# version 8.6.4 change log - August 01, 2018

## Fixed

### Oh darn... I forgot to delete some beep/ding sound commands when initializing game zipped images lists

### Re-added support to generate zipped snapshot thumbs in thumbnails view
- the code was removed by mistake more than a year ago when EmuCon was merged with Emu Loader, and nobody noticed, not even me
- all arcade systems are supported, "snap.zip" file; MAME also support "softwarename.zip" and "snap_sl.zip"
- Console/computer systems from EmuCon were Ok

### Games list was not focused after a manual switch between light and night mode (main menu)

## Changed

### Minor optimizations to save some RAM when handling game image folders and improve game images preview search

### Changes to "Image Category Settings" screen
- button "Default" folder was doing nothing
- category folders are now read directly from config files and not from RAM vars, which might contain different data
- relative paths in console/computer systems (from EmuCon) are now relative to the frontend root path since you can have multiple emulators per system
- minor code tweaks

## Added

### New "Machines List Filter" filter for "MAME Machines Filter Panel" (machines list popup menu)
- you can customize what machines appear in the list
- it works like the "Customize MAME Software List" feature
- excluded machines list is saved in "\arcade\mame_machines_exclude.txt" file
- machines are only hidden from the list, not disabled
- it's only for the machines filter panel, not for the main games list

### Support for "all-in-one" zipped image files (MAME software lists only)
- you can have snaps for all MAME softlist games combined into one humongous file instead of separate "softwarename.zip" files
- filename is the same as MAME's image .zip filenames, plus a "_sl" suffix
- filename format: "snap_sl.zip", "titles_sl.zip", "covers_sl.zip", etc (all categories are supported)
- files must be located in the same place as their "arcade/machine" files (snap.zip, titles.zip, etc)
- you can use "softwarename.zip" files together with these new files
- they will be scanned after "softwarename.zip"
- easy to use, just drop files in them proper folders and start the frontend

### Mulitple image paths detection (MAME only)
- only the first path will be used, ignoring everything else after the ; char (snaps, titles, cabinets, covers, etc)
- removal of surrouning quotes, just to be safe (first and last char on the string)
NOTE: there is no multi directories scan to show game preview images!

### Added "\videosnaps_sl\" sub-folder scanning for video preview, MAME software lists

# version 8.6.3 change log - July 19, 2018

## Fixed

### Heavy tool bar flickering when resizing main screen / images panel
- caused by the tool bar's "repaint" internal event (not accessible by the user)
- tool bar "DoubleBuffer" property is now always enabled

### Frontend crash when clicking "All Visible" button in "Customize Tool Bar" (games filters tool bar)

### Image category icon in images tool bar was showing the night mode overlay while in light mode

### Frontend crash when detecting "Atari 800" cartridge type from an unzipped game Unicode filename

## Changed

### "Search Games" panel is back in the games filters tool bar
- floating panel is still available as an option (access in "Settings" button)
- games list attached panel is gone
- new "Use Small 16x16 Icons" option , access in "Settings" button (default 24x24 icons)
- new "Show Filter Labels in Small Tool Bar" option to show labels, "small tool bar" mode only
- the "Search" tool bar button is visible only for the floating panel
- the floating panel "enabled" state is no longer restored at startup

### "Games List Status Bar" colors limited to the light mode (Preferences screen, "Games List" page)

### Setting "Panel Outer Frame Color (7 Pixels)" renamed to "Image 7 Pixels Border Color" to avoid confusion with night mode (Preferences screen, "Games List" page)

### Behavior of panel frames have changed, two options to choose from:
"Outer Frame": enable this to use a single frame
"Inner Frame": enable this to use a double frame; "outer frame" must also be enabled
- disabling both settings or just "outer frame" removes the panel border completely
- tool bars updated to support the new setings

### Message box now show top bar color and labels colors according to game's set status
- green bar for available games
- red bar for available games with missing ROMs/CHDs
- gray bar for missing games

## Added

### New "Show Game Documents 7 Pixels Border" checkbox and "Border Color" settings, to align the panel with images panel (Preference screen, "Game Docs" page)

