version 6.1.7 change log - July 09, 2011
Fixed
Window status (normal/maximized) not being correctly handled when switching between windowed/full screen mode
Main menu "Images" showing up when initializing the frontend in full screen mode
Selected game not visible on screen after resizing the main window or resizing the preview snapshots panel
Document files updated ("docs\" folder). Some of them had incorrect/incomplete information
In-game snapshot not being updated after exiting a game
Fixed a huge bug that was messing up image layout settings when switching between layouts, and when switching between
classic and layout view modes
game snapshots were not loading correctly in layouts view mode, if one of the images was not found
Application crash when changing image's "stretch" setting (classic view mode only)
Changed
Bios selection in "MAME Default" and "MAME Game/Driver Custom" settings screen only show sets for games that
have external bios sets, like "Neo-Geo", "PlayChoice-10" ("Miscellaneous" tab)
This way, a bios won't be selectable for games that do not use bios or for MAME default settings
Renamed "Scan Results" to "View Missing ROMs/CHDs". This feature is ment to show you only available games with
missing ROMs/CHDs... not after using "Scan Games" feature
Favorites profiles removed. Only a single favorites list is supported from now on
Either create a new favorites list or rename one of the favorites files from "\ini_files\favorites\*.el" to
"\ini_files\favorites.ini"... and remove the "fav_username=" line (first entry in the file)
You can delete "\ini_files\favorites\" folder and its files
The "Validate Favorites File" option is at main menu "Settings" / "Maintenance"
Replaced "Number of Screens" by "Audio Type" (only used by MAME)
Screen "Emulator Setup" re-write
- Simplified interface. Only emulator filename needs to be selected
- MD5 checksum info removed (useless)
- New "Update System" button. Useful if you change emulator file and have "New Emulator Detection" option disabled (preferences)
ClrMAMEPro XML .dat files must be in frontend's main folder now, and named as follows:
- ZiNc: "ZiNc_xml.dat"
- SEGA Model 2 Emu: "SEGAModel2_xml.dat"
As of this version, both files will be released with frontend's binary package... no more .dat file hunting :-))
Moved games scan result files (.miss) from "arcade\scan_results\" to "arcade\" folder
Control type entries in "\arcade\system_name.el" files have MAME's control names now
A new file is also available listing all control types ("\ini_files\control_type.ini"). You can expand this list
manually if a new MAME has a new control... even AFTER creating a MAME games list
If version info cannot be parsed from emulator binary, "Unknown" will be set automatically (no more user input)
New "game status" icon at games list status bar, next to the game name label
- green ball : available game (.zip found and ok)
- black ball : missing game (.zip missing)
- yellow ball: have game with missing ROMs/CHDs (.zip found)
Improved
Minor user interface tweaks... for consistency
Feature "Delete Clone Images" updated. Removed multi-screens support (main menu "Images" / "Maintenance")
Text filter bar updated. New visual, easier to use. More options available
To change options, click on "settings" button and select the desired filter. Remember, checking
"Include Tool Bar Filters", the filters from main tool bar buttons will also be applied
Game snapshots were being loaded three (3) times over at startup!
Removed
Feature "Bios Sets [M.A.M.E.]" (main menu "Emulator"). Select a bios using custom game/driver settings
Feature "Convert Snapshots". Snap files are automatically renamed after exiting MAME anyway
Hidden games feature is no more. Wanna hide games from kids and stuff ? Easy... don't have the ROMs in your computer
... or edit "\arcade\mame.el" manually and remove the games you don't want (NEVER remove the first game of each section!)
Multi-games loading feature removed (megatech, and others). This will not be supported by the frontend anymore.
The folder "arcade\multi-games\" and its files can be deleted
"Classic" filter is gone (arcade filters). It's an old filter, when MAME only had Neo-Geo as a driver with
external bios sets
Support for "Screen Resolution", "Save State", "Audio Samples" infos is no more (MAME has LOTS of games without resolution
info)
Option "Display Image Label Info" ...pointless
Support of following ZiNc features:
- Glide rendering settings ("ZiNc Settings" screen)
- Option "One Setting Per Line" from preferences screen (only single line settings from now on)
- Driver custom settings support (only game custom settings from now on)
SEGA Model 2 Emulator default settings and custom game settings is no more. The settings file "emulator.ini" have a lot
of comments and they were being removed every time you changed something with the frontend. Most option can be changed
directly in the emulator anyway
Emulator default settings for Demul is gone. You can set ALL options directly into the emulator, including ROMs folders
Setting "Show Not Available Image" is gone. The "not available images" are always displayed now
Delphi component "VirtualTreeView" is not used anywhere on the project anymore... references and component links completely
removed from the project
More source code clean-up.
Added
Frontend documentation files accessible in "Help" main menu
Support for latest MAME build
New "Extra Filters" button in main tool bar. All filters from the main menu "Game Filters" are here now. The main reason ?
To remind you that these filters exist! They are also saved/restored on restart from now on
New filter: "Audio Type" (extra filters tool bar button):
- Standard Audio: most games, using sound chips
- Discrete Audio: games that use discrete sound circuits
- Wave Sample Audio: games that use external .wav samples for sound
XML .dat file for "SEGA Model 2 Emu" v1.0 finally added :)
version 6.1.6 change log - May 01, 2011
Fixed
Atomiswave games not loading with Demul emulator
Waste of RAM when switching view modes in "MAMu_ Icons Manager" screen (missing icons list)
Columns sorting was not working when columns positions changed
Changed
Removed multiple folders support for MAMu_ Icons feature. If you were using multiple folders, please select a folder
for each system again. Relative path support is also removed
Improved
Feature "MAMu_ Icons Manager" improved. More "Not Working" icons features
version 6.1.5 change log - April 22, 2011
Fixed
Played column was not being sorted correctly. All other columns are sorted as strings so, they should sort correctly
When in grouped view mode, all columns were being indented (clone games). Only the title column should be indented
Games filters were messing games list up (main tool bar buttons, left panel filter, text bar filter)
Improved
After scaning a single game, left panel filter is re-applied if enabled
Added
New setting: "Disable Clone Indent" (main menu "View"). Check this option to prevent clone games indentation
(grouped view mode only)
version 6.1.4 change log - April 19, 2011
Fixed
Supermodel games list not being created at a fresh install
Added
New feature: AlterMAME ("Emulator Setup" screen and games popup menu). You can select an anternate MAME build to run games
See the help button in emulator setup screen, "AlterMAME" panel (after selecting MAME system) for more info
version 6.1.3 change log - April 18, 2011
Fixed
Custom settings were not being saved ("SEGA Model 2", custom game settings)
Changed
Fancy new splash screen with transparency and alpha blend effect!!! Also, new about screen
Custom settings (game and driver) are loaded automatically now, if the custom settings file is found
This is how MAME works, and that's how it will work for all other supported systems (except Daphne and Demul that do not
support custom game/driver settings)
Custom game/driver settings files moved from "frontend\arcade\" path to a new folder: "frontend\emulator_ini\".
For easier access and to separate them from games list files. Old folders and files will be automatically move to the
new folder (ZiNc and SEGA Model 2)
Supported systems: ZiNc, SEGA Model 2, Supermodel: SEGA Model 3
Removed all instances of VirtualTreeView component from the frontend, except from the "left panel" feature that requires a
TreeView component. Improvements made:
- standard and grouped view modes converted to use EasyListView component. all views use the same component now
- no need to reload the games list when switching view modes, except for grouped view that requires special handling
- slow games scrolling with mouse wheel fixed
- better integration with other features that need to extract game details info from the main games list
Improved
Removed hourglass cursor from a few functions
Support for "Windows Clear Type Fonts" improved. I think all screens can show clear type fonts now
Changed all "CompareText()" function calls to "AnsiCompareText()" (multi-byte and accented characters support!) :)
Major source code cleanup
Removed
Scan games list cannot be stopped anymore, to avoid crashes and weird errors
Custom command line feature is "gone with the wind...". Blame those damn leechers that keep using my frontend for profit!
...plus, I've never ever used this feature anyway. Also, to prevent people from using unsupported emulators with the frontend
Folder "resources\images\topbars\" and all its .png files are gone as they are not needed anymore
Columns profile per system is gone (standard/grouped view modes). All systems share the same sort parameters
Columns settings file renamed to "frontend\ini_files\columns_profile.ini"
Added
Support for Supermodel: A SEGA Model 3 Emulator
NOTES:
- you need a working MAME games list to use this new emulator (games and ROMs list extracted from MAME)
- emulator settings and custom game settings will be stored in "frontend_dir\emulator_ini\supermodel_ini\" folder
- emulator default setting stored in "supermodel.ini" file (frontend custom folder)
- custom game options stored in "gamename.ini" files (frontend custom folder)
- there is no support for custom driver options since Supermodel only has SEGA Model 3 games
- merged games are not supported and no split-merged sets either
- ROMs paths info is stored in "EmuLoader.ini" file, for now. Multiple paths are supported
- options "vertex shader" and "fragment shader" are available. use them at your own risk!
New feature: "Save State Manager". View/delete/rename save states files of your MAME and Supermodel: SEGA Model 3 games
(main menu "Games List")
Feature "Show Not Available Image" is back. If setting enabled, will display a "Not Available" image instead of an empty
panel... when the image category for the selected game is not found (snapshot, cabinet, flyer, etc)
All images must be in .png format and they are placed in the new "frontend_dir\resources\images\no_image\" folder.
See "docs\el-notavailableimage.txt" for more details
version 6.1.2 change log - March 22, 2011
Fixed
Colors and transparency in MAMu_ icons not being handled correctly. White frame surrounding many icons is gone.
They are perfect now, and there is a small speed improvement in the loading function :)
Tiles view mode, with "Disable Icon Stretch" option checked
Removed the annoying "Devices for games are not supported, only for bios sets." message when creating MAME games lists
Timer in splash screen is back. Now it's really working properly... I swear :)
Minor fixes and tweaks in "MAMu_ Icons Manager"
Added
New preferences setting: "Text In Bold". Check this option to enable font style "Bold" in selected items (requested feature)
Features "Scan Missing Images" and "Scan Not Used Images" merged into "Images Manager" (main menu "Images").
Minor fixes and some optimizations were also made.
Like MAMu_ Icons Manager, you can work with both lists at the same time. Some key features:
- rename not used images
- ability to maximize the window for better visual
- columns width on missing images list are saved/restored in "el_extras.ini" file
- images are loaded as icons in not used images list
- not used images are separated by folders, shown in different groups, for easier access
- move not used icons to another folder
version 6.1.1 change log - March 13, 2011
Fixed
Folder "arcade\multi-games\" was not being created when creating MAME games list, crashing the frontend
Disabled the timer in splash screen (for now) to fix a bug when creating multiple games list at startup
Daphne games list was not being created, and the scan for .zip files was crashing the frontend.
Funny that no one ever reported this!
version 6.1 change log - March 11, 2011
Fixed
Proper detection of MAMu_ icons (color depth and multiple icons inside .ico file):
- several icons were displaying white/black background colors in transparent areas
- only the 32x32 icon is loaded, regardless the view mode used
- icons are now loaded using their original color pallette (no conversion to 24-bit color depth)
- added support 32-bit icons (alpha blend)
Feature "Scan For Missing MAMu_ Icons" was not loading game name icons, only bios icon or driver icon (options "Show Game
Bios Icons" / "Show Game Driver Icons" / "Reload Icons")
Text in auto game docs window was not being moved to top when selecting games
Access violation when trying to delete game config files (Demul system)
Feature "Not Used Game Config Files" was not working with Demul system and "Delete Files" button was not
working at all!!! (main menu "Settings", "Maintenance")
Delete files button in "Not Used Zip Files" feature was not working at all!!! (main menu "Settings", "Maintenance")
I totally forgot to implement the function to delete files on "Delete Clones Images" (main menu "Images", "Maintenance")
Changed
Convert screenshots feature re-write (main menu "Images", "Maintenance"). Replaced VirtualTreeView by EasyListView
and some performance tweaks
Updated EasyListView component to latest SVN (February 2011)
All splitters replaced by a custom gradient splitter, easier to resize panels (main screen and others)
Improved
Minor tweaks
Removed the hour glass cursor from a bunch of functions because they don't make sense
Text in games list status bar updated to display game name, clone name and bios name: "mslug3h [clone of mslug3] [bios: neogeo]"
Splash screen timer does not reset to zero when switching from creating games list to scanning games functions.
