Phoenix emulator launcher

[jophran]

It's well known that the emulator Phoenix doesn't take command line options so it's integration with Launchbox it's quite

difficult, I've read there's a RocketLauncher module that does that but I really don't want to use RL, so I made this little

script that will act as a Phoenix loader. It works pretty well for me and just decided to share it because I think it might be useful

for some people. It doesn't have a gui and works just by calling the exe with 2 parameters, first the

platform to use and second the full path to the game rom or cd image. I just made it to recognize 3DO and Jaguar because it's

in those plataforms that Phoenix excels, the other platforms can be emulated just as good or better with less complications

with another emulator. The script will edit the emulator .xml and change just 2 lines, one that indicates the current selected

platform and the other is the one that tells wich image or rom is currently selected, then it will execute Phoenix and simulate

the keystrokes to launch the game and F11 to put it on full screen, after that the script will close.

 These are two examples of how to run a game:

ROMLauncherPhoenix.exe platform=Jaguar file=K:\EMU\Atari Jaguar\Space War 2000 (World).j64
ROMLauncherPhoenix.exe platform=3DO file=K:\EMU\Panasonic 3DO\Incredible Machine, The (USA).img

In the download I will include the source of the script, the script compiled and a .ini file that, for now, just include the

option to turn de logging on or off. The compiled script and the .ini must be located in the Phoenix emulator folder because

the script will only try to find the .ini and the emulator executable in the same folder where it is located.

Instructions:

1 - Make sure Phoenix works and have loaded in the frontend all the images you are going to use, Phoenix won't recognize a file

that the script loads in the .xml if that file isn't in its "database"
2- copy ROMLauncherPhoenix.exe and RomLauncherPhoenix.ini in your Phoenix install folder
3 - Make a backup of phoenix.config.xml just in case.
4 - In Launchbox go to Tools -> Manage Emulators -> Add, and select ROMLauncherPhoenix.exe as the "Emulator Aplication Path",

then tick the option "No space before ROM (Primarily for NullDC)".
5 - In the same Window go to "Associated Platforms" and add the two we are going to use: "3DO Interactive Multiplayer" with the

Command-Line Parameters "platform=3DO file=" and "Atari Jaguar" with "platform=Jaguar file=". Click OK to save everything
6 - Assign the new emulator to your 3DO or Jaguar games.

 

That should do it but just consider some things.

- In case that something doesn't work, the log file (ROMLauncherPhoenix.log) can be helpful.
- The script it's made with Autoit because it's what I know how to use better, one big problem with AutoIt it's that antivirus

programs tend to mark as thread anything made with it, so if you download the compiled script and your antivirus warns you

about the file, you can trust me and add an exception or even better compile the script yourself, it's easy, just download

Autoit and install it, after that just right click in the .au3 file in the explorer and a there should be a "Compile Script"

option.
- I really don't know how well all this will work with relative paths, I have my launchBox and all the emulators and rom in a

virtual drive k: that is created every time I execute LB, I made it that way since day one so I never had to consider anything

relative paths.
- The script it's definitely not a good example of good programming, in fact could cause laughs on some people ? . I know

there must be better and more elegant ways of doing this, but It's what I could do and what I had time to do. If you have any

advice about that I will welcome an appreciate it.

 

 

ROMLauncherPhoenix Compiled.zip ROMLauncherPhoenix Source.zip

 

Edited June 23, 2019 by jophran

[deviltiger]

This is awesome!  Thank you so much for putting this together rand for sharing it.

[deviltiger]

One thing I had to change before it worked for me was taking out the "" around 3DO and Jaguar.  I would also check inside phoenix.config.xml to make sure that the paths for the games are correct.  For some reason two of the Jaguar Games didn't show the correct path after I added them to database in Phoenix.  For example I've got AVP in C:/LaunchBox/Emulators/Phoenix/Jaguar/CARTRIDGE/Alien vs Predator (World).j64 so in the config under the Jaguar Section which now shows up correctly as:

<Dump path="C:/LaunchBox/Emulators/Phoenix/Jaguar/CARTRIDGE/Alien vs Predator (World).j64" size="4194304" fast-md5="96bc77cfd1b2df85b5e6ae05594e74b0" md5="96bc77cfd1b2df85b5e6ae05594e74b0" sh1="fd8c89250ebc1e403838b2e589d1f69e3fe2fe02" />

[Drakkorcia]

I love you. Haha. But seriously, thanks.

[dbaccin@hotmail.com]

Thanks from Brazil!!!!!

[Wally]

Any chance to come up with an exit script?

