[RESOLVED] GameEx and WinUAE: Amiga games in gameEX

[NicolasRaphael]

Hi everybody,

I have purchased a complete version of gameEx. After 2 days of configurations almost all functions works...! Nice.

However, After a lot of try and a lot of forum internet read, Amiga integration resist me!

Dreamcast ok, ps 2 ok but amiga configuration is a hell. (Note I have an ps2, a dreamcast and I have purchased Amigaforever CONTENT REMOVED).

I have try to use winUAE command line, WinUAELoader command line, and Amigaforever but I have always have problems.

• winUAE command line don't lanch the game or on the secondary screen. And If the game is on 2 disks, I can't change disk 1 for disk 2.
• WinUAELoader command line don't work
• And I don't know how use amigaforever in command line.

Note I am on windows 8.1.

Somebody came to use amiga games with gameex? Or have some idea?

Thanks a lot.

Nicolas

Edited February 16, 2014 by Draco
Please refrain from discussing where or how ROMs were obtained per forum rules.

[simbamame]

I remember setting up amiga games to run on my cab a real bitch, could only get a few to run and all seem to require different settings, when I get a bit of spare time I.ll take a look at my settings and see if i can shed some light or point you In the right dirrection.

[NicolasRaphael]

Thanks for for reply.

At the moment, I have dropped amiga integration. May be latter.

WinUAE is really to hard for command line use.

[Macguvyer]

NicolasRaphael,

Don't give up on Amiga Integration, you're missing out!

I'm happy to give you a hand. Right now I've got Amiga working wonderfully. The instructions I used were located here which were provided by stigzler:

http://www.gameex.info/forums/topic/12876-amiga-winuae-setup/?hl=amiga

I did not need to use any command line methods. WinUAE loader is an incredible tool that works very well with Gameex and I found it to be seamless once I set it up.

I highly recommend using the WDHLoad ROMs becauase they start almost instantly, like a cartridge (I recommend registering to eliminate the nag screen). I also have put some time into the other Amiga ROM sets such as the Gamebases which you may end up setting up for important ROMs which are not in the WHDLoad set and that you're willing to wait 1-2 minutes to load like the good old days. (I'm sure someone has come up with an easy way to trigger the hyper load speeds in WinUAE and then turn this off when the game starts but I don't know how to do this)

Below are stigzler's instructions which I am reposting below. I've filled in a few more details which may clarify some steps:

1. Go through the GameEx setup and install the WinUAE emulator. (I'm using WinUAE V2.6.1. You can download via GameEx or you can set up yourself)

2. Go to this page : http://headsoft.com.au/index.php?category=winuaeloader

3. Read through the notes on the above page carefully, they are pretty straightforward, but there are a few steps to complete. You will need to move some files into specific GameEx folders. Check your work carefullly.

4. Download and install WinUAE Loader from this page (Latest is V1.78)

5. You'll need some bios files - install as instructed (see step 3. Details are on the WinUAE Loader page above)

6. Use the GameEx setup Wizard to properly integrate WinUAE Loader into GameEx. This is done on the Emulator selection screen and is pretty straightforward. Choose "Commodore Amiga (WHDLoad)" to start and enable with a checkmark on the left. You should also choose "Commodore Amiga (SPS),Commodore Amiga (Gamebase) and Commodore Amiga (Demobase) although keep in mind you will need to setup these romsets for these to work correctly of course. If you don't see these option in the list on the right, then you didn't do step 3 correctly.

7. (Power tip#1) if you want your Amiga game names in GameEx to look cleaner, use the "create mapfile" function by running WinUAE Loader.exe separately from Gameex once all the ROMs are set up. It will generate a .map file in the location WinUAELoader/data/gameex for the appropriate ROM set. You need to locate this file and move it to the correct Gamex folder where it looks for Maps. On my machine this was C:GameEx/Map files.

9. Under advance emu config - point to the mapfile you just moved to the GameEx map folder. (I don't think I needed to do this step - it happened automatically I think - but check for sure). The result will be a very clean list of Game names.

10. Go to Emumovies and download the Amiga snaps (stills) and the videos so that your games show up in all their glory properly in GameEx.

11. Profit!

A big thanks to all the coders behind WHDLoader, WinUAE Loader, and of course GameEx. It really does take all the hard work out of the process and makes it seamless.

Let me know if you have any questions.

[nullPointer]

Thanks for the detailed writeup Macguvyer! This is one system quite a few people struggle with. I'm sure your instructions will help a lot of people.

[Macguvyer]

Glad to help! There are some wonderful games on that system, I hope more people go for it.

[stigzler]

Bonus. I lost my Amiga setup when moved from XP>Win8. Been putting off re-installing remembering how much of a pain it was. Had totally forgotten I had posted a set-up guide!! MacGuvyer - yer a star. Now don't have to go through embarrassment of posting asking for help to be pointed to my own thread!!

