Mame Magician

[Tempest]

This is a front-end for Bkenobi's Mame_Loader , which was designed to run more than one version of mame, and also other emulators from the Mame list in GameEx. This Site shows a list of emulators, and the games that they run better than Mame.

Run Mame Magician, and you will something like this:

In the top box, is a list of all the emulators that you have set up in Gameex. (Yes, you have to set the emulators up yourself )

Double-click on an emulator that you want to use with Mame_Loader, and it will be moved to the Mame Loader Box.

Single click on an emulator in the Mame Loader list, and use the up/down arrows to re-arrange the list.

Mame_Loader will check the rom folder of the first emulator in the list to see if a match is found, then the second emulator, and so on, so only have the roms that you want to run in each emulator in the rom folder for that emulator. If a match isn't found, it will run the game in mame.

Once you click "OK", the emulators that you have selected will be disabled in GameEx, and the following information will be written to your GameEx.ini, so you may want to backup your GameEX.ini first!

1. UseAdvanceMAME=True
   
2. AdvanceMAMEExe=Mame_Loader.exe
   
3. AdvanceMAMEPAth= (The path to Mame_Loader.exe)
   

That should be it, from now on, when you choose a game from the Mame Game list in GameEx, Mame_loader will check the rom folders of the emulators that you setup, and run the game in the emulator that you have chosen.

[Tempest]

Here is the code for Mame Magician. Just for you code freaks...

This is what Mame_loader looks like:

 

;#NoTrayIcon
#SingleInstance Force
#NoEnv
#Persistent
SetTitleMatchMode, 2
Settimer, Activate, 250
IfNotExist, %A_ScriptDir%\Mame_Loader.ini
{
 MsgBox, You need to run the setup program first.
 ExitApp
}
Rom = %1%
Ext := ".*"
IniRead, GameExDir, %A_ScriptDir%\Mame_Loader.ini, General, GameExDir
GameExIni = %GameExDir%\CONFIG\GameEx.ini
HideOS = %GameExDir%\HideOS.exe
Loop
{
 IniRead, GameExSlot, Mame_Loader.ini, Emulators, GameExSlot%A_Index%, Error
 If GameExSlot=Error
	Break
 IniRead, RomPath, %GameExIni%, Emulator_%GameExSlot%, ROMPath
 IfExist, %RomPath%\%Rom%%Ext%
 {
  IniRead, WorkingPath, %GameExIni%, Emulator_%GameExSlot%, WorkingPath
  IniRead, Command, %GameExIni%, Emulator_%GameExSlot%, Command
  IfInString, Command, Zinc
  {
   Loop, read, zinc.txt
   {
	IfEqual, A_LoopReadLine, %Rom%
	Rom := A_Index
	Break
   }
  }
  StringReplace, Command, Command, [ROM], %Rom%
  StringReplace, Command, Command, [ROMFILE], %Rom%%Ext%
  StringReplace, Command, Command, [ROMPATH], %Rompath%
;MsgBox, %Command%, -  %WorkingPath%
  Run, taskkill.exe /IM HideOS.exe
  RunWait, %Command%, %WorkingPath%
  Run, %HideOS%
  ExitApp
 }
}

IniRead, MameExe, %GameExIni%, General, MameExe
IniRead, MamePath, %GameExIni%, General, MamePath
IniRead, RomPath, %GameExIni%, General, RomPath
IniRead, MameOptions, %GameExIni%, General, MameOptions
;MsgBox, %MameExe% %Rom% -rompath "%RomPath%" %MameOptions%, %MamePath%
SetWorkingDir, %MamePath%
RunWait, %MameExe% %Rom% -rompath "%RomPath%" %MameOptions%;, %MamePath%
ExitApp

Activate:
IfWinNotActive, %Rom%
  WinActivate, %Rom%
return