Emulator Runner

Configure an emulator

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When you have added your Emulator and want to alter its settings, just select it and right click your mouse (or press Alt-F10). In the menu that appears select "Emulator Manager" to alter Emulator settings.

Tree View	List View

 

After that, Emulator Manager will appear and the Emulator will be selected. Emulator Manager is shown in the image below:

 

 

Various Emulator settings must be set in order the emulator to work properly. These settings, as shown in the above image, are:

· Windows Based: Indicates that the emulator is Windows based. This has to deal with the way Emulator Runner launches the emulator.

· Parameters at First: Check this box if the emulator requires command-line parameters at the beginning (e.g. Genecyst) or not check it, if it requires them at the end (e.g. MAME) of the actual game.

· Games are zipped: If this emulator uses many ROMs files for one game you can zip them to save hard disk space and use this zip file instead of all these ROMs files. Zipped ROMs are supported only for emulators that use internal naming to launch games (such as Callus, MAME, Rage, Juno First, etc) and also use directories to access games ROMs. In order to use this feature you must place the zip file into the appropriate directory the emulator needs (there is an alternative using Emulator Zipped ROM paths). The zip file must have the same name as the internal name the emulator use to launch the game (e.g. Callus emulator uses internal name 1941j to launch game 1941 Japanese Edition. So go to 1941j directory inside Callus directory and put the file 1941j.zip which include all the ROMs file needed for game 1941 Japanese edition). When you finish playing this game all the needless ROMs files will be deleted automatically. Not used in single ROM emulators.

Note: After v2.7 of Emulator Runner zipped ROMs are supported also for single ROM emulators such as Console or Computer Emulators. To use it, add games as describing below, by pointing as the game the zipped ROM file. Emulator Runner will uncompress the file to a temporary folder and run it from there. The only limitation is that this zipped file must contains *the ROM and only the ROM*. Also there is no need for these emulators to have only zipped or only plain ROMs. They can have both of them, as Emulator Runner identifies the type of ROM from the file extension (".zip" or not). You can make use of "Emulator Zipped ROM Paths", but be careful as the game will be searched in these paths.

· Zip Back ROMs: Indicates if the ROMs need to be zipped back when you end running a game. This may be needed if the emulator saves some information such as high scores, dipswitches, etc in the directory that game runs. Also this slows down the proccess as all the files are zipped back again. Not used in single ROM emulators.

· Emulator executable: You must type there the emulator executable (only it, without the path, e.g. mame.exe or kgen.exe).

· Emulator Path: You must type there the emulator path, which is the directory the emulator resides (e.g. c:\emulator\kgen\).

· Command Line Parameters: You must type there the command line parameters you want to pass to your emulator when it launched.

· Emulator Image: This is the image will be displayed when you select the emulator in the image view window.

· Emulator Help File: This is the help file that will be displayed when you select the emulator in the information pane window. You can use it to have instant access to emulator's manual.

· Emulator Zipped ROM paths: These are the directories that will be used when searching the zipped ROMs (if you set so). These paths are used only if the emulator uses zipped ROMs. Place you zipped ROMs there and Emulator Runner will search to find the appropriate ROMs. Very useful feature, because you don't have to specify the whole path to your games. Just name the game and Emulator Runner will find where it is.

· Emulator Images paths: These are the directories that will be used when searching the images for the games supported by the Emulator. Place you images there and Emulator Runner will search to find the appropriate one. Very useful feature, because you don't have to specify the whole path to your images. Just name the image and Emulator Runner will find where it is in these paths.

· Run Before/After Emulator: Emulator Runner can launch unlimited number of external programs before or after the emulator. Very useful if you need more than one program to be executed (e.g. Univbe, JoyEmu, ...). I have added the ability to launch programs after the emulator, because I got bored of the DOS box appeared every time I used Univbe before an emulator, that was asking me to close it by using Ctrl-C. Now I just launch "univbe -u" (uninstall Univbe) after emulator termination and this DOS box never appears.

· The Add button popups an edit box where you write the name of a new emulator you want to add. The new emulator will be created as a subgroup of the currently selected emulator in the tree view. Just edit its properties and press Update.

· The Remove button deletes the selected emulator and all its children.

· The Update button updates selected emulator changes.