Tiny Launcher 1.0 Released

[gibs]

Thanks for your message.
I did the code some month ago for TL to works with ClassicWB but I don't have a clue of what I did with it... Anyway...If you have to add for example 8 games with difference letters, and if you do it by connecting your CF on your PC (I don't think you download your slave with the Amiga etc) then believe me, you will lose more time by dropping each games in each directories.

AFAIK, organizing games by letters is to avoid WB navigation slowdown and memory consumption, but if you have lot of games in those subdirectories, it will be the same issue.

Tiny Launcher can

-Realtime scan (cool if you have few games/demos, you don't have to create/refresh the database, and the navigation is faster, as you browse in RAM)

-Database (by pressing F1 you build the database, ithe navigation is a bit slower as you often access the database, but if you have lot of game you don't have to scan each time...)

For the first mode it is useless to lose more time as it's done in realtime, so as I said, I will add a second level in the database mode...later

I will release a new version with bug correction soon.

[blanka]

It's really amazong how incredibly fast TinyLauncher scans my Directories for .slave-Files.

[emuola]

I think this has been mentioned before, but I guess the reason people (including me) would like to have the capability of scanning more than one sub level of the directory tree, is the Killlergorilla's preinstalled whdload packs. Those are organised like this:

A - A10 Tank killer - .slave

and so on...

It will/would be pretty complicated to organise the folder structure in a way that the "midle folder" (in this case A10 tank killer) would be removed and all the games would be under a certain alphabet.

Tiny launcher is an awesome piece of software The scan speed and the overall quality is something I haven't seen in years for example among Windows/Appstore software I really hope you'd find the "missing bits of code" somewhere gibs, to make tinylauncher KG whdload packs compatible

[gibs]

Ok, I'll rework on that.

BTW my Killergorilla's are not organized by subdirectories when I unzip them. They are all in the same level.

Ex:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1566495/Tin...lerGorilla.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1566495/Tin...erGorilla2.jpg

[emuola]

Originally Posted by gibs

Ok, I'll rework on that.

BTW my Killergorilla's are not organized by subdirectories when I unzip them. They are all in the same level.

Ex:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1566495/Tin...lerGorilla.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1566495/Tin...erGorilla2.jpg

Great to hear, you're "on the case" Strange thing about the KG archives. If I unpack the KG archives I always get a directory (inside which the actual file(s) are) named exactly as the archive.

[Retrofan]

Originally Posted by emuola

Great to hear, you're "on the case" Strange thing about the KG archives. If I unpack the KG archives I always get a directory (inside which the actual file(s) are) named exactly as the archive.

Unpack them in the miggy.

[emuola]

Originally Posted by Retrofan

Unpack them in the miggy.

So, is the original point of KG achives *not* to have a directory/game? Haven't tested the archives in Dopus, but does the AmigaOS unpacker(s) somehow "automatically omit the directory in the middle?

[Retro-Nerd]

Nah, the KG packs have seperate folder per game inside the zip archives. No matter where you unpack them. In other words: The preinstallened game folders+Info files are in zip or lha archives.

[Retrofan]

Unpack them in the miggy.

Originally Posted by TheCyberDruid

... It's not recommended to unzip the games on PC and then copy them over to the Amiga. You should put the zip on the CF card and unzip them on the Amiga...

[Retro-Nerd]

Yeah, but thats a different problem with some exotic Amiga file names which Windows can't unpack properly. Has nothing to do with the folders inside the archives.

[Retrofan]

Yes, if you unpack them in the Pc it won't unpack them right. That's just what I tell (twice). Has nothing to do with the folders, but you first follow my advice as doing it in the Pc is wrong, not god, not bad, wrong.

[Retro-Nerd]

Only app. 5% of the games get problems if you unpack them in Windows. Emuola ask about the sub folder/game folder scan issue in Tiny Launcher.

What i said is: There is a game folder in every zip/lha archiv, no matter where you unpack them. Read and understand.

e.g.

1869_v1.2_AGA_De_1653.zip


1869AGA (folder)
1869AGA.info

[Retrofan]

Originally Posted by Retro-Nerd

Only app. 5% of the games get problems if you unpack them in Windows.

I don't want to discuss. I didn't answer to your problem either if Retro-Nerd understands it, it's just a tip as you're making it in the PC. OK, so listen to Retro-Nerd if you want and don't make it in the miggy.

[gibs]

I think Retrofan is right, if you want to avoid problems unzip them in the Miggy
I won't bet you can unzip the whole KG archive on Windows without any problems.
I won't

[Retro-Nerd]

So, is the original point of KG achives *not* to have a directory/game? Haven't tested the archives in Dopus, but does the AmigaOS unpacker(s) somehow "automatically omit the directory in the middle?

I refered to that post, guys. And yes, most of the WHDLoad games works fine if you unpack them in Windows. If you want to be 100% safe, then unpack them on the miggy. Got problems in app. 7-8 games, after testing maybe 800-1000 WHDLoad games.

