Wrappers
Wrappers are additional applications that allow certain emulators to work properly with a frontend or arcade setup.
Most emulators are not designed with frontends or arcade machines in mind, and therefore may cause some or all of the following issues to arise when they are attempted to run that way, such as:
- Requires specific keys to be pressed at startup
- Starts in windowed mode (as opposed to full screen)
- Loses ‘focus’ to the application when starting (preventing keystrokes from working)
- Will not exit the software without a key or mouse button press
This is where a wrapper comes in. Instead of running the emulator directly, you run the wrapper, and the wrapper in turn runs the emulator or application for you. However, the wrapper takes care of any miscellaneous issues that arise, such as listed above.
In order to use a wrapper, it will require additional configuration. You will need to configure the frontend to run the wrapper executable, and you will also need to configure the wrapper, usually by editing ini files (text configuration files), and inform it on how to run the emulator or application.
Wrappers by Howard Casto
The following wrapper programs have been provided by Howard Casto at the Lazarus/Dragon King Homepage:
- Chankast Wrapper 2.5 (Daemon /Alcohol Edition): runs the Sega Dreamcast emulator Chankast and also manages pesky configuration tweaks required for each game.
- Microsoft Pinball Arcade Wrapper: runs the Microsoft PC game [Pinball Arcade]
- Visual Pinball Wrapper 4.0 Enhanced: runs the Visual Pinball emulator
- Generic command line wrapper 7.0: runs many command line programs, and comes preconfigured for Zinc
- Generic keypress simulator wrapper (preconfigured for Final Burn)
The Following Wrappers are available as well, but are very old (and thus not supported).
- U64 wrapper 2.0: runs the Ultra64 hardware based emulator Ultra64
- Modeler wrapper: runs the Sega System 32 and Model 1 emulator Modeler
- Impact wrapper: runs the Impact emulator
- S11 wrapper: runs the S11 emulator
Wrappers by other authors
- Future Pinball Wrapper: runs Future Pinball and get the keyboard focus work. (By Space Fractal)
- PinballWrapper: runs Visual Pinball. (By John E. Crouse)
- WinUAE Loader: runs WinUAE Amiga emulator. (By HeadKaze)
- Snes9x Wrapper: Hides snes9x menu on startup and routes esc key to kill (By Kelroy)
To other developers
These wrappers should be work with any frontend that allows a command line application to be executed. You can add your own wrapper to above links.