RedDog

That's not a bad idea.

I have a feeling you are right. I tinkered with the Theme Editor and the ini files and could not see a way to separate the game selection screen with the game information screen. You could request this as a feature (if it already has not been done), but I have a feeling that it would be a significant change due to it having to impact not only GameEx but the Theme Editor as well.

If you were using GameEx Arcade, the answer would be 'No'. Since you are using GameEx, the answer is 'Yes'. You can have separate screen configurations for practically every screen...however, there is no setting in GameEx to allow for this. The change must be made to the theme in the Theme Editor. I am a novice at the Theme Editor myself, but I believe that you cannot make one configuration for just the emulators. Each will need their own.

I went through the exact same thing. I had the old PS/2 X-arcade with a Y-adapter that I had stashed in the closet for a few years. When I brought it out to try with Windows 7 I found that it sometimes lagged or did not respond. I ended up switching the guts out for an iPac with a new stick and buttons. A few of the guys on these forums were super helpful.

OK then, to set up Mame follow the instructions in the GameEx Setup portion of the guide. >>>> Mame Setup Guide <<<< And I do like the idea the guide has of using one rom in the rom folder to begin. It makes the gamelist generation fast when you are testing it. Once you can launch and play a mame Game via GameEx, then you can dump all of the roms into the rom folder and update the list again.

In saying that, it sounds like you are asking that we explain every little detail. I am sorry, but I am not personally going to do that. It takes too much time and effort. Please be aware that the vast majority of people who help out in these forums are donating their free time because they love GameEx, the hobby, and the community. Our main focus in this forum is to support GameEx and while we very often help out with other GameEx related things (Windows, emulator, graphics, videos, etc issues), we expect that users are going to try and do the legwork themselves. I suggested before that you start by looking at RIP-Felix's guide. From your question about folders, I have to wonder if you did because he talks about folder placement for Mame. So now my advice is that you go back to the guide and set up Mame somewhere on your PC and get it working independently of GameEx. You can place the Emulation folders anywhere on your PC (including your desktop), but I suggest you instead place them outside your Desktop and My Documents folder in a place that you have space to grow. Once Mame is working, install GameEx and continue following the guide. As far as installing GameEx, just treat it like any other program you have installed. A 'Programs' folder is fine To get into this hobby, you will need to have some familiarity with how files and folders are kept and arranged within Windows. I can't tell from your posts if you are comfortable with that or not. If you are not, it would be in your best interest to look for some websites that explain how that stuff works. Learning about links will likely be helpful for you as well.

First things first. Sit back and take things one step at a time. You are right that there is a lot of 'stuff' in the Setup Wizard for GameEx. If you try to dive into it all at once, it will feel overwhelming. Also, as Draco said, the emulation hobby does require some effort. You gotta love it or it will feel more like work than fun. Be aware that you don't NEED the Mame System Pack to set up GameEx. It will make Mame in GameEx look really nice, but you can just add it later too. Download it if you like, but I suggest you set it aside until you get Mame working and you understand a bit more. You mentioned Mame, so I suggest starting Here. It is a Guide RIP-Felix made up a few years ago and it is pretty detailed. Please be aware that any emulator you want to set up in GameEx must work outside GameEx first. If it doesn' t work outside, it won't work inside. If you run into snags or have questions about setting GameEx up with Mame, post your questions along with your gameex.ini and log.txt files (as I suggested above). It is very difficult to help without being able to reference those files.

Well then...may the force be with you....always...

Hi Streetwise, First, let's get your post moved to the GameEx General forums. That is the place to ask for help with GameEx (don't worry, it happens all the time). Next, please post your GameEx.ini file from your GameEx\CONFIG folder and your log.txt file from the GameEx\LOG folder. We will start from there. In your next reply, you can drag and drop the files into an area at the bottom of the post. Easy peasy. Also, could you please clarify what you mean by 'trying to get the headache free version of Mame' as Mame itself is not available via GameEx. Perhaps you are referring to the Mame System Pack which only contains media such as images and videos.

Thank you kindly.

