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Getting started

The shortest path from nothing to a booting SEGA ALLS title, and the concepts you need before any of it makes sense.

What you're actually working with

An ALLS cabinet is a Windows PC with a Nu (or ALLS) motherboard bolted to a monitor and a stack of IO boards, running a SEGA-proprietary wrapper around a Unity/IL2CPP game. segatools replaces the wrapper's hardware calls — card reader, touch panel, VFD, JVS, keychip, DIP switches — so a PC can run a real cabinet's game data.

That means three things you need regardless of title:

  1. A loader (segatools), matching your game code.
  2. Game data — the .app or an unpacked app/ folder. See Game dumps.
  3. A server for anything that talks to ALL.Net. Not optional: an unblessed game sits on a spinner forever. artemis for maimai/O.N.G.E.K.I./WACCA, AVNetwork for Aquaria.

The three directories

A data release unpacks to app/, option/ and amfs/, and segatools goes in app/bin/. You also create an appdata/ folder next to them — not Windows APPDATA, a confusingly-named local one. Then you point segatools at all four:

[vfs]
amfs=../../amfs
appdata=../../appdata
option=../../option

amfs/ holds the ICF1 and ICF2 files (no extension) and sysfile.dat. The ICF is the manifest: it declares which files belong to the game and at what sequence number. It has to be the ICF for your game code, or you get amGfetcherInit(). ErrCode -1.

option/ holds cabinet config in an Axxx folder, and it sets orientation, resolution and DIP state.

The order things go wrong in

Worth knowing in advance, because the failures cascade:

  1. Wrong code → nothing boots, ICF error.
  2. Wrong monitor mode → boot, then monitor error 3400/3401. See Game codes.
  3. No server → title screen spinner, forever.
  4. DIP switch wrong → hangs on "checking distribution server".
  5. Cabinet-to-cabinet on → hangs on "settings synchronizing".
  6. Path too long → amAppImageInit(). ErrCode -5. Under 16 characters for the full amfs path.
  7. Non-C drive → errors with no explanation. subst it or move it.
  8. Username == PC name → CreateFileMappingW failed.

Troubleshooting has the full table with fixes.

First boot

Run launch.bat as Administrator at least once — segatools needs to write to the registry. Hex dumps scrolling in the AM Daemon window are normal and mean it's working. You'll get a red LED error on screen; segatools doesn't emulate the cabinet's RGB strips, so dismiss it.

Then 1 opens the operator menu (Test). Set the distribution server to サーバー (Server) and the cabinet group to OFF, then restart when prompted.

Hold Enter to scan a card and add a credit. First scan writes a card ID to DEVICE\felica.txt.

Practical things

  • [clock] timezone=1 makes the system time look like JST. SEGA games misbehave in strange ways otherwise, and Japanese titles lock out outside operating hours.
  • Don't put 127.0.0.1 in [dns] default=. The games check for loopback and reject it. Use a LAN IP or a hostname.
  • Paths are short on purpose. C:\Games\SDDT\amfs is already close to the limit.
  • Keep segatools current. A surprising number of errors on this page are fixed in a release from the last few months.