MAME/W: Windows Front end for MAME Written by Jeff Miller (miller@zipcon.net) Programmed in C++ using Visual C++ and MFC IMPORTANT ========= DO NOT ASK ME FOR ROM IMAGES. DO NOT DISTRIBUTE ROM IMAGES WITH MAME/W. *** READ THIS FILE COMPLETELY BEFORE ASKING QUESTIONS *** *** PLEASE ALSO READ MAMEWTIP.TXT (the FAQ list) *** Please check that you have the latest version of this front end. The latest version is always available at: http://www.zipcon.net/~miller INSTALLATION ============ Just copy mamew.exe and optionally mamew.dll into the directory where mame.exe or mame32.exe is and run it. It's that simple! Read the file roms.txt to see how to add new games and graphics that are released to MAME in between releases of MAME/W. WHAT'S NEW ========== -------------------- 0.30a (Jan 26, 1998) -------------------- Please delete the mamew.hc file (if it exists) in your mame directory before running 0.30a for the first time Check for new roms option should work on all machines now (including Windows NT machines) I added the -fm option All games now have help, and clones will mention in the help what game they are a clone of! Also, the background text of the help text now has the correct window background color. I now check the following places for rom files ROMS\gamename.zip -- zipped ROM gamename\* ROMS\gamename\* ZipFolder and ZipMagic support added. Sped up ROM detection a little. More work can be done here. Registry usage is about 1/3 of what it used to be if most of your settings are set at "use default". For example, my mame/w registry usage with 0.30 was about 200K. Now with 0.30a it's 75K. By the next MAME/W version I hope to not use the registry at all (I need to do some performance testing first). Other cool stuff was added as well. ------------------- 0.30 (Jan 11, 1998) ------------------- IMPORTANT!!! PCX files you create should now be stored in the MAME/PCX directory, instead of the MAME/SNAPSHOT directory. (MAME will send captured PCX files to that directory) IMPORTANT!!! ROMS.TXT has been renamed to DEFAULT.MWR You can now load different .MWR (formerly ROMS.TXT) files. For example, you can create one called "arcade.mwr" which contains just arcade style games. Mostly a quick hack to fix up problems with MAME 0.30, and add new 0.30 support for things like the -joy option, etc. You can now run MAME/W without any ROMS.TXT file, if you like. The Intellimouse mouse wheel is now supported. The 0.30 snapshots in MAMEW.DLL are courtesy of Uwe Ripl and Todd Allendorf. Other bug fixes and optimizations have been done as well. Due to work commitments, I haven't had much time to work on MAME/W, so many features will have to be put off for awhile... -------------------- 0.29b (Nov 13, 1997) -------------------- IMPORTANT: If you install mame/w in a directory with a name greater than 8 characters, or with a space, checking for new roms will not work properly! So, if you installed to c:\emulators\mame, either move this to c:\emulator\mame or c:\mame. Included proper ROMS.TXT file (0.29a was zipped up with the wrong file) Fixed dialog painting problems when running in 256 color mode Fixed some minor bugs (ie "-Extra" would occasionally be passed as a command line parameter) 0.29a said "you don't need a roms.txt file to be present". Well, I didn't finish that sentence. MAME/W does require this file, but it doesn't need to be present for MAME/W to start -- you will have to regenerate the file if it's missing. Moved all strings to string table to allow localization of MAME/W. Expect to see MAME/W in languages other than English soon. The MAME/W graphics pack has been updated with more new improved pictures. -------------------- 0.29a (Oct ??, 1997) -------------------- With all those changes in 0.29 there were bound to be some problems. All bugs fixed with this release... Also... ------------------- 0.29 (Oct 20, 1997) ------------------- Wow! This is the biggest and best release of MAME/W yet! Your support (suggestions, encouragement, etc.) is what helped make this version a reality. And I was thinking about making 0.28a the last version of MAME/W... I've created a tips & tricks file called "mamewtip.txt" so that you can find the important facts about mame/w without reading through all of this file. I redesigned (and rewrote) much of the program. The UI is pretty radically different. I tried to unclutter the main screen, so that all you see is the minimum amount of items needed to play any game. Most of the options are under menu items now. When you uncheck the "use default options" box, the options shown will be set to the default options. You now have the option to view ROMS that are: installed properly, not installed properly, or all ROMS (found in the ROMS.TXT file) The list now has icons describing if a game is installed properly, and if it has custom options set for it. See the help menu's "legend" option