Now you can see the total time it takes to create games list/verify your games sets
Merged left panel populate functions into one since they are almost the same (main screen and left panel editor)
Added column "Bios" into the games list (left panel editor) and the width of game title column is now dynamically resized
Replaced Delphi 7 "RenameFile" function (it uses MoveFile() function) by a custom function that uses "MoveFileEx()" function...
it fixes errors in Windows 7 when renaming files
Removed
File "\ini_files\daphne.ini" not needed anymore (Daphne v1.0 is the lowest supported version)
Custom titles are no longer supported for image layouts feature
Custom labels for game columns is gone (details / grouped view modes). Pointless feature...
Added
New text filter bar (main tool bar buttons, right side). Yep, you can filter games by title, manufacturer or driver name now.
Just Type a partial description, hit ENTER key or press the apply button and BAM! :)
Main filter tool bar buttons are partially supported: "System", "Parent / Clone", "Have / Miss", "Working / Non-Working",
"Bios / No Bios" and "Hide Bios" from main menu games filters.
There are some options buttons below the text box: "Filter by title", "Filter by manufacturer", "Filter by driver name",
"Enable/disable filters on main tool bar buttons".
Clicking on the "Reset" button will reload the main filters (without this new text bar filter)
New setting: "Setup Folders", image category tool bar button. Easier to know where to go to setup folders
Setting "Path to hash files" was missing in MAME settings screen
Support for SEGA Model 2 Emu v1.0 (scripts are not yet supported, if ever)
Support for the new mechanical tag on games list (MAME 0.141u1 and newer)
New filter: "Interface Type" with 2 options "Classic" and "Mechanical" ("Games Filters" main menu)
NOTE: unlike others, this setting is saved in "EmuLoader.ini" and restored when restarting the frontend
Support for MAME 0.141u3
Preliminary support for multi-cart games loading: megatech (MAME v0.141u3 and never only! Other emulators are not supported)
There is a new folder listing all supported systems (when creating a games list): "\arcade\multi-games\"
... that's it for now. you cannot run multiple games with this frontend yet!!!
Features "Scan Missing MAMu_ Icons" and "Scan Not Used MAMu_ Icons" merged into "MAMu_ Icons Manager" (MAMu_ tool bar button).
Minor fixes and some optimizations were also made.
Managing missing / not used icons is easier than ever!. Some key features:
- rename not used icons
- all new history system for not used icons, so you can keep track of changes made to each icon (.txt files located in
"resources\icons_history\ folder)
- when renaming a not used icon to a valid MAME game name, the icon is immediately loaded into the missing icons list
- ability to maximize the window for better visual
- columns width on missing icons list are saved/restored in "el_extras.ini" file
New MAMu_ icons feature: "Switch Game Icons" (MAMu_ tool bar button). Have two game icons that you need to switch places
because MAME switched two games parent/clone, clone/parent ? This is what this feature is for
version 6.0 change log - December 02, 2010
Fixed
Features "Run Game (Custom)" and "Run Game (Extra)" were not working at all due to wrong indexes (games popup menu)
Emulator folders info used by EL not being reloaded into memory after acessing custom game settings (all systems)
Default bios setting not being selected on the list (MAME settings screen)
Feature "Not Used Zip Files" was not working correctly and other systems were fully dependable of a working
MAME setup (main menu "Settings" / "Maintenance"). It's also a little faster. Again, EL is NOT a ROM manager. Please use
ClrMAME or RomCenter to maintain your ROMs collection. Use it at your own risk!
Float values on MAME custom game options were being handled as strings (cosmetic fix)
Konami Viper game "ParaParaParadise 2nd Mix" (name: ppp2nd) was not being correctly detected
Entries "Game Zip" / "Parent Zip" being listed with "gamename.zip not found" for Taito G-NET. This system does not
use gamename.zip sets (Game Details screen)
Unwanted horizontal scroll when selecting games in Standard/grouped view modes
Changed
Updated settings screen to MAME 0.140u1
Updated FastMM library (Fast Memory Manager) to v4.97
Game docs (mameinfo.dat and others) support only at MAME's main folder from now on
Moved 'el_extras.ini' file to EL's main folder (makes more sense)
Improved
Several tweaks in the source code and user interface
You can now select an existing file for the effect overlay, using EL's file dialog box, or type the filename into the
edit box (MAME settings screen, "Options" / "Video 1" tab)
Extra game info extracted from MAME for all ClrMAME based systems, when creating ZiNc, Demul, SEGA Model 2 games lists
Controls info for Daphne games are extracted from MAME, if available (create Daphne games list)
Merged "uFilesUtil.pas" routines into "uCommon.pas" (file uFilesUtil.pas no longer available)
Auto game documents feature (preferences screen):
- duplicate settings not allowed anymore
- clear the checkbox to disable an info
Relative path support for games list background image (preferences screen)
Removed
Support for the following systems completely removed from the project (EL is a M.A.M.E. frontend anyway):
- AGEMAME: Merged into MAME
- Mjolnir: Discontinued and old MAME drivers. The only game that can be fully played anyway is "Starblade"
- PinMAME: Discontinued. Also, without the actual pinball tables, you can't play anything
- HazeMD: MegaDrive/Master Systems games are in MAME for quite some time now, and the emulator will get no further updates
- Another Arcade Emulator (AAE): Discontinued and its unique features might be implemented in MAME
NOTE: you will have to re-create games list for "Demul" and "SEGA Model 2" systems
Commented options support for mame.ini files is gone (using ' # ' char, on old MAME builds)
Windows 7 cosmetic fixes removed from EasyListView and Virtual TreeView components as they were causing glitches
Custom description support for image categories is gone. There's no point editing their titles anyway
Label image info custom colors is gone
Option "Smooth Scroll (Double Buffering)" is gone (VirtualTreeView / EasyListView). I've never noticed any difference with
this setting anyway
Added
New setting: "Disable Icon Stretch (48x48)", MAMu_ tool bar button. Enable this option to prevent MAMu_ icons from being
stretched when using "Tiles" view mode or "Standard / Grouped" view modes with "Extra Large" icons (48x48)
New left panel filter: "Discrete Audio": filter all games that use discrete audio (create file at "Left Panel" main menu)
Support for multiple MAME directories: "sample files", "artwork files", "font files", "crosshair files", "controller files"
New MAME option "Run Game with Effect Overlay", games popup menu "Run Game (Extra)". You can run games with an effect overlay
located in one of the artwork folders (unzipped PNG files only!). Useful to test effects without changing mame.ini
Small reminder button in game docs panel to open the hidden popup menu (top/left)... you can call the popup menu at any
position, not just this button!
version 5.9 change log - October 10, 2010
Fixed
Video output "GDI" setting on mame.ini misspelled (write)
Setting "ClrMAMEPro XML Data File" not clearing after pressing "Clear" button (Emulators Setup screen)
A few minor fixes
The following MAME filters now sort games correctly: "Naomi", "Naomi 2", "Naomi GD", "Naomi 2 GD"
(does not work 100% for Demul)
An empty file was being created when trying to load ROMs folders if file was not found (emulator main settings file)
Added
Updated MAME settings to v0.139u3
Preliminary support for a new emulator: Demul v0.5.6 (Sega Dreamcast / Naomi hardware):
- Since its games list output is based on ClrMAME database and the emulator itself can create the file, the
external "ClrMAMEPro XML Data File" is optional. If not selected, the internal "-listxml" output will be used
- Game column's missing entries are extracted from MAME's games list, if available
- Only zipped sets are supported (GD-ROM image must be inside game .zip file)
- MAME CHDs (v0.139u3) are NOT supported yet (GD-ROM based games)
- Feature "Delete Game Configs" (games popup menu) support both NVRAM files (.eeprom; .sram)
- Multiple ROMs folders support (native support on Demul)
- Multiple bios sets is not supported yet (and it might never be)
- No support for game custom options
New games filter: "SAMMY Atomiswave"
version 5.8.7 change log - June 02, 2010
Fixed
Access violation on "Not Used Zip Files" feature when MAME .zip files list is empty
Changed
Rollback VirtualTreeview component to version 4.7.4 as newer versions are messed up
Replaced VirtualTreeView games list for EasyListView... "Left Panel Editor" screen only (right panel)
version 5.8.6.1 change log - April 23, 2010
Fixed
MAME create games list feature missing a new input type: "keyboard"; also, the new DVD-ROM CHD media type was not being
correctly assigned
version 5.8.6 change log - April 22, 2010
Fixed
Website addresses updated on main menu "Help" / "Visit Homepage"
Improved
Updated components VirtualTreeView to v4.8.6 and EasyListView to v2.1.0 (latest SVN)
Front-end updated to meet some of the component's changes
Removed
none
Added
New mame.ini options for MAME 0.137u1 (MAME Settings / Options / Input tab)
New debugger option "Internal Debugger" (MAME Settings / Options / Miscellaneous tab)
New games filters: "CHD DVD-ROM" (CHD sub-filter); "System 246 / 256" (main filter); "Namco System 246 / 256" (Namco sub-filter)
version 5.8.5 change log - February 12, 2010
Fixed
MAME game titles ending with ", The" were being wrongly parsed and the following game titles are fixed:
ssideki4
lastblad
lastbladh
lastbld2
HazeMD and PinMAME game titles ending with ", The" fixed. The full title is now parsed correctly
Game title fix not needed for systems based on ClrMAME Pro .xml database files (ZiNc, SEGA Model 2, AAE)
version 5.8.4 change log - December 26, 2009
Added
Support for MAME v0.135u4 new feature: "Number of Processors" (3rd video tab, "MAME Settings" screen, "Performance")
In Emu Loader, this feature lists all CPUs that Windows detects. Info taken from Windows registry:
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE\DESCRIPTION\System\CentralProcessor\"
version 5.8.3 change log - September 28, 2009
Fixed
Some weird user messages in "Not Used Zip Files" feature (main menu "Settings" / "Maintenance")
Delete/move selected files in "Not Used Zip Files" and "Not Used Game Config Files" features was freezing after
removing items from the list
User selected bios was not being added into the command line (MAME, multi-bios games)
Front-end freezing after running "BlinkBkEdit() function". It was using "GetTickCount()", not accurate on new
CPUs (Core2Duo, PhenomII, etc). "No one reported this since the function was added... FATALITY!"
Replaced by "Sleep()" function that can handle microseconds. Other functions do not require this.
Function "Export Games List" was only working for "standard" and "grouped" view modes (left panel popup menu)
Again, no bug reports :_((
Changed
Updated EasyListView/CommonLibrary to latest SVN source (August 10, 2009)
File "\docs\el-readme.txt" updated with latest changes
FastMM library updated to version 4.94
Improved
Minor tweaks in the user interface and source code
Added
New feature: "Delete Game Config" (access on games popup menu or "Sift+DELETE" hot-key)
Use this to delete CFG/NVRAM files from MAME based emulators, NVDATA file from SEGA Model 2, CFG file from ZiNc and
Another Arcade Emulator (AAE)
When selecting one game, you are able to check/uncheck files. When in multi-selection screen, all games will be listed
and you will be able to check/uncheck what files you want to delete or keep. Also, use the "Check All CFGs" / "Check All
NVRAMs" buttons to check/uncheck all files for all games
Daphne system is not supported by this feature, and there's no recycle bin support!
New feature: "Not Used Game Config Files" ("Settings" main menu, "Maintenance")
Scan all systems for not used configuration files (cfg and non-volatile RAM). It works similar to the "Not Used Zip Files"
feature. All systems supported, except from Daphne
version 5.8.2 change log - July 16, 2009
Added
Support for MAME v0.132u5
version 5.8.1 change log - July 04, 2009
Fixed
EL standard game icons were not being reset after disabling MAMu_ icons (EasyListView view modes only)
Adding .zip files as folder in the select directory screen is back... :_((
I thought I had it fixed but I was wrong.
The only way to really get rid of this annoying bug is to disable the "zip as folder" feature in Windows (who uses this
annoying feature anyway ???)
