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TheNameOfTheGame

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    HDmenu game launcher

    in Atari ST/TT/Falcon Computers

    Posted · Edited by TheNameOfTheGame

    One of the features of HDmenu is the ability to designate any game as a "favorite".  This allows quick access to your favorite games without having to scroll through a list of all the titles.  So how does the "favorites" feature work?

     

    There are two ways, one is done graphically from within the launcher itself and the other is a manual method.

     

    For the graphical method we'll start with a database with no favorites assigned.


    hdmenu2-favoritesstart.thumb.png.bf32a3ee6b53ce8568d712a0475b626f.png

     

    To see your favorites, press the F5 key.  Here after pressing F5 we can see there are no favorites assigned.

     

    hdmenu2-nofavorites.thumb.png.9fa04cecb81ae353087f5828fa6f37e9.png

     

    To designate a game as a favorite, press the <Space Bar> with the game highlighted.  This will toggle the game's favorite status on/off.  Here we have designated some games as favorites.  You can see that a "*" is now shown before the games' names to indicate they are favorites.


    hdmenu2-favoriteselected.thumb.png.91ff2dcbef6ff4a687be72f0e252c35a.png

     

    Now pressing F5 we can filter the list to show only the favorites.  Here we see the list has changed to indicate this.  When viewing the favorites list, everything works the same as with the full list; games can be launched, the list scrolled, screenshots can be viewed, text files read, save states launched, etc.  If at any time you press the ESC key you will will exit the favorites list and return to the main full list.

    (for advanced users, keep in mind the "favorites" features also works within Category lists)


    hdmenu2-favorites.thumb.png.07ceb003b986addde2cad6acfca65d5d.png

     

    If you want to clear a favorite, press the <Space Bar> and it will no longer be a favorite.  Here we have cleared the favorites status for the game "Wolfchild".


    hdmenu2-favoriteclear.thumb.png.3b80cffe4b90aef25cb3d7b7691e913a.png

     

    If you want to clear all your favorites at once, press Shift-F5.  You will be prompted to make sure you really want to continue.


    hdmenu2-favoriteclearall.thumb.png.00cd52a92cc3b4e427dc9d4eb1d7d848.png

     

    After confirming with the 'y' key, all the favorites in the list will be cleared.


    hdmenu2-favoritescleared.thumb.png.50c4e353e30f8ed3cf3a7dc7a085ea75.png

     

    To retain any changes to the list you might have made, the database can be saved using the F7 key.  Responding with 'y' to the prompt will save your new CSV file so that any changes to list will be active the next time the launcher is run.


    hdmenu2-favoritesave.thumb.png.88dad4488c6c0ccfe761221103c8a3af.png

     

    The manual method to designate a game as a favorite involves editing the CSV file directly.  Using a text editor, place a "*" character immediately before the game name and the next time the launcher is run, the game will show up as a favorite.  In this snippet from a CSV file, you can see the game "Wolfchild" has been manually designated as a favorite by placing a "*" before the name.

      

    Wizmo;C:\GAMES\W\WIZMO\RUNME.TOS
Wizz;C:\GAMES\W\WIZZ\RUNME.TOS
*Wolfchild;C:\GAMES\W\WOLFCHIL\RUNME.TOS
Wolfenstein 3D;C:\GAMES\W\WOLF3D\START.TOS
Wolfpack;C:\GAMES\W\WOLFPACK\RUNME.TOS
Wonderboy in Monsterland;C:\GAMES\W\WONDBM\START.TOS
Wonderland;C:\GAMES\W\WONDERL\RUNME.TOS

     

    To summarize, the "favorites" feature is a convenient way to quickly see a list of your most-liked games where they can be quickly launched.  I hope you find the feature useful.

    • Like 1

    HDmenu game launcher

    in Atari ST/TT/Falcon Computers

    Posted · Edited by TheNameOfTheGame

    New version 2.1.2 up at the first post.

     

    After thinking about it, only allowing Atari line endings kind of goes against the philosophy of not restricting users so I've changed it to allow both line endings now. Really no speed difference from the previous version which is nice.

    So users can continue using their existing HDMENU.CSV files with no change and enjoy the speed increase by using the new version.

    HDmenu game launcher

    in Atari ST/TT/Falcon Computers

    Posted · Edited by TheNameOfTheGame

    Just a quick note that was brought up in another forum.

     

    Part of the CSV parsing optimizations is that the HDMENU.CSV file now requires Atari line endings (CRLF - same as windows endings).

     

    So if you get the message at start:
      

    Database Init - Please Wait!

