Mamewah and V_Pinball

[MPTech]

I just about got MAMWAH setup properly and have now built some filtered lists (that WIKI is GREAT!  Thanks guys!)

I was attempting to setup my Virtual _Pinaball and have created the .ini and using the wrapper from Lazarus.  When I'm in MAMWAH, it lets me select V_Pinball, and shows me my list of Tables, but when I select a table and hit the Player-1, it attempts to launch, then the screen goes completely Black  and it's difficult to exit out of.

Any suggestions?

Also, is there a way to get screen shots of the tables (like the MAME games?)

I'm running:
MAME   v0.104
MAMEWAH  v1.6.1
V_Pinball  v1.0.0.3

(is there any easy way to upgrade MAMEWAH??

[whatisk]

You may need to experiment with the variations of dosbox and safelaunch within the pinball.ini file (or whatever it may be called) of mamewah. I think there may be a thread somewhere that lists my mamewah ini file for VP.

I'm not aware of somewhere where you can download a pack containing screenshots of the tables, but you could download them individually from http://www.vpforums.com/vptables as they have screenshots of the tables they host. Otherwise you might need to create your own...

[MPTech]

Well, I changed "dosbox" (I need to learn what that is).  no luck.
I also read in some other topics to set all of the values to 0, tht helped, I now get the "say no to drugs screen" but it hangs there and it is VERY hard to get out of it.

I also loaded some screen shots to a dedicated folder and idetified it in the path, but no luck there either.

further suggestions, please.

here's my ini:
### V_Pinball.ini (mamewah v1.61) ###

emulator_title                            Visual Pinball

### List Generation Settings ###
rom_path                                  K:\Pinball\Tables
rom_extension                             vpt
dat_file                                 
nms_file                                 
catver_ini_file                           
list_generation_method                    rom_folder

### Execution Settings ###
emulator_executable                       K:\Pinball\Tables\vp-launch4.exe
commandline_format                        [name]{nodosbox}{nosafelaunch}
alt_commandline_format_1                  [name]
alt_commandline_format_2                  [name]
game_specific_config_path                 

### Artwork Locations ###
artwork_1_image_path                      K:\Pinball\Tables
artwork_2_image_path                      K:\Pinball\Tables Screenshot
artwork_3_image_path                     
artwork_4_image_path                     
artwork_5_image_path                     
artwork_6_image_path                     
artwork_7_image_path                     
artwork_8_image_path                     
artwork_9_image_path                     
artwork_10_image_path                     
movie_preview_path                       
movie_artwork_no                          0

### Screen-Saver Settings ###
enable_music_in_screensaver               0
saver_type                                slideshow
movie_path                               
movie_fullscreen                          0
quit_delay                                30
wrapper_executable                       
wrapper_commandline_format                [name]
scr_file                                 

### External Application Settings ###
ipc_file_or_path                         
app_1_executable                         
app_1_commandline_format                 
app_2_executable                         
app_2_commandline_format                 
app_3_executable                         
app_3_commandline_format                 
auto_launch_apps                         

### Additional Settings ###
music_path                               
lcd_display_file_path                     
lcd_fe_text                               

### Settings used by MAMEWAH ###
current_list                              0

[whatisk]

Okay, here's my ini file which works for me:

Code: [Select]

### x_vpinball.ini (mamewah v1.61) ###

emulator_title                            Visual Pinball

### List Generation Settings ###
rom_path                                  C:\Pinball\tables
rom_extension                             vpt
dat_file                                 
nms_file                                 
catver_ini_file                           
list_generation_method                    rom_folder

### Execution Settings ###
emulator_executable                       C:\Pinball\tables\vp-launch4.exe
commandline_format                        [name]{nodosbox}{nosafelaunch}{cursor}
alt_commandline_format_1                  [name]
alt_commandline_format_2                  [name]
game_specific_config_path                 

### Artwork Locations ###
artwork_1_image_path                      c:\pinballscreen
artwork_2_image_path                      c:\pinballflyers
artwork_3_image_path                     
artwork_4_image_path                     
artwork_5_image_path                     
artwork_6_image_path                     
artwork_7_image_path                     
artwork_8_image_path                     
artwork_9_image_path                     
artwork_10_image_path                     
movie_preview_path                       
movie_artwork_no                          1

