mame cabinets, problems with invisble windows..?

[John Bennett]

[ukvac] mame cabinets, problems with invisble windows..?

I have been meesing around with soome old PC bits and I have made a
MAME machine using WINDOWS98, MAME 087B and arcadeOS. The PC boots
into windows and then stright into arcadeOS (i placed arcadeOS in my
startup file) and plays the last game run, This is great as I want
windows to be invisible, but I cant change roms without escaping
MAME into windows then clicking on the taskbar to open arcadeOS
(which is still running). Can anyone tell me where I am going wrong
or point me to a FAQ/post that has the info I need.

Thanks for reading my newbie post.



DATA Imported from archives: originally posted by coldrain_uk (coldrain_uk@yahoo.com)

 

[guddler]

Re: [ukvac] mame cabinets, problems with invisble windows..?
Surely if you escape out of the game (start 1 and start 2 together?) then arcadeos will automatically come back up...

FWIW, if you're using an arcade monitor then MSDOS with an ArcadeVGA card is MUCH better as long as you have MSDOS sound drivers available...

Martin.

 

[John Bennett]

[ukvac] Re: mame cabinets, problems with invisble windows..?



DATA Imported from archives: originally posted by coldrain_uk (coldrain_uk@yahoo.com)

 

[robotronuk]

RE: [ukvac] Re: mame cabinets, problems with invisble windows..?

>Thats what I thought (S1+S2=esc :yes) but it dont seem to do
>anything... Do I have to "tell MAME" that this is what is ment to
>happen, i.e. change the mame/arcade0S.config file....?

I thought the Player1 plus Player2 combo was just
a feature of the Ultimarc Ipac/Jpac modules. By pressing
the two together it generates the escape key combo.

<snip>
FWIW..? sorry, I dont understand that.

for connection to an arcade monitor checkout www.ultimarc.com
who do a special vga card that will work with your arcade
monitor "straight out of the box"

Lee

--
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[guddler]

Re: [ukvac] Re: mame cabinets, problems with invisble windows..?
FWIW = For What It's Worth !! (A general netism)

Ah, right. Are you using an arcade control panel or a keyboard at this stage?

If you're still using a keyboard then it will be the escape key as per normal rather than S1 and S2. The start 1/2 combination is only what the JPac (or ipac) will want to be pressed in order to send escape to the computer. Well, by default anyway. I think all this stuff is reconfigurable.

Martin.

 

[John Bennett]

[ukvac] Re: mame cabinets, problems with invisble windows..?
I am still using a keyboard at the moment, but if I can get a
machine to behave like a multi game cabinet rather than a PC running
MAME then I will use the I-PAC or a keyboard hack, building the
control pannel seems easy enough, the config of a PC is the area I
am lacking in.

It seems like I am doing something really silly wrong, I press
escape and the game/mame exits to my desktop, with arcadeOS running
in the background, when I click on the arcadeOS button on my taskbar
it brings the program up just how I want it(the rom selection
screen)..? I want to blame WINDOWS but I think its probley me...



DATA Imported from archives: originally posted by coldrain_uk (coldrain_uk@yahoo.com)

 

[pobtastic]

RE: [ukvac] Re: mame cabinets, problems with invisble windows..?
Why not assign 'escaping' to another key? Maybe Windows *is* the cause of
the problem. I know that ArcadeOS uses a DOS GUI, maybe when your JPAC
gives out an escape keypress Windows being crap puts you back into Windows.
Just a thought... Haven't a clue really... It's got to be something worth
trying though just in case? Don't forget you'll have to change the JPAC AND
the ArcadeOS ini file.

Pobster

 

[John Bennett]

[ukvac] Re: mame cabinets, problems with invisble windows..?
Thanks, good idea. I will give it a go, as soon as I can work out
which key on the keyboard is free.

I need a working arcadeOS help file if anyone has one, everyone I
have downloaded (included in the zip.file of arcadeOS) wont work,
windows just says it is not a help file..?

been mucking around with the taskbar settings but no luck yet..



DATA Imported from archives: originally posted by coldrain_uk (coldrain_uk@yahoo.com)

 

[pobtastic]

RE: [ukvac] Re: mame cabinets, problems with invisble windows..?
Not that I've tried downloading it myself... But instead of just double
clicking the .hlp file - try right clicking on it and using 'open with' then
try either wordpad or notepad (maybe even internet explorer).

