New: AG-Launch WHLoad Launcher for 2MB Amiga (alpha release) - Page 2

Arnie · 25 January 2011, 14:42

I made an Icon for launching AGLaunch from WB for people who have more than 2mb.

Edit: Removed, Zetro made his own, lot better than mine anyway.

Bloodwych · 25 January 2011, 14:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zetr0

what we can do is have two systems - one to use WBRUN and another to use Wbrun2 unless you think that there is a better program to call that all the CW's share?

In that thread you linked, KillerGorilla suggested using his kgiconload - it is included in all ClassicWB packs (C drawer) and even has a button added for it in Dopus - "IconLoad".

I suggest using kgiconload, to get around the fact WBRun comes in two versions - the one from Aminet in most ClassicWB packs, and the one which comes with OS3.9 forcing me to rename the Aminet WBRun to WBRun2. Another option is to include your own copy of WBRun or preferably kgiconload in the AGLaunch drawer, and execute all games using that. Then you don't have to care what the end user has in the C drawer.

Zetr0 · 26 January 2011, 07:22

@Bloodwych

A sincere thank you for ALL your help.

I will re-do all the guides today and simplify the installation into only one directory. I will include kgiconload or wbrun pending what is easier/quicker and less memory to use.

I will set it up to the following

AGLaunch(DIR)

Guides(DIR)
agl-0_9.guide
agl-A.guide
agl-b.guide
... etc

Programs(DIR)
kgiconload / wbrun
REXX(DIR)
add/rem favourite
update guides

AG-Launch.guide

Pending on how much I get annoyed by REXX I may just write some C programs for updating / creating guides. these will sit in the programs directory and be launched / run by the AG-Launch guide.

In fact it might be a better idea, since you wont need to have REXX running - thus reducing memory overhead.

whats your thoughts on this?

Bloodwych · 26 January 2011, 11:33

That all sounds fantastic Zetro - I guess if you can avoid REXX running it would be better and you could place your updaters in the Programs DIR, but it all depends on what you decide is best as I'm no expert in REXX or C.

One things for certain - you are doing everyone a great service putting together this guide. Make sure you credit yourself and perhaps give EAB a little plug in their somewhere!

Certainly, if you manage that layout in one drawer it will be easier for you to release update packs that simply drop into place over the old one.

Thanks for all your hard slog in getting this moving forward so swifty, and taking ideas onboard.

Konrad · 26 January 2011, 13:46

I really like what you're doing here

.

I messed around with your guides and wrote me a little AutoIt-script to generate guides to suit my needs a little more.

1. I included a button for a complete games list in the main guide. For the Amigas with a little more power and RAM

.
2. Also I changed the width of the buttons so it fits perfectly in a 640x256 screen. Something I hope you'll consider in your new version. Take a look at the attached screenshot

.

Zetr0 · 26 January 2011, 14:43

@Update

Okay, been a little busy today but I got some time to update everything (including the install)

the new pack can be downloaded here

it now has a centralized structure, with its own directory "AG-Launcher" with the following sub-directories

Guides

Contains: All the game guides 0_9.guide - to - Z.guide

Progs

Contains: WHDLoad 17.0 Beta and WBrun

S

Contains: ag-launch cli script

Install.guide
I spent a bit of time on this so that you can use the guide to install the needed files and assigns. - just by clicking buttons =D

AG-Launch.guide
Revised guide scripts

agl-0_9.guide to agl-z.guide
All 27 guides have been updated

The system now uses two assigns

AGL: this should point to System:AG-Launcher
A-Games: this should point to the Root of your Games Folder i.e. Work:Games/

phew.... time for a cheese toasty me thinks =D

@Bloodwych

I am a little humbled my friend, I am just glad that it helps and is usable =D I am sure when I get round to it I shall add me to the credits.

to be fair, had it not of been for a lot of your input it would still be very very basic klugde. as of version 0.4 its actually a bit of software! \o/ yay!

If you think this is ready for inclusion into your Classic Workbench packs then please add away my friend.

I decided to use wbrun simply because kgiconload needs to change the directory to the game to run i.e. "cd a-games/projectx/" and then you could run "kgiconload projectx" - however Amgiaguide scripting doesn't like multiple system commands =(

@Konrad

Oohhh I like that... I can see that being a must for v0.5 =D

AutoIT script eh?