### Night mode improvements ("Night Mode" page in Preferences screen)
- "Search Games" panel colors customization expanded to include the edit box
- customize games list frame color and visibility
- tick the new "Use Windows Themed Border" to disable games custom frame color; it shows a single border
- the frame in games filters tool bar is now drawn outside the client area, and it can be set to disabled, single or double frame
- customize images panel frame colors and visibility
- images tool bar height aligned with games filters "small tool bar", frame is now drawn outside the client area
- "Customize Games List Status Bar Colors" settings for the night mode (colors box in "Games List" page is now only for the light mode)

### New "Panels Colors" general settings for the night mode, so you can change frame colors, background color, font color and shadow font color
- "Apply Filters" message box
- "Initialize Zipped Images Contents" message box
- Game Details
- Select a Machine to Run Game
- Load Multi-Slot MAME Games
- Load Console/Computer Multi Floppy Disk Games
- Search Games floating panel
- Rename/Delete Game Images
- Customize MAME Software List
NOTE 1: not all texts can have custom colors (font color and shadow font color)
NOTE 2: background color is it's not widely applied; only for a few panels

### New setting "Tool Bar Overlay Icons Folder" (preferences screen, "Games List" page)
- you don't have to overwrite frontend's overlay icons anymore, just create a sub-folder with your custom icons and select it in the drop-down box
- sub-folder must be inside "frontend_dir\resources\main_icons\overlay\" base folder
- for both light mode and night mode
- use ANSI directory names only, no Unicode support
- you only need to add icons that are different than the ones from the base folder
- if an icon doesn't exist in the sub-folder, the overlay icon from the base folder will be used
- overlay icons are used in games filters tool bar and images tool bar (so far...)
- folder name is used as the icons set title
- added a "Dark Grey" icons set for the night mode; thanks to "Fabian" for creating the icons

# version 8.6.2 change log - July 06, 2018

## Fixed

### Forgot to include the updated file "\arcade\filters\mame_filters.ini" for "Arcade Games Filters" tool bar button
- some filters were renamed
- one filter slip in two for easier games filtering
- the frontend was crashing without this updated file

## Changed

### Color tweaks to night mode

### Tweaks to "Delete/Rename Game Image File" screen

### "Search Games" panel expanded, 3 view modes:
1. floating panel: default behavior, located just below the search button in filters tool bar
2. panel attached to the bottom of the games list: slim panel with 40 pixels height
3. panel attached to the top of the games list: slim panel with 40 pixels height
- to switch between modes, click the new "tool bar" button next to the close button
- you can customize "Night Mode" colors of the attached panel, "Night Mode" page in preferences screen
- floating panel still have fixed colors - in light mode, colors are fixed

### "Search Games" panel "enabled" state is now restored on a frontend restart

## Removed

### Minor source code cleanup

# version 8.6.1 change log - July 02, 2018

## Fixed

### Non-game files were added to a MAME software list games
- some games have "rom" entries (battery backup, NVRAM, etc) but are not game files and should not be added ("hash\nes.xml", "hash\msx_cart.xml", others)
- you must re-create all your MAME software list games lists again, either delete all files in "frontend_dir\arcade\mame_softwarelist_games\" folder (easier) or select "Enable: Overwrite Mode" when choosing the arcade scan mode

### FATALITY! When validating multiple selected games, bios/device sets were not validated at all (works fine with scall all games, scan single game)

### FINISH HIM! Games of "SEGA Model 2 Emulator" were not validated correctly, "model2.zip" board ROMs completely ignored

### When running single MAME arcade games, frontend was trying to detect the "machine title", intended for multi-slot machines ("uMain.GetTitleMachineToUse" function)

### Timer freeze when applying games filters on grouped view mode

### Button "Default Grid Size" and "Show Game Title" were not repainting thumb preview images (Thumbnail Settings)

### Font style was set to game filename instead of game title in "Delete Multiple Selected Games Files" screen

### Some messages were not showing up in splash screen when creating games lists, specially for "SEGA Model 2"

### CRC-32 / SHA-1 checksums of unzipped game files failed to be generated
- some games could not be added to the games list (console/computer systems only)
- most noticeable in "Game Details" screen
- mostly for Unicode filenames
- console/computer games only (ported from EmuCon)
- some internal functions updated to support "WideString" parameters and slightly modified to fix this bug

### Frontend crash when trying to open a .zip / .7z Unicode filename in "Game Details" screen (console/computer games from EmuCon) ... this bug is almost 2 years old!

