Emu Loader Changelog

What's new in Emu Loader 8.8.1

Aug 19, 2019

Fixed:
Icons in web info tool bar buttons were not loaded as disabled; font colors of disable buttons were wrong in night mode
Function to delete/copy/move files was in debug mode, not working... again

New in Emu Loader 8.8 (Aug 16, 2019)

Fixed:
Fixed a bug in "TCustomColorBox" Delphi 7 class, "SetSelected()" procedure
It was not repainting the control properly, and it was not caused by the frontend (damn you Delphi 7!)
My custom TColorBoxEx component was also affected due to this "Delphi 7" bug
The fix was taken from "Code Gear Delphi 2010" source code ("vlcExtCtrls.pas")
Event "OnSelect()" was not properly executed on TColorBoxEx components (color dropdown buttons)
A few default settings in "EmuLoader.ini" and "nightmode.ini" were causing problems on a clean install
Colors for "Game Docs Status Bar" not updated when switching between light mode and night mode
Fixes for the night mode
Search bar background had gradient always enabled even if the gradient setting was not ticked
Floating panel gradient background colors were not properly set, specially at startup
TColorBoxEx were resetting to default colors at frontend startup when viewing the "2 pages" in night mode screen
Hint box colors and style not updated when switching between light mode and night mode
Control "Buttons" was listed twice in "Game Details" screen when a game have multiple controls + buttons
Game selection bar colors and font colors were not correctly set in several screens, including in "Customize Game Fonts"
Font of column header was not properly set when night mode is enabled (MAME Machines Filter Panel)
My custom component TEditEx was not repainting the frame color when required
Pressed button custom colors were not applied to buttons in night mode
Font "Terminal" is used in a few places and if it's not installed in Windows, it will be replaced by "Lucida Console" (Windows 7 users don't have to worry about this)
App crash when trying to show game images if image category folders are not successfully loaded
Updates to my TAdvCheckBoxEx and TAdvRadioGroupEx components
Fixed icons positions as they were not drawn at the same position on Windows 7 and Windows 10
RadioGroup icon updated with a 13x13 sized image when working with Delphi 7 in design time (easier to align controls)
Added a couple commands to get the correct CheckBox/RadioGroup icon sizes from Windows theme
Metadata files are no longer used when mounting images on a "virtual drive" app (.cue, etc...) even if "use .cue" tool bar button is enabled (console/computer games)
Game image files failed to mount on a virtual drive, returning an error to the user (console/computer games)
Changed:
Night mode is now enabled by default on a clean install or if "EmuLoader.ini" file is missing
Shadow texts are disabled in light mode for panel texts, tool bar panels, floating panels; it looks better this way
Improvements to night mode settings (night mode screen)
Added "Shadow Enabled" checkboxes for texts in "Search Games Panel Colors", so you can disable shadow texts
Added "Shadow Enabled" checkboxes for texts in "Panels Colors", so you can disable shadow texts
Added preview panels (click the "Preview" buttons) so you can see your color customizations:
Games List Selection Bar
Panels Colors
Image Hint Box
Search Games Panel Colors
Tweaks to the layout
Rounded corners in GroupBox frames are disabled for night mode
The overlay folder "Dark Gray" is no longer needed, these icons are now the default for night mode ("resourcesmain_iconsoverlayDark Gray" folder can be deleted)
Blue overlay icons moved to a new "Blue" folder ("resourcesmain_iconsoverlayBlue")
If overlay files of a sub-folder are not found, the "Tool Bar Overlay Icons Folder" setting will reset to "Default" (night mode screen)
Improvements to "Image Hint Box" (preferences screen, night mode screen)
Setting "Show Unzipped/Zipped Icon" is gone, the icon is now mandatory
Added a "Italic" font style checkbox, so you can disable the italic style (disabled by default)
Text font size reduced to 10 pixels
Added a new "image resolution (image type)" text below the image category title; only font color can be customized
Added a "Larger Font Size" checkbox, for a 14 pixels font size like it was before (disabled by default)
Added a "Box Position" setting to choose where the hint box will appear; default position is "Middle/Left"
Fixed "middle vertical" position, it was not taking the hint box height into account
Selection bar of menus/popup menus is a little darker, around 10%
Moved settings panel to a popup menu ("Favorites Manager" settings button)
Game details screen changes
Removed shadow of texts in the left panel (night mode)
Removed dual border from ROMs list
Minor improvements to make sure border spaces are pixel perfect
Removed shadow of texts in system title bars and replaced yellow font color by orange, on all screens (night mode only)
Removed shadow of texts from labels and checkboxes in almost all screens (night mode)
Color tweaks to texts font colors in "Delete/Rename Game Image File" screens (night mode)
Several source code optimizations to remove redundant duplicates, mostly for the night mode
Modified my TShadowLabel component to not show the shadow text if component is in "disabled" state and the "ShadowEnabled" property is unchecked
If a "Label", "CheckBox", "RadioButton", "GroupBox" component is in disabled state and the "ShadowEnabled" property is unchecked, the shadow text is no longer displayed
It looks a lot better in night mode
In light mode, the "3D effect" no longer applies, but texts still look good
Games list in "Delete Multiple Games Files" screen now uses the same colors / background image as the main games list
Replaced "Consolas" font by "Calibri" in "MAME Game Docs" panel
Tons of interface tweaks, specially texts and their colors
New interface for preferences screen
Cleaner and easy to navigate, also to prevent waste of blank space
Page 1 is for frontend settings, page 2 is mostly for colors
Tweaks to existing settings so they are better aligned with panels
Several settings moved from "EmuLoader.ini" to a new "ini_filesLightMode.ini" file (preferences screen, mostly)
They are all exclusive to the light mode
Now you can do a clean install and restore these settings easily
Most key names in .ini file were renamed to match key names from night mode preset files, you must modify your light mode settings again (sorry)
Some "MAME Game Docs" settings moved from "el_extras.ini" file into "LightMode.ini"
Removed:
The following is removed to simplify the interface
Frames of games list panel, images panel and game docs panel is kaput!
Setting "Games List Frame Colors" (preferences screen, night mode settings screen)
Setting "Games List Status Bar, Inner/Outer Frame" (preferences screen, night mode settings screen)
Setting "Games List Status Bar, Font Shadow Color" (preferences screen, night mode settings screen)
Setting "Game Docs Splitter Style / Colors"; same style/colors as image splitters is used, as it was before (preferences screen, night mode screen)
Setting "Image Panel Frame Colors" (preferences screen, night mode settings screen)
Setting "Enable Edit Box Custom Frame Color" is no more; custom frame is always enabled in night mode (night mode screen)
Setting "Games List Splitter" style is gone for night mode; only a single color is supported (night mode screen)
Setting "Tool Bar Inner/Outer Frame" is no more (night mode screen)
Added:
New games list background images, for both night mode and light mode ("resourcesimages")... thank you Fabian for the new images
New setting "Disable Aspect Ratio", to stretch the image on the entire image panel; requires "Image Stretch" setting to be enabled (popup menu "Images")
New setting "Round Corners" to "Games List Selection Bar" colors (preferences screen, night mode screen)
Night mode colors support for arcade emulator setup screens: MAME, HBMAME, Supermodel, Daphne, SEGA Model 2, ZiNc
New "Left Align Emulators Info and Games Info" setting to show message box texts aligned to the left instead of centered (preferences screen, "General" panel)
New setting to customize games filters tool bar in light mode (preferences screen)
You can use gradient or solid colors
New "Windows Theme" checkbox, so you can disable Windows themed tool bar painting
Support for multiple night mode profiles
Change profiles with the new "Night Mode Profiles" box ("Customize Night Mode" screen, access thru main menu)
All profiles are now stored in "frontend_pathnightmode" folder
File "nightmode.ini" moved to the new "nightmode" sub-folder and renamed to "Default.ini"
Setting "Tool Bar Overlay Icons Folder" can be different for each profile
Setting "Menus / Popup Menus" frame color can be different for each profile
Current profile is automatically saved to .ini file when switching between profiles or when closing the "Customize Night Mode" screen
New "RGB Quick Edit" for color dropdown boxes "TColorBoxEx" (popup menu, mouse right-click)
For an easy and quick way to select a RGB color manually
Screens that support this new popup menu:
Customize Night Mode
Image Category Settings
Customize Game Fonts
Customize Thumbnails
Preferences screen
Added "Show Font Name" setting in "Customize Game Fonts" screen
Access in popup menu (disabled by default)
Useful for high resolution screens (1080p or higher)
Added a custom game fonts set for night mode, split from light mode
Have a set of game fonts for light mode and another for night mode
Light mode filename: "ini_filessysgamecustomfont.ini"
Night mode filename: "ini_filessysgamecustomfont_nightmode.ini"
Updated "Customize Game Fonts" screen to load the night mode font settings if this mode is active (games popup menu, main menu "Games List")
If file "sysgamecustomfont_nightmode.ini" doesn't exist, it is generated from "sysgamecustomfont.ini" at startup (useful for night mode)
New "Use A Single Background Color" setting for image categories
Select a background color that will be used for all image categories ("Image Category Settings" screen)
You no longer need to select the same color on each category if you want to use the same color for all of them
Toggle setting in main menu "Images", images popup menu or in "Image Category Settings" screen (disabled by default)
Added options to customize games list header colors in night mode
Text font
Column background color, hot color, disabled color, pressed color
Settings in Night Mode screen, "Games List Column Header" panel
MAME v0.212 support

New in Emu Loader 8.7.8 (Jun 25, 2019)

New in Emu Loader 8.7.7 (Jun 8, 2019)

New in Emu Loader 8.7.6 (Jun 3, 2019)

New in Emu Loader 8.7.4 (May 30, 2019)

Fixed:
Media type of Daphne games was not set to "Disc"
Game icons/systems TImageList containers were not emptied before reloading icons
Hint box colors of image panel #4 were not updated after exiting preferences screen
Game files of many MAME software list games were not recognized, tagging the game as "Game With No ROMs" ("a800.xml" software list for one)
Tweaks to prevent splash screen from hiding/showing multiple times when creating games / auditing games; this fix also prevents the timer from resetting
Changed:
First atempt to set the correct media type icon for MAME arcade games with CHD files (HDD, Disc, Compact Flash Card, Game Video Tape VHS)
Added an extra "ArcadeCHD_MediaType" game info tag just for this; tag is set when loading the ROMs database
The new media type icons are used everywhere: game status bar, run game dialog, last played games, delete game snapshot dialog, thumbnails view and others
HDD media type is set for games with multiple CHD files (HDD, CD, flash card) if at least one of them is HDD
You must re-create MAME games list to update the frontend ROMs database files
Improvements to the thumbnails view
Icons are no longer drawn in the thumb image
Icons are handled as overlays and, from now on, they are drawn in the top/left or top/right of the cell (depending on the "align" setting)
Added a "Media Type Icon" to the mix
The system icon for MAME software lists is now the UME icon ("emu_ume.ico"), so you know that it's a MAME game but not arcade
When changing icons settings but not the thumb cell dimensions, only the icons are updated in main games list; thumbnails already created no longer have to be re-created
New setting "Show Icons With No Thumbnail", will display the overlay icons (system, game, media, favorite) even if no thumbnail is available
Media type icon is now drawn after the system icon, moved the game icon below it
New media/game/favorite icon size drop-down selection, no more fixed 24x24 size
Further tweaks to the night mode
Added:
New alternate sub-folders for frontend icons, arcade/console/computer systems and arcade games icons so you don't have to replace frontend's default icons
Toggle alternate icons on/off with the new "Use Alternate Frontend Icons" setting in main menu
Console/computer system icons go in a new "frontend_dirconsole_computersystem_iconsalternate" folder
Frontend icons and arcade system icons go in a new "frontend_dirresourcesmain_iconsalternate" folder
Arcade game icons go in a new "frontend_dirresourcesgameslist_iconsalternate" folder
Message box icons go in a new "frontend_dirresourcesmain_iconsmsgbox_iconsalternate" folder
NOTES:
Tool bar filter icons, image category icons and image layout icons are not supported (basically all icons that use overlay icons)
All icons must be 32-bits color depth (RGB + alpha channel)
All required resolution icons must be added to the .ico file, or the frontend will show an "icon not found" error message
If you enable alternate icons without having them, the frontend will load the default ones
New media type: "Video Game Music"
Initially used in MAME's "VGM Player" software list
New icon file "resourcesmain_iconsmedia_videogamemusic.ico"
New feature: "Special" tag
You can tag a game for any reason: finished games, games you want to play, games you hate, games you are playing, games you want to hide...
Games list is stored in a new "ini_filesspecial.txt" file and the file format is the same as favorites files so if you are using favorites list for things like this, you can safely copy and rename the favorite profile to this new filename
There's a new column in details/grouped view named "Special"
Add/remove games to/from special list in games popup menu (below "Add/Remove Favorite" menu items)
Filter the games list with the new drop-down filter "Special List" in "Miscellaneous" tool bar filter
You can enable/disable the special icon for thumbnails view ("thumbnail settings" screen)
You can modify this new icon to your needs ("resourcesmain_iconsspecial.ico" file)
Night colors support for image hint boxes (preferences screen, "Night Mode 2" page)
Separate colors from light mode
Settings saved in "nightmode.ini" file

New in Emu Loader 8.7.3 (May 1, 2019)

