FEMAME - THE IDEAL COMPANION FOR EVERY MAME ------------------------------------------- Written by the infamous Blood! (C)1997, Cheese Freak Software WHAT'S NEW? ----------- Version 1.61 - 14/08/97 ----------------------- * This is a quick update of 1.6 to please everyone who shrieked at the fact that I'd missed out the -vg option in the previous release. Sorry everyone, I never saw it! My machine's too slow to run the vector games in Vesa modes anyway.... :-) The extra option 'VECTOR' is now included. * But while I was at it.... I future-proofed FEMAME a little better so that I don't have to do a 'quick update' like this again. You can now specify new MAME command line switches on FEMAME's command line. So, if MAME 0.97 had a new switch called '-freemoney', and FEMAME didn't yet support it, you could run 'FEMAME -freemoney' and the switch will magically be added to the list of switches for every game you run until you exit. If you have multiple switches (or two-part switches, like -soundcard 0), surround them with quotes, like 'FEMAME "-freemoney -andbeer"' and you'll get both. In case you're worried that I've removed the logging feature, you can still do 'FEMAME -log' and get the expected results. * Added bonus feature! Adding the future-proofing above means that you can now use FEMAME to drive MAME32 for Windows! See the FEMAME.TXT file for further details.....! :-D Version 1.6 - 12/08/97 ---------------------- * Added support for -224x288 alternative VGA screen mode, for all you MATROX users (and others, it works very nicely on my non-Matrox card too!). Select from the new VIDEO entry - see below. * Revised selection method for VESA and VESA SIZE. The new method is much easier to extend (I was running out of screen space!) and is also more descriptive, as I have more room for information on the screen. VESA has been swapped for VIDEO, as you now select the video mode you require rather than specifying whether Vesa should be on or off. * Revised selection method for joystick/mouse. Now you select CONTROL! This made it much easier to add support for the trackball and the -dir4 joystick option, both of which are now in there as well! If you selected MOUSE ON in a previous version, CONTROL will be set to mouse - otherwise it will be set to Keyboard or Joystick. If you select keyboard, mouse or trackball control, the '-nojoy' parameter is passed to MAME. * Squashed a bug in the Auto-Add routines which sometimes screwed everything up when FEMAME came across a game description (in the -listfull list) which was over the maximum length. Forgot to add a null char to the end when I truncated the bloody string, didn't I.... Doh! * Tidied up the code somewhat. The data now takes about 1800 bytes less memory thanks to me getting rid of some unused stuff. A bit of real code-tidying saved some memory too, and also makes any future updates a little easier for me. Not that you lot care about that! ;-) * Added the feature that everyone has been screaming for - you can now get FEMAME to display the sections of README.TXT relevant to the game you want to play by simply pointing at the correct entry and hitting the F5 key. You'll be treated to the game's entry from the big list at the start of the file, followed by any instructions from further down. Hope you're all satisfied now! ;-) * Added support for other types of archive apart from ZIP. I got lots of requests to add RAR support, so I have completely rewritten all the compression routines to be easily extendible! Now in the future if I want to add another type of compression I only have to add around ten lines of configuration information and I'm away! Not bad, eh? Anyway, you can now use PKZIP, RAR and ARJ archives with FEMAME, I'll add more if the need arises. Should the mood take you, you can have each game as a different type of archive (but your samples and ROM files must be archived with the same utility, i.e. you can't have PHOENIX.ZIP for the ROMs and PHOENIX.RAR for the samples). You CAN, however, have any kind of archive you like for your settings file regardless of what you use for compressing the game data - just put SETTINGS.ZIP, SETTINGS.RAR or SETTINGS.ARJ into the settings directory and it will be automatically detected and used. Don't have all three though... :-) * Added a counter! This sits at the bottom of the main selection window and tells you the number of the game you are pointing at and the total number of games currently installed in your Femame database. Handy for checking how many games you have and for quickly seeing whether you're at the bottom of the list or not. * Unfortunately as many of you discovered, error checking in AUTO-ADD was below par. Previously it would allow you to add more than 200 items, even though 200 was the maximum. This resulted in it scribbling all over memory and possibly crashing your PC or corrupting your FEMAME.INI file. Major apologies if this happened to