CSV has wrong line endings

Press any key to exit

     

    Then you'll need to convert your HDMENU.CSV file to Atari line endings (or send me your file in PM and I will convert it for you). Converting from unix (LF) or mac (CR) line endings ony takes a moment and can be done in a text editor.


    Some programs that can do the conversions:

    Atari - QED editor
    Windows - notepad++
    Linux - "unix2dos HDMENU.CSV" from command prompt

     

    If you don't see the above message at start, then your HDMENU.CSV file already has Atari line endings and you can disregard this.

     

    I always try not to impose restrictions on users of the program, so apologies for the inconvience.  If it too much of a bother for people, please lt me know.  I can always add code in to account for other line endings but it would in-turn slow down the CSV parsing marginally.

    HDmenu game launcher

    in Atari ST/TT/Falcon Computers

    Posted · Edited by TheNameOfTheGame

    New version 2.1.0 up in the first post. This release has the following changes/improvements:

     

    1)  Database parsing rewritten/optimized.  Loading of CSV now up to 3 times faster.

     

    2)  Can now press <space bar> at boot to skip boot timeout counter.

     

    3)  Boot timeout can now be turned off altogether in the F2 Config menu with new boot timeout option "off"

     

    4)  Fixed bug for screenshot display routine checking byte 2 instead of byte 3 of the NEO file for the rez byte.  This means any Med rez screenshots with the old rez flag position will no longer be displayed properly.  Attached is a zip with corrected Med rez screenshots to replace the old ones with.

     

    This change was needed since Hatari (development version) now allows screen dumps in NEO format which makes it very convenient to get new images for the launcher (Thanks Hatari dev team!).  However, since the Hatari NEO screen dump correctly uses byte 3 for the rez flag, the hdmenu launcher needed fixing.

     

    5) Other minor bug fixes.

     

    medrez-updated.zip

    • Like 1

    Milan 040 question about price evaluation

    in Atari ST/TT/Falcon Computers

    Posted

    43 minutes ago, lp060 said:

    I didn't do anything magical back in the day. All I did was install Odd's drivers/software. 😉
    Did have to use Odd's configuration dialog and manually set everything every time I booted as it didn't remember the settings.

    Strange because you're one of the few to report it working.  I think you had a later production model Hades right?  Maybe it involved your chipset versions. 

    Milan 040 question about price evaluation

    in Atari ST/TT/Falcon Computers

    Posted

    I think either @lp060 or @alanh had sound working at some point in the past.  I know lp's Hades machines are non-functional and the drives inaccessible and last I heard alanh had 2 Hades back working but haven't checked with him if his sound is working?  I think lp is the best chance to figure this out if his drive(s) could be cloned so the files could be checked.  But I think he's hesitant to mess with them for fear of breaking them.

    Milan 040 question about price evaluation

    in Atari ST/TT/Falcon Computers

    Posted

    1 hour ago, Atari74user said:

    To be honest I have been pretty lazy with the Hades for a little while, I did get a cheap ES1371 but have yet to install it to see if I can get it working.  In fact, you have now reminded me.  It sounds like you have tried?

    Oh yeah, myself and a couple of others  Haven't been successful yet.  Always hoping someone can figure it out :).

    Milan 040 question about price evaluation

    in Atari ST/TT/Falcon Computers

    Posted

    1 hour ago, Atari74user said:

    This is true, Falcon CT60 can be clocked higher, but as you state, graphics card support is easier and very good on the Hades, also twice as much memory can be had on the Hades, so as I allude, depends what you have installed, and as you say, depends on clock on the CT60.  The Hades certainly can out perform a CT60, depending on the variables, it out performs my CT60, but I don't want to push my CT60 to 100 MHz, so it depends.  It would be nice to compare both fully ladened and turned up to max volume, for Hades I guess that would be an 8mb ATI Range Pro and 1gb of EDO RAM, that would be interesting to see.

    Off-topic but do you by any chance have the PCI sound card working in your Hades?

    COSMOS CHRONICLES (ATARI STF/E,MEGA,TT,FALCON)

    in Atari ST/TT/Falcon Computers

    Posted · Edited by TheNameOfTheGame

    5 minutes ago, Tillek said:

    Well, the main reason I asked was that he had specifically requested that we not distribute it and to only share the link to the itch.io page which allows people the option of paying and supporting his work.

     

    I don't intend to start a debate around the ethics of fixing and redistributing games that are decades old and could potentially be considered abandoned, but this is something current and the author had made a specific request regarding other forms of distribution.

     

     

    Ah, I didn't see that before.  Could a mod please remove the file then?  Maybe I'll just post the patched PRG file and so people would still have to download the full files from his site.  Thanks for pointing that out.

    • Like 1
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