Fixed:
Parent .ico file not showing up in clone sets if clonename.ico doesn't exist ("MAMu_ icons" feature)
Buttons "OK" / "Cancel" were invisible when viewing the simpler "arcade system select" dialog
Wrong read/write of game info "playtime" / "last played" / "times played" if your have multiple games in the same system with same zipped filename but of different media types
Example: 2 files named "Elevator Action (1995) (Nidecom).zip", both MSX1 games, one is cartridge media type and the other is floppy disk
Wrong game info written in played games files after exiting a console/computer game
Wrong game info read from played games files when loading games lists at startup
The media type was missing when searching for the game entry
Bugs related to files located in "console_computerplayed_games" folder
Arcade systems and MAME software lists do not suffer from this bug
Wrong "extra game info" data parsing for "Games Editor" (main menu "Console/Computer")
Night mode was not toggled on/off correctly with the checkbox in messages dialog
PaneEx "inner border color" was not set correctly in procedure uCommon.SetPanelNightColors() causing it to be the same as outer border color
MAME arcade input files were not handled correctly in "Run Game (Extra Parameters)" screen
Files "arcade_name.inp" in the "inp" root folder were not added to the files list, only "inpgamename*.inp" files
For arcade games only, excluding MAME softlist games
MAME save state files were not handled correctly in "Run Game (Extra Parameters)" screen
Files from "stamachine_namesoftwarenamegamename" folder were completely ignored
For MAME software list games only, excluding arcade games
The image layout currently in use could be disabled in "Layout Settings" screen, causing corruption in layouts .ini file read/write routine
Extra title/machine type text color of selected systems were hard to read in night mode; light gray color replaced by dark gray
Selection bar was not red color for CHDs with bad checksum ("Arcade Audit Results" screen)
"CPU Filter" edit box was not correctly painted in night mode
Search games floating panel was not showing up at startup
Changed:
Improvements to "version info" detection in "Arcade Emulators Setup" screen and at frontend startup
Changes and tweaks to AlterMAME feature
RAM variables were not initialized at startup, it could cause the frontend to crash
Added a second AlterMAME slot so you can use two alternate emulators to run MAME games ("Arcade Emulators Setup" screen)
new "Autorun Game With AlterMAME 2" checkbox ("Arcade Emulators Setup" screen and games popup menu)
if game cannot be run with "AlterMAME 1", it will try again with "AlterMAME 2"
new "Run Game With AlterMAME 2" option in games popup menu to run games directly with AlterMAME 2
Added proper detection for "FinalBurn Alpha" and "Raine" emulators in "Arcade Emulators Setup" screen and when running games
FBA website: https://www.fbalpha.com
Raine website: http://raine.1emulation.com
For Raine emulator, the "-nogui" parameter is added automatically to the execution command line and there's no way to toggle it off
Better handling of CreateProcessW() exit codes "0, 1, 2, 5" after exiting emulators
Tweaks and fixes to texts in "run game confirmation" and "execution error" dialogs
Renamed file "image_category_overlay.ico" to "image_category_overlay_light.ico" ("resourcesmain_iconsoverlay" folder)
Image category/layout icons updated to support overlay icons ("resourcesmain_icons" folder)
Icon files "option_check.ico" and "option_radiogroup_on.ico" replaced by better versions, suitable for light and dark backgrounds ("resourcesmain_icons" folder)
Changes and fixes to menu/popupmenu drawing colors
Fixed a couple painting bugs in the selection bar outer border
Fixed unreadable shortcut text color in selected items
Added "help text" and "selected help text" in the colors array, changed them to "gray" to fix unreadable texts
Added inner frame color to the selected items, slightly darker than menu background color
Replaced TEdit standard component by my custom "TEditEx" component, to be used in "night mode"
New properties: "Color Frame", "Color Frame Focused", "Color Frame Disabled", "Round Frame"
Property "Use Custom Border" for an easy on/off toggle when changing between light/dark backgrounds; this property if OFF by default
Allow custom frame colors instead of the fixed Windows themed frame
Remove the fixed white inner frame when setting edit box background color to anything other than white
Improvements to my custom "TShadowLabel" component for dark backgrounds compatibility
Added new "Disabled Font Color" and "Disabled Font Shadow Color" properties so you can change font colors when the component is in "not enabled" state
Added new "Use Disabled Font Color" property for an easy on/off toggle when changing between light/dark backgrounds; this property is OFF by default
Modified image category/layout .ico files, removed monitor frames / texts to use with overlay .ico files ("resourcesmain_icons" folder)
Moved "Tool Bar Overlay Icons Folder" setting to "Night Mode" page since this feature is not for the light mode (preferences screen)
Removed:
All code related to "AlterMAME Default Emulator Settings" and "AlterMAME custom ini settings" completely removed from the source code
Added:
New night mode .ico overlay files for image categories/layouts ("resourcesmain_iconsoverlayimg_dark" folder)
Support custom game icons for MAME software list games; "MAMu_ Icons" feature
File "softwarenamegamename.ico" in arcade "icons.zip" is no longer supported
Zipped icons for each software list must be in: - "user_mame_icons_pathsoftwarenameicons.zip" filename or
"user_mame_icons_pathsoftwarename.zip" filename (alternate .zip name, exclusive Emu Loader feature!)
Unzipped icons must be in:
"user_mame_icons_pathsoftwarenamegamename.ico" or
"user_mame_icons_pathiconssoftwarenamegamename.ico"
Minor tweaks to improve RAM usage and .zip files handling
Don't know what this is ? see this thread in MAMEWorld's "News" forum:
Http://www.mameworld.info/ubbthreads/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Number=380709&page=1&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1&vc=1&new=1549010727
New setting "Show MAME Machines Status Bar" so you can hide the status bar of the machines list panel (setting is in machines list popup menu)
Night mode colors for several dialogs and screens; colors are fixed and cannot be customizable
Custom frame color settings for the edit box in search bar (preferences screen, "Night Mode" page, "Search Games Panel Colors" group box)
New handheld system to the "Console/Computer" list: "Nintendo Switch"
Only Yuzu emulator is supported: https://yuzu-emu.org
You must use "yuzu-cmd.exe" file
Tool bar menus, filter dialogs and popup menus in dark colors for the night mode
You can disable the dark menu with "Show Dark Menu in Night Mode" setting in main menu if you prefer light colors
Colors cannot be customized
Tweaks to selection bar, made it a bit darker
Fixed function uMain.AddDefaultIcons(), it was not reloading overlay icons properly when switching between light/night modes and when changing "ToolBar Overlay Icons Folder" setting in preferences screen
New setting "Use Italic Font Style in System Title Bars" so you can disable italic fonts in system title bars (enabled by default)
Added support for "VisualBoyAdvance-M" emulator and updated "console_computeremulator_parameters[default].ini" file

New in Emu Loader 8.7.2 (Dec 10, 2018)

New in Emu Loader 8.6.7 (Nov 7, 2018)

New in Emu Loader 8.6.6 (Oct 24, 2018)

New in Emu Loader 8.6.5 (Aug 6, 2018)

New in Emu Loader 8.6.4 (Aug 3, 2018)

Fixed:
Oh darn... I forgot to delete some beep/ding sound commands when initializing game zipped images lists
Re-added support to generate zipped snapshot thumbs in thumbnails view
the code was removed by mistake more than a year ago when EmuCon was merged with Emu Loader, and nobody noticed, not even me
all arcade systems are supported, "snap.zip" file; MAME also support "softwarename.zip" and "snap_sl.zip"
Console/computer systems from EmuCon were Ok
Games list was not focused after a manual switch between light and night mode (main menu)
Changed:
Minor optimizations to save some RAM when handling game image folders and improve game images preview search
Changes to "Image Category Settings" screen:
button "Default" folder was doing nothing
category folders are now read directly from config files and not from RAM vars, which might contain different data
relative paths in console/computer systems (from EmuCon) are now relative to the frontend root path since you can have multiple emulators per system
minor code tweaks
Added:
New "Machines List Filter" filter for "MAME Machines Filter Panel" (machines list popup menu)
you can customize what machines appear in the list
it works like the "Customize MAME Software List" feature
excluded machines list is saved in "arcademame_machines_exclude.txt" file
machines are only hidden from the list, not disabled
it's only for the machines filter panel, not for the main games list
Support for "all-in-one" zipped image files (MAME software lists only):
you can have snaps for all MAME softlist games combined into one humongous file instead of separate "softwarename.zip" files
filename is the same as MAME's image .zip filenames, plus a "_sl" suffix
filename format: "snap_sl.zip", "titles_sl.zip", "covers_sl.zip", etc (all categories are supported)
files must be located in the same place as their "arcade/machine" files (snap.zip, titles.zip, etc)
you can use "softwarename.zip" files together with these new files
they will be scanned after "softwarename.zip"
easy to use, just drop files in them proper folders and start the frontend
Mulitple image paths detection (MAME only):
only the first path will be used, ignoring everything else after the ; char (snaps, titles, cabinets, covers, etc)
removal of surrouning quotes, just to be safe (first and last char on the string)
NOTE: there is no multi directories scan to show game preview images!
Added "videosnaps_sl" sub-folder scanning for video preview, MAME software lists

New in Emu Loader 8.6.3 (Jul 31, 2018)

Fixed:
Heavy tool bar flickering when resizing main screen / images panel
caused by the tool bar's "repaint" internal event (not accessible by the user)
tool bar "DoubleBuffer" property is now always enabled
Frontend crash when clicking "All Visible" button in "Customize Tool Bar" (games filters tool bar)
Image category icon in images tool bar was showing the night mode overlay while in light mode
Frontend crash when detecting "Atari 800" cartridge type from an unzipped game Unicode filename
Changed
"Search Games" panel is back in the games filters tool bar
floating panel is still available as an option (access in "Settings" button)
games list attached panel is gone
new "Use Small 16x16 Icons" option , access in "Settings" button (default 24x24 icons)
new "Show Filter Labels in Small Tool Bar" option to show labels, "small tool bar" mode only
the "Search" tool bar button is visible only for the floating panel
the floating panel "enabled" state is no longer restored at startup
"Games List Status Bar" colors limited to the light mode (Preferences screen, "Games List" page)
Setting "Panel Outer Frame Color (7 Pixels)" renamed to "Image 7 Pixels Border Color" to avoid confusion with night mode (Preferences screen, "Games List" page)
Behavior of panel frames have changed, two options to choose from:
"Outer Frame": enable this to use a single frame
"Inner Frame": enable this to use a double frame; "outer frame" must also be enabled
disabling both settings or just "outer frame" removes the panel border completely
tool bars updated to support the new setings
Message box now show top bar color and labels colors according to game's set status
green bar for available games
red bar for available games with missing ROMs/CHDs
gray bar for missing games
Added:
New "Show Game Documents 7 Pixels Border" checkbox and "Border Color" settings, to align the panel with images panel (Preference screen, "Game Docs" page)
Night mode improvements ("Night Mode" page in Preferences screen)
"Search Games" panel colors customization expanded to include the edit box
customize games list frame color and visibility
tick the new "Use Windows Themed Border" to disable games custom frame color; it shows a single border
the frame in games filters tool bar is now drawn outside the client area, and it can be set to disabled, single or double frame
customize images panel frame colors and visibility
images tool bar height aligned with games filters "small tool bar", frame is now drawn outside the client area
"Customize Games List Status Bar Colors" settings for the night mode (colors box in "Games List" page is now only for the light mode)
New "Panels Colors" general settings for the night mode, so you can change frame colors, background color, font color and shadow font color
"Apply Filters" message box
"Initialize Zipped Images Contents" message box
Game Details
Select a Machine to Run Game
Load Multi-Slot MAME Games
Load Console/Computer Multi Floppy Disk Games
Search Games floating panel
Rename/Delete Game Images
Customize MAME Software List
NOTE 1: not all texts can have custom colors (font color and shadow font color)
NOTE 2: background color is it's not widely applied; only for a few panels
New setting "Tool Bar Overlay Icons Folder" (preferences screen, "Games List" page)
you don't have to overwrite frontend's overlay icons anymore, just create a sub-folder with your custom icons and select it in the drop-down box
sub-folder must be inside "frontend_dirresourcesmain_iconsoverlay" base folder
for both light mode and night mode
use ANSI directory names only, no Unicode support
you only need to add icons that are different than the ones from the base folder
if an icon doesn't exist in the sub-folder, the overlay icon from the base folder will be used
overlay icons are used in games filters tool bar and images tool bar (so far...)
folder name is used as the icons set title
added a "Dark Grey" icons set for the night mode; thanks to "Fabian" for creating the icons

New in Emu Loader 8.6 (Jun 30, 2018)

Fixed:
Several drawing bugs in games lists, top bars and icons
Top bar lower gradient color was silver instead of white in "Delete/Rename Game Snapshot"
Empty space in multi-floppy games list panel if games of different systems are selected in main games list ("Load Multi Floppy Disks Game" screen)
Set default font was not working in "Game Font Settings" (games popup menu)
Arcade game font was not set correctly on several screens if game status is tagged "found with missing ROMs" and game driver is tagged "preliminary"
Main games list not focused after exiting "Favorites Manager"
Main games list not focused after exiting "Last Played Games (MRU)"
Changed:
Minimum required resolution bumped to 1024x768 / 1280x720; plus, dialogs and screens will no longer auto-resize to fit in lower resolutions
Changes and fixes to Mustangpeak's "EasyListView" component (EasyListView.pas)
it was drawing "State Images" in normal mode when TEasyItem is ghosted and/or not enabled; TEasyViewItem.PaintImage() function
icon top border was not properly set if cell size if larger than icon size; "large icons view" only
to fix this I added a new "IconViewAdjustIconTopBorder" property in "TEasyPaintInfoBasic" class, used in TEasyViewIconItem.ItemRectArray() procedure
Improvements to my "TPanelEx" component:
added a "Inner Border Color" property for a cool neon effect, and a property to enable/disable it
added a "Enable Custom Border" property to create a dual color border in the "non-client area"
border colors are customizable
no more drawing borders over the client area, covering 2 pixels at all sides of the panel!
it cannot be used with "Border Style" and/or "Bevel Kind" properties
"Frames" property is still available but it paints in the client area
fixed paint flickering when enable/disable frames and/or borders
code clean up ("Border Style" and "Bevel" properties will eventually be removed from the component)
Improved my custom TGroupBox component, added "Dual Color" border style for a cool neon effect (see "Delete Games Files" screen in night mode)
Interface changes to "Console/Computer Emulators Setup" and "Console/Computer Games Folders Settings"
default system icons size is now 68x68 (resolution 1280x800 and higher)
48x48 icons are used for 1280x720 / 1024x768 resolutions
left some room in systems panel for the future (just in case)
additional tweaks
Minor tweaks to "Game Details" screen
Interface changes to several screens:
48x48 game icon replaced by 68x68 size (top bar)
16x16 system / media type icon replaced by 24x24 size (top bar)
increased game title font size from 8 to 10 (top bar)
increased game name+extra info font size from 7 to 8 for easier reading (top bar)
removed ListView border (Windows theme forced painting), replaced by a custom panel with dual colors so night mode can be applied
- additional tweaks

New in Emu Loader 8.5.7 Update (May 12, 2018)

New in Emu Loader 8.5 (May 12, 2018)

Fixed:
Bios/device ROMs showing as "Parent Bios" / "Parent Device" in game sets ("Arcade Scan Results" screen)
Message panel not showing up when applying quick systems filter in grouped view mode
MAME software list games not audited correctly if set has no main "gamename.zip" file but have CHD files
Setting "MAMU_ Icons Folder" was not saved in .ini file when closing "Preferences" screen
TEdit was in read-only mode; you can rename files in "Rename Image" dialog again
Background color of single image layout was not restored at startup and not set after closing "Image Category Settings" screen
Create ZiNc games list was setting bios ROMs as "parent ROM" on games sets
Changed:
File "arcadeimage_categories.ini" renamed to "arcadesysimagefolders_arcade.ini" (done at startup)
Image category background color/visibility settings moved out of "EmuLoader.ini" into a new "ini_filesimage_category.ini" file (done at startup)
from now on, file is updated only when you change settings in "Image Category Settings" screen
settings are no longer lost on a frontend crash or clean install
Image layout visibility settings moved out of "EmuLoader.ini" into "ini_filesscreenshot_layouts.ini", where they belong (done at startup)
from now on, file is updated only when you change settings in "Image Layout Settings" screen
settings are no longer lost on a frontend crash or clean install
Changes and fixes to "Game Details" screen
CHD files of software list games were not correctly detected, "software name" parameter was missing
added "extra required set" info for software list games
bios set filename not shown in "Game Files" section (left panel)
several tweaks
Tweaks to "Create MAME Games List"
Changes/fixes to "MAME Software List Games"
detection of "sharedfeat requirement" tags in .xml files when creating games lists; highly experimental!
some games require an extra set to run properly; Atari 2600 cassette, PC-Engine CD, others (info shown in "Game Details" screen)
if a game doesn't run and you're sure you have all game files, look for this extra info above the "Games Files" section, left panel
requirement data stored in a new "arcadegamesmame.elsoftlistreq" file
the extra parameter is added before the gamename parameter
expanded options to create software lists (new "update" mode)
"Disable": do not create software lists and delete current games list files
"Enable: Update": create new lists and update existing ones only if CRC32 checksum of "mamedirhashsoftwarename.xml" file has changed (XML file updated)
"Enable: Overwrite": create new lists and overwrite existing ones even if CRC32 checksum match
NOTE: settings can be found in the screen to select systems when creating MAME games list and in "Scan Games Mode" screen
new "xmlfile_crc32" entry in "frontenddirarcademame_softwarelist_gamessoftname.el" to compare with MAME "softname.xml" (for "update" mode only)
Interface changes to Select Arcade System" dialog
added new software list modes
systems list moved to a left panel
option "For This Task Only" is unchecked by default
info texts improved
Changes to "Arcade Miscellaneous Filters" (main tool bar buttons)
renamed "Device" drop-down list to "Device ROMs" since this filter is not exclusive to device sets
renamed "BIOS" drop-down list do "BIOS ROMs" since this filter is not exclusive to bios sets
renamed texts from "Sets" to "ROMs" in "Device ROMs" and "Bios ROMs" drop-down filters since they are related to particular ROMs, not the entire set
renamed "Filter by Main CPU Filter" to "Enable Main CPU Filter Bar"
renamed "Games with ROMs (any set)" to "Games With ROMs (any ROM)" in "Game ROMs" drop-down list since this filter includes device/bios ROMs
renamed "Games with no ROMs" to "Games With no ROMs/CHDs" in "Game ROMs" drop-down list to reflect what the filter actually does
new category filter "Music" for sets like "VGM Player" (vgmplay)
minor interface tweaks
Renamed several "function" code blocks to "procedure" since they don't need to return a result
Minor interface tweaks to Preferences screen, and removal of texts with "7 pixel" font size
If screen resolution is smaller than the dialog, scroll bars will be added to the TForm so you can see everything (experimental!)
for screen resolutions smaller than 1280x1024 and because some dialogs just can't be scaled down
supported dialogs: "MAME Settings", "Game Details"
NOTE: minimum screen resolution for Emu Loader is 1024x768 / 1280x720 but some dialogs still fit on 640x480 resolution
Removed:
Masssive source code cleanup (commented/not used code)
Added:
Search .chd files in "softlist_name" sub-folder for MAME software lists
Support to search .chd file in "parent_gamename" sub-folder; MAME supports this; "romspathparent_gamenameclonename_file.chd"
now you can have clone CHD files in the parent folder
for MAME arcade, MAME software list, Demul
New file "arcadefilterssupermodelsegamodel3_control_type.ini"
a list of control tags and descriptions, extracted from Supermodel3 source code
for now, it only show controls list in "Game Details" screen; not used anywhere else
File header detection for "Atari 800" cartridges before running games (highy experimental, used by all Atari800 emulators, except MAME)
the first 4 bytes of file will be read, looking for 'C' 'A' 'R' 'T'
if tag is found, Emu Loader will no longer add the cartridge type in the full command line
any file extension is supported for unzipped game files
for zipped game files, Emu Loader will unzip it to a TMemoryStream and validate the tag; only ".bin; .car; .rom" file extensions are supported
(if there's more than one file inside .zip, the first one found with any of the 3 supported extensions will be used)
HBMAME Software List support, to be used in the distant future, in a galaxy far, far way... what works:
create games list
audit games files
show softlist games in main games list
run games
for everything else, they are handled as MAME softlist games (for now)
Setting "Restore Internet Game Info at Startup", to restore the last state of internet game info button at startup ("Preferences" screen, "General" tab)
Setting "Disable Threaded Preview Image Loading" in "Preferences" screen / "Images" page, to prevent images loading delay and "Invalid pointer operation" error
Support for MAME 0.196
new comm setting: "Syncronize Frames" in "Input" tab