@DJay

Quote:

Originally Posted by Djay

Awesome work! I need this!

Any chance it will have joystick support in future releases?

Not sure how to be honest - since amiga-guide is mouse driven....

Since I would like this running on CD32 I may just write a Joy-Mouse program, so when you shift the joystick it will move the mouse - left mouse will be with Fire Button 1 and right mouse would be Fire Button 2 - to be fair I may not bother with right mouse clicks

I will see if I can get this up for the Beta release (v1.0)

Konrad · 26 January 2011, 14:58

Yeah, I know. AutoIt isn't one of the best script/programming languages

. But hey, it works and is fast

.

By the way, looking at your guides (f.ex agl-0_9.guide) the second last line is:

Code:

@TOC AGL:ag-launch/main

Shouldn't it be

Code:

@TOC AGL:ag-launch.guide/main

?

Zetr0 · 26 January 2011, 15:02

yes... it should... *hides*

to be honest, its quite likely I got really carried away LOL!

the beauty of amiga-guide though means that it will open it anyway. (doesn't need the .guide tag)

still for completeness (and the fact I have an OCD) all has been updated.. lol

and no I am not changing it to a v0.5 - hot oil - version. lol

cv643d · 26 January 2011, 15:04

>Any chance it will have joystick support in future releases?

check for joymouse on AmiNET

Konrad · 26 January 2011, 15:25

Was trying that. Don't know if it's my emulation environment, but I got graphics corruption in some games (f.ex. ChaosEngine) when using JoyMouse. After removing it everything went back to normal.

Quote:

Any chance it will have joystick support in future releases?

In that case you should rather use AMS.

Zetr0 · 26 January 2011, 16:22

I thought I would have a play and have Joymouse - auto load on amigaguide startup

however the feature @ONOPEN requires a REXX command - not a worry...

however I must be doing somthing silly as the REXX script doesn't work

Code:

/* joymouse launcher */

SAY 'joy mouse launcher'
PUSH 'wbrun agl:progs/joymouse/joymouse 6"
exit

it would seem the "push" command isn't working ...

I have tried "execute" and "run", I have tried setting a stack "PUSH 'stack 10000'" still nothing..

I can get it to work by either executing it in a standard S:Script with the base assigns, I can also get it to work simply by clicking it... but not by rx =(

Quote:

Originally Posted by Konrad

Was trying that. Don't know if it's my emulation environment, but I got graphics corruption in some games (f.ex. ChaosEngine) when using JoyMouse. After removing it everything went back to normal.

In that case you should rather use AMS.

I have just tested Chaos Engine (ecs and aga) and I couldn't see any graphical issues on the first two levels atleast.

hmmmm

Zetr0 · 27 January 2011, 21:27

Hello there my fellow chummies,

I decided to spend a few moment with a coffee and some small tweaking to the AmigaGuide Game Launcher project

So here's some new -

As you can see there are two launch icon's available to the user - these are scripts run by IconX
(these can be run from CLI by using execute)

The Icon "AG-Launch" provides much the same functionality as v0.4 - however the icon "AG-Launch_NoMouse" auto initializes JoyMouse by Jonathon Potter - thus you can now just use the joystick to move the mouse pointer about =)

indeed... this should work great on the CD32 =D

Just a few thanks updated

So today I shall select Directory 'C'

Aha, yes, this is an enjoyable game

Ahhh hear the siren of the call

So that's just about it for the alpha series - next will be adding a favourite system and a directory scanner-updater.

You can install AG-Launch simply by copying the AG-Launch directory to your SYS: partition, from here click on the Install.guide for more details.

to run from CLI you can use the following

If you have a mouse

Code:

execute sys:ag-launch/s/ag-launch

If you don't have a mouse

Code:

execute sys:ag-launch/s/ag-launch_nomouse

And that my friends should see you right =)

click here to download AG-Launcher version 0.6 alpha

Things left to do - v0.6

spelling and typo updates
button formatting
trouble shooting guide
credits guide

Things left to do - v0.7
Favourites program to great / edit Favourite guide

Things left to do - v0.8
Gameguide updater -
program updates guide entries on scanning games category

Things left to do - v0.9
Update Format to include Game info button.

