MAME Screensaver

[Tom Speirs]

MAME Screensaver

MAME Screensaver is a Windows screensaver for MAME.

It allows you to run MAME as a screen saver, randomly playing games at intervals you specify.

Its simple to setup, configure and simple to use, and works just like any other windows screensaver, except when your screensaver kicks in it will randomly and continuously launch MAME games

Requirements:

128MB RAM

.net framework 1.1

[MAMu_]

already posted it in MW's forum:

Excellent, works pretty well in fact... (thx for using one of my icons btw.. where are my credits???? joking..)

I love the way it interact with MAME folder, creates list from current exe (that sceensaver is not a MAME modified build, it needs you to point to MAME32.EXE , without any need to modify MAME folder or to be placed in it...)

i'll had a few suggestions though if you accept these...

1/A LIST MANAGER:

When game list is done, add a 'List manager' button in configuration of the screensaver, where all games would be listed and checked, and where , with a right click: Uncheck All, Check All, Check by source (opens up a identical list of source files, ie: check neogeo.c will check all neogeos games, etc), and Chech favorites (read from mame32 favorites folder)...and anything else it could need (why not a save and load list, when a list of nice games is done, you can save it in order to be sure no configuration is lost)

asking this cause the very 3 1st games that were choosen randomly all needed 1P to be pressed (unlucky) to bypass the config :] and I thought, damn, these 3 would need to be unchecked, as any press on any key, or mouse move, quits the screensaver (which gave me idea n°3)...

4th game was a neogeo... 'that would be cool to only display neogeo too...'

2/CUSTOMISATION: point to any image in order to replace the MAME logo you used between each games, the informations should still be forced over that image (name of game, company, year) (I can provide you a 24 bit MAME TM logo.png with alpha if you want to force the MAME logo over that choosen image, but then it could be cool at least to let the user choose the position of it over its choosen image (values X,Y would be just cool)

Choose Size and Typo of infos, and why not position too...

3/LET THE USER PLAY (if asked)

in Configuration, a box: 'Play MAME on key(s) press: [ ]

Here user could enter a key, or a chain of keys separated by ',' that would stop the screensaver, but not mame... if a user want to play one of the games actually onscreen that has been choose randomly by your screensaver, frustrating to insert a coin on hotrod, and back to windows ^^

(ie by pressing 5 or 1, insert coins, start player 1, common MAME used keys choosen by user, the screensaver would be unloaded from memory, MAME would still run, no return possible to windows except with esc key, as usual)

That were my 2cents

Anyway as it is.. i really like it and will use it

Regards, MAMu_

[Paco62]

MAME Screensaver

MAME Screensaver is a Windows screensaver for MAME.

It allows you to run MAME as a screen saver, randomly playing games at intervals you specify.

Its simple to setup, configure and simple to use, and works just like any other windows screensaver, except when your screensaver kicks in it will randomly and  continuously launch MAME games

Requirements:

128MB RAM

.net framework 1.1

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sounds cool, but when I google for MAME Screensaver, the only similar thing I can find is Any Saver. Is this what you are talking about?

[MAMu_]

Sounds cool, but when I google for MAME Screensaver, the only similar thing I can find is Any Saver.  Is this what you are talking about?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

http://tomspeirs.com/MAMEScreenSaver/

[Tom Speirs]

already posted it in MW's forum:

Excellent, works pretty well in fact... (thx for using one of my icons btw.. where are my credits???? joking..)

I love the way it interact with MAME folder, creates list from current exe (that sceensaver is not a MAME modified build, it needs you to point to MAME32.EXE , without any need to modify MAME folder or to be placed in it...)

i'll had a few suggestions though if you accept these... 

1/A LIST MANAGER:

When game list is done, add a 'List manager' button in configuration of the screensaver, where all games would be listed and checked, and where , with a right click: Uncheck All, Check All, Check by source (opens up a identical list of source files, ie: check neogeo.c will check all neogeos games, etc), and Chech favorites (read from mame32 favorites folder)...and anything else it could need (why not a save and load list, when a list of nice games is done, you can save it in order to be sure no configuration is lost)

asking this cause the very 3 1st games that were choosen randomly all needed 1P to be pressed (unlucky) to bypass the config :] and I thought, damn, these 3 would need to be unchecked, as any press on any key, or mouse move, quits the screensaver (which gave me idea n°3)...

4th game was a neogeo... 'that would be cool to only display neogeo too...'

