StartRAINE 0.27.1 public beta 1; readme.txt

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

beta-testers for 0.27.1:

public beta

beta-testers for 0.25.1:

Gerardo, Sean Obrien, Michael, Adam, Cory, Kriz, James, Eric, Grantley, MadTel,
Joe, Pugsy, Chuck, John, Tony, Peter, Robert, Francisco, Crashtest and Xray1,  Thanx !

After building StartM72 and StartRAGE I asked Start-users which frontend I should build
next. Most heard answer was: StartRAINE ?
Q: Why? Raine already has it's own GUI!
A: RaineGUI lacks: screenshot-preview, saving settings per game and ease of use.

For StartRAINE 0.24.1 I'd like to thank Antiriad (Raine) for his support.
I asked for listinfo and he delivered ...

What's new in StartRAINE 0.27.1:
- changed rompath definitions for Raine 0.27.1
- added ctrl+1,2,3,4... shortcuts for title,gameplay, flyer,cabinet, etc ... 
- File-menu + Exit (to stop Xray1 from asking for it :-)   )
- added 'renumber gameplayshots' to screenshot contextmenu (right-click)
- added 'set as titleshot' to screenshot contextmenu (right-click)

What's new in StartRAINE 0.25.1:
- Added Enable Secret Games option (for Gun Lock and Grid Seeker)
- Catches up to Raine 0.25c romcheck output format.
- Merged romsets support (installed status depends on romcheck status), also good
  for preventing bad romsets to show up in your installed list.
- Added support for Marquees. Unzip them in your Marquees\ dir.
  Small archive available from my website.
- Corrected Rastan showing Rastan2.png as it's titleshot.
- Removed the enable Gerikidan option (not needed anymore for 0.25c)

What's new in StartRAINE 0.24.4:
- Enable Gekirindan (secret game) option.
- Fixed minor problem with configuring default settings when tabsheet was hidden.

What's new in StartRAINE 0.24.3:
- StartRAINE can now be installed in any directory you wish.
  It will ask for Raine.exe when needed.
- PNG, Jpeg and BMP support
- Flyers support: put them in dir Flyers\
  Archive provided by http://mameflyers.retrogames.com,
  also available from the Start-website.
- Cabinets support: put them in dir Cabinets\
  Archive provided by http://arcadeart.emuunlim.com,
  also available from the Start-website.
- 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
- Support for unzipped Romsets (seems only Richard uses this).
- I keep forgetting what's new :-)


Features already in StartRAINE 0.24.2: 
- Automatically detects new supported games. 
- Multiple Filenames (including the long names) support.
- Auto default-raine.cfg generation when started for the first time.

- View installed/uninstalled/all games. 
- Large Icons/Small Icons/List/Details view
- Details: zipname, manufacturer, year, cheat available, zipdate
- Sorting an all columns in the gamelist (ascending/descending).
- Hottracking on the gamelist (optional).
- Mark bad romsets with a red bignosed badguy (optional).
- User selectable Font + Color (text and background) for gamelist.
- Remember last gamelist position.
- ViewTabSheet, ViewStatBar, Gamelist-width and Window-settings are saved.
- Scalable window 
- Designed for both small/large fonts settings.
- Keyboard shortcut for some menu-actions.

- 3 alternative zipped rompaths
- User can set almost all options supported by RAINE 0.24a
- Default settings or settings per game selectable. 
- Real game's resolutions are shown on the settings tab
- Checks if Raine had trouble changing to the selected resolution.
- Set default Keys to Mame-default or to Raine-default option
- Enable/Disable Raine-GUI
- Added 'Wibble in Raine-GUI' option

- Check for installed or for new supported games. 
- Rename romsets to long or short names.
- Report Needed Stuff tool (uninstalled games, bad romsets and missing screenshots).
- Check all romsets for CRC32 and filesizes.
- Romcheck for this game only

- 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.


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

Optional:
- Download NConvert.zip and unzip into your StartRAINE directory.
  This enables 'Convert all to PNG' in the screenshots menu.
- Download RAINETitles.zip and unzip to your Titles directory.
- Download RAINEFlyers.zip and unzip to your Flyers directory.
- Download RAINECabinets.zip and unzip to your Cabinets directory.
- Download RAINEGameplay.zip and unzip to your Gameplay directory.
- Download RAINEMidis.zip and unzip to your Sound directory.
  (StartRAINE creates all these directories on startup)

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

Thanks:
- Richard Bush (Antirad), for writing the emulator     (email:antiriad@rainemu.com)
  and for his great support towards StartRAINE.
- Chris Granger, for the StartRAINE.exe icons.         (email:chris.granger@home.com)
- James Ware, for the other StartRAINE 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 StartRAINE!

Dennis Piet
29/11/99
