DISTRUBUTION FILES

1. tkmame/tkmame.tcl - TkMAME script file (ASCII source code)
2. tkmame/tkmame.htm - Documentation for TkMAME (this file)
3. tkmame/tkroms.cfg - ROM description/grouping file

HOW TO RUN TkMAME FOR WINDOWS 95

1. Unzip the tkmame.zip file into any directory you choose. You may use either winzip, or pkunzip. If you use pkunzip, be sure to specify the -d option.
2. Download and install Tcl/Tk for Windows95.
3. From Windows explorer, double click on the tkmame.tcl file. You may have to associate a program to run for .tcl files. Select WISH80 as the program.

HOW TO RUN TkMAME FOR LINUX

1. Unzip using a PKZIP compatible compression tool like unzip.
2. Edit the tkmame.tcl file. The first line needs to point to wish80. If you do not have Tcl/Tk installed, you can get it at the Scriptics web site. Edit the xmame_working_dir, xmame_image_dir and xmame_doc_dir directories to suit your needs.
3. tkmame.tcl can then be moved to a system wide directory like /usr/local/games, tkmame.htm should move to the xmame_doc_dir directory and tkroms.cfg should be placed in the xmame_working_dir. A system wide tkroms.cfg should also be made available so other users can copy it and make modifications to it to suit their own needs.
4. When TkMAME starts up for the first time, it will prompt you for the location of xmame. You must select the X11 version of xmame for TkMAME to properly start up. This is due to a bug in the DGA and svgalib versions. Once TkMAME has started you may then change the default MAME by selecting 'Change Default MAME' option from the 'Other' pull-down menu. Measures are being taken to try and fix this bug. It also seems to be that the X11 version is also the only version that can take snap shots, I am looking into this too.

CONTACT INFORMATION

You can contact the author via e-mail at tkmame@ztnet.com or ICQ #12155636, or visit the TkMAME home page on the web at http://tkmame.retrogames.com. You can also reach me on EFNet on the #retrogamers channel.

GETTING STARTED

The first time you execute the tkmame.tcl script file it will ask you to point to your MAME executable. This information is then written to a file in the tkmame directory called tkmame.ini. If you want to later select a different MAME executable, then you may just delete this file and restart TkMAME.

TkMAME Will then attempt to read in the default ROM configuration values from your MAME.CFG file (for Windows) or executing the command xmame -showconfig (for Unix). You should verify the correctness of the settings in this file. Most importantly, Windows users should check the values for soundcard, and joystick. These settings should contain proper values for your joystick and soundcard. If these settings are set to -1, unpredictable results may occur with TkMAME. Additionally, check the rompath setting and make sure that it only lists the directories where you keep you MAME ROMs. Additional, or unused directories results in longer load times.

Windows users should heed the first sentence of the previous paragraph. The default configurations for each ROM is taken from the mame.cfg file. If you want to change the default settings for all your ROMs you must edit this file. You can edit this file from TkMAME by selecting "Default MAME Configuration" from the Edit menu.

When TkMAME loads, you should see a window with a list of your ROMs with a star and search entry box placed above them. By pressing the left mouse button on the star at the top of the window, you access the TkMAME main menu. The search entry box allows you to quickly navigate to any ROM by typing in just a few characters. In addition, you may right-click on a ROM name to bring up an additional menu. If you press the Return key, or double-left-click on a ROM name, then TkMAME will try to launch the selected ROM.

DOCUMENTATION

Selecting the star at the top of the list of ROMs brings up the main menu. Each menu in TkMAME has a dashed line at the top of the menu. By selecting this dashed line, the menu will detach.

Launch Mame

Executes the selected ROM.

View Menu

View information or graphics on ROMs.

Graphics

Opens up a window which displays a picture of the game.

Options

Opens up configuration window for the selected ROM (see ROM CONFIGURATION).

Missing ROMs

Shows which ROMs you are missing, it also shows missing ROM not including NeoGeo ROMs.

Notes on Selected ROMs

Shows the Notes on the selected ROM, this screen is updated as you switch to different ROMs.

List ROM details

Shows detailed information on all ROMs.

Mame Read Me File

Shows the readme file for MAME.

TkMame Read Me

Shows this file.

Beta Info

Shows MAME beta information file if it exists.

Error Log

Shows the error log if you have error logging enabled.

What's New

Shows information on what has recently been added to MAME.

What's Old

Shows information on what has been added to MAME in the past.

Cheat Documentation

Shows the cheat.doc file if it exists.

Game Information

Shows the gamelist.txt file.

Verify Menu

This menu allows you to verify ROMs or samples for a ROM.

Selected ROM

Executes MAME -verifyroms on the selected ROM.

Samples for ROM

Executes MAME -verifysamples on the selected ROM.

Edit Menu

This menu allows you to edit configuration files

Cheat Data

Brings up the cheat.dat file for editing.