But the point was, and i wrote it several times: It doesn't matter where you unpack them, there is ALWAYS a gamefolder inside the archives.

[emuola]

Originally Posted by Retro-Nerd

Got problems in app. 7-8 games, after testing maybe 800-1000 WHDLoad games.

Could you tell me which ones had problems so that I can unpack those again on my Miggy

[Retro-Nerd]

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?...hdload+windows

There are probably a few more, but not that many, e.g. Puzznic was already patched to fix this issue.

[emuola]

Originally Posted by Retro-Nerd

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?...hdload+windows

There are probably a few more, but not that many, e.g. Puzznic was already patched to fix this issue.

Thanks Retro-Nerd!

[spanner]

Originally Posted by Retro-Nerd

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?...hdload+windows

There are probably a few more, but not that many, e.g. Puzznic was already patched to fix this issue.

I will say one thing about this is make sure if you are copting them from a Windows directory that the permisions on the files are correct if they are not when reading the folder with WinUAE it woun't pick up all the files in the folder,(so it like they are not there)I know this cos is has done it with me ,it happens when you reinstall your OS(Windows)on your PC.I just copied a game from my pc using WinUAE and it didn't copy all the files so the game can't run.

Oh and I allways copy my files from my pc uncompressed(I uncompess them on the PC then send them to the Amiga(But I know everything about windows,Well have too,to be a PC engineer.. )But i have not had a problem with it.

[spanner]

I was thinking of stead of a screenshot of the game maybe a pic of the icon,most of the games have pic of the game on the icon...??

[Retro-Nerd]

@gibs

Any chances that you add a tooltype scanner, or a pop-up feature to edit/save them manually (all per game available extra tooltypes are already set in the game icons of the KG packs).

[spanner]

I boot tiny launcher but its boots whdload 17.1 when in the icon i have set it to use whdload 15.1..?

[SuperNashwan]

+1 for that. Some way of choosing tooltypes on a per game basis would be great. Scanning the icons would be perfect.

Originally Posted by Retro-Nerd

@gibs

Any chances that you add a tooltype scanner, or a pop-up feature to edit/save them manually (all per game available extra tooltypes are already set in the game icons of the KG packs).

[gibs]

Originally Posted by spanner

I was thinking of stead of a screenshot of the game maybe a pic of the icon,most of the games have pic of the game on the icon...??

I'm thinking on that since a long time but I'm not going to display an icon in 320x2xx.

For the tooltypes, it's not on the todo list for now and I don't have a clue on how to do it.

But for using a specific version of whdload or customizing your launch, you can create an AmigaDos script named something.TL and Tinylauncher is going to launch it.

Why do you want to use another version of whdload ? Wepl always recommend to use the last one.

[KTC]

Since I asked you if you are going to work on Tiny Launcher again, I've had this list of bugs and feature requests, but I did not want to post them before I had tested on my real Amiga 1200. But as I have not done this yet, and as there is a lot of activity in the thread these days, I have decided to post them anyway:

Some of the points here have been mentioned earlier by other people, but I have decided to include everything that matters to me

1) Could you skip the start screen bouncing when jumping directly to a section? I know it is just a couple of seconds, but it is repeated a lot of times.

2) Make an option to decide if you want to split the games up between ECS and AGA or not.

3) Support Tool Types when launching whdload slaves. Either make it possible to utilize kgiconload automatically from Tiny Launcher or implement same functionality as kgiconload on whdload slave loading. The problem is that I have some slaves that rely on their Tool Types to work. A workaround is makin .tl files for all my slaves, but this is just a lot of work and the transition from Tiny Launcher to game is not as smooth as you get the grey screen while kgiconload is launching the game.

4) Support the ClassicWB structure with folders for each letter, as file management becomes very memory consuming and slow when you have a lot of games folders in on place.

5) When you build the database (e.g. TLLETGAGA.db), you do not support over 1000 entries for the fastnav right now. Looking at the database, I can see that a space character is overwriting one of the numbers for each entry with over 1000. I tried manually editing the database, putting in all the right numbers, and then the fastnav worked just fine.
Example extract of current build db: I 951J 100
Example extract of manually fixed db: I 951J1002

6) When you browse through a long list of games without fastnav (using left and right), Tiny Launcher navigation speed slows down and exits after a while. Maybe it is a problem with the memory filling up? When using fastnav, it works all the way, and using left and right in the same area for a long time also works. At one time, I saw this message: "Out of variable space". I don't know if it is the number of entries, but I estimate that it is around the 1600 entry mark it crashes on my system.

7) Could you implement a skip Tiny Launcher key, so you can exit Tiny Launcher quickly? Right now I have it running before my Workbench and I have made a modification of my startup-sequence to check if a mouse button is activated, thereby skipping Tiny Launcher, but it would be nicer if Tiny Launcher could replace this.

