AMIGA Games Launcher

Help and guidance on all things regarding classic computer and console emulation via Commodore OS.
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amol
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AMIGA Games Launcher

Post by amol »

For my own convenience I made ALOAD which is an amiga specific alternative to the LOAD command of CommodoreOS.
It integrates with file manager so that games (.adf and .lha) can be started directly from the file manager.

It can be installed from https://codeberg.org/a_mol/commodoreos- ... .0_all.deb
OpenWith.jpg
OpenWith.jpg (124.16 KiB) Viewed 264 times
Launching.jpg
Launching.jpg (154.65 KiB) Viewed 264 times
Compared to LOAD it has some additional features:

* Automatic detection of Amiga hardware for the game
* Works with WHDLoad .lha files

Compared to plain Amiberry has some improvements:

* Integrates with CommodoreOS installed roms (so if you installed kickstarter from Commodore OS Settings, that one will be used)
* GUI opens on top of full screen games
* Quit Key to exit emulation without opening GUI

I'm also experimenting with automatically supporting games on multiple .adf files by detecting the other disks and mounting them on the other drives.

The source code is available at: https://codeberg.org/a_mol/commodoreos-ALOAD

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URS_Retro
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Re: AMIGA Games Launcher

Post by URS_Retro »

Very nice! Thanks for the work and the share.

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LeoNigro
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Re: AMIGA Games Launcher

Post by LeoNigro »

Thanks @amol for bringing this feature to my attention and I appreciate demonstrating the special sauce required to integrate it into the universal launcher LOAD. I am especially interested in Amiberry if it can simplify WHDload support in comparison to FSUAE which I haven't really looked at yet.

For emulator commands to be included in LOAD you need merely add a section to:
/usr/share/commodoreos/config/Emulation.cfg
This file gets updated from the server if newer when you perform an update.

This file centralizes all the commands required for the emulators, and takes into account multiple disks (although I intend to make it cleverer).
With more ROM file formats to come.

If you look at the command syntax used within the Emulation.cfg file I am confident that we can condense your code to the single command line for execution. You would just need to separate the multiple commands with a semicolon and the line can be as long as you want.

Here is a quick knock up based on your code, but I'm yet to test.

Code: Select all

Emu21Name=Amiga Whdload lha files
Emu21Filetypes=LHA
Emu21Hint=AMIGA
Emu21Command=amiberry -o default_open_gui_key=F12 -o default_quit_key=F11 -o default_fullscreen_mode=2 -o input_default_mouse_speed=10 -o rom_path=/usr/share/commodoreos/roms/amiga --whdload_arg=Preload-G "$FILE1";
Emu21Print1=**** Commodore AMIGA Emulator Instructions ****
Emu21Print2=Press ALT + F to toggle fullscreen and window mode. NEED TO CHECK THIS IN AMIBERRY!!!
Emu21Print3=Press F11 to exit.
Emu21Print4=Press F12 to open emulation GUI.
Emu21Print5=
Emu21Print6=LOAD "$FILE1", AMIGA
Emu21Print7=SEARCHING FOR $FILE1
Emu21Print8=LOADING
Emu21Print9=ATTACHING DISK/s $FILE1 $FILE2 $FILE3 $FILE4
Emu21Print10=READY
Emu21Print11=RUN
The code to bring the window to the front (if it is still necessary) could also be worked out via some clever bash commands.
I just don't have the brainpower to work it out at 3am. :cry:

Just a heads up that a subsequent update will assure that ROM file extensions point to LOAD as their primary source.

I'm finally finishing off some of my C64U tasks, so I can get back to Commodore OS.
Image Leo Nigro. Co-founder and Lead Engineer - PC and Amiga at Commodore
Commodore OS and C64x Creator. Site Admin.

amol
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Re: AMIGA Games Launcher

Post by amol »

I'll look into this!

The "bring to front" code is sadly necessary because amiberry has a bug where opening the GUI when fullscreen (or windowed fullscreen) opens the UI behind the screen, making it unusable. They iterated over this issue multiple times, but it never worked reliably due to complexities in SDL. So I'll have to look also in an approach based on Bash given the polling requirement.

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LeoNigro
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Re: AMIGA Games Launcher

Post by LeoNigro »

It works a treat now.

Code: Select all

Emu21Command=while true; do wid=$(xdotool search --name "Amiberry GUI" 2>/dev/null | head -n1); [ -n "$wid" ] && { xdotool windowactivate "$wid"; }; sleep 1; done& amiberry -o default_open_gui_key=F12 -o default_quit_key=F11 -o default_fullscreen_mode=2 -o input_default_mouse_speed=10 -o rom_path=/usr/share/commodoreos/roms/amiga --whdload_arg=Preload-G "$FILE1" 
I have just released the update in Build 45.

I did look into how launch the lha in FSUAE but it is so much more convoluted and involved.
I am glad I included Amiberry as it makes this easy.
Image Leo Nigro. Co-founder and Lead Engineer - PC and Amiga at Commodore
Commodore OS and C64x Creator. Site Admin.

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