### Megatons of drawing bugs thru the entire project

## Changed

### Changes and improvements to games tool bar:
- resized large icons from 44x40 to 48x48
- resized small icons from 28x22 to 30x24
- added 68x68 icons size support, useful for 2K (2560x1440) and 4K (3840x2160) screen resolutions
- added a white background in the lower text so it's visible in night mode
- several icons were completely remade
- split the icon outer frame from current icons into separate overlay icons, located in a new "resources\main_icons\overlay\" folder
- overlay icons are painted on top of the icon, alpha blend support
- overlay icons can be customized to your liking without altering the filter icons
- replaced the "Search" tool bar by a simple button; edit box and buttons are now placed in a new floating panel below the main tool bar
- you can move the panel around by dragging it with the title bar
- finally removed the dreadful "TCoolBar" control; tool bar background colors can now be customized (night mode only)
- Renamed settings entries in "EmuLoader.ini", you need to customize buttons again in "Customize Tool Bar"

### Improvements to "Arcade Games Filters" screen (tool bar button)
- if filter icon not found, the "no icon" was not set correctly
- added support for 68x68 and 30x24 icon sizes, found in "resources\main_icon\arcade_filters\" folder
- choose an icon size to browse the filters list: "Extra Large (68x68)", "Large (48x48)", "Small (30x24)"
- additional tweaks

### Moved "Tool Bar Buttons" menu options from "View" to "Games List" main menu, renamed "Small Tool Bar" to "Icon Size" and expanded to:
- Extra Large (68x68)
- Large (48x48)
- Small (30x24)

### Changes to "Customize Tool Bar"
- replaced "Small Tool Bar" checkbox by a "Set Icon Size" buttons group: "Very Large (68x68)", "Large (48x48)", "Small (30x24)"
- removed "Search Games Bar" checkbox since it's now listed with the other buttons
- renamed "Hide Tool Bar" to "Show Tool Bar", so it's the same title as the checkbox option in main menu
- additional tweaks

### Moved "Show Games Status Bar" setting from "View" to "Games List" main menu, where is belongs

### Changes to Preferences screen
- size increased to 850x600 to give its contents more breathing room
- moved "Internet Game Info" panel from "Images" to "General" page
- renamed TSlitter component names of games list and images to avoid overlap settings; you must customize splitters again as "EmuLoader.ini" entries were also renamed
- additional interface tweaks (still needs work)

### Changes and fixes to "Supermodel 3 Emulator" features
- entries in file "frontend_dir\arcade\emulator_ini\supermodel_ini\Supermodel.ini" have changed to avoid settings overlap
NOTE 1: you must re-configure AND save the emulator default settings to update the .ini file
NOTE 2: settings key names are the same as emulator's "Supermodel.ini" file, but not all of them
- game custom setting files changed as well (change/save emulator default settings first!)
NOTE: you must re-configure AND save the game custom settings again to update the .ini file
- additional interface updates
- FATALITY! game custom settings were not added properly to command line when running games (nobody noticed this ?!)
- custom settings and emulator default settings were added twice to command line
- new behavior: emulator settings is now loaded first, followed by game custom settings file (just like MAME)
- if game setting is the same as emulator setting, it's no longer added in "ganename.ini" file (just like MAME)
- when running emulator in full screen, if the custom resolution is not valid, current desktop resolution will be used automatically
- if game filename is not found, emulator will not run; it was causing the "Error: Invalid Function 1" message on emulator exit

### Replaced the "Main CPU MAME Filter" bar by a floating panel
- it was wasting too much space above the main games list
- the "enabled" filter state is now restored on a frontend restart ("Arcade Misc" filters tool bar button)
- panel position is always at the top left corner of the games list
- you can move the panel around by dragging it with the title bar
- limited the games search pattern to MAME / HBMAME as it's useless for other systems
- added support for night mode

