The jukebox is designed to emulate a real, physical jukebox, not a media
player or video jukebox. thus, it is designed to use physical buttons on
a control panel rather than a mouse or keyboard. The standard way to do
this is through a keyboard encoder such as a KeyWiz or I-Pac, or by
hacking a keyboard or game controller. All jukebox functions can be
mapped to any keyboard key, or to the two main axes or buttons on a
gamepad.
Control information is stored in a separate configuration file. The
default control map file is controls.ini; however, you can select a
different file by changing the Controls setting in the Controls section
in jukebox.ini.
In controls.ini, physical keys or gamepad buttons are mapped to jukebox
functions. This allows more than one key or button to provide the same
function. The jukebox can read any key on a standard PC keyboard,
including the Shift, Ctrl, Alt, Lock, and Windows keys, and it can read
up to 14 buttons and the 4 main directions on the first two axes of the
first four gamepads or joysticks in the system. (DOS users will be
limited to two buttons on two gamepads or four buttons on one gamepad
due to limitations on the DOS PC gameport.) Mouse buttons can be mapped
as well; however, mouse button 1 always controls the user interface, so
mouse button1 should only remapped for skins with no clickable icons.
The default controls.ini file includes every mappable key and button for
demonstration purposes; however, you are only required to include keys
or buttons that you are actually using.
Some buttons are required for basic jukebox operation, such as controls
to change pages or select songs. Others represent optional functions
such as displaying a list of the most popular songs, volume control,
etc.
These are the letters used by jukeboxes that use either one letter and
one number or just one letter to select a song. BTN_A through BTN_Z are
available. The default controls.ini maps BTN_A through BTN_J to their PC
keyboard counterparts. The default skin uses BTN_A through BTN_D for
song selection and ignores higher letters.
If you are using a skin with a numeric selection method, the letter
keys will jump directly to the first page starting with an artist with
a name starting with that letter.
See also:
BTN_SELECT.
These are the number buttons on the jukebox; they are used in all
control setups except those that use just a single letter to select a
song. BTN_1 through BTN_25 are available. Note that BTN_10 through
BTN_25 represent a single button with the two-digit number on its face
and not two separate buttons. In addition, if the skin file is designed
to use a zero, BTN_0 will also be used. The default skin uses BTN_1
through BTN_4 for song selection and ignores higher numbers.
See also:
BTN_SELECT.
These buttons page through the available songs.
By default, they are mapped to the Page Up and Page Down keys.
See also:
BTN_PREVALPHA,
BTN_NEXTALPHA,
BTN_FIRSTPG,
BTN_LASTPG.
Selects the song entered. This button is optional is the AutoSelect
option is enabled in jukebox.ini; otherwise it is required. By default,
for the default skin, the user should press a letter button and a number
button followed by the Select button to start a song. If you would
prefer the song to be started immediately rather than requiring the
Select button, enable the AutoSelect option in jukebox.ini. By default,
it is mapped to both Enter keys on the keyboard.
See also:
AutoSelect.
These buttons will jump to the first or last pages of the available
songs.
See also:
BTN_PREVPG,
BTN_NEXTPG,
BTN_PREVALPHA,
BTN_NEXTALPHA.
These buttons skip to the next or previous page where the first letter
of the artist is different (not counting the word "THE"). This allows
paging through large collections quickly. By default, these functions
are mapped to the comma and period keys (think of < and > as arrows
pointing to the next character in the alphabet).
See also:
BTN_PREVPG,
BTN_NEXTPG.
BTN_POPULAR temporarily changes the Coming Up display to show the most
popular songs rather than the song queue. Pressing this button again
will show the next page of popular songs. After a few seconds, the
display will return to showing the upcoming song queue. (The exact
number of seconds the popular song list is displayed can be set in
jukebox.ini via the MostPopularDisplayTime setting, which defaults to 5
seconds.) This button is mapped to the F7 key on the keyboard by
default.
BTN_RADIO toggles "radio mode" on and off where random songs will be
continually played. Pressing BTN_RADIO again will stop radio mode.
BTN_RADIO is mapped to the F3 key by default.
See also:
MSG_RADIO.
BTN_RADIO_ON turns "radio mode" on if it is currently disabled;
otherwise it has no effect. It is not mapped by default.
See also:
MSG_RADIO.
BTN_RADIO_OFF turns "radio mode" off if it is currently enabled;
otherwise it has no effect. It is not mapped by default.
See also:
MSG_RADIO.
BTN_PLAYSTIMULATOR toggles the PlayStimulator on and off. If no time was
specified for the PlayStimulator, it is set to 10 minutes when enabled.
See also:
MSG_PLAYSTIMULATOR.
BTN_PLAYSTIMULATOR_ON turns the PlayStimulator on if it was disabled;
otherwise it has no effect. If no time was specified for the
PlayStimulator, it is set to 10 minutes when enabled. This button is
not mapped by default.
See also:
MSG_PLAYSTIMULATOR.
BTN_PLAYSTIMULATOR_OFF turns the PlayStimulator of if it was ensabled;
otherwise it has no effect. This button is not mapped by default.
See also:
MSG_PLAYSTIMULATOR.
