MAMEWAH v0.95b Released!

[Minwah]

I've just uploaded this new version, so please feel free to try it out...

As I expect most of you know, this one's a beta, and will have bugs, and doesn't have an updated readme (I hate that part).  So I would suggest MAMEWAH regulars try this version, and others (n00bs especially) wait for the next (better tested) version.

I've had to leave some stuff out, and it is a little more tricky to setup than before.  The 'Whats New' tells you what has changed, but not neccessarily how to use the new/changed feature(s), so you may have to drop me a mail.  I will try and make a FAQ after a while, I suspect a lot of the same Q's will pop up.

Please read the junk on the download page before grabbing...

http://mamewah.mameworld.net

Of course feedback / bug reports would be appreciated...I have not been able to test this one as much as I would have liked.

[SirPoonga]

I guess I am being dense today.  Can I modify key assignments?

[Minwah]

Yes.  Just beware that the old 'shifted' controls have changed...atm you can only specify 1 key assignments.

Sorry, you weren't dense, I just neglected to put any details of what is actually new.  See the attached:

[radiator]

whoo!

the Layout Designer is cool....but it crashes when minimized (Run-time error '380': Invalid property value)

...and in XP you can't use '/' for paths (also causes a crash)

...and what happened to the 'Display Game Info' option? where can I obtain/how do I create a DAT file to display game info?

 

[KevSteele]

Very nice! Thanks for releasing the new version!

Of course, as soon as I started trying to set it up I ended up baffled. I'm going to take a few aspirin and try again.

It looks like there are a lot of great changes, but it also looks like it's going to take some work to figure it all out and get it set up.

I'm going to have to set aside an evening to figure it all out. Should be worth it.

Kevin

[Minwah]

whoo!

the Layout Designer is cool....but it crashes when minimized (Run-time error '380': Invalid property value)

...and in XP you can't use '/' for paths (also causes a crash)

...and what happened to the 'Display Game Info' option? where can I obtain/how do I create a DAT file to display game info?

 

Thanks for spotting those bugs.

Create a DAT by doing 'mame -listinfo > mame.dat' at a commandline, and then point to this in MAMEWAH.  Then refresh the list and you should have all the info - it should display itself by default.

I removed the 'Display Game Info' option, as I thought you would hide/show this stuff in the layout...but I suppose it may be nice to be able to show/hide this info whenever you like (?).

[Minwah]

Very nice! Thanks for releasing the new version!

Of course, as soon as I started trying to set it up I ended up baffled. I'm going to take a few aspirin and try again.

It looks like there are a lot of great changes, but it also looks like it's going to take some work to figure it all out and get it set up.

I'm going to have to set aside an evening to figure it all out. Should be worth it.

Kevin

Yep, sorry, it is a bit more tricky this time around.  Some of the stuff is not obvious either

Read the part about the DAT file in my post above - I suspect this will be the question asked most.

Oh another tip I forgot:  Type the 'Emulator Executable' in first when setting up - it will then try to 'figure' what to use for DAT / NMS / CatVer / ROM path / Snap path / Logo image / No snap image.

NB when using >1 type of artwork, it seems these images may be placed 'behind' the background image (if you're using one).  I've fixed this but am waiting for a while for more bugs before I release an update.

[radiator]

I removed the 'Display Game Info' option, as I thought you would hide/show this stuff in the layout...but I suppose it may be nice to be able to show/hide this info whenever you like (?).

sorry, just me being dumb (never had to create a DAT file before)

i say just leave the 'Display Game Info' option out (now that I know about DAT files )
just needs some documentation...but if anyones like me, i fiddle first, read docs when i can't figure something out...!

[GeoffE]

Pardon my ignorance, but what is an NMS file?

  - Geoff

[Minwah]

just needs some documentation...but if anyones like me, i fiddle first, read docs when i can't figure something out...!

I think almost everyone does it that way round to be honest (I know I do).

But yeah, I just hate doing the docs.  Plus, as I plan to release a slightly better version soon it seemed a bit pointless doing a readme when I'll probably have to change it again soon.  Right now I'm happier answering people's mails

[Minwah]

Pardon my ignorance, but what is an NMS file?

