Non-Command Line emulators

[h8sh8]

been trying to figure out a way to get these working. So far got a NeoGeo CD working fully and Atari Jaguar (with the latest Project Tempest) working but with an extra key needed to exit, and a Sega Saturn one working except for one slight problem, which I'm hoping someone can help me out with.

I've been using Windows Script. I know nothing at all about scripting or programming, other than some very basic html stuff, so I know there others out there can do much much more than I have. The following scripts are very basic as you'll see.

I'll post everything I've worked out so hopefully someone else can take it further and get other emus working. The Sega Model 2 emulator I reckon would work too, if anyone knows how to either simulate a mouse double-click, or assign a keyboard shortcut as a double-click then send that key - you cant press enter to run the games with the model 2 emu (well I couldn't anyway).

Sorry if I go into too much detail, or offend people who may know all this already. I didn't know any of it beforehand, so hopefully it'll help others like myself. Better to have too much info, than not enough. It all for the good in the end

NEOGEO CD Emulator ver.0.6.0 (011228)

NOTE: "Alcohol 120%" is needed for creating a virtual drive with this script - I assume the Alcohol step could be skipped if you have your games on cd, or a different virtual drive creator - Alcohol is not free - but luckily there is a 30 day trial . I've only tried it running off hard-drive so I can have a list of all the games in GameEx.

I've not tried a game with iso & mpg files - don't know if that works - it might work but without sound at a guess - try a bin/cue file if not.

The following script will create a virtual drive with the selected game copied to it, wait for 15000 whatevers (15 seconds I think) to give it time to copy the files, then launch the emulator. The emulator will only play games from cds or virtual drives.

Each new game you launch will overwrite the previously created virtual drive. Change the length of time where it says "Wscript.Sleep 15000" if you're having problems - it might be launching the emulator before the virtual drive is ready.

eg. for the game Bust-A-Move

make this in Notepad and save as Bust-A-Move.vbs (or whatever name you want) and obviously change the path names to suit.

Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

WshShell.Run "C:\Alcohol120\AxCmd.exe 1: /M:C:\Emulation\System\NeoGeo\NeoGeoCD\Emulators\neogeocd060_011228\bustamove.iso"

Wscript.Sleep 15000

ReturnCode = WshShell.Run("C:\Emulation\System\NeoGeo\NeoGeoCD\Emulators\neogeocd060_011228\neogeocd.exe", 1, True)

Wscript.quit

use the vbs file as if it were the rom. I have Alcohol in a folder with no spaces in the path - I believe you'd need double quotes ""like this"" surrounding it to work if you want spaces (have not tried this) - single quotes don't work (I did try that). Probably best to search for examples on doing it with double quotes - I did see how to do it somewhere, but had changed folder names to not use spaces by that stage.

The return code part of the script with the "1, True" is what makes the script wait until you close the emulator (with ESC). Otherwise the vbs script will run straight through to the end and return to GameEx when the emu loads. It took me a while to get that part.

Here's the the gameex.ini config I used for NeoGeo CD:

Enabled=True

StartPageName=NeoGeo CD

TitleText=NeoGeo CD

StartPageLogo=

RomFilter=*.vbs

RomsInFolders=False

ROMPath=C:\Emulation\System\NeoGeo\NeoGeoCD\Emulators\neogeocd060_011228

SnapPath=

WorkingPath=C:\Emulation\System\NeoGeo\NeoGeoCD\Emulators\neogeocd060_011228

MapKeys=False

WaitBeforeKeys=

SendKeys=

ReplaceDash=False

ReplaceUnder=True

Capitals=False

RemoveBrackets=False

AlsoLaunch=

ShowDesktop=False

Debug=false

MapFile=

Command="[ROMPath]\[RomFile]"

OLDatZip=

I had all files in the same folder (iso/vbs/emulator) the vbs definitely has to be in the emulator folder, not sure about the iso, but I assume it could go anywhere.

You'll need to edit the emulators config file "neogeocd.ini" and change it to...

[Video Settings]

FullScreen = yes

think thats about it for neo geo cd - it's easier than it may look.

SEGA SATURN - "Cassini" Emulator

The best I can figure out is to get this one to work and play a game and get back to GameEx with ESC, but when I quit GameEx, there's still multiple versions a Cassini open. I know why this is, but just not how to get around it.

Alcohol 120% is needed for this too (see above for other alcohol info)

I'll try to explain so people who don't use Sega Saturn might still be able to help - it's mainly a script problem I think...

At the moment the script for this is making the virtual drive and launching cassini. It then sends the keys to press to launch the game - no problems here. The only thing is that with Cassini it first loads a window with the config, then the game appears in another window (or possibly the same window but resized), then when quitting the game it goes back to the config window. So when ESC is pressed it's escaping to both the config and GameEx (therefore mutiple Cassini configs after quitting GameEx). I tried without mapping keys from GameEx, and I can press ESC (close game) TAB/TAB/ENTER (to close Cassini config) ALT-F4 (to close the explorer window of the virtual drive that was made). Then it's stuck and wont go to GameEx (which I assume is stuck on the paused bat file which cant be seen.

