Frontend For Mamegp2x

[zaq121]

I have ported my gp32 front end for mame over to the gp2x. I know call it femamegp2x as alternate frontend was a bit too generic.

Here is the gp32 topic, it isn't drastically different.


Download Page






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[sehs33]

Thanks a lot

 

[BobBorakovitz]

nice! I always liked your frontend for the GP32 and wondered if we were gonna ever see one for the 2x. Pics are always great in a selector.
Thanks very much!

 

[TelcoLou]

Awesome! Thanks very much for this!

 

[ear]

This is great. Thanks much.
Too soon to ask for extra features?

It would be nice for me at least (am I alone) if there the ability to hide roms existed. It'd be nice if I could hit one of the buttons while on a game and be asked if I want that rom hidden. If I say yes, perhaps it's name gets added to a text file and from then on, it doesn't show up in the the list of available games.

Right now, it's just a real pain to have 1100 or so roms and have to deal with 10% of them not working but having to remember which ones those were so that they can be removed the next time I have the card in my PC.

 

[TelcoLou]

Hmmm, found a couple of glitches;

I use gmenu2x, and can make a link to this front end and run it with no problem. When I quit a game to go back to this front end, the text is noticeably larger.

Also, when quitting the emu, it dumps me back to the original GP2X menu (not the gmenu2x)

 

[zaq121]

It would be nice for me at least (am I alone) if there the ability to hide roms existed. It'd be nice if I could hit one of the buttons while on a game and be asked if I want that rom hidden. If I say yes, perhaps it's name gets added to a text file and from then on, it doesn't show up in the the list of available games.

As of right now, I am trying not to write too much to the card, but I am leaning on getting over 'not too many writes', even if it shortens your flash card's life, they are cheap.

What would be *really* nice is if we had a complete list of what games worked best (or not at all) in which drivers or even versions of mame and the speed needed for best game play. Then let the frontend automatically set all that up for you.

When I quit a game to go back to this front end, the text is noticeably larger.

I can't comment on this. If anyone knows what I am doing wrong, let me know and I will fix it.

Also, when quitting the emu, it dumps me back to the original GP2X menu (not the gmenu2x)

How do the other programs handle it? I am not aware of a way of knowing how to get back to the program which launched my program.

If there is a standard way, I will use that method, otherwise, I will have to add a command line switch to specificy what menu to load on exit.

 

[ear]

"As of right now, I am trying not to write too much to the card, but I am leaning on getting over 'not too many writes', even if it shortens your flash card's life, they are cheap."

I've read more and more that that really isn't a concern. It would take years to really hurt a card and cards today even automatically move data and mark off spots that go questionable so the rest of the card is still usable.


I thought about it some more and think it would be better if we could just mark a ROM as a favorite so that it just automatically gets added to a personal favorites filter.

 

[TelcoLou]

Also, when quitting the emu, it dumps me back to the original GP2X menu (not the gmenu2x)

How do the other programs handle it? I am not aware of a way of knowing how to get back to the program which launched my program.

If there is a standard way, I will use that method, otherwise, I will have to add a command line switch to specificy what menu to load on exit.

All other programs handle this fine, they quit back to gmenu2x. I LOVE this front-end, but this one hiccup is the only thing keeping it from being perfect, IMO (I can deal with the larger font issue). Just having all my shooters organized in one place is great!

Thanks again for all your hard work.

 

[zaq121]

I've read more and more that that really isn't a concern. It would take years to really hurt a card and cards today even automatically move data and mark off spots that go questionable so the rest of the card is still usable.

I agree. And like I said, they are very cheap.

I thought about it some more and think it would be better if we could just mark a ROM as a favorite so that it just automatically gets added to a personal favorites filter.

That is a good idea.

All other programs handle this fine, they quit back to gmenu2x.

I will look on the wiki for an answer, as I am just launching the stock menu program, since I don't know how to look for the alternative launcher.

 

[TelcoLou]

All other programs handle this fine, they quit back to gmenu2x.

I will look on the wiki for an answer, as I am just launching the stock menu program, since I don't know how to look for the alternative launcher.

Thanks

Interesting thing just happened;

... the game 1943 (US) froze on me when attempting to quit back to the menu, so I powered down, re-booted, then ran this launcher again. Now the text is stuck on large size .. :blink: weird. (I re-booted a few more times to test it, and it's stuck on large)

 

[zaq121]

... the game 1943 (US) froze on me when attempting to quit back to the menu, so I powered down, re-booted, then ran this launcher again. Now the text is stuck on large size .. :blink: weird. (I re-booted a few more times to test it, and it's stuck on large)

I still don't know what is up with that. However, I have just uploaded a new compile with some changes I have made.

I now call SDL_Quit before exiting and before spawning mame. Maybe this will help.

I still don't know how the other programs know how to reload the gmenu2x, but I added a new config option. Assuming this is where you installed gmenu2x, add (or uncomment) this line out of femame2x.cfg

Run-On-Exit="/mnt/sd/gmenu2x/gmenu2x --startquit"

Just in case any program does not change to the directory that femame2x is installed, I change to it so that my relative (./cfg) paths will work.

I thought about it some more and think it would be better if we could just mark a ROM as a favorite so that it just automatically gets added to a personal favorites filter.

I have not done anything for either allowing users to add favorites or hide games on the fly, as this will require a bit more of a change, however, it is one I plan on making as soon as I motivate myself to do so.

For now, you are stuck with manually creating your favorites menu. (I know, but...)

