Hyperspin as Shell: Easy Exit to Windows

[SophT]

just a wild shot in the dark - is .6 the latest version?

also - instant sheller is just making a few registry tweaks - maybe you should try doing them by hand ?

[brock.sampson]

If you mean 60000 sleep shell.exe than yes. I did set the shell registry key by hand same results. I did add another line to sleep for 20000ms then start notepad then start hyperspin. Notepad pops up but still no hyperspin. Hyperspin is running you just can't see it. I also tried the following and got an error

run, hyperspin.exe, max

It was getting late so I didn't take a screenshot. I'll post that error tonight when I get home.

[brock.sampson]

I tried shelling on another computer and it worked fine so I thought I must have messed something up with xp so I rebuilt the computer again same results. I tried the hsshell.exe posted at the beginning of the thread and that worked fine. I don't really know why that script works and mine doesn't.

[Tricky]

I noticed a problem with the shell method listed in the OP, for whatever reason my XP welcome screen will still show through 90% of the intro vid. Will attempt using instant-sheller next.

[brian_hoffman]

You use Instant sheller and point to the shell.exe

[scotrob69]

Been using this guide to try and shell hyperspin and had a couple of issues in case anyone has any ideas as to how to fix them.

I have hyperspin working fine (Mame single wheel set up) running from windows and then I have used a combination of instant sheller and some registry edits to get the machine to autologon, display the HS logo instead of the XP logo and to load directly into the intro video - the guide and thread were very useful, thanks.

Issue 1 - When i get into HS and select a game in the mame wheel it then acts like it is going to move to mame and load the game but goes to a black screen and doesnt respond to anything else - although in the task manager HS is still listed as running.

I assume that this is a problem with mame and that it is either unhappy about being run following a shell load or that the mame application is somehow being minimised behind the black background screen that is now in place. As HS is running fine normally and is starting up from the shell load I couldnt see what the issue could be. I have tried using the HSshell wrapper and using Hyperluanch / not using either of these and the problem is the same.

Issue 2 - I suspect this is a BIOS issue but for the first 20 seconds from starting I get all the diagnostic running in the background ie memory and harddrive statistics and a 5 second "Dell" logo before it finally goes into the HS boot logo and then into HS. I have looked into the BIOS however being an old Dell Machine the options are fairly limited. Is there any snazzy way to ensure that up until the XP Loading Screen (which is currently replaced with the HS screen) loads that the BIOS does not display anything or just displays the HS Boot logo? I suspect this would involve editing the BIOS and involve the dangers that come with that route however interested to know how anyone else has done this.

Many thanks!

[SophT]

Issue 1 - When i get into HS and select a game in the mame wheel it then acts like it is going to move to mame and load the game but goes to a black screen and doesnt respond to anything else - although in the task manager HS is still listed as running.

can you post the contents of log.txt in the HS folder?

=====

Issue 2 - I suspect this is a BIOS issue

this is a bios issue, and short of flashing a custom bios, you're not going to get rid of the "Dell" part. My recommendation - get a new motherboard. Asus will let you select a bitmap image to show instead of their manufacturer image - or no image at all.

[scotrob69]

1. Thanks for the prompt response - will grab the log.txt this evening and post tonight.

2. Was thinking that might be the case. I have been toying with (and secretly speccing a new arcade pc in my head for a while) as my old pc is now becoming a little decrepit and I cannot face trying to replace a motherboard given all the dell specific stuff in my old pc.

I had searched the forums to see if there was any guidance as to what works well for simply running hyperspin plus various emulators smoothly (nothing beyond psx) and given the variety in pc parts there doesnt seem to be any guides.

Assuming I go with an asus board here given that they have this option are there any other recomendations off the top? I dont know a huge amount about this but found an Athlon II X4 600E with Asus M4A 785D-M Pro Motherboard that was within budget would that be sensible or just a waste given what I am doing?

Happy for any guidance!

Many thanks

[SophT]

the general consensus is a minimum: 2ghz dual core with 2gb ram. and a video card of 8800 or 9600 or greater if you're doing gpu accelerated games.

[scotrob69]

log.txt is pasted below. Every time i try to play a game it ges black ntil i use ctrl alt delete then t goes back to the wheel withut aving loaded the game.

The problem does not happen if i try hyperspin normally within windows or even if i exit hyperspin following tyhe shell launch and then reload hyperspin - only happens for the time HS is loaded following a shell launch....

12:41:18 AM | HyperSpin Started

12:41:18 AM | Startup Program Unvavailable

12:41:18 AM | Menu mode is single

12:41:18 AM | Play intro video is true

12:41:18 AM | Intro video found......adding video

12:41:18 AM | Entering fullscreen mode

12:41:18 AM | Setting resolution to 800x600 refreshrate is 0

12:41:36 AM | Intro video finished

12:41:37 AM | MAME.xml found

12:41:38 AM | MAME.xml loaded

12:41:38 AM | Themes only, parsing xml

12:41:38 AM | Parsing complete

12:41:38 AM | Loading wheel images

12:41:38 AM | Entering Menu

12:42:43 AM | Excecutable is Mame.exe

12:42:43 AM | Running in normal rom mode

12:42:43 AM | Executable Found

12:42:43 AM | Rom Found

12:42:43 AM | Attempting to launch

12:42:43 AM | Pausing Animations

12:42:43 AM | Launching file

12:42:43 AM | Command Line is: "C:\Mame\Mame.exe" aburner.zip

12:43:29 AM | Excecutable is Mame.exe

12:43:29 AM | Running in normal rom mode

12:43:29 AM | Executable Found

12:43:29 AM | Rom Found

12:43:29 AM | Attempting to launch

12:43:29 AM | Pausing Animations

12:43:30 AM | Launching file

12:43:30 AM | Command Line is: "C:\Mame\Mame.exe" centiped.zip

12:44:42 AM | Quiting program

12:44:42 AM | Exit Program Unvavailable

12:44:42 AM | Bye!

