I need help setting up Hyperspin

[NonchalantShallot]

I can't find any decent tutorials or guides that deal with just the base software. I don't care to use Rocket Launcher as I have neither idea what that even is, nor do I need anything extra. The base software seems to work just fine for organizing the games into a nice menu, or at least that's what it looks like on youtube...

At this point, I'm so aggravated by this software that I can't even type proper sentences without wanting to use foul language or act like a jerk. I'm just so.... angry.

This program has caused me nothing but headaches and stress. It simply doesn't work. That's not to say it's the developer's fault. It's clearly a user error. I'm just too stupid to use it...

 

 

[exe info]
path=E:\Games\Emulators\GBA\
rompath=E:\Games\Emulators\GBA\Games\
userompath=true
exe=E:\Games\Emulators\GBA\GBA\VBALinkM.exe
romextension=gba
parameters=nil
searchsubfolders=true
pcgame=false
winstate=HIDDEN
hyperlaunch=true
Per_Game_Modules=false
Skipchecks=false

 

 

Anyone with any experience should know immediately what's wrong, because I have ZERO clue as to why it's not working.

I get many errors that I simply have no idea how to fix.

For starters, it took me an hour to figure out my emulator exe file was in an additional sub folder, also called GBA (Instead of System like I have it for the others. Dunno why I haven't fixed that by now...)

 

Secondly, the main error I keep getting is that it can't find the rom because of something to do with a file extension not being correct, but that's a load of crap. The extension IS .gba, and putting .gba into the settings gives me a different error saying I can't use a dot in the extension setting. Changing it back simply gives me the same "unable to find blah blah blah" error

 

I'm just to frustrated... and I can't understand any guides online about this because none of them deal with the problems I'm having, plus they all talk about rocket launcher which just confuses me because that part of those guides always blend in with the rest of the guides and I can't tell anymore when they're talking about hyperspin or rocket launcher.

 

 

I also only have 1 game in the database

 

    <game name="The Legend of Zelda - The Minish Cap" index="true" image="0">
        <description>Minish Cap</description>
        <cloneof></cloneof>
        <crc></crc>
        <manufacturer></manufacturer>
        <year></year>
        <genre></genre>
        <rating>A for Awesome</rating>
        <enabled>Yes</enabled>
        <path>E:\Games\Emulators\GBA\Games\The Legend of Zelda - The Minish Cap.gba</path>
    </game>

 

I added an extra line for the rom path but idk if that will even work, if it matters, or if it hurts it.

 

[Bungles]

It may seem scary or difficult but so does anything without exposure, its the human condition.

 

My Suggestions

1. Bite the bullet and use Rocketlauncher as suggested. Its not overly complex to setup once you get used to it and works much butter than hyperlaunch from my experiences. Even the developers have shown that the product coupled with Hyperspin as the Pretty Launcher is the best working combination.

2. Watch guides by AV TV, Simply Austin and Ninja2bceen in your spare time for more exposure to the applications.
They all explain things a little differently, but all in all they do a good job explaining where they can, without over complicating things.

3. Post your error messages if you can screen capture them so others here can assist you.

 

Once you get used to it you will figure it all out, just give it time young grasshopper.

 

[NonchalantShallot]

That's the deal, though. I don't want RocketLauncher(googled it to see what it is). Its style is the same as Launchbox's BigBox and Steam's big picture mode. It's too cluttered.

 

Hyperspin's base software is all I want.

I want to launch the program and see only a list of systems. No extra menu options in the corner, no splash screens, nothing extra except the name of the system.

I want to be able to select the system and see the same thing for the games (I found a link to something called Don's tools to scan my games folder and create a database for me, but that doesn't fix my problem).

I want to be able to select the game and it simply launches the emulator.

 

All this other stuff is just extra steps that aren't even necessary. From what I've seen, the base software is exactly what I want and need with nothing extra added on to it to clutter my screen.

 

As for the error, this is what I've been getting so far. I thought HyperLaunch was a testing tool so I was trying to explain an error from that but I guess it's irrelevant.

 

I'm wondering is maybe that specific emulator just isn't supported. I do have 2 other older versions in a storage folder that I can try

 

 

[NonchalantShallot]

Although... Now that I'm looking at it... the error says Modules\Nintendo Game Boy Advance\Nintendo Game Boy Advance.ahk

but looking through the modules there is:  Modules\Gameboy Advance\Gameboy Advance.ahk

Lemme make a copy of that folder and do some renaming to see if that fixes it.

[NonchalantShallot]

Welp... Yep. That was indeed the problem. Looks like some wires got crossed during the installation or something. That fixed it O,o

Game launches just fine now

[Bungles]

Rocketlauncher is dual system like Hyperspin, however it doesnt add extra things to the front end, unless you want it to fade into your titles etc.

