Eliminating startup screens in mame

[straightman]

This applies to many mame title which after selecting play in LB have the following observed sequence of events:

1- Loading percent box is displayed which lasts for several seconds

2 - A rectangular message box from mame is displayed to tell if there are any limitations with the game (inaccurate sound or graphics for example) which requires a keypress to get through

3 - A screen of boilerplate text is displayed which disappears after several seconds without keypress

4 - Game screen is displayed asking for coin load

Question: How can steps 1 thru 3 be eliminated resulting in the first displayed screen being that described in step 4?

[Retro808]

You will need to have a "No Nag" version of Mame. You can either learn to compile this yourself or those who do not wish to learn can benefit from downloading one already compiled by MadK9.

 

[straightman]

Thanks, so this is a revised mame build correct? I see two versions available, 239 and 240 versions. Would these work with version 232 roms?

[neil9000]

Just now, straightman said:

Would these work with version 232 roms?

Maybe, but maybe not, you really want the 0.232 emulator to avoid broken games.

[straightman]

Referencing my original post in this thread,  are there any steps that can be leveraged to do what I ask? Everything is working well enough so I would prefer if there are configuration techniques to resolve things.

[neil9000]

1 minute ago, straightman said:

Referencing my original post in this thread,  are there any steps that can be leveraged to do what I ask? Everything is working well enough so I would prefer if there are configuration techniques to resolve things.

As @Retro808 said, no, there are no steps other than a no-nag build like he said. Official MAME will always have those screens, hence why a specific build needs to be made, using the MAME source code that removes them.

[C-Beats]

1 minute ago, straightman said:

Referencing my original post in this thread,  are there any steps that can be leveraged to do what I ask? Everything is working well enough so I would prefer if there are configuration techniques to resolve things.

MAME cannot be configured to NEVER display those. You can make a setting in the INI so you only see imperfect warnings once per game, but there is no way to always turn them off. They are hardcoded in the emulator to do that which is why to completely eliminate them you need a recompiled build that has that code removed or commented out (like the one provided by MadK9). You can also adjust the timer and number of key presses in your MAME Running Script to make the script work more accurately on your set up so you don't have to wait as long for the script to close those windows. For me 5 seconds was far better than the 10 we had defaulted, but that length of time can vary based on your computer and settings.

[Retro808]

5 minutes ago, straightman said:

Referencing my original post in this thread,  are there any steps that can be leveraged to do what I ask? Everything is working well enough so I would prefer if there are configuration techniques to resolve things.

Yes, exactly what I posted. What you are seeing is built into Mame. Only way to remove it is a No-Nag version.

A quick Google for "0.232 Mame No Nag" found we still have a compiled 232 version on the forum.

 

[neil9000]

 

[straightman]

Thanks guys, this make perfect sense now. I appreciate the information.

[straightman]

42 minutes ago, C-Beats said:

MAME cannot be configured to NEVER display those. You can make a setting in the INI so you only see imperfect warnings once per game, but there is no way to always turn them off. They are hardcoded in the emulator to do that which is why to completely eliminate them you need a recompiled build that has that code removed or commented out (like the one provided by MadK9). You can also adjust the timer and number of key presses in your MAME Running Script to make the script work more accurately on your set up so you don't have to wait as long for the script to close those windows. For me 5 seconds was far better than the 10 we had defaulted, but that length of time can vary based on your computer and settings.

Thanks guys, this worked as described eliminating what I described in steps 1 and 2 of the originating post. I am interested to understand more how to control time delay to eliminate step 3, I see this script in the Emulator details screen under "Running Scripts" (LB V12.7 full version) the system must have pasted this in during setup:

SetKeyDelay, 0, 50
return
sleep 10000 ; Wait 10 seconds before pressing the key.
Send, {space 3}  ; Press the space bar 3 times to ensure we close all screens

 

If not this script then I see possible options under "Startup Screen" with a Startup Load Delay slider set currently to 8s. The information that I would like to eliminate from display comes on between 4 and 7 sec. I would have thought if any of these control configuration settings where working it would have eliminated the content from display since the autohotkey has a 10s value and the slider in startup has a setting of 8s

[C-Beats]

That the script I'm referring to. The sleep line needs changed to control the delay. That "10000" value is the delay time in milliseconds. To reduce the wait time simply use a smaller number, to increase use a larger number. For example 5 seconds would be 5000 ms so you'd use 5000 as the new value.

[straightman]

Currently the time delay is set to 10s which is greater than the time during which the issue is displayed which is between 4 and 7. Based on that I would have expected the screen to be blanked out. Is it possible the autohotkey script is not working? Is there a need to install anything from the autohotkey website first or is everything setup for it in LB?

[C-Beats]

Nah everything you need has been installed for you. The fact that the window is being closed without you pressing anything to me would indicate the script is indeed working as those screens do not close without you pressing a key normally.

[C-Beats]

One thing to note for a possible point of confusion that 10s is from the time we tell MAME to start. NOT the time from when you first see MAME pop up on your screen. That could be the cause of the 3 second difference you're referring to.

[straightman]

To test it I set the configuration to 30000 (30s) and it did not change the system response.  Out of interest I tried running both from LB and BB with the same outcome. Is it possible to use a masking technique?, where a plain black screen image is displayed in front of the emulator output and then the black overlay is closed after a number of seconds?

[C-Beats]

Not natively, you'd have to build something that did that. Really sounds like no-nag build is probably your best option in this case. Should be able to remove that script entirely after doing so as well.

[straightman]

This is with the NN build running. The Mame load bar and error descriptions box are eliminated by it (steps 1 and 2 I described above).  I am trying to eliminate the region boilerplate text that is displayed for a time period before the game displays the real game graphics / coin load.

[C-Beats]

I'd have to see a screenshot of the screen you're referring to.