el tips tricks2

Emu Loader

Copyright (C) 2000-2007 by Ciro Alfredo Consentino

File created by Marshall Brooks



Tips and Tricks


This document is created to provide Tips and Tricks for other ways to use Emu Loader beyond the standard uses and to provide shortcuts to make using the frontend easier. Knowing the basic functions of the front end is recommended before trying these procedures.

If you have found a custom way to use Emu Loader that is not here and you would like to share it with other users, please let me know and it will be added here. Thanks!



Quickly Restoring Emu Loader Custom Settings After Installing a New Version


There are two types of updates to Emu Loader. Simple updates don't require a fresh installation. Major updates do require a fresh install as there are either new subfolders or new items in the EmuLoader.ini file that conflict with the settings from the previous version. Here are the quick update steps.

NOTE: Emu Loader itself does not make any changes to the Windows Registry, so you don't have to be concerned about this.


Here are the steps for installing a simple update. (This assumes Emu Loader is installed in a folder named C:\EL. Change as required if using a different directory):



Here are the steps for restoring a clean install. This assumes Emu Loader is installed in a folder named C:\EL. Change as required if using a different directory):


NOTE: The line names are pretty self-explanatory, and some of the values, like LastGameSelected, do not need to be updated.



Creating and Modifying Icons Used in Emu Loader (Methods and Software)


Many users have requested how to build their own real icons and with Emu Loader Version 3.3 and later, you can also change any of the Icons used in the Front End. The methods shown here can be used for creating Real Icons, or for creating new Emu Loader icons. There are three methods to use: Substituting existing icons, creating your own icons, and modifying existing icons.

NOTE: Emu Loader displays icons at 16x16 pixels and 256-colors, but larger icons with more colors will work in Emu Loader as well. However, icons with more colors (and to some extent larger icons also) will take longer to load and could produce errors. Since you don't gain anything by using larger formats, it is recommended to stay with 16x16 and 256-colors.


Here are some files you might need:


Icon Utilities

IconShop (freeware) - http://users.pandora.be/liontech/. This is a handy utility for viewing and extracting files from .dll files, .icl files, and .exe files. (Off-topic, another useful feature of this program is if you make shortcuts to programs that run from a CD and want the program's Icon to display on the shortcut. IconShop will let you extract the icon to an .ico file, saving hard drive space).

NOTE: The 1.13 Final build seems to have less problems than the 1.20 Alpha build.


Icon Sources

Mamu - http://www.mameworld.net/icons/index2.html. Icons for all MAME games.

MAME32 - http://www.classicgaming.com/mame32qa/down.htm. Icons for all MAME games. Does not always work with Emu Loader.

MAME - Often, I will use a screenshot from the game itself (F12 key) and use this to build a custom icon.

WINDOWS - Depending on your windows version, useful icons are available in the following folders, among others: C:\Windows\Moricons.dll and C:\Windows\System\PifManager.dll.

Happy Icons (freeware) - http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/ethernet/73/happy.html (homepage) or http://www.5star-shareware.com/Desktop/Icons/happyicons98.html (alternate site) Contains a large collection of icons including many Star Wars ones.

Icon Mania v7.02 (freeware) - http://www.afterzed.com/freeware/imageviewfreeware3.html. Lots of Icons including Captain America, Batman, and Star Trek.

Microangelo (icons are freeware) - http://www.impactsoft.com/download/freextra.htm. Contains mostly sports icons.


Image Editing

Gimp (freeware) - http://www.gimp.org/~tml/gimp/win32/. You will also want the GIF conversion files from this site and the user's manual from http://manual.gimp.org/. A very brief tutorial is also posted at http://www.fraggersxtreme.com/museum/contrib.htm. Gimp is a very powerful image editing program. I prefer it to PhotoShop, which I have also used. If you are familiar with PhotoShop, you can use that instead. Neither one supports .ico files directly.


Icon Conversion

Formati 11 (freeware) - http://jansfreeware.com/. I picked this program because it is freeware and can convert Icons to .gif format with transparency and vice-versa. The program only allows saving in 32x32 pixels and 16 or 256 colors maximum, but this is fine for use with Emu Loader.

HINT: You will get much better results if you scale your image to 32x32 in another image editor and only use Formati to convert the final image to an Icon.

Irfanview (Freeware) - http://www.irfanview.com is a more fully featured graphics program and will save to .ico format, but it does not handle transparency. However, Irfanview is not locked to the 32x32 pixel image size and is the preferred program if you are not using transparency in your images.

