Loading and Playing Roms

[3rdman]

Once more the noob needs help.

I've got Xlobby almost to where I want it to be and I'm presently setting up the games menu. But, I'm having trouble launching any games. I've created the databases, but if I click on a title it opens up WinRAR (presumably because it's zipped). In the Event Manager, I believe I've set it up all correct and I pointed to the emulator at the Global EXE dialog.

Arg...I don't suppose someone could walk me through this, huh?

[milanp]

What emulator and what roms and are you trying to configure ?
I managed to setup project64 (n64) and ePSXe(PS1) without any problems .

[3rdman]

What emulator and what roms and are you trying to configure ?
I managed to setup project64 (n64) and ePSXe(PS1) without any problems .

All of them. I use project64 and ePSXe as well as zsnesw, FCE Ultra, Magic Engine, MAME, etc.

Any help would be appreciated but what I really need help in understanding is how and where to set up the EXE's for a paticular database. Thanks.

[tonihappy]

for snes (with snes9x):
unzip all the rom and remame for xxx.smc. now right click with your mouse on one rom and select open with, find the emulator and select the "always execute with this app", the emulator launch the game exit the emulator and go to xlobby make your database, now when your clicking the rom in xlobby is opened with the emulator (make the emulator open roms in fullscreen)

for genesis/megadrive (with gens):
unzip all the rom and remame for xxx.gen.Make a batch file with this line

cd C:\Program Files\Media Center\Consolas\Megadrive\EMULADOR\
gens.exe %1

make sure the path of gens.exe corresponding with the location of your emulator gens directory.now right click with your mouse on one rom and select open with, find the BATCH FILE and select the "always execute with this app",the emulator is launched in fullscreen exit go to xlobby make your database, now when your clicking the rom in xlobby is opened with the emulator

for the NAME and the N64 it's more dificulte because on name the roms it's only zip or rar file and the N64 emulator don't launch the roms directly from the rom only with the database manager included in the emulator.

this is the only help i can offer you MEGADRIVE and SNES

[3rdman]

OK, I've figured it out. Thanks for our help tonihappy, but I really don't want to go the route of unzipping and renaming all my roms. So after some trial and error this is what I did...

The first this to do is to create a database of the roms. Using the "Roms" template I would import the roms and coverart into a database called "snes" (Different emus required different configurations so, for now, lets stick with SNES) Once that was complete, I created a new screen with the Skin Editor called "SNES." In that screen I created a new category called "snes roms" and then pointed to the "snes" database to populate it. Enable thumbnails and you're good to go.

The next step is to go back to the setup screen and goto the File Types tab. I created a new file type that pointed to the emu (In my case it was zsnesw.exe) with ZIP as an extension. I left the offline, start, and end events blank. The most important thing here is to fill out the "Category" and in this case it was "snes roms"...and thats it!

Go ahead and test it...Go to the snes screen you've created and click on one of the thumbnails...it should load the rom properly and if you've got the emu properly configured it should load fullscreen and be seemless.

There were some minor issues I came across configuring Project64 and mame. Here's what I did to get them working. I creating a screen and category exactly as I did with the snes example above. File types was set also the same EXCEPT that both required that I fill in the command line. For Project64, I had to include %parameter% in the command line, after that it loaded the rom and ran perfectly. Mame loaded and ran fine without command line arguements but looked wrong and ran without joystick support. So for Mame, I included "-aspect_ratio 16:9 -resolution 856x480x32 -joy". Its pretty selfexplanatory so I won't bother explaing it.

The only thing left for me to do is create a Games screen and populate it with buttons that point to each of these screens.

Now although I've got most of this nulled out, I still need help on a couple of matters. The only emulator that I'm not satisfied with is Gens. It loads the roms and runs, but it won't load in fullscreen. Can anybody help? Secondly, Is there any way while importing a database to EXCLUDE roms that don't have matching coverart?

[jowaldo]

one thing i'm curious about, is how do you guys get the emulator to close when you are done playing the game?

[3rdman]

For me, I use the ATI Remote wonder, so all I do is press the Power button which is the same as pressing ALT+F4.

[tonihappy]

first of all thanks 3rdman for your tips for the N64
for the snes config mine works fine for that i don't try yours.

and me to i'm closing the emulator with my remote

[tonihappy]

3rdman i've you trying my tip for the GENS emulator (the batch file)!??
for that you are relly need to unzip all your rom and rename the extension file to xxx.gen. Ok it's borring ( i make that for all the roms because i'm having conflit with winzip and winrar) but it's run perfectly in fullscreen.
i don't now the choice is yours
30minute to unzip and rename and make the steps in my reply or 3/5 days in the internet searching for another tip and after 3 box of aspirine you find nothing for run gens in another way that the above listed.
i found this tip in the myhtpc forum and this is the only that i've found.

[3rdman]

You mean this post...

http://myhtpc.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t ... figuration

It's funny you should mention that, because I wrote it. So I have tried the BAT solution, but for Xlobby it just doesn't work. Hell, getting Project64 to work was literally a stab in the dark. (Inner dialog: Hey, I wonder what would happen if I put %parameter% here? Hey, it works!)

I might end up doing what you suggest, but I'm in no hurry to get it working and, quite frankly, I like the challenge!

[tonihappy]

yes
but it's curious for me they works fine

[3rdman]

LOL I'm doing a really good job of answering my own questions. So, for posterity and for the next guy that may want the answer...I've figured out how to launch Gens in fullscreen and behave. It was really simple too...

Create a database by following the example above along with filling out "file type" section exactly as you would for snes. Leave the parameter area blank. Launch a game, it'll launch in a window...fine. Exit the emu and go to C:\Program Files\Xlobby or wherever else you may have Xlobby installed and you will notice that Gens has created a Gens.cfg file into that directory. Put the file into a text editor and find the part that says fullscreen=0. Change the 0 to a 1 and try it again. It should work!