Emu Loader v8.3 is released. Emu Loader was created to manage an arcade games emulator called M.A.M.E. With this frontend, you can change practically any option that is available in the emulator, like the screen resolution, sound quality, game options, etc. There are lots of extra features that makes your life much more easier, like the snapshots viewer where all captured images from M.A.M.E. games can be viewed when selecting games.

Emu Loader Changelog:
Fixed
ZiNc returning "Error Code 1: Invalid Function"
WARNING: this is not a bugfix! If you get this error, make sure to install the "d3d-ogl12.zip" plugin and the problem WILL go away
No more "new display type found" annoying messages when creting MAME/HBMAME games lists; warning messages will be displayed one ONCE at the end of the process!
Selected game always moving position in the screen after running a game or changing preview image category/layout... "Don't get jittery!"
FATALITY! Emulators executable info and ROMs folders info are deleted if a new emulator build is found at startup (file "eldir\arcade\emulators.ini")
Path bug when searching unzipped preview images for software list games, resulting in existing images not showing... nobody noticed this ?
ListView item height changed to 22 pixels when icon size is 16x16; icon/text vertical alignment was not centered
Hitting ESC key would execute the "Apply" button instead of "Abort" button (Image Category/Layout Settings)
Custom font for games with preliminary drivers added back (MAME/HBMAME)
MAME software list games with no ROMs were not tagged as "Game with no ROMs", causing some problems when auditing and running games
Setting "AutoRun Game With AlterMAME" was not restored at startup; moved setting from "eldir\arcade\emulators.ini" to "EmuLoader.ini" ("Arcade Emulators Setup" screen and games popup menu)
EL was trying to run MAME software list games with AlterMAME when its build version is lower than 0.162
EL was trying to run HBMAME games with AlterMAME
The following settings were never read from mame.ini: "OSD Lightgun Input Provider", "OSD Joystick Input Provider" (MAME Settings screen)
You could not select items by clicking outsize the text area ("Arcade Games Filter" tool bar button)
Unicode strings were not decoded correctly for software list games
Category and VersionAdded are now limited to MAME and HBMAME sets only; MAME software list games also excluded
Option "Show/Hide All Categories" was not working properly (Image Categories Settings)
Selecting an image category folder was changing internal vars even if you don't have a system and/or image category selected ("Image Category Settings")
Frontend crash at startup if in thumbnails view with MAMu_ icons feature enabled
Thumbnails grid size not properly set at startup, creating a larger thumb image on the last selected game; plus a couple optimizations to improve startup speed
If system icon is disabled, game icon and favorite icon are painted outside the thumb image bounds, making them invisible (thumbnail view)
Game snapshots panel is now cleared when switching to internet game info
Setting "Hide Command Prompt Box" / "Run Game" disabled for all emulators except MAME/HBMAME; emulators do not work correctly if setting enabled (also causes ERROR 1 in ZiNc)
Editing a field directly in EasyListView conponent was not showing the text if the font color is other than black (TEdit controls background color is always white...)
Feature "Scan Games With Missing ROMs/CHDs" was not working at all (games popup menu, MAME and arcade emulators)
Dialog "Select Arcade System" was default to "MAME" instead of "All Systems"
Neo-Geo games with "neopcb" driver were not included in the "Neo-Geo" filter (MAME arcade only)
Games popup menu option "Set Custom Options" for "arcade", "console", "computer", "othersys" doesn't show the current selected game in "MAME Settings" screen anymore
YOU LOSE! Daphne game .zip files were not being searched at all when scanning for games; I guess NOBODY uses Daphne with Emu Loader because I've got ZERO bug reports for the past year!
If the filename for games list background image doesn't exist, after a manual filename edit (edit box), the current loaded bk image was not cleared (preferences screen)
Wrong media type for"disk" entries in games files for ZiNc games; they were detected as "Hard Disk Drive" when the correct media is "Disc"
To fix this you need to re-create ZiNc games list. Not doing so will cause no harm to the way ZiNc games are handled (it's up to you)
Changed
MAME machines filter panel can have the same background color/image and font settings from main games list
MAME/arcade emulators and MAME/arcade games lists are no longer required to use the frontend!