Microangelo ($40) - http://www.impactsoft.com/. If you don't mind the price, this is a very simple to use and powerful icon creation/manipulation/conversion program. The program supports features such as coloring individual pixels (including coloring with transparency), a preview window, icon size and color-depth selection, a color palette display, a color finder, image rotation, item selection, image flipping, and exporting and importing images from .ico to .gif formats.



Creating and Modifying Icons Used in Emu Loader (Procedures)


Substituting Existing Icons - This paragraph is basically a short run-down on how to use IconShop to extract Icons from .icl, .dll, or .exe files. (I assume you can rename and replace the files without instructions.



Creating Your Own Icons - The first thing to realize is what makes a good icon. These images will be viewed at 16x16 pixels. A full screen image of Choplifter won't be recognizeable, but an image of the helicopter itself from the game may work well. Also, icons are square, so starting with a 600x100 pixel image is not a good idea. I will start with a MAME screenshot and then take you through the steps to modify the image.


Hint: If your image is not square to begin with, do the following: right-click and select Image and Canvas Size. Click on the "chain" icon to "break the link", which turns off "preserve aspect ratio". Adjust the smaller dimension upward to be the same as the larger dimension and click OK. The original image now appears as a layer at the top or left of the new canvas. Press the M (Move) key and drag the image to center it. Right-click and select Layers and Flatten Image. Now you can continue editing the image as below:


Modifying Existing Icons - This procedure is similar to the procedure above:




Showing Arcade Controller Layouts in Emu Loader


Want to show what keys to use on your arcade controller for each MAME game (or just what keys each game used)? See http://www.mameworld.net/emuadvice/controls/controls.html.



Alternate Filtering Methods using the Favorite Users Manager


Emu Loader currently allows you to sort the Game List by Available, Unavailable, and All, and within these categories, by Classic, Neo Geo, Original, Clone, Vector, Raster, or Custom. Many users would like to be able to filter the game list by other categories. This method allows you to do that using the Emu Loader User Manager function. Here are the steps:


TIP: This can be done by pressing Shift-F with the game selected in the Game List. For some categories, this can be done more easily by sorting the list on the Category column first. For others, you just have to manually go through the list and add games as applicable.

NOTE: A major advantage to this method is that games can appear in more than one category. For example, 1943 will appear in both "Vertical Shooters" and "2-player Games". Also, all "3-player Games" can also appear in the "2-player Games" list so you could play them this way also.



Regaining Control


TIP: If you have a HotRod, SlikStik, X-Arcade, or I-PAC controller, and rarely use the PC gameport controller, it is easier to do the following: From the Emu Loader taskbar, select Emulator - Emulator Default Options - Set Emulator Default Options and on the Options - Sound/Controllers tab, uncheck Joystick and click OK. Now select all the games that WILL use the PC gameport controller, select the game, and right-click and select Custom Options and Set Custom Options (selected game). On the Options - Sound/Controllers tab, check Joystick and click OK.


Changing the Name Displayed in the Game List


Let's say you want to change the way a Game is named in the Game List. Here's how:


NOTE: The custom game names remain in effect until you cancel them. Even if you update the games list for a new MAME version, Emu Loader will still save and use your custom game names.

NOTE: To reset an individual game name, right-click and select Game Description - Delete Custom Description.

NOTE: To quickly reset ALL games, close Emu Loader and delete (or remove) the GameDescription.ini file. Then restart Emu Loader and run File - Create Games List.



Restricting Access to Emu Loader


There are several reasons for doing this and since I will cover them in more detail below, I wanted to introduce some of the concepts here. First, as I mention in Using Multiple Copies of Emu Loader in Separate Directories, you may want to have one Emu Loader installation folder for your older kids, and one folder for your younger kids. The problem is you don't want the younger kids to access the version with the older kid's games.

Or you want to control when your kids can start Emu Loader (so they can't play it until they finish their homework, for example).

Or you want to keep them from running the Adult version of the program if they somehow find the adult directories (more details on that below).


One of the best ways to prevent this is to install a password on the Emu Loader file so that Emu Loader will not start until the password is entered. This can be set-up using a freeware program called Crypto-Lock from http://www.rtsoftware.org. It is set-up as follows:

NOTE: There is NO "decrypt file" option on this software, so if you might want an unlocked version of that particular Emu Loader version again, you absolutely need to back it up now.