Djay · 28 January 2011, 02:28

another suggestion sorry...

how about a list of the last ten games you launched?

my favourites change all the time

Zetr0 · 28 January 2011, 04:52

@Djay

A dynamic list growth/prune guide system - That's an interesting idea.

To do this would fundamentally change the launcher to use a script/program to launch each game titile

Although REXX script could be used its a lot of work - instead I would just write a C program that is launched by the game-title button which will update the guides and then launch the game. This would be good for Hard-disk Based systems - but pretty useless for a CD32 environment. - So its possible, a little involved, but certainly possible.

I do like the idea of a dynamic list growth/prune guide system though, and I will probably move AG-Launch into using C program(s) to launch / update / edit everything - as a bonus it would reduce the size of the guides, reduce dependencies and overheads as well as offer other features.

Eventually perhaps for v2.0 it will run within its own AmigaGuide like construct - reducing the need/overhead to multiview etc.

Djay · 28 January 2011, 12:45

also.. again sorry

a filter which just shows the games you have on your hard drive rather than every title... i have to scroll through a lot of game i don't have installed

its turning into a full blown menu app now

its great in its current form btw...

Konrad · 28 January 2011, 18:19

As Zetr0 stated:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zetr0

In this first version (proof of concept) I wrote a PC C++ program to create the AmigaGuide(s) - in its simple infancy it just read the directory names within each category an created a game launch button based on that (based on a proforma).
[...]
but I plan to convert this to a an Amiga program that will do all this for you.

Take a look at the guides in an editor. Shouldn't be a problem for you to cripple them to shot just the games that you have available.

Bloodwych · 29 January 2011, 01:25

Almost finished integrating this into all the ClassicWB packs. Not sure when I'll release the new packs - perhaps when WHDLoad 17 is official and Zetro is happy with AG-Launch. I'll pm something to you Zetro however to see what you think. Haven't tested it further yet to offer more feedback.

You've done a great job on the latest pack - really appreciate the mention and the built-in A-Games: assign for the ClassicWB. The only sticking point is that if someone with OS3.9 installs your version of WBRun using the guide or manually, they will be wiping over the official OS3.9 version with the Aminet one. Not sure if that matters at all? You could be cheeky and rename WBRun to AGRun and use that instead, but that is a minor point perhaps not worth addressing.

Nice job on the joystick support!

Zetr0 · 01 February 2011, 13:28

@Bloodwych

I think that now it is ready for alpha testing and guide correcting.

In the mean time I will be writing some C programs that will be launched by the guide - this will move it into a new alpha stage - I have updated the v05a version to v06 - this includes a couple of script corrections and some extra support in the Update folder (newer version of Multivew / Amigaguide and datatypes)

I have noted that while this guide system works fine in Classic Workbench 68k, it has errors under

Classic Workbench Lite v23b (I think this is an old version) - MACRO's are ignored - I think I need to update my Classic Workbenches =D

I really appreciate all the help, hints and tips with this little project =)

In regards to wbrun, in the next version it will use the wbrun from its own directory - ther for not needing to overwrite any existing one.

Bloodwych · 01 February 2011, 16:02

High Zetro - plans sound good!

I'll pm you some links to beta ClassicWB packs with AG-Launch v0.4 integrated. It's not the latest version, but the one before - the first where everything runs from one drawer. Still, it gives you something to play with.

I noticed in that version it displays perfectly in OS3.9 Multiview, but some of the white highlighted text is missing in Multiview from Workbench 3.0. So no "Bloodwych", "Classic Workbench" etc on the main page.

pm'ing now anyway, just in case it's useful and to give you an idea of how it will be used in the packs.

03 February 2011, 00:29

@Zetr0

Thanks, made my day and a nice addition to my setup to boot.

25 January 2011, 14:42	#21
Arnie R.I.P Smudge 18-08-16 Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Leicester/UK Age: 66 Posts: 3,968	I made an Icon for launching AGLaunch from WB for people who have more than 2mb. Edit: Removed, Zetro made his own, lot better than mine anyway. Last edited by Arnie; 01 February 2011 at 14:05.

