Stars Launcher Path

Version 2020.325 http://guerilla.bplaced.net

All Stars Launcher ( ASL ) is a graphical frontend to launch classic console games using an emulator or a virtual machine of your choice, to start games, applications, documents for various systems from a list of files in a fast and furious way. Without any overloaded GUI and senseless gimmicks, for the players. :-) ASL executes: - Classic game images using a console emulator of your choice: Amiga, Amstrad, Atari, C64, Nintendo, Playstation, Sega, ZX Spectrum... - Linux images using Qemu or another virtual machine - Native Windows Programs for your current Windows OS - Legacy Windows OS using Qemu and a bootable OS HDD image - DOSBox games, Documents, Images ... The emulator / application / virtual machine must (!) support command line arguments. You should read the emulator manual which command line arguments are supported. ASL comes with predefined command line parameter for the included emulators. You can specify all the options parameter with ASL using variables. 1 Overview: - No installation required, no registry entries, removable drives ( USB-Stick, SD-Card... ) supported - Supports game images / cover art, individual startup images - Execute button to start and configure the emulator - Help button, configurable, to view the emulator documentation - Command line parameter for every emulator, using variables ( case sensitive ) - Loading multiple game rom images at once supported - Loading documents, images... with a specified or with the associated application - Searching for files in a list of files, letters or free text search - Separate screen / cover art directory for every emulator - Separate directory list for every emulator - Adding and removing directories from the list - Adding and removing systems - Adding and removing emulators - Editable notes for every emulator - Load, save and view the database with the option to reactivate deleted entries on runtime - Option to specify the file extensions to filter the filelist - Launch games, apps, documents, images... from a filelist with a doubleclick - Popup menu with suggestions if ASL can not locate the correct file - Option to expand folders, for special cases (a few Windows games, all Nintendo Wii U games) - Lists 2000 files in a second (in one directory without subfolder), using a SSD on a dual core CPU

2 Preface: Emulating a legacy Windows OS or a Linux OS needs a bootable image of the operating system and a virtual machine, in example Qemu. Emulating a classic game console system needs an emulator, in example "Mednafen" for Sega Mega Drive or Playstation 1 consoles. The original OS BIOS / ROM / FIRMWARE files are required ( not included ). Game ROM's are also required, CD / Disk / Tape / Bootable Linux / Legacy Windows images. To execute DOSBox games copy all "*.conf" files in a directory and point to that directory as the game directory. D-Fend Reloaded user can export all "*.conf" files at once. The first action you should perform after downloading and installing a classic game console emulator and fetching the original OS ROM files is to configure the emulator, which can be done from inside ASL. Using the emulator GUI, sometimes ( Mednafen ) the command line. Set the path to the BIOS / ROM / FIRMWARE files. Configure the input device, the key mapping. In some cases the available disk drives ( C64 emulator VICE ). Do not mess around with graphic and sound details, you can do that later. The first goal is to get that thing working! It is recommended to read the emulator manuals. Whatever, emulator options in the database, included in this download, are preconfigured. Try to start emulation with the predefined command line parameter configuration.

3 All Stars Launcher startup scenarios ASL detects if it was executed from a fixed drive, a removable drive, a ramdisk, a CD-ROM or a network drive. The startup mode is displayed on top of the Service dropdown box ( Intern, Extern, Ramdisk, Disc, Network ). Backups of the database files, with timestamps, are available in the backup folder. On startup ASL autoloads the database file "asl.idat" or "asl.edat". While terminating ASL autosaves the database file "asl.idat" or "asl.edat", overwriting existing file. 1. Executing ASL from a internal fixed drive ( default mode ): On startup the database file "asl.idat" will be loaded from the ASL program directory. Without any modifications to the loaded data. The copy and move to favorites function is available. Terminating ASL the database file "asl.idat" will be saved to the ASL program directory. 2. Executing ASL from a network drive: Same startup procedure as point 1. 3. Executing ASL from a ramdisk drive: Same startup procedure as point 1, except that the move to favorites function is not available. Keep in mind that all datas, the database file, on the ramdisk drive may be lost while terminating windows! 4. Executing ASL from an external removable drive: Games, emulators, documentations... all datas must be available on the removable drive! On startup a messagebox appears to confirm external removable drive mode. If external mode is enabled the database file "asl.edat" will be loaded from the ASL program directory. All drive letters in the datas are modified to match the drive letter ASL was executed from. The copy and move to favorites function is available. Terminating ASL the database file "asl.edat" will be saved to the ASL program directory.

