Set-up: "How to" guide (install and configure emulators, plus Visual Pinball)

[unclet]

I have been asked by multiple people (including my favorite Auzzie, who now owes me yet another beer  ) if I could document how I configured the many emulators I have in MALA.  

Well, I always aim to please so I put everything I could think of into the Microsoft Word document.


************* UPDATED **************

User "Gray_Area" asked me to update this post with his v1.8 update.  Click on the following link to obtain his "MalaEmuSetup-v1.8.txt" file.   View it with WordPad.

Get v1.8 here -->
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=56010.msg1193926#msg1193926


************* UPDATED **************



Get OLDER v1.6 here --> http://unclet.arcadecontrols.com/MalaInfo/MalaEmuSetup-HowTo.doc

[loadman]

[javeryh]

I totally agree!

[gamecreature]

 

[edge]

Wow.  Nice job, unclet.  Very comprehensive!  Thank you.

[RXII]

Absolutely Fantastic! Got my 1st FE up and running with no problems thanks to this post!

Cheers, Simon.

[yfdgricker]

Whoa! That's alot of words. Slap a yellow and black cover over that document and call it 'Mala Setup for Dummies.'

Really, that is the kind of material I love to see. Very in depth. Thank you for all your time making that document up.
I may be switching from Mamewah to Mala now Great job.

[BlinKY1337]

Great write up  , malas already one of the easiest FE's to use this just makes it that much better

[Space Fractal]

I would been happy, if this would incoprt into the wiki, like the mamewah faq.  .


And these sections need also adding infos about each emulators:

http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Game_Consoles

and

http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Handheld_Consoles

There are a lots of missing emulators and how these are cab freidly, or how you can been. I can

[unclet]

I have no plans on updating the Wiki ...... way too much work for me ...... I rather just dump it into a document like I did ..... however if someone wants to do this, feel free to use the information I provided.

[loadman]

I typed up some details to include
- Zinc
- ePSXe

. It's not as well done as UncleT's masterpeice but it should be adeqate

Let me know if there are any problems

Download here:


[EDIT]
This has been put on the MaLa Help Page

http://mala.arcadezentrum.com/help.html

[unclet]

I have been swamped with work lately so I have not been around much.   Thanks for the information.    I am going to test out the ePSXe stuff when I stuff slows down a bit, hopefully in the next couple weeks......

Anyway, I will add the stuff into the document when I have time and after I test it out.

I read quickly the ePSXe description .......   and have a question.   It seems pretty straightforward to execute based on your description (ie: simply provide a IMG file and off you go), however, I thought the problem with ePSXe (based on my extremely limited reading on the subject) is that each Playstation game needs a different configuration setup.  Is this no longer true ......?    I thought there was a frontend to the ePSXe emulator which might manage the configuration files for you ....  let me know if this no longer applies.

Hey, thanks for the work !

[loadman]

Anyway, I will add the stuff into the document when I have time and after I test it out.

Yeah, Great.  You can double check it and possibly re-word it

The main thing I set up ePSXe was that the preset in MaLa was wrong (too many slashes). It threw TIMOE off track

however, I thought the problem with ePSXe (based on my extremely limited reading on the subject) is that each Playstation game needs a different configuration setup.  Is this no longer true ......?   

You may be right. My method may not suit someone who needs/wants different settings for each game (such as keymap).

The few games I played seemed to be OK

[Howard_Casto]

I've recently switched over to PSX.  It's lesser known, but what I like about it is you don't have to mess with plugins and all that nonsense, it just works. 


The only peculair thing is the command line switches, they are backwards  (come before the isoname).  Also you can switch the virtual pad type (for lightgun games) via the command line.  It has a cd compression tool as well, knocks 20-70 megs off of your cd images. 

From what I've tried, it emulates all the games just as well as epsxe, only you don't have to tweak renderers for each game. 

[loadman]

Thanks Howard. 

FYI. A 'How to guide' for MaLa's 'Attract Mode' is now avaliable here:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=57516.0

[rubberpoultry]

I know this thread is a bit older, but I have a question. I can't seem to create the mame.ini file. I follow the instructions, and I get this error "'mame' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file".
 
This is where I'm stuck. Can anyone help? I'm running Windows 2k

[loadman]

Questions

1) What version of mame are you running
2) Is in mame or mame32
3) What method did you try
3) What results did you get?

 

[Havok]

As much as it pains me to help a Mala user...

 

The big question is are you using Mame32, or Mame command line? Mame32 automatically creates an ini file for you on launch, IIRC. If you are using a front end, you should really be using the command line version anyways. Assuming you have the command line version, you need to run mame from a command line with the -cc switch. The error you are getting is most likely due to you not being in the correct directory.

Assuming your Mame directory is located in C:\Mame, you would type the following at a command line, or click on Start, then Run for Windows machines:

C:\Mame\Mame.exe -cc

That's it! A few seconds later, you will have a nice, shiny and new mame.ini file located in your Mame directory.

Enjoy!

[loadman]

As much as it pains me to help a Mala user...

 
 

[Havok]

Hehe... j/k

It's all about the arcade love.

 

[rubberpoultry]

I'm a Mac guy so this is all foreign to me. someone in another thread said MaLa was easy to setup.


OK, so anyway... I found the file called mamepp. WHen I entered mamepp -cc in the command promp it created a config file called mamepp. Is that what I needed? Do I need to rename that "mame.ini"?