If you see in the NeoGeo script the returncode part and ",1 True" part are used to basically pause the script until the emulator quits. But with Cassini I can figure out how to do this because it needs the send keys commands. The returncode is done when launching the emu, so the script would pause before sending the keys to launch the game. And also because I have no idea what I am doing - stuffed if I know what to do

Also because I can't use the returncode, I need a different way to stop it going straight back to GameEx. So I have a bat file which just loads the vbs file then pauses the bat file. The vbs runs through and ends, but the bat file remains stopping GameEx return before it's wanted.

I'm thinking these could be possible ways around it - I did "attempt" these if you could call it that , but again, it's way beyond my knowledge of scripting.

- have return code somehow later in script

- have something saying if "sega saturn" (game) window is open to loop the focus on that window, else quit vbs if focus is on Cassini (config) window.

- Have GameEx "AlsoLaunch" the vbs, and launch a Cue file as Rom, and Alcohol as the Emulator. (Don't really know how to use GameEx Also Launch config)

but anyway, here's the script...

save as 'SegaSaturn.vbs'

Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

Wscript.Sleep 7000

WshShell.Run "C:\Emulation\System\Sega\Saturn\Emulators\Cassini\Sega_Saturn_Emulator.exe"

Wscript.Sleep 1000

WshShell.SendKeys "{tab 5}"

Wscript.Sleep 100

WshShell.SendKeys "{down 4}"

Wscript.Sleep 100

WshShell.SendKeys "{tab 7}"

Wscript.Sleep 100

WshShell.SendKeys "{enter}"

Wscript.Sleep 5000

WScript.Quit

a bat file example for Die Hard Arcade (one of these is needed for each game - these are loaded instead of roms in GameEx) save as

whateveryouwant.bat

C:

cd c:\Alcohol120

AxCmd.exe 1: /M:"C:\Emulation\System\Sega\Saturn\ISOs\Games\Die_Hard_Arcade.cue"

cd C:\Emulation\System\Sega\Saturn\ISOs\Games\AutoScripts

Sega_Saturn.vbs

PAUSE

GameEx config.....

Enabled=True

StartPageName=Sega Saturn

TitleText=Sega Saturn

StartPageLogo=

RomFilter=*.bat

RomsInFolders=False

ROMPath=C:\Emulation\System\Sega\Saturn\ISOs\Games\AutoScripts

SnapPath=

WorkingPath=C:\Emulation\System\Sega\Saturn\ISOs\Games\AutoScripts

MapKeys=True

WaitBeforeKeys=

SendKeys=

ReplaceDash=False

ReplaceUnder=True

Capitals=False

RemoveBrackets=False

AlsoLaunch=

ShowDesktop=False

Debug=false

MapFile=

Command=cmd.exe /c "[ROMPath]\[RomFile]"

OLDatZip=

Make sure games are running in Cassini outside GameEx first using bin/cue files.

If you're looking for Cassini - try zophar.net

there is apparently a command line option for cassini (cassini -i) which is meant to open a cd, but I could not get this to work - it had a message box of jumbled characters and "CD-Rom" in there somewhere, maybe I do need to use an actual cd for this (which I did not try) - I'd prefer having all my games on hard-drive so they're listed in gameEx.

ATARI JAGUAR - "Project Tempest v0.95" Emulator

This'll probably work for all Project Tempest version 0.9 and higher

NOTE: to exit games you need to press ALT-F4 and then ESC

explained most of it above already

example for "Alien Versus Predator (1994)(Atari Corp).jag" tosec named rom

make a vbs file called "Alien Versus Predator (1994)(Atari Corp).vbs"

(it could named anything aslong as the bat has the file name in it)

copy this in the vbs file...

Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

Wscript.Sleep 1500

WshShell.Run "C:\Emulation\System\Atari\Jaguar\Emulators\PTv095\PT.exe"

Wscript.Sleep 3000

WshShell.SendKeys "%fo"

Wscript.Sleep 400

WshShell.SendKeys "Alien Vs Predator +(9)1994+(0)+(9)Atari Corp+(0).jag{enter}"

note: +(9) = "(" left bracket with send keys

+(0) = ")" right bracket

note: change the sleep times to suit your computer - best to try larger amounts and bring it down from there.

The vbs script basically goes File OPen and types in the files name (which is on the last line) - change the file name in here for each game.

copy this into a bat file...

"Alien Vs Predator (1994)(Atari Corp).vbs"

PAUSE

I named the bat file Alien_Versus_Predator.bat

GameEx Config...

