)  can ONLY be ran through a fe by my wrappers.  It's a gui and an unstandardized gui at that.  
You test our scripts and post them.  A normal user will not know how to do what you just posted.

[PacManFan]

Gee Howard, At 23 you seem awfully hostile and arrogant, most people take a lifetime to become that way. The bottom line is: If you don't like EmuTron, don't use it, Just don't knock it, it's that simple. I'm not talking smack about lazarus.
There are reasons why EmuTron is the way it is.
There are lots of comments in the script, most of them are at the end of lines.
I DO use scan codes as apparant in the script. And to address the issue of Batch files again, It's a simple effective way to launch any command line application with pre/post commands. I probably will incorporate the "Shell" function in the future.

I believe at one point you even laughed at sirp in a reply and said "why would you ever need more than one rom directory" or something to that effect.

The question I asked sirp was a valid one. I only have one rom directory, and I wanted to know why someone would have more than one. What makes you think I was laughing? Are you spying on me through my window?!?!?!

-PacManFan

I stand corrected.... gee now your fe is even more user unfrinedly that I originally thought.  

So you don't use ascii codes, you don't use scancodes, you don't use std.ini constants based on c++ scanblocks.  You decided to make up your own proprietary constants instead??  Is there any logic behind that at all?  

Also your still using bat files as your primary launching system which is a 20 year old technology and should be used as little as possible.  There's nothing wrong with bat files, but you never answered my question before.  Why not use an api or the famous shell command to launch apps??  It's much cleaner... frees up the memory your fe was using while the game is playing and not to mention it doesn't leave bat files everywhere.  

Also that scripting to get zinc to work is hideously over-complicated.  Notice the lack of any in script comments explaing to you what each thing means.  I suggest you download one of my wrappers and use it as a guide so that you can make your scripts user friendly.  

And finally no where in your manual that I can find does it mention the option of having multiple rom directories.  I believe at one point you even laughed at sirp in a reply and said "why would you ever need more than one rom directory" or something to that effect.  

In conclusion excuse me for trying to help.  My wrappers are still much more efficient than your bat file system.  And I suggested them so maybe you would understand that and incorporate them as virtually every other fe developer has.  They were made external so other fe developers don't have to fool with complicated launching sequences.  

So excuse me for trying to help, I won't make that mistake again.  

[Howard_Casto]

"Hi Pot, my names kettle..... Your black!" --PacManFan