 

To start that error you have is stating that the .ahk (Module) file for that system is not available.

You will need to create a folder called "Nintendo Game Boy Advance" and then add the ahk file in there and rename it to be the same.

For me the module required is found in Modules/Gameboy Advance/ however these seem outdated with a modified date of 20/1/2015 (Not sure if there are newer releases on Hyperlist.)

This is where Rocketlauncher comes back.. It has a "Complicated" GUI but it will allow you to setup your emulators easily and then just select them from the choices.


 

[NonchalantShallot]

On a side note, there's a folder in Hyperspin's root folder called Emulators and it's empty.

Is this where I place copies of my emulators and games for a portable version?

[NonchalantShallot]

Yeah

Gameboy Advance (VisualBoyAdvance-M r967 BBB 1.0).ahk

&  Gameboy Advance (Mednafen 0.9.15 BBB 1.1).ahk

 

I renamed the former and that seemed to do the trick

[Bungles]

Emulators can be where ever you want, but its recommend not to put them too deep into subfolders away from HS due to some issues with very large pathnames.
 

You will learn this application is very "However you want it" as long as your paths are correct things work.

 

[NonchalantShallot]

Well I have the standard emulator systems set up on a hard drive where it's just a folder abbreviated after the system (eg - Gameboy Advance is just GBA, Playstation 2 is just PS2, etc) and then 2 subfolders, one for the emulator and its files and then the other one containing the roms. Simply for organizational purposes.

This should be acceptable, correct? But I could potentially put them into that Emulator folder in the program root to create a usb portable version, yes?

[NonchalantShallot]

Hey, just out of curiosity, is there any way to remove the menu loop graphics?

At the moment I have just a GBA in the list, and there's like 20 on the wheel, all the same emulator. I'm assuming that's got something to do with scrolling past the end of the list back to the beginning. Was wondering if there was a way to disable that so that it simply stops at the end of the list, both for the system selection and the game selection.

Thinking maybe that might remove the infinite loop graphics.

[Spawk]

12 minutes ago, NonchalantShallot said:

Hey, just out of curiosity, is there any way to remove the menu loop graphics?

At the moment I have just a GBA in the list, and there's like 20 on the wheel, all the same emulator. I'm assuming that's got something to do with scrolling past the end of the list back to the beginning. Was wondering if there was a way to disable that so that it simply stops at the end of the list, both for the system selection and the game selection.

Thinking maybe that might remove the infinite loop graphics.

Short answer... No. HS is not made for small lists. Its made for huge collections. As you add more systems/games you wont even notice.

Also, I have to say that I understand your desire to have just HS. But you are thinking about it the wrong way. RocketLauncher IS hyperlaunch! Same devs, same purpose, even looks the same. As such, hyperlaunch hasnt been updated in quite some time and never will be again. And thats what your using now so you will inevitably encounter issues that have been addressed with RL but still exist with hyperlaunch.

Also, RL has nothing to do with the clutter of what is shown in a frontend. It is a launcher! Its main purpose is launching and closing of emulators in a way that is seemless. I highly urge you to upgrade your hyperlaunch to it!!!

[Bungles]

Quote

Was wondering if there was a way to disable that so that it simply stops at the end of the list.

It was built to Hyperspin not to Hyperstop.

 

[NonchalantShallot]

Got a flash drive to test out RocketLauncher and set it up using this tutorial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87Hd5GowMx4

When I double click RocketLauncher.exe, it opens up the same type of window as HyperLaunch.exe. That's pretty useless.

[Bungles]

Try the RocketlauncherUI folder then RocketlauncherUI.exe

 

[Rowr14]

1 hour ago, NonchalantShallot said:

Hey, just out of curiosity, is there any way to remove the menu loop graphics?

At the moment I have just a GBA in the list, and there's like 20 on the wheel, all the same emulator. I'm assuming that's got something to do with scrolling past the end of the list back to the beginning. Was wondering if there was a way to disable that so that it simply stops at the end of the list, both for the system selection and the game selection.

Thinking maybe that might remove the infinite loop graphics.

Go to your HyperSpin settings folder, open 'main menu.ini'

change

small_alpha = 1 

to 

small_alpha = 0

All this does is hides all the wheels except the selected one, it may look a little better for you.

[NonchalantShallot]

Well, that definitely helps the aesthetics.

 

All in all I have to say RocketLauncher is an even bigger pain in my ass than Hyperspin is, and now I ruined my Hyperspin folder. I'm glad I made a backup. RocketLauncher is soooo not worth it.

Followed a 2 video guide to install it and set it up and it still won't work properly. Settings in RocketLauncher that are required to be changed in Hyperspin, which need to be changed in RocketLauncher, which again need to be changed in Hyperspin.