NOTE: The password is saved in an encrypted file and there is no "E-mail my password again" option, so pick a password that you are sure you won't forget (or less desirably, write it down somewhere). You could save it in a password protected file in Word, but then… never mind ;-)



Using Multiple Copies of Emu Loader in Separate Directories


Many times it is useful to have several copies of Emu Loader installed in different directories. For example, I use Emu Loader both as a launcher for my favorite MAME games, and as a reference when I have a question about what a game is named in MAME, or what it looks like, or what driver it uses, etc. As a result, I have one version of Emu Loader installed in the C:\EL directory that is set to only display my favorite MAME games (using Parental Lock and Custom Games Description). I have another version of Emu Loader installed in the C:\EL FULL directory which lists all MAME games, for reference or when I just want to play something new.

Sure I could do the same thing by using the favorites command and turning off Parental Lock, but then I would have to click on the icon to turn the feature off and remember to click on it again when I was finished, etc. This way when Emu Loader comes up, I know what it is going to display.

Another advantage is this provides an automatic backup so that if one of my Emu Loader versions quits working, I can usually copy files from the other Emu Loader directory and get running again.

Another usage of this is if you have 15-year old and 3-year old sons. There's nothing wrong with the 15-year old playing Mortal Kombat (maybe), but you probably don't want the 3-year-old even watching it. But there's no way to Parental Lock one set of games for one user and another set of games for another user. Even if there was, it's a big step to expect the 15-year old to reset the Parental Lock settings each time he finishes. With separate directories, you can do this. I also recommend using Crypto-Lock on the 15-year old's version so the 3-year old can't play it. (See Restricting Access to Emu Loader). Now you only have to worry about the 3-year old walking in on the 15-year old's game in progress.

Yet another usage of this is for User Profiles. You probably don't mind the 15-year old adjusting MAME settings, but maybe you don't want the 3-year old to delete all your custom game commands. You can use a different User Profile for each child, but again you don't want to have to rely on the 15-year old to log out of his User Profile (and maybe you don't want him to know the password for it) and log into the 3-year old's User Profile. A better solution, IMHO, is to have Emu Loader installed in separate folder's and have an appropriate User Profile for each user load by default. The main thing to consider here, is that one user could make game changes (reassigning keys, etc.) that affect the other user, if both Emu Loader folders point to the same MAME directory.

Additional uses for multiple directories will be discussed below.


TIP: A useful trick that I have found is using different splash screens on the different Emu Loader versions. This way I know as the game list is still loading if I accidentally selected the wrong version.


To use multiple directories, simply do the following:



Eliminating Games from Emu Loader (Expanded Parental Lock)


Most people think of Parental Lock as only something to use to hide the Adult (oxymoron) games in MAME from their kids. While it can be used for this, it is only marginally effective at this as discussed further in the next paragraph. This does not mean it should be ignored, however! It provides a very useful way to block ANY games that you never want to play in MAME, without doing a custom compile each revision. Do you need fifteen Japanese Quiz games if you can't read Japanese?! Add them to the Parental Lock block list and you will never ever see them again (unless you manually take them back off the list).

And how many clone games do you need ? Yes, Emu Loader has an option to not show any clone games and only show the parent games (Taskbar Emulator - Emulator Default Options - Set 1st Emulator Default Options - Options - Miscellaneous - Tweaks - Clones), but often the parent game is protected and not working and only the clones work in MAME, or what if you prefer the clone game to the working parent game. With Parental Lock you can see only the games that you really want to play. See the el-parentallocktutorial.rtf file for instructions.



Hiding Adult Games (Basic Steps and Considerations)


A recommended compromise of security and ease of access is provided in the next paragraph Recommended Procedure for Hiding Adult Games. This section discusses general considerations and alternative methods.

As you probably guessed from the snide remark in the previous section, I don't really approve of adult games. I'm not going to preach to you about it, but I do think that if you are going to have these games on your computer, you should keep them away from your kids. I will provide several levels of security for doing this, but first let's see why Parental Lock, IMHO, by itself is not good enough (and some of the factors to consider in protecting your kids):

Before I start, I realize that I am giving away a fair amount of security info here. If you have kids in your household (or even if they just visit) it would be a good idea to read through this section in private and then delete this paragraph (or save it somewhere else). I would hate for you to use the highest level security and then have your kids find out exactly what you did by reading this text.

First if you have young kids (Ages 3-8) you are pretty safe just using Parental Lock, however, I don't recommend it as your kids will soon grow older and learn ways to defeat it.