New in Emu Loader 8.4.3 (Jan 5, 2018)

New in Emu Loader 8.4.2 (Jan 3, 2018)

New in Emu Loader 8.4 (Dec 29, 2017)

New in Emu Loader 8.3.9 (Dec 21, 2017)

New in Emu Loader 8.3.8 (Dec 18, 2017)

New in Emu Loader 8.3.7 (Dec 13, 2017)

New in Emu Loader 8.3.6 (Dec 11, 2017)

New in Emu Loader 8.3.5 (Dec 5, 2017)

New in Emu Loader 8.3.2 (Nov 28, 2017)

New in Emu Loader 8.2.9 (Nov 28, 2016)

New in Emu Loader 8.2.8 (Nov 24, 2016)

New in Emu Loader 8.2.6 (Nov 22, 2016)

Fixed"
Select a media player and reset parameters buttons doesn't work; video preview, preferences screen
Message box dialog doesn't display unicode game titles in the top bar
Proper detection of PNG, JPG, GIF, BMP image types, to fix frontend freezes and crashes (unzipped and zipped)
Memory leak when exiting the frontend; image panel controls were not destroyed properly
If clicking button OK in "Emulators Setup" screen, emulators info are not updated correctly in "folders_emulators.ini" file
Neo-Geo filter was broken; from now on, it is done by checking only the "neogeo" bios name instead of driver names
Several fixes to preview images and EL's internal zip files cache system
memory leak when switching image categories in classic view mode; images zip cache was not properly terminated
memory leak when exiting the frontend if it was started directly in thumbnails view
images zip cache were initialized three times over if starting frontend directly in thumbnails view
when starting frontend directly in thumbnails view, after switching to another view mode, images zip files cache was not reinitializing; on images layout view, only game snapshots were showing
when switching to thumbnails view, image zip files cache was not cleared, wasting RAM... only game snapshot cache is needed
Frontend crash while parsing LUA plugin info from "plugin.json" files... EL was not checking for empty lines, causing the crash (MAME settings screen)
MAME snapshot name format was not scanned correctly for parent sets (snapgamename000.png)
Switching to "Internet Game Info" now clears the image zip files cache (image categories popup menu)
Cycle image categories doesn't select "Internet Game Info" anymore (images tool bar button)
Filter "Taito G-NET" was not working
Changed:
Changes to thumbnails view
minimum size increased to 152 pixels
game icon size changed to 128x128 pixels
added system icon in thumbnails to separate similar games of different systems
added game icon so you know if game is parent, clone, available, missing
you can no longer delete game snapshots of multiple selected games; to prevent frontend corruption
setting "Show Images/Game Docs Panel" is no more, it was causing too many bugs; from now on, images panel is always enable in thumbs view
you must enable/disable images in main menu images, view mode button, games popup menu "Thumbnails" sub-menu or in Thumbnais Settings dialog
this also fixes a couple bugs related to game docs panel in thumbs view
UNFIXABLE bug: if you change games font (name/size), the thumbnail cell size doesn't update correctly; only a frontend restart fixes it
Game name icon in games list status bar now show frontend's default game icon (system/have/miss icon status)
From now on, driver ini files are only searched in "inidirsource" folder, except for MAME builds older than v0.118
it fixes gamename.ini files from being deleted if driver name and game name are the same
starting MAME v0.179 there is no support for drivername.ini in "inidir" folder
No more gradient selection bar on games lists, and any other list that uses EasyListView; single color is enough
Changes to "Delete single selected game dialog"
fixed a bug that was not calculating the total files listed, so dialog's width/height can be properly adjusted
extended width and height to support higher screen resolutions; 640x480 is still supported
User interface tweaks/updates to "delete/rename game image"
Split read/write routines of emulators binaries and images folders from the main ReadIniFile() / UpdateIniFile() functions
to update images paths settings (ui.ini; folders_emulators.ini) right after exiting "Image Categories Settings" screen; prevent loss of changes in case of an app crash... FINALLY!!!
Tweaks to "Select Machine to Run Game" (software list games related)
show favorite icon in machines
support higher screen resolutions
Load preview images with threads enabled by default... toggle button no longer available in images tool bar
Removed:
Setting "Selected Game Dark Font" no longer needed; font is always in black color on selected games (preferences screen)
Columns "Game Status" and "Software Info Tip" removed from the main games list
IMPORTANT: make sure to delete "eldirini_filescolumns_profile.ini" before starting the frontend or it might crash!
Added:
Driver status icon info next to the game icon in games list status bar (useful in thumbnails view)
good = green; imperfect = yellow; preliminary = red
Support MAME v0.179
New security setting: Disable "Delete/Copy/Move Games Files"; to prevent kiddies from messing with your games files (preferences screen, "Games List" tab)
NOTE: this setting is disabled by default; to protect your ROMs you must check the new setting
Multi-slot arcade games loading support for HBMAME
systems: Neo-Geo, STV, MegaTech
new files: "arcadehbmame_multicart_neogeo.ini"; "arcadehbmame_multicart_stv.ini"
misc filters "Show Only Neo-Geo MVS" and "Show Only STV Multi-Slot" also include HBMAME games
Software list games: new info "part name" / "part title" for games with multiple files (floppy disk/cassette)
EL can show you the title of the floppy disk (see game "aleste2" in "msx2_flop" softlist)... for future expansion
Changes to preview images feature:
file "image_09_internet.ico" renamed to "image_internet.ico"
new categories: end, boss, logo, score, versus, game over, how to play, select
read/write folder paths in MAME's "ui.ini", if file found
only .png files are supported since these categories are from the actual game screen
see "docsel-readme.txt" to find out what are the valid .zip filenames for each category (same as ClrMAME)
you can find these collections at Progetto-SNAPS (http://www.progettosnaps.net)
added a new image category custom hint box that doesn't disappear after 4 seconds (mouse hover over image)
maximum images per category increased from 10 to 30
Support separate zip filenames for software list snapshots, so you don't have to put snapshots of all your software lists in "snap.zip"
files must be the in same folder as snap.zip (or same folder as titles.zip; marquees.zip; cabinets.zip; etc...)
zip filenames must be the same as software list names, for all image categories! (msx1_cart.zip; nes.zip; n64.zip; snes.zip; etc...)
filenames like "msx1_cart_titles.zip" or "a7800_titles.zip" are not supported
you can find these image packs in Progetto-SNAPS website (http://www.progettosnaps.net)
all image categories are supported
if you make changes to any .zip file, a frontend restart is required; Emu Loader uses a temporary cache system to avoid open/close .zip files for each selected game (abuse mode OFF)
these softlist zip files will be scanned before snap.zip
Added icons size options for machines list side panel; "small (16x16)", "standard (24x24)", "large (32x32)", so you can use bigger game fonts (machines list popup menu)
Setting "Multiline Captions" is alsos applied to machines list side panel (preferences screen, "Games List" tab)
Machines list side panel background color and parent/clone font settings are now the same as main games list

New in Emu Loader 8.2.5 (Oct 20, 2016)

New in Emu Loader 8.2.4 (Sep 29, 2016)

New in Emu Loader 8.2.3 (Sep 27, 2016)

New in Emu Loader 8.2.2 (Sep 26, 2016)

Fixed:
CHDs of bios/device sets were not being detected when deleting game files (single game selected or multiple selections)
Frontend crash if destination path is empty (copy/move game files); Added an error message box to remind the user
Version info was not being read from emulators other than MAME/HBMAME in "Emulators Setup" screen (oops!)
The function to fix Demul bios titles was returning the set name instead of set title
FATAL BUG: non-smooth list scrolling with UP/DOWN arrows; you couldn't select games from "middle to top"; ... the "MakeVisible(Middle)" function from EasyListView was causing horrible problems
Renamed a few remaining "Control Panel Layout" texts to "Software Cover"
Changed:
BIG update: Format of ROMs list files have changed (arcadesystemname.elrom)... again. This requires you to re-create the games list for ALL systems!
ROM/CHD filenames with equal sign ( = ) are no longer renamed; it was causing problems with some MAME .chd filenames
SHA-1 checksum included to separate the CRC32 from SHA-1 data
detection of CRC32 collisions within the same set (MAME/HBMAME v0.177 and newer, Demul)
detection of duplicate ROMs in the same set; they are no longer added when creating a games list (same name, same CRC32, same SHA-1)
File ID tag expanded to support cartridge, floppy disk, cassette tapes, hard disk, Disc (LD/CD/DVD/GD), Compact Flash Card file
see "docsel-romsdatabaseformat.txt" file for details
Media type tag added to each file, to keep track of what kind of file it is (same as " "0" for ROM/Cartrige/Floppy Disk/Cassette; "1" for CHDs (HDD, CD, Flash Card)
all features updated to use the new file format (delete games files, scan games, scan results, game details, and others
Missing ROMs/CHDs file format update (arcadesystemname.miss)
file entries changed to "CRC32;SHA1=FileStatus"
CHD filenames are no longer used
ROMs tagged as "nodump" are not added to the miss file anymore
Game details screen fixes and changes:
added SHA-1 checksum in ROMs/CHDs list
added file type icon in the filename column
removed "ROM", "CHD" strings from the status column
changed ROMs list font to "Segoe UI" size 9 and checksum columns to "Consolas" size 9
made ROMs list columns header clickable so you can sort the files by checksum
weird bug where Delphi 7 compiler was seeing a local var as initialized when its NIL; fixed by moving the var into global scope
window would cut the CHD filename text in the left panel if the text uses more than 1 line
increased window size; required resolution is now 1024x768 / 1280x720 (lower resolutions will show horizontal and/or vertical scroll bars so you can view all the info)
Fixes and changes to "delete selected games":
fixed a few bugs regarding files listing; affected systems: MAME/HBMAME
CHD files of clone sets were showing as "[Parent CHD]" (fixed)
two new CHD icons, "Disc" (LD/CD/DVD/GD) and "Compact Flash Card"
adjustments and tweaks to "view files list"; access it with popup menu in "Delete Multiple Files" dialog
many, many... many optimizations and code cleaning
Split "last used memory card .ini" file to support different machines for the same game (MAME/HBMAME)
file "ini_filesmame_memcard_lastused.ini" is no more; this file didn't care what machine you were using
new files are now in "ini_filesmemcard_lastusedmamemachine_name.ini"
... the "machine_name" is replaced by the actual name of the machine you selected to run games
one game can have an unique memory card for EACH different machine (psu, psa, psj, pse)
NOTE: the data on your current "ini_filesmame_memcard_lastused.ini" file cannot be used, sorry for the inconvenience
Some texts were still using "Lucida Console" font instead of "Consolas"
Replaced all "image not found" files by "resourcesimagesemuloader.png"; files in "resoucesimagesno_image" are no longer required
Moved "novideo.avi" file from "resourcesimagesno_image" to "resourcesimages" folder
Removed:
Replaced the "MachinesTitle" TStringList var by a optimized function, to retrieve the title of "machine to use" directly from the main list (for software list games); this var was only being used in the "Run Game Confirmation Dialog", wasting precious 20KBytes of RAM :D
Added:
Internal var "buildHBMAME" to track the HBMAME version in use
needed for CRC32 collision checkups (HBMAME v0.177 and newer)
some features might require this version validation in the future, just like MAME does
Support for the latest Demul v0.7 (August 18, 2016)
detection of new games and new machines to run them
support for MAME CHD files
detection and removal of duplicate ROMs
detection of CRC32 collisions ("dimm" set and perhaps others ?)
older Demul builds are still supported (minimum v0.57)
New icons for cartrige, floppy disk, cassete tape, CHDs (CD and Flash Card)
files "media_Cartridge.ico", "media_FloppyDisk.ico", "media_CassetteTape.ico", "chd_cd.ico", "chd_cfcard.ico" ("resourcesmain_icons" folder)
used in game details screen, delete selected game files, show scan results

New in Emu Loader 8.2.1 (Sep 5, 2016)

New in Emu Loader 8.2 (Sep 1, 2016)

