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About This File

SkyNET Mouse Helper

v1.2

for The Terminator: SkyNET (1996) and The Terminator: Future Shock (1995) by Bethesda Softworks

 

This Windows utility allows for cycling weapons with the mouse wheel in SkyNET and Future Shock when played in DOSBox under Windows. It runs in the background while you're playing and maps the mouse wheel to its own next and previous weapon functions (because neither game has them). It's been tailored specifically for these two games and, despite the name, works with Future Shock even when it's played outside of SkyNET.

 

Features:

* Scroll the mouse wheel up/down to cycle weapon types (numbers 1-7 on the keyboard) or all 13 available weapons.

* Press the middle mouse button or scroll left/right to cycle weapons of the same type (i.e. weapons that share the same # key).

* Press ~ to cycle up to the next weapon and Shift + ~ to cycle down to the previous weapon (for mice without wheels).

* Press Shift + F10 to show and hide this list.

* Press Shift + F11 to switch between weapon cycle modes (cycling through only the 7 weapon types or all 13 available weapons).

* Press Shift + F12 to toggle automatic weapon skipping.

* Press Pause/Break to pause and un-pause the helper (disabling and re-enabling all above features).

 

Instructions:

Simply run SkyNETMouseHelper.exe and then run the game.

 

(Optional) Create a shortcut that will run the helper and game together:

1. Click on the "Create shortcut" button on the helper's main window.

2. Drag and drop your existing shortcut onto the area at the top of the next window

..or..

Build a shortcut from scratch by selecting your DOSBox executable and, optionally, your DOSBox .conf file and game executable.

(Both options will create a new shortcut that runs the helper, then DOSBox (+ the game), then exit the helper when DOSBox exits)

 

Configuration:

There are a few options that you can configure on first run, via the tray icon or via in-game hotkeys:

* Whether to show the GUI window. Default: On. Applies only to running the helper by itself, not via shortcut.

Toggle off to launch the helper silently to the tray.

* Whether to exit when DOSBox exits. Default: On. Applies only to running the helper by itself, not via shortcut.

Toggle off to leave the helper running.

* Whether scrolling with the mouse wheel should be inverted from what most games assign by default. Default: Off.

Toggle on to assign scrolling up to Next Weapon and scrolling down to Previous Weapon (off is the reverse).

* Whether scrolling with the mouse wheel cycles weapon types or all weapons. Default: Weapon types. Hotkey: Shift+F11.

Toggle to "all weapons" if you still want to access your older, less powerful weapons in the mouse wheel rotation.

* Whether scrolling with the mouse wheel should skip unavailable weapons. Default: On. Hotkey: Shift+F12.

Toggle off if it doesn't work as expected or weapons cycle uncontrollably.

 

Notes:

* Each time that you load a savegame, change weapons once (with the number keys or the mouse wheel) to "calibrate" the utility. That's necessary because the utility can't know which weapon is selected when a savegame is loaded and needs you to change weapons once to know. If you use the mouse wheel, you may end up with a weapon that you weren't expecting, but it'll work as expected from then on.

* The option to automatically skip unavailable weapons (on by default) works by reading the screen and could, theoretically, fail with some users' graphics configurations. If cycling weapons makes weapon switching go haywire or skip weapons that you do have, you can disable the option by pressing Shift+F12 in the game or toggling it in the tray icon's GUI.

* If anything doesn't work in fullscreen that works in windowed mode, try changing the "output" mode in your DOSBox .conf file. (ex. to "overlay").

 

Modification:

This utility is simply a compiled AutoHotkey script. If you're not satisfied with the given mappings or functionality and would like to tweak them, the source script (SkyNETMouseHelper.ahk) is provided in the "src" folder. You will need to download AutoHotkey from www.autohotkey.com to compile it. In the folder where you installed/extracted AutoHotkey will be a "Compiler" folder. In there is Ahk2Exe.exe, which you can use to compile your modified SkyNETMouseHelper.ahk into a new SkyNETMouseHelper.exe. An icon for you to use is in the folder with SkyNETMouseHelper.ahk. You don't need to compile or worry about SkyNETMouseHelperFunctions.ahk (which mostly has code related to the GUI, not the game). It'll be included automatically when SkyNETMouseHelper.ahk is compiled. For help with using AutoHotkey, see the help file (AutoHotkey.chm) that comes with it.

 

Other:

If you like this utility, you may be interested in these related uploads...

SkyNET Unofficial Patch 2017: https://community.pcgamingwiki.com/files/file/931-skynet-unofficial-patch-2017/

Outlaws Mouse Helper: https://community.pcgamingwiki.com/files/file/970-outlaws-mouse-helper/

Dune II Mouse Helper: https://community.pcgamingwiki.com/files/file/955-dune-ii-mouse-helper/

Warcraft Mouse Helper: https://community.pcgamingwiki.com/files/file/954-warcraft-mouse-helper/

Tomb Raider Mouse Helper: https://community.pcgamingwiki.com/files/file/1237-tomb-raider-mouse-helper-for-tr1-5/

All (and any newer) uploads: https://community.pcgamingwiki.com/index.php?app=core&module=search&do=user_activity&search_app=downloads&mid=3342


What's New in Version 1.0   See changelog

Released

No changelog available for this version.





User Feedback

Recommended Comments

Hello,

Is there a way to run this with Ampshell while selecting only the Terminator Skynet game without having to manually run the program first?