Older kids (9 and up) will probably not crack the Parental Lock encryption, however, it is very possible that they may stumble across the MAME\ROMS directory. Your pre-teen son doesn't have to be a rocket scientist to run across some of the more suggestive game ROM names, realize these must be part of MAME since they're in the MAME\ROMS folder and realize that they never show up in Emu Loader. From here, it is not a hard step for him to figure out how to run them from the command line in MAME and access them this way.

OTOH, even if you don't have the ROMS anywhere on your computer, and custom compile MAME to remove these games, there is little you can do to prevent your child from downloading an official binary of MAME and the needed ROMS, or copying them from a friend's house and installing them and it's very likely that you would not even know this happened. For this reason, the more elaborate systems seem a little bit like overkill.


So keeping all this in mind, here are the protection levels.








Recommended Procedure for Hiding Adult Games


This procedure relies on using two freeware utilities, Crypto-Lock from http://www.rtsoftware.org, and Folder Keys from http://www.code-it.com.

NOTE: These programs were picked because they are truly freeware (not shareware, or adware), they do what is required, and they work on all versions of Windows from Win '95 through XP. The procedure has also been verified using the Aston shell replacement under Win '98 (http://www.astonshell.com). There are undoubtedly better shareware/payware programs than these available and if you have and like one, feel free to use it. There may be better freeware programs out there, also. If you find one and it meets the criteria above, send me the information and I will list it as an alternative.

NOTE: I do not recommend using the same folder names that I have used in this example, as someone will try to access these folders. Think of something creative. Also, keep a watch on your passwords, as I don't know of work-arounds if they get lost.


The order that the steps are accomplished in is unimportant, other than it is preferable to configure the new MAME set-up first so you don't have to deal with unhiding folders to make changes.


Here are the installation steps. (I am assuming you have MAME installed in C:\MAME and Emu Loader installed in C:\EL.


Configure your existing MAME as follows:


Configure the new MAME as follows:


Password Protecting the new EL:


Hiding the evidence:

NOTE: It is probably necessary to cycle the Windows Registry options settings to make the folders permanently invisible.

NOTE: This also removes the Folder Options selection on the View drop-down menu of My Computer from the desktop.



Hiding Image Galleries, Customizing Emu Loader (The User Profile Menu)


The purpose of these tips is to describe one of the best hidden (double meaning intentional: not well known and very useful) features of Emu Loader. Emu Loader displays by default seven different image galleries. Let's say you only want to see screenshots. Do you have to scroll through all those "No Title", "No Flyer", "No Cabinet" images for each game? Actually, you don't!!! Enter the User Profile Manager: (See the el-userprofiletutorial.rtf file for setup instructions, but here are some tips):



NOTE: Disabling a feature prevents changes to a feature and freezes it as selected, it does not prevent a feature from being used. For example, if you are using Real Icons and uncheck the Real Icons box on the User Profile editor, Emu Loader will still use real icons, you just won't be able to change back to regular icons without exiting the profile. I exploit this feature in my next example.



Party Mode (Safeguarding Your PC From Your Guests)


Here is a great use of User Profile for parties, especially for people with MAME cabs (or anyone, actually). One of the drawbacks to Emu Loader is that typically you have the taskbar showing below the frontend. So (assuming you leave a mouse available for selecting games) any of your guests can click on the start menu and read your love letters, bank account balances in Microsoft Money, re-format your hard-drive, etc. etc. Here's how to stop that:


NOTE: At this point you may be confused because I said this used Full Screen Mode and then I clearly said to disable Full Screen on the User Profile Editor. This was intentional, as you will soon see!



Renaming Images


Emu Loader displays seven image types but they might not be the kind of images that you want to view or in the order you prefer. Is there any way around this?

There is, depending on how much inconvenience you can put up with.

If you just want a different image type, (let's say you don't care about Flyers, but you like PCB board images of each game), you can have the directory that Flyers points to point to your PCB images, but you will have to deal with clicking View Flyers when you want to view your PCB's and Emu Loader saying "No Flyer" when a PCB image is missing.

If you just want to change the image order, you can change the order that the images scroll through when you click with the mouse, but you will have to deal with the image types not matching the drop-down menu names.


Here is what I do and you can see how this could work:


Beyond MAME


Is Emu Loader just for MAME ? That depends, Emu Loader will never automatically support any emulator besides MAME, however, you can manually make it support any program you want that can use command line parameters to launch a game.

Why would you want to do this ? Well, aside from having a standard look to all your game launchers, Emu Loader allows you to view up to seven images per game, along with a wealth of knowledge about each game.


Here is how to set it up:


That's all folks (for now)!



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