Need GTK-based muti-emulator frontend

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sc0ttman
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Need GTK-based muti-emulator frontend

#1 Post by sc0ttman »

While making Puppy Arcade, I've looked around for many different emulator multi-frontends / rom-loaders... Most of which have been poor, or require around 10mb of libs to make them work! This is not ideal.

I was wondering if anyone knows of any decent frontends that DO NOT require either PERL, Python, PyGTK or GNOME?

If not, and here's the project part... Would it be possible to someone to make a very simple frontend for me? I've tried many times, but don't know enough - although I'm sure I can get it done with a little push in the right direction..

My requirements:

A gtk based frontend that shows a list of the emulators installed in Puppy Arcade, on the left, main window on the right.

When an emulator is selected from the list, the main window (on the right) is updated, with the current emulators details:

The main window would need 2 tabs - for 'roms' and 'settings'..

The 'rom' tab:

1. lists all the roms found in the rom directory (set in the 'settings' tab)
2. list the rom filename, filesize and play count
2. loads the rom when double clicked
3. a few extra (right-click?) options such as 'unzip','delete' etc


The 'settings' tab:

1. choosing the default rom directory for that emulator
2. choosing the default bios directory (if required)
3. opening/editing the config file of the emulator (in geany etc)

This would need to read/write settings to an rc file (beyond me :oops: ), but I'd only need someone to build a brief example, using only one emulator, I'd finish the rest...

If no one is interested that's fine, but there's a load of great GUIs made and shared on this forum - so I thought I would ask..

I'd be eternally grateful.

Cheers :)
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jemimah
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#2 Post by jemimah »

Can you point me to the ones with Gnome dependencies? I have had some luck with removing annoying gnome dependencies from otherwise decent software. ;)

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sc0ttman
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#3 Post by sc0ttman »

jemimah wrote:Can you point me to the ones with Gnome dependencies? I have had some luck with removing annoying gnome dependencies from otherwise decent software. ;)
I'll keep looking, but most of the GNOME frontends are MAME only.. As xmame already has a very nice frontend, I'm not really interested in MAME only solutions... But if I find something, I'll let you know..
[b][url=https://bit.ly/2KjtxoD]Pkg[/url], [url=https://bit.ly/2U6dzxV]mdsh[/url], [url=https://bit.ly/2G49OE8]Woofy[/url], [url=http://goo.gl/bzBU1]Akita[/url], [url=http://goo.gl/SO5ug]VLC-GTK[/url], [url=https://tiny.cc/c2hnfz]Search[/url][/b]

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#4 Post by zigbert »

sc0ttman
If we could meet on irc (or somewhere), I think the framework should be fixed during a couple of hours. It all sounds easy, but I don't know anything about emulators, so you must be available for tech specifications. You can also test instant, and get it the way you want.

UK is just 1 hour away of me, so it should be simple to find a suitable time.


Sigmund

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#5 Post by trio »

zigbert wrote:sc0ttman
If we could meet on irc (or somewhere), I think the framework should be fixed during a couple of hours. It all sounds easy, but I don't know anything about emulators, so you must be available for tech specifications. You can also test instant, and get it the way you want.

UK is just 1 hour away of me, so it should be simple to find a suitable time.


Sigmund
Ziggy,

You got yourself another new student... :lol:

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ttuuxxx
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#6 Post by ttuuxxx »

This is one :) I don't have the time to package it, but its a start :)
http://www.xe-emulator.com/index.php?m=about
http://audio.online-convert.com/ <-- excellent site
http://samples.mplayerhq.hu/A-codecs/ <-- Codec Test Files
http://html5games.com/ <-- excellent HTML5 games :)

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sc0ttman
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#7 Post by sc0ttman »

Thanks for the response... About xe - I've had it working (of sorts) but am looking for a frontend that acts only as a centralised rom loader - no emulation is required...

Zigbert, I'll send you a private message soon, detailing what I wanna achieve, I'm still trying to plan exactly what I'm looking for ... I'm checking out a few screenshots of popular solutions, see what I like most...

But needless to say, I wanna keep it as simple and lightweight as possible...

I do know what I would need:

- loads into fullscreen
- supports hotkeys/keyboard navigation (and therefore joypads, using rejoystick)
- shows some emulation settings to configure in the settings tabs, which allows users to choose different options each time they load a rom..
- remember the emulation settings chosen in the settings tab for each emulator

Some more advanced, but totally un-required features would be:
- skins (or 1 skin) that adds a nice background image, and fonts
- remember emulation settings for each rom

the main issue for me, is figuring out a way to send the settings to the emulators, using only one frontend... this is because various emulators call their options by different names.. I'm sure this can be achieved very easily, but I know nothing about this kind of stuff...

example: fullscreen may be initiated by the commands '-fs', '-fullscreen' or '--fullscreen'... it depends which emulator you are loading..

