Emu Loader - Powerful M.A.M.E. Frontend
Documentation
Developed by Ciro Alfredo Consentino
- What's New -
version 4.5
Fixed:
1. Proper detection of "Hyper Neo Geo 64" games into "Neo Geo" category / game filter
2. Audit seems to work fine now. Still need to verify this though :)
3. When auditing single games,
every time you audit a new game without closing the audit window, the status bar
info is correctly updated :)
4. Options "Audit All Games" and "Audit All Available Games"
getting disabled when closing the audit screen
5. "Automatic Game Information" works 100% again
(or so I think)
6. Forgot to save the grouped mode background image info in "EmuLoader.ini"...
heh, sorry :|
7. "Times Played" "Total Play Time" not updated after
quitting a game, when in
grouped mode
8. Audit screen not being freed from memory if closing it with the window close button instead of the "Close" button
9. Very veird access violation bug in "Automatic Game Info" feature ven there are no info for a game (bug in all modches, exchept grouped modche)
10. "Merged" status is now shown when auditing a merged game that is ok but the .chd file is missing (clone games only)
11. "Save Bad Games To HTML File" works again
12. A few "Parental Lock"
bugs (thanks Marshall Brooks):
- Access violation in "Parental Lock Editor" when
"catver.ini" is not found (category is always empty in this case)
- Games list not updating when enabling parental lock, after
accessing "Parental Lock Editor"
- Message confirming changes loss after clicking "Ok" button
(to save blocked list) in "Parental Lock Editor" (it should this ask only if
clicking the "Cancel" button)
- Access violation when trying to run a game in the "Games
Found" list in "Parental Lock Editor"
13. A lot of cosmetic bugs
14. Load and save MAME .ini / games custom .ini / delete custom game .ini files were not being correctly handled if emulator in folder different than frontend's main folder
15. Bugs in the "Custom Game Description" / "Custom Game Category" features (thanks Marshall Brooks)
16. Color of sorted column is properly set (grouped mode)
17. Sorting in column "Times Played"
18. Delete custom category was not working when in grouped mode (thanks Marshall Brooks)
19. Function "FindGameName" was not working in grouped mode (needed in a couple cases)
20. A bunch of string sentences in the frontend
21. MP3 files with variant bitrates were not being played with 100% of accuracy
22. Font in the windowed auto game info was not being updated (thanks Marshall Brooks)
Changed:
1. Audit
system:
- "Show Only Bad Games" now really hide
good audited games :)
Also, this menu is now an
ON/OFF option
- "Audit Game Again" now can be used at
any time, even if you have thousands of audited
games in the list... and the best part is that the selected
game is really deleted from the
audit list before it gets
audited again!!!! :D
- Status bar info is simplified.
- Panel #1: Games being audited
- Panel #2: Audited games that are OK
- Panel #3: Audited games that contain errors
- Panel #4: Used to display a
few messages. Pay attention to it when using "special" audit features (a progress bar might
be added there in the future) ;)
- Popup menu replaced by a BcBar
PopupMenu (same as main screen)
2. All popup menus and main menu font names changed to
"Tahoma" (it was "Ms Sans Serif" since day one)... the
default font used in the entire frontend is "Tahoma" size 8
3. mame.dk URL replaced by the almighty MAWS database
4. The current selected
emulator will always be used to create a new games list, not based on the
"default emulator" selection in "Emulator Setup" screen anymore.
