Maximus Arcade Plugin

[djvj]

Added a preliminary Maximus Arcade plugin

I played around with the FE a bit and it's pretty straightforward. It can easily be configured to work with RL, but it uses a lst format, and in binary... This means it cannot be read outside the FE itself. it also doesn't look like there is anything in the file besides paths to each rom, so it's not important anyways. So BuildDatabaseTable only fills the "Name" label as that's all there is.

Have not added art yet, but it should be pretty simple since all the settings are stored in a single Ini file, with section names named after the system ident, like NES. But the FE uses some internal mapping that I could not find anywhere. So for instance they use Nintendo Super NES. It's too bad because most systems are exactly the same as our names, except for a handful. There does not appear to be an ability to add custom or new ones either, which I find odd. So essentially we could map it all in the plugin w/o a need for a mapping ini.

Basically looks like this:

    ; index: Maximus system name | Maximus ini section | RocketLauncher system name
    maximusMap=
    ( LTrim
    3DO Interactive Multiplayer|3DO|Panasonic 3D0
    Atari 2600|2600|Atari 2600
    Atari 5200|5200|Atari 5200
    Atari 7800|7800|Atari 7800
    Atari 800/800XL|A800|Atari 8-Bit
    Atari Jaguar|JAG|Atari Jaguar
    Atari Lynx|LYNX|Atari Lynx
    Atari ST|AtariST|Atari ST
    Bandai Wonderswan Color|WSC|Bandai WonderSwan Color
    Capcom Play System 3|CPS3|Capcom Play System
    Coleco Colecovision|COL|ColecoVision
    Commodore 64|C64|Commodore 64
    Commodore 128|C128|Commodore 128
    Commodore Amiga|Amiga|Commodore Amiga
    Daphne|Daphne|Daphne
    DOSBox|DOSBox|Microsoft MS-DOS
    Flash Player|Flash|Flash Games
    FinalBurn Alpha|FBA|Final Burn Alpha
    Future Pinball|FPinball|Future Pinball
    GCE Vectrex|VECT|GCE Vectrex
    Kawaks|Kawaks|
    Magnavox Odyssey2|ODY2|Magnavox Odyssey 2
    MAME|MAME|MAME
    Mattel Intellivision|INTV|Mattel Intellivision
    MSX - Microsoft Extended Basic 1.0|MSX1|Microsoft MSX
    MSX2 - Microsoft Extended Basic 2.0|MSX2|Microsoft MSX2
    Nebula|Nebula|
    NEC PC-Engine|PCE|NEC PC Engine
    NEC Turno-Grafx 16|TG16|NEC TurboGrafx-16
    Nintendo Entertainment System|NES|Nintendo Entertainment System
    Nintendo Super NES|SNES|Super Nintendo Entertainment System
    Nintendo 64|N64|Nintendo 64
    Nintendo Gameboy|GBx|Nintendo Game Boy
    Nintendo Gameboy Color|GBC|Nintendo Game Boy Color
    Nintendo Gameboy Advance|GBA|Nintendo Game Advance
    Raine|Raine|
    Sega Genesis|GEN|Sega Genesis
    Sega 32x|GEN32|Sega 32X
    Sega CD|GENCD|Sega CD
    Sega Master System|SMS|Sega Master System
    Sega Game Gear|GG|Sega Game Gear
    Sega Saturn|Saturn|Sega Saturn
    Sega Dreamcast|Dreamcast|Sega Dreamcast
    Sega Model 2|Model2|Sega Model 2
    Sinclair ZX Spectrum|ZX_Spectrum|Sinclair ZX Spectrum
    SNK Neo-Geo|NGP|SNK Neo Geo AES
    SNK Neo-Geo Pocket|NGPx|SNK Neo Geo Pocket
    SNK Neo-Geo Pocket Color|NGPC|SNK Neo Geo Pocket Color
    Sony Playstation|PSX|Sony PlayStation
    Sony Playstation 2|PS2|Sony Playstation 2
    Texas Instruments|TI994A|Texas Instruments TI 99-4A
    Ultra 64|U64|Ultra64
    Visual Pinball|VPinball|Visual Pinball
    Windows Media Player|MPlay|
    ZINC|ZINC|Zinc
    )

 

[brolly]

Seems you cannot add new systems indeed, just replace new ones:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=101463.0

Is this for real? LOL

They have a game list converter tool to convert their lists to text files, could you please upload a couple of LST files so I can check exactly what's inside them?
This will be a problem for HLHQ because I will have no way to list the games for each system, so how will I be able to set any game specific settings?

 

[djvj]

Well it might be possible to convert them on the fly, they are readable in notepad, but with a lot of characters in between the names. Regex could probably pull out the names. I can't get you one right now as I'm at work, but you only need to d/l the demo install and it comes with everything.
http://www.xgaming.com/downloads/maximus/max_210.zip

If you want to do it yourself, simply point any of the emus rom path to a folder with roms and it will build the lst for you.

Ah so you can swap out systems, but yea, that's real man, there is nothing to add anything and those hidden system mapping names are built in, which that's what you work with in the config tool, not the names in the ini.

With that converter, I could probably script that and make it completely hidden to convert the lst to text if no other option exists.

 

[djvj]

So looked into the converter, and it works, but there is nothing in the db that we don't already have. The db only contains the rom name and the path to it.

Here is my converted nes.lst:
http://pastebin.com/y9vvVRnn

Basically, reading the lst or converting it then reading gains nothing.

 

[brolly]

Yeah, I did that before, but did you figure if the rom path is stored anywhere besides the .lst files? Because since I can't read those files how I'm not able to generate a list matching them unless I know the rom path (and extensions) set on Maximus. I can use the ones from HL of course, but they might differ so the games seen in HL won't match the ones seen in Maximus.
But I guess that's the only way of doing it.