MAMu_ icon was not being loaded at startup on the selected game
Changed
Not used 24x24 icons removed from several .ico files ("\resources\main_icons\arcade_filters\" folder)
Some icons in "resources\main_icons\" folder also changed
Improved
ImageIndex value is not assigned directly into main games list anymore (game icons)
Minor and invisible bug fixes
Removed
Play custom from arcade controller layouts since it has been removed from the front-end quite a while ago
Support for the hidden "\arcade\customgames.el" file
Added
"Triforce" main games filter
New thumbnails setting: "Show Game Title". Disable this option to hide game titles while in thumbnails view mode
(main menu "Settings" / "Thumbnail Settings")
Added some missing widescreen resolutions to MAME and ZiNc settings screens (resolution drop-down buttons)
Move folder up/down buttons on the following screens: "MAME Settings", "ZiNc Settings", "SEGA Model 2 Settings",
"MAMu_ Folders"
version 5.8 change log - June 02, 2009
Fixed
Taito G-NET games being set as found with missing ROMs/CHDs when the bios set if found and ok, but the CHD is missing
This is a special case to avoid all G-NET games being set as missing ROMs/CHDs since this system only use a bios set. The
Konami Viper system is similar but some of its games have a game set...
View game details was being called while multiple games selected
Left panel editor not working if MAME binary file is not defined
Selected game not visible on screen when switching between windowed/full screen modes
Wrong system being scanned: "Scan For Missing MAMu_ Icons / Images";
Columns width in hidden games editor were not being updated correctly after manual resize
Changed
Delete game files improved (single/multiple selection). Now you have a files list of the game (Game .zip and CHDs). CHD
files are unchecked by default for safety (enable the "Always Select CHD Files" checkbox so they are checked automatically).
Only files that are found will be listed, even if the games is set as available. You can uncheck any file(s) you want
to keep :-))
NOTES:
-> for single selection, the amount of CHD files is unlimited but for multiple selections, they are limited to 3 (three)
CHD files per game. If appear a game in MAME with more than 3 CHD files, the front-end will be updated...
-> the multiple selections screen is a little more complex, but filled with hints all over it
-> Recycle bin is NOT supported so, be very careful on the game files you want to delete!
-> only available games and found games with missing ROMs are supported
-> This feature is accessed by selecting one or more games and hitting the "DELETE" key or using the "Delete" option in
games popup menu
Replaced all select folder dialog calls by EL's custom folder dialog
Updated EasyListView component to latest SVN sources
Moved debug.ini custom options (Set/Delete) to "M.A.M.E. Only" sub-menu (games popup menu, "Custom Options")
Improved
No more zip files or hidden folders in browse for folder dialog
Generate .ini files for left panel is now based on the main games list, except "Refresh Rate" (still depends on MAME's
-listxml output)... they are lightning fast too (main menu "Left Panel")
Minor UI optimizations
Removed
Option "Enable Multiple Selection". Multi-select is always enabled
Daphne v0.99.7 pre 5 support removed
Added
New file when creating MAME/ZiNc games lists: "mame_chd.ini" and "zinc_chd.ini" ("frontend\arcade\" folder)
It contains a list of all CHD files for each game and the specific media type for each CHD (in case a game use more than
one CHD file and each of these files are in different formats (hard-disk, CD-ROM, GD-ROM, flash cards, etc...)
This file is used when deleting game files and might be used on other features for a quicker access (acessing
"\arcade\systemname_roms.el" is slow if the file size is too large!)
Support MAME 0.131u3 new .ini files "horizont.ini" / "vertical.ini" (games popup menu, "Custom Options" / "M.A.M.E. Only")
version 5.7.6 change log - May 08, 2009
Fixed
Detection of large files (bigger than 1.7 GigaBytes) and sorting "file size" columns was not possible due to the range of
the "integer" variable type... updated all required variables in the project to "Int64" (64-bit integer)
Option "Move Selected to Folder" implemented (scan not used MAMu_ icons feature, popup menu)
When selecting parent or using the find game edit box in "delete multiple games files" window, the previous selections were
not being de-selected (games popup menu, "Delete" / "Game File")
All available Taito G-NET clones were being added in the merged sets list. Probably other games that use a bios set but no game
set is being added in the list as well (not fixed)
Changed
Simplified "delete multiple game .zip files" feature. No more checking games to delete. To keep any game just
remove it from the list using the "Remove Selected" button
Scan for not used MAMu_ icons only scan ".ico" files from now on... file "\ini_files\el_mamu_exclude.ini" updated to only
list files with .ico extension
Improved
Updated function "GetFileSize" (uFilesUtil.pas) to use Int64 (64-bit integer variable)
Files list of "delete not used zip files" feature now have columns that can be sorted (main menu "Settings" / "Maintenance" /
"Not Used Zip Files")
Added
A couple more details in the CHD info (game details screen, left panel)... also, file size for game .zip and .chd :)
version 5.7.5 change log - May 04, 2009
Fixed
Game status not being updated after scanning games (only between "missing" and "found with missing ROMs/CHDs" status)
Main screen not being set active after exiting a game
The "Played x" captions in tiles view mode were being loaded without using virtual mode after exiting a game
Convert snapshots feature now support and rename up to 100 images per game
Scan games feature was not handling games with missing ROMs/CHDs correctly
Wrong CHD media type for some ZiNc games
ZiNc games set as available when all ROMs are found but .zip files are not in the same folder (not valid for ZiNc
emulator). All files (.zip / .chd) must be in the same folder, but the .chd file can be placed in a sub-folder with
the name of the gamename (like MAME). You do not need to add this sub-folder into the ROMs paths!
Remember that EL support multiple ROMs folders, even if ZiNc doen't, but to run games, all files of a particular game
must be in the same folder
And NO MERGED sets!
A few games filters fixes (you need to create MAME games list again to apply them):
-> CHD tags "scsi0" and "scsi1" are moved to "CD-ROM" media type (\ini_files\chd_mediatypes.ini" file)...
for now. This fixes all Konami System 573 games that were being set as hard-disk based games instead of CD-ROM
-> Konami Viper games were wrongly tagged as "Hard-Disk" CHD types. Changed them to "Compact Flash Card"...
hard-coded into the "uMain.CreateGamesListXML" function!
-> American Laser Games were wrongly tagged as "Hard-Disk" CHD types as none of the discs are dumped yet.
Changed them to "LaserDisc"... hard-coded into the "uMain.CreateGamesListXML" function!
Taito G-NET games were not being correctly detected due to not using "gamename.zip" files, only bios sets. But now, games
that you do not have the .chd file are set as found with missing ROMs (Taito G-NET only) :_((
...some other games do not use "gamename.zip" as well but are not on this fix ("Konami Viper" system)
Visual bug in the message box when vertical scrollbar is visible
The current favorite profile was not being correctly selected when opening the favorites profile editor
Image resampler not being applied at startup and when switching between classic/layout image view modes
Merged games were not being added into the merged list ("\arcade\systemname_merged.ini")
Changed
All ZiNc icons renewed
Only 1 system support for "Scan Missing Images / MAMu_ Icons", "Scan Not Used Images / MAMu_ Icons"
...old screens with TreeView and multiple systems at once was a mess :_(
Scan not used MAMu_ icons: changed popup menu option "View Excluded List" to "View/Edit Excluded List" so
you can edit and use the updated files list in real time ("\ini_files\el_mamu_exclude.ini" file)
New setting in popup menu on scan missing MAMu_ icons screen: icon size 16x16 or 32x32 :)
Improved
Games details screen:
-> CHD files are always audited in games details screen, no matter the status of the game
-> The parent CHD info is displayed in the ROMs list if the CHD of the clone game is not found but the parent
CHD is (only if filenames are different)
-> Header version info for older CHD files (versions 1 and 2) are still displayed, but are not supported by
the front-end
Minor optimizations to the scan results screen
Changes and optimizations in customize hidden games screen (main menu "Games Filters" / "Hidden Games" / "Customize")
-> Search patterns and columns width are saved in "el_extras.ini"
-> Games are now validated by "game name" and "system ID" tags only (no "clone of" anymore... kinda pointless)
-> Removed "Delete Duplicates" button. Done automatically when using "BEGIN SEARCH" button
-> All lists replaced by EasyListView components (cleaner and easier to work with)
-> This feature is main games list dependant now. External files ("\arcade\*.el" and "catver.ini")
are no longer used to build the list in the editor. The scan is NOT affected by the main games filter
-> New layout :)
-> Fixed loading hidden games into the editor (very old bug!). It was not checking for the system tag. If
there's a game with same name on different systems, they would all be added
-> System icon displayed with game icon on the first column
Feature scan audio samples optimized and UI updated
Other features are also dependant on the current main games list instead of "\arcade\*.el" and extras. Main games list
is processed twice as fast and the progress bar became reduntant...
- "Scan for Missing Images / MAMu_ Icons"
- "Scan for Not Used Images / MAMu_ Icons"
- "Left Panel editor"
- "Scan Audio Samples"
- "Customize Hidden Games"
- "Not Used Zip Files"
Heavy optimization on add/delete games to/from favorites/hidden list functions (10000 items in 2 seconds!)
Tweaks and optimizations to EL's custom select file dialog (virtual mode)
Removed
An extra (and invisible) background for the icons was being draw on top bars (all screens)... guess I forgot to remove
it from the source code
Revised and removed some more reduntant lines of code in the entire project
Added
Disk entry detection when creating games list for systems that use ClrMAME's external XML databases
Support for ROMs list on ZiNc (based on ClrMAME XML file). EL can detect missing ROMs/CHDs on this system now
("\arcade\zinc_roms.el") :)
Get the ClrMAME XML file at Logiqx website (ZiNc v1.1 only!). The missing data is extracted from the MAME games list
(if available).
Also updated file "\ini_files\zinc.ini", split in 2 sections: "[driver]" and "[gameindex]"
That makes Daphne the only system without ROMs list support...
Support for ZiNc bios entries. Now you have "parent / clone / bios" games IDs. The ID for all other systems were
re-arranged, except MAME. You must re-create games list for all systems, except MAME. Also added 2 new icons for the
ZiNc bios: "ZiNcBios.ico" and "UnZiNcBios.ico"
Note that you cannot run ZiNc bioses, this is only to improve games scanning...
New option to scan all games with missing ROMs/CHDs (games popup menu, "Scan Games" / "Missing ROMs/CHDs")
Support all systems, except Daphne
Support for MAME 0.131
version 5.7.4 change log - March 21, 2009
Fixed
Image resampler not working with layouts view mode
version 5.7.3 change log - March 21, 2009
Fixed
ROMs were not being shown correctly in game details screen, when tagged with bad checksum (ROMs List)
Media type of CHD based games was not being set correctly when creating a MAME games list
Single game scans were not updating the games list file (.el) correctly in some cases
After adding/deleting games to/from favorites/hidden games list, the memory vars were not being updated with the new
game selection
Found ROMs info in game details screen was not including CHDs with bad checksum
Main window out of focus after exiting MAWS game info
Changed
CHD files are verified thru its SHA-1 checksum now (header version 3 and 4). Unfortunately, CHD files that use a header
version 1 or 2 are not supported by the front-end anymore!
You must create your MAME games list again
Improved
MAME CHD files are correctly validated now, by detecting the "MComprHD" tag and the header version. If the tag doesn't exist,
the CHD file is set as invalid, and the MD5/SHA1 checksum is not verified
Game details UI changed a little bit. CHD files are also listed in the "Game Files" section. It shows file found or missing
status, and the version of the header next to it... :-))
Removed
Option "Generate ZiNc Driver File" from main menu "Settings" / "Maintenance"... no use for it anymore
Added
Support for MAME 0.130u1
Detection of the new version 4 header (CHD files). Headers version 1 and 2 are no longer supported by the front-end
New CHD type added: "PCMCIA" in "\ini_files\chd_mediatype.ini" (used when creating MAME games list)
New games filters added: "Taito G-Net System" and "CHD - PCMCIA"
version 5.7.2 change log - March 15, 2009
Fixed
Image resampler is updated correctly when switching between view modes (classic, layouts) and it is applied to all
panels when in layouts view mode
Selecting the already selected image resampler, the item was being set as unchecked
Internet link for MAWS game info updated to the mameworld.info server
Expand/collapse buttons on left panel tree were being disabled after toggling alpha blend
Image resampler correctly set at startup
Access violation on scan for missing images, missing MAMu_ icons, not used images and not used MAMu_ icons
Fatality! Evil Bug Wins... Game was not being properly re-selected after changing games filters...