Fixed:
EL was trying to get emulator version info from batch files, something impossible; it only works if you select a .exe file as emulator filename
Tweak: zipped image filenames are now the same as MAME's default image folder names; "uMain.GetImgZipFileName()" function
Updated frontend docs files, specially "docsel-quick-setup-quide.txt" that had wrong/missing information
Parsing MAME .ini files array detection was a little bugged (mame.ini, drivername.ini, biosname.ini, gamename.ini, etc)
last file in the array was not being read at all... the most important file with final settings (MAME settings screen)
file "arcade.ini" was being read for software list games
files "console.ini", "computer.ini", "othersys.ini" were being read for arcade games/machines
added a "MaxIniCountMAME" constant for easier tracking
Folder of record input files and the "-statename" parameter for software list games were wrong. They must be saved in a "machinename" sub-folder because an input file (and save state) from one machine is not compatible with a different machine
MSX1 machine name "expert11"; file "mame_inpdirexpert11msx1_cartgooniesb.inp" cannot be loaded in the MSX 1 machine "cf3300"
MSX1 machine name "expert11"; file "mame_savestatedirexpert11msx1_cartgooniesbgooniesb-slot1.sta" cannot be loaded in the MSX 1 machine "cf3300"
Menu item shortcut (right-align) was not aligned correctly due to shortcut text font being 1 pixel smaller than menu text
Changed:
A bunch of "Date/Time" texts replaced by "Date Modified"
From now on, if the MAME version cannot be extracted, EL will assume you're using the latest MAME build; this is necessary to prevent further frontend corruption
When running software list games, the -snapname and -statename parameters on "mame.ini" are ignored and modified by the frontend, so game snapshots and save state files are created on proper folders... adding "machine_namesoftlist_namegamename" sub-folders to the full path, parsed from "mame.ini"
- run game "gooniesb" from "msx1_cart" software list and "expert11" machine, save state files will be saved in "mame_statedirexpert11msx1_cartgooniesb.sta"
run same game above and take a screenshot, the file will be saved in "mame_snapdirmsx1_cartgooniesb000.png"
this is only for software list games... arcade games don't need this as MAME save files in proper folders
there's no ON/OFF toggle, this feature is always enabled
Changes to "Internet Game Info"
MAWS game info removed since it no longer exists
renamed "Progetto EMMA Game Info" to "Internet Game Info"
added edit boxes to customize internet link games and MAME software list games (preferences screen, "Images" tab)
Changes to "Video Preview"
relative path is now bound to the emulator directory, not the frontend
new feature "Snap Dir Auto-search": videos will be searched in "emudirvideosnaps", "snapvideosnaps" and "snap" folders ("snap" folder parsed from emulator config file)
custom video folders are now optional due to the auto-search feature; you can leave them blank (preferences screen, "Video Preview" tab)
when searching videos in the "snap" folder, EL will try to ignore files with .png and .jpg extension
Big changes to the image preview feature (snapshots, cabinets, flyers, etc...)
default folder for "In-Game Artwork" renamed from "snapartwork" to "artpreview"; to match MAME folder name
file "image_09_maws.ico" renamed to "image_09_internet.ico" ("eldirresourcesmain_icons" folder)
added support for MAME's filename format "snapgamename000.png" and "snapsoftlist_namegamename000.png"
only in-game snapshot category is supported!
only unzipped files are scanned (zipped images will NOT be supported!)
replaced the zombie "Control Panel Layout" image category that nobody uses by "Software Cover"
MAME's new "ui.ini" file is now used to read/write image folder settings; if file not found, settings will be saved in frontend "ini_filesfolders_emulators.ini" file
added compatibility with ClrMAME: unzipped image files can be in extra sub-folders for each image category
-> game snapshot: custom_snapdirsnapgamename.png
-> title snapshot: custom_titledirtitlesgamename.png
-> marquee:custom_marqueedirmarqueesgamename.png
-> flyer: custom_flyerdirflyersgamename.png
-> cabinet: custom_cabdircabinetsgamename.png
-> control panel: custom_ctrlpaneldircpanelgamename.png
-> software cover: custom_softcoverdircoversgamename.png
-> pcb: custom_pcbdirpcbgamename.png
-> in-game artwork: custom_artpreviewdirartpreviewgamename.png
NOTE 1: these extra folder names are hard-coded in MAME source code and cannot be changed!
NOTE 2: only MAME/HBMAME are supported!
- image folder keyname entries in "eldirini_filesfolders_emulators.ini" have changed to meet MAME setting names from "mamedirui.ini"
- file scanning order changed to prioritize unzipped images
1. custom_snapdirgamename.png
2. custom_snapdirsnapgamename.png
3. custom_snapdirgamename000.png
4. custom_snapdirparent_gamename.png
5. custom_snapdirsnapparent_gamename.png
6. custom_snapdirsnapparent_gamename000.png
7. gamename.png (from snap.zip)
8. parent_gamename.png (from snap.zip)
Changes to MAMu_ icons feature:
MAME's new "ui.ini" file is now used to read/write icons folder setting; if not found, setting will be saved in "eldirini_filesfolders_emulators.ini"
default icons folder is now "icons" since this is MAME's default folder
relative path is now bound to the emulator directory, not the frontend; this is the way it should've been from the start!
unzipped files can be on an extra "icons" sub-folder; "custom_iconsdiriconsgamename.ico" (ClrMAME friendly)
HBMAME games also display MAMu_ icons, but there is no separate icons folder or icons.zip support for HBMAME; MAME game icon files are used
File "ini_filestimes_played.ini" renamed to "ini_filesplayed_games.ini" and the game name format of software list games
old format: 'gamename_softlistname=???"
new format: 'softlistnamegamename=???"
the file will be renamed and updated the first time you start Emu Loader
invalid game name entries will be deleted from the file
Favorite profile files format has changed for software list game entries ("eldirini_filesfavorites" folder)
old format: 'gamename_softlistname=system_name"
new format: 'softlistnamegamename=system_name"
arcade games and MAME machine name entries have not changed
NOTE: Emu Loader will NOT update favorites to avoid file corruption
File "arcademulticart_neogeo.ini" renamed to "arcademame_multicart_neogeo.ini"
File "arcademulticart_stv.ini" renamed to "arcademame_multicart_stv.ini"
Speed up several operations with multiple selected games, specially in grouped view mode (50% faster)... games filtering is still slow
The following functions were modified by me and optimized for multiple TEasyGroups usage (EasyListView.pas)
function TEasySelectionManager.First: TEasyItem;
function TEasySelectionManager.Next(Item: TEasyItem): TEasyItem;
Load Multi-Slot Games dialog updates
UI adapted to avoid "squinty face" mode on high resolutions
font of all columns changed to "Segoe UI" size "9"
all column resize according to text length, except game title
for resolutions lower than 800x600, dialog resizes itself
Big rewrite of "Run MAME with extra parameters" feature... games popup menu, "Run Game (Extra)" menu item
new feature: load memory card files; basically for Sony PlayStation (software list games) and Neo-Geo machines (arcade/console)
you can use "play/rec input files", "load save state", "load memory card" features all at the same time now!!!
menu items tree "Play Game (Extra)" removed, replaced by a single and more optimized "Play Game (Extra Parameters)" menu item (games popup menu)
new screen with tab pages so you can activate each feature (all disabled by default)
Playback/Record an Input File
Load a Save State
Insert Memory Card
you must check the "Enabled" checkbox to activate each feature you want to use
files lists are always sorted by newest date and the newest file is always selected by default
insert memory card details:
default folder is "mamedirmemcard" even though MAME doesn't support "memcard_directory" entry anymore
you can select a file from any folder you want or choose a file listed in the "memcard" folder
if a relative path is used, the "mamedirmemcard" folder is used for the full path
only file extensions ".mc", ".mc1", '.mc2" are supported... let's not make a mess here!
machines that support memory cards are listed in a new file "arcademame_memcard_support.ini"
EL will save and restore the last used files into a new "ini_filesmame_memcard_lastused.ini" for every game you play!
only 2 memcard slots are supported; if a machine support more slots, please let me know
Some UI adjustments in MAME Settings screen (still not good enough)
Added:
Support for MAME v0.176
support reading "plugin.ini" from MAME's root folder and/or "mamedirini" sub-folder (root folder is searched first)
settings "Record Rendered Video Filename (AVI)" removed from both BGFX and HLSL features since they now support "auto" (it uses game name filenames automatically)
Support for MAME v0.177
new "mame.ini" settings: "Uneven Stretch Vertical" and "Auto Uneven Stretch" (MAME settings screen)
New "Save State" filter (machines popup menu) and new column in "MAME Machines List Side Panel" (Machines toolbar button)
New columns "Clone of" and "Save State" in "Select Machine to Run Game" (games popup menu)... for software list games

New in Emu Loader 8.1.7 (Jul 5, 2016)

New in Emu Loader 8.1.6 (Jun 13, 2016)

New in Emu Loader 8.1.5 (May 30, 2016)

New in Emu Loader 8.1.4 (May 26, 2016)

New in Emu Loader 8.1.2 (May 3, 2016)

New in Emu Loader 8.1 (Apr 29, 2016)

Fixed:
App crash when trying to read/write "language" setting in "mame.ini" (MAME Settings screen)
Selected game docs texts were parsed twice at startup ("mameinfo.dat" and others); startup is 1 second faster...
When the frontend is all setup (emulators already selected), if an emulator executable is not found at startup you couldn't select a new file, forcing you to edit "eldit\ini_files\folders_emulators.ini" manually or make a clean install
Control Type filter was adding blank control names into the ComboBox (Miscellaneous filter, tool bar buttons)
If "ini_files\folders_emulators.ini" read fails at startup, EL would re-write existing "EmuLoader.ini", changing some frontend settings to their default values
Changed:
Deleted extra TPanel component from game docs panel (not needed); moved game docs panel below the image panel in project's source code
Replaced a bunch of Pos() function calls by the faster asm optimized function PosEx()
Grouped all controls and players info texts for easier reading ("Game Details" screen)
File "ini_files\control_type.ini" updated to include new control tags for MAME v0.173; a bunch of unused entries were also removed
madExcept library now shows error messages automatically
Removed:
Support for MAME Plus! is no more... you can still use it to create a games list and play games, but do not use emulator/game settings or EL might crash and/or damage "mame.ini" contents
Added:
MAME/HBMAME save state info is back; you must create a new games list to use this
to filter by save state, go to the "Miscellaneous" filter in main tool bar buttons
this info/filter is available for MAME/HBMAME only; other emulators are not supported
software lists are not supported since they can be used by different machines, and their save state values may differ
info is shown in "Game Details" screen, nowhere else
Support for MAME v0.173L:
huge update to the "input" / "control" tags in -listxml output; future changes in the frontend might be necessary
the "buttons" tag is not separated by player; frontend's "buttons count fixed (do not merge all players buttons...)
buttons count for keyboards, keypad and other controls are now added to the buttons count info (might change in the future)
new settings

New in Emu Loader 8.0.8 (Apr 25, 2016)

New in Emu Loader 8.0.6 (Apr 21, 2016)

New in Emu Loader 8.0.5 (Apr 12, 2016)

Fixed:
Daphne version info not showing up correctly in Daphne settings screen on a fresh install, or if changing exe filename in Emulator Setup screen
Finished updating "LoadROMsFolders" function calls for all the non-MAME related emulators; added the custom emu exe filename parameter
ROMs folders lists for all system were being loaded into RAM twice at startup (cosmetic fix)
Some SEGA Model 2 games were missing screen orientation, resolution and refresh rate (need to re-create games list to fix this...)
Some ZiNc games were missing screen orientation, resolution and refresh rate (need to re-create games list to fix this...)
Filters were not applied after creating games list manually (main menu "Create Games List")
Changed:
Finished updating some function calls, related to bugs fixed in EL v8.0.4
More code cleaning
Changes and improvements to MAME Settings screen:
improved hint texts on some settings (hover mouse in them)
setting "HLSL Prescale Override Factor" is no more ("Video 2" tab, "Direct3D Post-Processing Effects" group box)
setting "Hardware Stretch" is gone; DirectDraw is gone from MAME and this setting is always enabled anyway
new setting "HLSL Oversampling" ("Video" tab, "Direct 3D Post-Processing Effects" group box)
moved all LUA related settings into a new "LUA" tab since MAME v0.172 have a bunch of new LUA settings
moved Audio settings to "LUA" page, renamed "Video and Audio" to "Video"
moved "Visual Effects Overlay File" from "Video 2" tab to "Game Screen" panel in "Video" tab
new setting "Integer Scale Overscan" (for MAME v0.173)
removed setting "Write Dummy Snapshot" since you need a MAME compile with debug enabled (and EL is all about playing games)
moved setting "Video Output Mode" to "Video 2" tab, to be placed with HLSL/GLSL/BGFX Pos-Processing Effects
fixed audio latency setting
several settings are now disabled if they are not present in "mame.ini" (emulator default settings file)
source code optimizations and removal of redundant code
UI tweaks to reduce waste of space between controls
Updates to Supermodel emulator (settings screen, and games list):
minimum emulator version supported is now v0.3a SVN release 335
(using older emulator builds might cause problems)
added new video setting: "3D Engine"; you can select between the new engine by Ian Curtis or the old one (legacy)
updated "SupermodelSEGAModel3_xml.dat" file with new/changed games, based on source code v0.3a SVN R335
fixed missing screen resolution/refresh rate and driver name in some games
Added:
Enabled support for AntoPISA's "gameinit.dat", not that's officially supported in MAME; to be used with "Game Docs" feature; place file in MAME's root folder

New in Emu Loader 8.0.4 (Mar 21, 2016)

New in Emu Loader 8.0.3 (Mar 18, 2016)

New in Emu Loader 8.0.2 (Mar 16, 2016)

Fixed:
Added a validation check to prevent "Create Games List" from executing again while it's still running (main menu)
Tag "compat" was not being read from softlist games files ("eldir\softwarelist\" folder)
Software list counter label in splash screen was off by 1 (cosmetic)
Frontend crash when using "Create Software List Games" main menu (weird Delphi 7 compiler bug!)
Ultra slow game name searching in "systemname.elstatus" files when scanning for games; quick scan was the most affected
Setting "# inipath" was not being correctly detected on old MAME builds, making impossible to set custom game settings
Could not set media player file in preferences screen (video preview tab)
Old bug... I guess people don't use ZiNc anymore! Setting "Texture Cache" was not being parsed correctly from "renderer.cfg" (ZiNc settings screen)
Changed:
MAME/HBMAME emulators full title are no more; they are now simply "MAME" and "HBMAME: HomeBrew MAME"
MAME build is detected before creating MAME games list; the "-listxml" output will only be used for MAME v0.70 and newer; this is to avoid EL trying to use "-listinfo" output on new MAME builds if the build number detection function fails
Changed LUA scripts delay timer default's value from 2 secs to 0 secs; for MAME v0.172 (MAME settings, "Input" tab)
Images manager updates and changes (main menu "Images")
window mode is now "modal" instead of "stay on top"; you can't access the main games list anymore
new feature: Search available images on missing games; easier to delete images of games you don't have
use button "Scan Not Used Images" for this new fuction
a new image preview floating panel will show the image of the selected game (its last position is saved/restored)
create a list of missing MAME games where images are found, so you can remove unwanted image files from your collection
software list games support
unzipped images only
new popup menu option: "Scan Arcade Games/Machines", to scan for arcade games/machines
the button "Scan Missing Images" updated to scan all games for missing image files
the button "Scan Invalid Images" updated to scan all image files and compare with MAME game names for unknown filenames
NOTE: make sure to check the popup menu for some settings before scanning (mouse right-click)
minor tweaks and code optimizations
AntoPISA's "category.ini" and "version.ini" have priority over "catver.ini"
From now on, you need AntoPISA's "mess.ini" file to filter MAME non-arcade machines (found in "renameSet pack" or "version.ini pack"); if you still want to use "category_home.ini", rename the file to "mess.ini"
UI tweaks in MAME settings screen to fit new settings
UI tweaks in "SEGA Model 2" settings screen to fit on 640x480 resolution
UI tweaks to remove the large and unnecessary 16 pixels borders in the following screens
"MAME settings (Basic Mode)"
"Supermodel 3" settings
"Daphne" settings
"SEGA Model 2" settings
"ZiNc" settings
Changes to ZiNc settings screen:
grouped related settings next to each other
added new "Enable Keys" setting (renderer)
replaced "Manual Framerate" by a TEdit control and support values from 0 to 1000
UI tweaks to minimize the mess
Removed:
Removed support for AntoPISA's "catver_full.ini"; rename the file to "catver.ini" if you still want to use it
Removed support for AntoPISA's "category_home.ini"
Added
New HLSL settings: "Shadow Mask Tile Mode" and "Bloom Blend Mode" (MAME Settings screen, "Video 2" tab); for MAME v0.169 and up
New "Sound Output Mode" option: "XAudio2" (MAME Settings screen, "Audio" tab); for MAME v0.170
WARNING: Windows 8 or newer required!
Support for MAME v0.171 new settings (MAME settings screen)
Plugins directory selector ("Folders" tab)
Languages directory selector ("Folders" tab)
Language selection for text localization in the emulator ("Miscellaneous" tab)
"Record an Input Timecode File" ("Input" tab)
"Exit Emulator After Input Playback" ("Input" tab)
"Type of User Interface" ("Miscellaneous" tab)
Added a way to cancel changes in "Category / Layout Settings" (images main menu; images popup menu); you must click the "Apply" button to save and apply changes to categories and layouts

New in Emu Loader 8.0.1 (Dec 28, 2015)

New in Emu Loader 7.9.6 (Nov 9, 2015)

New in Emu Loader 7.9.5 (Nov 2, 2015)

New in Emu Loader 7.9.4 (Oct 14, 2015)

New in Emu Loader 7.9.3 (Oct 7, 2015)

New in Emu Loader 7.9.2 (Oct 5, 2015)

New in Emu Loader 7.9 (Oct 2, 2015)

