Tiny Launcher 1.0 Released

[gibs]

Hi dudes !

Here is the Tiny Launcher (2.1) : http://aminet.net/package/util/misc/TinyLauncher

I have created this thread for bug reporting and support.

The Poll : http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=65549

Some videos:
*NEW Tutorial* : [ Show youtube player ] (CC English/French/Italian)
1.8.5 in Action! : [ Show youtube player ]
CDTV : [ Show youtube player ]
Amiga 600 : [ Show youtube player ]
Amiga 500 [1MB/Kickstart 3.1] : [ Show youtube player ]
MorphOS [EUAE] : [ Show youtube player ]
Minimig [1MB/Kickstart 3.1] : [ Show youtube player ]

[b]Some infos[/b]:
-"B" to switch the scripts from HD to CD. If you plan to do a CD Compilation, switch to 'Boot: CD'. (Check Infodesk for its status).
-Sysconfig will accept 'CD0:Directory' if 'DH0:Directory' exist
-"P" to switch from "320x200" to "320x256" for full screen on PAL computers.
-"1","2","3","4","5" To "Jump" directly to the wanted screen at launch.
-"F5" on the bouncing screen avoid the "Jump" function.
-"ESC" to avoid the bouncing animation.
-"R" to force the RAD. (Check Infodesk for its status).
-"C" to call the Sysconfig screen.
-"I" to call the info-desk.
-"M" to switch between Music and Sounds.
-"+" and "-" to increase/decrease the speed.
-Press [F1] to generate a database for the category of your choice. The database is located in S:TinyLauncher, If you don't want it anymore, just delete the files.
-Launch ".exe" named executables files (usefull for demos).
-To go back to the "Space Invader" screen from a list and with the joystick : At the 1st item in the list, hold "up"+"fire"
-Keyboard is also supported. Use the arrows to navigate, enter to select, (ESC or BACKSPACE) to go back, H for help.

Incoming:
...

Tested on:
-Amiga 600 2MB (A603 extension) : ok.
-Amiga 600 1MB Kickstart 2 : Look at Tiny Launcher SE at the bottom.
-Amiga 600 + Aca630 : ok
-Amiga 1200 + Blizzard 1260 : ok
-CD32+SX1 : ok
-Amiga 500 : ok (No Whdload because not enough RAM)
-OSX (EUAE WIP4): ok
-Morphos (EUAE WIP4) : ok

Some numbers:
-on a stock CD32 (2MB, NOFAST RAM, And BOOT CD).
Time to boot (include indivision AGA init) : 15 sec
Time to scan 177 games : 3 sec
Time to scan 272 demos : 6 sec

Since the 1.8 version
Tiny Launcher is provided as a stand-alone executable. Just copy it where you want on your HD.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tiny Launcher can run many whdload games with 1MB Chip Ram Amiga Computer (Example Amiga 600). Your Partition (not your drive) must be named "DH0" and you need a Kickstart 3.X [because Kickstart < 3.X doesn't support the RAD].

Here a short list of Whdload games you can expect to work on a 1MB Amiga 600:

Agony, Apidya, Airball, Arkanoid, Arkanoid 2, Batman Movie, Battle Squadron, Blood Money, Bomb Jack, Cadaver, Chuck Rock, Commando, Chrystal Hammer, Dyna Blaster, Elf, Galaga92, Giana Sisters, IK+, Ikari Warriors, Kikstart 2, Lotus1, Menace, Nebulus, New Zealand Story, Nitro, Operation Wolf, Overlander, Pacmania, Paradroid 90, Parasol Stars,Tetris Pro, Rick Dangerous, Rick Dangerous 2, Rod Land, Beast, Beast 2, Silkworm, Spy Vs Spy I,II & III, Stunt Car Racer, Super Cars 2, Treasure Island Dizzy, Turican I,Turrican II, Turican III, Virus, Wrath of the demon, Xenon, Xenon II...

But there are 640 games that require less than 1MB... Check the list.

Tito did a great database to filter RAM requirement for whdload games :
http://www.amigang.fr/whdload-memory-usage.html
Click on the black "buttons" to filter.

If you want to run those games with the KICKSTART 2, you can try TinyLauncherSE: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1566495/Tiny...uncherSE02.lzh
(Put it at the beginning of the startup-sequence).

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How to create a CD Compil for your CD32/CDTV:

I have created a preconfigured package : http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1566495/Temp/TLPreconf.zip

Unzip it and:
Copy your kickstart files in Devs/Kickstarts/
Copy your whdload key in S/
Copy your games & demos in TLDATAS/ in the appropriate directories.

