Today we proudly present the second beta release of the 0.2 series of QMC2, which is in sync with SDLMAME 0.125 (also released today).

There are not too many new features, but some are worth an update. Here are the most important changes / additions:

• Polish translation of emulator options template completed (Julian Sikorski)
• French translation by Vincent Bousquet - great job, thanks!
• Improved template reader for emulator options (using QXmlStreamReader)
• Template syntax changed to a new format to allow for easier translation (this format is not compatible with older versions of QMC2!)
• Game's short name (the game ID) is now also included in the gamelist and can be used for sorting

A lot of work has been done to the upcoming direct GUI control via a joystick, but it's not yet complete (and disabled by default for this release). If you would like to test what has already been done, make sure you have the SDL devel packages installed and compile QMC2 with "JOYSTICK=1".

See change-log for more information.

Have fun,

The QMC2 dev-team

This is the first beta release of the new 0.2 series of QMC2!

Fortunately, no serious bugs were found since the release of QMC2 0.1 final, although the included fixes of this beta release are still important. Here is the list of new features which are also worth an update (note changed requirements!):

• Support multiple ini-paths for import & export functions
• Restoration of toolbar position (floating or embedded)
• Built-in ROMAlyzer to deeply analyze individual ROM and CHD files
• Polish translation by Julian Sikorski - great job, thanks!
• Clean support for plural translation in natural language
• Qt 4.3+ required (Qt 4.3.4+ recommended)
• XMAME support dropped

See change-log for more information.

BTW, to improve emulator logging for SDLMAME or WolfMAME, we recommend to add the following code to the beginning of osd_init() in src/osd/sdl/sdlmain.c (see respective source):

...
void osd_init(running_machine *machine)
{
  /* force line buffering to stdout and stderr */
  setlinebuf(stdout);
  setlinebuf(stderr);
  ...
}
...

A patch has already been suggested to Arbee in the hope that it will be incorporated into core SDLMAME soon. QMC2 will also work fine without this patch, though.

Have fun,

The QMC2 dev-team

Those of you who followed the development of QMC2 0.1 will probably continue to use the SVN revisions of the 0.2 series, whose development has just been started.

Be aware though that some of the new design goals have impact on the requirements: Qt 4.2 will no longer be supported, Qt 4.3+ is needed now! And as it has already been planned for a while, XMAME support has now been dropped - the project is inactive since MAME 0.106 and no one appears to be still using it, so it's no longer worth the hassle.

See the current todo-list from SVN for more information.

Have fun,

The QMC2 dev-team

After nearly two years of hard work we are proud to release QMC 0.1 final to the public!

Apart from the usual bug-fixes and improvements, the following important features were added since 0.1.b11 (last development release):

• XML gamelist data cache to speed up loading of -listxml output from MAME
• Removal of obsolete samples & image files through external tools (rm, zip)
• Added Home, End & Esc to the list of remappable GUI control keys
• Improved about dialog with a new QMC2 logo and a system-information summary screen

See change-log for more information.

Thanks to all who helped making this possible - especially to those mentioned in the credits!

The QMC2 dev-team

Today we've uploaded support for the last missing planned feature for 0.1 to SVN - the removal of obsolete image files & samples from directories or ZIP archives. It's done by the use of external tools (like rm or zip) that are executed through a simple and new tool executor class which will pop up to display the tool's output.

Time for some final tests... feedback welcome :)!

Again, thanks for your support.

The QMC2 dev-team

We've been asked for Ubuntu support several times, because many Ubuntuers seem to have trouble compiling QMC2 on this Linux distribution. See this thread for more information about the current status on Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon, which is now also supported with the current SVN revision! However, note the possible performance issue due to the most likely buggy Qt 4.3.2 library which comes with Gutsy Gibbon!

Regarding the current development status, we've just recently added some new features and several bug-fixes (one is major) to SVN. It's probably a good idea to start updating to the latest SVN revisions, because it's not far from final. There's just one last feature left to reach 0.1, so we would like everybody to thorougly test QMC2 and report bugs or any other types of problems either by mail to the qmc2-devel mailing list (preferred), by using the bug-tracker or the help forum at SourceForge.net.

Thanks for your support!

The QMC2 dev-team

Happy new year everybody!

I thought it was time for a polished look of this site :)... hope you enjoy it!

This is release 0.1.b11 of QMC2, which we proudly present to the public!

QMC2 0.1.b11 is a major milestone on our way to a final 0.1 release. There are just a few features left which need to be implemented until 0.1 final can be released.

The current release includes a lot of bug fixes, some major improvements and many new and important features. The most important ones are:

• Import & export of global and game-specific MAME configurations
• PNG game icons
• Support for BIOS ROMs
• Gamelist cache (tremendous speed-up at reload)
• Support for alternative image sets
• Shortcut & GUI control key remapper

See change-log for more information.

