WinUAE and the WHDLoad quitkey

[AnimalFat]

Hello there!

Since this is my first post, I should say "Hello to the GameEx community! I love this program!!"

The scenario...

When using WHDLoad there is an option to specify a 'quitkey' which then returns you to the Workbench screen and allows your hiscores and other game generated data (save disks) to be saved to the hard disk, provided the WHDLoad slave supports this. My personal quitkey is the Amiga's 'PrtSc' which is on the Amiga's number pad along with * (asterix), since not many Amiga games use this key. In WinUAE this is mapped to the number pad * on a PC keyboard. All this works fine when using a PC keyboard.

My project makes GameEx launch WinUAE into a tailored version of Workbench which then launches the WHDLoad game from an Amiga batch file using AmigaDOS. When the WHDLoad quitkey is pressed, the game ends and returns back to AmigaDOS/Workbench allowing time for the hiscore data to be saved. I'm using the Amiga CLI command 'uaequit' at the end of my Amiga batch file to automatically terminate the WinUAE session which then returns control back to GameEx.

The problem...

I would simply like it that when I press the GameEx quit key that it sends the {MULTIPLY} sendkeys command to WinUAE, which will then quit out of the WHDLoad game and return it back to AmigaDOS - I don't want GameEx to tell WinUAE to quit. I'm just not sure how to do this, or if it's possible to do this with GameEx?

(I know of the WinUAELoader project, but I've opted to go down my own path, as I like a challenge!

Hopefully, someone can help please?

Regards,

AF

[headkaze]

Run the Setup Wizard and select Custom->Emulator Setup. Select your WinUAE config and click the [...] button next to Advanced Config. It should launch the Advanced Config Editor. Under the General tab you can enter keys for it to send. Enter "{MULTIPLY}" into "Keys To Send On Exit". Then select File->Save As... and give it a name (Eg. "WinUAE"). Close the Config Editor and then select your newly created config from the list.

[AnimalFat]

Hi headkaze,

Thanks for the advice, it worked - sort of. I'm sure it's because I'm being a muppet.

I'm testing this using a keyboard, so I'm pressing the Escape key like I do with every other emulator. After I press Escape, the WHDLoad game quits back to AmigaDOS, so the {MULTIPLY} is definitely being sent to WinUAE, but a split second later WinUAE quits without resuming my Amiga batch file. I've put 'echo' commands in there to prove it's stepping through the batch file, but it doesn't get to show them, so GameEx must be terminating WinUAE.

I'm wondering if it's worth me continuing with this, since I found this link after making my original post, and didn't realise the trouble you went through to create the WinUAELoader. Plus, I didn't realise what the GameBase project was all about!

Hmmm...