StartM72 0.33.8; readme.txt

by Dennis Piet
d.piet@student.utwente.nl
http://start.digital-arcade.com

-------------------

beta-testers for 0.33.8:

Gerardo, Sean, Michael, Adam, Cory, Kriz, James, Eric, Grantley, MadTel
Joe, Pugsy, Chuck, John, Tony, Peter, Robert and Francisco  thanx!.


For one of my favourite emulators, M72 by Nao, I could not find a good frontend,
so I decided to build one myself. That's when StartM72 was born.
It is a full-featured Windows 95/98 frontend for one of the greatest arcade emulators.


What's new in 0.33.8:
- StartM72 can now be installed in any directory you wish.
  It will ask for M72.exe when needed.
- PNG, Jpeg and BMP support
- Flyers support: put them in dir Flyers\
  No archive available yet :-( 
- Cabinets support: put them in dir Cabinets\
  No archive available yet :-( 
- Different screenshothandeling (auto-conversion provided)
- Game midi-files support: put them in dir Sound\<gamename>.mid
  Small archive available on the Start-website, but help needed gathering more midi-files.
  So please send in any midi-files we are missing.
- Game wav-files support: put them in dir Sound\<gamename>.wav
- Convert all screenshots to PNG format through optional downloadable Nconvert.exe
- Large Icons/Small Icons/List/Details view
- Details: zipname, zipdate
- Sorting an all columns in the gamelist (ascending/descending).
- Hottracking on the gamelist (optional).
- User selectable Font + Color (text and background) for gamelist.


Features already in StartM72 0.33.7: 
- Automatically detects new supported games. 
- Checks M72 readme for these games' real names. 
- Check for installed or for new supported games. 
- View installed/uninstalled/all games. 
- 3 alternative zipped rompaths
- User can set all options supported by M72 0.33b
- Default settings or settings per game selectable. 
- M72 error checking and reporting; helpful for finding missing roms.
- Report last game's framerate and resolution in statusbar.
- Remember last gamelist position.
- Scalable window 

- Preview Screenshots (scaled/stretched/original). 
- Screenshot player:
  > supports unlimited number of screenshots per game
  > configurable play-speed (1-10 secs. delay between shots)
  > show/hide controls (play, pause, prev, next, timer, delete, hide)
  > show/hide screenshot filename
  > show screenshot resolution in statusbar.
  > last selected screenshot is remembered (per game)
  > Screenshotpacks available on the Start website.

- Designed for both smal/large fonts settings.
- ViewTabSheet, ViewStatBar, Gamelist-width and Window-settings are saved.
- Keyboard shortcut for some menu-actions.


Install:
- Unpack StartM72.zip into any directory.
- Doubleclick StartM72.exe to start. It will ask for M72.exe if not in the same dir.

Optional:
- Download NConvert.zip and unzip into your StartM72 directory.
  This enables 'Convert all to PNG' in the screenshots menu.
- Download M72Titles.zip and unzip to your Titles directory.
(* - Download M72Flyers.zip and unzip to your Flyers directory.
(* - Download M72Cabinets.zip and unzip to your Cabinets directory.
- Download M72Gameplay.zip and unzip to your Gameplay directory.
- Download M72Midis.zip and unzip to your Sound directory.
  (StartM72 creates all these directories on startup)


Working with StartM72 is so easy, I won't bother explaining right now. I have included
a FAQ is this archive. Please read it if you have any problems running StartM72.
If you still have troubles running this frontend, please send me an email.

Thanks:
- Li Jih Hwa (Nao), for writing such a great emulator. (email:nao@ms6.hinet.net)
- Chris Granger, for the StartM72.exe icons.           (email:chris.granger@home.com)
- James Ware, for the other StartM72 icons.            (email:aussiemu@bellsouth.net)
- Todd Fast, for the TBrowseFolder component.          (email:tfast@eden.com)
- Kevin Savko, for his Delphi TExecFile component.     (email:phunk@msn.com)
- Mark D. Rafn, for his DCPcx component.               (email:mdrafn@mr.net)
- Daniel Lorch, for the Raylight URL label component.  (email:daniel@lorch.cc)

Enjoy StartM72!

Dennis Piet
03/09/99