### Several tweaks to "Delete Multiple Selected Games" screen; also added "night mode" support

### Changes and fixes to "Arcade Scan Games Results" screen ("View Missing ROMs/CHDs" in games popup menu)
- added a Device column to easily identify game sets with device ROMs
- added a file size column (you must create all arcade games lists to see this info)
- MAME CHD file sizes are detected "on the fly" while scan results list is being generated
- missing files texts are now painted in a dark gray color (light mode) and silver color (night mode)
- status columns text is painted in red color; much easier to spot missing files
- device ROMs were not properly tagged as device ROMs; weird bug as it was working fine for games with multiple device sets
- parent ROMs/CHDs were not properly tagged as parent files, making it not show "Parent" text in status column
- moved controls from bottom bar to top bar, reducing waste of space
- increased selected system icon size and font size of emulator/games list version texts to keep in sync with other screens
- window now have a fixed width size of 1015 pixels
- when viewing a single game, the window height will be shortened to avoid waste of space
- removed the redundant Close button since you can close it with the caption bar "close" button (or ESC key)
- "filename.zip found" and "filename.zip not found" texts are now in "green" and "red" color for easier reading
- status texts are now properly separated by comma; it gives a whole new meaning to the texts being shown
- support for night mode; visibility on this mode is much nicer and detailed than light mode

### Tweaks to "Game Details" screen (access in games popup menu or "Shift+I" shortcut)
- missing files texts are now painted in a dark grey color (light mode) and silver color (night mode)
- file size column added to game files list
- MAME CHD file sizes are detected "on the fly" while files list is being generated
- if a CHD filename text is larger than the label dimensions, the hint text will be enabled, hover mouse on it to see it

### Since MAME can load Unicode filenames directly from command line, Emu Loader will no longer convert them to DOS 8.3 format (run custom EmuCon console/computer games with MAME)

## Added

### Tool bar colors settings for night mode in the new "Night Mode" page, Preferences screen
- for games tool bar filters, images tool bar and other "captionless" tool bars in the future
- support custom gradient background; gradient can be disabled to use a single color
- frame color is customizable; it can also be disabled
- tool bars with button caption enabled cannot be customized (TToolBar component limitation)

### Added a "Splitter" setting for "Game Documents" panel so you can customize it (Preferences screen, "Game Docs" page)

### Added a "Splitter Style" setting for image splitters, default to "Single Color" (Preferences screen, "Images" page)

### Support for Supermodel 3 Emulator SVN 735 ("Supermodel 3 Emulator Default Settings" screen)
- new settings: "scroll fog shaders", "tile map shaders", "stretch"
- added a "Use Custom [1-1000]" checkbox so you can enable/disable custom "PowerPC Bus Frequency (PPC)" frequency at will

### Added save states support for "Supermodel 3 Emulator"
- select a save state file before loading the game
- valid filenames are "gamename.st?" (state slots go from 0 to 9)
- save state folder is fixed by the Supermodel emulator and cannot be changed ("emudir\Saves\")

### ROM/CHD size info added to arcade and MAME software list sets
- games validation system do not use it, it's for information only
- ROM size info can be viewed in "Game Details" and "Games Scan Results" screens (games popup menu)
- you need to create new games lists for all arcade systems and MAME software lists to see this info, but frontend works fine without it
- games of Supermodel 3 emulator doesn't have ROM size info in "emudir\Config\games.xml"
- games of console/computer systems already have file size info (systems ported from EmuCon Frontend)

# version 8.6 change log - May 30, 2018

## Fixed

### Several drawing bugs in games lists, top bars and icons

### Top bar lower gradient color was silver instead of white in "Delete/Rename Game Snapshot"

### Empty space in multi-floppy games list panel if games of different systems are selected in main games list ("Load Multi Floppy Disks Game" screen)

### Set default font was not working in "Game Font Settings" (games popup menu)

### Arcade game font was not set correctly on several screens if game status is tagged "found with missing ROMs" and game driver is tagged "preliminary"

### Main games list not focused after exiting "Favorites Manager"

### Main games list not focused after exiting "Last Played Games (MRU)"

## Changed

### Minimum required resolution bumped to 1024x768 / 1280x720; plus, dialogs and screens will no longer auto-resize to fit in lower resolutions

### Changes and fixes to Mustangpeak's "EasyListView" component (EasyListView.pas)
- it was drawing "State Images" in normal mode when TEasyItem is ghosted and/or not enabled; TEasyViewItem.PaintImage() function
- icon top border was not properly set if cell size if larger than icon size; "large icons view" only
- to fix this I added a new "IconViewAdjustIconTopBorder" property in "TEasyPaintInfoBasic" class, used in TEasyViewIconItem.ItemRectArray() procedure