 

Screw RocketLauncher.

 

After all this crap I just went through, all RocketLauncher ended up being was a frontend for the frontend. WHAT IN THE ACTUAL F...... nevermind...

 

 

Back to the base software.

[NonchalantShallot]

Not even joking. I have no idea what you people consider easy, but your views are clearly upside down. The base form of Hyperspin is far simpler than RocketLauncher.

 

It's literally just an editing/organizational program for Hyperspin, and it managed to destroy my Hyperspin folder.

Even if both of them are linked together, I still have to go into the Hyperspin folder and open the Hyperspin.exe to use it. So what's the point of RocketLauncher?

[adamg]

The entire community here will tell you to use Rocketlauncher.  There is a reason that we do.  No one here uses hyperlaunch, it is not supported anymore and you will not be able to find any updated scripts.  The people who used to do Hyperlaunch moved on to rocketlauncher.  It is way better and much easier to setup.  I cannot imagine you will get too much help with HL as no one uses it anymore.

For simplicity sake you should have 4 folders: HyperSpin, RocketLauncher, Roms, and Emulators.  None of those folders should ever change anything in your HyperSpin directory. 

 

HyperSpin is JUST THE ARTWORK AND MENUS.  It does not do anything else except display that information and feed parameters to either HL or RL.  The only things you will ever change here are the databases and artwork/themes.  That is it, that is all it does.  Since I recommend the 4 folders, once you set this up once you should never have to open this folder ever again.  Just have a shortcut to the HyperSpin.exe on your desktop.

Roms are your games and you will point Rocketlauncher to those directories when setting up systems.

Emulators are of course your emulators.

And rocketlauncher is your bread and butter.  It does literally everything except display graphics.  It is much more robust than HL in that it has many parameters it can use as opposed to [start game on emulator].  If that is all you want, hope that you have an ahk for the particular emulator and have at it.  Otherwise you need Rocketlauncher.  Literally everyone would not be leading you down the wrong path.  Use it!

 

That being said, nothing about HyperSpin is easy.  NOTHING.  If I have not scared you off, I highly reccomend you watch Avar's tutorials:

 

He makes it as easy as it humanly can be and walks you through everything.  Just do what he says for every system you want and enjoy HyperSpin.  As I said earlier, the 4 folders make it easier in the long run but he will recommend using the more default directories.  Do that to begin with and if you ever have the desire, change to my 4 directories as changes are much easier to manage with my layout in my opinion.  Oh and USE ROCKETLAUNCHER!

 

[NonchalantShallot]

3 minutes ago, adamg said:

it has many parameters it can use as opposed to [start game on emulator].  If that is all you want, hope that you have a ahk for the particular emulator and have at it. 

 

That is exactly what I want LMAO!

and it's funny you linked that guy's video because I literally just got done setting up RL using his vids

(and then promptly deleting RL and re-doing HyperLaunch)

A - RL was entirely overly complicated to integrate into Hyperspin

B - It took up an entire gig on my flash drive. It only has 28 to begin with.

C - I still had to launch Hyperspin using the Hyperspin.exe file. I couldn't find any other exe besides RocketLauncher.exe and RocketLauncherUI.exe

 

You say it's better but double clicking RocketLauncher.exe opens the same window as double clicking HyperLaunch.exe. It also still requires ahk files, so where's the upgrade?

 

HyperLaunch was WAAYYYYY simpler to set up than RocketLauncher. The UI was hugely cluttered and noting was easy to find.

With HyperLaunch I just have to edit a few ini files and I'm good to go.

 

 

 

I'm sorry, but I just don't see what's so special about RL. The only way I could even use RL to launch an emulator was a tiny little button under the modules tab or whatever that said to launch the emu directly, bypassing Hyperspin completely which was annoying.

 

If I wanted a steam style frontend that simply listed all the games, I would have just stayed with LaunchBox

 

Maybe I really am just stupid and simply don't get what you guys are talking about, but at the same time I just can't see any reason to stress myself out again like I did today setting up RocketLauncher when HyperLaunch does EXACTLY what I've been looking for.

 

My only real 2 complaints with HyperLaunch are the annoying video intros to the gaming system before the games list actually pops up, and the video saying "go to emumovies for video previews"

But considering I'm already getting everything I want with HyperLaunch, I can bear with those 2 things.

I may just end up deleting those videos and seeing how the program responds to it.

[Spawk]

24 minutes ago, NonchalantShallot said:

I'm sorry, but I just don't see what's so special about RL. The only way I could even use RL to launch an emulator was a tiny little button under the modules tab or whatever that said to launch the emu directly, bypassing Hyperspin completely which was annoying.

