Amiga Emulation / FS-UAE: A Comprehensive Tutorial + Launchbox Integration

[logan5]

Thanks for the responses guys, very much appreciated!

[Nyny77]

hi,

It is possible not to use the mouse? When I first load a game, I have an infinite life page, infinite bomb ect ... obliged to use the mouse, is it possible with the controller?
Thank you for the video tuto, fantastic !

[Belgarath]

Most cracked and especially trained ADF's will require mouse input to bypass the crack/trainer screen. You can get past this if you use WHDLoad games. The other option is (depending on what controller you're using) set your 2nd analog stick to become the mouse, I can't remember if FS-UAE has an inbuilt option for this but I use Xpadder which does the job nicely.

[Nyny77]

Ok thank you very much !

[Belgarath]

In fact I have Xpadder in charge of 3 sets, it defaults to joystick (but with right stick as mouse) I also set some of the fire buttons to some of the more common keyboard controls (space, return etc). If I press the right thumbstick button it switches so that the main analog controller is the mouse, press the right thumbstick again and it switches to my config for pinball games, mainly pinball dreams/fantasies/illusions. d-pad becomes f1-f4 right analog stick for the cursor keys to draw the pin back, top left and top right buttons for the flippers.

[Zombeaver]

6 hours ago, Nyny77 said:

hi,

It is possible not to use the mouse? When I first load a game, I have an infinite life page, infinite bomb ect ... obliged to use the mouse, is it possible with the controller?
Thank you for the video tuto, fantastic !

It depends on the game but cracktros will typically require you to click, yes. WHDLoad versions don't have cracktros at all, which is one of the reasons I recommend them. They also have significantly faster load times and no disk swapping.

That said, you could also try something like this:

[Nyny77]

thanks guys 

[Imortus.san]

Great toturial, firt time ever I really liked the way the games work as if they were roms, I never could get to like Win UAE.

The only thing I would like more, was for better Database implementation because a ton of games were not found in the database.

Edited June 16, 2017 by Imortus.san

[Zombeaver]

1 minute ago, Imortus.san said:

The only thing I would like more, was for better Database implementation because a ton of games were not found in the database.

Which database? Do you mean the OAGD (now OpenRetro) not having the games you're trying to import or the LB DB not having metadata? Both of those can be an issue, honestly. If the game isn't on OpenRetro you'll have to make your own config like I show in the video. If it's not in the LB DB I usually use a combination of Mobygames and Google Images to get what I need.

[Imortus.san]

The emulator detected a lot, but a lot, it only missed about 250 games from the 2750 I trowed at it, I'm talking about the LB database not reconizing the games, no metada or covers it a really chame.

[Zombeaver]

Just now, Imortus.san said:

The emulator detected a lot, but a lot, it only missed about 250 games from the 2750 I trowed at it, I'm talking about the LB database not reconizing the games, no metada or covers it a really chame.

The LB DB only has what users put into it. Complaining about it instead of improving it isn't going to help. It's dependent on users like you and I to make submissions.

You understand that this isn't something like the NES right (which had a total of 712 games)? There was something like 4000 games released for the Amiga (exact numbers are spotty). And among that significantly larger library, modern documentation is significantly worse than the likes of Nintendo consoles. Many games are missing covers even on Mobygames, which has been around for almost twenty years. It doesn't help that Amiga is ostensibly a good deal more "niche" than a number of other platforms.

I'm not trying to be harsh, but there seems to be this common misconception that there's a team of people behind the scenes getting paid to upload content to the DB - there isn't. It's entirely dependent on volunteers - Launchbox users. If you want it to be better, I'd encourage you to help make it better.

[Imortus.san]

No problem, now that you told me that, it makes perfect sense, it never crossed my mind it was a niche so small, since games are better then the Nintendo Version and Genesis versions.

At this point in time I'm filling the Library and very slowly getting the covers for some systems, once I deal with that I will help fill some games.

Thanks

Edited June 18, 2017 by Imortus.san

[viking]

Thx @Zombeaver for this tutorial !!!
Everything works fine and for the first time here! Awesome !!

I have only one question :

Thanks to your WHDLoad.prefs file, I can close the emulator with the ESC key. ($45)
But it doesnt work with CD32 games. Who are not WHD files.
How to assign ESC to close the emulator when a CD32 game is launched?

The classic dont work here ...

$Esc::
{
    Process, Close, {{{StartupEXE}}}
}

 

[Zombeaver]

Well as you said, they're not WHDLoad games, so there is no WHDLoad "Quit Key" function for them. If memory serves, FS-UAE takes priority over and/or doesn't accept simulated inputs which may be why the AHK script doesn't work.

You could assign a button to action_quit in FS-UAE though (FS-UAE Input Actions). This should work for CD32 games. Keep in mind that you'd want to assign it to something different than your WHDLoad Quit Key because you do not want to quit in that way while playing WHDLoad games (for reasons I cover in the video). The process should be the same to assign the function as it is for warp or others - just go to Advanced Settings and enter:

[button/key you want to use] = action_quit

[viking]

Thx !

I test with this :

But it's dont work ... any idea ?

[Zombeaver]

It should be:

keyboard_key_escape

(FS-UAE Custom Input Mapping)

Again though, just to reiterate, if you're using Esc as your WHDLoad Quit Key, you do NOT want to assign the emulator quit function to Esc. They need to be separate keys, because otherwise you're going to end up exiting the emulator even when you press that key rather than sending the WHDLoad Quit Key input (which is the way you need to exit WHDLoad games).

[viking]

Ok I understood. Thank you for your help !
The problem is that it is for an arcade cabinet. I have a physical button that I have set on ESC keys, that close all my emulator. I would like to be able to close FS-UAE too. For Amiga and for CD32 ... I dont know how to do it!

[DOS76]

set up a 2nd instance of FSUAE for the CD32 games that way you don't have to worry about the WHD stuff from that emulator.

[viking]

Yep.
Or set "ESC" and "F10" on my button, with JoyToKey.
F10 will do nothing on other emulator. Just close CD32 emultor.

I'll do some test. Thx !!!

[Zombeaver]

Yep, that's certainly an option. If you're really adamant about using the same key for both, that's probably the simplest method. Duplicate your FS-UAE folder, name it something like "FS-UAE CD32", make a new emulator entry in LB directed to FS-UAE in that folder, and name the emulator FS-UAE CD32. Then just assign your CD32 games to it and add in the action_quit function.

The main thing is just that you don't want to have action_quit be your method of exiting while you're playing WHDLoad games otherwise you're going to lose your save data. That's the whole reason for setting up a Quit Key.