Unavailable systems are now shown with a ghosted icon and gray text (systems selection panels), except for "Emulators Setup" screens
EasyListView component changes and improvements:
- New "TileCaptionLines" property (ItemPaintInfo) so you can change how many lines the main caption will be shown; normal behaviour is a two lines caption for tiles view; this change is used in the new game custom fonts dialog, to display a single line on the main caption
- cosmetic fix: focus rect is now a solid frame
Renamed "Delete Selected Games" to "Delete Selected Games Files" to avoid confusion (games popup menu); this option delete your game's ROMs/CHDs/CFGs/Cartridge/Floppy/Cassette...
Renamed "Copy/Move Selected Games to Folder" to "Copy/Move Selected Games Files to Folder" to avoid confusion (games popup menu)
Moved MAME softlist games list folder from "eldir\softwarelist\" to "eldir\arcade\mame_softwarelist_games\" since they belong to MAME emulator; EL will try to move this folder at startup
From now on, setting "Show Favorite Icon in Games" is only for details view mode ("Favorites" tool bar button)
... to enable/disable favorite icon in thumbnails view, go to "Customize Thumbnails" screen ("View" tool bar button or "Thumbnails" sub-menu in games popup menu)
Unicode WinAPI "CreateProcessW()" is now the default function to run emulator executables; better compatibility with Windows 10;
also, the "StartF_UsePosition" flag is always enabled
Moved arcade games list files from "el_dir\arcade\" to new folder "el_dir\arcade\games\"
WARNING: you must move all files manually before using this build (or delete your current arcade game lists and start over)
Moved "\ini_files\cpu.ini" file to "\arcade\games\" folder, renamed and split file in two: "mame_maincpu.ini" and "hbmame_maincpu.ini"
WARNING: the frontend will not do this for you, you need to re-create MAME and HBMAME games lists
Moved "ini_files\games_played.ini" to new folder "\arcade\played_games\", split file for each arcade emulator and renamed to "system_name.txt"
- the frontend will try to move/split/rename "games_played.ini" at startup, no action required from your part
- last played game is always moved/added at the top of the list (like it does in EmuCon frontend)
- arcade files format has changed; added a "title" tag with the game title, a "media" tag with the media type index and a "execparam" tag with MAME softlist execution parameter
- console/computer/handheld (EmuCon) files format has changed; "game" tag replaced by "file" tag
Moved folder "\emulator_ini\" and all its files/sub-folders to "\arcade\emulator_ini\" new folder (you must move it manually)
Moved files "emulators.ini" and "image_categories.ini" from "\ini_files\" folder to "\arcade\" folder (EL will move them at startup)
Moved the following files from "\ini_files\" folder to "\arcade\" folder (you must move them manually before using this build)
- mame_softlist_exclude.txt
- el_mamu_exclude.ini
- mame_machines_usercustom.ini
Moved the following files from "\ini_files\" folder to "\arcade\filters\" new folder (you must move them manually)
- category.ini
- version.ini
- catver.ini
- mess.ini
- nplayers.ini
- languages.ini
Moved "\ini_files\memcard_lastused\" folder and all its files/sub-folders to "\arcade\memcard_lastused\" (you must move the folder manually)
Moved the following files from frontend's root folder to "\arcade\db_xml\" new folder; they were also updated (make sure to delete your current files from EL's root folder)
- DICE_xml.dat
- SEGAModel2_xml.dat
- SEGAModel2-v1.0_xml.dat
- SupermodelSEGAModel3_xml.dat
- ZiNc_xml.dat
Frontend logo changed to "Multiple Systems Frontend" since it's not just arcade systems anymore
Minor hack in TFontDialog component to allow custom colors selection (first color in colors list); it's not perfect but it works
Support for 3840x2160 resolution (4K) in "Scan Results" screen. ListView font sizes increased to 14 pixels and form width increased extra 500 pixels (squinty mode off)
Removed the 1000 chars limitation from command line string... uMain.RunProcess() function
Default MAME machines for softlist games is no more! Bugged feature. eg.: "Atari 400" machine was auto-assigned to "Atari 800" games... DUH!