[Havok]

I'm a Mac guy so this is all foreign to me. someone in another thread said MaLa was easy to setup.


OK, so anyway... I found the file called mamepp. WHen I entered mamepp -cc in the command promp it created a config file called mamepp. Is that what I needed? Do I need to rename that "mame.ini"?

You should be all set. The mame versions will create the ini file based off the executable. So, when you open the mamepp config file, you should see stuff like this:

### MAME.ini ###

### Frontend Related ###

### Windows path and directory options ###
rompath                 roms
samplepath              samples
inipath                 .;ini
cfg_directory           cfg
nvram_directory         nvram
memcard_directory       memcard
input_directory         inp
hiscore_directory       hi
state_directory         sta
artwork_directory       artwork
snapshot_directory      snap
diff_directory          diff
ctrlr_directory         ctrlr
comment_directory       comments
ips_directory           ips
lang_directory          lang
cheat_file              cheat.dat
history_file            history.dat
story_file              story.dat
mameinfo_file           mameinfo.dat
hiscore_file            hiscore.dat

### Windows video options ###
autoframeskip           1
frameskip               0
waitvsync               0
triplebuffer            0
window                  0
ddraw                   1
direct3d                0
hwstretch               1

You enable various options by changing the number from 0 (disabled) to 1 (enabled)

[loadman]

In MaLa you can also use this (see pic) to edit mame.ini files if that makes it easier for a Mac user 

[jWin]

that configure button never saves the settings for me (winxp),  its always stuck on DirectDraw, I place a check in D3d and it always reverts or stays unchanged.

[loadman]

that configure button never saves the settings for me (winxp),  its always stuck on DirectDraw, I place a check in D3d and it always reverts or stays unchanged.

Oh dear.. That didn't use to be the case.  I assume it's only become a problem with the later versions of mame?  I will alert SWINDUS

[unclet]

I updated the document (now v1.4) with the new link to the Atari800Win emulator (Atari5200, Atari800XL, etc..) ..... not really a remarkable thing ..... but thought I would mention it ....

[loadman]

I updated the document (now v1.4) with the new link to the Atari800Win emulator (Atari5200, Atari800XL, etc..) ..... not really a remarkable thing ..... but thought I would mention it ....

any thoughts/objections of someone planting your wonderfull guide onto the Wiki? rather than a link or are you happy to have the guide sit with you? 

[unclet]

If "someone"  wants to then go right ahead ...... the information is there to be shared ... especially now there is a MALA Wiki

[unclet]

I updated the document (now v1.5) to correct what seemed to be a wrong "Command Line" setting for the Daphne emulator ..... thought I would mention it ....

  old value = %rom%
new value = "%path%\%rom%.%ext%"

[SGT]

unclet,

Your nice tutorials have helped a lot of people.     Have you considered a non-batch file solution to Daphne.  What I mean is, if you name the Daphne frame files to the same name as the respective rom, Mala can launch Daphne games without a batch file.  Just seems like a much cleaner solution.   Do frame files have a standard naming convention; I haven't seen one?  I know Daphne could care less what the frame file is called, and I have see a lot of variety among frame file names.

[unclet]

Oh, there are many ways someone can do it ...... the MALA How-To was just to document how "I" did it  (good or bad) 

Since my configuration is done, I do not plan on changing since it works fine.

[Singapura]

Whoa! That's alot of words. Slap a yellow and black cover over that document and call it 'Mala Setup for Dummies.'

[SGT]

I do not plan on changing since it works fine.

Well that clears that up, thank you.

[unclet]

Well that clears that up, thank you.

Did not mean for you to take it so hard ..... 

Just meant that my personal configuration of MALA has already been done for more than a year now and that changing the way it is set up now really would not be worth my effort since everything works as is. 

[SGT]

Did not mean for you to take it so hard ..... 

I took it hard?    It doesn't really matter to me as I already have it set up.  I was just casually throwing out there that Mala can do the job without creating a batch file for every game.   You're all for making it easy on the newcomers, right?   

[unclet]

I was just documenting what I did, which might be easy or hard for the user ....   

[loadman]

Whoa! That's alot of words. Slap a yellow and black cover over that document and call it 'Mala Setup for Dummies.'

      

[Anubis_au]

I was just casually throwing out there that Mala can do the job without creating a batch file for every game.

Hi SGT

Can you post an example of what you did? At the moment I'm still cutting down MAME games to make my "favourtite games" list, and soon, by UncleT's method or another, I will be integrating the Daphne games into my list.

So, if you have a better / easier way, I'd be interested in trying.

Cheers.

[SGT]

I don't want to hijack unclet's thread more than I have already.   After this post, I think we should start a new thread. 

The process is really very simple.  You just need to name the Daphne frame file to the same name as the Daphne rom (not including the file extension).  Then its just a matter of getting the Mala command line changed.  That is if you are using Mala's other emulators configuration.  If you are using my work-around to combine Daphne and Mame games into the same gamelists, then an appropriate command line must be put into mame.cmd.   

When I get my head above water, I'll try to post what I did in more detail or at least PM you with it. Thanks.

[Arcade Freak]

hi folks,

i am still having problems with setting up mala as per a different tread...

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=75493.0

but for here if i include some snaps in the snap directory, how will the FE know which pic to choose from. or am i out to lunch!!!! i want to have a specific picture to show up as you scroll thru the list of games so that my daugther that does not read yet can select the game she wants. then in the option of mala have the pics point to the directory it self...is that correct??

cheers