CHD filename was not being shown correctly at game details screen if CHD name also contains the parent name ("_parentchd_" tag)
Year and manufacturer were not being detected on bios entries, leaving these infos blank in the games list (MAME based emulators)
Features to create .ini files for the left panel were missing a few games that has no information ("Left Panel" main menu)
Changed
Removed minimum size limitation from the screenshots panel
Main menu / popup menus font changed from "Segoe UI" to "Trebuchet MS"
Updated the convert snapshots to EL format feature. Only works with the "Gamename/Increment" naming format
Improved
Alpha blend and background color on all TreeView lists that contain a games list are updated to match the settings
of the main games list, except background image (hidden games list, MAMu_ missing icons, left panel editor, games list
font settings and some ListView lists)
This also improves visibility if using dark background color
Selection bars colors and texts optimized for a large range of background colors
Some code merging to remove duplicated functions/procedures
Added a button in left panel editor's toolbar to restore default sizes for window, panels and columns width
Added
Button at preferences screen, "Folders" tab: "Setup Image Categories Folders", for those who cannot find the
folder setup screen in main menu "Images"
Setting: "White Text Color (For Dark Backgrounds)" that will paint selected text in white-ish instead of the blue/red
colors. It works only when alpha blend is enabled (preferences screen)
New games filter in main tool bar buttons: "Game Orientation" (Horizontal / Vertical)
New menu item in game documents popup menu (mouse right-click): "Customize Panel". A shortcut for those that
do not know about it ;)
Support for MAME v0.130... CHD files can be at any folder now. The old "romfolder\gamename\gamefile.chd" method is
still supported. I'm moving my 3 images to "c:\mame_roms\chd_files\" folder :)
NOTE: you still do not need to set folders for CHD files if using the old method
A few more options to create .ini files for the left panel:
- Screen refresh rate
- Year
- Manufacturer
Search keywords in hidden games editor is now saved/restored in file: "\ini_files\hidden_games_keywords.txt"
version 5.7.1 change log - February 18, 2009
Fixed
Some default front-end settings on a fresh install were incorrect (first run)
Colors of selected items (EasyListView and Virtual TreeView) were being set incorrectly
Selected game not being visible on the screen when in grouped view mode
Selecting next image category/layout with hot-key F10 was not working. Now changed to:
- Ctrl + F9 -> show previous
- F9 -> show next
The array "image[???].NoImageLoaded" was not being reset correctly when the image to be loaded is not found
Some arcade controller hot-keys were not working. Also, keys assignments were changed to simplify future updates
and to use similar buttons on all controllers (Browse games with arcade controller feature)
Message about average FPS and error messages before running games showing for systems not based on MAME
Removed code redundancy and fixed possible bug when editing column settings in the customize columns screen
Some system specific items in games popup menu were enabled when they shouldn't. Also, they are now hidden
instead of disabled
UI bug in custom command line settings screen (paremeters list)
Width of left panel is automatically adjusted when resizing it. Horizontal scrollbar is not needed anymore
Changed
View ROMs paths have its own screen and you can view folders for all systems at once
Added a new screen for "games list font settings" more detailed and moved it from preferences screen to
main menu "Games List"
Moved "Image Category / Layout Auto Switch" setting from images popup menu to main menu "Images" (easier to find)
Delete multiple games files improved:
- added support for games with missing ROMs (.zip found but game set as missing)
- added a checkbox on each game so you can uncheck all games you want to keep
- changed component to EasyListView
- view mode is set to tile and it shows in 2 lines:
-> first line is the game's title
-> second line is "game name [clone of], zip file with full path
NOTES:
- if game is merged, it will display "merged [parent zip file with full path]"
- if game is marked as missing ROMs/CHDs it the selection bar is red
- font settings are applied on this list (parent, clone, preliminary, miss ROMs/CHDs)
- Zip files are Merged games and games where the .zip file is not found are unckecked by default
Improved
Daphne folder is now loaded into RAM to simplify a few functions calls
Optimized a few functions in uCommon.pas file and removed some redundant coding
More source code optimizations:
- Like in EasyListView, all general functions and procedures for VirtualTreeView will begin with "VTV_" to
group all of them into one place and to make it easier to read
Games have their defined fonts and selection bar colors on hidden games editor and left panel editor :)
Optimized hot-keys for games list and arcade controllers (when feature is activated)
Selection bar turns red on current selected filter (MAME Games Filters screen)
Updated EasyListView component to latest SVN source that fix a couple UI bugs
Removed
Main menu / popup menu themes is no more. Only the default theme is available from now on
Setting "Bold Font In Selected Game" is gone. Font of selected items are always in bold style
Selection bar colors customization (preferences screen). Only fixed colors are supported, blue for have/miss games
and red for games with missing ROMs/CHDs (red ribbon might be used on other screens, but for a different situation)
procedure uCommon.GetGamesFilesList() and function uCommon.ExtMatch() deleted as they are not being used anywhere
Alpha blend for EasyListView / VirtualTreeView components have a fixed factor of 128 from now on (half alpha blend)
Background color of sorted column is gone (games list treeview). No need since you have the sort icon in the
header (ascending/descending)
Added
New main menu "Settings". This menu item will hold several front-end settings
Menu items moved to the new settings main menu:
-> All items from main menu "Advanced User" (main menu also removed)
-> "Favorites - Profile Settings" moved from "View" main menu
New feature: scan for not used zip files (main menu "Settings / Maintenance")
Use this to list all .zip files that are not being used by any game (all systems supported)
WARNING: if you share ROMs with different emulators on the same directory, take extra careful when deleting files.
Recycle bin is NOT supported by this feature
-> You can choose to delete files or move them to another folder
Support for SEGA Model 2 Emulator v0.9 and its new settings (emulator.ini)
Features "delete current image" and "rename current image" support all 3 image panels when image layouts view mode is
enabled (images popup menu, mouse right-button click)
I finally found a way to verify what image component is calling the popup menu!!! :-))
version 5.7 change log - January 26, 2009
Fixed
Cheat settings updated to latest MAME build (MAME Settings screen)
Access violation when using Hidden Games feature and the file "hidden_games.ini" does not exist
Image info panel:
-> appearing when switching from layouts view mode to classic view mode, when setting is turned off
-> not being emptied when no image is found
-> not updating its text after turning on/off
Scan audio samples feature was not working (main menu "Games List"). Apparently nobody use this thing because I never
got any bug reports on this bug
"Danger Will Robinson... DANGER!"
Columns profile editor load/save was not working correctly and, when closing the editor while viewing a different profile
than the actual profile being used on the games list, this new profile was being set and messing up data for all columns
when opening the columns editor again.
And even more disturbing... nobody reported this fatal bug for the last 18 months!
Pixelated game icon on several screens. Also, they are now displayed directly into the TImage32 canvas :-))
Select file for left panel editor was not working correctly (custom EL select file dialog)
Glide renderer config now load/save keys settings (file "glide_renderer.cfg", ZiNc settings screen)
Glide renderer detection was not working, making EL load/save settings on the wrong renderer CFG file (ZiNc settings screen)
Some minor bugs in the favorites profiles editor
A bunch of small fixes everywhere... mostly UI
Transparency (alpha channel) and smoothness were not being applied corretly on any top and bottom bars
Incremetal search still working on EasyListView when "Control Games List With Arcade Controller" is enabled
Access violation when auto-selecting an item in TColorBox component if its OnSelect event is empty
Filter for "Sega System 24" was not showing any games (driver name on newer MAME builds have changed)
Changed
Several files renamed ("resources\main_icons\" folder)
Minimum screen resolution increased to 960x600 (16:10)... but you still can use EL at 800x600
I recommend 1024x768 as minimum resolution as this is a Windows application, not for arcade monitors
Front-end main icons reduced to 16x16 (tool bar icons are still 24x24)
Virtual TreeView component updated to v4.7.0 and to the latest SVN version
EasyListView component updated v2.0 and to the latest SVN version
Menu theme "Office 2007" renamed to "Default", but .ini entries remain the same
Several changes to columns profiles feature:
- Default profile name changed from "default.ini" to "col_profile_general.ini"
- Columns profiles folder is no more. All files will be saved in "resources\ini_files\" and must begin with
"col_profile_systemname.ini"
- Profiles editor only works for the selected system (no more editing profiles for multiple systems at once)
- Only 2 profiles are available for each system: "General" for all systems (default) and "System" that can only
be used by the selected system
View emulator versions and games list versions replaced by a new and single screen "File Versions" (main menu "View")
User interface on several screens are changed and lots of controls were replaced to simplify future updates in EL
Updated FastMM to version 4.9.2 (several fixes and full support for Delphi 2009)
Moved image layouts feature (title edit and visible layouts) and image category settings (category titles, visible categories
and folders settings) from preferences screen to a new "Category / Layout Settings" screen that can be accessed from main
menu "Images", "Category / Layout Settings"
This has been done to merge all features in one place and for easy access. Also to improve loading time of preferences
screen at startup and remove all these ListView components from sitting idle in RAM without reason
Moved "Control Games List With Arcade Controllers" from preferences screen to main menu "Games List" and renamed it to
"Browse Games With". To disable this feature just select "Keyboard + Mouse"
Moved "Auto Rename Snapshots To Old Format" from preferences screen to main menu "Images". These 2 settings are enabled
by default and are for conveniece only. If you want to keep MAME snaps original filenames, disable it
Improved
Optimizations to popup menus (context menus), main menu, UI and a bunch of common functions
Aut-select previous/next visible game instead of the top game in the list after using certain features:
selete game, add/remove favorites and hidden list
Converted a lot of functions into procedures since they do not need to return a confirmation value. Don't know if
this saves memory or if the reduced memory usage is relevant
Some error/warning message boxes replaced by a blinking background in edit boxes (left panel editor screen,
favorites profiles screen, emulator setup screen). Other features will use this new function in the future
Optimized the icons loading at startup and merged a couple "ImageList" since they use the same icons
Some settings on EmuLoader.ini have been simplified and merged. Some other entries renamed
All ListView components replaced by EasyListView since it's safer and far easier to work with. By doing this, several
functionality and visual bugs were fixed
Height of top and bottom bars reduced
Browse for folder (multiple folders) dialog box now have a "Include Subfolders" checkbox and the dialog was completely
coded from scratch.
[WARNING] If you have "view zip as folder" feature enabled on your OS, when opening a folder with lots of .zip
files, the dialog will take some time to read sub-folders and display them on the screen. The only way to fix this is
to disable "zip as folder" from Windows. Google it and you'll find out how to do that
Browse for folder (single) and select file dialog boxes optimized to reduce redundant lines of code
Removed the "Close" button command from several screens since the TButton component have a "ModalResult" property that
closes the form automatically without a single line of code
MAME "snapshot_directory" entry in "mame.ini" is updated automatically when closing the new "Image Category / Layout Settings"
screen (all MAME based systems, if they are available)
Removed
Left-overs in "EmuLoader.ini" from previous builds
Some unused icons ("resources\main_icons\" folder)"
Unused variables and old codes thru the entire project (some functions are still there, commented out)
AnotherArcadeEmulator settings screen removed completely from the project
Added
Filter: "Missing ROMs/CHDs" (tool bar button "Have / Miss Games")
Select this filter to display all games that have one or more missing ROMs/CHDs
Feature: Customizable font for games found with 1 or more missing ROMs/CHDs (preferences screen, "Games" /
"Games List" tab, "Font Settings" box, "Missing ROMs/CHDs").
Games where the .zip was found but there are ROMs or CHDs missing, will be displayed in a different
font. It uses the same files as the "Scan Results" feature (games popup menu)
Not all systems are supported!