  - Geoff

That's what I thought  

I believe it originates from ArcadeOS...it is a file which holds game descriptions, against game romnames (short filenames).  This is actually very handy for emulators which use shortfilenames, ie when you cannot tell easily what a game is by it's romname.  Like MAME, except MAME has stuff like -listinfo which you can extract the descriptions from.

Atari 2600 ROMs usually seem to be in this format, here is an example from a 2600 NMS file:

32 in 1 Game|32in1
3-D Tic-Tac-Toe|3d_tic
Acid Drop|Aciddrop
Action Man|Actionmn
Adventures of Tron|Advntron
Adventure|ADVNTURE
Air Raiders|Air_raid
Air-Sea Battle|Air_sea
Air Raiders|Airaidrs
Airlock|Airlock

Probably not as much use as in the DOS days, but still useful to some perhaps...

[grounded]

Thank You. I have everything setup perfect, no problems, multiple artwork looks great!

Only thing I'm still stuck on the the "renaming" feature for console snapshots. I have the correct path= "C:\nes\snaps\?_02.png" but none of the snaps show up or get renamed.

Keep up the good work!

[Minwah]

Thank You. I have everything setup perfect, no problems, multiple artwork looks great!

Only thing I'm still stuck on the the "renaming" feature for console snapshots. I have the correct path= "C:\nes\snaps\?_02.png" but none of the snaps show up or get renamed.

Keep up the good work!

This feature of MAMEWAH is designed to re-name snaps if you have just taken a snap when playing a game.  ie play a game, take a snap, quit game, MAMEWAH re-names for you.

I am not sure if this is how you are using it, or if you just have a bunch of snaps in your folder you want re-named.  Actually,
even if the latter, I don't see why it wouldn't work as long as you actually load each game up.

Then again, it could just be broken in this new release - I'll check it.

[KevSteele]

Oh another tip I forgot:  Type the 'Emulator Executable' in first when setting up - it will then try to 'figure' what to use for DAT / NMS / CatVer / ROM path / Snap path / Logo image / No snap image.

Thanks! I suspect that'll prove to be an extremely handy tip!

[Onkel_Tom]

Hello Minwah,

I'm sure I'm doing some dumb mistake, but I can't figure it out:
My problem: No Snapshots are displayed

I have e.g.
C:\MAME\ROMS\GALAGA.ZIP and
C:\MAME\SNAP\GALAGA.PNG

Emulator Settings - Misc Settings - Artwork #1 Image Path -> C:\MAME\SNAP

Is anything else missing?

BTW: Even the MAMEWAH-NO SNAP.PNG is not displayed!?

Thanks for your help, Thomas

[Minwah]

Are you using your own layout, or one of the standard 'Classic' ones?  If you are using your own, are you using a background image?

Edit: Just to say your setup does look fine...

[Onkel_Tom]

Are you using your own layout, or one of the standard 'Classic' ones?  If you are using your own, are you using a background image?

No, I'm using Classic 1024x768.lay.
But anyway, I will test this evening at home on my "real" MAME-Machine (actually, I'm using my laptop at work :-)
If I'm facing further problems, I will come back
Thomas

P.S.
Your FE looks pretty cool, good work; can't wait to see how it works with ArcadeVGA in my cab.

[Minwah]

I wonder did you run the setup on your laptop, or just copy the MAMEWAH folder over?

If you did not run the install, then a DLL required to display the images will not exist and the images will not display.  Actually I did exactly this earlier and the same happened.  Just a possibility...

Glad you like the look of it btw

[Zakk]

Awesome, a new MameWah!  

Okay, quick questions before I even get to the 'whatsnew'.

How do I get rid of the clones, and the non working parents?

How do I get that cool 'menu locked hold down p2 to unlock' to come on by default?

How do I get the mp3's playing while browsing (too cool).

I think that's it.  Rock on MinWah!!  

[Zakk]

Okay, got the mp3's working...(how did I miss that?).

The layout editor is very nice, but is there any way to change the colors in the editor itself? everything from the 640X480 layout and up is black on black, and It's a bit tricky to figure out where everything is going to be when you fire it up.  Sorry, you were looking for bugs/questions right?

Man, I'm giddy as a schoolgirl...

