X-bEnCH - The Amiga Game Launcher (Whdload, exe, ..) and more official topic.

[digiflip]

tested xbench 1.2 beta today on amiga os 3.2 at first would not load but found solution you copy execute from c on amiga os 3.1 to amiga os 3.2 c folder

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by digiflip

tested xbench 1.2 beta today on amiga os 3.2 at first would not load but found solution you copy execute from c on amiga os 3.1 to amiga os 3.2 c folder

I believe this is the problem Bren Mcguire mentioned in the previous page and it's mentioned nowhere in XBENCH documentation. It's not just the commands from 3.1, I'd recommend you use all the same shit that XBENCH comes with otherwise it crashes. I would also recommend you NOT to replace 3.2 commands with older versions. XBENCH if I am not wrong will use anything found in XBENCH:c so use that instead or you're gonna end up in GURU city.

As always I really wish XBENCH had less issues because it's possibly the most complete launcher, but the seldom updates (how long has it been?) coupled with issues like this, make it so I can't have it as a daily driver

[hawkeye]

I upgraded my 3.1.4 installation with a working xbench 1.2beta to 3.2. 3.2 changed the startup so I rechanged it again. When I exit xbench the color of the background is not normal, the colors are different. Any idea? Thanks.

[enigma776]

I for the life of me can not get this to work, it gurus on execution or throws up an error on Xbinit with either suspend of reboot. Using the latest public release on WB 3.2

[spannernick]

Can you still register this...?

[apex]

Yes, I assume every support is welcome and I also hope for an update this year.

[spudje]

Hoping the promised update (in a different thread) is coming soon...

[RetroPassionUK]

its going to happen and lookgin forward to it :-)

[goodman]

Originally Posted by enigma776

I for the life of me can not get this to work, it gurus on execution or throws up an error on Xbinit with either suspend of reboot. Using the latest public release on WB 3.2

I had similar problems - I disabled the music in the MAIN SETUP screen and a lot of guru crashes were eliminated but have to do without music.

[goodman]

I've noticed that the only game pics showing on the games menu are anything that starts with an A and some that start with a B - all others are missing. Does anyone else have this problem or know how to get game pics on all games?

[spudje]

It comes with only a limited set of pictures.

[Zarnal]

The new beta version is available. Registered users should receive it shortly.

[JimNeray]

Hello everyone.

After a long time without updates, X-bEnCh is back and its development has started again. Don't hesitate to let me know about any bugs you may encounter. They will be fixed in a future 1.2.x update.

You can already download it on www.jimneray.com

Attention: The registration process has evolved and new registrations will only be possible from the beginning of 2022. (See X-bEnCh.guide)

I hope you will enjoy using this new version as much as I enjoyed working on it. Happy holidays to all.

Key new features : New faster and more efficient scanmode, new whdload tooltypes detection routine, AmigaOS3.2 fixes, many fixes and updates (See full release text below)


X-bEnCh 1.2 Final Public Release (24/12/21)

This release include all the content of the internal 1.2Betas(B1 B2 & B3)
Merry Xmas to ya all ! =)

X-bEnCh guide partially update - Still a lot of things to update here.

Xinstaller 1.6
- Installer window title now include the X-bEnCh version number that
will be installed.
- Replaced the misspelled "Abord & Quit" with "Abort & Quit".

Xinit 4.4
- Kickstart 3.2 Fix. Will no more leave with an error on AmigaOS 3.2.
- Now you can held down the joystick plugged in the joy port 1 to
abort the loading of xbench as like as with the "DEL" key.
- No more crash at startup if Whdload is not installed.
- Screen ugly flash before displaying the floppy loading screen fixed.
- Regscreen update : Replaced the mispelled word spend with spent.
- Regscreen update : New registering process with unknowncontent.fr
- Code cleaned.

