DerHof2007
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Posts posted by DerHof2007
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21 hours ago, Gildahl said:
This should be doable with my arcadeEIP software. I haven't created a profile for C64 yet, but in theory it should work. This software integrates well with Launchbox (able to share its media files and metadata), and using its built-in support hot-strings can launch emulated games directly using Stream Deck. Since one Stream Deck button can be multifunction, you could, for example, have it simultaneously launch the game and switch to a game-specific profile with the mapped keys displayed (I'm currently plan to do something similar with Thayer's Quest on Daphne). But you can kind of get an idea of how this works from this video.
Hey Gildahl, this is really cool. Just might do the trick for what I'm looking for. I watched a couple of your videos and will go through the rest. It's been awhile since I did anything with my machine so I'm basically going to have to learn how to set everything up all over again. I have the 32 button Stream Deck... I'll download your software and try it out. I'll keep you posted... in the meantime if you try what I mentioned in the OP and have any more advice please let me know!
Thank you much 🙂 -
Ok, so my last build was in 2013. Giant cabinet with 4 player panel, trackball, spinner and all that fun stuff... yada yada yada.
While my primary interest is old school MAME, a strong second would be the C64.
The only bad thing about the Commodore is its heavy reliance on the keyboard.
The way I got around this before was using AHK to re-assign particular buttons on my layout on a game by game basis. While this can actually work quite well it really isn't all that practical when many keys are needed. Trying to remember what's what could be almost impossible especially for games that use MANY keyboard buttons.So I kind of got away from the machine for a few years... Flash forward 2022... Got the idea of building a pedestal to run on any TV and also changing things around that I didn't like with my last build.
So obviously the first thing to do is check out YouTube and see what people have been doing since I've pretty much been out of the hobby for awhile. I stumble on an amazing build by TheDanielSpies ... beautiful panel!!
What stood out the most for me was incorporating an LCD display in the panel which I will definitely do... although this is more of a novelty it is cool AF.
But what also stood out and is extremely practical (for me at least) was the incorporation of a Stream Deck in the build. I had never even heard of this thing until last week when I watched the video. I now have one on my desk and there it will stay and another will be acquired for the pedestal! This thing is so cool and useful just for daily computer use... although geared more for streamers as the name implies.
I think this will be perfect for using for C64 emulation. TheDanielSpies did have an inlay keyboard incorporated in his build as well but this is definitely nicer and 100x cooler!
With 32 buttons on the Stream Deck I will be able to support any game. They can be assigned to do practically everything and each button is actually a 144x144 screen that looks really sweet since you can use image files or animated GIF files. And you can actually program multiple pages to scroll through to have 100's of buttons.So, an example would be for the game Spelunker if you are familiar... it uses 3 main buttons play (although others are required for other things)... D to use dynamite - F to launch flares and space bar to run the ghost zapper.
So instead of just putting letters or a title on the button I can have a GIF of dynamite exploding... found a cool one with a 2 second image search. Can even take it a step further and record actual footage from the game... crop to the action and create a GIF!!Soooo, moving on to the real purpose of this post. Is there any possible way to select a C64 game and automatically have the Stream Deck give me a game specific display with just what I need for that particular game?
Either by loading a Stream Deck profile or scrolling to a particular page for each game?
Something similar to what I was doing before with AHK adjusting my buttons... but with the Stream Deck.
Any thoughts, suggestions, solutions?-
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On 6/25/2018 at 7:46 AM, FlightRisk said:
Can you share these batch files so I could see what you are doing? I want to do the same thing and was going to write a program in C# or Delphi, but realize this could get pretty involved trying to find .cue files and whatever else. I was thinking that a program should read .dat files and then allow you to choose where things are and delete everything, but maybe just deleting them from LB and having a bat file to get the videos will be enough. Maybe something even simpler like a delete them from LB and have the batch file reference a names list and if "not exist" delete every folder with the same name.
Ok, just so you know if your artwork/videos are named for the game instead of the rom name this doesn't work.
I'm going to just paste the post here that 'yamatetsu' posted for me in BYOAC. When I first read this I thought it was extremely over complicated and I almost dismissed it. After I actually did it, it was incredible simple.
You'll need a text editor like Notepad ++ ... I think he actually made my first file for me but I later learned how with this.
