WHDLoad Game Launcher

[solarmon]

Hi,

(I hope this is the right channel to post this. Mods - please move if required)

The excellent guides at:

https://www.reddit.com/r/miniSNESmod..._snes_classic/

http://lindqvist.synology.me/wordpress/?page_id=182

shows how to create WHDLoad .hdf and a game .hdf files to use in UAE emulators.

The guides suggests renaming the slave files to game.slave. I was wondering whether there was a way to automatically detect the slave file name instead of having to rename all of them. Also, what about games that have multiple slave files? And having to create a .hdf file for each game is also time consuming without any automate way (that I could find) way of doing that.

This bothered me enough for me to create my own version of WHDLoad.hdf solution that tries to fix those issues, and adds some extra features.

I'm not sure whether this has already been done, but you can find my work at

https://github.com/solarmon/WHDLoad-Game-Launcher

And also my UCG (UAE Configuration Generator) tool has been updated to support WHDLoad slave files:

https://github.com/solarmon/UCG

Any questions and feedback on these projects will be greatly appreciated, as these are my first Amiga projects!

Cheers!

UPDATE: Attached is a summary diagram of the setup.

[AMIGASYSTEM]

The startup-sequence is blocked by error "SetEnv Failed returncode 20"

With Kickstart 3.1.4 a500/600/2000 despite the error the startup-sequence continues and loads the program

[solarmon]

Originally Posted by AMIGASYSTEM

The startup-sequence is blocked by error "SetEnv Failed returncode 20"

With Kickstart 3.1.4 despite the error the startup-sequence continues and loads the program

Thanks for the report. I'll take a look in to it.

What is the checksum of the kickstart you are using?

[solarmon]

Actually, I don't have this kickstart - so I won't be able to troubleshoot, unless I can replicate the issue with another kickstart.

[AMIGASYSTEM]

The startup-sequence block occurs with Standard Kick 3.0/3.1, i enclose a video showing the differences between kick 3.1 and kick 3.1.4 a500/600/2000

[solarmon]

OK - thanks for the video - it was very useful!

I read your report wrong - I thought that the issue was when kickstart 3.1.4 was used.

But I did notice in your video you had mounted DH1: with the .hdf version of my WHDLoad Game Launcher. This in itself should not be an issue, from a testing point of view.

However, I also noticed that you did not give it a Volume name. My startup script fails because it does not test/check for DH1: not having a volume name - I had failed to test for this scenario.

The issue seems to be that setenv does not create the variable if you pass it an empty value. So the next use of that variable will fail - since it does not exist - hence the 'object not found' error from a LIST command.

You should find that if you set the volume name to something then it should work.

If you set the volume name to the slave file name this tells the startup script to use that slave files. This is for situations when you have multiple slave files in the WHDLoad game package.

I will update the script to cater for no volume name for DH1:

Cheers!

UPDATE:attached is the updated startup script. Use this until I create a new release.

[AMIGASYSTEM]

Originally Posted by solarmon

However, I also noticed that you did not give it a Volume name. My startup script fails because it does not test/check for DH1: not having a volume name - I had failed to test for this scenario.
.

Ok with the new startup-sequence it works but the problem remains on the command CD DH1:

If you give the volume name from WinUAE you do not need to do it from AmigaOS, however even if you rename HDF to DH1 the error remains, see video

[solarmon]

Originally Posted by AMIGASYSTEM

Ok with the new startup-sequence it works but the problem remains on the command CD DH1:

If you give the volume name from WinUAE you do not need to do it from AmigaOS, however even if you rename HDF to DH1 the error remains, see video

(I assume you had copied the 'loadwb' command over?)

SYSTEM is the volume name I have given to the WHDLoad .hdf file - which you have loaded as DH1.

I think, even though you have renamed it in Workbench, the WinUAE config still says 'N/A' for the volume name? So it will boot up like this?

What is the output for 'ASSIGN'?

[AMIGASYSTEM]

Originally Posted by solarmon

(I assume you had copied the 'loadwb' command over?)

Yes

What is the output for 'ASSIGN'?

DH1 is present and is accessed without problems, the problem is only the CD command (script)

[solarmon]

Right! It looks like the method/trick I use to find the volume name for a device:

which <device>

does not work for UAE mounted .hdf volumes, but OK for mounted directories.

I've found a better command on Aminet:

http://aminet.net/package/util/cli/GetVolumeName

that also returns the volume name for devices mounted from .hdf files:

GetVolumeName <device> short

I'll build this in to the next release, but the startup script should still work as this is only needed when the 'target slave' method is used. If a target slave is not found (either because of no volume name, or no matching name) then it will just scan for slave files normally.

Note: What I call 'target slave' mode/method is just a way to target (specify) which slave file (if there are multiple slave files) to launch immediately by making use of the volume name that is set by UAE when you mount a directory (as opposed to a .hdf file). Otherwise the script will scan for slave files, if 1 (one) is found then it launches that. If multiple slave files are found then a selection dialogue is presented so the user can select which slave file to launch.

Cheers!

UPDATE: Another benefit of this GetVolumeName command is that it doesn't return the volume name with the ":" character at the end of it - so I don't need to faff about with trying to strip it off.

[solarmon]

Hi,

v0.3-beta is now released with the fixes mentioned above:

https://github.com/solarmon/WHDLoad-.../tag/v0.3-beta

Cheers!

[AMIGASYSTEM]

Originally Posted by solarmon

Hi,

v0.3-beta is now released with the fixes mentioned above:

https://github.com/solarmon/WHDLoad-.../tag/v0.3-beta

Cheers!

Perfect, no problems encountered during startup

[solarmon]

WHDLoad Game Launcher v0.4-beta released:

https://github.com/solarmon/WHDLoad-.../tag/v0.4-beta

* Added ability to control mouse with joystick during slave selection dialogue.
* Tested on SNES Classic - both WHDLoad and game drives mounted as directories work.
- with UCG (https://github.com/solarmon/UCG) used to generate the UAE config files.

[solarmon]

WHDLoad Game Launcher v0.5-beta released:

https://github.com/solarmon/WHDLoad-.../tag/v0.5-beta

* Replaced RequestChoice selector with ABS (Amiga Boot Selector)
* ABS (http://ohmygibs.free.fr/ohmygibs/Ami..._Selector.html)
- ABS gives a much better user experience
- ABS has joystick and keyboard support

Cheers!

[solarmon]

WHDLoad Game Launcher v0.6-beta has been released:

https://github.com/solarmon/WHDLoad-.../tag/v0.6-beta

With the following improvements:

* Moved bulk of the startup script to ARexx.
* WHDLoad options from .info ToolTypes - using rexxtricks.library.
- Saving of WHDLoad options to .tooltypes file for each slave.

Update: Corrected URL

[AMIGASYSTEM]

Originally Posted by solarmon

WHDLoad Game Launcher v0.5-beta released:

Start-sequence does not start

[AMIGASYSTEM]

Originally Posted by solarmon

WHDLoad Game Launcher v0.6-beta has been released:

Startup-sequence RX error (link v0.6-beta does not work)

[solarmon]

Originally Posted by AMIGASYSTEM

Startup-sequence RX error (link v0.6-beta does not work)

Hi,

Thanks for testing.

Can you provide more details of your setup, to help me replicate and troubleshoot.

[solarmon]

Originally Posted by AMIGASYSTEM

Start-sequence does not start

The same for this - please provide more details of your setup.

[solarmon]

Thanks - I've corrected the link to v0.6-beta:

https://github.com/solarmon/WHDLoad-.../tag/v0.6-beta