Default MAME Configuration

Brings up the mame.cfg file (for Windows) or the xmamerc file (for Unix) for editing.

Other Menu

This menu contains miscelanous ites for managing your ROMs.

Change MAME Executable and Path

Redifines the default MAME executable, this is not permanent. To permanently change the default mame executable delete the tkmame.ini file.

Reset Keyboard/Dip-Switch Settings

Removes the config file for the ROM effectively resetting the dipswitch settings.

Reset High Scores for Selected Game

Removes the ROM high score file.

Re-read Notes

Re-scans the notes information from the gamelist.txt file or the readme.txt file.

Colors Menu

This menu allows you to change specific colors for widgets, or load a predefined color scheme.

TkMame Default

Changes colors to the TkMAME default colors.

Windows Default

Changes colors to Windoze default colors.

LightSteelBlue, LIghtSlateGray

These are other color configuration, if you create your own color configuration and would like to see it as a pre-defined default, send your configuration to me via e-mail and if it looks good I will include it. I would like to have about 20 different pre-defined color configuartions to choose from.

Background

Changes the background color.

Foreground

Changes the foreground color.

Active Background

Changes the background color of a widget when it is active (e.g., menu options, push buttons.)

Active Foreground

Changes the foreground color of a widget when it is active.

Disabled Foreground

Changes the foreground color of a widget which is disabled.

Highlight Background

Changes the background color of a widgets highlight when not active (e.g., the highlight around the list of ROMs - press TAB in the search window if you do not see this color.)

Highlight Color

Changes the color of a widgets highlight when active (e.g., box surrounding a pulldown menu.)

Insert Background

Changes the color of a text widgets cursor color (e.g., search window, or edit window.)

Select Color

Change the color of checkbuttons.

Select Background

Changes the highlight for the active ROM in the list of ROMs.

Trough Color

Change the color of scroll widget troughs (e.g., the skiplines, skipcolumns widgets in the options window.)

Diagnostics

Performs a diagnostics by checking your ROM path for duplicate or unknown ROMs, then proceeds to verify each ROM and the samples of each ROM. The diagnostics process can be stopped at each stage. The output will also be sent to text files upon completion of each diagnostic.

Download Latest Cheats

Downloads latest cheat.dat data from Pugsy's MAME cheat page on the internet.

About

Shows version and contact information for TkMAME.

Exit

Exits TkMAME.

TkMAME also supports a pop-up menu by right-clicking on a ROM:

Launch Mame

Executes the selected ROM.

Configure ROM

Opens up the ROM configuration window (see ROM CONFIGURATION below.)

Remove Configuration

Removes any previous configurations which you have changed for this ROM and reverts it back to the default settings.

View Notes

Displays game information on the selected ROM, the game information will change as you select different ROMs. The first time it scans for game information, it may take a few seconds to load, but subsequent times load time will be much faster (even if you restart TkMAME.)

Verify ROM

Executes mame -verifyroms on the selected ROM.

Verify Samples

Executes mame -verifysampels on the selected ROM.

Change Font

Changes the font for the list of ROMs, this allows you to make the text larger or smaller, or use a completely different font.

ROM CONFIGURATION

The Options window allows you to configure ROMs which need to have specific commands that differ from the default values defined in the mame.cfg file. You should be familiar with the options supported by MAME. To get documentation about MAME options select "Mame Readme File" from the View menu.

Save

This button will save the current configuration for the selected ROM.

Test

This button will run mame with the current configuration options, but the options will not be saved. To save the options, you must press the save button.

Default

This button will revert all the options to their default values (values specified in mame.cfg file.)

Video

This button displays the video related options, if a resolution that you want to use is not supported you may use the Other Options widget. Certain options on this screen may be disabled depending upon which resolution you select. The pull-down menu on the other options selects some out of date MAME options.

Tweaks

This button displays the MAME video tweaking options.

Sound/Vector

This button displays MAME's sound and vector related options.

Other

This button allows you to set other miscelanous MAME options. You may specify a different executable to run for a particular ROM by using the alt. MAME widget. This screen also allows you to record and play back MAME recordings, and enables you to ignore the mame.cfg file as well as specify alternate ROM names for hacked ROMs.

The Options window also has an example command line displayed at the bottom which shows you what will get executed.

THE EDIT WINDOW

Many options in TkMAME use an edit window (e.g., view notes, edit Default MAME configuration, View missing ROMs, etc). This edit window allows you to save its contents to a file, search for text in a file, cut and paste text and more. It behaves much like a basic text editor.

GROUPING ROMS, REDEFINING ROMS, ADDING YOUR OWN ROMS

TkMAME uses the mame -listfull to determine the ROM names and descriptions. TkMAME also allows you to redefine these ROM name and/or descriptions as well as the capability to group ROMs and add your own ROM names and descriptions. In order to do these things you must edit the tkmame\tkroms.cfg file. This file contains the instructions you will need in order to correctly modify the file to suit your needs.

This document was last updated on 06/07/99