So, if you want to create a list based on the third emulator, just make sure to
select it before creating the new list
5. Toolbar icons updated
6. Recompiled with:
- FMOD v3.72
- ZipForge v2.54
7. Merged "Custom Game
Description", "Custom Game Category" and the new "Custom Game Font" in the same
window
But .ini files stay the same. This feature is now called "Custom Game
Appearance"
8. "Cheats File" now accept multiple files (MAME Configuration)
9. Automatic Game Information moved above the game snapshot to fix other visual bugs
10. Picture navigation panel relocated to inside the picture's area and it's now transparent. Picture number font is not customizable anymore
11. Source file "spectrum.pas" modified for better support :)
12. Dialog box for image files selection replaced by an image dialog box (it shows a sample of the selected image)
13. Images support reduced to
10 snapshots per game (for each picture type, not 10 in total)
Extra files go from "gamename.png" plus "gamename0000.png" to
"gamename0008.png"
14. Title snapshots and game snapshots support only the .png image format from now on (no point supporting other formats)
15. "Automatic Game Info" in
"Appearance" tab / Preferences screen is renamed to "Game Documents"
The custom appearance (font and background color) works for all game info panels
(auto game info above the snapshot and in the window, info, history, driver and
faq window
16. Renamed the "Use Virtual
List" to "Show Total Pictures" (snapshots feature)
Check this option if you want to view "0 of 10 pictures" label in pictures
preview area instead of the current number of the snapshot. Also, the file "pictures.dat"
is always entirely loaded into memory from now on
17. Renamed "Create Pictures
List" to "Create Total Pictures List"
If you want to rescan your pictures files, just this menu
18. Replaced a few input boxes by a custom and larger input box
19. Buttons Yes / No / Ok when using arcade controllers are now set to player 7 buttons 6 and 7 (buttons 2 and 3 for Devastator II controller)
20. Audit results to HTML is reformatted with more info
Removed:
1. "Default Emulator" feature
in "Emulator Setup" screen
This has always been useless since you could not create a new games list based
on the selected emulator in main screen
2. Translation system. Emu Loader is now English only
3. Keys Assignment
4. Pictures navigation panel (see changes #10)
Optimized:
1. Audit system
2. Grouped mode
3. Switching between view modes
4. "Automatic Game Information" is loaded to memory at startup, before loading the games list (much faster)
Added:
1. Hide columns in grouped
mode works (Columns Editor)
Be aware that re-positioning columns in the grouped mode does NOT work properly
yet
2. Updates for latest MAME source release
3. Preliminary support for
"MAME Plus!". See new options in "MAME Configuration" screen :D
Notes:
- "MAME32 Plus!" is not supported since it's a MAME32 build
- Palette colors are not customizable for each game
(only general)
4. Type "Standard" to the controller keys mapping list, both in main screen and MAME Configuration screen (for MAME Plus!)
5. "Download Address"
(audit)
An internet address that works together with the new "Save Bad List Links
For Download" feature (audit only) You'll find this in the "Audit"
sub-menu, "Games" main menu, games list popup menu and in the audit screen popup
menu. Saved in "EmuLoader.ini", section "Audit"
6. "Save Bad List Links For
Download"
This is a new output that save in a HTML file, internet links with all
games that are bad, for easy management. It works ONLY with the audit feature
and you must define an internet address with "Download Address" (if you want
this to work properly)
This is the first feature I coded specially for myself since every time a new
MAME is out, ROMs are changed. Just try it and see it for yourself ;)
7. Toolbar button "Extra
Command Line Parameters", for easy access
Useful if you want to quickly test new/other MAME parameters (only for MAME
binaries, not DOS MAME)
8. Columns in "Parental Lock Editor" games lists can now be sorted
9. Game font customization
Customize the font size/type/color for each game in the list (for all view
modes)
You will find it in the new "Custom Game Appearance" which has the following
features merged:
- Custom Game Description
- Custom Game Category
- Custom Game Font
10. New file "GameFont.ini"
This file holds the custom font for each game (see #9), and the file must be in
the main folder of the frontend (like the others)
11. Option "Use Custom Game
Font" in "Preferences / Games" screen
Enable/disable custom font for each game in the list (normal modes and grouped
mode)
12. Window size and column sizes in audit screen are now saved in "EmuLoader.ini", section "Audit" (new section)
13. "Automatic Game Info" now use the entire pictures panel, when pictures are disabled
14. Preliminary support for "No Name MAME"
(including a custom icon made by me). See new options in "MAME Configuration" screen :D
Notes:
- Palette colors are not customizable for each game and you
must use it from the "MAME Plus" (only general)
- Extract version info doesn't work because "No Name" has
other strings at the top of the "-help" output :(
15. New option: "Verify
Emulator CRC32 Checksum"
Enabled by default, it generates a CRC32 checksum for each emulator
This is still preliminary. The only thing is does so far is avoid the extraction
of the emulator version each time you use the "Emulator Setup" screen, when you
only want to add/delete an emulator. Imagine all other possibilities... :D
16. Emulators will be
handled by the CRC32 checksum :D
Notes:
- It might take a second or two to generate the CRC32 for a binary (it
depends on your hardware)
Checksum strings are saved in
"EmuLoader.ini"
- "Verify Emulator CRC32 Checksum" must be
enabled
17. "CRC32 Checksum" display in "Emulator Setup" screen
18. New feature: "Random Game
Preview" (preliminary)
It keeps running random games with a limited time (15 minutes maximum), or until
the user disable the feature
See all available options for this feature in "Preference" screen, "Games" tab:
- "Display Warning Message": message before feature is enabled
- "Display Warning Panel": multicolored ribbon that stays in front of the
frontend for "flighty" users, heh
- "Warning Panel Animation": panel changes color every second
- "Restore Selected Game": select the game that was selected before
enabling this feature
- "How Many Games To Run": well, set the number of games you want to keep
loading (random), duh!
