headkaze

Actually I know a way I can test it, just show me what a custom cfg file for a game looks like in low res and I'll change it to a res I can handle but just not my desktop resolution. Then the resolution will still change and I will make sure CPWizard can cope with it changing. All I have to do is detect the res change (already have code in place to do this) and then resize the output window for it. But I have another question (sorry I'm a bit too lazy to investigate this myself right now), when you minimize Mame in a low res does it change back to the desktop resolution or stay in low res? In that case it's going to be even more difficult to implement this feature. But I swear I will get it working!

I would love to see some videos of these beasts in action!

Yes definately, I have some code in place to handle this. I may enable it for the next release. Can you give me a rundown on how I can test this. What options do I need to enable in Mame to have it use the custom resolutions on a per game basis? I don't have an ArcadeVGA (well I do but just not installed in a machine). I would like to get this working for next release if possible.

Only problem with that is then how do you exit CPWizard? I guess I could add a context menu to the icon tray for exit (actually been meaning to do that). Okay I've added some new features that will be out next release including artwork, manuals and operation cards for console emus (inspired by EmuMovie releases - thanks Circo!!). Right now it's being held up because I have to make about 20 new icons for GoodName/TOSEC naming convention. I've already made the country flags, but I hate making icons. They are only 32x32 but they are hard to create. Like what symbol should I use for "overdump" hehe. Anyway here is a screenshot of a new feature. The NFO Viewer. Okay it's pretty much useless because there are no nfo packs to be found. But I think it might add some historical value so I added it in. If anyone knows where to find nfo archives please let me know

Do you mean a Windows update or a GameEx update is messing with your codecs?

I have two wireless Logitec 2 Rumblepads.. for a cab without an external USB port it's great for having 4 players in Mario Karts and Virtua Tennis. Check for Vista compatibility though, I'm not sure if they have drivers for them. They may even have newer models of these anyway.

Can you be a bit more specific with the error?

7Zip has some great compression ratio's. I'm not sure though, you could be right, it might not be worth it. I've noticed a few places zip then create a SFX from the zip. But being a patch it might actually be really hard to compress because I doubt there would be much redundancy. I don't know much about how 7Zip compression works though. It seems to have great compression on some files though.

Sorry I just checked it seems they only use it after MAME 0.118u5. Anyway I know how you can still get a smaller patch Download 7Zip (http://www.7-zip.org/) then right click on the patched zip file Patcher FE creates select 7Zip->Add to Archive, then put a tick next to "Create SFX archive" which will create a self extracting 7Zip exe file. That creates a nice small file and people won't need 7Zip installed to extract it.

Brian: if you take a look at the hiscore.dif files in my first post in this thread it pretty much tells you what lines of code to change/add for that version of Mame. Then it's just a matter figuring out where the changes/additions go into 118 based on that info. I don't believe there is a hiscore.dif available for 118. Also be aware that after 118 the version of GCC they use has changed (check official site for more info) so you will probably have to update your compiler tools to get the binary patches to be lowest file size possible (using different versions of gcc will create greater difference in the binaries and thus bigger patches).

It is possible to inject keys into Mame's Raw Input system (I've done it), but why would you want to anyway? Just map the keys in Mame, or am I missing something? BTW It is low level stuff and it would have to be worth it to bother adding such a feature to Xpadder.

Thanks SpyDIRmaN I really appreciate the offer but it looks like the tin cans have worked! Still no discolouration since I put them in last night

Oh sorry I misunderstood what you were asking. Preview images for ebooks. Yeah I'm not sure that's available yet.

I've got another feature request After running my cabinet on attract mode while I'm working on my PC I notice that alot of crap games come up and the occational good one. So my request is to use the MAWs Hall of Fame to have the more popular games show in attract mode. Obviously you still want to see the occational game you've never heard of or rates low. It would also be nice if games in favourites as well as games in MAWs HOF to have a higher probability of being shown. Another idea related to this is to have a special "Best of" feature in the attract mode. This is where it will show games from the MAWs Hall of Fame but do special screens before hand doing count downs. So here's some examples. - "GameEx Top 100" appears on the screen in big writing. Then it counts down; big "100" shows on the screen, then it starts game no. 100, then 99, 98 etc. down to 1. - You could have the MAWs "Top 10 Vertical Shooters", then "10", then show game 10, 9 show game 9 etc. Then "Top 10 Fighters", "Top 10 Casino" etc. Why is this such a cool feature for attract mode? Imagine running attract and it's showing you all the most popular games. Then you can go up to your cab, press the coin button and play. If you like it, then you can add it to favourites. This can be a good way to find new games!

Bucking magnets are magnets that is how they cancel out the magnetic field causing the discolouration. I believe to shield you have to have a metal that is magnetic. If you read that link I gave on making one from a pipe cap he says make sure the metal is magnetic or it won't work. I think it's more about cancelling out the magnetic field than shielding. So magnets are probably the only way to do that.

I have heard of bucking magnets and I have considered them. I even asked someone on BYOAC to order some for me. I live in Australia, and to quote partsexpress website regarding international orders They may be cheap, but I don't need $50 worth of then I'll see if the tin cans work, if not I will have to find someone willing to order and send them to me.