Bitmap brothers, here I come.

[Macguvyer]

More details. Finally got the Amiga SPS ROMset to work correctly with WinUAE Loader. It was a bit tricky.

There are two naming schemes for the SPS ROMs. One collection has the following naming system:

0001_Wizard Warz.zip

0002_Commando.zip

0003_Cybernoid II- The Revenge.zip.

This is the only set that I could get to work correctly with WinUAE Loader. It's hard to find on the net. (Read important note below about the MAP file fix which I needed to adjust)

The other SPS ROM set which is more readily available is located inside the giant 31.6 Gig Commodore Amiga TOSEC v2012-04-10. Unfortunately I could not get these SPS ROMs to work with WinUAE loader and if other people have tried this it's probably driving them crazy. Here is how they are named in the TOSEC package:

1st Division Manager (1992)(Codemasters)[1800].zip

Commando (1989)(Elite)[0002].zip

I'm sure there is a way to map the TOSEC ROMset but I do not know how to do it. So you need the SPS set with the other naming scheme!

However, there was one important final step that I needed to adjust before it worked completely smooth in Gamex. There is something wrong with the Mapfile that WinUAE Loader creates, at least on my system. I think this is because the first SPS ROM appears to have a blank name when you open it in WinUAE Loader (my set did, at least). This made the SPS Map file completely fizzle in GameEx. So what I did is I loaded this map file into Wordpad and simply deleted that one entry. Then I moved it over to the correct place in GameEx and voila, all of the SPS games work fine now (for the first time!)

Here are very specific instructions, which are only necessary if you get the message in GameEx (No SPS Roms found, or something like that, when you try to Run SPS games)

- Run WinUAE Loader. On the settings tab, press the button marked "Generate Map Files" under GameEx Options.

- This creates a map file called [PC] Commodore Amiga (SPS).map (ignore the other map files, this fix is specific for SPS ROMs)

- On my machine the file was located in C:\Program Files (x86)\WinUAELoader\Data\GameEx\MAP FILES

- Click on this file and open it in Wordpad.

- Delete the first line which is "1151_Slam Tilt - The Pinball Game (AGA)_Disk1.zip|"

- Save this Map file.

- Copy this Map file into the correct location in GameEx. On my machine is C:\GameEx\MAP FILES

- Save this Map file here, and overwrite if necessary.

- Enjoy the SPS ROMset. Remember you need to locate SPS ROMs which are labelled with the numbers in front, like "0001_Wizard Warz.zip"

One last bit of info. The WHDLoad Set is great because of the speed that the ROMs load. However the SPS set is unique in that it contains only retail versions of games, without crack screens etc. So for the purist these are actually quite nice and the reality is that these unaltered versions are actually extremely rare. They do take longer than the WHDLoad Set but it's nice to have both sets.

Hope this is helpful for someone else. I was not going to let a full Amiga setup beat me!

MacGuyver.

[stigzler]

Great contrib, Mac.

Maybe change the title of this post to include "[solved]"?? This makes it easier for folks when searching for solutions.

Keep up the good fight

[Macguvyer]

I have to admit that I don't know how to change the topic title! Is this only possible for the person who started the topic?

[Draco1962]

Correct - only the author or a moderator+ can change it. Consider it done!

[nullPointer]

I have to admit that I don't know how to change the topic title! Is this only possible for the person who started the topic?

Yes only the OP and/or moderator and admins can alter a topic title. Typically we only mark a topic as [RESOLVED] when the OP has confirmed that the assistance provided was effective in resolving their reported issues. I suspect that the excellent information you've provided here would be more than sufficient in getting the OP up and running, but at the same time we try not to make assumptions. We try to rely on our forum posters to follow standard etiquette of reporting back with success or continued difficulties, but it doesn't always work out that way.

At any rate thanks so much for the excellent assistance provided in this thread!

Edit:

Or we just decide to do it anyway. Thanks Draco!

Edited March 16, 2014 by nullPointer

[stigzler]

Ooooops - hope I didn't provide bad advice! Also, I think I've marked some posts started by myself as [sOLVED] in the past - bad form? I shale add "RE" in the future too!

[nullPointer]

Nope - not bad form at all. It's actually very helpful if the OP takes the initiative to mark their own threads as resolved.

If I see some derivative of resolved in a thread title ([sOLVED] or whatever), I generally change it to [RESOLVED], but it's not a big deal. I try to maintain consistency using one common term so as to assist in searches later (i.e. 'search term + [RESOLVED]').

Thanks for all that you do stigzler!

[Macguvyer]

Thanks for the clarification on topic titles guys. Was happy to take a few minutes and document the steps I took. It's been a fun puzzle.