Fixed:
Some sets with no game ROMs but with device ROMs were not audited correctly even when all device ROMs are found (I hope I didn't break anything else in EL's games validation system)
alto2: Alto-II
fds: Famicom (W/ Disk System add-on)
Frontend crash at StrToInt() conversion if ROM size contains '????' instead of numbers
Heavy text flickering in splash screen if they change too fast
Old "Game Documents" bug (F3 hotkey; games popu menu): game entry detection function would continue to scan all the way to the end of the file even after the game info was found and loaded, resulting in slow text parsing and games browsing (mameinfo.dat; history.dat; story.dat; marp.dat; messinfo.dat);
"quick access" menus in game documents popup menu were still visible for games without text to show
Grouped view mode fixes:
search bar filtering was placing clone sets in wrong parent sets (main tool bar buttons)... nobody noticed this ?!!
tweaks when accessing group items; twice as fast when looping thru games so filters can be applied; this view mode is still slow as hell though
NOTE: a new message panel appears when changing games filters, so you know the frontend is not frozen
Changing game icons size was unnecessarily resetting icon indexes and reinitializing items, causing lag ("View Mode" tool bar button, "Game Icon Size" sub-menu... grouped/details view modes)
Some categories were displaying HTML tags (function "uMain.HTMLDecode()" is now executed in 'category' field)
Feature "Add Selected to Favorites" / "Delete Selected From Favorites" updated to check for the "IsFavorite" game tag before displaying games popup menu on a single game selected. Both menu items will appear if multiple games are selected
Interface bugs in "Multi-Slot Games" dialog
Memory leaks when switching in and out of thumbnails view mode
Setting "Alternate Title Format [Game, The]" was not working when loading the games list (main menu "Games List")
Atomiswave games not using the new "awave" machine name of Demul v0.7; Emu Loader now tries to detect Demul version to support older Demul builds
Frontend crash when trying to select parent set with arcade controller, if current selected game is not a clone
Emulators selections were not saved to "\ini_files\folders_emulators.ini" file after exiting "Emulators Setup" screen
Changed:
Changes and optimizations to frontend's games list files
ROMs database files renamed from "systemname_roms.el" to "systemname.elrom" ('frontend_dir\arcade\' folder)
new "systemname.elstatus" file with "game ROM ID", "set status", "scan mode" and "is_merged"; moved from "systemname.el"; easier and faster to update game status info without altering game list files (arcade games; MESS software lists)
files "mame_merged.ini" and "hb_merged.ini" no longer required
audio samples files renamed from "systemname_samples.el" to "systemname.elsamples" (MAME/HBMAME)
detection of "softwarelist" entries from "-listxml" output, for MESS games (non-arcade)
the following machines are not included on software lists: neogeo, stv, megatech, playch10
new file: 'arcade\mame.elsoftlist' with software lists for each MESS machine
new file: 'arcade\mame_machines.ini' to list all supported machines for each software list
new file: 'arcade\mame_machineslast.ini' with the last used machine for each software list
minor code optimizations and removal of unused variable declarations
Minor change to frontend's logo, now called "Emu Loader: MAME and Arcade Frontend"... because MAME is no longer an "arcade only" emulator
Optimized MAME/HBMAME emulator version info detection
emulator version info no longer extracted from -listxml output
for MAME v0.119 and newer, version number is read from file details (Windows file properties); much faster than "mame -help" output
older MAME builds and builds with no file details falls back to "mame -help" output
emulator custom title is limited to "MAME Plus!" (*mamep*); "UME" (*ume*) and HqMAME (*hqmame*), and no longer extracted from file details or -help output
emulator MD5/version parsing message panel removed from emulators setup screen
new emulator binary detection is always done at startup and their info updated (all emulators)
Moved "Export Games List" sub-menu from "File" to "Games List" main menu; deleted "File" main menu
Optimized games list/ROMs list loading by adding game info + ROMs list in one pass instead of loading all games first and then ROMs lists separately
Optimized games list filtering when in grouped view mode... it takes around 3 to 5 seconds now; still too slow for my taste since details view takes less than ONE second
Renamed "Main Filters" tool bar button to "Main Arcade Filters" since they are for arcade games only
Feature "Images Manager" is limited to MAME emulator only, other emulators are no longer supported! (main menu "Images"); software list games are partially supported
Changes to "MAMu_ Icons Manager" feature
removed "Search Icons for Devices With No ROMs" option from missing icons, they are not runnable games!
New missing icons option "Search Icons for Device Sets", disabled by default ("Options", status bar button)
Moved "Screen Orientation" filter tool bar button to MISC filters button
Optimized frontend startup to avoid unnecessary function calls and speed things up a little bit :)
Renamed "Show User Interface" to "Enable Partial Keyboard Emulation (UI Enabled)" to make it easier to understand (MAME Settings, "Input" tab)
Scanning games list would call "ApplyFilters()" function repeatedly on every scanned system (MAME, ZiNc, Demul, MAME software list games, etc). If status of any game changed, EL was re-applying the games filters several times over. Now, ApplyFilters() function is called only once at the end of the scanning process
Tweaks in "Run Game Confirmation Dialog" (main menu)
default font size reduced to size 9
added support to show info on software lists and non-arcade machines
replaced "Consolas" font by "Lucida Console" on full command line texts and reduced font size
games list version info and emulator version info texts merged into one line to reduce dialog height and to avoid waste of space
removed some redundant text to avoid confusion
added "usage" text below game name text (top bar) for software list games
machine name is now displayed below the machine title when running multi-slot machines (neogeo, megatech, stv, playch10)
renamed "Run Game" button to "Execute"
Full scan games feature always close/re-open parent .zip sets now, to avoid validating ROMs of parent sets with no relationship to the clone set being scanned... huh, what did you say ? :D
Screen "Select System" to create games list and scan games is properly resized to fit 640x480 resolution
Screen "View ROMs Folders" properly resized to fit 640x480 resolution (main menu, "View" sub-menu)
Feature "Scan MAME/HBMAME Missing Audio Samples" (main menu "Games List): multiple games using the same sample file are no longer listed, only the first found game
You can select between different favorites profiles while favorites filter is enabled (main tool bar button). :)
All other favorites functions are disabled!
Tweaks to game details screen (games popup menu or "Shift+I" shortcut)
Frontend's main screen now hides itself when creating a new games list using main menu "Create Games List", and it restores itself at the end
Removed:
A few redundant messages were removed from the splash screen (and at startup) since they appear only for a split of a second
Setting "New Emulator Detection" removed (preferences screen); no longer needed, now always enabled
Setting "Games List Not Found" went kaput! (preferences screen); games lists will not be auto-created anymore, except on a clean install; use "Create Games List" option in main menu to create lists manually when updating your emulators executables
Feature "Not Used Game Files" is no more; it was never 100% accurate, it always listed files that shouldn't be removed
Feature "Auto Rename Snaps to EL Format" is gone. Emu Loader will no longer try to rename "snap\gamename\0000.png" files to "snap\gamename.png"... if you want to take MAME snapshots in "snap\gamename.png" format just change "snapname" entry to "%g" (without quotes) in "mame.ini"
You can find this setting in MAME Settings screen, "Video 2" tab, "Snapshots/Movies panel", "Name Format" edit box
Replaced all texts using the odd "Segoe UI Semibold" font by more common Windows fonts
Replaced almost all texts with "Consolas" font by "Lucida Console" and "Verdana" fonts
Image splitters style is gone, only solid style is avaiable from now on with customizable colors (preferences screen, "Images" tag)
Feature "Images Manager" is disabled; adding software list games support broke this feature and it needs to be completely rewritten :_((
Image effect "Scale 2x" is no more (main menu "Images" / "Resampler")
Added
New MAMu_ icons setting: "Enable Device Set Custom Icon". Enable this setting to use a single "deviceset.ico" file for all device set entries... only if "deviceset_name.ico" is not found!
I'm sure MAMu_ will appreciate this setting as device sets are non-playable sets
New library "SynFastWideString.pas"; better handling of WideString vars; this libary is a lot faster than WideString var from Delphi 7, and use FastMM v4 improved RAM manager
Unicode strings support in games list; game title; manufacturer; category; language; and usage tip for softlist games
New "Scan MAME Sets (v0.162 and newer)": choose what kind of MAME sets will be validated; located in "Scan Games Mode" screen (games popup menu) and select system dialog (create games list/scan games)
Scan All -> will validate both arcade/machines and software list games
Arcade/Machines -> will validate only arcade/machines sets, excluding software list games
Software List Games -> will validate only software list games, excluding arcade/machines sets
Support for MAME software list games (home consoles, computers)
feature enabled by default, you can disable it when creating a new MAME games list (select system dialog)
for UME and MAME 0.162+ builds
game files must be placed in sub-folders with the same names as xml filenames from 'mamdir\hash' folder
DO NOT set folders for software lists in 'rompath' (mame.ini); MAME and Emu Loader search in 'roms\soflistname\' sub-folders automatically
games files must be zipped; except CHDs
detection of 'softwarelist' tags in MAME -listxml output
new status bar info text "xml file: softlist_name" (selected game)
XML files in 'mamedir\hash\' folder are required and NOT auto-created by the frontend
XML files in 'mamedir\hash\' folder not used by MAME's -listxml are not used by the frontend
basic games loading support only (no multi-floppy disk drives or multi-slot cartridges)
category column is used to display software list descriptions
new 'frontend_dir\softwarelist\' folder with all supported lists; for faster games list loading and auditing (direct XML parsing is too darn slow)
full scan games support (audit system)
preview snapshots and video previews use the softwarelist filename as a sub-folder (zipped images are supported); eg.: "mamedir\snap\msx1_cart\"
you can disable software lists you don't want when creating MAME games lists by using "Customize Software List" (main menu) or clicking the "custom" text in "Scan Games Mode" (games popup menu) or select system dialog
...or manually delete the desired files in 'frontend_dir\softwarelist\' folder
internet game info support with new MESS pages from Progetto-SNAPS
New "Machines" filter in main tool bar button
Filter games in the list the way you want; MAME arcade + machines + softlist games
Use the new "Machines List Side Panel" to filter games by a specific machine (all other machines filters are ignored)
(extra options can be found in the machines list popup menu)
NOTE: To properly filter arcade and non-arcade machines you need "category_home.ini" file from "category.ini for MESS" pack made by AntoPISA
New "Machine to Run Game" menu item in games popup menu
When machines list side panel is disabled, to run softlist games you can select what machine to use
The latest selected machine for each softlist will be used if you hit ENTER or double click a softlist game... quick launch mode! :D
New icons for software list games; so you know if a MAME game is arcade/machine or from software lists
MAMESoftwarelistParent.ico; MAMESoftwarelistClone.ico; UnMAMESoftwarelistParent.ico; UnMAMESoftwarelistClone.ico
New column "Usage" for software list games; details/grouped view modes
Support AntoPISA "catver_full.ini"; category and version added for arcade and non-arcade machines
WARNING: this file will tag all non-arcade machines as arcade machines and the "MAME Machines Without Software Lists" filter will not work! ('Machines' filter)
Support AntoPISA "category.ini for MESS" and "version.ini for MESS" so Emu Loader can separate MAME arcade from non-arcade (MESS) machines Put both files "category_home.ini" and "version.ini" in "frontend_dir\ini_files\" folder
for MAME 0.162 and newer / UME builds only; these files have no use on older MAME builds or MAME arcade builds
file 'version.ini' is optional and if using 'catver_full.ini' there's no need for this file
file 'catver.ini' or 'catver_full.ini" is still required for MAME arcade games
games from software lists are not supported since category is used to show softlist titles
Get files in Progetto-SNAPS website (renameSet page): http://www.progettosnaps.net/renameset/
WARNING: do not use "category_full.ini" file or the frontend will show incorrect categories for MAME arcade games and the frontend will not work properly!
Support "History.dat" 0.162 to show info for software list games ($softlistname=rom1,rom2); sadly, Unicode texts are not displayed in the RichEdit control
Support "messinfo.dat" created by AntoPISA; for non-arcade machines (MAME v0.162 and newer); put "messinfo.dat" in MAME's main folder (same as mameinfo.dat)
favorites and playtime .ini files expanded to support software list games (MESS)... no updates required from your part
arcade: 'gamename=systemname'
softlist: 'gamename_softwarelist=systemname'
Support new .ini files for MAME v0.162 and newer: arcade.ini; console.ini; computer.ini; othersys.ini (games popup menu, "Custom Settings" / "Extra")
New setting: "Use Custom "snapname" To Take Snapshots" (main menu "Images")
Disabled by default, it adds an extra "-snapname softlistname/gamename" parameter into MAME's command line so your snapshots for software list games can be correctly created in MAME: "snap\softlistname\gamename.png"
Without this, you'll need to manually rename files and move them to proper folders
eg.: "goonies" game for MSX 1 cartridge ("msx1_cart" softlist name) will have a "-snapname msx1_cart/goonies" parameter; the created screenshot filename will be "snap\msx1_cart\goonies.png" no matter what MSX machine you're using to play the game
It makes taking snapshots a lot easier, using the actual software list name "msx1_cart" as a sub-folder instead of the machine name
New games popup option "Main Menu" to access the main menu when tool bar filters is not visible
New feature: "Multiline Captions"; Enable it to show "two line" captions in details/grouped view modes; 32x32 and 48x48 icons only (preferences screen, "Games List" tag)
Support for zipped images in thumbnails view mode (finally!)
New MISC filter: "Show Merged Sets Only"; what does it do ? make you a cup of coffee... :)
New MISC filter: "Light Gun"; show/hide all games that use a light gun control; file "catver.ini" or "catver_full.ini" is required to detect "gun", "gallery" categories
Preview images / game docs panel can be enabled while in thumbnails view mode, using the new "Show Images/Game Docs Panel" setting ("Thumbnails" sub-menu in view mode tool bar / games popup menu)
Changes and updates to the video preview feature
new "experimental" setting: "Play Dummy Video to Stop Current Playback" in preferences screen; play a short video to stop current video playing if you select a new game that have no video to play
(also executed before starting a game and exiting the frontend) - new file "resources\images\no_image\novideo.avi" - minor optimizations to the CallPlayVideoPreview() function
New favorites setting: "Show Favorite Icon In Games" (favorites tool bar button); show a fav icon in details view and add a fav image on top of thumb images (thumbnail view)
New game status filter: "Missing + Missing ROMs/CHDs" ("available/missing" tool bar button)
this filter will show games with all files missing and found games with missing ROMs/CHDs
filter "Missing" changed to only show games with all files missing (games you don't have)

New in Emu Loader 7.8.3 (Jun 5, 2015)

New in Emu Loader 7.8.2 (Jun 2, 2015)

New in Emu Loader 7.8.1 (May 29, 2015)

New in Emu Loader 7.8 (Apr 14, 2015)

Fixed:
Search game function was not looking for HBMAME game names, only MAME (main menu "Games List" / "Scan Missing MAME/HBMAME Audio Samples")
Frontend crash when loading a games list with no device sets (MAME/HBMAME)
EL was not detecting game driver .ini in '\ini\' folder when calling games popup menu, only in '\ini\source\' folder
Changed:
Updates to MAME/HBMAME Settings screen
minimum MAME version supported is v0.125; still, one or more settings might not be 100% compatible
corrected 'Prescale' limits to 1..3; values 4 to 8 are invalid ('Video and Audio' tab, 'Game Screen' box)
updated 'Use Bilinear Filter' hint text to include 'D3D / OpenGL / SDL2 Accel' for easier usage ('Video and Audio' tab, 'Output Mode' box)
added 'Dummy Write Snapshot' setting for MAME v0.160 ('Video 2' tab, 'Snapshots' panel)
adjusted the height of a few TEdit, TBitBtn, TComboBox controls; for consistency
added more HLSL settings: 'HLSL Prescale Override Factor'; 'HLSL Preset to Use'; 'Upscaled Snapshot Resolution'
'resolution@refresh_rate' value would not be correctly saved in 'mame.ini' if screen resolution is 'auto' with a custom refresh rate
Image category icons replaced by new and improved ones
Image Category/Layout Settings screen interface update with new category icons and some layout changes
Select image category dialog updated with new icons
Interface minor tweaks
Implemented "HideCaption" property on Tiles view and fixed a couple drawing bugs in TEasyListView component; required to use the new category icons without items captions showing up
That's the third change/fix I've made in the now 'abandoned/discontinued' TEasyListView component... sorry Jim!
'View Missing ROMs/CHDs' now self-adapts to fit 640x480 resolution; and some layout changes to reduce visual pollution (games popup menu)
Device sets .ini file ('mame_devicesets.ini'; 'hbmame_devicesets.ini') is now deleted after creating games list, if empty (MAME/HBMAME)
Reduced main tool bar height by 1 pixel
Added:
Support for old MAME builds; DOS MAME is not supported!
MAME v0.37 beta 15 (0.51) to v0.69 (-listinfo)
MAME 0.70 to latest version (-listxml)
not all game infos are available, but most are
parent+clone relationship
bios detection
CHD header v1 and v2 detection with MD5 checksum validation; v3 and up use SHA-1 checksum validation
full ROMs validation
wav samples detection
discrete audio detection
main CPU detection
controls
game size
auto-detection of the MAME build number (this is not the version info)
play game and record/playback input files; MAME build detection at work... :)
load the proper 'inipath' for MAME versions that do not have this setting in 'mame.ini'
set MAME default settings / game custom settings is extremely limited
full MAME settings is for MAME v0.125 and up; older MAME builds use the new 'basic mode'
custom game .ini files (game and driver) must be in MAME's root folder for MAME v0.37 to v0.60
driver .ini files in "\ini\source\" path is supported on v0.119 and up; v0.61 to v0.118 use '\ini\' path only
screen is built to fit 640x480 resolution
The cannots for old builds:
record wav/video/mng
load save state
run game with effect overlay
I'm sure there are other stuff...

