METHOD 3 - LAUNCH PRIOR TO MAME LAUNCH

NOTE:  In order to view the ToolTips in the coding sections (aqua background), you must have javascript enabled.  This page assumes you already have MAME™, Johnny5, and your frontend of choice configured and just wish to add support for launching Johnny5 prior to launching MAME.

INTRODUCTION

This page explains how to launch the Johnny5 Viewer prior to launching MAME.  This is a fairly basic procedure and will work with any frontend that can support sending a rom name to a batch file rather than an executable.

PRELIMINARY SET-UP

If you have read my previous pages, you have very likely done this.

First off, this is optional, but if you are using WinXP, I highly recommend installing the "Open Command Window Here" Powertoy from http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx.  This will let you right-click on a folder and have a command prompt pointing to it. I think Win98SE already includes this feature (although you might need TweakUI to add it).  I'm not sure about other OS's.  I will assume from here on that you have it installed.  If you choose not to install it, you will have to navigate to the proper directory using "CD" commands as covered in the batch files below.

Other ways of adding this are shown here (Win2k), here (Win2k), here (Win2k), and here (Win98 up).  In case all this fails (and for me in one case it did), you can simply copy cmd.exe from \WindowsRoot\System32\cmd.exe to the applicable folder and double-click that.

BATCHFILE SETUP AND TESTING

NOTE:  The following suggestions are optimized for EmuLoader 4.7 (and up).  EmuLoader 4.7 has very robust batch file support.  It will run the default.bat file first, but it will also search the directory for any <gamename.bat> file and run that instead.  So for example, if you wanted to use an older version of MAME for Battlezone, you would simply copy the default.bat file and rename it as bzone.bat, then edit the file to point to the older MAME version.  MAMEwah will work with a default.bat file, but would be just as happy with a mame.bat file in the MAME directory, or just calling Johnny5 directly prior to launching MAME, but I will get to that later. . .

Create a new folder, recommended C:\mamebat.  Open notepad, copy the text below (aqua background), paste and modify as required (see ToolTips), and save as a text file named default.bat.

• echo off
  c:
  cd\
  cd johnny
  Johnny5.exe %1
  cd\
  cd mame
  mame %1
  exit

NOTE:  This was a simplified example for maximum compatibility.  It is not required to do so, but if your frontend can pass cloneof and driver data to the batch file, you could modify line 5 above (Johnny5.exe %1) to read:

• Johnny5.exe %1 -cloneof %2 -driver %3

To test the batch file, right-click on the C:\mamebat folder and select "Open Command Prompt" (or otherwise open a command prompt at the C:\mamebat prompt) and type default followed by a working rom name and press enter.  The Johnny5 Viewer should pop up for the selected game, and then when you press Escape, MAME should launch.

EMULOADER INTEGRATION

Launch EmuLoader (4.7 or above).  Text shown is for 4.7.4.

From the taskbar, select Advanced User>Alternate Batch Files.  Ensure the MAME tab is selected, and click the enabled checkbox.  Click the icon following default file and navigate to C:\mamebat\default.bat (if you followed the example) and click "open."  For the simplified example, we only need the Name parateter sent to the batch file, so ensure only it is selected (add/delete as required under Parameters), and click the Ok checkbox at the top of the form.  If desired, EmuLoader can also send the -cloneof and -driver parameters, so click the default parameters button to add them, or add/delete other parameters as desired.  Next, from the taskbar, select the File>Preferences>General>Games tab and click "Use Custom Options by default."  Finally, if you want to hide the annoying Command Prompt Window, select the File>Preferences>General>Advanced User tab, under the "MS-DOS Box State" option, select either "Hidden (not recommended)" or "Minimized".

You can also set Alternate Batch File settings for Zinc, Daphne, AgeMAME, or PinMAME if you want to use custom batch files with these emulators.

That should do it, and EmuLoader should now launch Johnny5 prior to launching a game.

MAMEWAH INTEGRATION

Unfortunately, I am not very familiar with MAMEwah.  I have set it up and used it previously, but it is not my frontend of choice (no offense to it or MinWah), so I am not very familiar with it.  I have consulted with MinWah on these settings and have personally verified they work, as described using Versions 1.61 and 1.62B5.  I will post file names and settings for these versions.  BTW, if you are also new to MAMEwah, I found this guide very useful in getting it working.  (You might also want to review the support files at Jcrouse's site.)

• Method 1 - If you are using from MAMEwah 1.62b1 up to the latest (24Sep05) (1.62B6 Beta) version of MAMEwah (from the MameWah forum), I think you can basically ignore the batch files above and just set APP PREVIOUS to C:\johnny\Johnny5.exe.  For version 1.62B5, this involves setting the following lines in your (typically) C:\mamewah\config\mame\mame.ini file:
• ### Execution Settings ###
  pre_emulator_app_commandlines              C:\johnny\Johnny5.exe [name] {nodosbox} {safelaunch}
  emulator_commandline                             C:\mame\mame.exe [name] {autodosbox} {safelaunch}
  post_emulator_app_commandlines           
  
• Method 2 - This method may be used with any version of MAMEwah.  You can also look through your MAMEwah config files, find the line where it calls C:\mame\mame.exe and modify this to call C:\mamebat\default.bat (after creating it above, of course).  Note that if you previously had the {autodosbox} flag set, you need to change it to {nodosbox} or MAMEwah will relaunch the game from the beginning the first time you exit MAME.  For MAMEwah version 1.62B5, this involves setting the following lines in your (typically) C:\mamewah\config\mame\mame.ini file:
• ### Execution Settings ###
  pre_emulator_app_commandlines             
  emulator_commandline                             C:\mamebat\default.bat [name] {nodosbox} {safelaunch}
  post_emulator_app_commandlines
• For MAMEwah version 1.61, this involves setting the following lines in your (typically) C:\mamewah\ini\mame.ini file:
• ### Execution Settings ###
  emulator_executable                       C:\mamebat\default.bat
  commandline_format                       [name] {nodosbox} {safelaunch}          

NOTE:  Ensure that you don't have any trailing spaces after the entries above or the viewer may fail to launch.

OTHER FRONTENDS

Unfortunately, I don't have much info on setup with other frontends.

CONCLUSION

Well, that's about all I have to say.  Hopefully this page was helpful for you.  If you see anything major that I got wrong, know of a better way to do this, or if you just can't get it to work, shoot me an E-mail  and I will either fix the page or try to help you out.