Configuration files
-------------------

This is by far the most complex part of the system - if you need help, drop Livewire an email at livewirenospam90210@mapsongmail.com (remove the nospam where applicable).

Each configuration file is set up as a standard INI - each must start with this line:

[emulator]

This is called a section.  In the future, there might be more stuff that needs to go in other sections, but for now it's just emulator stuff.  Under this we can put keys, and indeed we must or nothing will work.

Each system needs 3 keys:

arguments=
romext=
exe=

Arguments will contain the command line arguments we pass to the emulator.  For what seems like a goodly chunk of emulators, we simply need to pass the game as the first argument to load the game - to do this, use arguments=*game* - *game* is replaced later by the launcher to be the full path to the rom.  Now, for some systems, you might want it to start in full screen.  Not all emulators support doing this from the command line, but since we're doing Sega Genesis, why not use Kega Fusion which does.

For that, we'd use "arguments=*game* -fullscreen" - Kega will start, load the game, and switch to full screen.  Again, not all emulators support this, so do a google search or check livewire90210.com and see if we already have a configuration file that'll work for the emulator you want.

The next key is romext.  Put simply, this is the extension used on the roms, such as gen, bin, smc, nes, zip, etc.  Include the leading dot; "romext=.gen" is what we would want for genesis games.

Exe is the tricky part - Under every system directory, there is a directory called EXE.  In there should be the emulators executable - make exe equal to the file name of that emulator, such as "exe=fusion.exe" for kega fusion, or "exe=gens.exe" for gens.



Now here's where it gets tricky - for most purposes, you can stop reading right now and be none the worse off.  However, you'll likely notice there's a file called Arcade.ini in this folder - that contains the config to run MAME.

To use it, create a shortcut to the mame executable in the EXE directory called mame_short.lnk, and put it in Arcade>EXE.  For the roms, dump them all in MAME'S rom directory, and for where the launcher normally wants the games, put a blank file with no extension.  Name the file the zip file for the rom (kof2000, mslug5, mslugx, etc.).

It's an ugly fix to get a great emulator working, but just be glad it's even in here - I spent 6 hours trying to get it to work to find out I needed some weird loop-back with a shortcut to do it.



That's about it.  If you ever find an emulator that you just can't get to work, check the website (livewire90210.com) and see if there's a config already posted for the emulator in question.  If there isn't, send me an email (you'll find the link on the site); put Launcher Emulator Trouble as the subject, and be absolutely sure to include a link to the emulator.  That link must go to the emulators homepage - if it's a rapidshare link or anything similar, I will disregard the entire email.  Freeware emulators only as well please - there's very few shareware ones out there, and I'm not willing to buy something when freeware's been working just fine.


With that, read all the dir.txt's you can find - they all contain information about required files and optional files, and stuff about them.