bitblitt

Here's the final screenshot of the NES panel. Here's the first screenshot of the Atari 2600 panel. The switch posts aren't all there because its copied in final HTML file. Only one is actually rendered. This is specifically designed for Stella. I'll add the code and animate it over the next couple days.

No, I understood that. I'll definately check it out for the next panels. Thanks. I just finished the NES panel. It's probably most useful for the GameEx panel itself. Cool hardware though.

Oh, wow. I didn't know those existed. Those are cool, but I can't justify spending that much for a remote. This project is targeted for anything that can view a web page. These panels are specifically for the iPhone, though I plan on making generic ones for laptops. I'll keep those websites in mind though. So far, I created everything from scratch in Photoshop.

Here's the NES panel with the slot selector completed. It looks and acts like a vertical wheel. You spin it by swiping your finger on it. I still need to complete the pushed button images. Future panels will be much easier and faster to make now that I have all the javascript done. Atari panels next. When I get a full set of panels completed, I'll package it all as an iPhone app on the app store. I would still like some assistance with the graphics for the panels.

Sorry. I uploaded the attachment, but can't find where it shows up. Here it is:

I'm almost done with the first panel. I've attached a screenshot. This is specifically for controlling NEStopia and the resolution is set for the iPhone. I still have to add a quicksave slot # selector, but thats a lot more complicated to do. I want it to look like a plastic drum dial, that the user changes by swiping their finger on the iPhone. The code back end is already done (except the slot selector). Its just waiting for the graphics. You can reset, take screenshots, pause/resume, and save/load state. As I wrote this message just now, I realized I forgot to add the most common function: exit. I'll add that as a "Power" button next to the "Reset" button. Basically, I think the theme I'm going for is retro and to look like the original game.

It works. I tested it with NEStopia and Stella. For example, you can reset, pause, save state, load state, and take screenshots from the NEStopia remote control panel. The final version will include panels for PC as well as hand held devices like iPhone. I still need an artist to draw the panels though. Technically, you could also actually play a game from your internet browser with another app that I made to take screenshots, but that would be horrible slow and stupid.

Do you write HTML and very basic javascript, or flash? Are you into graphics design? In other words, can you make a theme in HTML form? I'm going to write a few noncreative pages for GameEx, Nestopia, and Stella. I'll use those for testing, but whoever makes the first pages can use them as templates. Basically, there is a javascript event that my skeleton code will fire if/when the server pushes a new page to the client. When that event is fired, the client must load the URL pushed to it. When the user clicks (or touches, in the case of the iPhone) a button, the client page will have a javascript function call it uses to send the keystroke(s). So basically, the page designer just needs to draw cool looking remote control panels, and tag buttons with some javascript. Even better, would be to have a CSS guru write up style sheets to hide even the javascript from the designer, or a flash guru to make it animated. I'll take whatever I get and convert it to iPhone and iPod Touch the best I can.

Not yet, but I was planning on it. Currently, it could be integrated by launching one of the executable files before and after an emulator is launched. I want to finish testing before I create a plugin for it. I briefly looked at the C# and VB plugin sample code. Unfortunately, this is entirely in C++. Either, I would have to write the plugin in C++ by reverse engineering the C# and VB code, or I could just launch the server executable and write a plugin similar to the previous executable mentioned, which I think I'll do. Basically, I would run the web server in an entirely different process rather than as a separate thread in the GameEx process. The plugin would just send a couple commands to the server process. I made it a web application because I didn't want to write a separate program just to design the layout of the pages. The problem with web apps, however, is that HTTP is completely stateless. In other words, its difficult to tell the client to load a new page if/when the user uses the standard GameEx interface to select a game. I thought I had come up with a novel, though kludgey, mechanism to push data from the server to the client. I'm not a web developer. However, after learning Ajax, I realized I had reinvented Ajax. On my version 2 of the remote control, I was able to delete most of my code and just use the Ajax design pattern.

I wrote an app that serves as a remote control for GameEx and my emulators, and I need somebody to help write at least one set of skins for it. I sold my cabinet and just play my games with a wireless game pad on my HDTV sitting on my couch. The problem is a lot of emulators have a lot of other keys. Too many that I can map to my game pad, i.e. insert memory stick, reset, cheat codes, etc... So I had a wireless keyboard next to my couch. I also have over 30 emulators, and I couldn't remember all their keys, so I had a set of manuals next to the keyboard and had to view it regularly. Now, I use my laptop or iPhone to press buttons on a remote control that looks different depending on the emulator currently running, i.e. the Playstation panel has buttons to switch memory stick, and the Atari panel has a color vs. black/white switch. The actual panels are just written in HTML so any device that can view the internet can be used as a remote control. You can select a game in GameEx by using the remote control, or you can select it in GameEx and your remote control will change to the correct context automatically. I'm done with the code, though I still need to clean up some configuration. However, I'm not an artist. I'm looking for somebody that can build some panels in HTML and Photoshop (or whatever your graphics tools are).