Control + Q that exits Phoenix is hard to remember

The

$Esc::
{
    Process, Close, PhoenixEmuProject.exe
}

seems not to work

 

Thanx

Edited September 1, 2019 by Wally

[jophran]

Hi Everyone, sorry for my absence here,had many problems lately and didn't had time to check the forum, as soon as I can I'll check the script and try to find out why sometimes it doesn'n work, and @Wally, I have this in my setup and it does work for me:

 

$Esc::
{
    Send ^{q}
}

 

[Wally]

Thank you for your reply.

Oddly, it does not work for me

 

Strange

[jophran]

Hi @RandyMackDaddy, I tested all my games and all of them launch, I was hoping some of them won't and I could find a clue of what could be wrong but no. What paths do you have in the phoenix.config for the roms? To find the right spot in the file first search for "<Library>" then "<Platform-Jaguar>" and you should have some lines like this:

What do you have in yours for the games that don't work?

[jophran]

I see that in phoenix.config Attack of the Mutant Penguins has a diferent path than the rest, "f:/Launchbox/Games" instead of "f:/Launcbhox/emulators/ph28jag-win64/Jaguar/CARTRIDGE" although I saw that first path matches with the one in LB in one of your earlier screenshots, the question is where actually is the romy. As for the virus message and the one indicating that the emulator couldn't be found maybe your antivirus deleted RomLauncherPhoenix.exe.

Edited September 6, 2019 by jophran
typo

[jophran]

Oh, they don't need to be in the cartridge folder of Phoenix, If you have them all in F:/Launcbhox/Games/Jaguar you could clear them all from Phoenix and add them again from that location.

[jophran]

They are clean,but since the script it's made with Autoit, antivirus tend to detect it as a virus, you would need to add an exception to the antivirus or, if you have any doubts just download the file with the source only and compile it yourself, It's easy, just download and install Autoit and then right click in the source an compile the .au3 file with it (right click in explorer and you will see the options after you install autoit).

[Headrush69]

Thanks, this launcher works great.

I'm using the English translation patch, but there are two buttons that aren't translated when configuring inputs and seems all the jaguar buttons are covered.

Anyone know what these two inputs are?

 

 

Edit: Another doh moment, Pause and Option.

Edited April 9, 2020 by Headrush69
Fix link.

[bart_se]

Files are no longer available. Care to re-upload them?

[freeflyer454]

I just came across the Phoenix emulator and while searching a way to integrate it into LB, I see there's this handy app.  But it doesn't seem to work for me since my 3DO library is in bin/cue format...  So what ends up happening is LB sends the path of the cue file to ROMLauncherPhoenix, which puts that into Phoenix's xml file instead of the bin file. 

I never used Autoit before, but I know a little scripting... just added this below line 38 in your source au3 file:

        If Stringright($Cmdline[$cont],4)=".cue" Then
            $RomRutaCompleta = StringTrimRight($RomRutaCompleta,4) & ".bin"
        EndIf

Compiled it, and now it works.  (Of course, it assumes the bin/cue files have the same base name)

Thanks for coming up with this handy app!

Edited January 5, 2020 by freeflyer454

[jophran]

On 1/5/2020 at 12:58 AM, freeflyer454 said:

I just came across the Phoenix emulator and while searching a way to integrate it into LB, I see there's this handy app.  But it doesn't seem to work for me since my 3DO library is in bin/cue format...  So what ends up happening is LB sends the path of the cue file to ROMLauncherPhoenix, which puts that into Phoenix's xml file instead of the bin file. 

I never used Autoit before, but I know a little scripting... just added this below line 38 in your source au3 file:

        If Stringright($Cmdline[$cont],4)=".cue" Then
            $RomRutaCompleta = StringTrimRight($RomRutaCompleta,4) & ".bin"
        EndIf

Compiled it, and now it works.  (Of course, it assumes the bin/cue files have the same base name)

Thanks for coming up with this handy app!

Great! I will add that to the original files as soon as I reassemble my PC. Thank you!

[d8thstar]

i’m still getting the phoenix pop up with the window to attach a cartridge.

ive followed all the directions perfectly...

[jophran]

Hi, the user freeflyer454 made another excelent launcher with better functionality, check that one, maybe works better for you, anyways remember that you must allways import your entire collection on Phoenix first, otherwise it won't recognize the ROM you're trying to launch.

 

 

[5thWolf]

Oh man this works perfectly!!!! That script exe is great! Well done!!!

Using Phoenix 2.8.jag. Way better then Virtual Jaguar 2.1.2 or the GIT compiles! By a long shot.

[vgbox]

Everything is configured perfectly in launchbox and phoenix according the the guide and launched perfectly directly from phoenix, but when i launch a game through launchbox i get this screen. What would be the solution to this?