[Dev Diary] TypeXtra - A Taito TypeX launcher

[Draco1962]

Had that set to 1, 4 closed it! One thing at a time and getting better as we suss-out the details! This launcher is the bees-knees!

[stigzler]

Blurgh....

This isn't fun

Trawling through each nesica game trying to get ti set up and ruining, with only a french forum to guide you! Been at it all weekend now and only half way through. 

Hope some bugger appreciates it. 

 

[Draco1962]

Still trying to get others setup as time permits. Some will not rotate, others the keypad setup does not utilize the pad config app, so playing with the TypeX configuration tool is a major pain as if you error on a keypress, you have to start completely over.

I can see why there isn't much support from anyone but the most dedicated and insane gamers. 

I know that I appreciate the effort to try to get as many of these working as us possible. Thanks Stigz!

[stigzler]

Hmm. Odd. All TTX games working fine my end (Win 10 + AMD). Wonder if it's the GPU? I'll know better when I install on my cab which is NVidia.

You shouldn't have to be using anything but pad_config.exe and xb_config.exe for the controls settings. Sound like you're using the command line app. That by choice? TypeXtra's set up to use the former two..

Usual stuff - ensure all your game.exe's and launchers are set to run as admin + try the same for pad_config

[Draco1962]

I will make note later of the game. It may have been Homura missing the pad config.

[stigzler]

Thanks - if you could let me know, that'd be one less thing to do within this accursed task.

[Draco1962]

I will start posting issues I encounter on a per game basis.  The following is for Homura:

It will not rotate using game.exe in game.bat but will rotate if you launch HMR_Launcher.exe but this rotates the game without bezel and thus displays desktop. If you launch Homura.exe, it will load the bezels in the correct orientation and DXWind screen briefly appears, but the game does not load. Not sure what needs to be done to get a combined bezel with rotation of the game and proper load.

[stigzler]

Could you do me a favour, Draco? IN prediction of a number of things and not wanting to get de-spirited with this thing, could you post them on the bugs tracker via the help menu?

alternaitvely, here :https://bitbucket.org/stigzler/typextra/issues

Will look at as soon as I can

ta

[Draco1962]

Be glad to. But don't let this despirit you. You know that there are quite a few things with the Type X and similar that have either been half attempted or otherwise abandoned. It is going to take time to identify what works, what doesn't. Nature of the beast.

[Draco1962]

Reporting two good things here - 

King of Fighters XII, The:
Must edit King of Fighters XII, The.bat and use KOFXII_launcher.exe instead of game.exe to launch game. Slow first launch, otherwise appears to be working OK.

King of Fighters XIII, The:
Load using King of Fighters XIII, The.bat. Appears to work OK.

[stigzler]

Good sleuth work, Draco! Log em all up and I'll have a look at these another day.

So finally took a step back and thought...

"Oh yeah.. that's why I was doing it!"

All TypeX, TypeX2, ExBoard, eAmusement and Nesica games bootable and playable (with a few awkward exceptions):

A few more days of tidying and should be done + fit for release. 

I really can appreciate now why things such as GoodTools and the such like came into existence. I guess the problem with these systems is it is more than just one file - there's so many variables from original to user hardware to launch methods etc.....

[stigzler]

1 hour ago, Draco1962 said:

Reporting two good things here - 

King of Fighters XII, The:
Must edit King of Fighters XII, The.bat and use KOFXII_launcher.exe instead of game.exe to launch game. Slow first launch, otherwise appears to be working OK.

King of Fighters XIII, The:
Load using King of Fighters XIII, The.bat. Appears to work OK.

@Draco1962The default launch file for both these is "launch.bat" Have you tried launching via this file? 

The launcher.exes you talk about in the bitbucket log are part of the games set and not typextra. They're safe to delete as the launch.bat route won't use them. 

+ thanks for the comprehensive testing - appreciate it!

[Draco1962]

I did not see the launch.bat file you mention. What path is it found?

[stigzler]

It should have been installed by TypeXtra. Whenever you add a new game folder (or after you've done the auto-identify process) you should click the button below to install support files. That's what gets it working. It would install launch.bat in both of the game folders for KOF. The button:

Make sure you're keeping a vanilla set of your games alongside the working set. I'll do another release soon to make sure working from the same system.

[Draco1962]

For now disregard what I have noted as I believe my testing is flawed in the way that I have things setup. I will get back to you in a few days with a better handle on the process I was following. In otherwords, I am starting over. 

[stigzler]

NO worries - before you do - let me package up the new release. It has the getting started guide that will guide approaching setting things up. 

Damn, that's a failure of design! Hopefully the new release should bring it back on spec.

[Draco1962]

Just let me know when it's ready. 

[stigzler]

OK. Do me a favour and let's try out the update function. Click Setting>Update and hopefully it should pick it up. Could you feed back on how that went. 

Then, just to be sure, download + install fresh from:

http://bit.ly/typextra

 

let me know how you get on. (wtf has happened to formatting?)

[Draco1962]

I don't know if this is possible as each game may be distinct in how it saves the controller information, but if it is, would sure make setting up the same gamepad configuration each time less time consuming.

[stigzler]

19 minutes ago, Draco1962 said:

I don't know if this is possible as each game may be distinct in how it saves the controller information, but if it is, would sure make setting up the same gamepad configuration each time less time consuming.

Are you asking if there could be facility to set the controls once and these are disseminated to all the other game folders? if so, already on the dev list! And it's possible. 

[Draco1962]

13 minutes ago, stigzler said:

Are you asking if there could be facility to set the controls once and these are disseminated to all the other game folders? if so, already on the dev list! And it's possible. 

Exactly what I am asking!

[stigzler]

Already ahead of ya buddy, just a bit down the line..

Aside from the issues you let me know about, did the update process work OK? I.e. it downloaded and updated itself OK?

[Draco1962]

Updates are working A-OK!

[stigzler]

As an example of just how infuriating this pursuit is:

I've just spent 90 minutes baffled. Tried a million and one things to try and get a previously working installation booting. I creaed virtual drives, changed execution permissions.. you name it. Then I copied the entire contents of the working directory to another directory - ran from there + it didn't work!!

Random inspiration led me to change the root folder name for the game. Bizarrely this solved it! Process of elimintaion led to discovering that you can't have 'special' characters in the root directory name. I.e.:

King of Fighters XIII [Taito Type X²]

breaks it! (the squared char)

That's how obscure this bloody job is!

I will not be beaten.

[stigzler]

Doobeedoo...

TypeX done. Fullset all working as setup except KOF MIA (don;'t think this works at all)

Adding some other systems - Contra, Deathsmiles etc

'tis a long road this one..

oh, I did find some muppet moaning about no bugger having taken on simplifying TypeX setup a few years ago - he's always banging on and moaning that muppet...

(just for clarity, I'm referring to myself there!)