34 replies to this topic

[Guitar]

Yep, kept this one quiet, but its here and its lo tech.

 

You'll need to download the installer as usual.

 

There is an extra bonus feature in this one, not 100% complete yet but it needs to be in the menu's for testing so you can see what it is.

 

Also a few bug fixes, I enabled the mouse wheel again. I haven't added the heads up win/loss yet for online mode, I'll probably have another update out tonight.

 

Enjoy...

Attached Files

•  PAInstaller 10907.zip   46.51MB   117 downloads

[vectra666]

Almost got me there Astra p time my arse, shit you have to thanks. About a million astra fans will be pleased with this one and it's the 4player arena type. Watch this site go into meltdown laters lol thanks for the updates and the extra special gift.

Edited by vectra666, 01 April 2014 - 07:05 AM.

[banditboy2006]

excellent i will get my special layout finished as i can be added online now

[Guitar]

There is genuinely something extra in here that's worth having. But, yeah, couldn't resist the jape.

[Guitar]

I've finally sorted out the state files on the server, so every game should now work online, if one fails, let me know.

 

If anyone has any layouts they need help with, or has questions, ask away.

 

I'm working on another upgrade with various new bits in it, and also some docs to help people understand the tools.

[vectra666]

thanks for the update again where,s party time lol nice to see all the games running thanks

[banditboy2006]

i am doing a release thread for blue moon tonite

 

can you add it online as well if possible

[banditboy2006]

you have added mame support 

[Guitar]

i am doing a release thread for blue moon tonite

 

can you add it online as well if possible

 

Yeah I'll add it online once you release it.

[Guitar]

Save Layout in MAME Format?

 

Its in development, but it shouldn't be too long before its compatible. I'm working with El Condor, he's doing some MAME graphical updates, and I'm allowing saves from Amber using the MAME format. That way Amber can be used as a wysiwyg editor for MAME layouts. Whether it can be used as a fully fledged front end remains to be seen, but its a step in the right direction.

[vectra666]

Not used mame only a bit in the arcade side so you weren't far off with partytime maybe dond the early ones at least sounds interesting very much as could never get on with name but could be made easier with Amber

[Bencrest]

Not used mame only a bit in the arcade side so you weren't far off with partytime maybe dond the early ones at least sounds interesting very much as could never get on with name but could be made easier with Amber

 

That would require Scorpion 4 ROMs to be loadable in Amber though surely? Then again, that would probably be easy to implement once Amber is moved from VB to C++.

[elcondor]

There's a thing that MAME can do with Windows stuff to publish the status of certain outputs etc that could be picked up by an external tool.

 

Search for MAME Hooker for an example runtime or http://dragonking.ar...aboutmamehooker , or http://aarongiles.com/?p=181 for something more generic.

 

Obviously for lamps, leds etc we use an internal version of this, but in MAME artwork anything that isn't a screen that is in the layout has to run through this method, so we could make this work if people were desperate. Might be worth checking the licensing though. I'll have to start playing with the layout generation though, for my own purposes - I know there's a load of stuff missing from the MAME layout code that wouldn't matter if Amber was handling it instead.

[Guitar]

There's a thing that MAME can do with Windows stuff to publish the status of certain outputs etc that could be picked up by an external tool.

 

Search for MAME Hooker for an example runtime or http://dragonking.ar...aboutmamehooker , or http://aarongiles.com/?p=181 for something more generic.

 

Obviously for lamps, leds etc we use an internal version of this, but in MAME artwork anything that isn't a screen that is in the layout has to run through this method, so we could make this work if people were desperate. Might be worth checking the licensing though. I'll have to start playing with the layout generation though, for my own purposes - I know there's a load of stuff missing from the MAME layout code that wouldn't matter if Amber was handling it instead.

 

There wouldn't need to be much control at all really.

 

Pass ROMs and config settings from front end > MAME.

Be able to Init, Reset, Run

Then pass the relevant gfx info from MAME back to Amber for displaying. (lamp number and state, 7 seg number and state, alpha display values, reel number and position.

And some method of switch inputs.

 

Everything else can be handled locally in MAME.

 

I'm up for it if I can get a bit of help/explanation of how to hook it together.

 

As for checking the license, what would the issues be?

[banditboy2006]

another one should be on it way tonite from me

[niallquinn]

Cheers , thanks!

 

NQ.

[Daryl]

OK - I have downloaded the new installer, but like a plonker I've gotten a new PC and forgotten to back-up the Amber layouts and ROMS...

 

...I've also forgotten where the latest release layouts amended for the newer Amber emulator are - any quick links to them anyone please?

[elcondor]

 

There wouldn't need to be much control at all really.

 

Pass ROMs and config settings from front end > MAME.

Be able to Init, Reset, Run

Then pass the relevant gfx info from MAME back to Amber for displaying. (lamp number and state, 7 seg number and state, alpha display values, reel number and position.

And some method of switch inputs.

 

Everything else can be handled locally in MAME.

 

I'm up for it if I can get a bit of help/explanation of how to hook it together.

 

As for checking the license, what would the issues be?

Just you've got to be a bit canny about making sure that the first time use disclaimers are used and stuff, check http://www.mamedev.org/legal.html just to make sure - I think you're OK.

 

If you look at the links for MAME Hooker, you might be able to see how to get an interface to MAME's outputs that you can play with, I'm not really too sure about how it works myself, suffice it to say that MAME sends on off signals for lamps and leds. The main issue we would have is that MAME smooths the lamps out, so you don't get the dimming effects that your stuff is capable of. Can I suggest you let me contact some MAME peeps about this - I mean, it used to be done for Visual Pinball (called, funnily enough, Visual PinMAME), but I think they did some sort of visual basic DLL compile that didn't make a lot of sense to me.

 

Actually, just written a belt reel visual method for MAME, but deliberately held off from posting about it yesterday, as me waking up would have been to much like a joke for April 1st.

Edited by elcondor, 02 April 2014 - 06:45 PM.