### Improvements to my "TPanelEx" component
- added a "Inner Border Color" property for a cool neon effect, and a property to enable/disable it
- added a "Enable Custom Border" property to create a dual color border in the "non-client area"
-> border colors are customizable
-> no more drawing borders over the client area, covering 2 pixels at all sides of the panel!
-> it cannot be used with "Border Style" and/or "Bevel Kind" properties
-> "Frames" property is still available but it paints in the client area
- fixed paint flickering when enable/disable frames and/or borders
- code clean up ("Border Style" and "Bevel" properties will eventually be removed from the component)

### Improved my custom TGroupBox component, added "Dual Color" border style for a cool neon effect (see "Delete Games Files" screen in night mode)

### Interface changes to "Console/Computer Emulators Setup" and "Console/Computer Games Folders Settings"
- default system icons size is now 68x68 (resolution 1280x800 and higher)
- 48x48 icons are used for 1280x720 / 1024x768 resolutions
- left some room in systems panel for the future (just in case)
- additional tweaks

### Minor tweaks to "Game Details" screen

### Interface changes to several screens
- 48x48 game icon replaced by 68x68 size (top bar)
- 16x16 system / media type icon replaced by 24x24 size (top bar)
- increased game title font size from 8 to 10 (top bar)
- increased game name+extra info font size from 7 to 8 for easier reading (top bar)
- removed ListView border (Windows theme forced painting), replaced by a custom panel with dual colors so night mode can be applied
- additional tweaks

## Removed

### Full screen mode is gone. It's an ugly hack, it causes the dreadful "out of focus" bug at startup and it doesn't work correctly under Windows 10

## Added

### Updates to "Night Mode"
- Setting "Enable Night Mode" added to main menu for easy access; you can still change it in the message box
- added support for several screens
- added support for images tool bar buttons
- added support for images panel border color
- coded some functions to change colors with ease: panels, labels, check boxes, radio groups, group boxes, forms
- the following controls are incompatible with dark themes, due to Windows theme forced painting or zero customization properties:
edit box, combo box, button, main menu, popup menu, tool bar button text
- additional tweaks to avoid flickering, highly noticeable in night mode

### New "Board Game" catver.ini filter added to "Arcade Miscellaneous Filter" (below "Mechanical" filter)

### New screen with 128x128 monster icons for "Arcade Files Versions" if screen resolution is 1024x768 and up (main menu "View")

### Interface changes to "Arcade Emulators Setup" and "View Arcade ROMs Folders" screens
- added monster 128x128 icons to systems list
- use checkbox "Large Icons" in bottom bar to enable the big system icons (disabled by default)
- additional tweaks

# version 8.5.7 change log - May 07, 2018

## Fixed

### Severe memory leaks after closing the clean install dialog (1 thousand memory blocks), caused by two TStringList vars

### All selected Neo-Geo MSV games are listed in "Run Game Confirmation Dialog" if you select a Neo-Geo machine with less cart slots

## Changed

### Remade some console/computer system icons so they can be properly used with dark backgrounds

## Added

### Dark themed message box... lights out!
- just tick the new "Night Mode" checkbox in the dialog's lower left corner
- since the RichEdit text colors cannot be changed "on-the-fly", it will only take effect next time the dialog appears

### "Multi-slot Machine" text added to show the selected "Neo-Geo MVS" machine before listing the games ("Run Game Configirmation Dialog")

# version 8.5.6 change log - May 02, 2018

## Fixed

### Holy crap-a-monium! Fix losing arcade emulator filename from "\arcade\emulators.ini" at startup, take three
- the info will be saved in .ini file only if emulator date/time stamp has changed
- whatever happens, current emulator info entries and system sections are no longer deleted from .ini file (garbage entries mode ON)
- only at "Arcade Emulator Setup" screen "emulators.ini" will change (add/delete entries and sections)

### MAMu_ icons folder path saving twice to "mame\ui.ini" after exiting "Preferences" screen

### MAMu_ icons folder path read from MAME and then read again from HBMAME (only MAME's "ui.ini" is used)

## Changed

### Reverted back some function calls in main screen's OnShow() event to OnActivate() event like it was in EL v8.4.7 as the newer tweaks were causing weird problems

# version 8.5.5 change log - May 01, 2018

## Fixed

### Obscure bug: after updating arcade emulator version info at startup, the filename with full path is somehow deleted from "\arcade\emulators.ini"; filename is no longer updated, just file date/time and version info

### Out of focus bug at startup still haunts us, so the new init zip images form is replaced by a simple panel directly in the main screen

