fine tuning

To bypass the Linux login screen (login automatically):

• Open the KDE Control Center
  (It's in the K menu, under System->Settings. Or launch from the console by typing kcontrol)
• Expand the "System Administration" item
• Click "Login Manager"
• Click the "Convenience" tab
• Check the "Enable auto-login" box
• Choose your user account in the drop-down box
• Be sure to use a non-root account
• Click the "Apply" button

To start Gorf automatically after login:

• Create a file in ~/.kde/Autostart
• Call it gorf.sh or something.
• Type in the path of your gorf binary into gorf.sh, for example:
  /home/gorf/gorf-0.3-x86/gorf
• Now type chmod +x gorf.sh in xterm to make it an executable script. The next time you login, gorf will start automatically.

To save your volume settings between reboots:

• Set the volume with kmix (the speaker icon in the KDE toolbar).
• Open the KDE Control Center
• Expand the "Sound & Multimedia" item
• Click "Mixer"
• Check the "Load volumes on login" box
• Click the "Apply" button

To protect again quitting (kiosk mode):

• This option is not changeable inside the Gorf menus
• Edit gorf.cfg
• Set "allow_quit" to 0 or 1 (default 1)
• Set "allow_halt" to 0 or 1 (default 0)
• These settings will hide or show the respective commands in the pop-up menu

If you have 512mb or more RAM, disable your swap partition for smoother performance. If you are using TV-Out, 640x480 or 800x600 at 16-bit color is ideal. Also, NVidia TwinView works GREAT   >:)

What about low latency kernels? Don't bother. Around the time I first tried low latency and preemtible kernel patches, it was kernel 2.4.20, and I was using a 1.26Ghz P-III (Tualatin 512kb cache). The patched kernel gave me a decent speedboost, enough that it could play all the games at full speed, something it struggled to do before. Now, Mepis comes with kernel 2.6.7. Now the P-III runs full speed, without patching.

During gameplay, you can bring up the Mame menu with the [tab] key. Mame gives you very fine-grained control over controller settings. There are global settings, as well as per-game settings. Here are some of Mame's default keybindings:

keyboard	joystick	game
arrows	stick 1	player 1 joystick
control	button 1	player 1 button 1
alt	button 2	player 1 button 2
5		player 1 coin
1		player 1 start
p		pause
esc		quit game

Mame can multiplex controls in several different ways.

• You can have different inputs trigger the same event, such as the control key and joystick button 1 both triggering game button 1
• You can have a single input trigger multiple events, such as assigning a joystick shoulder button to trigger coin and start together.
• You can use several buttons pressed at the same time (chording) as an input, like defining left shoulder + right shoulder as quit.
• That is exactly how I like to setup my joypads in Mame. The possibilities are endless!