New in Emu Loader 7.7.3 (Mar 17, 2015)

Fixed:
Tons of Neo-Geo games were left out of the 'Neo-Geo' filter for HBMAME as there are lots of different driver names for Neo-Geo hacks ('NeoGeo' device sets are not included!)
Tons of CPS-1 games were left out of the 'CPS-1' filter for HBMAME; added support for 'cps1mis' driver name; CPS-1 hacks now appear in the list
Some PGM 2 games were left out of the "PGM' filter; added 'pgm2.c' driver detection
Windows themes disabled in checkboxes (SEGA Model 2 Settings screeen)
Horizontal scroll bar visible when CHD files are shown (Game Details screen)
Crazy flickering in TLabel controls when using with TGaugeBar controls
If emu default settings file (mame.ini and others) for AlterMAME is not found, EL would not auto-create the file for AlterMAME, but for MAME (main menu "AlterMAME Default Settings" and games popup menu "AlterMAME Custom Settings)
Bios entry '[Use Default]' was not sticking at the top of the list (MAME/HBMAME Settings screen, Miscellaneous tab)
If you have multiple folders in 'inipath' entry (mame.ini), EL would force the use of 'mame_dir\ini\' no matter what. This is now fixed, but only the first folder will be used
eg.: inipath c:\emu\mame\mycustom_ini;.;ini
EL will use 'c:\emu\mame\mycustom_ini' as MAME's ini folder
eg.: inipath .;ini;c:\emu\mame\mycustom_ini
EL will fallback to 'mame_dir\ini\' as MAME's ini folder (no support for '.' folder path)
Error 'Cannot focus an invisible window' when switching between grouped view and other view modes
Changed:
Updates to Create MAME/HBMAME Games List:
detection of CHD files in bios/device sets, for MAME v0.159 and newer
detection of discrete audio type for bios/device sets
detection of samples entry for device sets
detection of display info for device sets
improved detection of discrete audio entries to maintain compatibility with older and new MAME builds
all games with driver name '???discrete???' will be tagged as discrete audio; for UME
some code optimization to remove duplicated code
Catlist filter 'PinMAME' renamed to 'Mechanical' ('Misc' tool bar button), and catver.ini scan is now done by a 'mechanic' tag instead of 'pinmame' to maintain compatiblity with older and new Catlist files
Catlist filter 'Fruit Machines' ('Misc' tool bar button) are now also filtered with categories that contain 'reel' tag (for Catlist v0.159 and newer); 'fruit' tag is still checked to maintain compatibility with older Catlist files
Updates to the multi-games loading feature (select multiple games of the same system and run with MAME):
broken feature... now it works again
Neo-Geo compatible games list renamed from 'neogeo.ini' to 'multicart_neogeo.ini'
removed custom Neo-Geo and SEGA Mega-Tech message box icons ('resouces\main_icons\msgbox\' folder)
added support for ST-V system (4 games max); supported games listed in 'arcade\multicart_stv.ini'
new filter: 'Show Only ST-V Multi-Slot', to filter out games not compatible with multi-slot ('Misc' tool bar button)
added support for PlayChoice-10 system (10 games max), but MAME doesn't support multi-slot loading for this system yet
Minor source code maintenance... for consistency
Removed:
Create custom settings for device sets is disabled (pointless anyway). Custom settings for bios sets is still supported
Added:
Changes to MAME/HBMAME Settings screen:
you can select multiple folders for .ini paths again; 'Folders' tab
screen layout seriously updated (... still need some work)
grouped the most important and most used settings in 'Video 1' tab
grouped HLSL and GLSL into 'Video 2' tab
renamed 'Video 1' tab to 'Video and Audio'
renamed 'Video 2 and Audio' to 'Video 2'
HLSL and GLSL auto-detection updated (mame.ini; ume.ini; sdlmame.ini; etc)
'Direct3D Post-Processing Effects' panel and its options will only be enabled if 'hlsl_enable' entry is found in the .ini file
'OpenGL Post-Processing Effects' panel and its options will only be enabled if 'gl_glsl' entry is found in the .ini file
new 'OpenGL' and 'BGFX' options in 'Video Output Mode'; MAME v0.159 minimum required
new 'SDL 2 Accel' and 'BGFX' options in 'Video Output Mode'; SDLMAME v0.159 minimum required
new setting: "Provider for UI Font" (Miscellaneous tab)
you can no longer customize folders for custom game settings (rom_path, ini_path, artwork_directory, etc...); only available on emulator default settings
when creating custom game settings, Emu Loader will read a list of config files, so settings from previous files are loaded and overwritten, just like MAME does when loading a game. From top to bottom:
mame.ini; ume.ini; hbmame.ini; emufilename.ini; etc...
debug.ini
vertical.ini (if game screen is vertical)
horizont.ini (if game screen is horizontal)
arcade.ini (UME only)
console.ini (UME only
computer.ini (UME only)
othersys.ini (UME only; this filename and its purpose is a mistery to me!)
vector.ini (if game is vector)
source\sourcefile.ini or sourcefile.ini
biosname.ini
parentgame.ini (if game is clone)
gamename.ini
Notes:
every time you click on "Reload Settings" button, all these files are reloaded, starting from mame.ini
if you create a custom settings for say... Vector games, files below vector.ini are ignored (as it should be...)
there's a new "Reset to Default" button, that reset settings to emulator default, ignoring all custom files
new feature 'Validate All Custom Files on Save': when saving custom settings back, EL will compare current settings with all previous files (if found), to make sure these settings are not duplicated and to keep custom files clean;
keep this setting disabled to validate settings only against emulator default settings (mame.ini; ume.ini; etc)
SDLMAME/SDLUME/SDLHBMAME auto-detection function updated to search for 'sdlvideofps' entry in 'sdlmame.ini'; 'sdlume.ini'; etc
select folder for fonts added back, multiple folders supported (Folders tab)
select folder for debugger comments added back (Folders tab)
replaced TListView by a regular TEdit control for 'Controllers Definitions' folder, 'Crosshair Files' folder, 'Sample Sets' folder; multiple folders are still supported
replaced TEdit control by TListView for 'Ini Files' folder; easier to move folders around...
removed "custom screen name" edit box as screen names in the format "\\.\DISPLAYn" are safe to use
Driver 'timeplt' (Time Pilot), 'tp84' (Time Pilot '84), 'circusc' (Circus Charlie GX380) added to the 'Konami Old School 2 (80s)' filter
Driver 'asterix' added to the 'Konami Old School 1 (90s)' filter

New in Emu Loader 7.7.2 (Jan 14, 2015)

New in Emu Loader 7.7.1 (Oct 18, 2014)

New in Emu Loader 7.7 (Aug 25, 2014)

New in Emu Loader 7.6.9 (Aug 18, 2014)

New in Emu Loader 7.6.7 (Jul 28, 2014)

New in Emu Loader 7.6.6 (Jul 24, 2014)

New in Emu Loader 7.6.5 (Jul 23, 2014)

Fixed:
Search bar function was executing even if edit box is empty
Minor UI fixes:
Edit boxes/buttons in Emulators Setup screen were not aligned correctly
More tweaks for 640x480 resolution
Message box was not increasing its height with extremely long texts, showing the vertical scrollbar
Crash when using "Clear History" button/menu item in MAMu_ Icons Manager
Changed:
Game ROMs info improvement: internal TStringLists assinged to ROMs/CHDs are no longer initialized for games that do not have ROMs/CHDs *DUH!* This saves around 2MB of RAM (35000 games)... it's not much but it prevents EL from creating/initializing 2300++ TStringList vars in RAM!!!
Moved menu items 'Customize Columns' and 'Customize Columns Header Font' from games popup menu / view mode menu to the new columns popup menu (mouse right-click in any column header). Much easier to rememeber...
Custom title in font selection dialog (experimental)
Column 'Total Playtime' renamed to 'Playtime'
All date/time strings are now in 24 hours format (no more AM/PM). Removed 70 pixels from 'Playtime' column
Message box icon size changed to 32x32. Icon size 48x48 is only used to display game icons and when gamename info label is visible
Source code tweaks and cleanups... yet again
Added:
New 'devices list' property for each game info, loaded in RAM. Usage around 2MB of RAM for 35000 MAME games (TStringList var). It makes some features much easier to work with and it prevents from loading 'arcade\mame_deviceset.ini' contents to RAM every time devices list is needed
Game info property 'eUseDeviceROMs' removed as it's no longer needed
New quick jump menu "Select Set" (mouse right-click in games popup menu)
'Select Bios [bios name]': click on it to go directly to the bios set
'Select Device [device name]': click on it to go directly to the device set(s)
Contents of this sub-menu change based on clone of, bios and device sets info; only when calling the popup menu
Similar to 'Select Parent Game' option... which is moved to the new 'Select Set' menu
Merged all related functions and simplified the code
All systems are supported, not just MAME/HBMAME
Assigned a "Go To Parent Set" button to all arcade controllers; only X-Arcade was supporting this
New settings: 'Hide Seconds in Last Played' / 'Hide Seconds in Playtime' columns. Check to show only hours/minutes (preferences screen)
New games filter: "Global VR" (PC based hardware)... from 'globalvr.c' driver

New in Emu Loader 7.6.4 (Jun 26, 2014)

New in Emu Loader 7.6.3 (Jun 25, 2014)

Fixed:
Yet another favorites fix. Game.eIsFavorite var was not updated in the selected games after exiting favorites profile manager
Fatality! The last selected game along with game images and game docs were being loaded several times at startup. With video preview enabled, the same video was loading over and over... EmuCon have the same problem. Bad bug, B.A.D. B.U.G.!!!
Finish Him! ROMs folders for ZiNc and Supermodel 3 were not being saved in "ini_files\folders_emulators.ini", making them reset on every frontend restart
You Lose! Games sizes were doubled with game size + MAME game size; all systems except MAME and HBMAME. You must create games list to fix this (optional); all systems except MAME/HBMAME
Watchdog setting on MAME debugger changed to a edit box so you can enter seconds; it's not a on/off setting...
Backspace not working when typing in TEdit controls that only accept numbers
Changed:
Splash screen is resized when using 720x480 / 640x480 resolutions; controls are resized to fix texts; even the image shrinks now and nothing is lost :)
I can't test those resolutions, please let me know if texts are not readable
Minor tweaks to the games popup menu
Minor tweaks in MAME settings screen
Delete game files (single game); dialog width is now fixed to 630 pixels. Removed waste of space and easier to maintain. Dialog height still adjusts according to screen resolution
Main games filters updated with smaller texts and selection bar
Game details form update
minimum resolution recommended for this feature is 1024x768
smaller text font (left panel) - dynamic form width and height according to text length and lines count (left panel)
if a game have up to 25 ROMs, form height changes based on ROMs count, if higher than left panel's text count
dynamic checksum column size; shorter for CRC32 and larger for MD5 checksum (CHD files, if not tagged as 'nodump')
if text in left panel is too big (more than 179 pixels), it breaks into two lines (word wrap)
form minimum width is 631 pixels
Added:
SDLMAME for Windows support!
detection of SDLMAME file (*sdl*.*) for proper emulator title
set default SDLMAME settings and game/bios/device settings; MAME settings screen
all unique mame.ini settings are in a new SDLMAME pages; MAME settings screen
in "Output Mode" setting, "Video 1" page, the valid options are dynamically added based on mame.ini ("gl_glsl" entry) or emulator filename (*sdl*.*)
OpenGL shaders support, SDLMAME page; MAME settings screen
Common MAME settings are blended in other pages: video, audio, input; MAME settings screen
HLSL settings are not supported by SDLMAME, they appear disabled if using an SDLMAME executable; MAME settings screen
SDL lightgun mapping (Xinput); SDL2 mouse mapping; SDL2 keyboard mapping settings are supported, but SDLMAME doesn't officially support them yet
WARNING: SDLMAME will freeze on exit if you're using OpenGL video output and have either 'eVGA Precision X' or 'MSI Afterburner' running
Set default emulator settings and game custom settings for AlterMAME (I hope I didn't miss anything) :)
default settings can be accessed in emulators setup screen or main menu "AlterMAME Default Settings"
custom game/driver/extra settings can be created/deleted in the new games popup menu item "AlterMAME Custom Settings"
only the 'inipath' entry is read from mame.ini and used to create emulator/game settings

New in Emu Loader 7.6.2 (Jun 7, 2014)

New in Emu Loader 7.6.1 (May 28, 2014)

New in Emu Loader 7.6 (May 21, 2014)

Fixed:
Game info and game icon displayed when editing MAME/HBMAME custom settings: horizont.ini; vertical.ini; debug.ini; vector.ini
Hint texts not showing on some menu items
Splash screen resize function for 740x480 / 640x480 resolutions was being executed on every FormShow() call. It should be executed only once
Messages dialog height is bigger than Windows resolution if the text is too long. Fix for all resolutions, not just low res
Minor interface tweaks
Changed:
Moved driver status settings from customize columns dialog / View Mode tool bar button to preference screen, "Games List" page. It makes more sense. The customize columns dialog exists purely to change columns positions, visibility and their sizes (details/grouped view modes)
Read/write settings also moved from [Configuration] to [Preferences] section (EmuLoader.ini)
The following screens/dialogs automatically adapt their layouts to fit 640x480 / 720x480 resolutions (only when needed)
messages dialog
emulators setup screen
customize columns screen
select system dialog
delete/copy/move single game dialog
view file versions (redesigned, main menu "View")
Preferences screen redesigned to fit 640x480 resolution... and to avoid waste of space
The following screens/dialogs were resized to fit 640x480 /720x480 resolutions
frontend's select file custom dialog
frontend's select folder custom dialog
favorites manager dialog
Images manager update (main menu "Images")
layout updated to maximize workspace and to fit 1024x768 resolution (minimum res required!)
proper image folder detection, in case the folder is defined but doesn't actually exist
removed the image category column as you can only scan one category at a time; category now shown at the top (missing icons list)
added all driver status fields; icons only, no texts (columns cannot be resized)
added driver name column
new scan option: "Scan Devices With No ROMs", disabled by default so you can eliminate device sets like "sound", "screen", "spc700", "5380 SCSI"
fixed a few bugs, internal and visual
MAMu_ icons manager update (you should reset columns sizes in "Options" button, status bar)
layout updated to maximize workspace and to fit 800x600 resolution (minimum res required!)
proper folder detection, in case the folder is selected but doesn't actually exist
added all driver status fields; icons only, no texts (columns cannot be resized)
columns order changed for better viewing: game title; game name; clone of; bios name; driver name; driver status; emulation status; color status; sound status; graphic status; manufacturer; version added
new scan option: "Search Icons for Devices With No ROMs", disabled by default so you can eliminate device sets like "sound", "screen", "spc700", "5380 SCSI"
fixed a few bugs, internal and visual
Added:
Support to read/write mame.ini in "emu_dir\ini\" sub-folder
Detection of "drivername.ini" files in "emu_dir\ini\" folder along with "emu_dir\ini\source\" on set/delete custom driver options (MAME/HBMAME)
Small tool bar buttons is back! Icons size used is 28x22 pixels (main menu "View" / "Tool Bar Buttons" or customize tool bar dialog)
The main filter button only show the "all games" icon no matter what filter is selected
Read/write support for "arcade.ini" config file, exclusive for UME v0.153ex2 and newer (games popup menu, Custom Settings sub-menu)
Watch game video previews using a media player of your choise. This feature was created with "Media Player Classic Home Cinema" portability in mind... http://mpc-hc.org
any video/audio format is supported as long as you have the codec installed in Windows and/or an application to play them
only the first file found is played if there are multiple files with same gamename but different extensions (TSearchRec search pattern: gamename.*)
any media player application that load video/audio from the command line can be used
feature settings located in "Video Preview" page, preferences screen and saved in "el_dir\ini_files\video_preview.ini" file
command line parameters support for more control over the media player (switches)
a %1 tag is required so it can be replaced by the video/audio filename (no surrounding quotes required)
relative paths are relative to the frontend, not emulators
folder recursive scan is NOT supported to avoid dog-slow file search, excessive disk reading and pointless waste of RAM/CPU resources
executable or batch files can be used
media player parameters are saved based on the app filename, you can have as many media players setup as you want. Emu Loader will remember parameters for each of them :)
manual playback: "Shift-V" shortcut; "Play Video Preview" in games popup menu or button in images tool bar buttons; assigned button for arcade controllers
setting "AutoPlay" to play videos as you select games (disabled by default for safety reasons)
setting "Parent Game Video" to play video of parent game, if selected game is a clone and the video is not found (disabled by default)
setting "Play Videos Enabled" to toggle the feature ON/OFF in case you wish to completely disable this feature (enabled by default)
Columns header custom font. That's right, now you can customize the header font in details/grouped view mode. Found in games popup menu and preferences screen, "Games List" page