Notepad++In his post he also explains how he used this batch file to test all his games out. For deleting all the artwork you can go through the complete MAME set in 10 minutes with this. I have my collection whittled down to just over 200 roms and this allowed me to eliminate about 200,000 worthless files.
So here is the post... I was just going to link it but didn't know if I should link to another forum here. If you want that then let me know. Here is a copy of the post.
The biggest hassle for me is having to start each game manually. To avoid this, I use a batch file.
The games.
I go into the roms directory and start a DOS prompt. Then I make a .bat file that contains the name of all the game roms.
dir /b >mametest.bat
Now I start a text editor that has a 'macro' feature, opening mametest.bat. I put the cursor at the beginning of line 1.
Now I make a macro that puts 'mame ' in front of every rom name (without the ' of course), then goes to the beginning of
the line and then goes one line down.
Then I use the macro until every line in the .bat is done.
Now I have a batch file that starts every .zip file in the roms folder automatically.
I move mametest.bat into the MAME root folder. I start a DOS prompt and start mametest.bat.
The first game is launched. When I exit it, the next one is automatically started. When I find a game that I like, I use ALT+TAB
to switch to the DOS window, where I can see the name of the rom that is now running.
I copy that rom to a backup folder. For convenience I use a file manager that uses two windows, one is set to the roms folder, the
other to the backup folder, so that I just need to drag the rom from one window to the other.
After that, I ALT+TAB back to MAME and exit the game. Rinse and repeat.
When I'm tired of testing the games, I ALT+TAB to the DOS window to get the romname of the current game, then I close the DOS window,
this also shuts down MAME.
Then I edit mametest.bat, deleting all the lines up to and including the last game I tested. When I start mametest.bat the next time,
it will pick up where I stopped.
After everything is done, I have a backup folder that contains all the games I want to keep, BUT any needed files like BIOSes and drivers are missing.
So I go to the MAME root folder and rename the roms directory to romsbackup, then I rename the directory containing my wanted games to roms.
Now I make a new mametest.bat, but this time only using the games that I want to keep.
If a game doesn't run, the .bat will start the next one. Now I ALT+TAB to the DOS window to see which file(s) the non-working game is missing.
In DOS-mode, MAME kindly provides the info. It states that rom 'xy' is not working, missing 'so and so', having looked in 'xy' and, for example 'namco79'.
So I know that namco79.zip is missing. This I copy from the romsbackup directory to the roms directory. The game will now work.
Rinse and repeat for all games.
When I'm done, I start the mametest.bat again and make sure that every game is working. When done, I can safely delete the romsbackup directory.
The artwork.
I go into the artwork directory and make a new directory named 1. I go to the MAME root directory and copy mametest.bat to the artwork directory.
Back to the artwork directory. I edit the mametest.bat, replacing the word 'mame' with 'copy' and '.zip' with '.zip 1\'.
I start mametest.bat. This results in the .bat copying all the needed artwork files to the '1' directory.
After that, I delete every .zip file in the artwork directory and move every file in the 1 directory to the artwork directory. Now the artwork directory only
contains the artwork files that I need.
Flyers / manuals.
Should be the same process as with the artwork, except that mametest.bat doesn't need to be edited. Just copy it to the flyers / manuals folder, create the 1 directory and start mametest.bat. -
11 hours ago, FlightRisk said:
Can you share these batch files so I could see what you are doing? I want to do the same thing and was going to write a program in C# or Delphi, but realize this could get pretty involved trying to find .cue files and whatever else. I was thinking that a program should read .dat files and then allow you to choose where things are and delete everything, but maybe just deleting them from LB and having a bat file to get the videos will be enough. Maybe something even simpler like a delete them from LB and have the batch file reference a names list and if "not exist" delete every folder with the same name.
Hey Dude... Sure, no problem at all. A little tied up at the moment so let me get back to you tomorrow on this when I get a chance to dig up the info.
I can't take credit for this. I had help from someone in the BYOAC forum a while back. I'll post all the info tomorrow night. -
4 hours ago, Orionsangel said:
One of the reasons I stopped using WinVice was because of the fullscreen issue. I use Retroarch now and it works fine. I'm using the Vice x64 Core. If you're not able to get the joystick to work just hit F10 on your keyboard while the game is running. Then use your mouse to pick Joystick 1 and then click Resume to return to your game. For some strange reason the Core starts with Joystick 2 selected.