26 January 2011, 07:22	#23
Zetr0 Ya' like it Retr0? Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: United Kingdom Age: 49 Posts: 9,768	@Bloodwych A sincere thank you for ALL your help. I will re-do all the guides today and simplify the installation into only one directory. I will include kgiconload or wbrun pending what is easier/quicker and less memory to use. I will set it up to the following AGLaunch(DIR) Guides(DIR) agl-0_9.guide agl-A.guide agl-b.guide ... etc Programs(DIR) kgiconload / wbrun REXX(DIR) add/rem favourite update guides AG-Launch.guide Pending on how much I get annoyed by REXX I may just write some C programs for updating / creating guides. these will sit in the programs directory and be launched / run by the AG-Launch guide. In fact it might be a better idea, since you wont need to have REXX running - thus reducing memory overhead. whats your thoughts on this?

26 January 2011, 13:46	#25
Konrad Registered User Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Germany Age: 43 Posts: 742	I really like what you're doing here . I messed around with your guides and wrote me a little AutoIt-script to generate guides to suit my needs a little more. 1. I included a button for a complete games list in the main guide. For the Amigas with a little more power and RAM . 2. Also I changed the width of the buttons so it fits perfectly in a 640x256 screen. Something I hope you'll consider in your new version. Take a look at the attached screenshot . Attached Thumbnails

26 January 2011, 14:58	#27
Konrad Registered User Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Germany Age: 43 Posts: 742	Yeah, I know. AutoIt isn't one of the best script/programming languages . But hey, it works and is fast . By the way, looking at your guides (f.ex agl-0_9.guide) the second last line is: Code: @TOC AGL:ag-launch/main Shouldn't it be Code: @TOC AGL:ag-launch.guide/main ?

27 January 2011, 21:27	#32
Zetr0 Ya' like it Retr0? Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: United Kingdom Age: 49 Posts: 9,768	Update AG-Launch V0.5 Alpha Hello there my fellow chummies, I decided to spend a few moment with a coffee and some small tweaking to the AmigaGuide Game Launcher project So here's some new - As you can see there are two launch icon's available to the user - these are scripts run by IconX (these can be run from CLI by using execute) The Icon "AG-Launch" provides much the same functionality as v0.4 - however the icon "AG-Launch_NoMouse" auto initializes JoyMouse by Jonathon Potter - thus you can now just use the joystick to move the mouse pointer about =) indeed... this should work great on the CD32 =D Just a few thanks updated So today I shall select Directory 'C' Aha, yes, this is an enjoyable game Ahhh hear the siren of the call So that's just about it for the alpha series - next will be adding a favourite system and a directory scanner-updater. You can install AG-Launch simply by copying the AG-Launch directory to your SYS: partition, from here click on the Install.guide for more details. to run from CLI you can use the following If you have a mouse Code: execute sys:ag-launch/s/ag-launch If you don't have a mouse Code: execute sys:ag-launch/s/ag-launch_nomouse And that my friends should see you right =) click here to download AG-Launcher version 0.6 alpha Things left to do - v0.6 spelling and typo updates button formatting trouble shooting guide credits guide Things left to do - v0.7 Favourites program to great / edit Favourite guide Things left to do - v0.8 Gameguide updater - program updates guide entries on scanning games category Things left to do - v0.9 Update Format to include Game info button. Last edited by Zetr0; 01 February 2011 at 13:08.

26 January 2011, 11:33	#24
Bloodwych Moderator Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: I'm behind you! Posts: 3,763	That all sounds fantastic Zetro - I guess if you can avoid REXX running it would be better and you could place your updaters in the Programs DIR, but it all depends on what you decide is best as I'm no expert in REXX or C. One things for certain - you are doing everyone a great service putting together this guide. Make sure you credit yourself and perhaps give EAB a little plug in their somewhere! Certainly, if you manage that layout in one drawer it will be easier for you to release update packs that simply drop into place over the old one. Thanks for all your hard slog in getting this moving forward so swifty, and taking ideas onboard.