New in Emu Loader 7.5.8 (Apr 24, 2014)

New in Emu Loader 7.5.7 (Apr 9, 2014)

New in Emu Loader 7.5.6 (Mar 22, 2014)

New in Emu Loader 7.5.5 (Mar 10, 2014)

Fixed:
Categories from catver.ini are no longer loaded for DICE games so you can filter PinMAME without removing DICE games from the list
Controls parsing function was confusing and inaccurate (-listxml). Parse function is now perfect!
Number of players was set to blank if info not found in "nplayers.ini", when this file is available
In-game snapshot folder setting was being saved in EmuLoader.ini for MAME and HBMAME. Not required as they are read directly from emulators config files
Changed:
Main menu and view mode buttons have dynamic item height to avoid waste of space. Also, icons were removed to clear the interface a little bit
Check menu and radio menu icons were finally moved to position 0 and 1 in ImageList components. All ImageLists updated
Even more interface tweaks (clean sweep mode ON)
File "leftpanel_btn_help.ico" renamed to "help.ico" (resources\main_icons\)
Settings for images folders and emulators selections moved from EmuLoader.ini to a new "\ini_files\folders_emulators.ini" file. You can now do a clean install without the need to set up images folders or emulators executables all over again :)
Moved and renamed file from "\ini_files\biosset.ini" to "\arcade\mame_biossets.ini" and file from "\ini_files\biosset_hbmame.ini" to "\arcade\hbmame_biossets.ini"
Favorites profile editor updated. Removed "Active Profile" text and added an icon to the active profile in the list. Hotkeys text updated
Removed:
The following files are no longer used: "resize_window.ico", "option_radiogroup_off.ico", "leftpanel_btn_addgame.ico", "leftpanel_btn_deletegame.ico", "leftpanel_btn_add.ico", "leftpanel_btn_delete.ico"; "scanresult_game.ico", "copy.ico" (resources\main_icons\)
The following entries are no longer added for Daphne games since game names are completely different from MAME: controls, category, number of players
Added:
Updated "DICE_XML.dat" file with an "Attack" alternate set, titled "Attack (set 2)" and named "attack2". I failed to see there was tho valid sets in "attack.cpp"
Note: Emu Loader rename its gamename to "attack" before loading in DICE emulator
New game tag: buttons count (controls info). Game details now show buttons count in controls list. You must create games list for all systems... again
All image categories have a default folder now. Folders are relative to the emulators selected. This is useful on a clean install and for new users
NOTE: in-game snapshots for MAME/HBMAME/UME are already set in mame.ini; hbmame.ini; ume.ini!
- Title snapshot: titles
- In-game snapshot: snap
- Marquee: marquees
- Flyer: flyers
- Cabinet: cabinets
- Control Panel: cpanel
- Control Panel Layout: cplayout
- PCB: pcb
- In-game Artwork: snapartwork
Added new options for "File" / "Export Games List" compatible with "MAME Content Manager Plus" util (game name only). Only MAME and HBMAME are supported

New in Emu Loader 7.5.4 (Feb 20, 2014)

New in Emu Loader 7.5.3 (Feb 17, 2014)

Fixed:
Changing emulator version manually was not updating the memory var, info was never updated after closing emulator setup screen
Played and total playtime info texts were not updated in games list after quitting game (just an item repaint issue, info was updated in files)
Fixed double text "Astron Belt" in game titles (Daphne emulator)
Sets sorting in scan results feature is fixed. Device sets are shown first, then bios sets and finally game sets
Scan for HBMAME device sets was wrongly searching in MAME's ROMs folder instead of HBMAME (scan games feature)
Added the ENM_LINK message directly in Delphi's TCustomRichEdit component (ComCtrls.pas) to fix the "OnResizeRequest" event trigger in RichEditURL component
ZiNc bios sets had the game index set to zero. ZiNc cannot run bios sets. Value is now set to -1 as it should have been
Changed:
Added a AlterMAME version edit box for manual editing (emulator setup screen)
MAME/HBMAME game titles with "game desc, the" will no longer be fixed to "the game desc" when creating games lists, except for games tagged "IsMechanic"
View game docs feature (games popup menu) is limited to MAME and HBMAME now. No point in supporting other systems
Update "ini_files\control_type.ini" to include "joy1way", fixing control filters and missing controls list info in game details screen
Clones indentation width increased for better viewing (grouped view mode)
Code optimization: many variables were defined with Integer type when they could be Byte or ShortInt type (I hope I didn't break anything...)
Moved setting "Disable Clone Indent" to a new "Details/Grouped" sub-menu (view mode tool bar button)
Moved several entries from el-todo.txt to a new el-project.txt file
Some messages (error, info, warning) were updated with simplified texts
Message boxes (error, info, warning, etc) can have formatted fonts now
Several interface tweaks
Removed:
Hidden feature to run custom batch files is no more ("el_dir\ini_files\cmdline\")... gone, finito, no mas, kaput, removed from source code
entry "isdevice" removed from mame/hbmame .miss file (no longer needed)
More source code cleanup
A few icons are no longer used (resources\main_icons\ folder): disable_clone_indent.ico; display.ico; input.ico; multimedia.ico; sound.ico; video.ico; font_parent.ico; font_clone.ico; font_imperfect.ico; font_preliminary.ico; font_missroms.ico
The reminder button in game docs panel is gone... redundant since you can access the popup menu by mouse right-click in the docs panel
Added:
Support to use batch files as emulator executables in emulator setup screen, like in EmuCon
If you want to run games thru batch files (.bat; .cmd), now you can. And there's a bonus... due to the way I implemented the CreateProcess API call, EL is capable of returning execution exit codes even from batch files! :)
Note: emulator version detection will fail and you must enter the info manually
New misc filter (requested): "Hide Games With CHD Files", so you can hide all games that use CHDs. It's an inverted filter from the main filter "CHD", where only games with CHDs are visible
Extended driver status with new info and new columns: emulation status, color status, sound status, graphic status
only MAME and HBMAME are supported, all other systems show blank, nada, emptiness
must re-create games list for MAME and HBMAME, if you want to see the new info
info also shown in game details screen
you'll have to reset and customize columns settings again... sorry
status icons directly in the games list, enabled by default (details/grouped view modes only)
green icon for "good"; yellow icon for "imperfect"; red icon for "preliminary"
four new settings for this feature (view mode tool bar button, "Extra Settings" sub-menu)
Disable Status Icons: Bothered by the colored icons in the list ? Use this option to hide them
Status First Letter Only: Want to lower the width of all driver status columns but still have a readable status text ?
Hide Status Texts: Wanna view status icons only ? No problem...
Short Driver Column Titles: Use it with "hide status texts". Titles are reduced to 3 letter texts so you can lower the column width to its minimum
Added the four new "driver status" settings above in the customize columns screen, so they can be found by unaware users :)
Modified and extended "Working/Non-Working" filter (main tool bar button):
filter renamed to "Driver Status Filter"
you can select the status category to filter: "Driver", "Emulation", "Color", "Sound", "Graphic" (for MAME/HBMAME only)
filter options expanded to "Working (Good + Imperfect)", "Working (Good)", "Working (Imperfect"), "Non-Working (Preliminary)"
Game docs popup menu (mouse right-click) have new options to quickly view a info category: "Go To Game Info", "Go To History", "Go To Driver Info", "Go To Story", "Go To Marp"

New in Emu Loader 7.5.2 (Jan 30, 2014)

New in Emu Loader 7.5.1 (Jan 25, 2014)

New in Emu Loader 7.5 (Jan 23, 2014)

Fixed:
Games list was still scrolling back to the title column if sorting games by a column (details view)
No more scrolling back to the title column when changing games filters (details/grouped view modes)
Create games list fixes:
create list for multiple systems was NOT working (main menu "Create Games List")... and no bug reports ?
it was parsing wrong info from MAME database, also messing up with ZiNc driver names
small speed increase
I had to adjust my CheckBox and RadioGroup custom components once more. Radio/check and texts were not aligned correctly, clearly noticeable if you place both components side by side
When in grouped view mode, if a parent game is hidden and the clone is visible, the clone game would mix with an unrelated group. To fix this the hidden parent is forced to visible no matter the games filters being used
eg.1: "Megaman 1" clone set (cps1) seen as clone of parent set "Megaman 2" (cps2)
eg.2: "Missile Command" clone set seen as clone of parent set "Millipede"
Application freeze and crash if button "Enable Threads" is enabled, after switching favorites on/off
Feature "Delete/Copy/Move Selected Games" was NOT working at all if "Auto-Check" options were unchecked even if you select files in the list, they were NOT deleted/copied/moved... again, no bug reports :(
The dialog will not automatically close anymore if you answer NO to the confirmation dialog
Fixing game titles from "King of Fighters, The" back to "The King of Fighters" was adding a letter "e" at the end, making it read "The King of Fitherse"
Exit code for both MAME and AlterMAME emulators, are displayed in the error message box... after trying to run a game (when "Autorun Game With AlterMAME" is enabled)
Changed:
Each game ROM has received a tag to facilitate ROMs validation, and to display "Bios ROM" in game details screen along with the "Device ROM" text. It's easy to know what ROMs are from the game and what ROMs are from device sets and/or bios sets
for all systems except Daphne (no ROMs database)
Demul doesn't have CHD files as they are in .bin format and need to be in the game set as regular ROMs
Demul bios sets are required to be present even if they are not used by any game. Without bios sets, Demul doesn't run games!
0 -> game ROM
1 -> device ROM
2 -> bios ROM
3 -> chd file
Scan games feature (audit ROMs) is finally fixed and updated more options
fix: all games are recognized correctly no matter the order they appear in the main games list, specially clones and CHD files
new feature: "Scan Games Mode". Supported (and selectable) in by scan games and create games list features You have three options (games popup or system selection dilaog):
Full Scan: ROMs and CHDs are fully validated by CRC32 / SHA-1 checksum
Quick Scan: No ROMs validation. EL only search for the gamename (.zip; .7z) and CHD files, but CHDs are validated (SHA-1 info text from header)
Force Games Available: This mode sets games to available even if game files are nowhere to be found (it replaces the "Set All Games Available" from preferences screen)
new scan option in games popup menu: "Force Selected Games Available" (Shift+F6 hot key). Use this to force the available status in games (single or multi selections)
fix: many clones were set as merged or as missing ROMs/CHDs even if set is ok
fix: CHDs were set as found and OK when the file was actually missing
fix: games with no game set (gamename.zip) similar to Taito GNET (only bios set + chd) were not recognized at all or sometimes, incorrectly
improved: "Scan Selected Game" (Shift+F5) and "Scan Multiple Selected Games" (Shift+F6) merged into one option: "Scan Selected Games" (Shift+F5)
... NOTE: Shift+F6 hot key is now used in another option!
new "scan mode" tag for each game, so you know what mode was used to validated a game, visible only in game details screen (games popup menu or Shift+I hot key)
this tag is saved in games list files "\arcade\sysname.el" (see "docs\el-listformat.txt" file for the "Scan Mode" notes)
Important notes:
to work properly, the game set (gamename.zip) or the bios set is required. If neither is found, game will be set as missing, even if CHD files exist!
for systems like Taito GNET (only bios + chd), having the CHD file but not the bios set, game will be set as "missing"!
games from the "globalvr.c" driver are not validated as they only have CHD files and nothing else (this is the only limitation in EL's scan feature now)
just select those games and force them available using Shift+F6 hot key or use the option in games popup menu
More tweaks, both visual and internal
Text Filter Bar renamed to Search Bar
Improvements when creating games lists for multiple systems (manually or at startup). All lists are created first, then loaded back all at once instead of system by system. No speed improvement but it feels better this way
Settings in search bar are now saved/restored at startup (tool bar filters)
Updated FastMM library to latest v4.991 (3 September 2012)
Messages dialog box now accept clickable URL links
Long overdue updates for Demul... and full support for v0.5.8.2 (Oct 23 2013):
games and bios titles were not handled correctly
machine names are extracted from the romof="" entry and are now used to generate the run parameter ("-run=machine gamename")
driver names info is used as machine names so games can be loaded correctly
this removes the limited machine detection function in EL's source code, and it makes possible to run the "gaelco" games ^-^
...except modelgd, model2, model2gd, atomiswave games which still need to be handled internally by the frontend (hard-coded)
still no support to use MAME .chd files... this needs an external database, which Demul doesn't have, or have CHDs listed in its internal XML generator
ZiNc database file "ZiNc_xml.dat" updated:
Game descriptions and manufacturers changed to match MAME 0.152
Source driver and game index added (sourcefile="" gameindex="" tags). File "\ini_files\zinc.ini" no longer needed
Tags moved around to make file format consistent with MAME -listxml output
made "Beastorizer (USA bootleg)" a clone of "Beastorizser (USA)" to match MAME 0.152. It makes no difference to the emulator
Delete multiple games finally updated to use ROMs list from the games list instead of external files
Improved the accuracy of the file size string generator. File size info in games list is displayed correctly now (and in other screens too)
CHD list files (\arcade\sysname_chd.ini) are no longer needed, EL get CHDs list directly from the ROMsList info of each game
Source code cleanup (finally!): created general functions to detect CHD filenames and to search CHD files. Multiple features can now use the same functions instead of having duplicate code (scan games, delete/copy/move games, game details)
Added:
Sega Model 2 update:
support for SEGA Model 2 Emulator v1.1a
emulator version detection (v1.0 or v1.1a) by searching for the new "FSAA" setting in emulator.ini file
database file "SEGAModel2_xml.dat" updated for emulator v1.1a with new games and parent+clone relationship (I didn't know this was possible for this emulator)
if emulator v1.1 / v1.1a is detected, file "SEGAModel2_xml.dat" is used to create games list
if emulator v1.0 is detected, file "SEGAModel2-v1.0_xml.dat" is used to create games list
if emulator.ini file is not found, EL assume you are using the new version 1.1a (Jan 02, 2014)
the "model2" set is properly renamed to "Model 2 Board ROMs" - proper games audit: if the file "model2.zip" exists in your ROMs folders, EL will use it, no need to have those files on every game set
the emulator actually need this set to check for ROMs... and I DIDN'T KNOW about it!
Multiple systems filter! Choose multiple systems to filter the gameslist (main tool bar button)
tool bar button "Arcade System" renamed to "Systems Filter"
button's popup menu replaced by a custom dialog to allow multiple selections
if "all systems" is selected, other selections are ingored
if you select a single system, the last selected game for that system is still used (no change)
only available systems are shown in the list (emulator + games list)
WinKawaks emulator detection in the AlterMAME feature. Emulator doesn't load anymore when you select it in the filename. Emulator version must be edited manually. http://www.winkawaks.org
New documentation file "docs\el-romsdatabaseformat.txt"
New feature: Multiple Favorites Profiles. Simple, quick and easy to use...
favorites file moved a new "\ini_files\favorites\" sub-folder
proper validation for favorites title to avoid empty titles
create as many favorites lists your heart desires
favorites manager to create/edit/clean/duplicate/delete profiles
the favorites tool bar button have a new popup menu, but the "Ctrl+F3" hot key still works to enable/disable favorites
option "Validate Favorites File" moved from main menu "Maintenance" to the manager as "Cleanse"
the "favorite_title" entry must exist for proper titles, at any position in the file (default profile "favorites.ini doesn't need it)
Important notes:
when setting a new active profile, EL needs to update the favorite tag in main games list. The more games you have in the favorites profile, more time it will take (around 2.3 seconds for 30000 games on a Core I7 2600 3.4Ghz)
when in grouped view mode, if a parent game is hidden and the clone is visible, the parent is forced visible to avoid mixing games that are not related to each other so, you might see more total games than your actual favorite games count
New font style for games with preliminary driver and missing ROMs/CHDs (see "Font Settings" in games popup menu)
Option "Run Game With AlterMAME" is back (games popup menu). Run a game directly with AlterMAME without using MAME. You can use any emulator you want