- "Time To Run Game": how much time do you want each game to
run
- "Use Available Games Only": number of search retries when an
unavailable game is found (random)
- "Pause Between Games": pause before selecting another random game
(after quitting last MAME section)
- "Pause Before MAME Starts": pause before new selected game starts in
MAME
- "Blend Preview Window Factor": makes entire preview ribbon transparent
Activate/deactivate feature in "Games" main menu
Warnings:
- Avoid using other frontend functions and/or MAME while this feature is
enabled unless you set a large pause in feature settings (even so, I advise you
not to mess with EL... disable it first!)
- If you want to play the game being shown, please exit the game, disable
the preview feature and start the game again
19. Button: Export "BlockedGames.dat"
Use this button to export an unencrypted list of the protected games, alphabetically sorted
20. Download game images from
MAWS homepage directly into EL images folders (.png format only!) :D
Go to main menu "Pictures" / new menu item "Download" (or pictures popup menu).
Also, in "Preferences" screen, "Pictures" tab you'll find customizable URL links for each picture type (default to MAWS homepage).
21. New feature: "Show MAWS
Game Info"
It shows the selected game's webpage from MAWS, replacing the local image files
Notes:
- Automatic game information is disabled while this feature is being used
- Pictures are disabled while this feature is being used (obviously)
22. FMOD (sound clips) has its
own window now. It shows the known
spectrum plus:
- Current audio position and total audio time
- VU meters for both left and right channels with a
customizable image
click on them to change images (see vumeter.png
file)
- Customizable spectrum image and its background
click on it to change spectrum type
- Transparent window (Windows XP / 2000 only)
23. New sound clips options:
- "Show Spectrum and VU Meters": huh... it makes coffee
- "Spectrum Image": select a custom image for the spectrum
bars
- "VU Meter Image": select a custom image for the VU meters
(each block must have 80x65 pixels)
- "Spectrum Background Color": set the color you want to see
if the back of the spectrum bars
- "Blend FMOD Window Factor": makes entire FMOD window
transparent
24. New folder:
"resources\images\fmod". There are two kind of image files in there:
1. a .bmp file for the spectrum ("spectrum.bmp" is just a
sample of the bitmap format and size)
2. a .png file for the VU meters
animation (but can be any
image format supported by the frontend)
25. Game Sequels
Feature designed for the grouped mode. Want to group sequels of a game ? Use
this. You'll find a "Game Sequels" option in the grouped settings (view mode)
There's also a new file "sequels.ini" (main folder of the frontend) with a
list of games that you want to add as a sequel of a single game. Note that the
clones of all sequels will be added normally indented into their parents. Edit
this .ini file as you please (I will not maintain the file but I can add a
custom .ini file with frontend releases)
26. New option: "Keep Frontend
Settings File Clean"
Enabled by default, the file "EmuLoader.ini" is always deleted before being
updated to make sure the file is free of unused sections / entries
27. Rename files inside
gamename.zip is re-added (audit only)
This will automatically rename filenames inside a game's zip file when auditing,
but only if the size and CRC32/MD5 are correct
Use this with extreme caution, since it's in preliminary stages!