for more information. MAME/W will now check for missing ROM files upon startup. You do not need to do anything for this to work. When MAME/W checks for missing roms, it now checks to see if a directory has files in it, instead of just checking to see if a directory exists. The main window is larger, so that most games should not need to be scrolled. This is most noticable for the pacman games. I removed a few obsolete entries in the ROMS.TXT file. You can hold the shift key while pressing the "Run" button to see what the command line will look for when running the selected game. This is helpful if you are getting error messages from MAME. I rewrote the "check for new roms" routine. It should work on all systems now. ... Frankly, there's even more, but I've lost track of all the new features! Just use it! -------------------- 0.28a (Sep 15, 1997) -------------------- IMPORTANT! Note the new e-mail address and website at the top of this file. Option changes: -vg option is now a vesa only option. I now use a listbox for frame rate. Combined nojoy/mouse/trak/dir4 options into a "control" option -log option removed (add to command line parameters box if needed) Note that your control settings will need to be reset. I have set the default to use joystick. Removed some obsolete games from roms.txt Added button to link to my home page Fixed up scrolling on picture previews, made it smarter (scrollbars don't show up as much), and put back the 3d border MAME/W will now start if the ROMS.TXT file doesn't exist (so it can be created from scratch using the new button, if you wish) Added option to check which rom images you are missing. Note that I don't automatically do this at the start of MAME/W to save on load time (MAME/W takes too long to load as it is in my opinion!) Whoops! I should have clarified the samples configuration a bit. If you want to use samples for the game called "bunny" (for example), you would either: 1) put all the sample files (unzipped) into the \mame\bunny directory, 2) put all the sample files (zipped as the name bunny.zip) into the c:\mame\samples directory. Sorry for the confusion. ------------------ 0.28 (Sep 8, 1997) ------------------ Whoops! Forgot to mention in 0.27b that samples should be placed in a directory called "samples", below the mame directory. c:\mame\samples --> contains game samples I now check for mame32.exe (the Windows version) first. If that exists, it will be used to play the games. If that's not found, I look for mame.exe (the DOS version) to play the games. NOTE THAT I HAVE NOT TESTED MAME/W WITH MAME32.EXE EXTENSIVELY! (I use the DOS version still...) Added some options to the help button. Added an edit control where you can add additional options to be sent to MAME when running. This is handy if new command line options are added which MAME/W doesn't support. Options dialog and default dialog have tooltips explaining the options. Scroll bars now appear when the preview picture is bigger than the preview area -------------------- 0.27b (Aug 12, 1997) -------------------- Version 0.27a had the -vg and -trak options, but I zipped up the wrong executable! (Duh!) So, here's 0.27b with the correct executable and tons of new features. Added -dir4 option. New program icon! Thanks Darren Wall! Fixed option page so that options that apply to VESA are only available when a VESA mode is selected. ***IMPORTANT*** Game snapshots (.pcx files) that you provide must now be in a directory called "snapshot" under the mame directory. Sorry for changing this yet again. The next paragraph explains why. ***IMPORTANT*** I now use the "femame" directory structure for zipped roms. Here's the instructions, slightly modified from the femame docs: Put ZIP files of your ROM images into the ROMS directory. Each game must be a separate ZIP file containing all of the required ROM images for that game, and the ZIP file must have the same filename as the game's directory (e.g. Moon Patrol has a directory called MPATROL, so the ZIP file would be called MPATROL.ZIP). If you were previously running the game from it's own directory, you may have dipswitch (*.DSW) and high score (*.HI) files. Check for these. If you find any, move them into the SETTINGS directory. Once you have done this you can DELETE the game's directory - it will automatically be created and removed when you need it. For example, in order to run Mr Do! from a ZIPped ROM set, I would set up the following : c:\mame --> containing MAME.EXE, FEMAME.EXE, ETC. c:\mame\roms --> contains MRDO.ZIP which is a ZIP file containing all of the ROM images for Mr Do!. c:\mame\settings --> contains MRDO.DSW and MRDO.HI, my dipswitch and high score files for MR DO. Previously these would have been in the MRDO directory, but we don't need that any more. c:\mame\snapshot --> contains MRDO.PCX, the image to use on the MAME/W "screen shot" page, rather