Game Menu ver 1.5 Copyright: (C) 1997 Jim Pragit Software Programmed by Jim Pragit What is Game Menu? JP-Soft's Game Menu is one of the most advanced universal emulator front ends in existence today. It presents a simple and easy to use menu for game selection. Why use a front end? Because it's a lot easier! Game Menu completely eliminates the endless and error prone monotony of constantly typing lengthy DOS commands. Instead, it gives a menu showing all your games. To play a game, just click on it with your mouse and Game Menu takes care of the rest! Plus, it can even display actual game names instead of DOS filenames. In other words, instead of seeing a list full of cryptic filenames like SRAID32.BIN or S_SPIN.GG, you see real game descriptions like Star Raiders and Sonic Spinball. Which emulators work with Game Menu? Virtually any and all emulators that can be run from a command line will work with Game Menu. To date, Game Menu has been successfully tested with: - AdamEm (Adam/ColecoVision) - ColEm (ColecoVision) - DVI (Vectrex) - ESNES (Super Nintendo) - fMSX (MSX) - Gameboy 97 (Nintendo Gameboy) - GenEm (Sega Genesis) - Massage (Sega Master System/GameGear) - MasterGear (Sega Master System/GameGear) - Magic Engine (Turbo Graphx16/PC Engine) - MetaLynx (Atari Lynx) - PC Atari (Atari 2600) - SNES97 (Super Nintendo) - Stella (Atari 2600) - Virtual 2600 (Atari 2600) - Virtual Gameboy (Nintendo Gameboy) - Virtual Super System (Atari 5200) - XL-it! (Atari 800, 800XL and 130XE) What are some of the Game Menu's features? - Simple and easy to use Menu System - Mouse Support(a rarity amoung DOS front ends) - User Configurable Colors and Interface - Built-in Support for Stella's VCS Files - Three Dimensional Text-Based Graphics - On-Line Help How do I install Game Menu? Copy GameMenu.exe and GameMenu.txt to the same directory as the emulator. Then, you need to create a GameMenu.ini file (if one hasn't already been provided). What is the GameMenu.ini file? The GameMenu.ini file is a simple text file that gives Game Menu information on how to run a particular emulator. Six example ini files have been included: - Stella.ini for Stella (Atari 2600 emulator) - ColEmDos.ini for ColEmDos (ColecoVision emulator) - DVE.ini for DVE (Vectrex emulator) - Massage.ini for Massage (Sega Master System emulator) - VGB.ini for Virtual GameBoy (Nintendo GameBoy emulator) - fMSX-DOS for fMSX (MSX emulator) If you use any of these three emulators, simply rename the appropriate example file as GameMenu.ini. If you use any other emulators, use these files as examples and modify them accordingly. Further explanations can be found in these ini files themselves. Why use an initialization (ini) file? To make Game Menu a universal front end. This way, JP-Soft's Game Menu can be used with virtually all emulators available today by simply changing a few lines in the GameMenu.ini file. This makes Game Menu very flexible and saves you the trouble and confusion of using a different front end for each and every emulator you use. How do I modify GameMenu.ini? You can use any text editor you want, such as EDIT or Notepad. Personally, I prefer to use UltraEdit. UltraEdit is available for Window 3.1x and Windows 9x. You can download a shareware version from: http://www.idmcomp.com What needs to be in the GameMenu.ini? At the bare minimum, only three lines are needed in the following format: CMD emulator_filename DIR directory_where_the_ROM_images_are EXT dos_filename_extension The CMD line gives the filename of the emulator. The DIR line gives the directory where the ROM images are. The EXT line gives the filename extension of these ROM images. (It might also be a good idea to include the drive and complete path in the CMD and EXT lines.) For example: CMD C:\Stella\Stella.exe DIR C:\Stella\ROMs\ EXT BIN All other lines are completely optional. The format of Game Menu's ini file looks familiar. Why is that? The format of Game Menu's ini file is based upon Andrew Bond's Console Menu program. This allows users of both Game Menu and Console Menu to switch between the two programs with little or no modification. What if I have more than one emulator? Copy GameMenu.exe and GameMenu.txt to each emulator's directory and create a GameMenu.ini file for each of these emulators. Make sure the appropriate ini file is in the correct directory. For more details on how to create an ini file, read the example ini files included with this distribution. I'm using Game Menu for more than one emulator. How can I get each copy of Game Menu to use the same settings and colors? Create a directory called JP-Soft on the root directory of your drive. What do I have to do to use Game Menu's support for Stella's VCS files? Nothing. This feature is automatic. How do I add descriptions for the ROM images? Simply select the game you want in the main menu, hit F6(or ALT,E,D) and then type in the description. Please note that each ROM image filename should have a unique description. What if I discover a bug? Send E-mail with a complete and accurate description of the problem to JPSoftCo@aol.com. Is Game Menu copyrighted and how much does it cost? Yes, Game Menu is copyrighted by the author, James Pragit. Although, it is copyrighted, no fee is charged for this program. You are free to distribute this program to anyone you want, just keep all the files together (including this one as it is the only file containing any documentation on Game Menu). Is there any disclaimer? Game Menu has been thoroughly tested and debugged on a variety of emulators, computers and users and found to be perfectly safe. However, it is impossible to anticipate every possible situation or contingency that may arise. Therefore, neither Jim Pragit nor Jim Pragit Software make any guarantees towards its safety and accepts no responsibility for any harm it might do, however unlikely. Why did I write Game Menu? Because, the other front end programs I've seen (and used) always seemed to lack certain features I wanted. For example, Game Menu is the only universal DOS front end I know of that lets you use a mouse. Also, Game Menu has a nice, three-dimensional look that other programs like this lack. Further, my program is the only one that I know of that has built-in support for Stella's VCS files. This is one of the advantages of being a programmer; if there isn't a program out there that does what you want it to, you can write your own. Who is Jim Pragit? I'm a senior at Northern Illinois University majoring in Computer Science. I've worked with computers on both the software side (as a programmer) and hardware side (as a PC technician). I've written many programs including the critically acclaimed Free Space DOS utility, chosen as America Online's DOS Forum's Top Pick in 1996. My languages of choice include C, Cobol, and Visual Basic. I graduate in December 1997. What other programs does Jim Pragit Software offer? Although I've written many programs, Game Menu and Free Space are the only ones being freely distributed at this time. CompuSearch is also available for a nominal fee. Does Jim Pragit Software have a web site? Yes. There, you can find the latest version of Game Menu as well as an updated and an expanded FAQ (HTML-ized to boot) and other free software. Also in the works is a Game Menu archive and a page dedicated to the Atari 7800 ProSystem. The URL is: http://members.aol.com/jpsoftco What if I have a suggestion or comment about Game Menu? Send E-mail to JPSoftCo@aol.com. Final Note: If you have a gamemenu.ini file for an emulator other than the six examples previously mentioned, please email it to JPSoftCo@aol.com so that it can be included with future editions of Game Menu. Any help you can provide will be greatly appreciated.