PinMAME system is back (only Win32 binary is supported)
NOTE: I am NOT adding native support for "Visual PinMAME" tables so please, do not ask
New files added for PinMAME
Setting: "New Emulator Binaries Detection Enabled" (preferences screen, "General" tab, "Miscellaneous" tab, "Startup"
frame box)
Disable this option to prevent the front-end from verifying the checksum of available emulators, for a faster
start (enabled by default)
Images tool bar buttons:
- toggle classic/layouts view mode
- delete snapshot of selected category (classic view mode only)
New .ttf font: "Consolas", used in the project (this font is way better than "Courier New")
The window position and size is restored on left panel editor screen ("ini_files\el_extras.ini" file)
Support for MAME 0.129u2 including new CHD types: "Video Home System" and "Compact Flash Card"
version 5.6.2 change log - October 22, 2008
Fixed
Front-end crashes on some systems with Vista x64 and 4GB RAM
Changed
Updates to "\ini_files\mame_filters.ini" file
Disabled AAE setup screen to avoid messing with "aae.ini" file and due to the fact that you can configure
the emulator directly in its own menu (why re-invent the wheel, right ?)
Improved
Some minor improvements on some screens and popup menus
Added
Expanded the "CHD" games filter with more options:
- "Hard-Drive" -> games that use a hard-drive device (ide, scsi, disk)
- "Laserdisc" -> games that use a laserdisc media
- "CD-ROM" -> games that use a CD-ROM media
- "GD-ROM" -> games that use a GD-ROM media
New file to detect CHD correctly based on new CHD filters: "\ini_files\chd_mediatypes.ini".
This file contains a list of tags found on MAME's "listxml" output, and it's a temporary fix. If there is one
or more tags missing, you can add them into this file
New Sega games filters:
- Sega Naomi GD-ROM
- Sega Naomi 2
- Sega Naomi 2 GD-ROM
New files:
-> folder: "resources\main_icons\arcade_filters\"
"chd_hd.ico", "chd_laserdisc.ico", "chd_cdrom.ico", "chd_gdrom.ico"
"naomigd.ico", "naomi2.ico", "naomi2gd.ico"
version 5.6.1 change log - August 07, 2008
Fixed
Could not select .avi file to record with MAME
Setting debugscript was being saved as comment if value is empty (MAME settings)
Changed
Read/write emulator/game full setting only works on MAME and AGEMAME. All other emulator have support for
paths only (this is for MAME based emulator only!)
Improved
Left panel files can now handle any word surrounded by asterisks. They will be converted into sub-nodes.
The section "[ROOT_FOLDER]" is not required anymore but if this section is not found, it will be added
automatically (required, so the tree nodes can be created correctly)
Removed
Support for "optionXx (NULL) (not set)" entries from MAME based emulators (mame.ini)
This means that configuring old MAME/AGEMAMGE builds and HazeMD/Mjolnir emus with EL is no longer possible
(I might do something about that in a future version, but can't promisse anything)
Added
Support for MAME 0.126u3
version 5.6 change log - June 01, 2008
Changed
Create games list for "SEGA Model 2 Emu v0.8a" and "AAE beta 1 update 5" emulators are updated to use the
new XML files from Logix (ClrMAMEPro).
Old .dat files are no longer supported!
AAE and SEGAModel2 games lists must be created again due to changes in the ROMs IDs (games list files)
Added
Support new settings for MAME 0.125u8
Support for SEGA Model 2 Emulator v0.8a. Emulator settings screen updated, but unfortunatelly the format and comments
of "emulator.ini" file cannot be maintained
version 5.5.1 change log - May 23, 2008
Fixed
Option "Enable Image Label Info" not being disabled at startup
Access violation when viewing MAME game faqs (auto game docs)
Load/save MAME input, load MAME savestate was not working. Also removed warning message when
hitting the cancel button
Added
Support to create AVI output with MAME 0.125u1 (games popup menu)
... files always created in "multimedia_files\" sub-folder of MAME's "snap" folder
Re-added empty bios value support (MAME settings) using a new checkbox named "Default = Empty Value"
version 5.5 change log - May 13, 2008
Fixed
When exiting MAWS view, games list focus was not restored
MAME ini files not being generated when setting emulator options from "Emulator Setup"
screen, making settings all messed up
Error when loading image background in treeviews and listviews if file does not exist
Bug that did not always minimized the front-end when running games (when feature is enabled)
Weird bug when running Model 2 emu. Front-end window is now restored correctly
Vista taskbar / Vista Flip3D previews now show correctly when the front-end is minimized... yay!
Game name in status bar not properly set when switching between games filters
Minor visual bugs
Changed
All MAME WAV/MNG files are now created in the same folder: "mamesnaps\multimedia_files\"
No more folder restrictions for MAME playback/record input and save state files
Improved
No need for the arrow in drop-down buttons anymore (tool bar buttons)
Feature "select parent game" does nothing if parent is not found or is hidden
Save file dialogs merged and simplified
Removed
"Delete .wav / .mng Files" popup menus
Custom MAME wave output folder (preferences screen)
Added
Support for LCD screen type when creating MAME games lists (no support in screen type filter though)
Incremental search by game name now works for view modes that use EasyListView
Support for MAME 0.125
version 5.4.1 change log - March 23, 2008
Fixed
Menu theme, font color of selected item was not being applied
Snapshots not always displayed after image panel was set empty
Scan for missing icons was not running games in some view modes
Games list not being correctly sorted (left panel editor)
Access violations in scan missing/not used icons/images
Changed
Scan for not used images. Only files that are not used by any games are removed
Added
New setting: "Auto Rename Snapshots to Old Format" / "Delete Files After Rename"
(preferences, "Images" / "Categories" tab)
This will automatically rename snaps from new MAME format "\gamename\0000.png" to the old
format used by the front-end "full_gamename0000.png". Click on the "help" button next to its
checkbox for a more detailed info... disabled by default
version 5.4 change log - March 07, 2008
Fixed
Select parent game was bugged
Access violation with columns profiles if a column index is invalid
Several visual bugs
Button "Resize screenshots area" was not working correctly in some layout
Prev/next images browse buttons were bugged (blue ones)
Image types auto cycle feature not working in some cases
Add/remove to/from favorites/hidden list was not working right
MAME features: "record .wav; .mng"; "record/play .inp; .sta" was not working.
Funny no one reported this... does anyone use these features ? :(
Button "Clear Selected" not working in "Delete Multiple Games Files"
Several cosmetic fixes (too many to list)
Open picture dialog, replaced by open file dialog
Changed
Image type is now known as "Image Category". Entries in "EmuLoader.ini are
changed as well
Renamed "Show Command Line Before Running Game" to "Run Game Confirmation Dialog"
(main menu "View")
Renamed "Auto Cycle Previous/Next Image Types" to "Image Category Prev/Next Auto Switch"
(images popup menu)
Column "Description" renamed to "Title"
Renamed "Resize screenshots area" to "Center Splitters (Resize Images)" (images popup
menu)
Feature "Automatic Game Documents" is now called "View Game Documents"
You cannot rename image files while in layouts view
Replaced game documents tool bar panel by a popup menu (mouse right-click)
Moved "\resources\msgbox_icons\" folder to "\resoureces\images\msgbox_icons\"
Improved
Columns positions ([Position] section) are not saved in profiles if their positions
are same as default... to prevent further errors
Major rewrite on prev/next image buttons. Only sequential image filenames are
supported from now on, meaning you no longer can have gaps in filenames like:
"galaga.png"; "galaga0002.png"; galaga0008.png"
These files must be renamed as:
"galaga.png"; "galaga0000.png"; galaga0001.png"
Even more source code cleanup and optimizations (again and again and again!!!) ^-^
Systems filter menus (tool bar button and main menu "Games Filters") are only visible if
the emulator and games list are valid)
Face lift and optimizations on all screens and some features
Removed
System view mode is gone. To view games by system use the system filter
(main tool bar buttons or "Games Filters" main menu)
Feature "Open in a window" (view game documents) is no more
File "\resources\images\NoSnapshot.png" is no longer used. A blank image panel is
displayed when no valid screenshot is found (for the 1st image only)
Tray icon is no more. EL now stay minimized when running games. TrayIcon component
is also removed from the project
A bunch of images from "\resources\images\" folder and sub-folders (not used anymore)
Several icons from "\resources\main_icons\"folder that are not used anymore
Option: "Blend Clone Icons in 50%"
Added
Support for MAMEUI games icons
Large icons, small icons, tiles view modes are back! (EasyListView v1.72)
-> Everything works, except the following limitations / bugs:
- No virtual mode to keep it as simple as possible
- Incremental search does not support searching by game name
- Visual bugs that cannot be fixed (EasyListView's fault)
- No support for arcade controllers to navigate in the games list (still
working on a solution for this one!)
- No hot-keys support for some actions
-> Some visual tweaks were added (preferences screen, "Games List" tab):
- "Gradient Selection Bar", a nice customizable gradient bar. Thumbnails view
looks awesome with this...
- "Selected Full Item Paint" will select the entire cell (text + icon)
Thumbnails view mode! (EasyListView v1.72)
This is an experimental feature. Only game snapshots are supported
-> Feature:
- Custom settings (main menu "View", "Thumbnail Settings"):
1. Size scale from 90x90 to 400x400
2. Enable/disable border and color customizable
3. "Show Parent if Thumb Not Found": Load parent snapshots if clone
snapshots are not found (enabled by default)
- All thumbs are processed within threads for faster loading
- You can delete game snapshots directly from this view mode. Just select
all games you want and use the new "Delete Selected Game Snapshots" option
in the games popup menu, new "Thumbnails" sub-menu
- MAMu_ icons are not displayed in this view mode
- Reload selected Thumb (games popup menu, "Thumbnails" sub-menu)
- Reload All Thumbnails (games popup menu, "Thumbnails" sub-menu)
- Images preview and game documents are disabled in this view mode.
To convert snapshots, use the "Convert Snapshots" menu item from the
"Thumbnails" sub-menu (games popup)
- Games filters are fully supported, including the left bar
-> NOTES:
- If you keep switching between thumbnails and other view modes very
fast, EL might crash
- This feature use A LOT of memory when viewing all games.
About 240MB to load one thousand images, at 125x125 size. The bigger the
thumbs, more memory will be used
- Thumbs are loaded only when games appear in the screen for the fist time
to save memory, if you are using a filter with only a few games
View modes for the images preview (main menu "Images", "View Mode" menu item):
-> "Classic Mode": old 1 image mode with no multi-screenshots or layouts support
-> "Layouts Mode": new view mode with multi-screenshots and layouts support
Show/hide images layouts and change their title. To edit a title, select the one you want
and hit "F2" hot-key (or use the "Edit Title" button), and type the new description
directly into the list. Hit "ESC" key to abort or "ENTER" key to confirm the change
(preferences screen, "Images" / "Layouts" sub-tab)
Note: single layout cis always visible so do not try to hide it!
New setting: "Layout Prev/Next Auto Switch" (images popup menu)
Enable this so you can cycle between images and layouts with the prev/next blue button,
while in layouts view mode (same as image category auto cycle)
Ability to hide panels in the layouts customize screen (dual and triple layouts), so you
can view only 1 or 2 images in a triple layout and 1 image in a dual layout.
Panels sizes might not be saved/restored when restarting, and there can be weird results
when hiding panels (layouts were not ment to have hidden images!)
Hidden games feature is changed into a filter now ("Games Filters"). Valid options are:
-> "List All": all games are visible
-> "Hidden Games": only games listed in the hidden list are visible
-> "No Hidden Games": all games are visible except the from in the hidden list
New Delphi component: "ExTrackBar". A trackbar with labels and other stuff
New images resampler filter: "Scale2x". This one doubles the snapshots resolution, and
support only title snapshots and game snapshots
version 5.3.1 change log - February 11, 2008
Fixed
Screenshots alpha blend was disabled
Crash when scanning ZiNc and Daphne games lists
Games with multiple controls were not being properly filtered when using "Control Type"
filters (main menu "Games Filters")
Changed
Files renamed/moved:
-> from "\ini_files\favorites\default.ico" to "\resources\main_icons\favorite_user.ico"
-> from "\resources\tray_icons\el_icon1.ico" to "\resources\main_icons\trayicon.ico"
Improved
"Bad Dump" / "No Dump" info in scan results screen for each ROM/CHD
Display screenshots is a lot faster
The "no snaphshot" image is shown only when the first screenshot is missing. When using
previous/next buttons, if screenshot is not found, the last one loaded is not removed
Hint for previous/next screenshot buttons
Even more source code cleanup and optimizations
Removed
URL label link on top of game documents window/panel
Files deleted:
-> Folder: "\resources\main_icons\"
"leftpanel_root.ico"
Folder and all its files "\resources\tray_icons\" deleted
New MAME snaps filename format. Only the old "fullgamename0000.ext" is supported from
now on (use the new "Convert Snapshots" feature to avoid renaming all files manually)
Icon files from favorites feature. No more custom favorites icons
Added
Multi-screenshots layouts!!!!!!!!!