than use the stock image. This file (and directory) is completely optional). -------------------- 0.27a (Aug 10, 1997) -------------------- I need some assistance. Please read the section captioned "PLEASE HELP" in the mamew.txt file. Unzip support. Requires unzip32.dll in the mamew.exe directory Just zip up all the ROMS files in a given directory with the name of that directory. For example, zip up all the *.bin files in the 1942 directory to a zip file called 1942.zip (in the 1942 directory). The next time you run MAME/W and select 1942, it will unzip 1942 then run the game. Once the game ends, all files in that directory (with the exception of *.zip, *.hi, *.cfg and *.dsw) will be deleted. Background colors are back to "normal" when running in 256 color mode. Run mame/w in hicolor (16 bit or higher) mode for a fancy display. Instant help for any game! No more need to refer to the documentation to find out what keys do what. Requires the mame file readme.txt to be in the same directory as mamew.exe *IMPORTANT* Game snapshots (.pcx files) that you provide must now be in the same directory as the roms for that game and must have the same name as the directory. For example, if you want your own picture shown for the game "1942", save a file as 1942.pcx into the mame\1942 directory. Tooltips are back and working again. All pictures updated for 0.27 except for: ckonga, gngcross, pacmanjp, pengoa, pengopop, spacfury, panica, sbagman, sxevious, xeviousn Listbox now uses the font chosen in system for listboxes rather than a default font. Added -vg and -trak options 0.26 Jul 15, 1997 Added support for -rol, -ror, -nodouble switches Clicking "new" button gives additional option for creating all new directory names and adding new rom names (and descriptions) to roms.txt file AUTOMATICALLY! All pictures except: hunchback, pengo (alt), pengo (pop) & seawolf 2 0.25 Jul 10, 1997 Added some of the new video options Fixed up the "New" button to give more information Added some cool new UI graphics 0.24a Jun 18, 1997 Fixed the damn problem that was making mame/w crash on some people's system in 0.24 -- turns out it would only crash in 256 color mode. It was a trivial change, but impossible to find as I could repro on my side! Added every mame option I could find. Improved many of the built in images 0.24 Jun 13, 1997 WHOO HOO!!! MAJOR NEW FEATURES!!! New redesigned interface You can now have unique options for any game! You can click the "New" button to see what games mame.exe supports that aren't in your roms.txt file. The last selection is remembered, so if you select a game, exit then restart, the selection will start at that game. This app is now shareware. Please send $20 to ... Just kidding! It's still free, but PLEASE, mention this front end on usenet when people ask about MAME, and look for emulator web sites that don't have MAME/W on it, and ask the owner of the web site to add MAME/W. Show me that my hard work is worth it. Thanks! 0.21 May 12, 1997 Fixed bug where option screen wouldn't display correctly on large font systems You can now type first few letters of a rom to jump directly there. (For example "gy" will jump to "GYRUSS") 0.18 April 23, 1997 *IMPORTANT* I redid the way I use the registry. If you used an earlier version of MAME/W your old settings will be lost. Sorry! added a couple of missing snapshots added new switches to options dialog redid options dialog 0.17 April 16, 1997 new roms and snapshots number of games known now shown in titlebar tooltip for list box shows command for the game under cursor added alt-r hot key to run game (enter still works, too) enabled minimize button in caption bar 0.14 April 4, 1997 More new roms, updated snapshots (as usual) New fancy interface. Don't ask me why. Moved all picture images to a new dll (mamew.dll). This DLL is optional. If it is not found, none of the stock images will be displayed. Added support for some of the new switches. 0.10 Mar 13, 1997 New rom support (Centipede, Nibbler, Congo Bongo) ESC now immediately exits MAME/W without prompting. 0.81 Mar 4, 1997 Added new rom support (Carnival, Zaxxon, Space Invaders, Mario Bros.) Changed NEWROMS.TXT to ROMS.TXT as *all* ROM images are now listed in there. Added support for sound card selection 0.7 Mar 2, 1997 Added new rom support. Added NEWROMS.TXT which allows you to add support for new rom files. 0.6 Feb 27, 1997 First release. KNOWN PROBLEMS ============== -flipx, -flipy, -nomouse options not implemented yet -record, -playback, -romdir, -sr, -sb not implemented yet [0.30] Others? Let me know if you find any bugs or missing features. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ================ MAME/W icons designed by: Darren Wall and John Papaioannou Continued thanks to Peter Klein The file unzip32.dll is from the InfoZip group. $Id: MameW.txt,v 1.3 1998/01/17 10:21:39 jeff Exp jeff $