This selects a random song and adds it to the queue. As this is a
selection button, it requires a credit if credits are required.
BTN_SHUFFLE reorganizes the songs in the queue, placing them in a random
order.
BTN_TOPTUNE selects the most-played song on the popularity list. If that
song is already playing or already in the queue, the next most popular
song will be played, etc. As this is a selection button, it requires a
credit if credits are required.
See also:
BTN_POPULAR.
The BTN_COIN buttons represent the coin slots on a jukebox that requires
credits to play. Up to 4 individual coin slots can be defined. Coins are
only required if RequireCredits is enabled in jukebox.ini. By default,
BTN_COIN1 is mapped to the Insert key. Credits are added to the jukebox
based on the CoinXCredit settings in jukebox.ini.
See also:
Coin1Credit,
Coin2Credit,
Coin3Credit,
Coin4Credit.
BTN_PAUSE will pause the currently playing song, or restart it if the
song is paused. It is by default mapped to the F8 key.
BTN_PAUSE_ON will pause the currently playing song; if the song is already
paused it will have no effect. It is not mapped by default.
BTN_PAUSE_OFF will unpause the current song, if the song is already
paused. If the song is not paused or no song is playing it will have no
effect. It is not mapped by default.
BTN_SCREENSAVER will force the screensaver to be activated or deactivated
right away, rather than waiting for the timeout. It is not mapped by
default.
BTN_SCREENSAVER_ON will force the screensaver to be activated if it
is currently not active; otherwise it will have no efferct. It is not
mapped by default.
BTN_SCREENSAVER_OFF will force the screensaver to be deactivated if it
is currently active; otherwise it will have no efferct. It is not
mapped by default.
BTN_SCREENSHOT will save a snapshot of the jukebox to a file. In higher
resolutions, it may take several seconds to save the screenshot, during
which the music will probably repeatedly loop a short section of music.
BTN_SCREENSHOT is mapped to the F12 key by default.
Exits the jukebox. BTN_EXIT is mapped to the Escape key by default.
Clears the last entered button. By default, this is mapped to the
Backspace key on the keyboard.
Clears all currently entered buttons. This button is not mapped by
default.
Toggles LoopMode, where as soon as a song finishes playing it is
re-added to the queue. Songs removed with MSG_SKIP are not looped. Songs
added to the queue through this method do not consume a credit, but they
do increase the play count. Useful at parties or holiday occasions to
keep a particular set of songs on continuous play. It is mapped to the
F5 key by default.
See also:
MSG_LOOP.
Enables LoopMode, if it is not already enabled; otherwise it has no
effect. It is not mapped by default.
Disables LoopMode, if it is already enabled; otherwise it has no effect.
It is not mapped by default.
Cancels the currently playing song and starts the next song in the
queue. As this action does not restore credit to the credits counter, it
should probably not be included on a jukebox that is set up to use
credits. By default, it is mapped to the Delete key.
See also:
BTN_SKIPLAST.
Cancels all of the songs in the queue. If credits are enabled, a number
of credits equal to the number of songs waiting in the queue will be
added. By default, it is mapped to the F1 key.
See also:
BTN_CLEARALL.
Cancels all of the songs in the queue, including the
currently playing song. If credits are enabled, a number of credits
equal to the number of songs waiting in the queue will be added.
Credit is not returned for the currently playing song. This button
is not mapped by default.
See also:
BTN_CLEARQUEUE.
Toggles between free play and credits required modes.
Turns free play mode on if credits are currently required; otherwise it
has no effect. It is not mapped by default.
Turns free play mode off if it is currently enabled; otherwise it has no
effect. It is not mapped by default.
Deletes the last song in the queue. Note that you cannot
skip the currently playing song this way. This button can only be used
during the time specified by SkipLastTimeLimit in jukebox.ini. If
SkipLastTimeLimit is set to 0, this button can be used at any time
to remove the most recent addition. If SkipLastTimeLimit is set to
any value higher than 0, BTN_SKIPLAST can only remove the single most
recent addition, unless LimitSkipLastToMostRecent is set to False.
See also:
BTN_SKIP,
SkipLastTimeLimit,
LimitSkipLastToMostRecent.
On a control panel with very limited controls, such as a single 4-way
joystick with one button, the jukebox can be navigated as a GUI. This
is not the recommended way to use the jukebox, but it is available for
those who need it. Navigating off the left or right sides of the screen
will cause the page to turn without explicitly having to select a page
change button. The available GUI controls are:
Moves the GUI focus in the appropriate direction. The control with
focus will be marked with a dotted line. These buttons are mapped
to the cursor keys by default. The directions are relative to the
screen rotation.
Selects the control that currently has focus, i.e. "clicks" the button.
By default, this is mapped to the spacebar.
Moves the focus to the next or previous control. By default,
BTN_GUI_NEXT is mapped to the Tab key; BTN_GUI_PREV is not mapped by
default.
Switches to the next or previous skin. By default, BTN_SKIN_NEXT is
mapped to the F10 key; BTN_SKIN_PREV is mapped to the F9 key.
Switches directly to a specific skin. None of these buttons are
mapped by default.