you, I'm really sorry. Anyhow, I have now upgraded the facility to abort nicely if this should happen. * FINALLY! MAME 0.27 supports more than 200 games! Argh! This was FEMAME's ceiling and MAME went right through it! I said I'd worry about it when it happened and I have. Then, after I'd worried about it for a bit, I recoded many parts of FEMAME to potentially allow ALL THE ENTRIES YOU COULD EVER NEED! For the time being, however, I've fixed the new maximum entries at 500 - this keeps the code size down and will help me with debugging. The new code isn't quite as well tested as I would have liked and there's a chance there may be a few bugs. If you notice ANYTHING even slightly weird happening (like programs launching with the wrong options set, getting the wrong screen when you press a key, etc.) then please drop me a line. * Updated the example INI file once more to fully support MAME 0.27. Version 1.5 - 03/07/97 ---------------------- * Updated FEMAME to use CFG files as well as DSW and KEY files (if you still have them, or use an old version of MAME). FEMAME will automatically tidy up after itself is old style files have been replaced with new CFG files (if you're using ROM zipping - if you have unzipped directories it won't try to do this). * Altered the Clear Dipswitches routine to be a Clear Settings routine. This will now clear dipswitches, redefined keys and joystick setup by deleting DSW, KEY, and/or CFG files, depending on what you have. * Fixed a bug in the rename routines which meant that .KEY files were never renamed if you changed a game's directory name. A bit late now, I know, but I didn't spot it before! * Simplified the ZIP routines a little - they should now be a tad faster. * Now possible to activate MAME logging by passing the -log parameter to FEMAME. Not on the main menu 'cos you wouldn't use it often.... * ROMs are now unzipped with the -d parameter included so that the directories within the ZIP file are created. When shutting down, these directories are removed properly (I hope). This allows you to run Space Firebird from a ZIP file! :-) * Rewrote the Auto-Add function to use -listfull instead of -list. Now FEMAME will automatically add full game names to any new games that Auto-Add finds instead of just using the directory name. * Added support for the -nodouble, -rol, -ror and -mouse parameters! :-) * Updated Vesa Size option to allow new 320x240 and 512x384 screen modes. Also, the parameters are now passed to MAME in -320x240 format rather than -320 format (it says that this method is preferred in the MAME docs, so who am I to argue?). * Re-organised the screen again! Sorry - last time, I promise! I had to make some room for the new options (see above) but decided to tidy it all up while I was at it, as I was never really happy with the new layout that I used in 1.4. I'm much happier with this new format! All the video options are grouped together, as are the sound options and control options. Much tider, I think - I just hope they don't add many more options 'cos I'm running out of room! :-) * Rehased the INI file reading routines to allow for infinite future expansion of the options, as the five spares that I originally allowed for have now all been used up. Old-style INI files will be converted automatically without you ever knowing.... :-) * Fixed a bug in the INI reading routines that could potentially screw up the default options if you fed in an INI file from an earlier version of FEMAME. * Added "Hint Lines" to the bottom of the screen while editing a game's options! Handy if you're not too sure what the option is for.... :-) * A few other small fixes. * Example INI file updated to include all new games from MAME 0.25 Version 1.4 - 09/06/97 ---------------------- * Updated options! You can now specify all of the different VESA modes, your screen size (if using VESA), and also the -nofm switch is available in case your machine is incompatible with the new FM sound (like mine!). * A few small fixes. * Example INI file updated to include all new games from MAME 0.231 Version 1.3 - 29/05/97 ---------------------- * Altered INI file format slightly. Previous INI files will now be incompatible with the new version, but I have written some conversion routines into FEMAME which will rewrite your file for you. Altered format was necessary to add sample support. * Samples can now be zipped up and stored in the SAMPLES directory (only if you are using ZIPped ROM sets). No need to store samples in same ZIP file as the game ROMs any more. * Auto-add feature! Now you can get FEMAME to ask MAME which games it supports and automatically add any new ones to the list! For all you lazy people... * ZIPPED SETTINGS! You can now store all of your dipswitch, high score and key files in one big ZIP file in the SETTINGS directory. Saves LOADS of disk space due to the slack space being freed up when you delete all those tiny