NEWS: GameEx 9.95 Released

[Tom Speirs]

GameEx 9.95 brings what I think is one of the nicest core features implemented in quite some time. Via en emulator map configuration file (available from the start menu group or in the config folder) specific mame games or mame game types can be configured to launch with other emulators in GameEx. Daphne is also supported. This I believe is similar in function to MultiMame. The feature is quite powerfull and should support any scenario where you wish to use an alternate version of MAME or a faster or woriking emulator. Also with this release the MAME list update has been optimized and is a fair bit faster. There is a new hibernate option on the exit menu, and a new custom input feature to allow shutdown or hibernate of the pc with a key combo. Finally the theme editor has been updated (thanks Ben) with a new option to hide the game info/selected item text. No April fools joke this year. Just a cool GameEx update.

[Tom Speirs]

For those whos work does not include GameEx (yeah I am a lucky guy!) and have to wait here is what mameemumap.ini looks like

# This file allows launching specific MAME roms
# With an alternative emulator setup in GameEx
# such as an alternate version of MAME or an emulator
# that provides faster emulation.
# Note: a MAME game list update is required after making changes
# here.
# This is a registered version feature

[GENERAL]
# Enable this feature in GameEx and use this file

Enabled=false


# You may not want to list an emulator specified seperatly 
# in the GameEx menus
# and make this feature transparent.
# Specify Emulator Numbers seperated by | to hide and use only for MAME

Hide=


# Some emulators need the full filename of the rom. ie with the .zip extension
# Specify emulators where the extension should be used seperated by |

Ext=


# If you want roms for a specific driver to always be visible in the list
# and override any other filters, such as when you dont have the MAME rom
# specify the drivers seperated by |

Driver=


# The following settings tell GameEx when to use an emulator to launch
# instead of MAME. To specifcally specify MAME use 0. To specify Daphne
# use 1000
#
# Example Launches 1942 rom with emulator 10:
# 1942=10
#
# Example Launch rom lair with Daphne:
# lair=1000
#
# Specify a list of rom names with an emulator number
# to have GameEx launch the rom with that emulator


[MAPROMS]
# Map ROMS to an emulator on an individual basis
# This overrides any other mappings
# If you want to exclude a rom from any of the other mappings
# Specify it here as 0 (use MAME)
# Specifing a rom and an enabled emulator here will also
# ensure it will override all other filters when  updating the
# game list and always be available.
dlair=1000
dlairf=1000
dlaire=1000
dlaird=1000
dlairc=1000
dlairb=1000
dlaira=1000

[MAPPROPERTIES]
# This matches roms with the specified properties as below

Analog=0
Cocktail=0
Vertical=0
Gun=0
Trackball=0
Vector=0
Horizontal=0


[MAPDRIVER]
# Specify a list of MAME drivers to map
neogeo=0


[RENAME]
# When a match is found for a rom, rename it to the following
# When passing it to the emulator. The emulator will try to launch the
# new name. 
#
# Example:
# mrdriller=drill.zip
dlair=lair
dlairf=lair
dlaire=lair
dlaird=lair
dlairc=lair
dlairb=lair
dlaira=lair

[bkenobi]

Just curious how the artwork is set up for this new feature? Do we need to set up the artwork paths for the emulators, or are those carried over from MAME? If they are carried over, that means that we will have to add extra content into the MAME Extras directories for Daphne (everything else should be ok I think). Also, Emumovies doesn't have clips for games that don't play in MAME in the MAME distro. The Daphne stuff is a separate download as is Zinc. It's not a huge thing, I'm just making sure I understand how to set things up.

Thanks!

[emphatic]

Yes, how about the bezels for vertical games? What if you specify use of one MAME version that utilizes the old format for a vertical game and then one that uses the new format for another vertical game? On another note, the bezel version detection during the Game list update is still causing issues for me. An option to turn it off would be very nice.

Emph

[Tom Speirs]

See my post just done regarding the new feature. It explains a little about alternate MAME setup, basically bezels and everything else are all handled by the seperate emulator config. All GamEx deoes is pass it the rom name. The GameEx bezel feature is not supported directly. it jsut treats an alternate MAME setup like any other emulator.

It uses the artowrk, snaps videos etc from the standard MAME setup, so if you want daphne vids, youd have to put in the folder for your standard MAME setup. Thats the nice thing about this really, as it uses the standard MAME datab ase, for game info, categories etc. MAybe Circo will come up with a video update for this, that would be cool.

[bkenobi]

Cool, that works!

Just curious if Zinc got broken with this update? I haven't been using the built in Zinc support for a while, but now that the alternate versions of MAME are supported I'm moving back. I turned on Zinc support and it loads roms in MAME. If I can get confirmation that things still work, I'll continue to error check my config. Thanks!

[Tom Speirs]

Cool, that works!

Just curious if Zinc got broken with this update? I haven't been using the built in Zinc support for a while, but now that the alternate versions of MAME are supported I'm moving back. I turned on Zinc support and it loads roms in MAME. If I can get confirmation that things still work, I'll continue to error check my config. Thanks!

Im testing now, although with the new feature, Im thinking you wouldnt really use the in built zinc or model 2 support and would set them up a seperate emulators.. That why I have not tested with the new feature. It should still work as before, unless its specifically assigned to do something esle in MAMEemumap.ini

Frequency just confirmed to me it is still working, so unless mameemumap.ini is set to do something different it as before.

Did you update the list again BK? Im guessing thats why.

Edit :works for me too.

[bkenobi]

Is there a list of properties that we can use for the "[MAPPROPERTIES]" section? Perhaps that's the only ones available, but I'm curious... Also, when I tried to set up zinc this way, I used:

[MAPDRIVER]
zn=101

This didn't work for me. Do parent bios not work? Do I just need to make zn1, zn2, psx, etc all point to 101? Same goes for Model2. Thanks!

[Tom Speirs]

Just the settings listed altrhough I am open to requests, and it reads the source field so parent bios wont work.

Edit: yes, point them all, then use maproms with rom=0 to filter out any not supported.