I don't have any full screen issues with Winvice...
If I need to go from joy1 to joy2 I just take one step to the right in front of my cabinet ?
But also easy enough to set up a hot key like Zombeaver said. -
Must have been an issue with just copying the folder from one pc to the other.
I had to do a reinstall to get the settings to save.As for the whining it seems to have disappeared with the new install.
I still get a pop on boot and shutdown... I'll experiment with that later. -
CCS64 question.
Now that I'm playing around with this emulator again... I remember why I stopped using it and went to Vice.
This was a while ago but I remember having this same problem back in the day.There is a mild high pitched whine in the background while the emulator is running... and sometimes popping at times especially when closing.
Anything is settings that may be able to stop this?
I don't have this at all with WinViceAlso now that I am messing with this in my cabinet I can't seem to get CCS to save settings. I change screen size/fast load etc. but after I shut it down these settings are changed back to default. Doesn't it just auto save on exit?
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9 hours ago, Zombeaver said:
As I said, you can change these in the Input section. If you go to the Options -> Input -> Keyboard section you can go to the "PC Key" section, press F3, then press a key on the keyboard that you want to use. Then go down to "C64 Key" and press right and left arrow keys until you get to the C64 input that you want that key to send. So, for example, if you wanted to map them to WASD, you would press F4, W, down to the C64 Key and then right until you got to input you wanted it to send - it should be noted here that cursor up is what the C64 Key section calls "CRSR DOWN + SHIFT".
Up = CRSR DOWN + SHIFT
Left = CRSR RIGHT + SHIFT
Down = CRSR DOWN
Right = CRSR RIGHTOf course... I'm kind of baffled that I didn't think to do this as I use AHK for C64 already for games that use minimal keys.
QuoteLikely the only way to do this would be to use something like AHK to convert mouse inputs to other inputs like arrow keys or whatever, like this.
Trying this out but not having any luck yet.
QuoteYes, you can do this with the Windows version, and you can actually just use the .C64 savestate files as your "rom" in LB and it'll work just fine. One thing to consider is that you'll want to name it similarly to the original rom name and place it in the same directory so that you can still use the next/previous disk function (Alt+F5 and Alt+F6), which (in the Windows version) works based on the filename (the next and previous filename it finds from the currently loaded one), so if you had Pirates.C64, Pirates1.D64, and Pirates2.D64, loading Pirates.C64 would mean you'd need to press the next disk shortcut twice to get to disk 2 (Pirates.C64 -> Pirates1.D64 -> Pirates2.D64). If it's a game that's just a single disk, it's irrelevant.
As far as disadvantages, no not really, unless you end up using the DOS version of CCS64, and then only because they're slightly more difficult to load (you can't load them directly via command-line like you can in the Windows version, you can still load them through the emulator menu though).
I don't find this to be necessary for the vast majority of games so long as you're using Maximum 1541 Speed though. Most games load in literally a couple seconds. If games have multiple obnoxious cracktros I usually just get a different version (in most cases there are a dozen+ different cracked versions of any given game). I don't mind cracktros as long as there's just one, and I can quickly skip it. That's kindof part of the C64 experience I think haha
Good to know. I like this option. Like you said it wont be necessary for most. I think I've found roms for almost all games that boot directly to the game. The main ones that need interaction are the ones with cheat codes or docs... which I wont use much anyway. For games like that I have 2 versions and will mainly choose the one that boots directly.
I hear about the C64 experience... I'd love to know my accumulated wait time for games to boot from back in the day, LOL.Thank you for the help. I think CCS64 may be my new primary emulator!
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8 hours ago, Zombeaver said:
Yes, in the "Special" section, press right on the "Maximum 1541 Speed" option until you change it to "On - Quiet".
I'm not entirely sure what you mean here. The joystick isn't setup to use the cursor keys, at least not by default. The arrow keys control them. The joystick controls joystick movement. If you wanted to assign these to the controller, you could do it with Controller Companion, Xpadder, AHK, etc. You can see/change what keyboard keys correspond to which C64 keyboard keys by going to Options -> Input -> Keyboard
But the C64 cursor keys are the arrow keys on the keyboard. I'm not using game controllers... my setup is in a cabinet so my joysticks are mapped to the keyboard. Player one being the 4 arrow keys for the joystick. So when setup like this in Vice or CCS64 they wont function as the cursor keys because they are mapped to the joystick.
