QMC2-ARCADE(6)

📦
version 0.243 · 2 versions
, in fedora 43

✨ QMC2-ARCADE(6) ✨

okay bestie, welcome to the QMC2 User's Guide section for qmc2-arcade 💖 this is the arcade / non-desktop version of QMC2 — M.A.M.E. Catalog/Launcher II, and she's here to get you straight into the games, no cap 🎮

🌈 NAME 🌈

qmc2-arcade — the Arcade / non-desktop version of QMC2 — M.A.M.E. Catalog/Launcher II. iconic, honestly 💅

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

qmc2-arcade [-theme qml_theme] [-console type] [-language lang] [-video vdo] [-config_path path] [-fullscreen] [-windowed] [-nojoy] [-joy index] [-debugjoy] [-debugkeys] [-debugqt] [-h|-?|-help]

💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

so for everyone who just wants to 'go straight into the games', there's QMC2 Arcade 🎀 — a QML / QtQuick based approach to presenting an optionally filtered machine-list, and launching emulators in the exact same smart way you're already used to from QMC2's main GUI (peep qmc2(6) for that one, bestie).

ngl, even though she's designed to run stand-alone, you must start QMC2's main GUI at least once before using QMC2 Arcade, because some of the file caches need to be created first — QMC2 Arcade does not take care of this itself 😭. Also, you cannot change the emulator's configuration from inside QMC2 Arcade. so whenever you wanna make modifications to a machine's configuration (or the global setup), you have to do it through QMC2's main GUI as well. periodt.

The main GUI also has a specific dialog for setting up all relevant back-end default options (-theme, -console, -graphicssystem, -language and -video), for producing a filtered machine list used by QMC2 Arcade exclusively (optional), and for mapping key-sequences or joystick-functions (also optional). Default values for back-end options can also be configured inside QMC2 Arcade provided the chosen qml_theme supports it — and bestie, all of the available themes do ✨.

Changed back-end default options will require a restart of QMC2 Arcade to take effect 🔁. Specifying them on the command line will overwrite the current defaults temporarily, but will not change their stored default values. Note that the -language back-end default option is a shared setting for both QMC2 Arcade and the main GUI 👀.

💅 OPTIONS 💅

  • -theme qml_theme — Select the QML theme used for scene graphics, animations and/or shader effects 🎨. Available values for qml_theme are 'ToxicWaste' (the default, slay) and 'darkone'.
  • -console type — Choose the type of console to use 🖥️. Available values for type are 'terminal' (default), 'window', 'window-minimized' and 'none'. Console type 'none' will effectively suppress all log messages 🤫.
  • -language lang — Choose the translation to load 🌍. Run qmc2-arcade -h for a list of available values for lang. Note that the default value for -language is shared with the main GUI's language setting!
  • -video vdo — Enable (vdo = 'on') or disable (vdo = 'off') the use of video snaps (theme-specific) 📹. The value of vdo will be ignored when the current theme has no built-in support for video snaps, sorry babe.
  • -config_path path — Specify this argument to use the directory path instead of the default folder (~/.qmc2) to search for QMC2's configuration and cache-files 📂.
  • -fullscreen — Start up in full screen mode, overwriting the stored setting 🖼️.
  • -windowed — Start up in windowed mode, overwriting the stored setting 🪟.
  • -nojoy — Disable joystick-function mapping (regardless if it's enabled in the main GUI or not) 🕹️.
  • -joy index — Use the joystick specified by index instead of the one read from ~/.qmc2/qmc2.ini, and enable joystick-function mapping (regardless if it's enabled in the main GUI or not) 🎮.
  • -debugjoy — Enable debug logging for joystick-function mapping 🔍. Every recognized joystick-function which has been mapped to a key-sequence will be logged to the console.
  • -debugkeys — Enable debug logging for key-sequence mapping ⌨️. Every recognized key or key-sequence will be logged to the console together with info on how the event is processed. Mapped key-sequences will cause event emulation, others will follow Qt's default event processing.
  • -debugqt — Enable logging of Qt debug messages 🐛.
  • -h|-?|-help — Show usage help, available options / values and their current defaults 🫶.

🌸 FILES 🌸

  • /etc/qmc2/qmc2.ini — System-wide default configuration (optional) ⚙️
  • ~/.qmc2/qmc2.ini — Individual user's configuration 🏠
  • ~/.qmc2/mame.mlc — Machine list cache 📋
  • ~/.qmc2/mame.mlc.filtered — Filtered version of the machine list cache created by qmc2(6) (optional) 🔎
  • ~/.qmc2/mame-icon-cache.db — Icon cache database (SQLite 3) 🖼️
  • ~/.qmc2/mame-dat-info.db — DAT-info database (SQLite 3), a combined data store for all supported DAT-info sources (emu-info, machine-info and software-info) 🗄️

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

qmc2-sdlmame(6), qchdman(6) — go read those too bestie, they ate 💖

💀 BUGS 💀

See the TODO file in the included QMC2 documentation for known bugs and restrictions 📝.

New bugs can be reported here: https://tracker.batcom-it.net/view_all_bug_page.php?project_id=1 🐞

🧚 AUTHOR 🧚

The QMC2 development-team (https://qmc2.batcom-it.net/) — legends, fr fr 👑

okay that's the whole page, no skips, no crumbs left behind 🍓

and for the cute sign-off: this was version 0.243, dated July 25, 2025 🌟 that's a wrap, ily, go play some games 💜🎀✨

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