Enabled=True

StartPageName=Atari Jaguar

TitleText=Atari Jaguar

StartPageLogo=

RomFilter=*.bat

RomsInFolders=False

ROMPath=C:\Emulation\System\Atari\Jaguar\ROMs\Games

SnapPath=C:\Emulation\System\Atari\Jaguar\Pictures\Front Cover

WorkingPath=C:\Emulation\System\Atari\Jaguar\ROMs\Games

MapKeys=True

WaitBeforeKeys=

SendKeys=

ReplaceDash=False

ReplaceUnder=True

Capitals=False

RemoveBrackets=False

AlsoLaunch=

ShowDesktop=True

Debug=False

MapFile=

Command=cmd.exe /c "[ROMPath]\[RomFile]"

OLDatZip=

Remember to exit games with press ALT-F4 and then ESC (hopefully someone can fix this)

Think that's all - let me know if it makes no sense

Oh yeah, the model 2 emu wouldn't need all this messing around - if someone can figure out a automatic mouse double click it'll work - no alcohol and all that crap!!

There's probably easier ways to do all this - please post if you know of or find any better or easier ways.

Is there any scripts or programs that would make doing the files needed for each game any quicker or easier??

Hope the info is some help - sorry about the amount of reading.

[Tom Speirs]

Hi,

I really appreciate you sharing this.

Just wanted to say AutoIt when used with the AlsoLaunch setting is probably worth investigating for this as well as vbscript. I did design the AlsoLaunch setting with this kind of stuff in mind a little, in regards to checking for open windows, closing etc.

I did look at the Sega Model 2 emulator when invisetigating non-command line emus, and like you, just don't think it is doable.

Thanks, and take a look at AutoIt if your not already aware of the software.

[h8sh8]

Hi,

I really appreciate you sharing this.

Just wanted to say AutoIt when used with the AlsoLaunch setting is probably a better soultion for this then vbscript. I did design the AlsoLaunch setting with this kind of stuff in mind.

I did look at the Sega Model 2 emulator when invisetigating non-command line emus, and like you, just don't think it is doable.

Thanks, and take a look at AutoIt if your not already aware of the software.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Cool, thanks Tom, will definitely check out AutoIt (I wasn't aware of it). I'm a total newbie at all this sort of stuff. Don't really know what I'm doing with AlsoLaunch yet, but will look into that aswell.

cheers mate.

[h8sh8]

That AutoIT is much better (and easier).

Hey, got the Model 2 emulator working in gameEx.

Only drawback is you need to exit with Alt-F4, and must have the desktop showing. But it works great for me - the games play in fullscreen, but you can see the desktop before they load.

check out this zip file http://uploads.tomspeirs.com/files/Model2%...or%20GameEx.zip - I've also made the exe files for people without AutoIT.

I've done scripts for each game, so hopefully there's hardly any setup to be done. Let me know if any problems.

If anyone modifies the scripts to run better, would be good to hear what you've done. Cheers

[h8sh8]

Just an update with the Model 2 files, make sure you copy you're model 2 'Emulator.ini' to the 'Autorun' folder (or whatever you called the folder with the exe files) - you get graphics glitches otherwise.

Also I have noticed that Dead Or Alive wont load from GameEx with the current setup. House Of The Dead and Sega Touring Car work fine though (these are the only 3 roms I have) - not sure why this is - they are all set up the same except the mouse click position, but Dead or Alive doesn't even load the emu. It works fine outside GameEx if launched from the Dead Or Alive exe though. Any suggestions? Check out scripts comparing DOA and HOTD - they're exactly the same except for the names and mouse co-ords. The only other difference is the () used in the "Dead or Alive (Model " name. Could this be messing with GameEx?

[h8sh8]

Tom, just wondering if the AlsoLaunch command can also use the "[Rom Path]/[Rom File]" thing in it?

I got the Sega Saturn emu working using the AutoIT, but it needs bat files for each game to work. Been trying to find a way around needing to create the bat files - just thinking if AlsoLaunch can use the rom name and not have it in the command section, it might help to auto list all the games instead of using bat files. I'm trying to have a script in the command, and the virtual drive creation in the alsolaunch using the cue file as the rom. If I swap it around it works, but I can't get gameEx to come back from launching Alcohol120% unless it's from a bat file, but then that cause more problems. I tried getting the rom names from the runitgame.bat and altering that info in a new file to create the virtual drives, and it works doing that outside gameex, but inside, it's messing with HideOS I think (even if the desktop is showing) and I end up with my mp3 songs playing over the game sound. (which is sort of cool tho )

But anyway, just wondering if you or anyone else would have any suggestions. Cheers. It's not a major problem, it working fine for me with the seperate bat files. Can post that if anyone wants, but you'll need AutoIt to alter the scripts for your own set-up.