New in Emu Loader 7.4.4 (Jan 3, 2014)

New in Emu Loader 7.4.3 (Dec 28, 2013)

Fixed:
Games list was being fully loaded twice when creating games lists (main menu). One after create list function (required) and a second time after auditing games (2x waiting time!!!)
Most affected system is MAME due to its huge games database. Auto-create at startup was never affected by this bug
Games were not sorted correctly when sorting the list by a column other than game title. To fix this, the list is internally sorted by title (ascending) before sorting by the selected column. Details view mode only
The down side... an extra 100 milliseconds to sort (timing based on games list with 31 thousand games and a Core I7 3.4 GHz CPU)
Parent CHDs were not detected correctly in game details screen. This is purely for information only, game audit is NOT affected by this!
CHD and parent CHD files with same MD5 checksum and same file name, the "Parent CHD" entry is not added (duplicate info), but the "header" info text have a new "Parent CHD" tag
CHD and parent CHD files with same MD5 checksum but different file name, both entries will be shown even if only the parent CHD is found
Some system IDs were not updated in the source code, making EL malfunction or even crash
Open/save file dialog was pointing to a random folder if MAME/HBMAME input folder was not found. Folder is created by EL now (Run Game and Playback/Record Input)
Save file dialog was pointing to a random folder if EL's custom folder "\multimedia_files\" was not found. MAME/HBMAME only. Folder is created by EL now (Record WAV/MNG/AVI Output)
New emulator detection is working as it should (preferences screen, startup). Emulator version info is also updated if action is set to "skip"
Disabled status was not being applied when loading the image layouts settings screen (ghosted icon)
Changed:
Selection bar width increased to 250 pixels in tiles view mode
Renamed "Standard" view mode to "Details" view mode... it makes more sense
Moved "Game Icon Size" and "Disable Clone Indent" options from main menu "View" to view mode button in tool bar buttons
Both options are only visible in details/grouped view modes
Many, many... many user interface tweaks
Improved function that extracts MAME/HBMAME version info from the "-help" command line parameter, to generate the same text as in MAME's -listxml output
This feature can read version strings up to v99.999 so, when MAME reaches version 100.000... "Houston, we have a problem!"
EL's custom select file dialog has been improved and optimized, both internally and visually
Features "Run Game and Playback/Record Input" are using EL's custom file dialog again. MAME only support 1 input folder anyway (no sub-folders ?)
Scan MAME/HBMAME audio samples feature has been simplified to scan games with missing samples... no more, no less
Added a "Ghosted" property in TEasyItem type so EL can check if items are ghosted or not with ease... EasyListView component improvement
Added:
Last sorted column is now restored at startup (details view mode). Experimental feature
New game info: game size
want to know the size of each game ?... for details/grouped view modes
game size is extracted from emulator' games database when creating games lists, not from actual games files - CHD files are not included since they don't have a fixed file size
all systems are supported except for Daphne emulator
MAME version info and game list version info are customized based on the emulator filename
official MAME: no filename restrictions...
MAME Plus!: filename containing "*mamep*.*
UME: filename containing "*ume*.*
WolfMAME: any filename since this variant is detected in version info text
Notes:
WolfMAME detection is done thru the "[W]" tag in version string
Emulator icon remains the same
This feature is hard-coded in the source code and other MAME variants are not supported, specially MAMEUI and MAMEUIFX
You can now select multiple systems at once to create games list and audit ROMs/CHDs (scan games), like in EmuCon. Just select the system(s) in the system selection dialog. Preliminary feature, please report any bugs
Create games list feature is located in main menu "Create Games List"
Scan games is located in games popup menu "Scan Games (Audit ROMs)" and it works with all menu options except "Selected Game" and "Selected Game (Multiple)"
If any system fails to create games list, the failed systems list will be shown in a message box
Selecting "All Systems" ingore all other selections

New in Emu Loader 7.4.2 (Dec 2, 2013)

New in Emu Loader 7.4.1 (Nov 13, 2013)

New in Emu Loader 7.4 (Nov 8, 2013)

Fixed:
Access violation after closing the select folder dialog. It didn't happen for everyone one though (not even on my system)
Some MAME folders were being wrongly handled as ROMs folders, using "uMain.ExtractROMsFolders()" function. Replaced by a proper "uMain.ExtractMultiFolders()" function
Weird that Emu Loader was "kinda" loading those info to MAME settings screen without problems... but it was being loaded WRONG!
Proper load support for multiple MAME folders: samples, artwork, controllers. EL could only work with single folders
Memory leak when exiting the frontend if MAME settings screen was accessed at least once
When handling multiple items in a ListView (delete/move/copy files, remove item from list), only the first item would be processed and loop routines would self-terminate prematurely
Minor visual tweaks
Improved:
Updates to "Not Used Zip Files" (main menu "Settings"/Maintenance"):
support .7z format
added a destination folder edit box and a overwrite files checkbox
menu option "Maintenance" moved out of "Settings" as a sub-menu
feature renamed to "Not Used Game Files"
Added:
Support for DICE v0.7. File "DICE_xml.dat" updated with new games and a few other changes
a new "sourcefile" tag was added to show driver name (reduntant for DICE ???)
a new "versionadded" tag was added to show which emulator version each game was added
driver status is now always set to "Good" (hard-coded in EL's source code)
category info is now shown using MAME's catver.ini (might not be accurate)
New feature: Copy/move game files
Feature can be accessed only in games popup menu (mouse right-click)
Similar to "Delete Selected Games" feature, but to copy or move game files
It works with single and multiple games selections
New "Destination Folder" edit box so you can select the destination path when copying/moving files (full paths only!)
If destination path doesn't exist, EL will try to create it
New "Overwrite Existing Files" option so you can choose to overwrite or not existing files in the destination folder
Added a new (and fancy) dialog box to show operation progress (delete/copy/move)... with an error log too

New in Emu Loader 7.3.4 (Oct 10, 2013)

New in Emu Loader 7.3.3 (Sep 21, 2013)

New in Emu Loader 7.3.2 (Sep 18, 2013)

New in Emu Loader 7.3.1 (Aug 26, 2013)

New in Emu Loader 7.3 (Aug 22, 2013)

New in Emu Loader 7.2 (Aug 2, 2013)

New in Emu Loader 7.1 (Jul 12, 2013)

New in Emu Loader 7.0 (Jul 1, 2013)

Fixed:
FATAL BUG: image zip content lists were not being re-initialized after switching images categories/layouts. Only fixed by restarting the application
Application crash when creating games lists or auditing games. Equal chars ( = ) of ROM names replaced by by minus chars ( - )
All ROM names are now checked for HTML tags, fixing A LOT of unusual ROM names (cosmetic fix)
False "file not found" messages due to a couple variables not being handled correctly at frontend's startup (cosmetic fix)
Wrong system icon and game name in Emu Loader's "Select File" custom dialog (cosmetic fix)
Fatal bug haunting Emu Loader for more than a year! When game is already set as missing, ROMs list was not being updated in "system_name.miss" files after auditing... games with device sets were the most affected
This was a big problem as available ROMs were being shown as missing, making it impossible to update ROM sets
I don't know how I could have missed this for so long!!!
Several minor fixes, app settings and cosmetic fixes
Images layout feature was being initialized TWICE at startup!!!
Images splitter grip icon not being set at startup if setting was disabled
Minor bug preventing EL from deleting "arcade\systemname.miss"
Columns could be clicked while in grouped view... this mode does not allow sorting for obvious reasons
Changed:
File "biosset.ini" is only used for MAME now. This file's purpose is to change the bios used on systems with multiple bios sets (like Neo-Geo). This prevents other emulators from messing this file up
MAMu_ icons folders unified into a single folder. Select folder is now in Preferences screen, "Games List" page. Relative path is supported (relative to Emu Loader)
EL use the same icons for all systems, but the following systems can be in a sub-folder (not required):
ZiNc: "mamu_icons_dir\zinc\"
DICE: "mamu_icons_dir\dice\"
Option "Run Game [AlterMAME]" is gone (games popup menu), and a new "Autorun Game with AlterMAME" menu item is added (ON/OFF toggle). Feature is located in emulators setup screen and in games popup menu
Just choose an alternate MAME build in Emulator Setup screen, run game normally. If it fails (MAME exit code 2), Emu Loader will try to re-run the game using AlterMAME executable
The AlterMAME feature now works as it was originally intended...
Feature "Show Game Docs" now display info for MAME only. No point showing info on other systems
Improved:
Several tweaks and optimizations everywhere
Favorites list is always loaded with games list now, regardless of the feature being enabled or not. This causes a tremendous speed up when switching favorites on/off. One downside... games list loading can be up to 2.5 seconds slower if you favorites list is larger than three thousand games
Removed
Settings "Bold font style in selected games" is removed. Pointless feature...
MAME features "Show Average FPS" and "Show Error Messages" are no more. When running a game with missing ROMs, a error message will popup after exiting the emulator, and the "Game Details" screen can be open, showing what ROMs are missing for the game... this CANNOT be disabled and it's supported on all systems (except Daphne)
Button "Delete Image" removed from images tool bar. This feature can only be accessed in images popup menu (mouse right-click)
Added:
Support for MAME 0.149
New emulator support: HBMAME (HomeBrew MAME), completely independant from MAME: http://hbmame.the-chronicles.org
Most MAME based features are supported
support for games with multiple bios sets like Neo-Geo (biosset_hbmame.ini)
partial merged sets support (just like MAME)
game custom settings
game audio samples detection. also, scan for audio samples in "Games List" main menu
features from "Run Game (Extra)" games popup menu are supported - NO support for mameinfo.dat, history.dat and other docs
support for catver.ini, languages.ini and others
detection of device sets and games with CHDs
AlterMAME is NOT supported
New emulator support: DICE: Discrete Integrated Circuit Emulator
it uses an external ClrMAME XML games list "DICE_xml.dat", created by myself specially for Emu Loader. It has more game info compared to regular XML lists
ROMs folder cannot be customized. ROMs sets, zipped only, must be placed in DICE's own "roms" sub-folder
Games with no ROMs are set as available
Display orientation, number of players and controls types are now extracted from external ClrMAME XML .dat files, if available. This is mostly for DICE...
Support for zipped MAMu_ Icons (icons.zip). YES you read it right!
Notes:
for ZiNc games, icons from "icons\zinc\" sub-folder are used, if found but it's not required
for DICE games, icons from "icons\dice\" sub-folder are used, if found, to avoid mixing with MAME icons (not required)
MAMEUI icons do not have those special sub-folders. Icons from the root .zip folder are used instead
New setting: "Dark Font Selection Bar", for those who want to use a white font in games list (preferences screen, Games List tab)
Multi-column sorting. Sort by 2 different columns at the same time (request). Usage: click on first column header, then hold Ctrl key and click on a second column header
Notes:
this is a hack and extremely experimental... not a true multi-column sort implementation!
it only works with ascending sort (A to Z)
only works with details view mode
Re-added screen resolution and screen refresh rate info in games list columns

New in Emu Loader 6.7 (May 14, 2013)

Fixed:
Random application crash after selecting games
Menu option "Enable MAMu_ Icons" was grayed out after selecting folders for icons
Image Layout "tripple 6" was not loading/saving image 3 width correctly
Games splitter bar disappears when making the games list panel too small
Auditing multiple selected games was showing the system selection window. It's not necessary as the system of the first selected game is used. Games of different systems cannot be scanned together on this feature!
No more script error messages when using web browser game info (ProgettoEMMA) on certain games (88games and others)
It was as simple as enabling the "silent" mode in the TWebBrowser component
A few buttons in images tool bar should not be visible when viewing game web info
Clicking the close button in message box window was not returning the correct "abort" message
Unfocused lists had wrong sized selection bar
Images tool bar buttons still visible after disabling preview images, while info game docs panel enabled
Images panel messed up when disabling preview images, while internet game info is being used
Preview images being loaded twice at startup. Startup is now 2 seconds faster
Changed:
Button "Toggle view mode" in images tool bar moved to a fixed position (second button). Easier to switch between view modes as it never moves to another position
Finally updated the Graphics32 component to latest v1.9.1. There are no speed improvements though
Renamed "Enable Layout Dimensions" to "Show Layout Dimensions" (images popup menu). You'll need to re-enable this setting
User interface back to the good old looks. No gradient backgrounds, glowing texts or glass buttons
Fixed background color of many controls to pure white RGB(255, 255, 255)
Main image panel does not change color anymore, it's always black... as it should have been
Replaced the last semicolon char " ; " by the special " ? " char. Now EL can have game titles with semicolon (Japan titles ?)
Games list files are updated automatically at startup
Improved:
Showing preview images on selected games is a bit faster. If the game image is already loaded in images panel, it is not loaded again (parent + clones related games). This is good for zipped images and when "load using threads" is disabled
eg.: selecting "Elevator Action" and its clones. If you only have the image for the parent game, selecting its clones will not reload the parent image... if it's already loaded
Switching between image layouts is lightning fast now!
Replaced the "Lanczos" resampler filter by "Hermite". It's faster and it looks better. No noise, phantom pixels or over-sharpening added to the image
Expanded the "Interface Type" filter in "Misc" filters (tool bar button) to include fruit machines in the mechanical option, and added a "Fruit Machine" option. Also, for better filtering, catver.ini is also used if available
Removed:
Setting "Show Image Border" is gone. 7 pixels border in images panel is always enabled from now on. It looks more professional...
Added:
Load preview images using threads
Preliminary feature, disabled by default. To enable it, check the first button in images tool bar buttons
It works great for images layout view mode and zipped images, as all 3 images load at the same time
Unzipped images are also supported, but the speed gain is less apparent
One nice side effect, no lag when scrolling the games list (if images panel is enabled)
If you select games too fast, sometimes images of the last selected game might not load. This was necessary to prevent the application from crashing
a 2 milliseconds delay was added before loading each image panel, to avoid crashes when switching between image layouts views
Best used with multi-core CPUs
New filter: "Games ROMs" ("Misc" filter button) -> you can choose to show only games with ROMs/CHDs or only games with no ROMs (pong ?).
For MAME Plus! this is handy since it has more than 30 games that do not use ROMs
Re-added the function to select random games. Access "Select a Random Game" in games popup menu (mouse right-click) or with the "Ctrl+R" hot-key. There will be no tool bar button for this. It does NOT work with the grouped view mode!
Support for "languages.ini" from AntoPISA Progetto-SNAPS. Place file in "emuloader\ini_files\" folder
new column in games list (details, grouped views)
new "Language" option in "text bar" filter settings (tool bar buttons)