Xmenu 3.8
- Useless check loop removed.
- Text color changed to orange.
- Code cleaned.
- Text misalignment fixed.
- Text content updated.
- Xpl0rEr typo changed.

Xlaunch 5.0
- New realtime tooltype scanning loop. Totally efficient, accurate
and fast.
- Added a new Copper (orange) gradient background option.
- Screen ugly flash before displaying the floppy loading screen fixed.
- When something gone wrong with a whdload slave the error message was
not displayed (like if you start an AGA game on an OCS Amiga). Fixed
- Manuals type listings should now be fixeds and really working.
- MegaRam feature upgraded to flush the unused memory in a better way.
- Display of available free chipram or fastram was buggy when the
total amount of chipram or fastram was lower than 1024KB. Fixed.
- Code optimisation.

Checkerboard Loader 1.8
- Code reworked and cleaned.

Xblank 0.9
- Code reworked and cleaned.
- The workbench screen blanking is back and fixed.

Xpl0rEr 2.3
- You can now manualy enter a path with the keyboard in the left or
right path text zone. If the path is wrong nothing will be done.
- Typo fix.
- You can now scroll in a path entrys list by holding down the up/down
arrow buttons.
- Now open a "workbench screen" in the background so you can use tools
that need an intuition screen to work.
- Added a SelecAll/UnselectAll buttons under each file list side.
- Filenames longer than 30 characters were displayed as blank when
selecteds. Fixed.
- Added one color value in the gradient colors of the buttons.
- The user buttons were not working if one of the two listings wasn't
at the root drive/volumes listing. Fixed.
- In some cases the lists were not correctly refreshed displaying
some odd entrys. Fixed.
- Release date fixed in the About box.

Xcli 2.1
- Sysinfo command updated to v0.5 : New design.
- Sysinfo now correctly detect ROMs from 0.7 to 4.1 (previously 1.2
to 3.1) including the new Kickstart ROM 3.2.
- Sysinfo now display the total amount of ram and the free amount of
each ram.
- Sysinfo now display the release number.
- Debug mode log file output updated. (Was still displaying Xcli 1.9)
- help command is now replaced by xhelp command 'cause the help cli
entry is now shortcuted by the new 3.2 help command placed in rom.
- init txt updated to replace the help cmd by xhelp.

Xsetup 4.9
- Added a ScanMode option. In Fast mode the update of your list is
optimised & can be up to 12% faster. This is now the default mode.
If for some reason it doesn't do the job for you you can switch back
to the old (slow) mode. To do so, switch the scan to the Full mode.
- When you were scanning exe files, if none was found, the alert
"no entry was found in this path" was misaligned in the display. Fix
- Pressing the ESC key in the "Mysystem" and "Launchers" tabs was not
leaving the setup panel. Fixed.
- Display of the available free chipram or fastram was buggy when
total amount of chipram or fastram was lower than 1024KB. Fixed
- Replaced the misspelled "Abord" with "Abort".
- No more need to scan slave's tooltypes. Massively faster.
- Executable 24kb lighter.
- "Whdload config delay" button is now enabled in the whdload options.
You can switch it to 5s, 10s, 15s, 20s or "WAit". In this last mode
the slave Config requester will stay displayed on screen until you
press the start button.
- Added the new gradient colors options (coPpR) to the background
colore switch for the launcher.

[Falcon_11]

Waw , Its perfect. Its a very nice christmas surprice and Thanx for that.
Happy Xmas

[enigma776]

Does not seem to like OS 3.2.1. it errors out in the same way it use to on 3.2.

[spudje]

Let's hope we don't need to wait another 2 years for a fix...

[Storm]

New version working great here on AmigaOS 3.2.1 Jim

[markpaterson]

So excited to confirm this working again in AmigaOS 3.2.1. I will register as soon as this is possible (looks like http://unknowncontent.fr is still under construction).

n00b question here: How do I customize the names of the WHDLoad games in the launcher list? And what specific file is it getting the name from? The icon, the enclosing drawer, or the slave?

