Blick LEDBlinky for starting when launching a specific title

[gStAv]

Wow, thanks for the feedback. This sounds awesome. I really hope it to progress and gain momentum. Adding output to LED controllable boards like LED kinky and would for shure be interesting to the Lightgun community. Also, if the need to kill/restart MAMEHooker got eliminated when using a frontend I would be one happy camper for sure.

 

Hope you post whenever you have something new Sir.

 

Cheers /Gustav

[DJ_GLiTCH]

Minor update, as I recently had some time to start setting up my light guns after several delays from home renovations.

I've got Hook of The Reaper (HOTR) working well with MAME using output network, but this obviously clashes with LEDBlinky for any interactive controls. I've avoided using Mamehooker as it's quite old now and seems to be running into compatibility issues, which isn't something I want to encounter in the future when my memory is hazy on how I built and configured my arcade. There is a new LED feature being developed within HOTR, but I doubt it will be a suitable replacement for LEDBlinky directly, but would be amazing as an input for or integration with LEDBlinky.

At this time, I'm almost convinced that the only way to achieve what we're after is to use HOTR and LEDBlinky simultaneously, which would require MAME output to use both "network" and "windows", respectively. The problem with this idea (beyond the duplication of output) is that no option exists in MAME for simultaneous output - it's one or the other, not both.

As I'm at a dead end for configuring what already exists to work together, I'm going to attempt building a little script/tool that can read the MAME output over network (required for HOTR) and then forward that to windows (required for LEDBlinky). This would have the added benefit of enabling support for older tools that aren't being actively worked on.

If I have any luck with this or find a better solution, I'll post another update. If someone else has a better idea, then please feel free to share as well.

[DJ_GLiTCH]

I've had a breakthrough and have managed to develop a MAME plugin that will output states via network, while MAME natively outputs states via windows. This enables me to have LEDBlinky controlled via windows and Hook of The Reaper (HOTR) via network (and other more modern software).

I'm just trying to ensure I've captured the relevant output state variables, as there's a lot to account for. When I'm done, I'll share the files so others can use this in the future. 😁 I just need to finish testing the most popular games to ensure I've fixed as many issues as possible before sharing.

[gStAv]

Wow, and wow man! This sounds damn epic! I don't have HOTR but I guess this will be usable for many other stuff aswell. Can you hook to more events from a MAME title now compared to when using MAMEHooker or would it be the same?

I thought of having a adressqble rgb led around my screen to play animations for 1 and 2 player side or the whole screen for single player when taking damage. Never bothered as my LEDWiz could only output 500mA per output and also no real option to select 1/2/or whole frame for animation. With network this might be possible I hope 

[DJ_GLiTCH]

Hook Of The Reaper is meant to be a modern replacement for Mamehooker, and uses network instead of windows for output in MAME. This is a good thing as it allows multiple software to tap into the same TCP network server to monitor game output state changes, which overcomes the limitation of a single program being able to access the windows output states (which at this time is required for LEDBlinky or Mamehooker, can't be both simultaneously).

https://github.com/6Bolt/Hook-Of-The-Reaper

HOTR is primarily used for light guns at the moment, but in the future it may have LED controller support for Ultimarc products too, but I wouldn't expect this to replace LEDBlinky for things like default RGB configuration per platform or animations for lunchbox and alike, but it could perhaps add support for dynamic game state changes for LEDs - just not sure how this will affect LEDBlinky as that tends to be pretty good at overriding state changes. The details on future light controller functionality is here:

https://hotr.6bolt.com/pmwiki.php/Main/LightController

Regarding your monitor idea, I installed a 3m Philips Hue Gradient lightstrip behind my arcade, and I have the Philips Hue Sync app set to autostart on boot up and sync the lightstrip to the main arcade monitor (I have a marquee too, but it ignores this screen). It doesn't do colour for independent game events (like damage), but it does sync with the colours around the edge of the monitor so everything lines up nicely. Looks pretty cool, and could be an easier (albeit expensive) option if you're interested.