Pobster

 

[guddler]

Re: [ukvac] Re: mame cabinets, problems with invisble windows..?

I think you'll find that the help file that comes with Arcade OS is genuinely not a Windows help file. I think it provides help from within ArcadeOS itself. Is there a help menu option in ArcadeOS? If so, it'll be the text for that.

If not, maybe just open it with notepad?

 

[John Bennett]

[ukvac] Re: mame cabinets, problems with invisble windows..?
I have tried changing settings but no luck yet, windows still places
arcadeOS on the taskbar instead of opening it as a running program.

I am now trying to get the PC to boot into DOS and just run arcadeOS
from the autoexec.bat file (Thanks Nigel), but I get a message that
says:

arcadeos license file missing

I downloaded arcadeOS from:

http://www.mameworld.net/pc2jamma/frontend.html

and just unzipped it to my documents. arcadeOS runs fine from a
command line and there is a .txt file in the arcadeOS folder
called "license"

Anyone else had this problem..?



DATA Imported from archives: originally posted by coldrain_uk (coldrain_uk@yahoo.com)

 

[gruntfuggly]

Re: [ukvac] Re: mame cabinets, problems with invisble windows..?

On 28 Sep 2004, at 14:20, coldrain_uk wrote:

> I have tried changing settings but no luck yet, windows still places
> arcadeOS on the taskbar instead of opening it as a running program.
>
> I am now trying to get the PC to boot into DOS and just run arcadeOS
> from the autoexec.bat file (Thanks Nigel), but I get a message that
> says:
>
> arcadeos license file missing
>

Ah - in the autoexec, try this:

cd C:mydocu~1arcadeos
arcadeos.exe

instead.

Nige

 

[guddler]

Re: [ukvac] Re: mame cabinets, problems with invisble windows..?
ArcadeOS wants a license file now????????????

Blimey!!

That could be why then!!

Martin.

 

[guddler]

Re: [ukvac] Re: mame cabinets, problems with invisble windows..?
Nope, works for me when i download from:
http://www.mameworld.net/pc2jamma/downarc.html

Nothing other than what's in the zip file.

Try setting logging=2 in the config file and then look in the log to see whats going on...

Martin.

 

[John Bennett]

[ukvac] Re: mame cabinets, problems with invisble windows..?
I have tried to move the directory, changed the autoexec.bat file
but no use, I get "bad command or file name" or "arcadeos license
file missing"

If i doubleclick the arcadeOS.exe or run it from a command line in
windows it works fine..?

I have tried to use an older version of arcadeos (V2.5)but it does
the same thing.

As I said the download included a .txt file called "license" when
you open it up it looks like this:

ArcadeOS Version 2.47
=====================
License Agreement
-----------------
You are free to distribute, copy and use the binary and source code
of ArcadeOS for any non-commerical purpose,
as long as this file (license.txt) is included.

If you distribute any applications based on the ArcadeOS source code
you must also distribute the source code for that application

ArcadeOS contains some MAME source code.

ArcadeOS is freeware.

Brian Lewis 2001
----------------

I think I am going slighty MAD....

Coldrain



DATA Imported from archives: originally posted by coldrain_uk (coldrain_uk@yahoo.com)

 

[gruntfuggly]

Re: [ukvac] Re: mame cabinets, problems with invisble windows..?

On 28 Sep 2004, at 15:58, coldrain_uk wrote:

> I have tried to move the directory, changed the autoexec.bat file
> but no use, I get "bad command or file name" or "arcadeos license
> file missing"
>

Try:

cd C:mydocu~1arcadeos
dir
arcadeos

just enter 'arcadeos' in the autoexec.bat (remove the .exe)

Check that the dir contains some files

Nige

 

[John Bennett]

Re: [ukvac] Re: mame cabinets, problems with invisble windows..?

Got to be quick, it's time to go home. At work at the moment.
Try adding this to your Autoexec.bat file:-
PATH=%PATH%;C:XXX
Where XXX is the full path to the License.txt file.
Mike

========================================
Message date : Sep 28 2004, 03:59 PM
From : "coldrain_uk"
To : ukvac@yahoogroups.com
Copy to :
Subject : [ukvac] Re: mame cabinets, problems with invisble windows..?
I have tried to move the directory, changed the autoexec.bat file
but no use, I get "bad command or file name" or "arcadeos license
file missing"

If i doubleclick the arcadeOS.exe or run it from a command line in
windows it works fine..?