Thats really what I was referring to earlier, but I wasn't sure if an abnormal termination would still cause the correct threads to be terminated. The easiest way to do it that I know of is to just open a shell and run a standalone sockets enabled .exe. The plugin calls would just open sockets to the standalone app. Can I write it as an activex app that links to the GameEx thread at runtime? Is that even possible? Sorry for the never ending questions. Professionally, I'm an embedded software engineer, so the bulkiness of an activex wrapper is usually a luxury.

I completed the code for the plugin in VC++.NET, but I'm having a hard time converting it to VB.NET for the plugin. Is there a VC++.NET plugin example that I can use to adapt my VC++.NET code natively? Or is VB.NET and C# our only choice?

Yeah, I just learned that VB.NET has excellent thread support compared to VB 6. I've written personal tools in VB 6 for years now, and never even considered venturing into DLL hell to write a multithreaded VB 6 app. VB.NET is easy. I should have this knocked out in no time. The only other piece thats not as ellegant as I had hoped is the HTML push (since an HTML push is impossible). Eventually, I'll probably write an ActiveX app that does the push, but for now I used a little trick. I put a refresh() function call on the onload event, but leave the connection open until the GameEx plugin wants to change context. The onload doesn't occur until all objects have been loaded or at least the sockets are closed. I have one particular image that the embedded web server sends, but doesn't perform a socket.close on it. It adds the socket to a queue instead. When an emulator is started, it calls the corresponding plugin event which calls a function that closes all the queued sockets, and flushes the queue. That causes all the pending onload functions to fire, causing a refresh. The clients always ask for the same page, but the server gives out the page applicable to the running emulator. From the point of view of the user, the IExplorer icon remains spinning and the pages seem to change mysteriously everytime a new emulator is started.

I looked it over. That should work just fine. Thanks. I'm a software engineer, but this is really my first venture into .NET, so I'm still feeling my way around. I wrote the server side of the plugin as a multithreaded VC++ standalone app, with a sockets interface from the GameEx plugin. I have a loop that polls the socket for new connections. I looked at your plugin API and you do have a timer event that can be called every 2 seconds. Am I to understand that this would really be the only way to incorporate the entire solution into the plugin? I would need to put the socket poll inside the 2-second event. Thats a bit slower than a user would normally be acustomed to, so I think I'm going to keep the mini-web server a standalone app. The problem is clean up. I can add code in the initialize event to start the app and code to shut it down. Wht I'm worried about is if/when the GameEx app fails and doesn't call the dispose function. Any advice would be appreciated.

I finished the code for a plugin and am integrating into the plugin skeletal code now. However, I'm hoping there's a more elegant way of performing one of the functions. Basically, I would like to send low level keystrokes in the same way that Autohotkey does. Currently, I made a bunch of Autohotkey scripts, and call them within my plugin. Can somebody tell me a better way to do this? I sold my cabinet and rehosted everything as a Home Theater PC connected to my HD TV, and use wireless game pads instead of a control panel. The problem is that many emulators have more controls than I have buttons on my game pads. Not ust game controls, but emulator specific controls. On my cabinet, I had a row of extra buttons mapped for just those things. I had to remember what each one did in each emulator. What my plugin does is lets me view a webpage on my laptop, which shows a virtual control panel. I click buttons on my laptop which sends the button presses to my GameEx machine. The best thing is that it changes context when you select a new emulator. So, I don't have to remember what each button does. The virtual control panel is specific to the emulator that I'm currently playing. The client side is just a HTML web page, so you can create any "skin" you want with any HTML editor. I'm trying to find a better way for the plugin to send the keystroke.

I'm probably just making a stupid mistake, but I did this and still cannot see my box art. I checked and the names are spelled correctly, so they should be there. I just don't see anything. Can somebody help me?

Yep. That would be the problem. Thanks. By the way, are you looking for code contributors, or is this closed source?

I'm having a problem configuring GameEx, read the FAQ, searched the forums, but am not getting much success. Can somebody tell me if this is a known problem with an easy fix? I've noticed between 1 and 2 emulators completely missing from the emulated games list. Not missing ROMs. Missing emulators. I've checked many times over the past few days, and the emulators are enabled. To make it more frustrating, the missing emulator(s) seems to change everytime I enable or disable a different emulator and I haven't identified a pattern yet. For example: CONFIGURED 1: Atari 2600 (enabled) 2: Atari 5200 (enabled) 3: Atari 7800 (enabled) 4: Atari Jaguar (enabled) ... EMULATOR LIST IN GAMEEX MAME Daphne Atari 7800 Atari Jaguar ... Both Atari 2600 and 5200 were enabled, but did not appear. I thought the first two emulators were being overwritten by MAME and Daphne, so I added two disabled emulators to my list (#1 and #2). CONFIGURED 1: --- (disabled) 2: --- (disabled) 3: Atari 2600 (enabled) 4: Atari 5200 (enabled) 5: Atari 7800 (enabled) 6: Atari Jaguar (enabled) ... EMULATOR LIST IN GAMEEX MAME Daphne Atari 2600 Atari Jaguar ... This time Atari 2600 appeared, Atari 5200 was still missing, and Atari 7800 disappeared. I can post more information if necessary. Hopefully, either this is bug somewhere between my chair and the keyboard, or its a known issue with a fix.