### Screen-Saver Settings ###
enable_music_in_screensaver               0
saver_type                                slideshow
movie_path                               
movie_fullscreen                          1
quit_delay                                30
wrapper_executable                       
wrapper_commandline_format                [name]
scr_file                                 

### External Application Settings ###
ipc_file_or_path                         
app_1_executable                         
app_1_commandline_format                 
app_2_executable                         
app_2_commandline_format                 
app_3_executable                         
app_3_commandline_format                 
auto_launch_apps                         

### Additional Settings ###
music_path                               
lcd_display_file_path                     
lcd_fe_text                               

### Settings used by MAMEWAH ###
current_list                              0

When I first tried I thought it may have been hanging as well. I timed a couple of tables loading times just through VP and then tried them using the wrapper as some tables take a while to load everything.

With the screenshots, are they named the same as the .vpt table file? If not, they won't be displayed in Mamewah.

[unclet]

I uploaded 1386 screenshots for Visual Pinball tables to the ScreenshotArchive site:

http://localarcade.com/screenshotarchive/

Just download them and use them .......   

[MPTech]

Got the screenshots working!   VERY COOL!!!  THANKS!

but I still haven't gotten the tables to launch.  it goes to the "Winners don't do drugs" screen and hangs.  then it is very difficult to exit out of and the desktop and cursor go "black".  (very hard to exit with the mouse, usually resort to tabbing my way thru the menus).

I copied the ini you provided (changing the paths, but no luck)

[whatisk]

I have found when exiting tables it's best to hold ESC down until Mamewah comes back. Sometimes if you just tap ESC it doesn't quite get through the screens to exit and I have to press ESC again.

I'm guessing you've got the vp-launch4.exe in your tables folder. Ah, I see that it is definitely in your tables folder by looking at your ini above...  Is there a subfolder in your tables folder called vplcfgs with just an ini file in it (I'm pretty sure it's to do with vp-launch also, though I have remnants of Jcrouse's wrapper in my tables folder also).

Bypassing Mamewah for a moment, if you run vp-launch4 directly from the tables folder and select a table from within there does it load okay?

I know that for me this was the most frustrating thing to get working (followed by daphne) as I tried both Howards vp-launch and the wrapper at Jcrouse's website. As I got Howards working okay, I stuck with that. It was one of those things that just suddenly started working. And once it was, I never touched that ini file again 

[MPTech]

yep, I've got the vplcfgs file in the Tables folder with the vp-launch-4.

I tried executing the vp-launch-4 and a screen came up (kind of a config/settings screen).  I couldn't get VP to launch from there, was it supposed to?  maybe my problem is with the vp-launch-4. (I didn't know what it was supposed to do).  I can launch VPinball.exe and select and play a table.

Are other emu's this hard? (I've also got some Atari, NES, SNES, SEGA, etc ROMs I wanted to setup next).

I like the features of MAMWAH, but it's been a struggle to get anything to work.

[whatisk]

I tried executing the vp-launch-4 and a screen came up (kind of a config/settings screen).  I couldn't get VP to launch from there, was it supposed to?  maybe my problem is with the vp-launch-4. (I didn't know what it was supposed to do).  I can launch VPinball.exe and select and play a table.

Yep, should look like a config/settings screen and at the bottom should be a list of your tables in a scrollable list. If you double click on one, the table should launch (get the FBI screen and then the table appear after a bit). As I said, when initially seeing if it was working I found it beneficial to time how long the table took to load directly through VP and then give it an extra couple of seconds when trying through the wrapper. That way I had more of an idea if it was working or not. I found that things seemed to go quicker when you could see the loading progress bar that VP displays compared to staring at a static screen.

Are other emu's this hard? (I've also got some Atari, NES, SNES, SEGA, etc ROMs I wanted to setup next).

Not sure on that one. In my cab I only have Mame, VP, Daphne and SKJukebox.

