WB 1.3 JST Launcher or General Script Launcher Utilites

[jotd]

Here's compilation maker exe for windows, with pics. It's quite big (136MB) but you can remove the pics if you don't want them.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pvj4y5gb1p...maker.zip?dl=0

Select .csv for database, HDROOT_DEMO for game root, and the program will create all AGS & C/S startup, you can boot on that directory in winuae (wb 2.x)

HDROOT_DEMO contains game demos with their slaves. No copyright violation. But compilation maker can also copy kickstarts & RTB files in DEVS/kickstart of the output if you provide them in input.

[B93]

Thanks, the tool is awesome. The ags style structure fits well and the .run scripts almost match mine.

Now I just need to dig up some Amos resources more around reading and writing to text files then I should be half way to a basic launcher.

The idea at this point is figure out how to scan a directory and store the path of all the .run files in a text file. Use that to populate a list of games on screen and go from their.

Once the launcher is functional I’ll probably look to include the images.

[Retro1234]

I think I just List #?.start > somefile.txt before starting the menu then I probably PEEKed the txt file to display it. I can't remember how I created the batch/run file but it was the guys at Ultimate Amiga who told me how to do it.

[jotd]

Originally Posted by B93

Thanks, the tool is awesome. The ags style structure fits well and the .run scripts almost match mine.

Now I just need to dig up some Amos resources more around reading and writing to text files then I should be half way to a basic launcher.

The idea at this point is figure out how to scan a directory and store the path of all the .run files in a text file. Use that to populate a list of games on screen and go from their.

Once the launcher is functional I’ll probably look to include the images.

Great! AMOS must have ways to read a directory, for sure. In AmigaDOS it requires a call to Examine then subsequent calls to ExNext to discover entries. Or yes you can use LIST with lformat in RAM: and read the file. Not optimal, but would work.

[B93]

So I've finally had a bit of time to work on the launcher and now have a basic working launcher.

I have put a copy in the zone if anyone wants to try it out

the documentation is a little lacking at the moment but anyone with a reasonable understanding of the amiga and ags should be able to work it.

the basic guide is open the launcher click the cli button and use gamedir to set the path of your .ags drawers, Loading games is based off the name of the .ags folder minus the extension and there are 5 favourite slots for the games your currently playing.

the launcher is aimed at low end systems and is only 96kb and works under both wb 1.3 and 1.2. at this stage I'm not looking to support either 2x or 3x.

in theory this could work for any amiga on 1.2 or 1.3 with a hard drive and sufficient ram and really that comes down to what JST and the particular game requires.

I do want to do some testing at some stage soon to see just how low spec I can go with some early games.

[RoC]

Thanks jotd and B93, this is awesome.

I will be trying both tools/launcher

[jotd]

1.3 launcher: that was really missing for ages!

[Retro1234]

Originally Posted by B93

So I've finally had a bit of time to work on the launcher and now have a basic working launcher.

I have put a copy in the zone if anyone wants to try it out

the documentation is a little lacking at the moment but anyone with a reasonable understanding of the amiga and ags should be able to work it.

the basic guide is open the launcher click the cli button and use gamedir to set the path of your .ags drawers, Loading games is based off the name of the .ags folder minus the extension and there are 5 favourite slots for the games your currently playing.

the launcher is aimed at low end systems and is only 96kb and works under both wb 1.3 and 1.2. at this stage I'm not looking to support either 2x or 3x.

in theory this could work for any amiga on 1.2 or 1.3 with a hard drive and sufficient ram and really that comes down to what JST and the particular game requires.

I do want to do some testing at some stage soon to see just how low spec I can go with some early games.

Can you upload an example setup - like some .start files and iffs etc
maybe a video etc.

[B93]

Originally Posted by Retro1234

Can you upload an example setup - like some .start files and iffs etc
maybe a video etc.

Sure will try to gab some screenshot soon but to help get you started. Gamebench uses the same structure as AGS.

the default location for your ags database is work:ags/ this is where your database of games is stored each game should have a folder ending in .ags and inside that folder a .run file.

For this example if wanted to run the game Cannon Fodder and it was located in at work:whdload/games/CannonFodder

in our work:ags/ folder we would create a folder called CannonFodder.ags and inside work:ags/CannonFodder we would create a file called CannonFodder.run

in this file we write our script to launch the game. if you are using this with workbench 1.3 and jst you would put for example:

cd work:whdload/game/CannonFodder
JST CannonFodder.slave

if using whdload replace jst with whdload. This is where jotd's tool comes in handy as it will generate the .run files for you.

[B93]

Also when I get time I am working on improving the launcher. I would now recommend getting the latest version off of aminet rather than the zone copy as there are a couple of minor fixes and I will be uploading all new versions to aminet in the future.

Im hoping to have finished a more feature filled and refined version by the end of the year.

[Seiya]

oh, i didn't know that JST could be run also from 1.3

edit:
i tried jst from Aminet (freeware edition) and didn't work. i have error 121 (this error should be that not run with 1.3)

[jotd]

Get JST from my github instead. Aminet distros are outdated. I don't even know how to upload there, didn't upload in ages.

took some time to learn how to create releases on github:

https://github.com/jotd666/jst/releases/tag/JST_7.1

(binary archive, no rebuild needed, same as in old webpage)

[Seiya]

ok, thank you jotd

[youen]

@B93 hi, got the same idea as you, did you achieve your project (404 error on your link)?

If no, I may try make to code the same (but i am more a blitz basic 2 guy than amos)

[B93]

Originally Posted by youen

@B93 hi, got the same idea as you, did you achieve your project (404 error on your link)?

If no, I may try make to code the same (but i am more a blitz basic 2 guy than amos)

Hi, yeah I achieved what I wanted in my own personal launcher, once I’m not so busy I do want to improve on it and add more features. Gamebench is still avalible on aminet

It’s a fun and challenging project so I would say give coding one a go even if you like Gamebench. We need more options for low spec supporting game launchers.