4 5. Executing ASL from a CD-ROM: Games, emulators, documentations... all datas must be available on the CD-ROM / BD-ROM drive! On startup the database file "asl.edat" will be loaded from the ASL program directory. Drive letters in the datas are modified to match the CD-ROM / BD -ROM drive letter ASL was executed from. The copy and move to favorites functions are not available. Terminating ASL the database file "asl.edat" will be saved to the Users Documents directory.

Displaying "Unknown" or "Root Error" on top of the service dropdown box: Drive detection failure on startup All Stars Launcher. Should not occur. To avoid wrong detection same procedure as point 1, but keep that error in mind.

How to setup All Stars Launcher on a external removable drive ( i.e. USB-Stick or SD-Card ): - Extract the All Stars Launcher archiv to the external removable drive - Copy the emulators / games / applications / images... all datas to the removable drive - Execute All Stars Launcher from the removable drive ( autoloads the database file "asl.edat" ) - Confirm external / removable drive mode - The Service dropdown box should display "Extern" - Setup the emulator options, the folders and the directory list, pointing to the removable drive folders - Terminate ASL ( autosaves the database file "asl.edat" ) You can go to a friend and plugin the USB-Stick / SD-Card, containing ASL and all datas, in his computer. Even if another drive letter will be assigned, which is very likely, ASL should work well.

5 Quick start example ( fixed drive ) with a predefined system and an included emulator: - On main screen select a system ATARI XL - On main screen select an emulator ALTIRRA64 - Click the Button OPTION - Select the emulator / application documentation file, click the button DOCU > Drive:\ All Stars Launcher Path \Emulator\Altirra\Altirra.chm - Select the emulator / application executable file, click the button OPEN > Drive:\ All Stars Launcher Path \Emulator\Altirra\Altirra64.exe - The command line parameter are predefined for the included emulators, don't touch - Select the screen directory, the location of the game images files, click the button OPEN > Drive:\ All Stars Launcher Path \Screen\Atari XL - Click the button CLOSE, the big X - Back on main screen select the game directory, click the button ADD FOLDER > Drive:\ All Stars Launcher Path \Game\Atari XL - Notice the predefined filter bar with the file extensions listed in the filelist, don't touch - Doubleclick an item in the filelist to execute the game using the selected emulator All that must only specified once for a system / emulator combination. The complete configuration will be saved while terminating All Stars Launcher. The filename of the game image must match the filename / foldername of the game. Notice the FOLDER box, click SHOW ( Windows games ) and EXPAND ( Wii U games ). A right click on a folder item in the filelist creates a popup menu with suggestions, if possible.

6 Startup Screen:

Default startup screen image, the left one: Default startup logo image, the right one: Directory : All Stars Launcher Path \ Directory : All Stars Launcher Path \ Filename : screen Filename : logo Extension : bmp, gif, jpg, png Extension : bmp, gif, jpg, png Example : ASL\screen.png Example : ASL\logo.jpg To customize the startup screen copy the images ( 800 x 720 px, aspect = 800 / 720 ) into the ASL directory. The default system entry "None" and the default emulator entry "Testarea" can not removed.

