I would like to request adding the option to pause when the menu opens from pressing esc

[wolfcat]

I had been using ZSNES and I switched to snes9x for security reasons.

I talked with Mariotag from Zeldix and he and I think that what we like about ZSNES is that for us at least doing save state saves and loads are easier and quicker in ZSNES than snes9x. He added that when playing Kaizo hacks that pausing when tapping esc when the menu pops up makes it much easier to play through the really tough hacks.

I want to add that this doesn't have to be something that everyone has to agree on and there can be an option to toggle pause when the menu is opened using the esc key.

There are other things to this that makes ZSNES faster for doing save states. With ZSNES to do a quick save state without keyboard shortcuts(which I will get to in a little). :
We tap esc,
arrow down,
arrow left when asked if you want to load or save,
tap enter
and then tap esc which for me takes about 2 or 3 seconds.

With snes9x:
we use select-pause or pause from the controller,
tap esc,
use the mouse to move over to the menu then left click the menu,
arrow down,
then arrow over to the right,
then we still have to select which save state we want to use on the fly,
then enter

I suppose the menu can be left open, but I prefer a more fullscreen. Although I am pleasantly surprised with how great snes9x is.

OK, but you might be wondering why not just use keyboard shortcuts. I use a laptop so instead of shift-F1 and so on are shft-F1 but instead are shift-fn-F1. fn being a laptop keyboard key that has to be pressed to use the F1-F12 keyboard keys. Plus it's hard to see my laptop F1-F12 keys even with light. It's much worse in the dark,
but even with this I can just change the keyboard shortcuts to something like Ctrl-S for save state slot 0, Ctrl-D for save state slot 1 and Ctrl-L for load state slot 0 and Ctrl-K for load state slot 1.

I might as well ask for this though, because setting the keyboard short cuts to those things seems a little weird-wonky to me, and it doesn't include the other save and load state slots, but I know this is all minor things.

Any of these ideas can be made to toggle in the options so that esc pauses the menu with the menu automatically opening up to arrow down with the keyboard without the use of the mouse, but the mouse can also still be used as well to select save and load state slots,

but another thing ZSNES has is that save states slots are pre-selected by the user, which is what I was referring to when I said:
"then we still have to select which save state we want to use on the fly" as one of the steps to do save and load states in ZSNES

Other than this snes9x is really really really great. I don't know of anything otherwise I would want to change, Everything else to me is near perfect.

[wolfcat]

I am going to add that alt can pause if the menu is visible.

To load state slot 0 in snes9x with menu already open:
1. alt
2. down arrow
3. down arrow
4. down arrow
5. down arrow
6. enter
7. enter

To load the pre-selected load state slot in ZSNES:
1. esc
2. down arrow
3. down arrow
4. down arrow
5. down arrow
6. enter
7. left
8. enter
9. esc

but without having to leave the menu open which in snes9x is a little distracting, but not that bad. And as stated before the pre-selected save and load state makes saving and loading quicker in ZSNES, because otherwise it would take more careful selection while trying to save and load fast. ZSNES is bigger and easier too read, so if the Developers of snes9x tried to changed it's menu to be bigger it wouldn't work with keeping the menu open for using alt to pause. If they added three options that can be toggled:
1. for esc to pause and grab the menu to arrow through,
and
2. the second option to toggle the menu to be bigger
and
3. the third option to make it so we the users can choose the save states and load states ahead of time to save and load faster then this might work better.

All toggle-able in some combo. With the menu being simpler for the save state part in combination with the being bigger and more visible. I am just not sure though, but that is along the lines of what I want.

Note: It takes more steps in snes9x to load and save other slots depending on which save and load states used, but it is a little confusing to do when in a rush as I have already said.

[OV2]

The menu in s9x is a standard windows menu, so there is no real way to control the size. Automatically opening it is also not that easy.

It might be possible to add an option for auto-pause, but that seems like a very specific use case.


Setting up hotkeys for save/load and slot+/slot- might be easier than trying to get the window menu working in a way that fits your use.
You could also try setting hotkeys for "save/load with preview", then you'll get a dialog where you can click on the save slot.