I assume once X-bEnCH gets the name, it adds a space where appropriate, eg "IndianaJonesTempleOfDoom" is changed to "Indiana Jones Temple Of Doom".

However, for file names that are truncated due to AmigaOS limits, the names in Launcher look ugly, eg "IndyJonesLastCrusAdvNTSC".

If I want to rename this myself, what's the best way to do it? I have a little OCD about this and would love the names to be listed according to their real names.

If this is not possible, I'd love to be able to simply rename a game right inside of Launcher (perhaps by pressing a hotkey to initiate the rename). That way I could keep my drawers and files untouched. Maybe this could be something added to a future version?

[markpaterson]

Additionally, I've noticed about 10% of my WHDLoad games do not show up in the Launcher. I have the list type set to WHDLoad. I've tried the default fast scan and the full scan. While scanning, it will occasionally say "Object Not Found". There seems to be no correlation between the games that are missing (they are just downloaded from whdownload.com), so I have no idea what the cause could be.

[spudje]

Game names
The games names you can tweak by editing the "list files" (e.g. list1) in xbench/prefs
For each game there are 3 lines:

• 1st line: folder/game name (game identifier let's say), let's call it <game_name> for reference below. The game's folder and <game_name>.exe or <game_name>.slave needs to be in this exact format
• 2nd line: Screen name of the game, so here you can have spaces etc.
• 3rd line: full path to the game

Note that in the file launchers.prf the numbers of games per list should be at least as high as you have games in your individual list files, otherwise xbench gurus. E.g. if you have 301 lines in file list1 in launchers/prf line 4 should say (at least) "100" since (301-1 (the version string at the top of the list file))/3.

Game details
The games details are in the xbench/datas/db folder
Each game has its own text file. just open one to see how they should look.
These are plain text files with the filename = <game_name> (no extension)

Game pictures
In xbench/datas/db/pix you can add screenshots, in the format <game_name>_1.iff. in 80x64 pixels, 32 colors. 1st color = black, 2nd color = white.

WHDLoad games
WHDLoad games are in the format <game_name>.slave and <game_name>.info. In the .info file you can add your WHDLoad tooltypes.

HD (installed) games
Normally executable games from HDD they should be in the format <game_name>.exe and you can add a script (e.g. run a trainer before the game) in a script (normal text file) <game_name>.xbs. As soon as there is a .xbs file in the game folder this will be used.
If for some reason your game does not work with renaming the executable into <game_name>.exe. I use following trick:

• Keep original game executable file
• Create a <game_name>.xbs script file to run the original game executable
• Copy the .xbs script file into a <game_name>.exe file to trick xbench (when no .exe is available xbench will fail to load game or even guru) (this file will not be used since you trigger the real executable in the .xbs file.

Since the autoscan is such a pain, I was so happy with a successful scan I now add new games manually with above info and don't touch the auto scan anymore

Originally Posted by markpaterson

So excited to confirm this working again in AmigaOS 3.2.1. I will register as soon as this is possible (looks like http://unknowncontent.fr is still under construction).

n00b question here: How do I customize the names of the WHDLoad games in the launcher list? And what specific file is it getting the name from? The icon, the enclosing drawer, or the slave?

I assume once X-bEnCH gets the name, it adds a space where appropriate, eg "IndianaJonesTempleOfDoom" is changed to "Indiana Jones Temple Of Doom".

However, for file names that are truncated due to AmigaOS limits, the names in Launcher look ugly, eg "IndyJonesLastCrusAdvNTSC".

If I want to rename this myself, what's the best way to do it? I have a little OCD about this and would love the names to be listed according to their real names.

If this is not possible, I'd love to be able to simply rename a game right inside of Launcher (perhaps by pressing a hotkey to initiate the rename). That way I could keep my drawers and files untouched. Maybe this could be something added to a future version?