I suppose I can just map a couple player 3 or 4 buttons for this task with AHK... I do this already to assign key functions to player buttons for certain games. How would I map the cursor keys? For example if I want my player 1 button one which is mapped as A to be B then I would simply add a::b to the AHK file. What would the command be to map A as the cursor down button? a:: ???
Let me ask you this since you seem to be 'The Man' for C64. How can I use my PC mouse for C64 games like Lemmings? Is this possible?
Also just booted up a game that has a typical cracktro in the beginning requiring me to press a key to continue. Loading time... another screen with options for me to select... then more loading time.
So I got to the final loading page and did a save state. Got my new files. Restarted CCS64 and dragged the new file into and INSTANT start to the game menu.
A good bit of my games I've acquired roms that boot straight to the game with no intros anyway but for the multiple ones that don't is there any reason I shouldn't do this with every one? Any disadvantages?Also gonna check out your web page later. Looks cool!
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Hey thank you. Considering getting one of these.
I have no experience with a second monitor for marquee... If I wanted to for systems without marquees can I have some sort of video or animation playing instead of a static picture? -
On 10/24/2017 at 4:12 PM, mothergoose729 said:
In VICE you can start the game with warp mode automatically toggled. It isn't as good as the feature in CCS64 as you have to manually disable it, but its better than nothing. VICE also lets you create the VICE equivalent of M3U file for seamless disk switching, and you can set the port number for your joystick in the command line, so you don't have to manually switch it for those games that use Port 2.
If you turn off true 1541 drive emulation you also get a nice speed boost. Only a handful of games really need it.
I stick with VICE for these reasons. It also has the ability to emulate tons of other commodore machines, if you are a collector of emulators as I am :).
Can you give some details on that disc playlist type option? I'm running this in a cabinet and looking for the easiest way of disc swapping. Is this what the 'Fliplist' thing is?
On 10/24/2017 at 4:17 PM, Zombeaver said:VICE is a good emulator, but it doesn't have Maximum 1541 Speed.
The m3u and joystick thing are neat, but every game requires some amount of loading, only some games are multi-disk or require joystick swapping. Most games use port 2. The ones that require port 1 take less than a second to switch. Neither one of those are as much of a QOL improvement as Maximum 1541 Speed imo.
I think the statement that "only a handful" of games require True Drive emulation is overselling it frankly. It's more common than you might think. And the beauty of Maximum 1541 Speed is that you're getting the speed benefit without losing True Drive emulation.
You have me looking into CCS64. I used this many years ago... probably my first 64 emu before I went with Vice. I definitely like the max speed option. Is there a way to have not put the banner across the middle of the screen announcing the fast load every time it uses it?
One thing I'm liking better about CCS64 is that in Vice some D64 games don't load unless drive settings is set to '1541-II' and 'True Drive Emulation' is ticked. But this also makes most of the other D64 games not load. I was actually going to have 2 folders with 2 different setups of Vice setup and have games run with whichever version worked.
After testing CCS64 just now it appears to load both types and I did nothing at all with the settings.
3 Specific games that have this issue are 'Lemmings', 'Legacy of the Ancients', and 'Ultima VI'.
Another issue I'm trying to figure out with my cabinet is on some games with cheats you need to use the cursor keys to scroll up or down to select the various cheats.
My cursor keys are assigned to joystick one. So in Vice I have to disable the joy keys then make the selections then enable the joy keys again.
In CCS64 I don't see any way to quickly disable the joy keys but I see I can hit alt-k to bring up a 'insert key stroke' menu that will let me select cursor down. Is there a way for me to just assign a specific 'hot key' to do this automatically? -
Cool, mine is about 29X7. You did say over at BYOAC that they cut this to size, correct?
Also, China is pretty big... can you elaborate, please
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Nice cabinet :-)
Can you post the actual dimensions of your marquee monitor... and a link to where you bought it? I didn't realize you could get something like that in a custom size.I made the transition myself from HS a while back. So much happier... none of the old problems! I have recently incorporated RocketLauncher back in the mix though for 'Pause' and 'Bezel' support.
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14 minutes ago, DOS76 said:
If you are using the Games details view any additional apps should be listed there in BB if you aren't using it you can set it to a button and get it to come up and then choose your additional app from there.