[SophT]

are you shelling directly to hyperspin?

meaning - in your registry is the value:

shell="C:\hyperspin\hyperspin.exe"

or whereever you have HS installed? Some people have reported issues when shelling directly to HyperSpin for some reason. The best solution is to have another app launch HyperSpin.

so in autohotkey just create an executable that looks like this:

shell.exe

run, hyperspin.exe
exitapp

and set the shell in the registry to that program. All this program does is launch HyperSpin. I don't know why - but this seems to work better.

[scotrob69]

Thanks will try this evening, had tried using the hsshell.exe which is attached to this thread but had no luck

[scotrob69]

Sadly same error with suggested script, even tried a different emulator set up, still when I go into hs and select game screen goes black and no game launches, any ideas?

Thanks

[SophT]

make sure you have the correct version of instantsheller: if you're on SP2 you need the release that's compatible with sp2.

[scotrob69]

Sopht,

Thanks for your help with this. Purchased a new basi asus motherboard and case and reinstalled the old dell components in there which gives me a much clener build. The motherboard is much friendlier than the old one and looking forward to using the MyLogo2 app to replace the post bios screen.

Re-installed, XP, instant sheller and hyperspin. Instant Sheller wasnt working but upgraded my .net install and that is working now.

I was still getting the black screen issues following shell (even with an AHK file created) and therefore went back to the HSSHELL.exe on this post and now everything works great!

I press a button to switch on and then everything switches on and boots directly into Hyperspin and then I can play games which run fine!

Many thanks for taking the time to help!

Going to look to install HiScore support and set up a few more emulators now.

Rob

[RAO]

Hi all,

I use for my cab a very usefull and easy configurable tool to change the windows shell to any program or FE, after try with some methods, is the best way to have "all in one" clean starts for our cabs.

It's made from my arcade forum spanish friends and the program is in Spanish (quite simple), but i can explain all functions if you can't understand it.

Here is a spanish tutorial with shots:

Loader Marciano

The link for download is on the bottom of the tutorial named as "archivo con los programas".

What Loader Marciano can do?:

- Hide or change all startup, boot and close screens from windows.

- Hide Cursor, windows sounds and wallpaper.

- Works with Joystick

- Setting Loader as Shell, it can loads Hyperspin (for example) and can auto exit loader after load it (to save memory) or continue waiting for HS exits.

- Can create your own arcade menu before start HS as shell. For example, when you start the cab, you can see one little button on screen (configurable) that shows a message "press 1P to enter menu" for example, if you don't touch that button, loader automatically loads HS after a few secondos (configurable), if press that button, you can see your own menu (fully configurable) with your own options like "windows enviroment (explorer.exe)", "another Front-End", "shut down", "return to previous" or all you need.

- Loader Marciano can do and undo all the changes without enter regedit.exe or something.

I hope you like,

regards and sorry for my English.

[SophT]

now everything works great!

glad you got it going. shelling is probably the hardest thing to setup for HS - but it's the cherry on top of a cab setup.

[ken_cinder]

HSShell calls Hyperspin from C:\Hyperspin

Is this hardcoded in the EXE (I haven't bothered opening it up in a HEX Editor yet) or is it pulling a registry value that is incorrect?

Hyperspin is not installed on my C drive, and HSShell is right in there with it.

[SophT]

hsshell.exe is just an AHK script - you can code your own and just point it to whereever you have hyperspin installed. That's probably easier than HEXing it.

[Pingaloka]

Hello guys, I'm trying to make a ahk cript.

I have it like this:

run c:\Archivos de Programa\ZenKEY\ZenKEY.exe

run c:\Winipac.exe

run c:\HyperSpin\HSShell.exe

the thing is that Zenkey is exectued non stop, it star executing itself without stopping.

I hace tried only whith these lines:

run c:\Winipac.exe

run c:\HyperSpin\HSShell.exe

and it happens the same, Winipac starts executing wihout stopping.

Could you please give me some advice?

[SophT]

I'm confused by what you mean 'executing itself without stopping'

you're telling it to run - and it's doing that, what is the expected result?

[Pingaloka]

Hi, thank you for the reply. What I mean is that the command that opens the file repeats itself.

The program doesn't open once and then keeps running. The programa opens and opens and keeps opening whithout stopping and not letting the rest of the programs to open.

I don't know if I explained myself correctly.

I'm running hyperspin and I need 2 programs to startup before Hyperspin.

Winipac and Hotkeybind. The first one is to reprogram the Ipac each time that the computer turns on, as I have the Ipac VE and it keeps the key information in the ram of the computer and not in the IPAC. The second program is so I can set volume up and down programing certain keys.

[SophT]

oh, ok.

add

exitapp

after the run, lines

[Pingaloka]

thanx a lot! I will try!

[BladeZX]

Shelling is one of the things I have left to do on my cabinet.

I am running Windows 7 64 bit and am wondering if this process works on Windows 7

What is the best method for shelling in Windows 7?

Thx