View up to 3 screenshots at the same time
-> Features:
- set what image types to use for each layout using the "Customize" menu
item in the new "layouts" tool bar button
- switch layouts easily using the new "layout" tool bar button
- resize each image using the splitters
- settings are saved in the new "[front-end]\ini_files\screenshot_layouts.ini"
file
- each image panel use the background color configured in preferences screen
- each image panel have a hint with its type description so you know what is
being shown (just pass the mouse thru the image)
- features disabled multi-screenshots is enabled: "filename / resolution label";
"change image types"
- use the new "Reset Screenshots Sizes" menu item (images popup menu) to
center the splitters into the screenshots preview area (current layout only!)
- use the same image type in more than one place
New Delphi component, "RichEditURL". URL detection is within the game document text now :)
No HTML tags support though
New setting: "Set All Games as Available (Scan Games)" (preferences screen)
See the help button next to this setting for more info...
New feature: "convert snapshots from MAME to EL format" (main menu "Images")
Use this to convert all your "gamename\0000.png" snapshots to "fullgamename0000.png"
Added the "Screen Resolution" column back (1st screen only). You need to re-create your
games lists again. I will not add refresh rate though
Warning: you must delete all your games lists and columns profiles before using this
new build if you are upgrading from v5.3 or EL will crash!
New button in screenshots tool bar to resize its area so only description column is
visible
Driver "m52.c" into the "Irem Old School" filter for "Moon Patrol" game
New files:
-> Folder: "\resources\images\img_layouts\"
"img2_layout1.png"; "img2_layout2.png"; "img3_layout1.png"
"img3_layout2.png"; "img3_layout3.png"; "img3_layout4.png"
"img3_layout5.png"; "img3_layout6.png"
-> Folder: "\resources\main_icons\"
"img1_layout.ico"; "img2_layout1.ico"; "img2_layout2.ico";
"img3_layout1.ico"; "img3_layout2.ico"; "img3_layout3.ico"
"img3_layout4.ico"; "img3_layout5.ico"; "img3_layout6.ico"
-> Folder: "\resources\images\
"msgbox_top.png"
version 5.3 change log - January 26, 2008
Fixed
Clone games not showing in the list when using grouped view mode and
"show available only " or "show missing only" filters
This fix will show parent games in the list one way or another, so clones can be shown
Access violation when trying to delete .zip games while game is set as missing (MAME only)
Driver status info in "game details" screen was not showing for all systems
ClrMAMEPro .dat files info not being restored on restart
Input playback / record was not working
Add games to hidden list not working... also fixed re-select item if feature is enabled
Re-select item after deleting games from favorites lists
Random game button is finally fixed
Also, added a timer of 03 seconds. If no game is chosen by then, the first visible game on
the list is selected... to prevent front-end from freezing when games list is too small
System nodes still showing when they shouldn't (system view mode)
Game name not being reset when no games are selected
Threaded timer was not being stopped in some operations (splash screen)
Entries not being properly handled in scan result files (.miss)
10 seconds delay when running emulators in some systems
Changed
Support for the new MAME image format "\gamename\0000.png" is reduced to the first
2 image types (title snapshots / game snapshots). All other image types will only
use the old format "full_gamename0000.png"
"Emu Loader image format (fullgamename0000.png) is always enabled now, and the new
MAME format is optional. Removed the setting from "Images" main menu
Files renamed:
-> Folder: "\resources\main_icons\"
"image_07_gameartwork" to "image_08_gameartwork"
"image_08_maws" to "image_09_maws"
"filterarcade_10_aae.ico" to "filterarcade_09_aae.ico"
"filterarcade_09_mjolnir.ico" to "filterarcade_06_mjolnir.ico"
Game details screen remade
Moved Mjolnir from 8th to 3rd system in the list
Playback / record input files are now read/written inside a game sub-folder
You only need to set the main folder for the inp files and EL will add the game name
sub-folder automatically (just the way the savestate feature works)
ROMs/CHDs marked as "nodump" are never checked and will be marked as valid since games
can run even when they are missing (mainly for MAME)
Format of "sysname_roms.el" files are changed. ROM size info is removed since it's
never used by the front-end when scanning the games list
Improved
Frame box label of image types folder selection show all possible file formats
for each type (preferences screen, "Images" tab)
Code optimizations and removal of some unused functions / variables
Status bar "game name" label now show "gamename [parent_gamename]"
Select item function is a lot faster and its implementation is 100% ghost-safe
Reduced image filters to 3 states: "off", "Linear" and "Lanczos"
Removed
Status bar panels: "game size"; "current favorite profile"
Status bar icons and customization
Files removed:
- Folder: "\resources\main_icons\"
"statusbar_game_size_emu.ico"; "statusbar_game_size_zip.ico"; "emu_pinmame.ico"
"filterarcade_06_pinmame.ico"; "unzipfile.ico"
- Folder: "\resources\gameslist_icons\"
"PinMAMEParent.ico"; "PinMAMEClone.ico"; "PinMAMEBios.ico"
"UnPinMAMEParent.ico"; "UnPinMAMEClone.ico"; "UnPinMAMEBios.ico"
- Folder: "\resources\images\topbars\"
"emu_pinmame.png"
- Folder: "\resources\images\"
"NoGamesAvailable.png"
PinMAME system is gone...
ROMs list from game details screen. Not much useful...
ROM size info from "sysname_roms.el" file. EL never check ROM sizes anyway (you'll
need to re-create all your games lists...)
Game size info is gone. Wanna know a game's size ? Go to MAWS for that info
Setting "Display Zip Error Messages" since the new zip library does not open the file if
there are errors
"No Games Available" when games list is empty (unnecessary screenshot)
Added
PCB image type added back
New files:
-> folder: '\resources\main_icons\"
"image_07_pcb.ico"
Some emulator settings for Daphne. Also added support for laserdisc players other
then the "Virtual" type (preferences screen, Emulators tab)
version 5.2.1 change log - January 18, 2008
Fixed
No need to select a game in the main list to edit left panel filters
Left panel's node height fixed to 18 pixels (same as games list with 16x16 icons)
Main menu / popup menus not loading / using custom themes (preferences screen)
version 5.2 change log - January 17, 2008
Fixed
Merged sets being added more than once in "\arcade\mame_merged.ini" file
MAME ROMs folder selection was auto-sorting the list
Scan games function now search all MAME folders for .chd files
System node were counting as games when using system view mode
All system nodes were visible when selecting one system (system view mode)
Random game button was bugged again (this feature is very slow when just a fewer games are visible)
Changed
Files updated:
-> folder: "\resources\images\"
"about.png"; "logo.png"
-> folder: "\resources\main_icons\"
"statusbar_game_size_emu.ico"; "statusbar_game_size_zip.ico"
Files renamed:
-> folder: "\resources\main_icons\"
"image_12_gameartwork.ico" to "image_07_gameartwork.ico"
"image_13_maws.ico" to "image_08_maws.ico"
Moved "number of screens" from main tool bar buttons to "Games Filters" main menu
Hot-key for "previous image type" is now F9 and for "next image type" is F10
Status bar "standard" size changed to 16x16 icons. 24x24 icons were removed
Image type #1 (game snapshot) cannot be disabled anymore (preferences screen)
Moved screenshots "stretch" and "display parent images" settings back to screenshots
popup menu and removed the "settings and special effects" button from the tool bar
Added a "ClrMAMEPro Data File" edit box in "Emulator Setup" screen so you can define
a .dat file for all systems that need it to create the games list. There is no
need to put a "SEGAModel2Emulator.dat" in "\ini_files\" folder anymore
If the file is not found or not defined, when creating the games list you will be
prompted to select one
Read/write resolution settings for "SEGA Model 2 Emulator" was bugged
Also, added support for custom resolutions
Remove "Show expanded Items" menu option from "View" main menu and added a new
"Collapse Tree" / "Expand Tree" to toggle between collapse and expanded
Merged sets are a MAME exclusive feature from now on. This front-end will not support merged sets
for any other system, including MAME based ones (AGEMAME, PinMAME, HazeMD, etc...)
The follwing options are now MAME exclusive features (games popup menu):
-> "Run Game and Playback Input"
-> "Run Game Game and Record Input"
-> "Run Game and Load a Save State"
-> "Run Game and Record Wave Output"
-> "Run Game and Record MNG Output"
Game documents feature is a MAME only feature now (it always was)
Moved "Auto Previous/Next Image Type" from main menu "Images" to images popup menu
Audio samples, main chip, display, sound, input, driver status and savestate info are
now extracted from MAME's "-listxml" output... for bios entries
Read/write columns profiles were adding the full path twice on the filename string,
preventing the profile to be read/written
Improved
More code optimizations (again, no speed gains)
Display game screenshots is a little faster (not noticeable for most of you)
Support for "filter / Mature" entries in .ini files (left panel)
Only available systems can be selected when scanning the games list
(games popup menu)
Removed the "Delete Selected Games Files" option from games popup menu ("Delete" menu
item), and changed the "Delete "gamename.zip" menu option so it can handle multiple
selected games as well, using the same "Delete" keyboard hot-key
Treeview's FullExpand() command used instead of a loop (don't know why I never used
this command before...)
You can delete files in the "Select File" screen using the "Delete" keyboard hot-key
Centralized all the calls for the "\ini_files\" folder and its sub-folders into one
function
Updated the function that create games lists based on ClrMAMEPro .dat files so other
emulators can also use it
Removed
DOS box run mode. Games run with DOS box in normal state and extract games list / emulator version minimized
The following image types are gone: "Select"; "Versus"; "Wallpaper"; "Hardware"; "PCB"
Go to MAWS to check on these images...
Files deleted:
-> folder: "\resources\main_icons\"
"filter6_numscreens_all.ico"; "filter6_numscreens_1.ico"; "filter6_numscreens_2.ico";
"filter6_numscreens_3.ico"; "filter6_numscreens_4.ico"; "mamu_scanmiss.ico";
"mamu_scannotneeded.ico"; "binary.ico"; "statusbar_total_games.ico";
"create_gameslist.ico"; "emu_extrafiles.ico"; "image_07_select.ico";
"image_08_versus.ico"; "image_09_wallpaper.ico"; "image_10_hardware.ico"
"image_11_pcb.ico"; "image_nextno.ico"; "image_prevno.ico"
Support for zipped images is gone... for good this time
Customize images tool bar. You can only show or hide this bar from now on
Image type button from main tool bar button. Now only available in images tool bar
Option: "Use MAME Games Info" for ZiNc system. If a MAME games list already exists, EL will get all extra info
from it automatically
Option: "Delete All Visible Games" from favorites popup menu. If you want to delete all games from a favorites list,
enable "Multiple Section", select all games and use "Delete / Delete All Selected Games Files" (games popup menu)
Several menu items from games popup menu "Delete" (sorry but you're gonna have to
delete files manually from now on)
-> "Config File"
-> "Nvram File"
-> "Input File"
-> "Save State File"
Number of screens column from the main games list... you still have the filter
in the "Games Filters" main menu
Added
Support for a new emulator: "AAE - Another Arcade Emulator"
New emulator that run vector games using OpenGL width hardware acceleration, adding
some cool effects. A ClrMAMEPro .dat file is required for this system (go to "Logiqx")
Note: this system support only full split ROMs (no parent/clone relationships)!