Thank you much.... I had this feature disabled in BB>options>Game Menu
All good now!
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23 minutes ago, DOS76 said:
So if you have 2 roms for the same game one with the intro and one without you can set one as the main game and another as an additional app and then if you want to launch the main game just click it from LB as usual and if you want to launch the additional app game you right click the game in LB and choose the other version from the menu.
Thank you. I should have been more specific.
While this worked great in LB... I should have mentioned that is for my cabinet... running Big Box.
I don't see any way to select a second app there. I was hoping something would be in the selection screen after choosing the game but nothing. -
Working on my C64 system. I have various versions for many games. Some that boot instantly into the game and others that have the crack intros with options like documentation or cheats.
I'll mostly want to just boot directly into a game but occasionally I may want to use a cheat or whatever.
Is there a way that after you click on a game that you can select a specific rom to use before launching?
Or will I simply have to make multiple entries for those particular games? -
I'm running Winvice for my C64.
For player one in my cabinet the joystick is mapped to the cursor keys.
Player 2 is mapped to number pad 2,4,6,8For some of the C64 games when they are launched they include documentation that you can scroll through.
The problem is that you need the up and down cursor keys to do so.
This is an issue because for my P1 joystick to that uses the cursor keys to function I have to have 'Enable joy keys' ticked in the options.
When that is ticked the cursor keys do not function as keyboard inputs.
Is there a way to map the keyboard cursor keys to another keystroke so I can have to functionality of both of these options at once?
I can theoretically just click on options and tick/untick 'Enable joy keys' as needed but this isn't practical in a cabinet running the emulator at full screen.... and there is no keyboard shortcut to access this option in Winvice.Changing my P1 controls is not an option at this point as it would affect all of my other emulators.
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Ok, that gave me an idea....
I just added a password to my login.
That worked.From what I just saw I don't think you can access between computers like this if they don't use a password.
>>>>we posted at the same time... yeah, I just tried the login name without the password and the new error that popped up is what prompted me to go make a password.
Weird that that is necessary.
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Just now, Lordmonkus said:
Enter the login name and password you use for the computer you are connecting to.
I don't use passwords on my computers...
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I know this isn't LB related so sorry if I shouldn't have posted this in this particular forum.
Move is necessary... if you are going to delete please let me know :-)I want to access my arcade cabinet PC from my main PC and vice versa.
When I try to access either way I get this popup
I have no idea what it is looking for here???
I've never set up passwords for this...
I tried my network password... but wouldn't know what 'user' to use?
Any idea how I can access between these two?
I can access my NAS from both PC's but not each other.
If it matters my PC is hardwired and my cabinet is wireless. -
These are awesome! Thank you!!
I was going to undertake this task myself in the very near future. I appreciate you saving me some time :-)
Is there a link to download the full set or does this need to be done individually?
>>>>disregard... I was on hold on the phone and did them individually... wasn't that bad.
All we need now is someone to make 'themes' for each game!! :-)
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58 minutes ago, Dane said:
Sorry but whereabouts in LaunchBox do these files get placed?
\LaunchBox\Data\Platforms
You should see an xml file for each of your platforms in this folder. Just replace your existing PinballFX xml with it. I'd back up your original first just in case.
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Got her up and running. 199 of my choice MAME roms working 100%
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Heh, after all these years of using MAME I just learned that update packs are not full roms but just the changes or additions. Knowing this and knowing that the site I go to has a long line of update packs would have saved me some time hunting down these things individually.
Unfortunately after getting update packs from 184 to 197 still nothing for Mousetrap :-(
AFAIK the sites roms are current to 188 so getting update packs further back will be no help.
Incorporating a Stream Deck for Commodore 64 games.
in Features
Posted
Sorry for the delay... Got a project going on I'm trying to finish by the end of the month before I fully dive into my new build here...
Just watched this video. Dude, you're a freaking rock star! From what I can see this is exactly what I am looking for!!!
I would love to see a tutorial on this if you have time! And when I get this started I will definitely either have artwork or gif's for the buttons.
As for WinVICE... that is what I use. Not sure which version. I don't think I ever realized there were different ones.
The 'fastloader' option you had is basically just what it implies... it will load the game faster as the C64 was definitely known for some long load times. There was a cartridge made by Epyx back in the day called 'Fast Load' to make disc games load faster.