Mala and Joytokey

[Skippy2k]

Has anybody got Joytokey working with Mala.

in the Pre commands box I type in c:\joytokey\joytokey.exe Snes, where Snes is my joytokey config file.

And all I get is Pre Command #1

Can you run apps before the emulator in Mala

Can any one help

[loadman]

You can indeed

For a good SNES set-up have a look at this masterpiece from UNCLET

Downlaod it here.
http://unclet.arcadecontrols.com/MalaInfo/MalaEmuSetup-v1.3.doc

[Skippy2k]

I have Zsnes set up in Mala and it works perfect.

The problem I am haveing is getting joytokey to load before the emulator loads and to select my configh file.

See I use joytokey to set one of my buttons on a ps2 style joypad to exit the game so I can get back to the frontend.

In the new beta of Mamewah all I did was put c:\joytokey\joytokey.exe Snes{nowait}{autoquit} and this worked.

The only reason I went to Mala is that with Mamewah I could not get Project64 1.7 working with it, something about my plugin not been initilise.

Anyway Mala seems to work fine apart from joy2key.

[loadman]

OK It should work.

does your set-up look lke the picture attached?

[Skippy2k]

Ya thats the same setup I have.

The problem seems to be joytokey, because it loads joytokey but it won't load the emulator until I close joytokey.

is there any addition options to use with joytokey.

I know that in mamewah I had nowait autoquit options,but tried these and the same result.

[Organic Jerk]

*bump*... anyone?

I have come across this problem as well...

[Organic Jerk]

I may not be looking in the right places but I really cannot find a solution to this issue...

Ultimately I only need joy2key for certain emulators, namely ones that only support one set of inputs (ie: epsxe, neopop), so I would like to load custom joy2key settings for those and then set it back to the default of none for mame and others where I can map the joystick itself how I would like.

It seems like with this new RC8 MaLa release a plugin for this would be the way to go...

That said, if the solution to this problem isn't already out there, I would definitely not mind donating 10-15 bucks to an experienced coder to code a joy2key plugin for mala for the community..

Any takers?

[Organic Jerk]

So I take it no one is particularly interested, eh?

Is there a solution to this problem that I missed?

[headkaze]

Have you tried

Code: [Select]

cmd.exe /C "c:\joytokey\joytokey.exe Snes"
or

Code: [Select]

start "c:\joytokey\joytokey.exe Snes"

[Organic Jerk]

Neither seemed to work when used in the pre-commands section..

And I thought having controllers for a second set of controls was such an obvious idea... how do you guys do it?

I've also tried making a bat file and using that as my shell to start up both Mala and Joytokey... to try and see if maybe having it already running would make it easier to switch settings with the commands .. but even in loading, it would load a default config that I can't change... (I created a config with the same name and it didnt get loaded)...

Makes me really frustrated that epsxe supports all but the input psemupro plugins...

I'm totally convinced a Mala plugin would totally be worth it for such a purpose...  I can't be the only one (besides Skippy) who would want something like this, can I?


EDIT:  Well I figured the issue with JtK starting with a weirdconfig when starting up before/without explorer.exe was relative to a user thing, so I tried making both mala and jtk startup processes for explorer.. 

it obviously runs fine, but when I tried putting command line entries in the pre and post commands for an emu (ei: pre="C:\jtk\joytokey.exe epsxe"  post="C:\jtk\joytokey.exe regular")  it just runs that whole "blank default config that appears from nowhere" thing, with no other configs even listed in the app..

so I imagine its running it as a whole new process...  Not only that, but with the JtK app now starting up with it (visually ugly, btw), the emu starts up in a weird "3/4 of the screen" way... so yeah I'm pretty much at wit's end with this application.

I guess I'll just wait until someone with more knowledge and experience actually has interest in this.. =P

[headkaze]

The problem could be that Mala changes the Current Directory and JoytoKey can't find the config file. The same thing happened to me with GameEx and JoytoKey for Virtua Tennis. I solved this by placing the config file for Virtua Tennis in the Virtua Tennis game folder.

So I would experiment placing the config file..

- In the Mala folder
- In the Emulator/Game folder
- In the same folder as JoytoKey (this probably won't work)

The above is determined by how Mala launches stuff.

You can find out the CD by placeing a batch file in the pre= area like so...

------- testcd.bat --------

Code: [Select]

@ECHO OFF
cd
pause

That will tell you the current directory Mala is in, try placing the JoyToKey profile/config file in that folder.

You may actually need 3 batch files, you can read my method for using JoyToKey for Virtua Tennis here. You may need to do that also.

[Organic Jerk]

I'm about to check out that thread, but so far the bat file only tells me the directory IT is in....

if I put it in C:\mala, it shows that... if I put the bat file in C:\organicjerk\, it will show that.... so I don't know what it's supposed to give me.... I may not be doing it right I guess

Just putting this here for convenience...

You need 3 batch files... one to launch PPJoykey in the background and one to launch Virtua Tennis and one to launch them both. I place both the PPJoyKey.exe and the ini file for the settings into the Virtua Tennis folder.

