MaLa Plugin - LEDBlinky (v1.0.1 UPDATE)

MaLa Plugin - LEDBlinky (v1.0.1)!

Here's what it can do:
- Light active and/or inactive controls for MaLa front end (user interface).
- Light active and/or inactive controls for MAME emulation.
- Light active and/or inactive controls for other emulators.
- Remapping controls (MaLa or MAME) will automatically remap the associated LEDs.
- With RGB LEDs, you can specify colors for individual controls or using a pre-defined colors.ini file, match the original game control panel button colors.
- From the MaLa UI, game controls can be lit as you scroll through the game lists.
- Designate LEDs as "Always Active" for use with coin, start, or administration controls.
- Use the LED-Wiz built-in blinking effects.
- Attract Mode animation when screen saver is active (this is a future enhancement).
- <New for v1.0.1> LED Attract Mode. LEDBlinky supports standard LWA files. A single or random file can be played when the MaLa screensaver is active.
- <New for v1.0.1> Support for pre-defined controller files (X-Arcade, SlikStik, etc).

But we already have a MaLa plug-in for the LED-Wiz! This is true - and the LEDWiz plug-in by Loadman and Edge is excellent! The primary difference is how the LED-Wiz hardware is linked to the game controls. The LEDBlinky plug-in maps the hardware by input codes (KEYCODE_A, KEYCODE_LSHIFT, MOUSECODE_1_ANALOG_X, etc.) This allows it to light the LEDs regardless of how you map or remap controls from within MaLa or MAME. It works more like PowerMame or Johnny5.

Loadman and I have discussed the possibility of combining the two plug-ins, but we feel there's enough functional differentiation to keep them separate.

So, if you are already using the LEDWiz plug-in and/or don't often remap your game controls, then I'd stick with it! But if you want your LEDs to dynamically reflect control remapping, then try the LEDBlinky plug-in.

Please refer to the Install and Config.doc file to get it up and running. Feedback and suggestions are always welcome. There may be a bug or two :), so let me know.

Version 1.0.1 is a minor update that adds some additional functionality, improves performance, and fixes some bugs. I've also removed the Microsoft COM dependencies - Thanks to MikeQ for the DLL and Headkaze for the SDK!

The plug-in can now run LED animation files (.LWA). All standard LWZ commands are supported with the addition of one new command: LWZ-REP:n. The REP command can be used to define repeating groups of commands. The LWA parser also supports sending commands to individual LED-Wiz devices - with this you can create sequential or parallel patterns across multiple devices. Eventually I hope to include an animation editor with the LEDBlinky, but for now the files must be created using the GGG LumAura app or manually.

Download LEDBlinky v1.0.1

I've added some screen shots of the config apps...

Here's some pics of my panel with the buttons lit. The pictures don't do the Electric Ice buttons justice.

The 1st picture shows the buttons lit for MaLa. I chose color pairs for different functions (next list/previous list, next emulator/previous emulator, volume up/volume down). The game start button blinks red - very cool!

The 2nd picture shows the buttons lit for NBA Jam using the standard P1/P2 control mapping. It's hard to tell from the pic, but using controls.ini (thanks to Headkaze), each player has a red, white, and blue button.

The 3rd picture shows the buttons lit for Asteroids (white buttons). In this case I remapped the controls to more realistically match the original game. I also used the "Always Active" option to light the admin buttons (volcano's in the upper left).

Version 1.0.1 is now available.

If you're already using the LEDBlinky, then just unzip the new version into the plugins folder and overwrite any existing files. You'll need to rerun the config app to re-select the plugin options and file paths, but you won't need to rebuild the input map or any profiles.