## Changed

### The window "Layout Dimensions" will no longer be restored at startup to avoid the dreadul "out of focus" bug (accessible in images popup menu)

# version 8.5.4 change log - April 30, 2018

## Fixed

### Image layout splitters not restored correctly at startup for triple/quad layouts

### Zipped images contents list for MAME software lists not initializing correctly, causing them to not show up in preview images panel

### Image layout splitters not restoring to current positions after exiting "Image Category Settings" and "Image Layout Settings" screens

### Image category was not properly set to in-game snapshot at startup causing several problems:
- image panel settings not initialized correctly
- image hint panel settings not initialized correctly
- arcade emulator game snapshot folder setting was not being read from emulator config file
- zipped images was not initialized

### Fixes to clean install mode
- arcade emulator config file was not read/initialized
- arcade image folder paths were not being read/initialized
- tons of memory leaks caused by two vars that were not freed from RAM

## Changed

### Interface tweaks in "Arcade Emulators Setup" screen
- button "Update System" renamed to "Reset System" and its help text changed to reflect what it actually does
- lowered dialog height and merged all buttons in the bottom bar where they belong
- aligned "Ok" and "Cancel" buttons to the right side of the dialog
- "MAME Ash" build label link removed since it's no longer updated, replaced by HomeBrew MAME
- changed font of "Autorun Game With AlterMAME" to the same as other labels and simplified its help text to be more clear

### "Delete/Rename Preview Image" screen
- added "Dimensions: 0000x0000" label to show the image's resolution
- replaced category icon by a 68x68 sized monster and removed category title text
- interface tweaks

### Optimized uMain.DestroyImageLayoutControls function and removed fixed indexes of panels/splitters count

### Deleted "destroy controls" code in "uMain.SetImageLayout" function since it's an exact copy from uMain.DestroyImageLayoutControls function

### Replaced "image category selector" and "image layout selector" quick popup menus by improved dialogs in images tool bar buttons
- popup lists were too big for screen resolutions lower than 1080p
- 68x68 monster sized icons for easier navigation
- disabled categories/layouts do not appear in the list
- select a category/layout with mouse double-click or ENTER key or "Ok" button
- abort operation with ESC key or "Cancel" button
- reduced RAM usage and code tweaks for future improvements

### Startup tweaks
- double-checked function calls to prevent them executing more than once
- moved some code from uMain.OnActivate() event to uMain.OnShow() event to help mitigate the "out of focus" bug
- fixed a really weird "out of focus" bug that prevents scrolling games with mouse wheel after games list is loaded
- remove a few function calls trying to set focus to the main games list without populating it first

### Replaced zipped images initialization messages in splash screen by a darn cute small msgbox below the images tool bar
- way easier to spot categoy/layout changes
- centered on main screen window in thumbnails view
- message texts no longer sent to splash screen
- action text and visual improvements are now possible

### Image layout splitters now update the image panel while dragging them instead of just show a pattern line (experimental)

### Clean install dialog interface changed to a dark theme (old light theme is gone)

## Removed

### 2 TImageList components with 24x24 sized image categories/layouts icons and a TImageList with 68x68 arcade systems icons are no longer necessary as they are loaded on demand, directly from .ico files

## Added

### Quad Image Layouts
- 18 new image layouts to display 4 game preview images at the same time
- image panels cannot be hidden due to layouts mount complexity
- layout 1 have two modes: horizontal and vertical
hor: a single horizontal splitter that separates up and down panels
vert: a single vertical splitter that separates left and right panels
- hide layouts you don't want to use
- "Image Layout Settings" interface updated, 1024x768 / 1280x720 minimum screen resolution required

### New image layout setting "Use Custom Category for Console/Computer" ("Image Layout Settings" screen)
- define alternate image categories for MAME software games / console / computer systems
- dual / triple / quad layouts only; no point in doing this for single layout
- disabled by default, you can enable this setting in "Image Layout Settings" screen only - categories can be assigned to any panel
- unzipped and zipped images support
- image hint box in images preview panel is updated only when hovering the mouse on top of image panels, to maintain games scrolling high speed
- category background color is ignored to avoid heavy flickering while scrolling games
- useful to show "software cover" in place of "arcade flyer"