2/CUSTOMISATION: point to any image in order to replace the MAME logo you used between each games, the informations should still be forced over that image (name of game, company, year) (I can provide you a 24 bit MAME TM logo.png with alpha if you want to force the MAME logo over that choosen image, but then it could be cool at least to let the user choose the position of it over its choosen image (values X,Y would be just cool)

Choose Size and Typo of infos, and why not position too...

3/LET THE USER PLAY (if asked) 

in Configuration, a box: 'Play MAME on key(s) press: [ ]

Here user could enter a key, or a chain of keys separated by ',' that would stop the screensaver, but not mame... if a user want to play one of the games actually onscreen that has been choose randomly by your screensaver, frustrating to insert a coin on hotrod, and back to windows ^^

(ie by pressing 5 or 1, insert coins, start player 1, common MAME used keys choosen by user, the screensaver would be unloaded from memory, MAME would still run, no return possible to windows except with esc key, as usual)

That were my 2cents 

Anyway as it is.. i really like it and will use it

Regards, MAMu_

Thanks for the feedback MAMu_, it was great to get someone of your stature making the first post. 3 is actually implemented now in 0.25. It does actually close down the game and reload it though, this so if games sound was turned off it will be on.

Cheers, Tom.

[Martoon]

This is fantastic!

Unfortunately, the "Run Each Game For" time doesn't work on my machine. I have it set to 2 minutes, but when the screensaver starts a game, several minutes later it's still on that game.

I'm running it with Mame32 v0.99 on WinXP. Any ideas?

[Squid]

I have been looking for a screensaver like this for a while and have to say it is a solid peice of work. Runs great on my arcade box, Win2K and my regular computer XP pro SP2, overall I have to say I really like it.

I do have a couple of small issues that MAMu_ didn't bring up. Although I I like the ability to play the game on the screen but I would like people to have to return to the front end. (return only option). This way it would act like a standard screen saver and return to windows no matter what key(mouse) is pressed.

This brings me to my second issue, I have the taskbar disabled normally for my arcade box and when the screensaver is stopped the taskbar comes back. Could you add an option to keep the taskbar hidden, or check its state when the screensaver runs and restore it to that state when the screensaver exits.

Thanks for the great screensaver, I hope my comments are useful.

[Agm]

Having a problem with the screensaver.

I see the menu come up. I see its loading a game and then it cuts back to the desktop.

It never seems to actually display the game and its point to all the right directories.

Running Mame32 in Windows XP.

[standard]

Hi,

Great idea to make a screensaver running mame roms, thats what i was looking for:)

Thanks for sharing it with us

1/A LIST MANAGER:

When game list is done, add a 'List manager' button in configuration of the screensaver, where all games would be listed and checked, and where , with a right click: Uncheck All, Check All, Check by source (opens up a identical list of source files, ie: check neogeo.c will check all neogeos games, etc), and Chech favorites (read from mame32 favorites folder)...and anything else it could need (why not a save and load list, when a list of nice games is done, you can save it in order to be sure no configuration is lost)

Something like that would be great, maybe a 'list manager' is bit too much for a screensaver, but an editable list or ini file would do the job (or is there already a list?).

The idea to use the mame 'Favorites.ini' for games to run is great. Would be fantastic if you could implement that.

Cheers

standard

[Tom Speirs]

This is fantastic!

Unfortunately, the "Run Each Game For" time doesn't work on my machine.  I have it set to 2 minutes, but when the screensaver starts a game, several minutes later it's still on that game.

I'm running it with Mame32 v0.99 on WinXP.  Any ideas?

I dont have any ideas off hand, does the game exit when you press a key (other than escape). Are you using .net Framework 1.1?

Answer these questions it will give me a better idea.

Note to all. This entire forum is dedicated to the MAME screensaver. Please DO start new topics.

Thanks,

Tom

[Tom Speirs]

Having a problem with the screensaver.

I see the menu come up. I see its loading a game and then it cuts back to the desktop.

It never seems to actually display the game and its point to all the right directories.

Running Mame32 in Windows XP.

You could try a different and 'recent' version of MAME, and update the list again. Did you go into the screensaver config, and 'update' the mame list?

Again, this entire Forum is dedicated to the MAME Screensaver, please start new topics.

Thanks!

[AGame]

Hi,

I recently installed .net 1.1 and MAME099b. When the MAME screensaver kicks in, should hitting any key exit the session or is ESC the only way? Is screenlock possible?

let me know

thanks

PS: this is a great app. Thanks for putting it together...

-Ames