From now on, you will be prompt to select a MAME machine just before running a game... if a machine is not already selected
Changed the scope of a few internal vars from global to local; no need to define them as global and waste RAM
Updates to favorites profiles
- filename extension changed from .ini to .txt as they are plain text files, either ANSI or UTF-8 format
- merged profiles of same filename from Emu Loader frontend and EmuCon frontend into a single file
- you must use fav profiles from EmuCon v2.7.6 or v2.7.7 (profiles of older EmuCon builds are NOT compatible)
- moved arcade favorites profiles from "\ini_files\favorites\" folder to "eldir\favorites\" (DO NOT MOVE fav profiles manually!!!)
IMPORTANT: profile files must be manually updated by you, using the new "Update Favorites Profiles" in main menu (AFTER updating EmuCon fav profiles, if you have them!)
Updates to "Favorites Manager"
- new "Settings" button in the buttons tool bar: "show small, medium, large fonts"
- you can resize the window to any size
- you can resize columns
- better handling when renaming title/filename and when cleansing invalid game entries
- button "Cleanse" modified to handle arcade and console/computer/handheld (EmuCon) games
- dialog is now always centered on screen
Updates to the customize main tool bar buttons
- support for new "EmuCon" buttons
- added new "MAME and Arcade" and "Console/Computer/Handheld" text tags on each button
- auto-resize if resolution is 640x480
- minor tweaks to the interface
Changes to the thumbnails view and the "Customize Thumbnails" dialog
- renamed "Keep Aspect Ratio" to "Maintain Aspect Ratio"
- renamed "Grid Size" to "Cell Size" since you change the size of each cell not the entire grid
- added support to customize width and height of the thumbnail
- cell vertical size is not increased internally by the frontend if game title text setting is enabled... that's your job
- if game title text is enabled, you must increase cell vertical size to accomodate text
- new thumbnail preview panel so you can view changes on-the-fly without appling them to the main games list
- new files "resources\images\thumbnail_preview_hor.png" and "resources\images\thumbnail_preview_vert.png" required
(vertical image is only used/viewed if your screen resolution is 1280x720 or higher!)
- new "Image Size" text above thumb preview panel, for fine-tuning... if you want perfect square images when "Game Title" checkbox is enabled
(it won't work if you have custom game fonts of different sizes!)
- game icon size 128x128 is now used if no snapshot is found
- minimum thumbnail cell size changed to 120x120 pixels; 68x68 game icons will be used if cell size is smaller than 144x144 pixels
- new settings "Left Align Icons" and "Right Align Icons"; align system/game/favorite icons to the left corver or the right corner of the thumbnail image
- new "Cancel" button to restore last settings before entering custom thumbnail settings screen (even after using the "Update" button!)
- main games list thumbnails are only refreshed if you actually change thumb settings when pressing "Update" or "Confirm" buttons
Several changes, fixes and optimizations to frontend startup
- the frontend will no longer complain if you have an emulator selected without a games list for it, or have a games list without an emulator selected
- clean install has changed: it only validate frontend games list files (MAME/MAME software list/arcade/console/computer/handheld); emulator executables are only required to create MAME/arcade games lists
- new "clean install" dialog with multiple choices for easier handling; self-explanatory with detailed information
- some tweaking to prevent arcade emulators settings from loading twice (in some cases)
- removed redundant validation code to decrease the startup time
Split image category settings and image layout settings dialog into two dialogs to avoid confusion (and duplicate code)
Changes to "Image Category Settings" feature
- added support for console/computer/handheld systems ported from EmuCon
- merged arcade/console/computer/handheld systems into one big list for easier access
- minimum 1024x768 / 1280x720 resolution required
- several tweaks
Changes to "Game Video Preview" feature
- moved settings from preferences screen to its own dialog, accessible in main menu "Images", images popup menu, and games popup menu
- you can abort changes by clicking the "Cancel" button (safe mode)
- added support for all console/computer/handheld systems ported from EmuCon
- merged arcade/console/computer/handheld systems into one big list for easier access
- minimum 1024x768 / 1280x720 resolution required
- minor optimizations
Games list font settings changes:
- support console/computer/handheld systems ported from EmuCon
- font settings saved on a new file "ini_files\sysgamecustomfont.ini" instead of "EmuLoader.ini" so you don't lose them on a clean frontend install
(you can copy this file from EmuCon before using this Emu Loader build)
- new "All Systems" font setting added so EL can use it as a general systems font (arcade systems font settings are EXCLUDED from this)
- added games list background color/image settings if you want to change those settings while choosing game fonts (settings are still in preferences screen)
- huge UI facelift
- access more settings in the popup menu (mouse right-click)
- support various screen resolutions, including 4K (3840x2160)
Tiles view mode changes:
- new setting: "Tiles View Cell Size" (view mode tool bar buton); change this option if you're using large game fonts
- details text font is now fixed to "Trebuchet MS", size 9 (size 12 for larger cell sizes)
- details text font color is set automatically by the frontend depending on the games list background color (either black or white font color)... HIGHLY EXPERIMENTAL!