I see a need to pass these options as variables, so the frontend would, in the end, pass a command such as :

Code: Select all

exec $emulator $fullscreen $filters $sound $joypad "$rom"
this command could be either

Code: Select all

exec dega -fs -2 -nosound -joy /roms/gg/sonic.gg
or

Code: Select all

exec gens --fulscreen --bilinear -scale 2 --nosound --joypad /roms/genesis/sonic.zip
(these are just examples off the top of my head, not the actual options of these emulators)....

[edit]
I would think that in the settings tab, a different script would be used for each emulator, so that only the correct options are displayed and all options can be passed with the correct names and values, as shown above...
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#8 Post by sc0ttman »

If anyone is interested, I've sent Zigbert a message and a few screenshots to get this going...

Zigbert has been VERY kind in offering to help, particularly as most poeple will have no interest in this project...

Anyway, here are some very basic screenshots - pre-design, made in paint... If anyone wants to suggest some changes, or upload their own, please feel free... But keep it simple!

Depending on how this turns out, I think it may be possible to use it as a template for a multi-loader for anything... Especially if it's somewhat 'skinnable'.

(Example: If you use multimedia apps and files instead of emulators and roms, then you got yourself a *very* simple media center...)
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#9 Post by sc0ttman »

jemimah wrote:Can you point me to the ones with Gnome dependencies? I have had some luck with removing annoying gnome dependencies from otherwise decent software. ;)
I'd very much appreciate a fully working version of 'GNOME Video Arcade'... Without gnome! ( I had it working of sorts, but not really well enough...)

http://mbarnes.github.com/gnome-video-arcade/
[b][url=https://bit.ly/2KjtxoD]Pkg[/url], [url=https://bit.ly/2U6dzxV]mdsh[/url], [url=https://bit.ly/2G49OE8]Woofy[/url], [url=http://goo.gl/bzBU1]Akita[/url], [url=http://goo.gl/SO5ug]VLC-GTK[/url], [url=https://tiny.cc/c2hnfz]Search[/url][/b]

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#10 Post by jemimah »

It wants either xmame or sdlmame. Which do you prefer?

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#11 Post by jemimah »

I built this against sdlmame but I don't think it actually matters as it seems to have only been checking for the presence of the mame binary.

It's probably missing icons and it requires Gconf which is in the latest Puppeee but I don't remember if Puppeee Arcade is too old or not (probably). You're going to want gconf-dbus for Puppeee Arcade since it has dbus already, but you maybe want an Orbit flavored gconf for Puppy Aracade. Ttuuxx posted an orbit pet somewhere around here.

I didn't have to mangle this too badly to get it to build - most of the gnome requirements are optional, except gnome-doc which I removed.

Let me know if it works.

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#12 Post by sc0ttman »

jemimah wrote:I built this against sdlmame ... Let me know if it works.
Thanks very much jemimah.. Much appreciated..
I'll test it out very soon and let you know how I get on .. :)
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#13 Post by sc0ttman »

an example... NOT WORKING! (it does nothing...)
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#14 Post by sc0ttman »

jemimah wrote:Let me know if it works.
Segfaults when auditing the rom collection.. No idea why, doesn't say..
But thanks anyway jemimah, it's a few steps closer than I was! :roll:

But now Nikukyu has made MAMEPGUI, which is a fine replacement... So we can let this one go...
[b][url=https://bit.ly/2KjtxoD]Pkg[/url], [url=https://bit.ly/2U6dzxV]mdsh[/url], [url=https://bit.ly/2G49OE8]Woofy[/url], [url=http://goo.gl/bzBU1]Akita[/url], [url=http://goo.gl/SO5ug]VLC-GTK[/url], [url=https://tiny.cc/c2hnfz]Search[/url][/b]

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padega

#15 Post by zigbert »

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#16 Post by zigbert »

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#17 Post by zigbert »

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#18 Post by zigbert »

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#19 Post by sc0ttman »

It looks like it's coming along nicely... Glad you changed the double-click behaviour in the file listing widget...

some changes I made:

I added $DIR before $CHOOSER in the final command - so the full rom path is sent to the emulator (required)

I also encased the $DIR$CHOOSER in double quotes, so it now says "\"$DIR$CHOOSER\"" - because many roms have spaces in their filenames and will not load otherwise...

I will keep checking it out.. Looks good so far..
Getting closer to what I had envisaged.. :)

Thanks again
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