--- vtennis.bat (the batch file you run from your FE) ---
@ECHO OFF
start ppjoykey.bat
start virtuatennis.bat
EXIT

--- ppjoykey.bat ---
@ECHO OFF
ppjoykey.exe .\vt.ini
EXIT

--- virtuatennis.bat ---
@ECHO OFF
VIRTUA_TENNIS_PC.exe
taskkill.exe /F /IM ppjoykey.exe
EXIT

Hope this helps

So I guess this means I would have to make 3 bat files for every rom I wish to have a joytokey setup for?  That's gonna be a helluva monstrous task for all the nes, gen, snes, etc roms I have...

And where do you reccomend I put the bat, exe, and ini files?  I have my psxroms on a diferent drive than the emulators... so do I put the bat files there, or with the emu?  I'm trying different combinations but I just want your thoughts...

Thanks for the help, man...Even if this doesnt work out I still appreciate the help

[Seith]

It seems there was no definitive answer to this post...

I was struggling to get JoyToKey to work in Mala for PC games over the course of yesterday and today as well.  Good news:  I got it figured out, so I thought i'd post my method here.

The way I have my PC Games section set up is like so:

c:
/emulators
   /PC Games
      /Game1
         GameExecutable.exe
      Name Of Game.bat

Within the "Name Of Game.bat" file I just have the commandline go to the subdirectory of the game, run it, and exit.  In MALA I have an "Emulator" called "PC Games" which scans for .bat files in the directory and creates lists based on the names of the batch files.  That way I can keep full control of how my PC Games menu looks.

Anyway, with that backstory out of the way, onto how I got JoyToKey to work in that scenario.

Unzip JoyToKey into whatever directory you want it to be in (the core executable and supplementary files from the archive only need to be in one place)

Create a batch file called "JoyToKey.bat"

copy/paste this into the batch file (edit in your path to joytokey):

@echo off
start c:\whatever_your_joytokey_directory_is\joytokey.exe "%1"
exit

Now go into MALA and select your "Other" emulator and configure the "Pre" command to look like this:

JoyToKey.bat "%rom%.cfg"

And add a "Post" command as follows:

taskkill /im joytokey.exe

Now... here's the part that kept tripping me up.  When you run JoyToKey to create your .cfg files for whatever games you want, the files that you configure show up in your JoyToKey directory.  You need to make a copy of those files and place the copy in your MALA folder where the batch file is located that you created.  If you move the files, it won't work.  There needs to be an exact copy of each file in both directories.

[mike boss]

I'm a novice so I'm sorry if this question is stupid.
I'm in the process of working on my next arcade project.
PC will be running MAME, MaLa and various console emulators.
I'll be using an Ipac and had no planned on changing the pre-configured settings (which are set for MAME).
I need a solution for other emulators that require different keys.
From what I can tell Joytokey is the solution.

(a) has anyone found perhaps pre set up configuration files we can use
(b) I've never uses the pre/post command option in Mala - does it simply call up the project, or some form of saved setting that will allow things to work correct ?

[mike boss]

I should also ask as I've never used this program before.
Do you have to configure each specific game ?
Or can you configure the program for the specific emulator ?
For example I will be running Street Fighter IV Arcade -so I would assume I need to configure that to match the likes of the Ipac. But for the Turbo Grafx emulator can I not just set it up one way ? (so that it matches the ipac).
Again novice question I know, but I'm lost. Pre, post, batch, etc ................... I'm lost !

[harveybirdman]

It seems there was no definitive answer to this post...

I was struggling to get JoyToKey to work in Mala for PC games over the course of yesterday and today as well.  Good news:  I got it figured out, so I thought i'd post my method here.

The way I have my PC Games section set up is like so:

c:
/emulators
   /PC Games
      /Game1
         GameExecutable.exe
      Name Of Game.bat

Within the "Name Of Game.bat" file I just have the commandline go to the subdirectory of the game, run it, and exit.  In MALA I have an "Emulator" called "PC Games" which scans for .bat files in the directory and creates lists based on the names of the batch files.  That way I can keep full control of how my PC Games menu looks.

Anyway, with that backstory out of the way, onto how I got JoyToKey to work in that scenario.

Unzip JoyToKey into whatever directory you want it to be in (the core executable and supplementary files from the archive only need to be in one place)

Create a batch file called "JoyToKey.bat"

copy/paste this into the batch file (edit in your path to joytokey):

@echo off
start c:\whatever_your_joytokey_directory_is\joytokey.exe "%1"
exit

Now go into MALA and select your "Other" emulator and configure the "Pre" command to look like this:

JoyToKey.bat "%rom%.cfg"

And add a "Post" command as follows:

taskkill /im joytokey.exe

Now... here's the part that kept tripping me up.  When you run JoyToKey to create your .cfg files for whatever games you want, the files that you configure show up in your JoyToKey directory.  You need to make a copy of those files and place the copy in your MALA folder where the batch file is located that you created.  If you move the files, it won't work.  There needs to be an exact copy of each file in both directories.

Seith can you talk a bit more about this solution?  It sounds like you have per game joy2key cfg's for your PC games.  I assume your fix will work if I just have one cfg for an enitre platform (zsnes, fusion, etc)

I get the batch file, can you extrapolate a bit more on where everything goes?

[mike boss]

Re-reading this post I have a few other questions.
Does one simply create a file for each specific emulator with the required configuration ?
Then use the pre/post command to call upon (not sure of how to word it) the file and register the settings ?