need help with "run on launch"

[draginit]

i having a bit of trouble understanding the run on launch. if im reading it right i should be able to have gameex start right in a specific game of my coice right? specifically golden tee 2k is the rom im trying to have start but how do i go about that...when i choose browse i find my list of roms but their all zipped of course and by putting it in the selection bar gameex wont launch......im sure its easy but im lost..hopefully someone can walk me thru this process?

[headkaze]

You can't have GameEx start up with a Mame game like that, Run on Launch is not for this purpose. It is for launching small utils and such in the background.

There is no way to have GameEx startup with a Mame game. Just add the game to favourites and select it from there.

[draginit]

thanks for clearing that up.

that is how i have it now.. i guess i misunderstood it and the difference between run on launch and launch on startup. what are some examples of utilities one would run in the background, i cant think of any???

i wonder if running a specific game on startup would be a feature request worth requesting or if im the only one who would want such a thing......

[hansolo77]

Utils you might be looking for would be stuff like AutoIT scripts. They are helpful when running pinball games to bypass warnings and auto-select the right roms and stuff. If you don't have it, you must use your mouse and click the right stuff. Cab users typically don't have mice on their control panel all the time. Some might have trackballs, but a script would just be better all around.

Another example would be batch programs used to mount a cd image to a virtual drive so the emulator would be able to run it.

I use this feature to execute a set of commands to change the button assignment profile for my controller. I've got a PC controller that looks like a playstation controller. If I wanna play a Sega Genesis game, I program the buttons in a certain way and save the profile. Then I have GameEx load that profile before launching the game. When I exit the game, I have it unloading the profile back to it's original settings. Then If I load up an Atari game, Nintendo game, or something else, they all have their own settings, which are enabled and disabled through this option.

There are other things you can do, like load up LEDWIZ to play stuff on a LED board, connect to the internet (with dialup....) before running an online game like Counter-Strike... there's TONS.

[draginit]

of course!, it all makes a lot of sense now, i use the frontend for the most basic of functions..sheesh, i need to finish up some of my other projects and really dig in/learn and take advantage of all the features this frontend offers.

-thanks for the help

[Tempest]

Sorry for digging up a 2 year old thread...

I'm trying to use "run on launch" to run a batch file before mame starts. The batch file does it's job, but the screen stays black, and the game doesn't start. If I start the task manager, and stop "cmd.exe *32", Gameex returns back to the "play this game" screen.

I think this has to do with the parent/child issue?

Do I need to do something in the batch file to return the control to Gameex?

This is my .bat file:

cd C:\Program Files (x86)\IrfanView2

i_view32.exe "C:\Emulators\Mame64.127\marquees\%1.png" /ini="C:\Program Files (x86)\IrfanView2\Bottom" /hide=15 /resize=(1670,470) /aspectratio /resample

Exit

The Gameex runitgame.bat:

@ECHO OFF
"C:\PROGRAM FILES (X86)\IRFANVIEW2\BOTTOM.BAT" 88games
C:
CD "C:\Emulators\Mame64.127"
vmame64.exe 88games -rompath "C:\Extras\CHD;C:\Extras\Mame 0.127 roms"

[Tempest]

Ok... I used the "run a bat from a bat" method.

This is runlastgame.bat:

@ECHO OFF
"C:\PROGRAM FILES (X86)\IRFANVIEW2\MARQUEE.BAT" 88games
C:
CD "C:\Emulators\Mame64.127"
vmame64.exe 88games -rompath "C:\Extras\CHD;C:\Extras\Mame 0.127 roms"

marquee.bat:

c:
cd C:\Program Files (x86)\IrfanView2\
start bottom.bat
EXIT

bottom.bat:

i_view32.exe "C:\Emulators\Mame64.127\marquees\88games.png" /ini="C:\Program Files (x86)\IrfanView2\Bottom" /hide=15 /resize=(1670,470) /aspectratio /resample
EXIT

Now, instead of freezing on a blank screen, It returns to Gameex without starting Mame.

[bkenobi]

The "run on launch" command waits till the command is complete prior to launching MAME. If you run something that needs to stay resident, you should use the "start" command prior to your command. If you do that, you will probably need to use a "run on exit" command as well to kill the process. You should be able to do something like "tskill.exe i_view32.exe" for instance without needing to create a batch file. So I think you would have this:

@ECHO OFF
start "C:\PROGRAM FILES (X86)\IRFANVIEW2\MARQUEE.BAT" 88games
C:
CD "C:\Emulators\Mame64.127"
vmame64.exe 88games -rompath "C:\Extras\CHD;C:\Extras\Mame 0.127 roms"

[Tempest]

When I add the "start", I get this error:

"windows cannot find '005'. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and try again. To search for a file, Click the start button, and then click search"

it seems as though it's not seeing [ROM] as a parameter...

the runitgame.bat looks exactly as you show in your post (except it says '005' in place of '88games' )

[bkenobi]

@ECHO OFF
start "C:\PROGRAM FILES (X86)\IRFANVIEW2\MARQUEE.BAT 88games"
C:
CD "C:\Emulators\Mame64.127"
vmame64.exe 88games -rompath "C:\Extras\CHD;C:\Extras\Mame 0.127 roms"

Try moving the location of the double quote to outside [romname].

Also, it looks like your batch files don't have the %1 to catch the [romname] field. Is that intentional?

[Tempest]

Yeah, I took the variable out, and stuck in 88games just to make sure that the variable wasn't causing a problem.

I changed runitgame.bat to:

@ECHO OFF
start "C:\PROGRAM FILES (X86)\IRFANVIEW2\MARQUEE.BAT"
C:
CD "C:\Emulators\Mame64.127"
vmame64.exe 88games -rompath "C:\Extras\CHD;C:\Extras\Mame 0.127 roms"

Just to eliminate the variable as a possible issue. It starts the game, but doesn't display the image. If I click on Marquee.bat, the image displays fine. (but doesn't run the game )

Marquee.bat, and bottom.bat are as shown above.

I was joking above, but maybe that is the answer, maybe I SHOULD have marquee.bat start the game...

[Tempest]

I wanted to update the previous post, this is what my files look like now. Should this work? or not? It must be possible...

I am considering writing a script to do everything, including launching the game, but I'm sure that will be a different can of worms.

Thoughts on this? Everybody? Anybody?

This is runlastgame.bat:

@ECHO OFF
"C:\PROGRAM FILES (X86)\IRFANVIEW2\MARQUEE.BAT" (I have tried this with "Start" in fron of it)
C:
CD "C:\Emulators\Mame64.127"
vmame64.exe 88games -rompath "C:\Extras\CHD;C:\Extras\Mame 0.127 roms"

marquee.bat:

c:
cd C:\Program Files (x86)\IrfanView2\
start bottom.bat
EXIT

bottom.bat:

i_view32.exe "C:\Emulators\Mame64.127\marquees\88games.png" /ini="C:\Program Files (x86)\IrfanView2\Bottom" /hide=15 /resize=(1670,470) /aspectratio /resample
EXIT