 

If I wanted a steam style frontend that simply listed all the games, I would have just stayed with LaunchBox

 

Maybe I really am just stupid and simply don't get what you guys are talking about, but at the same time I just can't see any reason to stress myself out again like I did today setting up RocketLauncher when HyperLaunch does EXACTLY what I've been looking for.

 

My only real 2 complaints with HyperLaunch are the annoying video intros to the gaming system before the games list actually pops up, and the video saying "go to emumovies for video previews"

But considering I'm already getting everything I want with HyperLaunch, I can bear with those 2 things.

I may just end up deleting those videos and seeing how the program responds to it.

 

Again, RocketLauncher is Hyperlaunch! Yes it does do more since it's been updated over the years but it is NOT a frontend. It is a launcher! You set up the launching of your games with it.

It is configuration only, once set up you just use Hyperspin as normal.  That tiny button is for testing purposes only.

That emulator that won't work? That module in Hyperlaunch is old and hasn't been updated in years... but the RL module gets updated whenever needed because it's in active development. That few seconds after selecting a game where you can see your desktop and the emulator window... it can hide that with a "fade in". Hyperlaunch can not. Load a 4:3 game on your 16:9 monitor? RL can load a bezel to fill in the black spaces on the side. Hyperlaunch can not. It can ensure proper function of different programs like keymappers, hypermarquee, ledblinky... I could go on and on about all the developments that have happened over the years but suffice to say, RL does it. That's why there is so many options when you open it, you need it. I am sorry it's not the type of program you can learn in an hour. There are reasons we all use it here... and Launchbox users use it... and GameEx, and Maximus... pretty much all of them.

Mind you, most users here are building an actual arcade cabinet or otherwise need/want a truly seamless experience. No reaching over to a keyboard to exit an emulator for instance. But if you just looking for nice little UI for your games and don't care about the finer points then just keep on doing what your doing. Like mentioned earlier though, just don't expect too many people to know whats wrong when something doesn't work. You're essentially using a very old version of RocketLauncher.

By the way Hyperlaunch (or RL for that matter) have absolutely nothing to do with those video intros. 

 

[Rowr14]

Sometimes the horse won't drink I guess. 

I doubt any further explanation of the same concept will make it any clearer.

[adamg]

I thought I was pretty clear about what everything did...

 

RocketLauncher is HyperLaunch, same program just much better and several years of development.  You are essentially using Windows 3.1 for work groups when you could be using a modern version.  You are limiting yourself.  You also seem to be not understanding that Rocketlauncer.exe is the brains and is not to be used.  It is the UI that you want to use and it is incredibly easy to setup.  If you cannot follow Avar's guides and figure it out, maybe HyperSpin isn't for you.

 

HyperSpin is one program; RocketLauncher(or antiqued HyperLaunch, same program with less features) is an entirely separate program and it does not in anyway affect the way hyperSpin works.  HyperSpin should boot up and show graphics and pass parameters when a game is selected.  If you have no backend (RL OR HL) then it will not do anything; It is not designed to.  So again HyperSpin is just graphics and menus.  The backend launches everything, does all the work, and is nothing but menus and options.  HyperLaunch is all in the ahks that is IF you can even find ones that work. and even if you can, they are designed for very old versions of emulators and I honestly would not expect many of them to work very well these days.  HL does not have any menus or options, it is just what it is.  Want to play a game in fullscreen but it launches windowed?  Too bad.  Want to rotate a display for games such as 1943?  Too bad.  Want to have access to game maps, strategy guides, move lists, etc?  Too bad.

 

Well I guess you could learn ahk and change the modules but at that point, don't you think it would be better to take 2 hours and learn RocketLauncherUI?

 

 

In summary, Rocketlauncher and HyperSpin are seperate programs.  They do not interact with each other other than a small string of parameters from HyperSpin to RL and passing focus back to HyperSpin from RL.  That is it.  If you want the pretty graphics and stuff, that is HyperSpin but that is all HyperSpin does.  IT JUST SHOWS GRAPHICS AND GAME SELECTION.  It does not launch games, it does not operate emulators, it does not do anything other than shows pictures, makes sounds and displays lists of games.  HyperLaunch does everything else.  It is emulator management, game launching, control setup, and literally everything else.  HyperSpin requires a backend.  it will not operate without one.  The backends, again, that do everything, can do everything except display the graphics so regardless of whether you use HL or RL you will always use HyperSpin or another front end.

 

 

[NonchalantShallot]

Oh I got HyperLaunch working perfectly like 12 hours ago.

All my emulators are organized and set up. I can launch the program, select a game, and my emulators simply open on top of Hyperspin. The rest of my options are configured inside the emulators themselves.

RL is a moot point

[adamg]

Well sounds like you did not need help after all.  Good luck!