[radiator]

How do I get rid of the clones, and the non working parents?

you'll need to create a custom list for that:

Load MAMEwah
press '2' to get the menu up
select 'Game List Options' -> 'Select Custom List' then use 'Custom List 1' (or whichever you want)
press '2' to just back a level
then goto 'Generate Custom List using Filters'

from there you can set which games should appear in this list (more filters too; clones, year, manufacturer, BIOS, screen type, input type, general status, colour status, sound status...)

 

[Zakk]

Holy smokes!  Did you say a FEW more filter options???  

I gotta hand it to you Minwah, if I wasn't your biggest fan before (oh and I may have been!), I am now, and thanks for the tip rad!

[Minwah]

How do I get that cool 'menu locked hold down p2 to unlock' to come on by default?

Sorry, you can't atm (I hadn't thought of it).  Anyone else want this option?...

Thanks for answering the other one radiator

Zakk, I know what you mean about the black on black.  For now what I have been doing is change the background color to say grey, fiddle around with the layout, and then change back to black afterwards.

Maybe I should change the color of the objects borders when it happens to be the same as the background...that would work I think.

Glad you like it Zakk, and thanks for the feedback everyone - very helpful  

[dknight]

 

I finally got a chance to install 0.95b last night and I just want to thank Minwah for all the fantastic new features.  It also looks as if my two questions/comments have already been answered:

1)  Is it possible to set up filters for the gamelists.
2)  It would be nice if the borders around the objects in the layout editor were not black when you have a black background (which is the default if you pick one of the larger classic default layouts)

It was very easy to set up after I had created my DAT file.  I have it set up with three artwork objects (Marquee, Snaps, and Titles).  Once I get the filters going it will be PERFECT.

Thanks again, Minwah!

-Dave

[dknight]

I just had a chance to play around with the MameWah 0.95b filters.  They work very well!

One question:  It looks like you don't support all of the categories that catver.ini supports.  For example, I was able to block out all "Adult" titles using EmuTron's catver.ini category support.

It would be nice if all categories were supported, but I may have something configured incorrectly....

Thanks again!

-Dave

[Howard_Casto]

I can answer this one (sorta)  are you using catver.ini or triggerfin's catver.ini.  The categories are different but tirggerfin's is far superior as the game cats are more detailed and accurate.  In the official catver the adult tag is "adult" (it's never accurate btw and often misses several adult games)  but in the catlist it's a normal category with a "*mature*" tacked on the end.  

[Minwah]

I can answer this one (sorta)  are you using catver.ini or triggerfin's catver.ini.  The categories are different but tirggerfin's is far superior as the game cats are more detailed and accurate.  In the official catver the adult tag is "adult" (it's never accurate btw and often misses several adult games)  but in the catlist it's a normal category with a "*mature*" tacked on the end.  

Thanks Howard, I think the same  

[Onkel_Tom]

I wonder did you run the setup on your laptop, or just copy the MAMEWAH folder over?

If you did not run the install, then a DLL required to display the images will not exist and the images will not display.  Actually I did exactly this earlier and the same happened.  Just a possibility...

Minwah,
you're exactly right, of course. I did not install but just unpack the files, so the DLL was missing.
I did a "normal" install on my cab and the proggie runs fine and the pics are displayed.
Pretty cool piece of software BTW.
One problem I faced was that running Classic 640x480.lay (on Hantarex 15KHz Mon with ArcadeVGA) displayed O.K. (with slight flickering of course) but the Classic 640x288.lay didn't display anything but black screen.
Seems that I have to twiggle around with some settings tonight.
Thanks, Thomas

[Minwah]

One problem I faced was that running Classic 640x480.lay (on Hantarex 15KHz Mon with ArcadeVGA) displayed O.K. (with slight flickering of course) but the Classic 640x288.lay didn't display anything but black screen.
Seems that I have to twiggle around with some settings tonight.

I am not sure what this problem is, it *should* work (myself and some other users have it running OK)...have a play around and let me know how ya get on.

[Onkel_Tom]

Hi Minwah,
found some minor bugs:

When I use the cool Layout Desinger and change something, the local Windows Country Settings apply, e.g. a value of original 9.75 changes to 9,75 (the corresponding German setting). These settings are form the ...LAY-File.
This is resulting in Run-Time-Error 13, Type Mismatch
My solution is to open the LAY-file in texteditor, search and replace "," with "." and it works.