The speakers in my arcade cab are car speaker stereo speakers rigged through a Logitech amp. As you can see by the attached image the speakers are relatively close to the 21" monitor. Too close it seems. For a long time it's bugged me having discolouration on the monitor caused by interference from the speakers. It's a real kill joy to see bright colours like red and blue going strange colours towards the edges of the monitor near where the speakers are mounted. I've tried a few things to rectify this. 1. First thing I tried was to buy a digaussing wand. These things are actually really handy, but they only get rid of the effect of a magnetic field temporarily. If you have a magnetic field nearby the problem will eventually return. I got all excited when the problem seemed to disappear but it came back. 2. I read somewhere to try aluminium foil. So I got a whole bunch of it folding it several times then wrapped it around the back of the speakers. Didn't work. 3. Now from reading this article it inspired me to try something new. He uses an air-duct pipe cap to cover the back of the speakers' magnets. He says the material must be magnetic. Aluminium foil isn't magnetic. So I was in the kitchen today and noticed a large can of tomatoes (I love cooking spagetti bolognaise) and wondered if they were magnetic. So I got a magnet off the fridge and sure enough it was. So before I started cutting up the can of tomatoes I took a look in the shed and sure enough found two old cans of tomotoes. I cut off the end of the cans and placed them over the aluminium foil. I thought I may as well use the foil to hold on the can rather than tape it there. Next I set the desktop colour to bright red so I could see the effect of the magnets on the screen. Ran the degauss wand over it to remove the effect. Now I just have to wait and see if it comes back! Stay tuned

Start->Programs->GameEx->Setup Wizard->Next->Search->Type "ebook"

lol as you've figured out, Vanilla just means the official version.

It's quite easy to add hiscore.dat support for vanilla Mame using the hiscore.dif's to compile your own version. Maybe Brian will be kind enough to create a binary patch for Mame with hiscore.dat/skip disclaimer. You can get the files and more instructions from here

Since your using a newer version of Mame, you should be using the Mame Output System. This works much better than using the "Show Key". All you need to do is press Mame's pause key (usually 'p') and it will show the CPWizard. Since 118 you can't send keys to Mame anyway, so the "Send Pause" option won't work, but the "Use Mame Output System" and "Detect Pause" does work, and should be what you use. The best way to go about making your CP in CPWizard is to create a replica of your cab's CP then save it as something like "My CP". Then make a new CP and import "My CP", then you can add the PS2 controller. Once you have your own CP designed you can create new layouts by importing it and making changes for each emulator. I'm going to work with Tom when CPWizard comes out of beta so it will be easier to integrate with GameEx. Hopefully Tom can make an option to use it instead of his inbuilt viewer, as well as show it before launching a game and possibly from the Game Info screen. There are a few things I need to clean up for it to run better outside of emulators. Basically it should not block any keys when your not running an emulator, right now I havn't done enough to remove key processing when that happens. It should be resolved in next release. I don't really want to make this a plugin for several reasons. 1. It's not a GameEx only app 2. Plugins are a nightmare to debug 3. GameEx doesn't send me all the data I need so I have to load all the data manually anyway. 4. The archive size of CPWizard is just as big as GameEx itself (not really what you call a "plugin" size app) In the future I might make it run as a "run once terminate" app, but I like the way it works in the background. It will mean I will have to implement alot of dynamic data loading. Might be done for a future release Thanks for your feedback.

Check out Boot Logo on the GameEx website under Media & Images download. It has a Mame logo or pure black screen you can replace it with.

I heard good things about AMOS but I never did do anything with it. I did make something very simple with SEUCK and a few demos in Red Sector Demo Maker, and I did write a Madlebrot generator and Phone Book database using Amiga BASIC. I did alot of creative things on the Amiga though, I wrote a few intros/demos in C (unfortunatley never did play with the blitter or copper chips - I wish I had a book on them back in the days) made quite a few pictures in Deluxe Paint. I made heaps of songs in OctaMED even bought some hardware to use it with MIDI. Made disk compilations and stuff like that. The Amiga opened up alot of creative doors for me, I think it was great for that. But I also have fond memorys of hooking up my Amiga with my cousins using a null serial cable and playing head to head on games like Populous and Stunt Car Racer. Great little machine, and I recommend people hold onto their old Amigas because I reakon they will be worth heaps in auction when were old and decrepit But i'll probably be the one buying them instead of selling them hehe. What really upset me a while back was my mum throwing out all my old Amiga Magazines (Eg. Amiga Format, CU Amiga). The British mags by Future Publishing were the best. I had quite a nice collection. I bought a few off e-bay because of that. One day I will get organised and hunt down more of them.

I'm not sure of the reason for copying the floppies over to anywhere. You just extract them and run the program. What is the reason for doing that? My program places every floppy into a config file so it would end up moving all the floppies to the destination, so I don't see the point. As for saving space maybe I should add an option to ignore certain codes so you can ignore/delete floppies that are repeats or what not. But that would be a simple matter of del *[whatever]* in a command prompt anyway. Give me more info and I may think of something to add for this.

Maybe there's a strange character in the game's name when it looks it up in the database? Having a single quote in the name might cause an error like that. In this case, you have to replace them with two eg. GoodName.Replace("'", "''")