In an effort to continue to expand the capabilities of my Deluxe arcade, I wanted to share how to launch a chrome browser in kiosk mode from HyperSpin.  You could use this to open chrome directly to many different useful website such as YouTube, Google Music, Spotify, Itunes, etc.  This is especially awesome if your arcade has a touch screen monitor.

Here is a video walk through showing an end result.

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This article assumes you already have a working HyperSpin setup.  Here is our guide if you need to get it setup, it is the best on the web.  How to setup HyperSpin and MAME

To get started you simply need to have a shortcut to chrome somewhere where you can find it.  I created one on my desktop by simply right clicking the chrome.exe file and creating a short cut.

Adding a New Wheel to the Main Menu

Now we need to let HyperSpin know we want to create a new wheel.  For this exercise we are going to create a Main Menu wheel called Music and in the sub wheel we will place different chrome browser locations starting with Google Music.  Launch HyperHQ in your HyperSpin folder.

In HyperHQ under the Main Menu Wizard Tab select to add a new item to main menu

Now we will name it Music.  FYI Naming is important.  If you name it something else make sure as we place files called “Music” later in the post you use the name you created here as everything has to match up.

We are going to create a sub wheel…  This way we can have the option to select Google Music or Spotify, or Youtube, etc.

Choose where on the main menu you want your new Music wheel to show up.  Just select a location and then press before or after that selection

It will show you are successful and you can exit out of hyperhq.

Add Database File

We need to add a database and xml file so HyperSpin knows what to display in our new wheel.  This is easy so don’t get overwhelmed.  In your HyperSpin\Databases\Music folder (this was created when we created the wheel in hyperhq above), we will add an xml file.

To do this open up notepad and you can paste in the code below.

<?xml version=”1.0″?>
<menu>
<header>
<listname>Music</listname>
<lastlistupdate></lastlistupdate>
<listversion></listversion>
<exporterversion></exporterversion>
</header>
<game name=”GoogleMusic” index=”true” image=”‘”>
<description>Get music and videos from Google Music</description>
<cloneof></cloneof>
<crc></crc>
<manufacturer></manufacturer>
<year></year>
<genre></genre>
<rating></rating>
<enabled>Yes</enabled>
</game>
<game name=”Spotify” index=”true” image=”‘”>
<description>Spotify is awesome</description>
<cloneof></cloneof>
<crc></crc>
<manufacturer></manufacturer>
<year></year>
<genre></genre>
<rating></rating>
<enabled>Yes</enabled>
</game>
</menu>

You can add more of whatever you want in between the game tags.  I bolded the two entries of GoogleMusic and Spotify above.

We need to save the file in our hyperspin\databases\music folder as a .xml file.  To ensure this is correct you can make it where windows shows the file extension so you can change it if needs be.  If you save it as Music.xml for example it might really be Music.xml.txt for the text file you created.  You can click search in windows and type File Explorer Options and then select the view tab.  We want to unselect the “Hide extensions for known file types box.

Ensure your xml file looks like this in the databases folder

Add Pseudo Roms

Next we need to add a “rom” file for each chrome browser we want to open.  Go to your roms folder and create a folder called Music.  In that folder create a simple text file that is named exactly the same as in your database we just created.  The txt file will be blank, just needs to be there with the proper naming.  Here is an example of the GoogleMusic and Spotify.

Getting Chrome Browser in Kiosk Mode to Work in Rocket Launcher

Again, read our hyperspin setup blog if you do not have rocket launcher setup as you will need it for this section.

First, we need to get HyperSpin and Rocket Launcher on the same page as to what is going to be in our new Music Wheel.  Open RocketLauncherUI in your RocketLauncher\RocketLauncherUI folder.  We are going to use an emulator called “PCLauncher” to launch chrome.

  1. Select the Emulators tab
  2. Press the green plus sign
  3. Name: PCLauncher
  4. Module: Select the magnifier and select the PC launcher Module
  5. Check the Virtual Emulator box
  6. Press the save icon (floppy disk)

Now verify or add the rom paths and default emulator PCLauncher we just created to your Music wheel.  Select Music down the left list, then the emulator tab.

Now we are going to add our GoogleChrome to the PCLauncher so RocketLauncher can launch it in kiosk mode.  With music still selected down the left menu along with the modules tab, high light PCLauncher.ahk, and press the Edit System Specific Module Settings button.

Press the green plus sign and you should see your two “roms” or txt files we added.  We will select (double click) Google Music, but you would setup any of your chrome browser locations the same way.

Simply press the magnifier for Application and select your chrome shortcut you created at the first of the blog or the chrome.exe itself.

IMPORTANT..  for the Parameters type in ” –kiosk http://music.google.com” without the quotes.  NOTE: there is a space before and after the –kiosk.  You can substitute the url for wherever you want chrome to open to.  Also change the ExitMethod to Send Alt+F4.  What that will do is kill chrome whenever you press your “Exit” or “back” key on your HyperSpin setup and take you back to HyperSpin.

Close all open chrome browsers.  Now test that it is working in RocketLauncher by pressing the red rocket.

Success.  Note: If you already had a chrome browser open it will open with multiple tabs.  In other words close all chrome browser instances so you get a true kiosk mode.

Make it Pretty in HyperSpin by Adding Media

At this point you have this working in RocketLauncher and it should be working in HyperSpin; however it will just be ugly text with no theme in HyperSpin.  We will need to add some media files to pretty it up.  We will need to add media to the main menu so our Music wheel looks good and to our entries such as Google Music and Spotify.

We will start with our Music wheel

I got the main menu wheel and used it for my sub wheel from Ace’s work on the hyperspin site here http://hyperspin-fe.com/files/file/7816-jukebox-main-menu-ace/.  I changed the name to Default.zip opened it and Deleted the artwork1 file as it covered up my wheel.  I put the newly named default.zip under HyperSpin\Media\Music\Themes You can use any hyperspin theme you want simply name it default.zip and place it in that folder.

Now you need to get the wheel symbol you want to use for each chrome browser you are going to open.  For example you can google “google music png” and get the logo you want.  Name the file “GoogleMusic” the same as you did in your database and place it in the HyperSpin\Media\Music\Images\Wheel folder

I got a theme from ACE call Music videos and used that for my main menu theme.  http://hyperspin-fe.com/files/file/7820-music-videos-main-menu-ace/.  Rename it “Music.zip” and place it in your HyperSpin\Media\Main Menu\Themes folder.  It is a really cool older MTV style build.

I got the MTV old png logo for the main menu wheel, renamed it to Music.png and placed it in HyperSpin\Media\Main Menu\Images\Wheel

Lastly, I grabbed the original MTV commercial from youtube, renamed it “Music.mp4” and placed it in HyperSpin\Media\Main Menu\Video

Boot up HyperSpin and bask in the glory.

Again you can go back and add as many kiosk chrome launches to different locations with artwork you want.

You might have interest in our

How to setup HyperSpin, Mame, and Rocket Launcher guide

How to setup JoytoKey for your arcade controls and hyperspin

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