### Support new "Neo-Geo MVS" machines for MAME v0.197
- you can choose what Neo-Geo MVS machine to use when running multi-slot arcade games
- new file "arcade\mame_multislot_machines.txt" containing the valid list of machines; it can be manually updated when needed
- last used machine is restored next time you run multi-slot games
- when changing the machine to be used, games that exceed slot count are grayed out but can still be moved up/down in the list

# version 8.5.3 change log - April 04, 2018

## Fixed

### Supermodel3 emulator settings screen was not centered in the desktop

### The "Select" button for "BGFX Shadow Mask" file was not implemented

### Calling "set emulator default settings" from "Arcade Emulators Setup" was not passing the correct emulator filename parameter, resulting in bogus "full_path\emu_cfg_filename.ini" and causing frontend to crash when saving emu default settings

## Changed

### Enabled "Save to File" button in madExcept settings (bug report crash dialog)

### Send bug report will no longer zip the .txt; .png files (madExcept)

# version 8.5.2 change log - April 02, 2018

## Fixed

### "Image Category Settings" bug fixes (left-overs from old code)
- "Select" category was disabled and its folder selections was never saved on exit
- zipped images cache wasn't rebuilt on exit while in multiple images layouts, causing selected game images to not load

### Frontend crash if you try to use "Select" image category

### Auditing multiple selected games was not working if any of them use device or bios sets

### Wrong system selected in "single system selection" mode (Arcade system selection dialog)

## Changed

### Preview images panel color/splitter settings moved from "EmuLoader.ini" to "\ini_files\image_category.ini"; no more losing image splitter settings on a fresh install

### You can select scan mode and software list build mode when using "Create MAME Software Games List" in main menu "Arcade"

## Added

### Customize "preview images hint box" appearance (Preferences screen, "Images" tab)
- the hint box shows up when hovering the mouse on top on images panel
- box background color, box frame color and visibility, text color, text shadow color and visibility
- box opacity level (255 is opaque, 0 is transparent)
- settings saved in "\ini_files\image_category.ini" file to avoid loss on a clean install
- new setting "Show Unzipped/Zipped Icon" that display an "image icon" for unzipped images and "zip icon" for zipped images
(easier to spot if the loaded image is unzipped or zipped when hovering the mouse on top of it)

### Moved "Update Favorites Profiles" from main menu to "Help" sub-menu since its usefulness has passed; but if you're late into the frontend party, it's still available

# version 8.5.1 change log - March 29, 2018

## Fixed

### OH NO! Software lists were not audited after creating games lists in "update" mode

## Removed

### Removed a couple "[.zip; .7z]" strings from the splash screen's messages when auditing MAME/HBMAME games since it include CHD files, which are not zipped

# version 8.5 change log - March 28, 2018

## Fixed

### Bios/device ROMs showing as "Parent Bios" / "Parent Device" in game sets ("Arcade Scan Results" screen)

### Message panel not showing up when applying quick systems filter in grouped view mode

### MAME software list games not audited correctly if set has no main "gamename.zip" file but have CHD files

### Setting "MAMU_ Icons Folder" was not saved in .ini file when closing "Preferences" screen

### TEdit was in read-only mode; you can rename files in "Rename Image" dialog again

### Background color of single image layout was not restored at startup and not set after closing "Image Category Settings" screen

### Create ZiNc games list was setting bios ROMs as "parent ROM" on games sets

## Changed

### File "\arcade\image_categories.ini" renamed to "\arcade\sysimagefolders_arcade.ini" (done at startup)

### Image category background color/visibility settings moved out of "EmuLoader.ini" into a new "\ini_files\image_category.ini" file (done at startup)
- from now on, file is updated only when you change settings in "Image Category Settings" screen
- settings are no longer lost on a frontend crash or clean install

### Image layout visibility settings moved out of "EmuLoader.ini" into "\ini_files\screenshot_layouts.ini", where they belong (done at startup)
- from now on, file is updated only when you change settings in "Image Layout Settings" screen
- settings are no longer lost on a frontend crash or clean install

### Changes and fixes to "Game Details" screen
- CHD files of software list games were not correctly detected, "software name" parameter was missing
- added "extra required set" info for software list games
- bios set filename not shown in "Game Files" section (left panel)
- several tweaks