 

[djvj]

It's not stored anywhere else. I was thinking I could automate the creation of a converted lst file to txt using the converter when one does not exist. The only problem with that is if the user makes a change, they would have to manually convert the list again. Forcing it every time, I think would add lag to every launch, especially for larger dbs.

But since there was no info in the db, I didn't pursue the above script at all. If you need the converted lst for HQ, then I can look into it.

 

[brolly]

I thought about that, but this would mean the converter would at least flash on screen for an instant every time I need to access the database. If the converter had command line support this would be a good option, this way I'd rather not use it.
I guess I'll just assume the user has set the rom paths to be the same in both Maximus and HLHQ.

 

[djvj]

Well I could try launching it hidden and it won't flash, but I'm not sure I would be able to do the "file drop" event when hidden. I don't know until I try.

 

[djvj]

Moved thread to public Maximus section.

 

[fishman]

Added a preliminary Maximus Arcade plugin

I played around with the FE a bit and it's pretty straightforward. It can easily be configured to work with RL, but it uses a lst format, and in binary... This means it cannot be read outside the FE itself. it also doesn't look like there is anything in the file besides paths to each rom, so it's not important anyways. So BuildDatabaseTable only fills the "Name" label as that's all there is.

Have not added art yet, but it should be pretty simple since all the settings are stored in a single Ini file, with section names named after the system ident, like NES. But the FE uses some internal mapping that I could not find anywhere. So for instance they use Nintendo Super NES. It's too bad because most systems are exactly the same as our names, except for a handful. There does not appear to be an ability to add custom or new ones either, which I find odd. So essentially we could map it all in the plugin w/o a need for a mapping ini.

Basically looks like this:

    ; index: Maximus system name | Maximus ini section | RocketLauncher system name
    maximusMap=
    ( LTrim
    3DO Interactive Multiplayer|3DO|Panasonic 3D0
    Atari 2600|2600|Atari 2600
    Atari 5200|5200|Atari 5200
    Atari 7800|7800|Atari 7800
    Atari 800/800XL|A800|Atari 8-Bit
    Atari Jaguar|JAG|Atari Jaguar
    Atari Lynx|LYNX|Atari Lynx
    Atari ST|AtariST|Atari ST
    Bandai Wonderswan Color|WSC|Bandai WonderSwan Color
    Capcom Play System 3|CPS3|Capcom Play System
    Coleco Colecovision|COL|ColecoVision
    Commodore 64|C64|Commodore 64
    Commodore 128|C128|Commodore 128
    Commodore Amiga|Amiga|Commodore Amiga
    Daphne|Daphne|Daphne
    DOSBox|DOSBox|Microsoft MS-DOS
    Flash Player|Flash|Flash Games
    FinalBurn Alpha|FBA|Final Burn Alpha
    Future Pinball|FPinball|Future Pinball
    GCE Vectrex|VECT|GCE Vectrex
    Kawaks|Kawaks|
    Magnavox Odyssey2|ODY2|Magnavox Odyssey 2
    MAME|MAME|MAME
    Mattel Intellivision|INTV|Mattel Intellivision
    MSX - Microsoft Extended Basic 1.0|MSX1|Microsoft MSX
    MSX2 - Microsoft Extended Basic 2.0|MSX2|Microsoft MSX2
    Nebula|Nebula|
    NEC PC-Engine|PCE|NEC PC Engine
    NEC Turno-Grafx 16|TG16|NEC TurboGrafx-16
    Nintendo Entertainment System|NES|Nintendo Entertainment System
    Nintendo Super NES|SNES|Super Nintendo Entertainment System
    Nintendo 64|N64|Nintendo 64
    Nintendo Gameboy|GBx|Nintendo Game Boy
    Nintendo Gameboy Color|GBC|Nintendo Game Boy Color
    Nintendo Gameboy Advance|GBA|Nintendo Game Advance
    Raine|Raine|
    Sega Genesis|GEN|Sega Genesis
    Sega 32x|GEN32|Sega 32X
    Sega CD|GENCD|Sega CD
    Sega Master System|SMS|Sega Master System
    Sega Game Gear|GG|Sega Game Gear
    Sega Saturn|Saturn|Sega Saturn
    Sega Dreamcast|Dreamcast|Sega Dreamcast
    Sega Model 2|Model2|Sega Model 2
    Sinclair ZX Spectrum|ZX_Spectrum|Sinclair ZX Spectrum
    SNK Neo-Geo|NGP|SNK Neo Geo AES
    SNK Neo-Geo Pocket|NGPx|SNK Neo Geo Pocket
    SNK Neo-Geo Pocket Color|NGPC|SNK Neo Geo Pocket Color
    Sony Playstation|PSX|Sony PlayStation
    Sony Playstation 2|PS2|Sony Playstation 2
    Texas Instruments|TI994A|Texas Instruments TI 99-4A
    Ultra 64|U64|Ultra64
    Visual Pinball|VPinball|Visual Pinball
    Windows Media Player|MPlay|
    ZINC|ZINC|Zinc
    )

So where can i get the plugin at?

 

[djvj]

If you have RL, you already have it. It's in the Plugins folder. Keep in mind it only covers the RL side, not the RLUI side. RLUI cannot read the lst files from Maximus as it uses a proprietary format and is not open text.

You acn still launch from Maximus, and that's what is mainly important here,

 

[fishman]

So is there any setup tutorials or setup videos for rlauncher and maximus arcade? All i want is the feature to hide command prompt boxes and emulators showing for a split second. Or is there a script that can make a black screen until the game launches? Please help with maximus arcade.