WHDRun (Hopefully Amiga WHDLoad games from Gameex)

[wobbly]

iano wrote K. I tried getting you a key via credit card (i owned an amiga too) but they declined it because the email address was "untraceable" ? What does that mean? Your real name is not part of the email address ?

if the email address hk gave you is hotmail or some free email account some sites dont like you useing free email accounts when paying for stuff

something to do with credit card frored

[iano]

hello i would love to help you out with some money for regkey do you have a paypal account ?

unfortunately iam unable to give you all the money you need for the key but i can afford some would that help

I never thought of that ! Between Wobbly & myself we could get you the key !

[headkaze]

HK. I tried getting you a key via credit card (i owned an amiga too) but they declined it because the email address was "untraceable" ? What does that mean? Your real name is not part of the email address ?

Hey Ian.. appreciate it!! My guess would be that it doesn't accept a gmail account for an e-mail because anyone can get one. I'll send you my ISP address in PM. Cheers

EDIT: Wow, didn't get a chance to read Wobbly's posts! Thanks!

So what should we do now? lol

[iano]

Hey Ian.. appreciate it!! My guess would be that it doesn't accept a gmail account for an e-mail because anyone can get one. I'll send you my ISP address in PM. Cheers

EDIT: Wow, didn't get a chance to read Wobbly's posts! Thanks!

So what should we do now? lol

No worries. I sent some money to your paypal email address you were using for the cp viewer project.

Cheers,

ian.

[wobbly]

hk if you pm me your playpal account i will put in what i can

[headkaze]

hk if you pm me your playpal account i will put in what i can

If Ian is going to purchase the key via his credit card then maybe you could send your part to him so you can split it?

Ian: I sent you my ISP e-mail address, so if you want you can PM wobbly to get his donation?

Does that work okay for everyone?

[wobbly]

hello hk iano just gave me your payply account i just sent you what i could hope this helps

[headkaze]

Thanks guys! Now.. I'm off to buy a WHDLoad key...

[wobbly]

happy to help out its a small price to pay for all the hard work you do helping all of us here thanks again

[headkaze]

Okay sent off the money for the key, now just waiting for it in the mail

Now I have some questions I need help with...

Currently GameBase and WHDLoad games work okay in the wrapper (the ones I've tested so far anyway).

But.. I'm not sure about SPS ones because they arn't adf but ipf format. Does anyone know how this set works? How are multiple disks handled? (EDIT: Looks like multiple disks are stored in one zip archive)

Also I was looking in the Scripts folder of GameBase Amiga and I understand most of it except for the following:

If Control = JoyPort1 ...

AFAIK It's either (1) a global setting that determines whether or not the joystick or mouse is in port 0 OR (2) It's a PER GAME setting in the database that determines whether the joystick or mouse is in port 0.

It would make sense to have a setting in the database for each game because some games need the mouse in port 0 and some games need a joystick in port 0. If it is (2) then I need to find the setting in "GameBase Amiga.mdb" that sets this "Control" variable to true (1) or false (0). Any help finding it will save me time for working on other parts of the wrapper.

The basic functionality of the wrapper is working. I have sucessfully remapped keys so any cab setup will work with it. I think I'll include a default mapping for IPAC's. Eventually I guess a Joy<->Key mapping feature will be handy (for people who have U360's for joysticks and IPAC's for buttons) but I think I'll leave that for another version. I don't think it's easy to generate joystick input so it might only be Joy->Key. Blocking joystick input could be difficult as well. Sorry just thinking out aloud now lol

So overall it's in a very good place, just need a bit of help answering these questions if you can?

[headkaze]

Okay figured out the what that Control variable is. It seems it selects from a list of controls..

JoyPort2, JoyPort1, Keyboard, PaddlePort2, PaddlePort1, Mouse, Lightpen, KoalaPad, LightGun

And there are both default settings and per-game settings. I think that's mystery solved?

Now I just gotta figure out how to handle multiple disk spans for SPS games..

[DamageCase]

Hey HeadKaze,

Awesome news man... Thanks heaps for the time you are putting into this.

I'm sorry that I missed chipping in for the WHDLoad license (I've been back at work so missed out on my "net time" the past few days). If theres anything else you need for the project I'd definitely like to contribute.

I too am an oldskool Amiga junkie... I grew up with a Speccy 48K, then C64 and then my Amigas... The Amiga just has the fondest place in my memories and I still play its (emulated) games nearly as much as anything new.

Your wrapper really could open up the Amiga to the arcade community... The configs that have always been required on a per game level are just too much effort for those without Amiga experience.. Gamebase is an awesome tool with no doubt a HEAP of work put into its database; but it just doesn't fit quite right (especially for a cab).

Thanks again dude.... And dont be so modest, I only stumbled on the data in the db file... You are the one making this all work

[DamageCase]

Just regarding the SPS files... I just downloaded GB Amiga's SPS dat file and it does not have the multi disk games in one zip file (it uses seperate zip's for each disk).

Then the DB file just has an entry for the boot disk of each game (Disc 1 or occasionally 0)... Sets the number of floppies and a floppy type (-1, 0, 1).

