Two DIFFERENT versions of MAME

[paQ]

My question is, Can I have two versions of MAME, one for hiscore competition and other for using cheats/savestates/training and use the right mouse button to choose which version I want to launch the game with? Or am I forced to go into the options menu every time I want to launch the game with cheats to disable the ‘upload hiscores’ option?

If so, it would be more convenient for Launchbox to detect which launch options I have enabled in each MAME executable and, for example, not allow hiscores to be uploaded if the -plugin cheat option is enabled (as well as allowing quicksaves).

Edited Thursday at 12:11 AM by paQ

[JoeViking245]

7 minutes ago, paQ said:

My question is, Can I have two versions of MAME, one for hiscore competition and other for using cheats/savestates/training and use the right mouse button to choose which version I want to launch the game with?

No.  I mean, you can of course have 2 'versions'.  But as long as you have the Community Leaderboard high score upload feature enabled, cheats, save-states etc. won't work. Regardless of your 'version' of MAME.

I think the way to do what you want is just have your [one] 'special version' of MAME that has all the goodies enabled. As I'm fairly positive LB can, and will "circumvent" those extras (aka make them not work) when you have the upload feature enabled.  Vs. just flat out disallowing you to have the scores uploaded [if they 'catch you' having them enabled].  I think.

But... to play your games with the extras, you need to disable the high score upload feature.  Which means navigating through the Tools menu to enable/disable it.

I think.

[paQ]

The convenient thing would be for Launchbox to automatically disconnect hiscore uploads if it detects that cheats are enabled in the MAME I'm launching. That's why I'm talking about two different versions of MAME. In fact, I have one called Arcade64, which is the one I use to do all my roms' cheats, BUT, I have to exit Launchbox and use its own GUI every time I want to test with that version, or go to the Launchbox menu and turn off the hi-scores upload option, which is not very convenient.

Maybe one day they will make it easier.

Edit: Another less laborious option for Launchbox developers would be to put an easily accessible button to activate/deactivate the hi-scores upload option, and not have to enter the menu each time, with the drawback that you don't know if you left it activated or deactivated last time. If the button were visible from the main window, you would know what state the option is in before launching any game.

Edited Thursday at 12:41 AM by paQ

[JoeViking245]

Sounds like a potential feature request.  You can do so at the top of this page under Help & Support.

After the request gets vetted and is open for everyone to see, be sure to add a link here so that others can review and upvote it.  Remember to upvote it yourself as well.

[paQ]

Ok. I have generated a ticket at Help&Support. If anyone else is interested in having this functionality included on Launchbox, please go to the link below and vote for it. Thank you!

https://feedback.launchbox.gg/p/feature-request-a-switch-button-on-the-main-screen-that

[C-Beats]

10 hours ago, paQ said:

I have one called Arcade64, which is the one I use to do all my roms' cheats, BUT, I have to exit Launchbox and use its own GUI every time I want to test with that version

Sounds like your Arcade64 is using an executable called mame (or something similar) still. Just rename the executable Arcade64.exe (and change paths to it in LB) and you shouldn't have to go to LB UI to turn off the feature when launching with it since it won't recognize it as MAME anymore and just not run the process because of it.

[paQ]

12 minutes ago, C-Beats said:

Sounds like your Arcade64 is using an executable called mame (or something similar) still. Just rename the executable Arcade64.exe (and change paths to it in LB) and you shouldn't have to go to LB UI to turn off the feature when launching with it since it won't recognize it as MAME anymore and just not run the process because of it.

 

The problem I think is that this executable (Arcade64.exe) uses the same roms/hiscores/etc folder as the MAME that Launchbox uses as a reference for online hi-scores, so when you start any game that starts sharing that set of resources (roms/plugins/configs), Launchbox takes it as part of the general configuration it has for MAME at that moment.

That's why in my first post I stressed that Launchbox should differentiate between different MAME executables (and the commands they run with) so as not to restrict the use of cheats to all executables equally if the online hi-scores option is enabled.

I have tried moving Arcade64.exe to another folder but Launchbox behaves the same way, not allowing quicksaves and cheats using Arcade64.exe, 

So far I have not been able to find a solution.

[C-Beats]

Just looked in the code and you are indeed correct, we just check the folders are there and don't look at the executable name like I thought we did. My apologies for the confusion.