7 Main Screen:

Game / Application image: Default system image ( no game image found ): Directory : The directory specified under option Directory : The directory specified under option All Stars Launcher Path \Screen\SystemName\ All Stars Launcher Path \Screen\SystemName\ All Stars Launcher Path \Screen\ All Stars Launcher Path \Screen\ The game directory All Stars Launcher Path \ Filename : Same File-/Directory name as the game/app Filename : System Name you specified adding the system Extension : bmp, gif, jpg, png Extension : bmp, gif, jpg, png Example : ASL\Screen\Atari XL\Bounty Bob strikes back.gif Example : ASL\Screen\Amiga\Amiga.bmp Select the "Expand Folder" button if the executable file is located in a subfolder depth level > 1. 8 Option Screen:

Executable Filepath - Vars (without Quotes): Screen Directory - Vars (without Quotes): Checkmarks in the filelist ignored. Checkmarks in the filelist ignored. |P| - Path of the selected item in the filelist. |P| - Path of the selected item in the filelist. |F| - Folder of the selected item in the filelist without |F| - Folder of the selected item in the filelist without the filename, if one. the filename, if one. |L| - Last path part of the selected item string in the |L| - Last path part of the selected item string in the filelist. Could be a directory or a file. filelist. Could be a directory or a file. |E| - Invalid, not allowed. |E| - Emulator / App / Game / Document path. |D| - Directory selected, as shown in the dropdown box. |D| - Directory selected, as shown in the dropdown box. 9 Command Line Parameter - Variables (enclosed in Quotes): |P| - Full path of checked item(s) in the filelist. The selected item is always included first. Other checked item(s) in ascending order, top to bottom. Directories are excluded. In other words the first |P| is replaced with the full path of the selected item. The next |P| is replaced with the full path of the first checked item and so on, from filelist top to bottom. |F| - Folder of the selected item in the filelist without the filename, if one. Checkmarks in the filelist ignored. |L| - Last path part of the selected item string in the filelist. Could be a directory or a file. The selected item is always included first. Other checked item(s) in ascending order, top to bottom. Directories are excluded. In other words the first |L| is replaced with the selected item. The next |L| is replaced with the first checked item and so on, from top of the filelist to bottom. |E| - Emulator / Application executable path or the document with the filename, if one. Checkmarks in the filelist ignored. |D| - Directory selected, as shown in the dropdown box. Checkmarks in the filelist ignored. ASL is system / emulator aligned. Every specified option is universal for the selected system / emulator and must specified only once. It is not possible to specify individual options for a single game or application. Be accurate while editing command line parameter and variables. A small mistake and the games won't start. The decoded string of the focused control is displayed in the statusbar, tooltip supported.

10 Example: If the filelist with checked items looks like the image below, the command line string for the Atari XL emulator Altirra: /hardware:800xl /kernel:xl /nobasic /disk "|P|" /disk "|P|"

will be decoded to: /hardware:800xl /kernel:xl /nobasic /disk "F:\elC\Game\Atari XL\Herbert A.atr" /disk "F:\elC\Game\Atari XL\Herbert B.atr" 11 Another example: A "fake" emulator entry, keep in mind that an emulator entry in this program is only a name. The specified options are important. The directory on top of the screen is the |D| variable and the pdf book in the filelist is the |L| variable.

The executable field in the options looks so: |D|\|L| Decoded to: F:\elC\Documents\Atari XL\Atari 600xl-800xl Intern.pdf The command line parameter field in the options is empty. The screen folder in the options points to the image directory. A doubleclick on the pdf file opens the file using the standard file association on the computer. Variable |P| also works.

12 Favorites:

Copy to Favorites - Copies the selected file / folder in the filelist to: > Drive:\ All Stars Launcher Path \Favorite\ SystemName \EmulatorName \ Move to Favorites - Moves the selected file / folder in the filelist to: > Drive:\ All Stars Launcher Path \Favorite\ SystemName \EmulatorName \ SystemName is the name of the system displayed in the system drop down box. EmulatorName is the name of the emulator displayed in the emulator dropdown box. If the source is a folder, the complete folder with all files including the subfolders will be copied / moved. If the file / folder already exists at the target location a dialog window will be displayed. Add the Favorite folder as a game directory to the system / emulator directory list for quick access.