I think the best way to go would be to request that the wheel slide functionality be added to GameEx as well as Updates to GameEx and GameEx Arcade: a way to choose the idle duration of the wheel slide like "never, 5, 10, 15, 20 seconds" as well as a way to apply the wheel slide to "background video only, background video and background snaps". Perhaps some additional parameters could be created in the Display Settings. I would not be surprised if it was an oversight that the wheel slide was not included in the GameEx wheel views. I would think that the devs would prefer that the wheel would operate in the same manner on both platforms, though they may decide to leave GameEx Arcade as it is to keep it's simpler setup. It never hurts to ask.

I do think you figured it out. I went back and retested the same thing in the Emulator Setup and found that if I assigned my Video Snap folder to the Video Theme path, the videos would play in the background as a theme and the wheel would shift out of view after 10 seconds or so. When GameEx Arcade was first released, I grabbed the Theme videos from emumovies. Since I have always had video themes for Mame, the 'shifting' just always worked for me. I did not even realize that there was some conditional functionality in place with the wheel. However, I no longer feel it is a bug, but is likely intentional functionality. Pushing aside the wheel to show off a video background makes sense - as it looks very similar to a screen saver, but it doesn't really fit for me for for scrolling logos (if no theme or video snap is available). I suggest putting up a request in the Feature Request thread here if you really feel a change is necessary. Either way, do yourself a favor first and start downloading assets for your setup. Go to emumovies and create a free (or paid) account. Also set your Automatic Artwork Download to your emumovies login. GameEx will automatically download up to 250megs of assets each day for free accounts (unlimited for paid). It will name the asset files to match the rom names and place them in the folders you designate in the Mame Settings and Emulator Settings. If you go the free route, you should have Logos, Snaps, and Titles in a only few days. GameEx will look nicer once some of those graphic assets start popping up. Then, set a default video background (such as the GameEx theme background or a Mame montage) and you will have a nice basic setup. Then, once you have a more filled out and prettier setup, you can decide if it still merit's a change.

Hey Dazzle! Welcome back to the funny farm.

@Rochabian I found something interesting that may help you. I have all of my roms and assets on an external hard drive that I only turn on when I want to use it. I was tinkering with GameEx Arcade today and forgot to turn the drive on. When I went into the All Games for Mame, the list failed to shift to the right when it was idle. It wasn't until I turned my drive on and ran GameEx Arcade that the wheel for Mame would shift out of view after idling around 10 seconds. I later turned the drive off and tested again and the shifting did not happen. It seams like an odd relationship, but since the mame game list and some of the assets are kept in the GameEx Arcade folder, it may be an unexpected side affect of not having access to content it expects. It looks like you set up your mame now. Have you regenerated the game list and retested since you made the change?

@Draco1962 Rochabian does not have any other emulators set up yet. It does look like the intention here is to use the integrated Mame Settings. @Rochabian I think what Draco is referring to in the log is that there is an error message that says your Mame path is invalid. You should correct the path, confirm the executable, and then recompile your game list. It would be a little odd if this was somehow the reason...but... I loaded your config on my GameEx Arcade setup and only updated the Mame Settings. The logos did shift out of view after 10 seconds or so. Attached is that Here is that gameex.ini file for reference. NOTE: We know that the slide does not happen with emulators in the Emulator Setup area...and that is likely a bug (which we will escalate); but it it would be nice to narrow this issue down first in case we need to do both. GameEx.ini

One thing I would like to point out from the video is that you do not remain idle for more than a few seconds. Please try going into the Mame All Games menu and let it sit idle for 30 seconds and report back. N o video necessary. I just want to confirm with a test. Also, please post your gamex.ini and log.txt.

Windows 10 has been out long enough that I consider it to be a strong platform, as good as Windows 7 or maybe a bit better. I have not done a Windows Upgrade because I have read that sometimes they create problems fresh installs generally do not have. If I have read information on the upgrade correctly, your license should be valid for either 8.1 or 10 (but you should do your own checking). I would consider downloading the Windows 10 iso and installing that fresh.

