Mangledmon

I've noticed that when I want to run arcade games via Zinc that I have to kill HideOS to get it to display anything on the screen - is my problem related to this, or have I just done something incorrect on my setup?

Thanks for that - I'll give it a go over the next week or so and see how it goes. If anyone else has any more tips they could offer, by all means post away in the interim! -Mangledmon-

No worries headkaze, I'll look forward to hearing from you when you get the chance! Oh, and thanks again to bkenobi and greatflash for letting me know I was going about this the right way!! -Mangledmon-

Well, I finally updated my MAME list to 0.127 (I built an optimised version of mame for C2D processors as well - I've never compiled MAME before, and only noticed the other day that there's a fancypants program on these forums for making it easier to do ), but didn't get a chance to try out some of the more intensive games last night. I'll give MK4, SF Rush and some Model 3 games a whirl tonight and see how they go -Mangledmon-

Thanks Hunk_4TH - I've just recently finished the upgrade, and while I haven't tried out some of the newer 3D arcade titles, I can at least get full speed with no audio skipping on STV stuff, so I'm pretty chuffed so far! I'll hopefully have a newer MAME set coming in soon so I'll be able to test out performance with newer games then, but your advice proved spot-on and was very helpful! The new video card has made a huge difference with the quality of the output as well - even though its only SD, it looks absolutely stunning in component video! -Mangledmon-

Ack, long title Hopefully this isn't a stupid question, so bear with me! One thing I haven't tried out in GameEx is playing DVDs via disc images (complete with all the usual navigation options - menus, skip scenes, ff/rw, etc) - is this possible? And if so, can you set it up so that the cover art flashes up on the screen while you're browsing DVDs disc images (kinda like how screenshots flash up when scrolling through games)? The reason I ask is that I was talking to one of the girls at work yesterday, and was telling her about GameEx and how well the system works as a multimedia player when hooked up a PC to a TV for playing videos. She's in a somewhat unique situation - her 6 year-old son is non-verbal autistic, which means that he can't communicate by speaking, but can understand images and things like that. He's now old/big enough to grab DVDs off the shelf and plonk them in the DVD player, and they're finding that their collection of kids DVDs are getting really scratched. I mentioned how GameEx works, and as he is starting to learn how to use a computer, she thought it might be a good solution if she simply dumped their collection of DVDs onto the PC and thus saved all the wear and tear on the discs. The thing is, since he can't read and she wants to encourage his growing sense of independence he's showing with picking out DVDs for himself by looking at the covers, the system would need to be able to display cover art for each disc. So, since I haven't messed around with playing DVDs through GameEx before, I was wondering if someone could shed some light on the topic? I'd love to be able to help set something up for them, and reckon this just might do the trick. Any help would be really appreciated. Thanks. -Mangledmon-

Thanks for the reply! I just wanted to make sure I'd gone about it the right way! I've been messing around with GameEx (and have been a registered user) since... '06 I think, but I haven't been very active in the forums though (I'm a bit slack [and kept on forgetting my password] I read through them regularly though!), and I can understand his trepidation with regards to access to the database - like I said, I've done the library thing for a while now, and can appreciate how crucial database integrity is in a project like this. I'm currently in charge of our library systems database(s) (including the online access/querying modules I've setup on our webserver in-house) and website systems (nothing fancy - just ASP with some lightweight mdb connections, all of which were setup before I started but all of which I maintain) at work. We've also recently been going the ECMS route and have thrown MOSS 2007 into the mix, and I've been involved with some of the web template customisation and data settings for that, so I figure I have a reasonable degree (nothing huge/fancy though - I just have an interest in computers/systems and work in an industry where I do a lot of cataloging and database stuff) of familiarity with cataloguing/database systems, and I'm a big gaming fan, and so I thought I might be able to help out. Still, I've waffled about all of this to HK in the lengthy PM I sent through, so I'll await his judgment on the matter! -Mangledmon-

I'm still a n00b around here, but I'd like to help out if I can - I'm a librarian, so I'm pretty familiar with the whole cataloguing/data entry thing. I've sent Headkaze a (long-winded ) PM with some details (I'm interested in helping out with Master System/Genesis stuff), but its been a few days and I'm unsure if I've gone about it wrong (should I have posted in this thread first?)... or maybe I'm just being impatient, so sorry about that! Just wanted to make sure I was going about this the right way!! Thanks, -Mangledmon-

Can I ask what might be a really stupid question? I've recently upgraded my box and have enabled all the fancy effects in GameEx GUI. I notice that in all the V2+ themes that the selector bar will enlarge the currently selected item - i.e., if I select MAME on the front page, the selector bar will be enlarged compared to the rest of the items (looks like it gets zoomed slightly - looks really awesome). On my V2 theme I put together ages back (and that I still continue to use), I notice that it won't do this, and I'm not sure why. I've compared .ini files between my theme and other themes, and despite other themes now doing this cool effect since I've enabled all the eye candy on my new setup, my old V2 theme doesn't. Below is a cut and paste of my theme: Any help would be appreciated!! I'm running XP SP3 and the latest version of GameEx. -Mangledmon-

Hi all, Just a quick question - I'm giving the PC running GameEx an overhaul in a week or two, with the aim being to upgrade the CPU/GPU/RAM, plonk in the latest version of GameEx and MAME, and add in Model 2 emulation as well. My current setup is a 3ghz Celeron with 512mb of RAM and a 128mb FX5500. The new rig will be C2D E8500 (@stock speeds), 2gb RAM and a 512mb 9500GT. I want to be able to play at least all the 2D MAME games at full speed without audio skipping and get full speed on Model 2 titles and maybe quasi-playable framerates out of some of the 3D titles on MAME (but mainly all the 2D stuff is what I want covered). I also wouldn't mind getting some Naomi games added to the mix. I'm also keen to enable some of the flashier/newer effects in GameEx, since I have some of the fancy effects in my current version (v8.something) disabled to conserve CPU cycles. So, how does the new gear stack up? I'm hoping it'll do the job, but since you guys know more than me, I figured it couldn't hurt to ask! Thanks so much - I'm constantly reading up on the boards and appreciate everyone's help -Mangledmon-