files..... :-) * Navigation fixed - no longer have to press a key which is not in the current title to reset navigation. If you're on Bombjack having just pressed BOM and you then press Z, you'll now jump immediately to Zaxxon, you don't have to press it twice (thanks for pointing that out, Mirko!). * Function keys changed! I've re-arranged the assignments of the function keys as there was little method to my madness. They're now a bit better. * On-line help added. You can pop up a little window with a listing of all valid keys by pressing F1 from the main menu. Very useful! :-) * High Score / Dipswitch clearing added. It's now possible to reset a game's high scores and/or dipswitch settings by pointing at it with the selection bar and pressing F4. * Loads more small fixes. * Example INI file updated to include all new games from MAME 0.22. Version 1.2 - 28/04/97 ---------------------- * Improved navigation. Now works on string-searching, like a Windows file selector. If you type 'BOM' you now move to Bombjack rather than to Bagman then Moon Patrol. You'll know what I mean when you try it.... * Now use the TAB key to accept changes to a game's options rather than the ESCAPE key. It was too annoying to press TAB to get in and then ESCAPE to get back out. * Save and restore for redefinable key files (*.KEY) added. MAME doesn't support these yet, but it will one day. And when that day arrives, FEMAME will be ready.... :-) * Tidied up save and restore routines for SETTINGS. Now much smaller, faster, and hopefully bug-free. * Allowed user to set one of three colour schemes and decide whether to use flashing or not. More colour schemes may follow. * Added code to save FEMAME preferences block into the FEMAME.INI file. Yet another addition to the file which doesn't require you to recreate the whole thing - I think that deserves some kind of award....! :-) * PKUNZIP wasn't found if it was just in the MAME directory rather than in the PATH. This is now fixed, if you don't want PKUNZIP in your PATH, it's now perfectly feasible to store it in the MAME directory. * -vesascan didn't work as FEMAME passed both -vesa and -vesascan to MAME, which only accepted one (-vesa!). Mirko has fixed version 0.20 of MAME to allow this, so I haven't fixed it here. * Cursor is now always enabled when returning the user to DOS after an error. * Better error messages displayed upon exiting to DOS. More helpful than the previous "black screen".... * When a ZIP of ROMs wasn't found, FEMAME would dump you back to DOS in an empty directory, leaving you to clean up for yourself. I've tweaked the code so that it will now return you to the MAME directory and remove the empty directory. * On fast computers there was a problem with pressing ESCAPE to exit MAME. Sometimes control went back to FEMAME so quickly that you didn't get the chance to release the ESCAPE key and were catapulted back to DOS. I've introduced a small delay and a keyboard-clear routine - this seems to clear up the problem. * Global set routines added. Now you can set ALL of the entries in the FEMAME database to certain values at the flick of a few buttons. * You can now press F10 to save the FEMAME.INI file at any time. I don't see that you would ever need to, but it's there in case it makes you feel better..... :-) * Example INI file updated to include all new games from MAME 0.20. Version 1.1 - 28/04/97 ---------------------- * Added error checking to prevent rom files from being deleted if you accidentally set ZIP mode to on and didn't actually have any ZIPped ROMS. * Removed requirement for DOS ATTRIB command. FEMAME no longer depends on it being present in order to use ZIPped games. * Some internal messages were accidentally flashed up on the screen occasionally. These have now been hidden away. * Altered ZIP routines to automatically create and remove the required game directories as and when you need them. Makes the MAME directory a LOT tidier! * Now possible to set the default values assigned to a new entry. Saves time by allowing each user to set his favourite values and hence not have to edit every new entry he creates. * Added facility to allow user to edit the directory name/game name of an existing entry. Useful for when games change their name within MAME (i.e. MRDO within MAME 0.17 is MRDOT within MAME 0.18). * Fixed 'jump to' keys so that you can jump to games beginning with a number (e.g. 1942). * Replaced rather poor example INI file with a brand new one. This contains EVERY game that MAME 0.19 will run and doesn't default to ZIP mode (I heard of a few people who accidentally deleted their ROMs by using the last example INI file when they didn't have any ZIPs). * Several people PROVED that FEMAME was Win95 compatible - docs updated accordingly. * Altered EXIT message to remind people not to do naughty things with FEMAME. * Rewrote a lot of the documentation to reflect the new and improved facilities of version 1.1.