Main filter "Parent/Clone" is also applied in the left panel
New left panel popup items:
-> "Apply Main Tool Bar Filters": Use this option to re-apply main filters from
the tool bar buttons
-> "Export Games List": Export the current games list to a .ini file so you
can use it as a new filter for the left panel
New button for the MAWS web browser tool bar: "Exit MAWS", to exit the browser and
load the game snapshot image type
New feature: "Left Panel Editor" (main menu "Left Panel" / left panel popup menu)
This is what you've been waiting for. A complete editor for all your custom filter needs
You can even edit existing filters like "catlist.ini", "artwork.ini", "series.ini" and
others. Read "docs\el-leftpanel.txt" file for a user guide
There are 2 possible options:
-> "Create a New Filter": the editor will open with a new filter already
initialized waiting for your input
-> "Edit a Filter": after selecting a .ini from the list, the editor will open
and load the filter so you can add/remove folders or games
The editor is very easy to use and visualize. See the "help" button at the
editor's tool bar for a small tutorial
Warning: only MAME is supported by the editor. Even if you select games from
other systems, they will not be added
New files:
-> folder: "\resources\images\topbars\"
"filters.png"; "emu_aae.png"
-> folder: '\resources\main_icons\"
"emu_aae.ico"; "filterarcade_10_aae.ico";
"leftpanel_btn_add.ico"; "leftpanel_btn_delete.ico"; "leftpanel_btn_save.ico";
"leftpanel_btn_help.ico"; "leftpanel_btn_addgame.ico"; "leftpanel_btn_deletegame.ico";
"search.ico"
-> folder: "\resources\gameslist_icons\"
"AAEParent.ico"; "AAEClone.ico"; "UnAAEParent.ico"; "UnAAEClone.ico"
Detection of available screen resolutions, based on your video card+monitor
Used in ZiNc settings screen, SEGA Model 2 settings screen, AAE settings screen
New filter: "Save State" in "Games Filters" main menu
version 5.1.9 change log - January 04, 2008
Fixed
File "\arcade\system_name.el" not updated correctly when doing a single game scan
Left panel custom background color not being set (same as games list)
Scan results was not checking for merged sets and adding all those games to its list
ZiNc games showing when using "Vector" filter
History label (top game documents panel) was bugged
Bad treeview colors in "check for missing images" and "check for missing MAMu_ icons"
Executing games with "Run Custom Game Settings By Default" enabled was searching only for
game custom command lines
Setting / deleting "debug.ini" for MAME was not working correctly
Changed
Scan results changed to not include games where "gamename.zip" is not found (for both
master and clone sets
Improved
Emulators setup screen UI updated for easier access
Fixed appearance of ListView lists in several screens (for Windows Vista)
Multi-selection enabled for the left panel filters. Select a bunch of filters
and all games from those filters combined will be displayed in the list
Single selection is still supported... of course
Left panel now use the main filter "Have / Miss". Note that selecting this main
filter will overwrite the select filters from the left panel!
Columns editor UI improved a little bit for easier maintenance
Minor improvements to the left panel
More optimizations for easier maintenance (no speed improvements)
Reduced to 10 tries the "Random Game" feature so the front-end does not fall into
an endless loop. Useful if you are viewing a list where most games are hidden
Removed
Games list icons are not validated anymore. If there is one or more files
missing, the icons in the games list will be messed up
Added
Support for MARP data file (http://marp.retrogames.com)... game documents feature
File is updated daily. Download it from this link: http://marp.retrogames.com/marp.dat
Place it in "[frontend]\ini_files\" folder or MAME root folder.
New main menu: "Left Panel"
This menu will have some special options. One of them, create special filters using
Emu Loader's internal database, to be used with the left panel
Menu Items so far:
"Create Control Types File" -> create a "controltype.ini" with a list of all
MAME control types and its games. Some users might want to use this filter instead of the
one from "Games Filters" main menu
More improvements to the left panel:
-> Left panel popup menu:
"Apply Selected Filters" -> use this menu item to enforce the left panel to
apply its selected filters (useful when multiple filters are selected and you used the
main filters and want to revert to the left panel)
"Collapse / Expand Tree" -> collapse or expand all items in the tree
"Reload TreeView" -> reload all .ini files into the treeview (no filters are applied!)
"Default Panel Size" -> restore the default width of the left panel
New files:
-> folder: "\resources\main_icons\"
"leftpanel_root.ico"
-> folder: "\resources\gameslist_icons\"
"MAMEParent.ico"
"MAMEClone.ico"
"MAMEBios.ico"
"UnMAMEParent.ico"
"UnMAMEClone.ico"
"UnMAMEBios.ico"
version 5.1.8 change log - December 20, 2007
Fixed
When disabling left panel, main tool bar filters were not being applied again
Hidden games stay hidden when left panel and hidden games features are enabled at the
same time
Open/close button for root nodes in left panel disappearing when starting front-end
with left panel enabled
Memory leak in "game details" screen
Incremental search not working in several screens
Improved
Files that do not follow the standard format are not added into the left panel
(catver.ini for example)
Merged some more functions to remove unecessary code duplicates
Removed
Several audit icons from folder "\resources\main_icons\"
Artwork filters from "Games Filters" main menu. Also removed support for the now old
artwork.ini (thanks Mr. Do!)... "[frontend]\ini_files\artwork.ini" file
Only the new artwork.ini file is supported and is to be used with the left panel
Audit feature is completely removed from the project (see new feature "Scan Results"
for more info)
Added
Added a new main tool bar button: "Left Panel Filters" for easier access and removed
the menu item from the "Games Filters" main menu
Left panel now have a popup menu with some options
New files:
-> folder: "\resources\main_icons\"
"left_panel.ico"
"scanresult_ok.ico"
"scanresult_badcrc.ico"
"scanresult_notfound.ico"
"scanresult_game.ico"
Support for custom background image and font for the left panel
Same background image as games list and font is the same as parent games font
New options for MAME 0.122 in MAME settings screen
Custom width for the left panel is now saved in "EmuLoader.ini"
New folder "font_ttf" with some custom fonts used by the front-end, in case
you don't have them
New feature: "Scan Results" (games popup menu)
Every time you scan the games list, files are created or updated in a new folder:
"[frontend]\arcade\scan_results\". Each system have a file with the ".miss" extension,
except for "ZiNc" and "Daphne" systems (no support for these 2). Only games that have
missing ROMs/CHD are added
There are 2 options for this feature:
1. Selected Game ("Shift+A" hotkey) -> view the results of a single game
2. All Missing Games ("F8" hotkey) -> view the results of all missing
games for all systems
NOTES:
- At least one ROM or CHD file must be found for each game or it will not
be added in the list
- Green status is for "Ok" ROMs/CHD files
- Red status is for "bad checksum" and is for CHD files only (no ROMs)
- Gray status is for "missing" ROMs/CHD files
- If you download a new .zip file you must re-scan the games list since this
feature does not do any scanning, it only read "system_name.miss" files
version 5.1.7 change log - December 04, 2007
Fixed
Some sample files being set as "not used" in "Scan Audio Samples" (main menu "Games List")
New history link label background color and font settings not updated with game docs settings
Cannot create a new favorites profile when "Default" profile is selected
Default ini file for MAME based emulators not created on a couple situations
Bug when editing ROM paths in emulators settings screens
Changed
Renamed "Bios Sets" to "Bios Sets Settings" and removed the "Default / User Define"
options. This feature is now enabled by default (non-default biosset is automatically
loaded when starting MAME games). Remember that this is a MAME only feature
Improved
Some code optimizations for easier maintenance and redundancy removal
More internal updates for the upcoming large icons view mode
Added
New system: Mjolnir - Arcade Emulator v0.4 [Namco's System 21, System 22,
and Super System 22 harware]
Another MAME based emulator. It works the same way as MAME. Enough said :-))
Ini files (mjolnir.ini; etc) might not be fully compatible though
ROMs files format updated with one more field so EL can know if a specific ROM
is from a bios set or is a regular ROM. This will only be used by the new audit system
("mame_roms.el", "agemame_roms.el", "pinmame_roms.el", "hazemd_roms.el", "mjolnir.el")
New format: rom_name=rom_size¬rom_crc32¬rom_status¬is_bios_rom;
bios.ic23_l=65536¬e5693ce3¬baddump¬1;
pacmanh.6j=4096¬5c96a733¬¬;
Note that you don't have to recreate your games lists... at least not until I finish
rewriting and activate the new audit feature
New feature: Left panel filters
Same panel as in MAME32 but with a huge difference... you can have as many sub-levels
as you like, all you need to do is create a section in the file like so:
file: 'catlist.ini'
[My filter / Maze / Top View / Multiplayer / Level 33.1 / Konami]
game1
game2
.
To toggle this feature ON/OFF, use the new "Enable Left Panel" setting in "Games Filters"
main menu (enabled by default)
NOTES:
- you do not need to add all sub-levels way down to the last one (EL will do that
automatically)
- all files must be placed in the new "[frontend]\leftpanel_filters\"
folder
- you can have a custom description for each root node (.ini file). Just
create a new section inside called [TITLE] with the following format:
[TITLE]
FolderTitle = Type any description you want here
- other files like "catver.ini", "nplayers.ini", "mameinfo.dat", etc... are
still located in "[frontend]\ini_files\" folder
- All files from MAME32 are supported, "rankings.ini", "series.ini",
"catlist.ini", "version.ini", "artwork.ini", and others
- Use mouse right-button click to call popup menu
version 5.1.6 change log - August 27, 2007
Fixed
Auto game document #6 not being correctly read (preferences screen)
Painting bug when scrolling games list while auto game documents is enabled
Columns profile not being saved on certain cases (front-end startup)
Columns profile .ini file is always deleted before saving again... to fix bug
Games not being set correctly in grouped view mode. You'll need to re-create your games lists
to fix this bug
Custom driver options was setting game name instead of driver name
Entries with null value now do not have "# entry" (mame.ini)... ctrlr, mngwrite, etc
Couple bugs when scanning games list and CHD files
Accesss violation when deleting multiple .zip files (progress bar bug)
When favorites profile is empty, it was not being set as default at startup
A few internal bugs
The drop-down box # 6 (preferences screen) was reading the setting from the drop-down box #5
Changed
Renamed "Hidden Games Enabled" to "Activate Hidden Games" / "De-activate Hidden Games"
For MAME based systems, all driver .ini files will now be handled in
"[mame_inifolder]\source\" folder. For MAME builds older than v0.118u2, you will need to move
the files to "[mame_inifolder]" manually
ZiNc games now use the field "ScreenType" to hold the index of games, so EL can run them with ZiNc emulator
Games list files are changed again. Please re-create all your games lists
User interface in games filters selection screen has changed. Filters descriptions are now
displayed as hints as you move the mouse over each option
Improved
Feature "Scan Audio Samples" ("Games List" main menu)
It only shows a list of sample from missing games and sample files not used by any game
First change to start implementing large view mode, using "EasyListView" v1.60 component
On every game selection, the full game data will have to be redirected to memory variables
I just hope this does not generate the bug from old EL buids...
Removed systems lists from main menus to add them at runtime... much easier to add new
systems in the future since I don't need to manually add the menu items
Main buttons tool bar / images buttons tool bar / status bar customization simplified
Customize columns screen
Bios sets selection screen (main menu "Emulator", "Bios Set" menu item)
Removed
Menu setting: "Use Controller" (main menu "Emulator")
Menu theme selection from "View" main menu. To select a theme go to preferences screen,
"Front-end" tab, "Menu / Popup Themes" sub-tab
Game size (.zip file size)
Top bars and feature descriptions from some screens. Also some files from
"[front-end]\resources\images\topbars\" folder
Added
ROMs validation. All games are now fully scanned when updating the games list. If a
game is missing a single ROM, it will be set as unavailable
Notes:
- ROMs of bios sets can now be placed in game sets (parents and/or clones)
- ROMs of bios sets can now be placed in game sets (parents and/or clones)
- you can put ROMs of game sets into bios sets, but parent set must still exist
- you still cannot put ROMs of parent sets into clone sets
- ROMs for ZiNc and Daphne systems are not fully scanned (no ROMs list...)
Customize main menu and popup menu colors (preferences screen, "Front-end" main tab,
"Menu / Popup Themes" sub-tab)
Notes:
- You can create as many themes as you like. They will be saved in "\ini_files\menu_themes.ini" file
- Setting "Frame Round Corners" is used for both selection band and checked items
- You can set single color, 2 colors gradient or 4 colors gradient for the selection band
- Theme "Office 2007" cannot be modified
A pretty timer in status screen so you can keep track on how long a task is taking.
