Cabinet startup options

[reko19]

For years I've been going thru a standard computer startup every time the machine is turned on. After everything loads I would click on Mamewah icon to get going. Is there a way to display an intro video right after XP startup screen while OS is loaded and then automatically start Mamewah? I did a quick search and found a bunch of posts for emulator intro video, did not come across anything for the PC  startup. I suppose I could drop Mamewah into startup  folder to get it started automatically, does not seem like a good solution. Thanks. 

[SephYuyX]

If youre simply wanting to play a movie, and then run a program, that can easily be done via a batch file placed in the startup folder. And there is nothing wrong with using the startup folder.

For example, create a blank .txt and place it in C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Start Menu\Programs\Startup and you can write something like..

START C:\Video.avi
PING 127.0.0.1 -n 20
START C:\Mamewah.exe

Save it, and change the extension to .bat.

It will run when windows boots up. There is no real wait command (you can do google searches for other alternatives) so you use the ping command to specify a wait, so change 20 to however long you want to wait.

With the start command you can also specifiy different commands to run full screen, etc.


If youd rather not use the startup folder, you can create a scheduled task in the control panel and select the 'when my computer starts' option.

[reko19]

This is easy enough. I was hoping to have a video while the rest of the XP stuff is loading. You know, that first 30-40 sec while you are standing in front of the cab waiting.

[mr_doles]

There is no real wait command (you can do google searches for other alternatives)

I think that sleep.exe would be good for that.  You can get it here.  Put it in your windows directory then just do sleep 20.

Who says DOS is dead.

[Paladin]

There is a /wait parameter for the start command that won't execute the next statement until the first program finishes.

START C:\Video.avi /WAIT
START C:\Mamewah.exe

Would that work, or would it never execute mamewah because the .avi would start media player which wouldn't exit after playing the vid?  Interesting...

Well that didn't work.  I just created a batch file with:
START D:\downloads\08_-_Milk_Cow_Blues.mp3 /WAIT
START D:\games\mame\mala\mala.exe

It started mala right away, before media player had a chance to load and start playing the song.

[protokatie]

You can use the program called Process.exe to kill a task as well.

Start c:\vid.avi
ping 127.0.0.1 -n 31 >nul
process.exe /k <media player name>
Start C:\mamewah.exe

The ping just pings your network card 31 times once a second giving a 30 second delay.

Process.exe is freeware and can be gotten:
http://www.beyondlogic.org/consulting/processutil/processutil.htm

[mr_doles]

There is a /wait parameter for the start command that won't execute the next statement until the first program finishes.

Would that work, or would it never execute mamewah because the .avi would start media player which wouldn't exit after playing the vid?  Interesting...

It does work but will not go to the next line because media player will not exit.  Syntax would be:
START /WAIT wmplayer.exe "J:\Music\Full CDs\3 Doors Down\3 Doors Down\01 Train.mp3"
START D:\games\mame\mala\mala.exe

[reko19]

this might work as well, what do you think?
http://download.cnet.com/Startup-Delayer/3000-2344_4-10068235.html

still, does not really help with what I wanted to do, i.e. have a start up video while everything else loads in the background

[SephYuyX]

Items in the start up menu should start the second XP is logged in to (or if youre bypassing the login screen, around the same time the start menu/wallpaper start popping up), anything earlier isnt possible, unless one of the boot screen editors allow movies to play instead of a scroll bar, which I doubt.

If youve tried this and the video isnt playing right away, and youre not on a fresh install of an OS, theres probably a lot of processes/drivers/etc initiating and it's taking its sweet time. In which case a fresh OS install or heavy services/msconfig editing should do the trick.

[mr_doles]

I guess the real question is doesn't Mamewah support a start up video.  I don't use it but doing a quick search I found something here about a Movie Settings in the mamewah.ini file.  So all you need then is a bat file to kick off Mamewah.  Now the other question is can you replace windows shell with MameWah, after a quick search I found this which makes me think you can.  Look here in the wiki about hiding windows.
1) Set Mamewah to run the intro video
2) Replace explorer.exe in the registry with Mamewah

[reko19]

Thank you, now we are onto something. Will give it a shot and report back.