8) When activating RAD, I get the following errors after exiting the game:
Device not available
dh0:tinylauncher/tinylauncher20b02.exe


My test current test system:
Winuae 2.4.1
68030 no FPU
AGA chipset
Kickstart ROM 3.1
2MB Chip/8MB Fast RAM
Launching Tinylauncher from DH0 (HDF file)
Launching games from DH1 (HDF file)



I will test on my real Amiga but have not gotten around to it yet:
Amiga 1200 PAL
Blizzard 1230 Mk-IV with 16MB Fast RAM
2.5" harddrive
Kickstart ROM 3.1

[spanner]

Originally Posted by gibs

I'm thinking on that since a long time but I'm not going to display an icon in 320x2xx.

For the tooltypes, it's not on the todo list for now and I don't have a clue on how to do it.

But for using a specific version of whdload or customizing your launch, you can create an AmigaDos script named something.TL and Tinylauncher is going to launch it.

Why do you want to use another version of whdload ? Wepl always recommend to use the last one.

Cos not all games work with 17.1 so change it in the icon or is it called tooltype

Can you give an example of the script and where you put it..?

[vjkaos]

Originally Posted by vjkaos

Nice Icons, I also made some MWB 8c icons last night.

/* update */

I've changed the icons a little bit, they are now centered, different font and extra variations, see screenshot. The new archive is TinyLauncher_MWB_fixed.lha.

I've made a couple of new MWB icons for TinyLauncher.

[gibs]

@KTC
Thanks for your clean report, I'm going check that.

@Spanner
A simple example:

DH0:
CD TinyDatas/ECSGAMES/Agony/
WhdLoad14 Agony.Slave Preload

Save it as Agony.TL and put it in the Agony Directory where the Slave is.
When a .TL is found TinyLauncher execute it before the Slave.
You should report to Wepl which games aren't working with the last version of whdload.

@vjkaos
Thanks you very much.

[spanner]

Originally Posted by gibs

@Spanner
A simple example:

DH0:
CD TinyDatas/ECSGAMES/Agony/
WhdLoad14 Agony.Slave Preload

Save it as Agony.TL and put it in the Agony Directory where the Slave is.
When a .TL is found TinyLauncher execute it before the Slave.
You should report to Wepl which games aren't working with the last version of whdload.

Thanks man your a star..

Most of them work but I have a genric slave that only works with 15.1,I got it working with Amos Coin Drop and Fruit Mania.

[BanisterDK]

How do you make TL look into sub folders ?

If you have organised your collection either by genre or by letters

Can't make it work

[emuola]

Originally Posted by BanisterDK

How do you make TL look into sub folders ?

If you have organised your collection either by genre or by letters

Can't make it work

Not implemented yet. Gibs told he's working on that feature.

[gibs]

Yes that's true
I am working on it. Going to do it for the database as for the *realtime scan* it would be too slow (for a 68000)

[emuola]

Originally Posted by gibs

Yes that's true
I am working on it. Going to do it for the database as for the *realtime scan* it would be too slow (for a 68000)

GGRREAT!

[spanner]

Originally Posted by emuola

Not implemented yet. Gibs told he's working on that feature.

Its one of the most features wanted and for one I'm looking forward to it...great work Gibs...

[T_hairy_bootson]

I got a chance to try this today on the pandora amiga emulator. It really is brilliant, well done gibs.

[gibs]

@fgh

Are you still around ?
For the CD32 compilation, I forgot to told you to ACTIVATE the RAD (and I'm very sorry).
Can you try on emulation ?

Boot: CD / RAD:Engaged

I didn't remind why I did like this, but if I still don't know in the next days I will make it work without the RAD activated too. Maybe I was thinking about stock CD32 or stock CDTV.

[gibs]

Me again ???

Here is a beta of the incoming version:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1566495/Tin...ncher22b18.exe

What changes :

-Butchery: No more realtime scan (if the database isn't created, it create it and enter the database)

-2nd level scan (if directories containing slaves aren't detected in the 1st level, it scan the second level, it also bypass directories not containing .Slaves/.Exe/.TL)
Before using it, delete old database files in S:TinyLauncher/ (*.db *.ndj you can keep the others).

-After you quit the game/demo (it comes back to the menu like in the "jump function", not to the front screen)

There are some wait keys after scans but it's only for the beta.

I'm working on some new features now.

Yariiiba!!!

[1time]

[fgh]

Originally Posted by gibs

@fgh
Are you still around ?
...

Thanks, I'm still around, but it's not amiga season for me. (36 degrees today!)
I'll have a look at the CD32 compilation again later though.
Did you check out the CD32 custom version of WHDLoad and recommended tweaks as mentioned in my previous post?

The new version sounds great! ClassicWB game folder structure is a nice addition.
I can't remember if there is a 'favorites' feature, but this would be nice when people start using the full WHD game sets..

Keep up the good work!

[gibs]

@Retro-Nerd

ToolTypes support (done) in the next beta.