I have tried to use an older version of arcadeos (V2.5)but it does
the same thing.

As I said the download included a .txt file called "license" when
you open it up it looks like this:

ArcadeOS Version 2.47
=====================
License Agreement
-----------------
You are free to distribute, copy and use the binary and source code
of ArcadeOS for any non-commerical purpose,
as long as this file (license.txt) is included.

If you distribute any applications based on the ArcadeOS source code
you must also distribute the source code for that application

ArcadeOS contains some MAME source code.

ArcadeOS is freeware.

Brian Lewis 2001
----------------

I think I am going slighty MAD....

Coldrain



DATA Imported from archives: originally posted by Mike Hawkins (mike.hawkins@fsmail.net)

 

[John Bennett]

[ukvac] Re: mame cabinets, problems with invisble windows..?

UPDATE...

I am now running:
WINDOW 98
arcadeOS
MAME086b_dos

The problem windows poping up instead of arcadeOS was solved when I
switched to mame_dos.
I couldn't get arcadeOS to run from the autoexec.bat file so placed
a small BATCH FILE I found on the net in the startup folder of
windows, this works well for starting the machine, but have a small
problem on exiting. The batch file is ment to close the arcadeOS
then shut down windows, the only problem is it only works 1/20 times
(ish).
The batch file looks like this:

@echo off
arcadeos
rem pause
CLS
C:WINDOWSRUNDLL.EXE user.exe,exitwindows

When exiting arcadeOS the folling window pops up:

*********************************************************************
c:windowrundll.exe user.exe,exitwindows
*********************************************************************
YOU MUST QUIT THIS PROGRAM BEFORE YOU QUIT WINDOWS.
CLICK OK TO QUIT THE PROGRAM AND WINDOWS,
OR CLICK CANCEL TO CONTINUE RUNNING THE PROGRAM AND WINDOWS.
*********************************************************************

Of coarse which ever I click the machine shuts down and powers off
as it should..

Can anyone see what the problem is..?

Thanks for your help.



DATA Imported from archives: originally posted by coldrain_uk (coldrain_uk@yahoo.com)

 

[gruntfuggly]

Re: [ukvac] Re: mame cabinets, problems with invisble windows..?

On 29 Sep 2004, at 11:15, coldrain_uk wrote:

>
> UPDATE...
>
> I am now running:
> WINDOW 98
> arcadeOS
> MAME086b_dos
>
> The problem windows poping up instead of arcadeOS was solved when I
> switched to mame_dos.
> I couldn't get arcadeOS to run from the autoexec.bat file so placed
> a small BATCH FILE I found on the net in the startup folder of
> windows, this works well for starting the machine, but have a small
> problem on exiting. The batch file is ment to close the arcadeOS
> then shut down windows, the only problem is it only works 1/20 times
> (ish).
> The batch file looks like this:
>
> @echo off
> arcadeos
> rem pause
> CLS
> C:WINDOWSRUNDLL.EXE user.exe,exitwindows
>
> When exiting arcadeOS the folling window pops up:
>
> *********************************************************************
> c:windowrundll.exe user.exe,exitwindows
> *********************************************************************
> YOU MUST QUIT THIS PROGRAM BEFORE YOU QUIT WINDOWS.
> CLICK OK TO QUIT THE PROGRAM AND WINDOWS,
> OR CLICK CANCEL TO CONTINUE RUNNING THE PROGRAM AND WINDOWS.
> *********************************************************************
>
> Of coarse which ever I click the machine shuts down and powers off
> as it should..
>
> Can anyone see what the problem is..?
>
>

Have you tried removing Windows again using the BootGUI flag? If you
don't start windows you won't need that stuff in the batch file - and
as you are now using mame_dos, you shouldn't need to start windows
anyway...

Nige

 

[John Bennett]

[ukvac] Re: mame cabinets, problems with invisble windows..?
If i remove the windows GUI wont I need to start arcadeOS from the
autoexec.bat file..? When I try starting the program in this way I
just get an error message saying:
*********************************************************************
arcadeOS license file missing
*********************************************************************
have tried to get round this but cant seem to find an answer which
is why I have the batch file in the start up folder to start
arcadeOS, which runs fine from a command window or doudle click..?

Coldrain



DATA Imported from archives: originally posted by coldrain_uk (coldrain_uk@yahoo.com)