Edited January 28 by DJ_GLiTCH
Added links for HOTR and clarified Hue Sync details

[DJ_GLiTCH]

@gStAv I have attached the first fully functional version of my MAME plugin ("NetworkOutputServer"). Extract and copy the "plugins" folder into your MAME root directory. Ensure your mame.ini is set to output windows as well (since this plugin will handle the network output side of things).

You can download Hook Of The Reaper from GitHub and should only take a couple of minutes to configure your light guns (first add the light guns and assign the relevant COM ports, then set the light guns to the relevant P1/P2 player). The latest release is available here:
https://github.com/6Bolt/Hook-Of-The-Reaper/releases

Let me know how it goes for you, as I've tried to account for as many state outputs as I could find. All light gun games are accounted for in MAME, but there may be some other game specific state outputs I might have missed (such as driving games, but I did try to capture everything I could find at the time). Keen to hear how it works out for you.

Download link below (make sure you download the latest version, as I will upload new ones here):

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ToUFS8Y-S_zrvj2cN_yGZUm89AGuIF60?usp=sharing

A backup of the latest version available today (v1.0.6) has been attached to this post:

MAME-Plugin-DJ_GLiTCH-NetworkOutputServer-v1.0.6.zip

Edited February 4 by DJ_GLiTCH
2026.02.04 - Updated Google Drive link to be a folder with all of the released versions (so you can check for updates)

[DJ_GLiTCH]

I ended up rethinking my approach, as I felt it was cumbersome to rely on knowing what keywords to search for and relay between windows and network outputs (which is what the LUA script had to rely on in my previous post).

Instead, I built a new tool which relies on the native "output network" setting in MAME. The tool then relays all network outputs to windows using the appropriate windows output parameters, so tools like LEDBlinky can listen to windows messages while other tools like Hook Of The Reaper can listen to network messages.

Sharing the link to my tool here in case it helps anyone else:

https://github.com/djGLiTCH/MAME-Bridge-NetToWin

If you use this tool, be sure to add the "-output network" launch parameter to Launchbox as well, since LEDBlinky can revert the mame.ini config file back to "output windows" every now and then.

MAME-Bridge-NetToWin-v3.6.0.zip

Edited Monday at 05:05 AM by DJ_GLiTCH

[ChickenGeorge]

Can you elaborate on where to make this change perhaps or a visual? I'm novice to the HOTR and LED blinky. Just getting into this portion of the build. Your efforts with the tool and sharing with the community are greatly appreciated. 

If you use this tool, be sure to add the "-output network" launch parameter to Launchbox as well, since LEDBlinky can revert the mame.ini config file back to "output windows" every now and then.

 

[DJ_GLiTCH]

On 2/10/2026 at 6:56 PM, ChickenGeorge said:

Can you elaborate on where to make this change perhaps or a visual? I'm novice to the HOTR and LED blinky. Just getting into this portion of the build. Your efforts with the tool and sharing with the community are greatly appreciated. 

If you use this tool, be sure to add the "-output network" launch parameter to Launchbox as well, since LEDBlinky can revert the mame.ini config file back to "output windows" every now and then.

No worries, and thanks for the appreciation. It sounds like my tool may not be needed for all that much longer, as LEDBlinky may have support for network output soon, but it's still handy for use today and for any versions of LEDBlinky v8.2.2 and below (and for those who do not want to upgrade from working copies of older LEDBlinky versions of course).

The steps below will add network output to MAME when launching ROMs through Launchbox. This will override whatever output setting is used in your mame.ini file (which is needed since LEDBlinky can change the mame.ini setting to "output windows", but we need "output network" for HOTR and my tool will relay the messages from network to windows so LEDBlinky can work as intended in parallel).

1. Open Launchbox
2. Select Tools > Manage > Emulators
3. Select MAME (it will highlight once selected), then select "Edit..."
4. Select Details in the left pane, then in the "Default Command-Line Parameters", you will want to add "-output network" (without quotations), then select "OK"
5. Close the Emulator window
6. Restart Launchbox (not needed, but good practice)

Some screenshots of these steps are below with red highlights of what you need to do:

1. 
2. 
3. 

Edited 3 hours ago by DJ_GLiTCH