Changes to "Delete/Copy/Move Multiple Selected Games"
- support for console/computer/handheld systems from EmuCon
- bios name set info removed (MAME and arcade systems)
- the "Check Arcade File Types To Delete" box options are limited to MAME, MAME software list games and arcade systems
- new settings for the console/computer/handheld systems (MAME and arcade are not supported)
- "Delete Game From Games List"; you can delete a game from the main games list files (like in EmuCon)
- "Delete Game Files From Disk"; checking this option will delete the game files (like in EmuCon)
- gamename search bar removed; this was a ridiculously useless thing to have in there...
Several files in "eldir\resources\main_icons\" renamed and moved to another folder
Removed
Last selected game per system is gone; if last selected game is no longer visible after a games filters change, the first visible game is selected
File "resources\images\favicon_thumbnail.png" no longer required
Machines filter tool bar button is no more (replaced by something a lot better)
Arcade systems filter tool bar button is no more (replaced by something a lot better)
The following icon files are no longer required, "\resources\main_icons\" folder: "filterarcade_00_listall.ico"; "filterarcade_00_multi_system.ico"; "filterarcade_01_mame.ico"; "filterarcade_02_supermodelsegamodel3.ico"; "filterarcade_03_daphne.ico"; "filterarcade_04_demul.ico"; "filterarcade_05_hbmame.ico"; "filterarcade_06_dice.ico"; "filterarcade_07_segamodel2.ico"; "filterarcade_08_zinc.ico"
Added
Support for latest Demul 0.7 WIP (November 11, 2017)
- detection of "merge" tag and alternate filenames
- fix bios titles to match MAME
New "media type" status bar icon next to the game name / game filename for the main games list (preliminary feature!)
Support new "Games.xml" file used in Supermodel 3 emulator SVN 592 and newer, so games list can be created from it
- if this file is not found ("supermodel3_dir\Config\Games.xml"), the frontend "outdated" custom file will be used (frontend_dir\arcade\db_xml\SupermodelSEGAModel3_xml.dat)
- support fully merged child sets (clone games); note that partially merged child sets are NOT supported by the "Supermodel 3 Emulator"... you either have all child ROMs in the parent set or all child ROMs in the child set!
New options for screen view: "Cropped" and "Stretched" (MAME Settings screen)
Support for MAME v0.183 and newer:
- new "PortAudio" sound output mode ("Sound" tab); also extra settings: API, device, latency
- new "UWP (Windows 10)" OSD Input Provider for keyboard and joystick; only supported in Windows 10
- new "Hybrid DInput/XInput" in "OSD Joystick Input Provider"... hybrid DirectInput/XInput joystick, Windows only
Support for MAME v0.190 and newer
- detection of new "feature" entries from -listxml output ("sound" and "graphics" types only for now...)
"unemulated" entries are renamed to "preliminary"
- detection of new "SVG" display type for MAME v0.191 and newer
Added several Unicode functions in "source\uCommon.pas" for future improvements and better Windows 10 support
Added detection of the "optional" tag in ROMs/CHDs (MAME/HBMAME), for future frontend improvements
New console/computer/handheld systems and games lists (major port from EmuCon frontend!!!)