Boot it with WinUAE!
Under TinyLauncher:
Update the database with F1 (for each directories you have modified the content)
Test it under WinUAE.
Turn TinyLauncher "Boot:CD" by pressing 'B' (Check the infodesk for its status).

Once it's ok, you can remove the Setpatch line in S/Startup-sequence
Also remove the files under Libs/

You need to use the Amiga 68k software "ISOCD" to create your iso image, and inject the CD32.TM or CDTV.TM file.

Once you have created your iso, you can use the Software of your choice on your PC to burn your CD.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Enjoy

[pmc]

Looking good, man!

[dirk_the_daring]

Great news!!! Thanks a lot

[AmigaFriend]

Great work Gibs!

[Retroplay]

Looks very slick.

[lolafg]

Thanks Gibs , will try it in Minimig

[Omolungo]

Thank you

[ocean]

A huge thank you! Now I know what I'll do tomorrow :-D

[mfilos]

Cheers Michael. Thx for releasing such a lovely launcher

[crabfists]

Very cool.

[DonAmiga]

Thanks, looking forward to the cdtv version

[AlfaRomeo]

Awesome work. Many thanks

[attila06]

Good job Gibs, thank you.

[gibs]

@DonAmiga Don't you want to try with this one ? It must be fast enough...It doesn't works like AGS.

[tomcat666]

Nice !

I think this one is going on my A600 (unexpanded) today YAY !

Just one thing - would it be possible to skip the "ECS" <-> "AGA" selection screen if only ECS games/demos are present ?

btw. how are the non-whdload games detected ? i.e. games that start with a script ?

no worries... I just saw the "online" docs...

[gibs]

@tomcat666

That's a good idea. I was about to implement that in the next release for people that wanted to mix both ECS & AGA.

But I wanted to add the possibility to return to the "Space Invader" from the "Games Menu" to go in the "Demo Menu" without rebooting.

So I think about the best way to do all that.

For the non-whdload games, I add an AmigaDOS script file called "runme.tl" in the directory of the game for example.

TIPS:
-At the beginning of the startup-sequence you can Assign your directories followed by TinyLauncher.exe.
So you will boot automatically on Tiny Launcher at each starts and you will leave and boot the Workbench by Clicking the mouse on Tiny Launcher.

-If you don't want to do that, there's a program called "1touchMac" that allow to boot different startup-sequence(s) if you hold a mouse button at the boot. http://aminet.net/util/boot/1TouchMac25.lha


Edit: I thought all the day about how to jump in a specific list without adding another selection.

There are 4 folders "Assigned": "TLGECS,TLGAGA,TLDECS,TLDAGA"

If some of you prefer to jump directly in a list, you'll have to create a file. Example:

If you want to Jump in TLGECS, you'll have to create a file named "TLGECS" in /S directory.

If you want to jump directly to the "Demo Menu" you'll have to create S:TLDEMOS

For those who wants to have mixed ECS/AGA games you'll have to put all your files in (example) TLGECS and create S:TLGECS

[gibs]

UPDATE : 1.1
---------------

1.1

-To jump to desired "list" at launch, just create an empty file called:
TLGECS,TLGAGA,TLDECS or TLDAGA in /s directory.
-You can now return to the "Space Invader" screen from a list:
At the 1st item in the list, hold "up"+"fire"
-Keyboard is now supported. Use the arrows to navigate, enter to select, (ESC or BACKSPACE) to go back, H for help.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1566495/Tiny...Launcher11.lzh


Edit : Tested on CD32+SX1 and Amiga 500 1MB (No whdload) : both work ok.

[tomcat666]

Very nice gibs!

Thank you.

I hope to get some time off today to try this out on real A600

[ocean]

Nobody is as stupid as the end user, or how was it... :-P Today I ended up with very stupid use case and now I'm going to share it with all of you

I was connecting my recent 4gb cf from a600 to UAE and first assigned TinyLauncher to the root of my game directory. Well, all my games are in alphabetically ordered by folders, like this: games1:a/agony . TinyLauncher showed only about 10 games, named "A", "B", "C" etc...

Just for curiosity, I started the game "B", and it freezed for about 15 seconds and said "LOADING: B"... :-P Then it froze totally and I ended up restarting the UAE. I felt a little silly...

Now I'm organizing the games again, but this time a little bit different (like games1:ecsgames)

[attila06]

Works very well on my A600 because there is only one directory, but same problem as ocean on my 1260 because i have four directory named A-F,G-L,M-R and S-Z in my GAMES directory.
TinyLauncher freeze , or can only read one directory it depends on the args.

Is there any issue to stay in the TinyLauncher menu when a game is ended, an not to return to the workbench.

Thanks.