The filenames for Mame roms are much more consistent than with other emulators (like nes, genesis, etc). The only time you will see different filenames for a Mame games is because there are multiple versions of the roms due to country or region specific releases or re-releases. I really think that once you decide that you definitely want the theme videos, the subscription to emumovies is worth it...even if it is for one month just to get a good base. I have a subscription and I was updating today using the emumovies sync application and it reminded me how nice it was that it would rename each asset download to match the rom. That alone saves SOoooooo much time. The asset download for GameEx essentially does the same thing (since it connects to emumovies too), but since it is free you only get basic graphic assets like snaps, title snaps, logos, etc.

True. For around $70.00, it was something 'newish' to tinker with. It's been a long, looooong time since I fooled around with anything Linux based. Gotta admit that I felt a little more noobish than I expected.

I had to tinker with it to figure it out, but you can set a default video background that will be played if a theme video is not found. For the Mame Settings or the Emulator Setup, set the Video Background to the path video you want shown and place a video there. Please keep in mind that I only tested with one background video in the folder. Since it worked, I did not test further. I don't know off hand what would happen if you threw several videos in that folder, whether it would choose the 'first' one, randomize, or something else. You can experiment further if you like. GameEx has a lot of if-this-does-not-exist-play-that types of systems and it's not always easy to remember all of them.

OK, I am beginning to see something here. @Rochabian, Is the Mame you showed in your video configured in the Emulator Setup area or the Mame Settings area? I ask because GameEx Arcade has a specific section for configuring Mame called Mame Settings. When you set Mame up there, you will get the ability to make all sorts of menus available like 'Show All Games', 'Show 4 Player Games', etc. When you navigate these menus in GameEx, the wheel will shift out of view when the GUI is left idle for around 10 seconds. However, I just found that for emulators set up in the Emulator Setup section, the wheel does not shift when the GUI is left idle. If you set up your Mame in this section, that explains why you are seeing something different than Draco and I. Please confirm. This does look like a minor oversight that Tom (the dev) probably missed. Side Note #1: You are missing out on some bells and whistles that the Mame Setting section gives you. However, if you like the simpler GUI setup that the Emulator Setup sections gives you, there is nothing wrong with doing it that way. Side Note #2: I ran your video in VLC and it said it was broken. I was able to few some of it, but I am not sure if I was able to see it all. Anyway, it still helped enough.

I bought into the Retro Pi3 scene a while back and found it to be just OK. I only intended it for use with Retropie. The Pi3 is fine for what it can do, but I was disappointed with where the power level cut off. I also found it to be a little more finicky than I expected it. I saw many articles and forum posts that reinforced periodically backing up the image 'just in case' something goes wrong. For the Pi3, those are words to live by. Now, I just accept that sometimes bad things will happen and an occasional reload is the fix. I am keeping my eye on the Odroid XU4 at the moment since it has quite a bit more juice than the Pi3; I just haven't decided if I want another project to throw my hat in on.

I tested this in GameEx Arcade in the Mame menu, and it worked fine for me. The timing is more like 10 seconds instead of 5 and the logo wheel didn't fade away, it slid to the right off screen. Try waiting a bit longer. I do not believe there are any settings for controlling the visibility of the wheel. I would expect them to be in the Display Settings or Enable/Disable Features area and I did not note anything.

OK, I found this earlier today. It looks like netplay for MAme/MESS was worked on for GameEx, but interest was so lackluster that it was dropped in 2013. In any case, like Adultery pointed out, netplay is available through various platforms at various versions. If you REALLY want netplay, there are other avenues available.

I do not believe there is a Guide specifically for GameEx Arcade. Since it is an off-shoot of GameEx, most of the information there should be helpful though. However, please be aware that many of the choices available in GameEx are hard-coded in GameEx Arcade. This makes the setup simpler and more streamlined for new users, but takes away from some of the versatility that seasoned GameEx'ers may be used to. So, if you don't see a particular section or parameter in the Setup Wizard, most likely it is one of those hard-coded choices. Both platforms are good options. It just depends on how much you want to tinker.