- what ???! MAME calls them "loose software"; games that are not listed in software lists ("mamedir\hash\" folder)
- in most features, handheld systems are included in "console" system
- created two new main menu items to separate system types: "MAME/Arcade" and "Console/Computer"
- new menu items to setup emulators, games folders, images folders (main menu "Console/Computer"):
-> Emulators Setup
- select up to 4 emulators per system
-> Systems Folders Settings
- select games folders for each system and media type (cartridge, floppy disk, cassette tape, disc, hard disk drive)
-> Systems Editor
- assign MAME software lists to EmuCon systems; multiple software lists can be assigned to a single EmuCon system ; (this requires a MAME games list and a MAME/arcade emulator selected)
-> Games Editor
- you can split games data: title, year, manufacturer, number of players (MAME and arcade games are not supported)
-> Create Games List
- I wonder what this does. Humm... I've got it! It makes pudding :)
- new "frontend_dir\console_computer\" sub-folder to store config files, games lists and extra stuff
- column "Category" shows the system name + media type, just like MAME softlist games
- play MAME software list games with custom emulators: BlueMSX, WinVICE, Win-UAE, FS-UAE, Snes9X, ZSNES, Altirra, Atari 800 Emulator, Stella, and many others
- you can use MAME and AlterMAME emulators selected in the arcade front to play console/computer games from EmuCon (some games might not work)
- you can still select MAME/MESS/UME binaries in "console/computer emulators setup" and use them to play games (to maintain EmuCon compatibility)
- you can have two parameters for each emulator; to change between them, go to the new "Use Param" tool bar button
- you can play a EmuCon game using different MAME machines, by using the new "Run Game With MAME" in games popup menu... thanks to the new "Systems Editor"
- this setting is saved in "frontend_dir\console_computer\mame_systems_softwarelist.ini" file
eg.: "msx1_cart", "msx1_flop", "msx1_cass" MAME softlists are assigned to the "MSX" system; you can use any MSX/MSX2/MSX2+/MSX Turbo-R MAME machine to play games not found in MAME software lists
- settings from EmuCon frontend can be easily used in Emu Loader simply by copying some files into Emu Loader's new "\console_computer\" sub-folder
-> EmuCon files/folders to be copied to "el_root_dir\console_computer\" folder:
- sysemulators.ini
- sysgamefolders.ini
- sysimagefolders.ini
- emulator_parameters.ini
- emulator_parameters[default].ini
- ignore_extensions.txt
- "\games\" folder and all its files
- "\game_cfg\" folder and all its files
- "\played_games\" folder and all its files
-> EmuCon favorites profiles must be copied to "el_root_dir\favorites\" new folder
-> NOTE: if you make changes to these files in Emu Loader, you can copy them back into EmuCon install dir and use them there without worries :)
-> NOTE: you must update favorites profiles manually using "Update Favorites Profiles" in main menu; after the update you can delete "frontend_dir\console_computer\favorites\" and "frontend_dir\ini_files\favorites\" folders
New mega filter dialog for machine types and systems filters
- all systems now have check boxes, make sure to tick them to select the desired systems
- new "All Arcade Systems" and "All Console/Computer/Handheld Systems" options so you can quickly show or hide all available systems
- individual systems checked status are no longer lost if you check "All Systems" options :) :) :) :)
- machine types expanded:
- "Arcade Systems": to hide/show all arcade systems (MAME softlist games excluded)
- "Console Systems": to hide/show all console systems ported from EmuCon (MAME softlist games excluded)
- "Computer Systems": to hide/show all computer systems ported from EmuCon (MAME softlist games excluded)
- "Handheld Systems": to hide/show all handheld systems ported from EmuCon (MAME softlist games excluded)
- "MAME Machines With Software Lists: to hide/show all MAME machines that have software lists (info from -listxml output)
- "MAME Machines Without Software Lists: to hide/show all MAME machines that do not have software lists (AntoPISA's "mess.ini" file required)
- "MAME Software List Games: to hide/show all softlist games from MAME (based on "mamedir\hash\*.xml" files
- "Enable MAME Machines Filter Panel": filter MAME software list games by MAME machines (left side of main games list)
- check more options in the systems popup menu (mouse right-click)
- settings are saved in EmuLoader.ini when exiting the frontend
Added a warning message in the "Run Game Confirmation" dialog for ZiNc; ZiNc returns "error 1: incorrect function" if don't have the "d3d-ogl12.zip" plugin installed in ZiNc
Support AntoPISA's version info and category .ini files for HBMAME emulator
- rename "version.ini" to "version_hb.ini" to avoid replacing MAME's "version.ini" file
- rename "category.ini" to "category_hb.ini" to avoid replacing MAME's "category.ini"
- only then, copy both .ini files to "eldir\arcade\filters\" folder

Download: EmuLoader v8.3
Source: Here