My Amiga project goes into public...

[Shoonay]

From some time now, while having many programs on many disks back in the days, and especially now discovering the WHDLoad, i've been working on my private project.
It's a DataBase written in 'Amiga Guide', that's used to launch any application from WB.
At least those i'll add manualy.

Well i'm sure you know, the standard:
@{" <app/demo/intro/game> name" system "execute data/app/<app name>"

..and in [data/app/<app name>]
CD Apps/graphics/DPaint5
Run

...an example from my empty head so please don't look for errors ;

It's a blessing for me, since i've only had a standard A1200 with 4MB expansion. After loading the WB, which eats some 200KB BTW, i previously had to enter the [Games] folder, wait for about 120 secs. or more with evey new game added (WB3.0), enter the specific game folder, wait for the icons to load (Fightin' Spirit is the killer with all those files)) click on the game... and i usually got the 'not enough memory' requester...


Anyways, i'm just curious does anyone find this kind of a project useful

[Amiga1992]

I don't because Ive got 32 megs of Fast, but could see where you're pointing at. The shit thing is that it needs to be updated by hand by you instead of automatically. Can't you use that games frontend that is used in the CD32 XXXX discs? I say it's much more convenient and easy for you to use.

[Shoonay]

Well, my REAL meaning of that post is to check if the masses find it useful, so then i could beg some programmists to make it a bit more 'automatic' to add those fiiles to the base ...
There is already a program that checks the exact version/name/etc. of the game slave, and some other TOSEC game lists and with some assumptions like all games in the games folder, all slaves containging name of the game exact (almost) as the game folder/name... and so on i *think* it would be possible...

[Amiga1992]

As I said there is a frontend for Amiga games that you should try out... I forgot the name, can anyone mention it?

[Shoonay]

Originally Posted by Akira

As I said there is a frontend for Amiga games that you should try out... I forgot the name, can anyone mention it?

...and some download links too!
Didn't knew there is such a thing, thanks Aki!

[Amiga1992]

Yes, it shows you a gaem list and screenshots.

maybe, just maybe (my mind fails nowadays...) ths process is NOT automatic... hmm... but its a frontend anyway.

[Shoonay]

That sounds grrrrrrrrrrrreat!!! I would love to get my hands on it!

Any hint where might you got it from?
Which games did you/it run?
In which year you found it/use it?

[Amiga1992]

Gary's CD32-100 compilation discs used it IIRC.

[Amiga1992]

Here it is:
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?...light=frontend

[Shoonay]

Thanks... looks much nicer then Amiga Guide, but i think (haven't tested... haven't even transfered it to my real Amy, so there's a 99,999% posibility i'm wrong ) it's another "do-it-yourself-by-adding-the-games-manually"

[Amiga1992]

BUt its better than Amiga Guide :P

[Shoonay]

Originally Posted by Akira

BUt its better than Amiga Guide :P

Well, gotta admit that... better looking that is

[viernez67]

Hi, i did something similar to AGS but better for me to use with WinUAE.

What i want it's something like Mame32, a list of games to launch, and when i select one and i press enter, Winuae automatically launchs and then the game runs(like in mame). And i did it but it's a bit complex.

First i set 2 configurations in WinUAE, one it's the normal WB setup and the other is one called "Games". "Games" config it's a minimal setup, with some dirs and some config files, those needed to launch a WHDload game. When i launch "Games" config, the startup sequence runs the file "game.run". Of course this file runs a game.

Now my tool, i did a little program, it's a hack and it's done in the D language(http://www.digitalmars.com/d/index.html, it's like C++ but better). This tool scans a directory in you harddrive and searchs for those WHDload instalations, and create in another directory, scripts like "whdloadgamename".run, so for each game installed you have a script.

For example if i have in the drive Games: a dir named Agony, then it searchs for Agony.info, and if it's configured to launch WHDLOAD it extracts all Tooltypes and create a script named Agony.run:

cd Games:Agony
WHDLoad SLAVE=Agony.Slave preload

In this way, i only need to install a Game using WHDload, then configure it's tooltypes from WB setup, and then, run my tool, to regenerate scripts.

Now the fun. I use AdvanceMenu as frontend(http://advancemame.sourceforge.net/menu-snapshot.html), it's configured in this way: i set as Rom directory that dir which game scripts are placed in. Then AdvanceMame shows all games, when i select a game and i run it. AdvanceMame launchs a .BAT, this .BAT copies (For example) Agony.run, to the minimal setup("Games" setup) and launchs WinUAE:

copy Agony.run d:\Amiga\Games\S\game.run
WinUAE -f Game.uae.

So you have something like Mame32, no need to go to WB to launch WHDLoad games. And the good thing is that you can use it in an Acade Cabinet.

The tool, how it works is a pure hack, but it does the job.

[pbareges]

personally i built all my config upon toolmanager because of the number of games (around 700). i splitted them according to their type (arcade, stratedy,adventure....), so that when i select a type from the menu a whole table of games appear (text only so that i can display around 80 games on 1 screen, graphics would have made it hard to follow...). on paper, i printed all manuals, covers and tests i found on lsd disks, exotica website, or abandonware magazines website...a whole library!!!

this way i can select a game from the pretty nice info/gfx available in the library, and just launch it in a simple click from my toolmanager interface.
i just have a basic config :A1200, 8M fast and 2Go HD and it really works fine. i don't think toolmanager consume that lot of memory..all my games are working with preload option (even games with lots of disk images : dragons lair series, hugo....)

[Shoonay]

Okay, here's (looky at the attachment) the first early beta public release V0.001 ... and all that crap...

It's still mostly in polish (the database not the game names ), most games suppose to be grouped in one specific genre tab which doesn't work, so you'll just have to click on next.
There aren't some programs, in the archive, that i use - like WHDLoad (obvious isn't it ), HZ (PAL/NTSC change-o-matic wonder), and uhmmm... can't remember... you'll see




EDIT: reuploaded the file - too many private/useless data

[DopPie]

Yep, I have simulair problems. The A1200 I use for games has only 6MB of RAM total. Thus it is slow when it tries to show a huge lot of icons. Anyway I'm going to try and program my own game launcher. I have some ideas about what I want and it seems like a fun project.