I have tried to set the DOSBox configuration file to run the program prior to launching the game but it's unable to be run in DOS and having to remember to manually click it every time before executing Ampshell to launch Terminator Skynet is a pain in the ass especially if I were to come back to the game a couple years down the road and forget about it. I have gone through the Ampshell game settings and there doesn't appear to be anywhere to execute additional files prior to launching a game. I could create a batch script but then the program would launch every single time either Ampshell or DOSBox was loaded regardless of what game is being played which would also then stay open after DOSBox was exited until closed manually.

Also, another issue that I experienced while using this is that there is a significant delay between when the mouse wheel is scrolled up or down and when the actual weapons switch on screen. Although not ideal, is that normal?

Other then that the patch you created for this game is excellent.

Cheers.

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1 hour ago, avenger said:

Is there a way to run this with Ampshell while selecting only the Terminator Skynet game without having to manually run the program first?

I have tried to set the DOSBox configuration file to run the program prior to launching the game but it's unable to be run in DOS and having to remember to manually click it every time before executing Ampshell to launch Terminator Skynet is a pain in the ass especially if I were to come back to the game a couple years down the road and forget about it. I have gone through the Ampshell game settings and there doesn't appear to be anywhere to execute additional files prior to launching a game. I could create a batch script but then the program would launch every single time either Ampshell or DOSBox was loaded regardless of what game is being played which would also then stay open after DOSBox was exited until closed manually.

Also, another issue that I experienced while using this is that there is a significant delay between when the mouse wheel is scrolled up or down and when the actual weapons switch on screen. Although not ideal, is that normal?

I'm not familiar with AmpShell (beyond seeing that it's a DOSBox frontend), but I did make it so that you can run the helper automatically with the game. When you run the helper, there's a "Create shortcut" button that helps you do that. That creates a desktop shortcut that basically looks like "SkyNETMouseHelper.exe DOSBox.exe Skynet.exe", which launches the helper, which then launches DOSBox, which then launches the game. If AmpShell is really flexible, maybe you can make the game's icon in that launch the helper with those parameters. If not, then you may just have to live with using a desktop shortcut (made by the helper) to launch the game, instead of using AmpShell.

As for switching weapons with the mouse wheel, a little delay is unavoidable. If it's less than second, then it's probably normal. If it's longer than a second, that's probably not normal and maybe you can fix it by changing the DOSBox overlay mode. Also, if you haven't yet applied it, it could help to apply the SkyNET Unofficial Patch 2017, which I also made and uploaded here.

I wish that I could be more help. I haven't worked on the helper or even run the game in a couple of years.

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On 11/20/2020 at 11:54 AM, Osprey said:

I'm not familiar with AmpShell (beyond seeing that it's a DOSBox frontend), but I did make it so that you can run the helper automatically with the game. When you run the helper, there's a "Create shortcut" button that helps you do that. That creates a desktop shortcut that basically looks like "SkyNETMouseHelper.exe DOSBox.exe Skynet.exe", which launches the helper, which then launches DOSBox, which then launches the game. If AmpShell is really flexible, maybe you can make the game's icon in that launch the helper with those parameters. If not, then you may just have to live with using a desktop shortcut (made by the helper) to launch the game, instead of using AmpShell.

As for switching weapons with the mouse wheel, a little delay is unavoidable. If it's less than second, then it's probably normal. If it's longer than a second, that's probably not normal and maybe you can fix it by changing the DOSBox overlay mode. Also, if you haven't yet applied it, it could help to apply the SkyNET Unofficial Patch 2017, which I also made and uploaded here.

I wish that I could be more help. I haven't worked on the helper or even run the game in a couple of years.

I've already had the patch installed for a couple years and was running in overlay render. OpenGL which I used to run prior to trying this weapon switch mod just randomly cycles the weapons repeatedly until the game is exited so it's not playable. The "create shortcut" option defeats the entire purpose of using a frontend which is to avoid the process of having to use the DOS interface and manually enter commands every time I want to play a game.

Ampshell doesn't provide an option to run additional programs prior to launching DOSBox. I tried to set command arguments in the game config to run your program after DOSBox launches and before the game is started but it's not supported in DOS so I receive the error "this program can't be run in DOS".

I guess I'll just have to pass on this.

Thanks for your time.

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, avenger said:

The "create shortcut" option defeats the entire purpose of using a frontend which is to avoid the process of having to use the DOS interface and manually enter commands every time I want to play a game.

You shouldn't have to enter any DOS commands with the "create shortcut" option if you supply the path to skynet.exe/shock.exe. The shortcut will launch the helper, which will launch DOSBox, which will launch the game. It's supposed to launch the game without any interaction from the user, just like a frontend like AmpShell. Yeah, admittedly, getting it to work with a frontend like AmpShell might be tricky, if not impossible. If you can't figure something out and aren't willing to use a regular desktop shortcut to launch the game, then it's probably not for you. Sorry.

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On 11/20/2020 at 2:14 PM, Osprey said:

You shouldn't have to enter any DOS commands with the "create shortcut" option if you supply the path to skynet.exe/shock.exe. The shortcut will launch the helper, which will launch DOSBox, which will launch the game. It's supposed to launch the game without any interaction from the user, just like a frontend like AmpShell. Yeah, admittedly, getting it to work with a frontend like AmpShell might be tricky, if not impossible. If you can't figure something out and aren't willing to use a regular desktop shortcut to launch the game, then it's probably not for you. Sorry.

Another benefit to the frontend is that all my games are displayed in the same place. Using a desktop icon would obviously change that which is inconsistent.

From my experience, your "create shortcut" option did nothing other then launch vanilla DOSBox with no command arguments. No different then clicking the DOSBox.exe with nothing configured. And yes, I added all 3 of the correct file paths prior to the shortcut being created. It still opens a default DOSBox instance with a black screen and "z:" prefix.

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