Remember in Part Two when I customised my autoexec.bat file to
show a nice splash screen when booting? Well while I didn't
do that here I did remove the default XP boot logo and that
is done by editing the file boot.ini which is found in the
root of C Drive. there are two ways you can do that; either
in msconfig or by editing the file directly in Notepad. I favour
the msconfig method simply because I will be going in there
anyway to stop any unwanted processes from running at boot up.
If you want to edit boot.ini directly simply open it in Notepad and add the switch
/noguiboot
after the switch
/fastdetect
To re-enable it just edit boot.ini again and remove the /noguiboot switch. Bear in mind that removing this splash screen will also remove any boot-up messages that might come up such as chkdsk but if your system runs without any problems then it shouldn't matter.
If you want to go to a little extra trouble and create your own splash screen for the boot process then you can do it following the instructions here. Be careful though, making changes like this to Windows can have an adverse effect if done wrong and can even require a full reinstall.
Once Windows has booted you will have a short delay before your Frontend runs so you will temporarily see the desktop wallpaper. To make it look less obtrusive simply use a gaming related picture as your wallpaper and remove all the icons that you can from the desktop. This will be everything apart from the Recycle Bin by default, but even that can be removed in a couple of ways. The neatest way is by applying one of these registry patchesto add the Delete option to the Recycle Bin's own context (right click) menu, or you can edit the registry directly. Again take care when editing the registry as you don't want to have to reinstall XP all over again, especially if you have already screwed up the splash screen earlier.
To edit the registry
While you are in Control Panel go into the Sounds and Audio devices applet and change the sound scheme to "No Sounds" to remove all the default beeps and dings whenever Windows does something. Now you can put in a couple of your own sounds for the two options Exit Windows and Start Windows. Now on power up and power down your cab will play those sounds. You can use your own .wav file if you like but I used the two .wav files (startup.wav and shutdown.wav) from ArcadeOS.
All of these G.U.I. (Graphical User Interface) changes and little tweaks can be done with a program like TweakUI, but to be honest any performance gains there may be will be lost simply due to the fact that TweakUI is running in the background, and these changes aren't that difficult to do so I recommend you do it the way I've described here rather than using a third party application to do it.
Once that's done you can begin to set up the emulators. Firstly M.A.M.E. is quite simple and the process is very similar to setting it up on DOS but you will need the 32bit Windows version and you can use a much newer M.A.M.E. build. I simply created a folder called "mame" on the root of C Drive and copied all of the M.A.M.E. files into it, but the beauty of using using a newer version and running it on a different Frontend is that you can make use of all the supplementary M.A.M.E. files that ArcadeOS didn't use such as the artwork, flyers, control panels, screenshots and even video clips so copy those over to the relevant folders within C:\mame too.
Once that is done you can test your install in much the same way as on ArcadeOS with DOS commands (yes, even in Windows you test M.A.M.E. with DOS commands) so open up a Command Prompt by either trawling through the start menu for it or by using the shortcut of holding down the Windows Key and tapping [r].
Once the Command Prompt is open change to the new mame folder by typing the command
cd c:\mame
NOTE: If you are having problems and find yourself frequently accessing the Command Prompt and running the cd command, there is a quicker way to open up the desired folder directly. As I use the Command Prompt a lot in my work this is a fix I always configure on my own computers.
Once inside the c:\mame folder at the Command Prompt you can then run the game 1943 with the command
mame 1943 (remember the command on DOS for the dos version was dmame 1943)
This time around M.A.M.E. will not ask what sound card you have but will simply use the one configured in Windows.
If the game runs you know that your M.A.M.E. install is fine and you can move on to the next emulator which is Daphne.
- Click Start and then click Run and type the command msconfig
- Click OK then select the BOOT.INI tab
- Go down to Boot Options and tick: /NOGUIBOOT
- You can also select the STARTUP tab and see a list of startup processes and programs
- Untick any that you don't want to run every time your computer is booted
- Click Apply then OK to close msconfig.