13 The Database Screen:

Checked entries are removed by the user and will be not be saved. Feel free to uncheck, reactivate them. Only the first match will be added to the ASL program if a system / emulator combination occurs more than once.

14 Remarks: Images always scaled to fit the area, keeping the aspect ratio. Transparency isn't supported. A left mouse click on the filelist header opens a dialog window. Selecting an image file ASL copies the image to the default screen folder ( ASL\Screen\SystemName ) and also to the screen folder specified under option, renaming the filename of the image file to the selected game filename in the filelist, keeping the image file extension. Overwrites existing files. It is not necessary to copy emulator programs, game pictures or games to the ASL directory. But it makes life much more easy and that rule makes ASL portable, i.e. on a fast (!) USB-Stick. Keep in mind that there is a windows path limitation of 260 bytes. Games for the selected system / emulator should be located in one directory, below a main folder. It is very unconfortable to add an extra directory for every game. That is against the philosophy of ASL. Take a look inside the ASL directory to view the default directory structure! The "Expand Folder" button is an option for special cases, a few Windows games and all Nintendo Wii U. Place firmware files into the correct folder inside the emulator directory. Read the emulator manual. Most emulators prefer a default subfolder, named Rom, Bios, Firmware or Kickstarts. That also decreases the length of the command line! It is not a good idea to place 5000 game pictures of different systems / emulators in the screen directory. Create a subfolder for every system and place the game pictures for the system in the subfolder. The default screen directory is ASL\Screen\SystemName. SystemName is the name you specify while adding a new system. That is the name displayed in the system dropdown box. The performance increase while searching for game pictures, big images decrease the performance.

15 All Stars Launcher - License: All Stars Launcher is freeware, written in assembler, less than 100 KByte, source code available. You must not read a bunch of license pages. Feel free to send me a barrel of fine tequila. License conditions of the emulators should be included and may differ. All Stars Launcher is far away from to be perfect. The main reason to build this application was to create a launcher for my Atari 8-Bit game collection using the Altirra emulator. Do what you want with the All Stars Launcher program. Please respect your knowledge and don't spread corrupt files. Thank you.

Thanks: Respect flies to all the guys, girls and groups writing those virtual machines and emulators.

Links: https://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/Emulator_Files https://fantasyanime.com/emuhelp/index https://archive.org http://masm32.com

All trademarks belong to their respective owners.

16 Included emulators: To reduce the archive size Qemu virtual machine (230 MB) is not included in this download. Amiga - FS-UAE https://fs-uae.net Amstrad CPC - WinAPE http://winape.net Atari 8 Bit System - Altirra http://www.virtualdub.org/altirra.html C64 / C128 / VIC20... - VICE https://vice-emu.sourceforge.io/ DOS - DOSBox https://www.dosbox.com/ Linux - QEMU N/A https://www.qemu.org/ Nintendo Wii - Dolphin https://de.dolphin-emu.org/ Playstation 1 - ePSXe https://www.epsxe.com/ - Mednafen https://mednafen.github.io/ - PCSX-Reloaded https://archive.codeplex.com/?p=pcsxr Playstation 2 - PCSX2 https://pcsx2.net/ SEGA Mega Drive - Kega Fusion https://www.carpeludum.com/kega-fusion/ - Mednafen https://mednafen.github.io/ Super Nintendo - sNES9x http://www.snes9x.com Legacy Windows - QEMU https://www.qemu.org/ ZX Spectrum - Fuse http://fuse-emulator.sourceforge.net Dreamcast - Flycast https://github.com/flyinghead/flycast Nintendo Wii U - Cemu https://cemu.info/