I like the features of MAMWAH, but it's been a struggle to get anything to work.

Mamewah was definitely a steep learning curve for me, but I'm glad I persevered and managed to get it all working okay 

[unclet]

I would recommend to use the MALA frontend ..... does everything MameWah does (and much more) and it offers a very easy GUI setup.  You can also use the same MameWah layouts in it as well ......

Anyway, to answer your question ....  most of all emulators are pretty straightforward to set up .... the ones which could take a bit to configure are as follows:

Commodore Amiga: (using headKaze's UAEConfiguration tool to create all the UAE files makes this a breeze, however, I have concluded that I should have skipped this emulator since there are not that many games which I could actually get working..... which are cabinet-friendly) 
 
Daphne:  I was told some people have a hard time with this one...

Sega Dreamcast: Using headKaze's Chankast wrapper makes this a breeze .. it just took me a long time to figure out it existed.  (Note: This is not the same wrapper from the CPViewer site).  Although, I eventually found out that since I was using onboard video, then the game display does not work properly for me ..... after all my work, I can not really play any games.   I was told that the games should display somewhat nicely (ie: playable) is you use a good video card instead.

Sony Playstation: I have not tried to configure this emulator, but I heard it could be challenging as well

[ppilot]

yep, I've got the vplcfgs file in the Tables folder with the vp-launch-4.

I tried executing the vp-launch-4 and a screen came up (kind of a config/settings screen).  I couldn't get VP to launch from there, was it supposed to?  maybe my problem is with the vp-launch-4. (I didn't know what it was supposed to do).  I can launch VPinball.exe and select and play a table.

Are other emu's this hard? (I've also got some Atari, NES, SNES, SEGA, etc ROMs I wanted to setup next).

I like the features of MAMWAH, but it's been a struggle to get anything to work.

I had a similar problem.  Not sure if it's the same, but I outlined the fix in this thread:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=45758.0

[MPTech]

OK, that was a help.  I think I know what the problem is now and I'm close (but still not quite there).

The first thing I tried was selecting a Table (clicking a .vpt file).  That didn't work, Windows didn't know how to open the file (no association(?).  Then I launched VP-Launch-4.exe and double clicked a table there (I didn't think of selecting a table the last time (doh!)).  Again, same message, no program associated to .vpt.
btw, if I launch VPinball and select a table (file\open) it works just fine!

OK, so I'm thinking it wasn't setup properly several months ago when I installed it.  It's a nice Saturday evening in the air-conditioning, so I decided to completely re-install it.  I read your post thoroughly and went to the site, downloaded the files and proceeded to do exactly as they said. (when I installed it before, I put in on a different logical drive and foldername).  I have the PC setup as dual-boot, so XP is on my D: drive along with all of the OS.  I'm assuming that D: vs. C: doesn't matter, but I used the exact naming conventions and locations for everything else.    I did get confused about the \Program Files\Visual Pinball\Tables   as opposed to the VPinMAME\Tables (the issue discussed at the bottom of your thread).  I tried it the first way and it didn

[unclet]

On my computer, the "VPT" file extension has a "File Association" to the Visual Pinball application.  Since I did not manually set this, I am assuming Visual Pinball created this association automatically upon installation.  Not sure why your computer does not have this association

You could always ask this question in the VP Forum as well:

http://www.vpforums.com/

[MPTech]

I think I determined to root of my problem.
I was having problems with my accounts (don't ask how it got screwed up) but the Account I am using does not have Admin rights.  When I log in as as Admin to grant it Admin privliges, it does not appear in the list, if I try to add an account, it says that it already exists!!!!  (something is hosed)  When I get this sorted out, I'll try to re-install it, but I think this is causing my head-aches.

[MPTech]

yep, I believe that was the problem.
I abondended the "limited" account because I think it was not fully installing things.
I un-installed Visual Pinball and re-installed it on the "Admin" account.  when I double clicked a .vpt file, it launched just fine.  I re-setup my MAMWAH .ini files and it works correctly now.

I'm liking MAMEWAH more and more, now I need to read up on changing the layout files next.