Long time without any updates? No, the development was going on :)!

A lot of bugs were fixed recently, and all of the features planned for 0.1.b11 have been added meanwhile. The last one being a new built-in remap function for shortcuts & GUI control keys, which should be a very handy feature for users of MAME cabinets and sticks that map their controls to key-strokes.

We are right now beta-testing all new functions. The release of 0.1.b11 is scheduled for around X-mas if no show-stoppers show up.

BTW, Qt 4.3.3 can be confirmed to be fine (see previous news)!

Here are the (more or less) official patches for Qt 4.3.2 from Trolltech which fix the bad performance issue when filtering ROM states with Qt 4.3.2: qtreeview.patch and qtreewidget.patch.

These changes will be included in Qt 4.3.3 and above!

The reason for the dramatic slowdown of the ROM state filter with Qt 4.3.2 has meanwhile been found. It's a performance issue of Qt 4.3.2 and Trolltech is working on it.

There has been some correspondence with the responsible Qt developer. He is aware of the problem and working hard to fix it (I've seen other trouble reports as well). Trolltech will improve their performance testing to minimize the risk of such issues in the future.

As a short-term workaround - even though it's a bit risky, because it can cause crashes (I've not seen it crashing, though :) - is to change src/gui/itemviews/qtreeview.cpp in the Qt source tree and comment out line 545 ("// d->executePostedLayout();"). Rebuild Qt and have fun :)!

I tested Qt 4.3.2 which was released a few days ago... basically everything works fine, but somehow the ROM state filter is extremely slow when Qt 4.3.2 is used!? I have no clue yet what could be causing this, but obviously something relevant has changed between Qt 4.3.1 and 4.3.2...

Anyway, all I want to say is keep away from Qt 4.3.2 for now - at least for QMC2 and until I've found the reason, a workaround or fix :)!

The current SVN codebase includes a fix for a fairly old bug which was just recently discovered. QMC2 didn't correctly honor custom color palettes for specific GUI styles which may have been setup with qtconfig. Together with this fix there is also a new setting (StandardColorPalette) to let the user decide wether or not to use custom color palettes.

Note that there's an updated KHotKeys definition for QMC2, the first one had some minor bugs. See contributions in the download section.

Armin Schmidhuber wrote in to inform that ZXMameCD 0.48 (32-bit) has been released today. It includes SVN revision 240 of QMC2 (0.1.b11), which is currently under development.

Armin also sent a KHotKeys (KDE) definition file for QMC2, which can be downloaded from the download section. Simply import this file into KHotKeys, redefine your keys according to your cabinet controller (an X-Arcade stick for example) and control QMC2 w/o a keyboard.

Note that this is meant to be used as a temporary workaround for QMC2's yet missing keyboard & shortcut remap functionality. It is planned to be included in 0.1.b11 final, so it will not require KDE when it's finished.

The current SVN revision (r240+) includes a new feature to import/export global and game-specific MAME configuration files (mame.ini/gamename.ini in case of SDLMAME, or xmamerc/gamenamerc in case of XMAME). This enables you to easily exchange MAME configurations between different QMC2 installations, and to run MAME with the exact same setup regardless if it is launched via QMC2 or from the command line (or how ever).

Also note that the preview packages have been updated to include images for over 6400 games. See download section!

QMC2 0.1.b11 is currently under development. So far it includes a handfull of new features which may be incomplete in parts. Well, they are already fairly stable and usefull, but you have been warned :)...

BTW, a new screenshot of the current QMC2 0.1.b11 SVN revision has been uploaded. See screenshot section.

There have not been too many changes to the project since 0.1.b10 was released, but we wanted to let you know that the reason (and a fix) for the strange exit behaviour with Qt 4.3+ has been found. As you might have already noticed, it took extremely long for QMC2 to exit when Qt 4.3 was used (eating all your CPU while it was exiting... really strange :). The fix is now in SVN and works great for Qt 4.2 and 4.3, allthough it didn't happen with 4.2.

It seems there have been changes in Qt 4.3 on how parent widgets delete their children... the fix basically was just to reparent the global MAME options widget to a NULL parent (which means NO parent at all) to avoid the widget destruction by Qt.

Also note that Qt 4.3.1 is out for a few days now and includes many performance improvements. QMC2 works flawlessly also with this release of Qt.

This is release 0.1.b10 of QMC2, which we proudly present to the public!

Included in this release there are many new features such as image- and sample-checkers, individual ROM checks, more sort criteria (year + manufacturer) and game icon support. Also, there have been some major improvements to the build system to allow for distribution-dependent configuration and to make it easier to use Qt libraries supplied by distributions.

