Game Lad supports passing a path to a ROM on the command line. If you use the Register File Types in the options dialog, files are opened using Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE). This way, the Game Lad window is reused. You can also drop a file in the Game Lad window to open it. By default, the first icon in Game Lad.exe is selected for ROM images. Game Lad has seven different icons, so you can choose your own favorite color.
When clicking Register File Types, Game Lad also adds a property sheet page when right-clicking a file and selecting properties. For this to work, the Game Lad.dll must be in the same directory as Game Lad.exe. The property sheet shows the type of cartridge it uses. If the checksum/complement check/nintendo character area are incorrect, a "fix" button will appear.
If you want to launch Game Lad from another program, you can use ShellExecute to open the ROM with the default program. Using DDE provides more possibilities. If you continue to read, I assume you are familiar with DDE.
Game Lad's service name is "Game Lad". It responds to topic "system" (SZDDESYS_TOPIC), and XTYP_EXECUTE. The data is a string of keywords (lower case) separated by commas (no spaces should be used). Paths should be within "". Game Lad rejects the string if it includes any error, or there isn't enough memory. The string is assumed to be syntactically correct. If it is not, Game Lad might crash.
[{dmg | gbc},] [{battery,[batterypath] | nobattery},] [{state,[statepath] | nostate},] {open | load | debug | execute},path
| dmg, gbc | optional | |
|---|---|---|
| battery, nobattery | optional | Always/never loads battery. If batterypath is not specified, the default path is used. |
| state, nostate | optional | Always/never loads a saved state. If statepath is not specified, the latest saved state is loaded. |
| open, load, debug, execute | required | Open uses default auto start value. |
If Game Lad is not running, HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Game Lad\Path holds the path to the executable file. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Game Lad\VersionMajor and -Minor tells the current version of Game Lad.