### Tweaks to "Create MAME Games List"

### Changes/fixes to "MAME Software List Games"
- detection of "sharedfeat requirement" tags in .xml files when creating games lists; highly experimental!
- some games require an extra set to run properly; Atari 2600 cassette, PC-Engine CD, others (info shown in "Game Details" screen)
- if a game doesn't run and you're sure you have all game files, look for this extra info above the "Games Files" section, left panel
- requirement data stored in a new "arcade\games\mame.elsoftlistreq" file
- the extra parameter is added before the gamename parameter
- expanded options to create software lists (new "update" mode)
- "Disable": do not create software lists and delete current games list files
- "Enable: Update": create new lists and update existing ones only if CRC32 checksum of "mamedir\hash\softwarename.xml" file has changed (XML file updated)
- "Enable: Overwrite": create new lists and overwrite existing ones even if CRC32 checksum match
NOTE: settings can be found in the screen to select systems when creating MAME games list and in "Scan Games Mode" screen
- new "xmlfile_crc32" entry in "frontenddir\arcade\mame_softwarelist_games\softname.el" to compare with MAME "softname.xml" (for "update" mode only)

### Interface changes to Select Arcade System" dialog
- added new software list modes
- systems list moved to a left panel
- option "For This Task Only" is unchecked by default
- info texts improved

### Changes to "Arcade Miscellaneous Filters" (main tool bar buttons)
- renamed "Device" drop-down list to "Device ROMs" since this filter is not exclusive to device sets
- renamed "BIOS" drop-down list do "BIOS ROMs" since this filter is not exclusive to bios sets
- renamed texts from "Sets" to "ROMs" in "Device ROMs" and "Bios ROMs" drop-down filters since they are related to particular ROMs, not the entire set
- renamed "Filter by Main CPU Filter" to "Enable Main CPU Filter Bar"
- renamed "Games with ROMs (any set)" to "Games With ROMs (any ROM)" in "Game ROMs" drop-down list since this filter includes device/bios ROMs
- renamed "Games with no ROMs" to "Games With no ROMs/CHDs" in "Game ROMs" drop-down list to reflect what the filter actually does
- new category filter "Music" for sets like "VGM Player" (vgmplay)
- minor interface tweaks

### Renamed several "function" code blocks to "procedure" since they don't need to return a result

### Minor interface tweaks to Preferences screen, and removal of texts with "7 pixel" font size

### If screen resolution is smaller than the dialog, scroll bars will be added to the TForm so you can see everything (experimental!)
- for screen resolutions smaller than 1280x1024 and because some dialogs just can't be scaled down
- supported dialogs: "MAME Settings", "Game Details"
NOTE: minimum screen resolution for Emu Loader is 1024x768 / 1280x720 but some dialogs still fit on 640x480 resolution

## Removed

### Masssive source code cleanup (commented/not used code)

## Added

### Search .chd files in "\softlist_name\" sub-folder for MAME software lists

### Support to search .chd file in "\parent_gamename\" sub-folder; MAME supports this; "romspath\parent_gamename\clonename_file.chd"
- now you can have clone CHD files in the parent folder
- for MAME arcade, MAME software list, Demul

### New file "arcade\filters\supermodelsegamodel3_control_type.ini"
- a list of control tags and descriptions, extracted from Supermodel3 source code
- for now, it only show controls list in "Game Details" screen; not used anywhere else

### File header detection for "Atari 800" cartridges before running games (highy experimental, used by all Atari800 emulators, except MAME)
- the first 4 bytes of file will be read, looking for 'C' 'A' 'R' 'T'
- if tag is found, Emu Loader will no longer add the cartridge type in the full command line
- any file extension is supported for unzipped game files
- for zipped game files, Emu Loader will unzip it to a TMemoryStream and validate the tag; only ".bin; .car; .rom" file extensions are supported
(if there's more than one file inside .zip, the first one found with any of the 3 supported extensions will be used)

### HBMAME Software List support, to be used in the distant future, in a galaxy far, far way... what works:
- create games list
- audit games files
- show softlist games in main games list
- run games
- for everything else, they are handled as MAME softlist games (for now)

### Setting "Restore Internet Game Info at Startup", to restore the last state of internet game info button at startup ("Preferences" screen, "General" tab)

### Setting "Disable Threaded Preview Image Loading" in "Preferences" screen / "Images" page, to prevent images loading delay and "Invalid pointer operation" error

### Support for MAME 0.196
- new comm setting: "Syncronize Frames" in "Input" tab