You know, if you only have a few games you like to play, you can now create shortcut for those and launch them with any launcher that lets you create a shortcut.

In gmenu2x, your command line would be something like this

/mnt/sd/mamegp2x/mame_gp2x.gpe -menu /mnt/sd/gmenu2x/gmenu2x pacman

That would launch pacman directly and exit back to gmenu2x when you exit mame.

 

[superfly]

I have just uploaded a new compile with some changes I have made.

I now call SDL_Quit before exiting and before spawning mame. Maybe this will help.

I still don't know how the other programs know how to reload the gmenu2x, but I added a new config option. Assuming this is where you installed gmenu2x, add (or uncomment) this line out of femame2x.cfg

Run-On-Exit="/mnt/sd/gmenu2x/gmenu2x --startquit"

Thanks, this works great. I downloaded your new compile (26-08-2006) and uncommented the above line in the .cfg. Gmenu2x is now loaded after quitting your excellent frontend.

 

[TelcoLou]

I have just uploaded a new compile with some changes I have made.

I now call SDL_Quit before exiting and before spawning mame. Maybe this will help.

I still don't know how the other programs know how to reload the gmenu2x, but I added a new config option. Assuming this is where you installed gmenu2x, add (or uncomment) this line out of femame2x.cfg

Run-On-Exit="/mnt/sd/gmenu2x/gmenu2x --startquit"

Thanks, this works great. I downloaded your new compile (26-08-2006) and uncommented the above line in the .cfg. Gmenu2x is now loaded after quitting your excellent frontend.

YAY³!!! Me as well!!!! Thank you very much

 

[zaq121]

I have posted a 3rd release on my web site

You can now flag a game as a favorite. I wish I had some better UI code to handle this, but for now it runs off the advanced menu.

All the games in from mame's gamelist.txt are included (100+ were not included in last version)

Games list was compiled into program, it is now in femamegp2x-drivers.cfg, this will allow adding or removing of supported games without the need of a recompile.

All filters are now in the config file also. I also extended the filter-group syntax a little, hopefully you will be able to make changes to the config from within the menu and save it pretty soon.

New images are on the web site as well, which should be complete for mame 2.5.

http://www.plastics1.com/gp2x/

 

[TelcoLou]

I have posted a 3rd release on my web site

You can now flag a game as a favorite. I wish I had some better UI code to handle this, but for now it runs off the advanced menu.

All the games in from mame's gamelist.txt are included (100+ were not included in last version)

Games list was compiled into program, it is now in femamegp2x-drivers.cfg, this will allow adding or removing of supported games without the need of a recompile.

All filters are now in the config file also. I also extended the filter-group syntax a little, hopefully you will be able to make changes to the config from within the menu and save it pretty soon.

New images are on the web site as well, which should be complete for mame 2.5.

http://www.plastics1.com/gp2x/

Many many thanks for this update!

 

[Loon]

Is it just me or does this rather excellent front end stop the overclocking working, as selected in the game specific mame options page (the page displayed before the game is launched by pressing A)?

I'm Using Mame 2.5 & the 3rd release of the frontend.

This is particularly noticable for me in 1941 & Super Space Invaders 91. Both work fine with the clock set at 245mhz when the frontend is not used, both seem to run at 200mhz when selected via the frontend.

 

[TelcoLou]

Is it just me or does this rather excellent front end stop the overclocking working, as selected in the game specific mame options page (the page displayed before the game is launched by pressing A)?

I'm Using Mame 2.5 & the 3rd release of the frontend.

This is particularly noticable for me in 1941 & Super Space Invaders 91. Both work fine with the clock set at 245mhz when the frontend is not used, both seem to run at 200mhz when selected via the frontend.

Hmm, is the menu not selecting the proper mame executeable for those roms? I know some games run better using the mame_fast.gpe

... just food for thought.

 

[zaq121]

Is it just me or does this rather excellent front end stop the overclocking working, as selected in the game specific mame options page (the page displayed before the game is launched by pressing A)?

I'm Using Mame 2.5 & the 3rd release of the frontend.

This is particularly noticable for me in 1941 & Super Space Invaders 91. Both work fine with the clock set at 245mhz when the frontend is not used, both seem to run at 200mhz when selected via the frontend.

I just did some testing and it does seem that the cpu speed appears locked at 200mhz. Since the front end doesn't have any overclocking code, the problem is probably in the command line parsing inside mame. It is still my fault, since I wrote that small chunk of code.

Let me see what I can find.....

 

[zaq121]

I just did some testing and it does seem that the cpu speed appears locked at 200mhz. Since the front end doesn't have any overclocking code, the problem is probably in the command line parsing inside mame. It is still my fault, since I wrote that small chunk of code.

Let me see what I can find.....

Ok, I found the problem. Just two missing lines in the mame sources fixes the problem.

I have no idea when Franxis will release the next version. For the time being, here is my compiled version Mame 2.5 patched or you can patch and compile mame yourself...

File: gp2x.cpp, function main

+ Line Added (there should be 2 lines added)
= Existing


=#ifdef GP2X
= /* Zaq121 07/05/2006 Alternative frontend support -> */
= else
= {
+ extern int gp2x_freq; /* 9/5/06 Zaq, clock speed was never getting set */
= int show_options(char *game);
= int set_last_game_selected(char *game);
= if(set_last_game_selected(playgame) == -1) break; /* game not available */
= if(!show_options(playgame)) break; /* return back to external menu */
+ SetGP2XClock(gp2x_freq); /* 9/5/06 Zaq, clock speed was never getting set */
= }
= /* <- end mod */
=#endif