This is my first piece of code that use a second thread! :-))
Only create/scan games use this timer for now
Fix for clone games with CHD files. File "\arcade\mame_roms.el" is updated to support filenames
of clone CHD + filename of the parent CHD, using a ' _"parentchd"_ ' tag, like so:
Game: konam80u
CHD : 826uaa01.chd
Parent CHD: 826eaa01.chd
.. sample from "mame_roms.el"..
826uaa01.chd_"parentchd"_826eaa01.chd=0¬456f683c5d47dd73cfb73ce80b8a7351¬;
This means that the front-end will detect both chd files and if found will set the game as
available... Make sure to create the games list again
New files to keep track of merged games located in "[frontend]\arcade\" folder (MAME based systems only)
- mame_merged.ini
- agemame_merged.ini
- pinmame_merged.ini
- hazemd_merged.ini
You can resize game columns directly into the list now. Columns profile will be saved when:
- exiting the front-end
- swicthing between system filters
- when opening columns customizer screen
Support for html link on new history.dat (not directly into the richedit box, but with a label above it)
New menu option: Reload "catver.ini" / "nplayers.ini" / "artwork.ini" (main menu "Games List")
Use it to load the info from those files without restarting the front-end
version 7.3.1 change log - August 25, 2013
Fixed
Misc filters were not being validated when using text filter bar
version 7.3 change log - August 22, 2013
Fixed
HBMAME settings file was not being loaded if you have MAME and HBMAME in the same folder tree
Columns were not being updated after closing customize columns screen
Added
Number of players option added to the text bar filter
version 7.2 change log - August 01, 2013
Fixed
Previous/next image buttons were not working correctly. Also, they do NOT work at all if the "load image with threads"
button is enabled
Added
New misc filter: Hide Device Sets with no ROMs
Check this option to hide all device sets that have no ROMs (for MAME and HBMAME). Note that this does not hide
device sets with ROMs (like mie and qsound)
Support for MAME 0.149u1
version 7.1 change log - July 11, 2013
Fixed
Crash fix for Demul 0.58 (create games list)
Some systems were still using media type index higher than 1. You must re-create games lists for all systems that
use CHDs or disc image files (Daphne, Demul... except MAME/HBMAME)
Improved
Optimizations in view audit results feature. Support up to 19 devices per game. I doubt a game will use that much devices...
future proof :)
Added
New arcade filter: Taito Type-X System
New column "Game Status": available, missing ROMs/CHDS, missing
Extremely
ultra mega preliminary support for 7-Zip files. This is an experimental
feature. I recommend to keep your MAME/HBMAME/Demul collections in ZIP
format though. With 7-zip you can save around 3GB of HDD space if you
have ALL MAME games but c'mon... 500GB external HDDs USB 3.0 are so
cheap these days!
- for MAME/HBMAME and Demul only!!!
- file "7z.dll" must be placed in same folder as EmuLoader.exe (file must be downloaded separately)
- if you do not have ROM sets in 7-Zip format, you don't need "7z.dll" as Emu Loader works just fine without it
- very high compression profiles will be slower to handle (compared to zipped sets)
- Zip and 7-Zip formats are supported at the same time. You can have
mixed sets in both formats, no need to convert your entire ROMs
collection
- newer 7z compression
profiles might not be compatible as the only Delphi library I could
find compatible with Emu Loader's internal code was coded in 2011 (not
by me...). There is no way to adapt EL's internal code without breaking
the entire project!
- MAME/HBMAME audio samples are also supported... are .7z samples supported in MAME ?
- for information, the library source code is "source\sevenzip.pas" and 7z.dll version supported in v4.65.0.0
version 7.0 change log - June 26, 2013
Fixed
-FATAL BUG: image zip content lists were not being re-initialized after switching images categories/layouts.
Only fixed by restarting the application
Application crash when creating games lists or auditing games. Equal chars ( = ) of ROM names replaced by by minus chars ( - )
All ROM names are now checked for HTML tags, fixing A LOT of unusual ROM names (cosmetic fix)
False "file not found" messages due to a couple variables not being handled correctly at frontend's startup (cosmetic fix)
Wrong system icon and game name in Emu Loader's "Select File" custom dialog (cosmetic fix)
Fatal bug haunting Emu Loader for more than a year! When game is already set as missing, ROMs list was not being updated
in "system_name.miss" files after auditing... games with device sets were the most affected
This was a big problem as available ROMs were being shown as missing, making it impossible to update ROM sets
I don't know how I could have missed this for so long!!!
Several minor fixes, app settings and cosmetic fixes
Images layout feature was being initialized TWICE at startup!!!
Images splitter grip icon not being set at startup if setting was disabled
Minor bug preventing EL from deleting "arcade\systemname.miss"
Columns could be clicked while in grouped view... this mode does not allow sorting for obvious reasons
Changed
File "biosset.ini" is only used for MAME now. This file's purpose is to change the bios used on systems with multiple
bios sets (like Neo-Geo). This prevents other emulators from messing this file up
MAMu_ icons folders unified into a single folder. Select folder is now in Preferences screen, "Games List" page.
Relative path is supported (relative to Emu Loader)
- EL use the same icons for all systems, but the following systems can be in a sub-folder (not required):
ZiNc: "mamu_icons_dir\zinc\"
DICE: "mamu_icons_dir\dice\"
Option "Run Game [AlterMAME]" is gone (games popup menu), and a new "Autorun Game with AlterMAME" menu item is added
(ON/OFF toggle). Feature is located in emulators setup screen and in games popup menu
Just choose an alternate MAME build in Emulator Setup screen, run game normally. If it fails (MAME exit code 2),
Emu Loader will try to re-run the game using AlterMAME executable
The AlterMAME feature now works as it was originally intended...
Feature "Show Game Docs" now display info for MAME only. No point showing info on other systems
Improved
Several tweaks and optimizations everywhere
Favorites
list is always loaded with games list now, regardless of the feature
being enabled or not. This causes a tremendous speed up when switching
favorites on/off. One downside... games list loading can be up to 2.5
seconds slower if you favorites list is larger than three thousand games
Removed
Settings "Bold font style in selected games" is removed. Pointless feature...
MAME
features "Show Average FPS" and "Show Error Messages" are no more. When
running a game with missing ROMs, a error message will popup after
exiting the emulator, and the "Game Details" screen can be open,
showing what ROMs are missing for the game... this CANNOT be disabled
and it's supported on all systems (except Daphne)
Button "Delete Image" removed from images tool bar. This feature can only be accessed in images popup menu (mouse right-click)
Added
Support for MAME 0.149
New emulator support: HBMAME (HomeBrew MAME), completely independant from MAME: http://hbmame.the-chronicles.org
Most MAME based features are supported
- support for games with multiple bios sets like Neo-Geo (biosset_hbmame.ini)
- partial merged sets support (just like MAME)
- game custom settings
- game audio samples detection. also, scan for audio samples in "Games List" main menu
- features from "Run Game (Extra)" games popup menu are supported
- NO support for mameinfo.dat, history.dat and other docs
- support for catver.ini, languages.ini and others
- detection of device sets and games with CHDs
- AlterMAME is NOT supported
New emulator support: DICE: Discrete Integrated Circuit Emulator
- it uses an external ClrMAME XML games list "DICE_xml.dat", created by myself specially for Emu Loader.
It has more game info compared to regular XML lists
- ROMs folder cannot be customized. ROMs sets, zipped only, must be placed in DICE's own "roms" sub-folder
- Games with no ROMs are set as available
Display orientation, number of players and controls types are now extracted from external ClrMAME XML .dat files,
if available. This is mostly for DICE...
Support for zipped MAMu_ Icons (icons.zip). YES you read it right!
Notes:
- for ZiNc games, icons from "icons\zinc\" sub-folder are used, if found but it's not required
- for DICE games, icons from "icons\dice\" sub-folder are used, if
found, to avoid mixing with MAME icons (not required)
- MAMEUI icons do not have those special sub-folders. Icons from the root .zip folder are used instead
New setting: "Dark Font Selection Bar", for those who want to use a white font in games list
(preferences screen, Games List tab)
Multi-column sorting. Sort by 2 different columns at the same time (request). Usage: click on first column header, then
hold Ctrl key and click on a second column header
Notes:
- this is a hack and extremely experimental... not a true multi-column sort implementation!
- it only works with ascending sort (A to Z)
- only works with details view mode
Re-added screen resolution and screen refresh rate info in games list columns
version 6.7 change log - February 20, 2013
Fixed
Random application crash after selecting games
Menu option "Enable MAMu_ Icons" was grayed out after selecting folders for icons
Image Layout "tripple 6" was not loading/saving image 3 width correctly
Games splitter bar disappears when making the games list panel too small
Auditing multiple selected games was showing the system selection window. It's not necessary as the system of the
first selected game is used. Games of different systems cannot be scanned together on this feature!
No more script error messages when using web browser game info (ProgettoEMMA) on certain games (88games and others)
It was as simple as enabling the "silent" mode in the TWebBrowser component
A few buttons in images tool bar should not be visible when viewing game web info
Clicking the close button in message box window was not returning the correct "abort" message
Unfocused lists had wrong sized selection bar
Images tool bar buttons still visible after disabling preview images, while info game docs panel enabled
Images panel messed up when disabling preview images, while internet game info is being used
Preview images being loaded twice at startup. Startup is now 2 seconds faster
Changed
Button "Toggle view mode" in images tool bar moved to a fixed position (second button). Easier to switch between view
modes as it never moves to another position
Finally updated the Graphics32 component to latest v1.9.1. There are no speed improvements though
Renamed "Enable Layout Dimensions" to "Show Layout Dimensions" (images popup menu). You'll need to re-enable this setting
User interface back to the good old looks. No gradient backgrounds, glowing texts or glass buttons
Fixed background color of many controls to pure white RGB(255, 255, 255)
Main image panel does not change color anymore, it's always black... as it should have been
Replaced the last semicolon char " ; " by the special " ¬ " char. Now EL can have game titles with semicolon (Japan titles ?)
Games list files are updated automatically at startup
Improved
Showing
preview images on selected games is a bit faster. If the game image is
already loaded in images panel, it is not loaded again (parent + clones
related games). This is good for zipped images and when "load using
threads" is disabled
eg.: selecting "Elevator Action" and its clones. If you only have the
image for the parent game, selecting its clones will not reload the
parent image... if it's already loaded
Switching between image layouts is lightning fast now!
Replaced the "Lanczos" resampler filter by "Hermite". It's faster and it looks better. No noise, phantom pixels
or over-sharpening added to the image
Expanded the "Interface Type" filter in "Misc" filters (tool bar button) to include fruit machines in the mechanical option, and
added a "Fruit Machine" option. Also, for better filtering, catver.ini is also used if available
Removed
Setting
"Show Image Border" is gone. 7 pixels border in images panel is always
enabled from now on. It looks more professional...
Added
Load preview images using threads
- Preliminary feature, disabled by default. To enable it, check the first button in images tool bar buttons
- It works great for images layout view mode and zipped images, as all 3 images load at the same time
- Unzipped images are also supported, but the speed gain is less apparent
- One nice side effect, no lag when scrolling the games list (if images panel is enabled)
- If you select games too fast, sometimes images of the last selected
game might not load. This was necessary to prevent the application from
crashing
- a 2
milliseconds delay was added before loading each image panel, to avoid
crashes when switching between image layouts views
- Best used with multi-core CPUs
New filter: "Games ROMs" ("Misc" filter button) -> you can choose to show only games with ROMs/CHDs or only games with no
ROMs (pong ?).
For MAME Plus! this is handy since it has more than 30 games that do not use ROMs
Re-added the function to select random games. Access "Select a Random Game" in games popup menu (mouse right-click) or with
the "Ctrl+R" hot-key. There will be no tool bar button for this. It does NOT work with the grouped view mode!
Support for "languages.ini" from AntoPISA Progetto-SNAPS. Place file in "emuloader\ini_files\" folder
- new column in games list (details, grouped views)
- new "Language" option in "text bar" filter settings (tool bar buttons)