Just a quick question - Is there working emulation for Model 1 and Model 3? I've trawled the net and haven't found much - a few references to Modeler and SMOG (neither play Model 1) and Supermodel (Model 3), with the latter cropping up on one of the MAME dev message boards in Feb this year (the thread was discussing multithreading in the Model 2 emu), but without any useful details. I only have an old version of MAME (0.83), and figured maybe Model 1 stuff is now playable? If so, what system would be needed to get 60fps? I figured since Model 2 has now been done, maybe Model 1 and Model 3 will get a go. I'd love to play some arcade perfect Virtua Fighter 1 and Virtua Fighter 3, maybe some Scud Racer, Sega Rally 2, etc. Thanks if anyone can help out. -Mangledmon-

Hi all, Okay, I have two things I'd like to query... I reckon one of them might be possible, but I'm not sure about the other. So, here goes 1: I'm currently using the hardware stretch in MAME, and while I like it for stretching all horizontal games to fit my 4:3 screen, I'd rather vertical games keep their aspect ratio instead of being pulled something crazy horizontally. Anyone know how I could implement something within MAME (either in the command line of MAME's .ini file) to set this up? Out of interest, I want to get MAME to stretch the games without blurring anything, keeping it beautiful and blocky . I'm currently using hardware stretch with the '-effect sharp' command; does anyone have a better idea of what I could do to make it super sharp? 2: I'm using PS2-USB converters for my controls, and am getting some quality Hori joysticks in soon. Since the layout between the current PS2 pads (they're pads with 6-buttons on the face) and the joysticks are different, I'd like to set up separate MAME controller files depending on what I'm using. I don't know if GameEx would allow you to add an option before you hit 'Play this game' to switch between them, or if I should just copy my MAME program data to another folder and setup GameEx to treat it as another emulator... but this would be tricky because it would simply list the zip files and not the game names... or could I use the database command to get it to reference something to display the correct game titles? Or does anyone have a better work-around? Thanks guys!! -Mangledmon-

Hi Tom! For your interest, it runs really well on my machine, better than I thought it would!! I have a few options turned off, but it runs pretty well overall. My only issue is that I have it hooked up to my TV so my default theme I built runs at 800 x 600, and is probably a little too high for viewing it via S-Video; I'm going to experiment with a 640 x 480 theme to see how it goes. As for the emulator situation, I've gone through and can get every emulator to work now, but hitting escape still isn't working, and all the games have map keys set to on. Go fig Until I find out otherwise, I've got icons on my desktop and will use GameEx for watching movies and playing MAME Cheers! -Mangaman-

Ruby - thanks for that! It looks like the hanging issue was to do with my theme and the fact that my PC went into standby!!! All fixed now and MAME is working a treat. Same for the C64, but I'm having issues with my other emulators, if anyone could help- - Gens won't load up properly - it either has a fault, or loads in a window Should I grab Fusion instead and try that? - Most emulators won't quit back to GameEx when I hit escape, except for MAME. zSNES and Nestopia, for example, go into their File/&tc menu bars, and Stella isn't interested in doing anything. - Finally, ePSXe doesn't like returning to GameEx after playing a game when pressing the escape key - it exits the emulator, but GameEx won't come up afterwards. The weird thing is that I didn't have any of these issues when I'd set up my test on my WinXP machine - I could get everything to exit by pressing the escape button and didn't get the probs I'm having here. Am I doing something wrong, or is it a Win98SE thing? Any help would be appreciated!! -Mangledmonn-

Hi guys, I've just installed version 7.05 of GameEx onto my dedicated GameEx PC (finally - I've been planning to do it for ages and have finally done it!), but I'm coming across two probs. First I'll list my specs, and then detail what's happening: AMD Athlon 1.2ghz CPU 512mb PC-133 SD RAM nVidia FX5500 128mb video card (latest Win98SE drivers, + I've tested older drivers as recommended) Keyboard/mouse, 2x USB Playstation 2 controller adaptors (for emu's) OS: Windows 98SE Probs- - When GameEx starts up, it plays the opening movie, but then goes to a black screen and won't load the menu until I click a mouse button. This happened on an earlier version of GameEx v7, so I updated to the 7.05, and no change. It runs everything nice and smooth now I've changed some of the display options, but yeah, it won't load the GUI unless I click a mouse button. Should I change the opening movie from a WMV into DivX/Xvid or an MPEG if that's causing the issue? On my WinXP system which I used as a test bed, I didn't have this problem. - When I load up MAME and get it to update the game list, it starts indexing, but it hangs. I left it for 30mins yesterday, and when I went back to it, there was a blank screen and no disk activity. I've noticed that the bottom-half of the screen that tells you what GameEx is doing/indexing/etc for MAME stuff isn't there - there's just a blank sectionn of screen in black. Any ideas for getting it to behave? - I'm using MAME .083 as its the only version I have the full ROM set for. I notice that I can get some of the game listing options to work correctly (multiplayer/all/4-player games), but things like Neo Geo and CPS games won't list accordingly. Is there a special file I need to get it to index these correctly? I had the same prob on my WinXP system for this as well. Thanks again guys - I reeally appreciate the help!! -Mangledmon-