QMC2 0.1.b10 now also supports Qt 4.3! However, please note that with Qt 4.3 it takes a few seconds for QMC2 to exit. Be patient, it WILL exit gracefully, and therefor we don't see it as a real bug. Nevertheless we will try to "fix" it as soon as we find a clue to what could cause this :)...

See change-log for more information.

Armin Schmidhuber has just released a new beta of his great MAME Live CD - this time for 64-Bit systems. It includes a fairly recent SVN snapshot of QMC2 as its frontend (same as in the 32-Bit version).

I've done some tests myself and was impressed! You really should try this out if you don't want to bother with setting everything up. ZXMameCD makes it very easy: you don't have to install anything... just enjoy the emulation (and QMC2, of course :)!

I have to admit that for optimum performance and to be able to save/restore your configuration, you will have to do some changes to the Live CD, but this is very simple.

See the ZXMameCD homepage for more information!

The QMC2 download section has been updated to include flyer images.

To better keep you informed of any changes made to the project documentation, the online docs presented here are now directly taken from the SVN repository. This also makes it easier to keep this site up-to-date :).

You'll see that we are making great progress with 0.1.b10. The only missing feature - of those planned for this release - is the removal of obsolete image or sample files. Also, some of the new features (esp. the new sample checker) haven't been tested with XMAME yet.

ZXMameCD - the cool MAME Live CD based on SLAX - has been updated to version 0.47 and includes the latest SVN codebase of QMC2 0.1.b10.

Nice work, Armin :)!

It's been a long time without any news... but that doesn't mean the development of QMC2 has stopped - it's the opposite :)!

There have been a lot of updates to the SVN development tree in the meantime. Apart from the usual bug fixes and minor enhancements, QMC2 now also supports Qt 4.3 (pre-release at the time of this writing). The build system has been improved to accomplish the use of distribution-supplied Qt libraries more easily than before, and the look and feel of some GUI elements has been improved as well.

It's not yet finished, though, because there are some items on the todo-list which need to be completed first (new features). Additional to the changes so far, 0.1.b10 will include new dialogs to check sound-samples, preview- and flyer-images. The current way of checking previews is crap and definitely needs some polishment... you will also be able to check the state of ROMs individually when 0.1.b10 is ready. It will probably also include support for game icons (MAMU's icons for example).

Stay tuned (and/or use the SVN codebase :)!

On another story, I just recently recognized that QMC2 0.1.b9 is included in ZXMameCD 0.45 (a MAME live CD project)! That's great news. QMC2 appears to gain some momentum in the community. Thanks!

QMC2 v0.1.b9 has been released today. Thanks to all who contributed to this release, which is a major step forward to our goal of a 0.1 final version! However, many of the planned features for 0.1 are still in the works, so we call it a beta, even though it's fairly stable for what has been implemented already (don't blame us, if not :).

There are several new features this time, the most important ones being the support of preview / flyer compression and a new hierarchical parent/clone view to the list of games.

See change-log for more information.

Today we proudly announce the release of QMC2 v0.1.b8!

This version includes a fair amount of work to fix and improve issues regarding SDLMAME and system-wide (pre-)configuration. It also introduces several new features such as support for flyer images, built-in GUI style support and a ROM state filter.

Please note that Qt 4.2.0+ is required now, Qt 4.1 support has been dropped! This release has been developed using Qt 4.2.2.

The QMC2 project is now hosted at SourceForge.net. This allows developers to easily join the project and includes features such as SVN access, forum discussions etc. to all QMC2 users.

See the project page of QMC2 at SourceForge.net.

Thanks to Christopher Stone, binary packages (of the stable version) for the Fedora Core Project are now online at the Dribble Repository!

Note that the versioning of these packages may be misleading, though (0.1-0.2.b7 instead of 0.1.b7?! :).

As the attention for QMC2 along with the amount of work for the project is steadily increasing, we think it's time for a new site layout. The old look was a bit too dry and boring... we hope you enjoy the new appearence!

Today we also release QMC2 0.1.b7 (), which contains major improvements to allow for system-wide configuration and installation. This should make maintainers for binary packages happy. You still don't have to install QMC2 in order to run it, but it's recommended.

This version is required to cleanly support SDLMAME 0.111+, which changed the way it reports missing ROMs!

IMPORTANT: the old place for the configuration file (which was $HOME/.config/qmc2.ini) will NO LONGER be used! Its new place is $HOME/.qmc2/qmc2.ini. If you want to reuse your old configuration, you'll have to copy it manually! Otherwise it will be created automatically with a minimal startup configuration.