- You will need to restart your computer for the changes to take effect
If you want to edit boot.ini directly simply open it in Notepad and add the switch
/noguiboot
after the switch
/fastdetect
To re-enable it just edit boot.ini again and remove the /noguiboot switch. Bear in mind that removing this splash screen will also remove any boot-up messages that might come up such as chkdsk but if your system runs without any problems then it shouldn't matter.
If you want to go to a little extra trouble and create your own splash screen for the boot process then you can do it following the instructions here. Be careful though, making changes like this to Windows can have an adverse effect if done wrong and can even require a full reinstall.
Once Windows has booted you will have a short delay before your Frontend runs so you will temporarily see the desktop wallpaper. To make it look less obtrusive simply use a gaming related picture as your wallpaper and remove all the icons that you can from the desktop. This will be everything apart from the Recycle Bin by default, but even that can be removed in a couple of ways. The neatest way is by applying one of these registry patchesto add the Delete option to the Recycle Bin's own context (right click) menu, or you can edit the registry directly. Again take care when editing the registry as you don't want to have to reinstall XP all over again, especially if you have already screwed up the splash screen earlier.
To edit the registry
- Click Start and then click Run and type the command regedit
- Navigate to the value
- HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
- Double-click the NoDesktop value if it exists
- If not, create it. Select Edit -> New -> DWORD Value, and type "NoDesktop" for its name
- Enter 1 for the value, and click OK. (Just delete the value entirely to undo this).
- Click on the desktop, and press [F5] to refresh the desktop and see the change take effect
While you are in Control Panel go into the Sounds and Audio devices applet and change the sound scheme to "No Sounds" to remove all the default beeps and dings whenever Windows does something. Now you can put in a couple of your own sounds for the two options Exit Windows and Start Windows. Now on power up and power down your cab will play those sounds. You can use your own .wav file if you like but I used the two .wav files (startup.wav and shutdown.wav) from ArcadeOS.
All of these G.U.I. (Graphical User Interface) changes and little tweaks can be done with a program like TweakUI, but to be honest any performance gains there may be will be lost simply due to the fact that TweakUI is running in the background, and these changes aren't that difficult to do so I recommend you do it the way I've described here rather than using a third party application to do it.
Once that's done you can begin to set up the emulators. Firstly M.A.M.E. is quite simple and the process is very similar to setting it up on DOS but you will need the 32bit Windows version and you can use a much newer M.A.M.E. build. I simply created a folder called "mame" on the root of C Drive and copied all of the M.A.M.E. files into it, but the beauty of using using a newer version and running it on a different Frontend is that you can make use of all the supplementary M.A.M.E. files that ArcadeOS didn't use such as the artwork, flyers, control panels, screenshots and even video clips so copy those over to the relevant folders within C:\mame too.
Once that is done you can test your install in much the same way as on ArcadeOS with DOS commands (yes, even in Windows you test M.A.M.E. with DOS commands) so open up a Command Prompt by either trawling through the start menu for it or by using the shortcut of holding down the Windows Key and tapping [r].
Once the Command Prompt is open change to the new mame folder by typing the command
cd c:\mame
NOTE: If you are having problems and find yourself frequently accessing the Command Prompt and running the cd command, there is a quicker way to open up the desired folder directly. As I use the Command Prompt a lot in my work this is a fix I always configure on my own computers.
- In Control Panel enter the Folder Options applet and select the File Types tab
- (2) In the list of extensions select (NONE) Folder and click the Advanced button
- (3) In the new window click the New button
- (4) In the Action window type Open Command Prompt Here
- (5) In the Application Used to perform action: window type command.exe
- (6) Select OK on each window to accept the new settings
Once inside the c:\mame folder at the Command Prompt you can then run the game 1943 with the command
mame 1943 (remember the command on DOS for the dos version was dmame 1943)
This time around M.A.M.E. will not ask what sound card you have but will simply use the one configured in Windows.
If the game runs you know that your M.A.M.E. install is fine and you can move on to the next emulator which is Daphne.
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