26 January 2011, 15:02	#28
Zetr0 Ya' like it Retr0? Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: United Kingdom Age: 49 Posts: 9,768	yes... it should... hides to be honest, its quite likely I got really carried away LOL! the beauty of amiga-guide though means that it will open it anyway. (doesn't need the .guide tag) still for completeness (and the fact I have an OCD) all has been updated.. lol and no I am not changing it to a v0.5 - hot oil - version. lol

26 January 2011, 15:04	#29
cv643d Registered User Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Sweden Posts: 762	>Any chance it will have joystick support in future releases? check for joymouse on AmiNET

28 January 2011, 02:28	#33
Djay 95th User Join Date: May 2001 Location: Brighton/UK Age: 48 Posts: 3,120	another suggestion sorry... how about a list of the last ten games you launched? my favourites change all the time

28 January 2011, 04:52	#34
Zetr0 Ya' like it Retr0? Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: United Kingdom Age: 49 Posts: 9,768	@Djay A dynamic list growth/prune guide system - That's an interesting idea. To do this would fundamentally change the launcher to use a script/program to launch each game titile Although REXX script could be used its a lot of work - instead I would just write a C program that is launched by the game-title button which will update the guides and then launch the game. This would be good for Hard-disk Based systems - but pretty useless for a CD32 environment. - So its possible, a little involved, but certainly possible. I do like the idea of a dynamic list growth/prune guide system though, and I will probably move AG-Launch into using C program(s) to launch / update / edit everything - as a bonus it would reduce the size of the guides, reduce dependencies and overheads as well as offer other features. Eventually perhaps for v2.0 it will run within its own AmigaGuide like construct - reducing the need/overhead to multiview etc. Last edited by Zetr0; 28 January 2011 at 05:11.

28 January 2011, 12:45	#35
Djay 95th User Join Date: May 2001 Location: Brighton/UK Age: 48 Posts: 3,120	also.. again sorry a filter which just shows the games you have on your hard drive rather than every title... i have to scroll through a lot of game i don't have installed its turning into a full blown menu app now its great in its current form btw...

29 January 2011, 01:25	#37
Bloodwych Moderator Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: I'm behind you! Posts: 3,763	Almost finished integrating this into all the ClassicWB packs. Not sure when I'll release the new packs - perhaps when WHDLoad 17 is official and Zetro is happy with AG-Launch. I'll pm something to you Zetro however to see what you think. Haven't tested it further yet to offer more feedback. You've done a great job on the latest pack - really appreciate the mention and the built-in A-Games: assign for the ClassicWB. The only sticking point is that if someone with OS3.9 installs your version of WBRun using the guide or manually, they will be wiping over the official OS3.9 version with the Aminet one. Not sure if that matters at all? You could be cheeky and rename WBRun to AGRun and use that instead, but that is a minor point perhaps not worth addressing. Nice job on the joystick support! Last edited by Bloodwych; 29 January 2011 at 01:35.

01 February 2011, 13:28	#38
Zetr0 Ya' like it Retr0? Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: United Kingdom Age: 49 Posts: 9,768	@Bloodwych I think that now it is ready for alpha testing and guide correcting. In the mean time I will be writing some C programs that will be launched by the guide - this will move it into a new alpha stage - I have updated the v05a version to v06 - this includes a couple of script corrections and some extra support in the Update folder (newer version of Multivew / Amigaguide and datatypes) I have noted that while this guide system works fine in Classic Workbench 68k, it has errors under Classic Workbench Lite v23b (I think this is an old version) - MACRO's are ignored - I think I need to update my Classic Workbenches =D I really appreciate all the help, hints and tips with this little project =) In regards to wbrun, in the next version it will use the wbrun from its own directory - ther for not needing to overwrite any existing one.

01 February 2011, 16:02	#39
Bloodwych Moderator Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: I'm behind you! Posts: 3,763	High Zetro - plans sound good! I'll pm you some links to beta ClassicWB packs with AG-Launch v0.4 integrated. It's not the latest version, but the one before - the first where everything runs from one drawer. Still, it gives you something to play with. I noticed in that version it displays perfectly in OS3.9 Multiview, but some of the white highlighted text is missing in Multiview from Workbench 3.0. So no "Bloodwych", "Classic Workbench" etc on the main page. pm'ing now anyway, just in case it's useful and to give you an idea of how it will be used in the packs.

03 February 2011, 00:29	#40
A420X Posts: n/a	@Zetr0 Thanks, made my day and a nice addition to my setup to boot.

Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
How do you Launch a game from an Amiga Environment?	mancity	support.Amiga Forever	8	24 April 2012 09:29
Amiga Launcher need a volunteers	synchro	Retrogaming General Discussion	39	09 January 2012 16:35
amiga launch 1985 music program	amigang	support.Apps	0	11 April 2011 14:27
cant launch amiga roms o amiga emu's, HELP	ostry	New to Emulation or Amiga scene	10	11 February 2002 12:55