I'm not sure if it is this setting that tells Winuae to add the consecutive disks..... I could be completely off the ball with that setting.

Anyway, Is it any easier that the disks are individually zipped?

[headkaze]

Just regarding the SPS files... I just downloaded GB Amiga's SPS dat file and it does not have the multi disk games in one zip file (it uses seperate zip's for each disk).

Then the DB file just has an entry for the boot disk of each game (Disc 1 or occasionally 0)... Sets the number of floppies and a floppy type (-1, 0, 1).

I'm not sure if it is this setting that tells Winuae to add the consecutive disks..... I could be completely off the ball with that setting.

Anyway, Is it any easier that the disks are individually zipped?

Yep your right, I was wrong about multi disks being in the one SPS archive and I probably should have made a post correcting myself. I was referring to an SPS TOSEC collection I found on the net that had the ipf files inside zips. Obviously (well now anyway) you run your favourite ROM tool with the SPS dat and it creates the right disks. So I managed to find a few for testing.

I have SPS fully working along with standard GameBase Amiga and WHDLoad sets now. So the wrapper supports every GameBase game! That's 4924 games with 2028 SPS and 2177 WHDLoad. All the disk spanning, uae settings etc are handled on a per game basis using the GameBase Amiga database. You will also be able to update the data when a new GameBase Amiga database is released although you don't actually need GameBase/GameBase Amiga installed to use the wrapper.

The wrapper includes map files for GameEx so it can display the "friendly name" when viewing a list. I wan't to put a little tool in there for renaming snaps too. Now the only thing it doesn't do is generate the mdb database file for GameEx. You know the one's with (GoodName, Date, Developer, Category, Description, Name, NumPlayers). I'm going to try my best to have the wrapper generate one from the GameBase Amiga database. But right now it's the only thing the wrapper doesn't do (apart from cook you breakfast in bed - maybe for the next version?)

Now I just gotta get the damn configuration GUI done so I can release it lol

[headkaze]

The loader can now generate an AMIGA.mdb file in the format GameEx reads So now games can be sorted in GameEx based on Date, Developer, Category or NumPlayers. I think that about covers everything for GameEx support now!

Now I can finally work on the GUI! (Time to make a large coffee methinks)

[wobbly]

ya the man bring it on

[headkaze]

Received my WHDLoad key today Thanks again to Ian and Wobbly, I've added a credit in the program dedicated to you guys.

Well progress is going great. I'm really working hard on this! "WinUAE Loader" as I've creatively called it is currently at 5,169 lines of code. Yes it's been quite alot of work to make sure it does all the little config tweaks like GameBase Amiga to ensure games run with their most compatible settings. For example it uses the same technique as GameBase Amiga to plug the Mouse into joyport0 if the game needs it. It's the attention to detail like this which will make Amiga gaming in GameEx as seamless as possible.

BTW Are there people out there with a full GameBase Amiga game set that can help me test this?

[wobbly]

would love to help

i have most of the amiga abase set

what sort of things would you like me to test for

i don't have a cab atm but any thing i can hellp with let me know i have a lot of free time

[headkaze]

would love to help

i have most of the amiga abase set

what sort of things would you like me to test for

i don't have a cab atm but any thing i can hellp with let me know i have a lot of free time

I will probably have to add a "Run Game" feature in the wrapper which will allow you to run games from a list in the GUI. By testing I just mean running as many games as possible and making sure they run okay. Also need to make sure the key mapping system works. By default it will map the X-Arcade keys to an IPAC. There are a few other things to test like all the different generated data files for GameEx.

[wobbly]

i can help with testing if you like just need to install adf about 20 gig or so

i have the whdload pack installed already need to get a whdload key myself that should not take to long

[headkaze]

i can help with testing if you like just need to install adf about 20 gig or so

i have the whdload pack installed already need to get a whdload key myself that should not take to long

The SPS set is different in that they are ipf files instead of adf. You can read more about that set @ http://www.softpres.org/

For anyone else wanting to test, you can get a complete WHDLoad set from http://www.guildserver.co.uk/kgwhd/

[wobbly]

i ve just pay for whdload

[wobbly]

got the set of sps disks from the amiga gamebase website

just trying to work out where they go can't seam to get them to show up in agb

[headkaze]

got the set of sps disks from the amiga gamebase website

just trying to work out where they go can't seam to get them to show up in agb

I don't think the SPS disks are not available on the amiga gamebase website?? BTW There are 2028 games in the SPS set (you might need to search out a *cough* torrent *cough*)

All extra's go in your GameBase\Extras folder and you add that folder to your Tools->Paths->Extras. Then inside your GameBase\Extras folder you add WHDLoad and SPS folders. You put them in the SPS folder. But they also need to go into sub folders. You need to run the games through ClrMamePro (because the SPS set you download will probably be in TOSEC format). Using the SPS dat file from the GameBase Amiga website (Dat - GameBase Amiga - SPS (v1.5).zip). You will notice in that archive along with the dat files you will see a file called spsmove.bat. That will move the games into the folders needed.

[wobbly]

i found there in agb website http://gbamiga.elowar.com/files/Miscellaneous/#notes

downloading 1 now to see what it is