Universal Rom Loader

[filiphhh]

uuurrm ...... can't roms be asociated via mime types? that is how most distros do it now and i think that is what windows uses....

one problem might be that the roms do not have an specifiy rom type but the ISO mine type or .zip mime type so they would end up opening in an archiver or cd burning app....

the directory aproach is probably the best way....

windows, doesn't go by mime type, it goes by extension, so basicly if file's extension equals someextension, run application with path to file as first argument.

 

[mindlord]

I haven't stopped working on Sycophant, which was a gmenu like interface for the GP2X, and I've been working diligently on bringing it up to speed to work on the Pandora. It's still incomplete, but will be able to serve this purpose quite nicely, plus it has a extremely flexible skin that can be customized to launch any time of media, not just Roms. I hope to have a working Beta ready by the time the Pandora is released.

It's main function is a file launcher, but it includes features for indexing files by type and directory to launch the associated program. This way you can have a bunch of zipped roms for the nes in one directory and zipped roms for the genesis in another and it will take the appropriate action based on the folder they are in.

So, a universal file launcher is a high priority for me.

 

[openthebox]

... It's main function is a file launcher, but it includes features for indexing files by type and directory to launch the associated program. This way you can have a bunch of zipped roms for the nes in one directory and zipped roms for the genesis in another and it will take the appropriate action based on the folder they are in.

So, a universal file launcher is a high priority for me.

Great, can't wait. Hopefully, you can give us glimpses of the launcher, just as a teaser.

 

[Spadoof]

I think Spadoof is asking about a universal frontend like GameEX or MAMEWAH. These have much more functionality than something like Gmenu2X, including features like screencap / artwork slideshows, control layout display, high score lists, etc.

An application like this is certainly possible. Unfortunately it would probably have to be made from scratch as most existing frontends are Windows-specific. I expect (and hope) that someone will take the time to create a full featured frontend for the Pandora eventually, but I'm sure it's not all that high on anybody's list of must-write programs. There are a lot of more important applications that need to be made, and a frontend is more of a convenience / eyecandy thing than a necessity.



Thank you for better explaining my question Chip. If anyone is interested in starting this project just make a post. I myself am still incapable of doing it (hopefully one day), and would really like to eventually see such a program.

Thanks,
Spadoof :gp2x

You soon will be mine andora1:

 

[JyCet]

It's a good idea an not very difficult todo.
It just force users to keep a good roms organisation on SD because generaly all roms are in zip files and scan all zip can take lot of time when you have 10GB on SDHC

Basically the general frontend need to have a dedicated roms folder per emulator.
Example:
CODE
emulator_1 = \\sd\apps\emulator\gngeo\gngeo.elf
romfolder_1 = \\sd\roms\neogeo\
options_1 = /a /b /c /d
launch_1 = %emulator_1 %romfolder_1 %options_1
...
emulator_n = \\sd\apps\emulator\youremu\youremu.elf
romfolder_n = \\sd\roms\yourromfolder\
options_n = /z /e /r /t
launch_n = %emulator_n %romfolder_n %options_n

 

[Squidge]

uuurrm ...... can't roms be asociated via mime types? that is how most distros do it now and i think that is what windows uses....

MIME types are fine for a web browser (as the browser is given the type along with the file), but how do you use them when handling binary files? The information isn't available then.

Once a file has been downloaded, Windows just guesses the applications via the file extension.

 

[parag0n]

Wah!Cade might be a good option for the pandora, its a linux implementation of MAMEWah.