Another point:
In Layout-Designer, menu Display Objects - Main Form
I can choose from Artwork Image #1 to #10
In the corresponding CFG-File these settings are named Artwork #0 Image Path to #9

Cheers, Thomas

[Minwah]

Thanks Onkel,

Does the Run Time Error 13 occur when you run MAMEWAH?  Does it also happen if you re-open the LAY file in the Layout Designer?

I'll change the image no.'s in the CFG file tonight.

[Onkel_Tom]

My wording was a bit confusing:
I get the Run Time Error in MAMEWAH, but the "faultily" LAY-file can be opened without problems in the Layout Designer.
Each time I open and save a LAY file the "."-values are replaced with "," e.g.
...
1024
 768
 986895

 1
 10485760
 16777215
True
 0
 8421504
 16777215
System
True
False
 9,75   <-- HERE
 2
...

It definitively comes from the coutry-specific settings.
If I go (in Win2000) Start - Settings - Control Panel - Regional OPtions - Tab. 'Numbers' and change "Decimal Settings" to "." the LAY-file is saved correctly and of course no Run-Time-Error
[But now my Excel fails :-) ]

[dknight]

Howard/Minwah,

Thanks for the suggestion.  I was indeed using an old catver.ini file (probably an official one).

I grabbed the latest triggerfish one and overwrote my file but I'm still seeing the same categories as before.  Do I need to do something to force a refresh?

Thanks.

-Dave

[Minwah]

My wording was a bit confusing:
I get the Run Time Error in MAMEWAH, but the "faultily" LAY-file can be opened without problems in the Layout Designer.
Each time I open and save a LAY file the "."-values are replaced with "," e.g.
...
1024
 768
 986895

 1
 10485760
 16777215
True
 0
 8421504
 16777215
System
True
False
 9,75   <-- HERE
 2
...

It definitively comes from the coutry-specific settings.
If I go (in Win2000) Start - Settings - Control Panel - Regional OPtions - Tab. 'Numbers' and change "Decimal Settings" to "." the LAY-file is saved correctly and of course no Run-Time-Error
[But now my Excel fails :-) ]

Thanks, I understand.  This bug follows on from the previous version - the problem is I programmed MAMEWAH to expect font sizes to be a 'single' (decimal number).  With the decimal symbol set as ',' (Belgium, France & Holland use this too), this is no longer technically a decimal number, rather a string.

I wanted to check if it opened alright in the designer, as this is programmed differently, it accepts the value regardless of it's type (so it's good that it works!).

I'll fix that soon, and very impressive detective work btw!

[Minwah]

Howard/Minwah,

Thanks for the suggestion.  I was indeed using an old catver.ini file (probably an official one).

I grabbed the latest triggerfish one and overwrote my file but I'm still seeing the same categories as before.  Do I need to do something to force a refresh?

Thanks.

-Dave

Yes, just refresh your games list, then the new categories should take effect...

[Minwah]

Thanks, I understand.  This bug follows on from the previous version - the problem is I programmed MAMEWAH to expect font sizes to be a 'single' (decimal number).  With the decimal symbol set as ',' (Belgium, France & Holland use this too), this is no longer technically a decimal number, rather a string.

What I said here is wrong, I had forgotten I reprogrammed that part

I still overlooked something, but I'm 99% sure I have fixed it now

[Minwah]

Grounded: in case you didn't see in the other thread - the Snap Renaming feature doesn't work this v...fixed next

[Zakk]

Okay, I've got a bug that's driving me nuts...I've tried this on 3 cabs now, 2 with XP one with ME.  If mamewah goes into screensaver (such as slideshow), when you return to the game selection screen, selecting a game locks mamewah up, although it does launch the game in the background.  So if you use taskmanager to shut down mamewah, the game runs.  When you exit the game, mamewah is gone, so you get dumped to desktop.  Trying to set the screensaver type to 'blackscreen' gets me a runtime error (9??), and crashes to desktop (although I've only tested this error on one system).  If mamewah doesn't go into any kind of screensaver, or mp3 background music, I don't get the error....any ideas?

[anthony691]

It is a AWESOME piece of software!

now, Minwah, what happened to my old Favs list? Did it write over it? I would be down and out if it did (I had ~300 games on it).

[anthony691]

Hmmm... would it be possible to make it so the MP3 player thing for navigation et al to be able to browse sub-directorys?