RedDog

@John Simon This may be of interest to you John: WS.Reputation.1

Been there, done that...don't do that!!!

Thanks for doing this guide. I have been doing the GameEx side of things for a long time and never quite got around to looking at the PinballX side. It's nice to have something to look over once I decide to take a stab at it.

Well, the GameEx Arcade Edition actually says it is for "MAME and arcade systems". As you know, N64 is not arcade; it is a console. But, it is an easy thing to overlook in the description. I should also say 'welcome to the hobby'; but one thing to remember with this hobby is that it can be a tinkerers's dream or nightmare. An emulator not only has to be configured properly, but if you are a perfectionist (like I am), you might spend a whole bunch of extra time getting things exactly the way you want it. Then, you might do the same for ten more emulators. Then, you want a nice, fancy front end launcher like GameEx to make everything look and sound pretty...and then the perfectionist in you will want to spend a whole bunch of time setting that up exactly the way you want it. And then...and THEN...AND THEN... So, the moral of my little blurb here is to work on it when it's fun and set it aside if it starts to feel like work (or play some games on it darn it).

Hold on a sec...something doesn't sound quite right...Greego, did you install the standard GameEx, GameEx Evolution, or GameEx Arcade Edition? Because the only one that supports more than Mame is the standard GameEx. Since you say that you have searched the Setup Wizard up and down for the emulator setup, I am wondering if you have the wrong version installed. GameEx Evolution is currently in alpha and was made available to the public a while back so people could get a sneak peak and kick the tires a bit. It was not the release version and would not be approprite to use in a permanent build (not yet anyway). GameEx Arcade Edition is a stripped down version of the standard GameEx that was aimed at Mame only builds. Because it is a bit leaner, it requires less system resources, which is nice for older PCs dedicated to Mame cabinets. The standard GameEx is the version you would need if you want to use emulators other than Mame. If you are not sure what you have installed, go to the GameEx\LOG folder and open the log.txt file. The second line should say either GameEx or GameEx Arcade Edition. If you do not have a GameEx\LOG folder, then you have GameEx Evolution installed.

I am gonna pass on this one. I think the limitations of the console will end up being a sore point for a lot of people.

Hey Greego, it is not a link that Draco gave, but a search phrase. Just go to google.com and enter site:gameex.info/forums n64 into the search box. The results will be limited to the GameEx forums where 'n64' is included on the page.

I've always liked wrestling games. This is one I have played morre than a few times. That CoCo Savage is one brutal (and cheap a$$) dude. Stage 6, 56,000

Well, I went to the mountain seeking the great master and after a whole lotta training montages, this is the best I could do... 84,700 I've never gotten a score as high as Ex put up. Some people just have natural talent. I guess I will just have to settle for my good looks.

Quite the opposite. I was taking your advice without taking any steps beyond what you have said. I don't know a lot about codecs, so instead of making a misstep, I wanted to wait on you before moving forward. I will enable the 'Shark007 SUGGESTED settings' as you commented. Should I install the KaraokeDX as well or no?

@DazzleHP OK, so I finally took the time to try your suggestions. I uninstalled and cleaned. When I installed Sharks, the program suggested I tick off a checkbox named 'Shark007 SUGGESTED settings'. I DID NOT do that. Instead I tested the stock settings as I did not want to make any missteps. I also did not set up the DXKaraoke plugin yet, but the SetupWizard detected that I did not have it installed and said it was required. The button to install the plugin through GameEx did not do anything (file download or open to a website), so my guess is that it is not working. Would you suggest I install KaraokeDX-2.3 or KaraokeDX-3.0-beta3 version? Currently, karaoke is not playing in GameEx (no surprise there I assume). In GameEx, the log says that it cannot play the video file. In WMP it simply says that the cdg file cannot be played. Of course, it will play the mp3 just fine (without the lyrics being displayed). I should add that the files are unzipped with the mp3 and cdg file in the same folder with the same name (other than the extension). I am happy to say that the video previews for my emulators are working correctly. Some time ago, I had to install the lav filters as suggested by Tom to correct a problem with that. This time around the videos are working just fine. Let me know what you suggest on the KaraokeDX. I will wait to make a move. Thanks again for the help.

Hey Meshflesh, would you please attach your GameEx.ini file as well? You can find it in the GameEx\CONFIG folder. Also, a screenshot of the error message that appears on your screen may help. Thanks.

@DJ Infinity I am sorry you are having problems with your setup, but your attitude comes across as rude. Are you aware that most of the people who offer assistance on this forum are volunteers? All of them are pretty darn nice people who are generous with their time and effort. This is one of the most helpful and decent communities I have come across.

Those are some pretty darn good scores. I may have to do a training montage just to hope to come close.

I think 1TB is probably the max. I put a 500GB in mine using the network adaptor a number of years back after coming across a page with a PS2 Compatibility Chart. Check this search HERE. Searching for 1000 as the size will show the 1TB. I didn't find any larger, but the site doesn't sort that great.

Hey jim, Glad you are making progress!

@DazzleHP Hmmmm. I may have some learning ta do. The only file I was aware of that was written to for the gamelist is the gameslist.txt file. What database file is it written to?

Yup. Draco is right. You can only change the background image for the statistics page. Changing of the font is a global change that would affect all of the theme except for the emulator titles on the page (if your theme uses titles that is).

@parabolic Glad we could help. Do keep in mind that standard GameEx allows for a pretty good amount of customization due to its many options. Just don't let the amount of "stuff" overwhelm you. Take a chunk at a time. Also, sorry for jacking your thread with my chat with T-man. @tthurman Hey bud, let's continue our chat by pm. I will message a bit later.

@DJ Infinity What drive is Steam installed on and what drive (or drives) are your Steam game folders installed on? I seam to recall an issue a while back with games on the non-default games folder not being listed in GameEx's Steam game list. I got the impression that an old version of Steam did not relay important bits of info on those games to GameEx. I do not recall this issue coming up in quite a while. I should add that I also checked my Steam library against GameEx and all of my installs are listed. This is across two steam game folders on two drives...but my PC was reloaded about a year ago and all of the games were installed after my very first GameEx was installed on this PC.

I thought I remembered a feature like 'Fix to Emulator', but I could not find it...so I thought I was mixing up my front end programs. You can use this option with standard GameEx, but a few things to keep in mind: You will have to set Mame up as an emulator (ie disable Mame in the Mame Settings section) If you have a lot of roms, you will want to build a game list by using a mapfile or by limiting the roms in your game folder. If you want a lot of games in your list, that is quite a bit of manual work. You will have to find a theme that works for you. I could not find any specifically build for the circle menu yet. You will have a bit more configuring to do before you can it how you like it (since Arcade has a fair amount hard coded) You will need to use the Change Views option to 'find' a view that uses the 'circle menu' option. I don't doubt you could do this, but I would still suggest posting a feature request in the thread and see if Tom replies before doing all that work. Since this feature is already implemented for emulators, I wonder if implementing it for the "All MAME Games" list in Mame wouldn't be too difficult (assuming Tom can spare the time).

Heh. I didn't even realize this was a thing. Nice to know. I personally consider remote assistance to be the last resort for troubleshooting though. One reason I really like the forums for troubleshooting is so that others can benefit from the solutions and details. Yeah, I know why some people here say that: troubleshooting is easier for us because it let's us throw out compatibility problems as an issue...but saying it is a bit misleading. If updating the games list was a 30 second deal, then I would go with it, but my Mame takes about 15 to 20 minutes. If I had to do that every time I wanted to test something, it would be frustrating. The only reason you need to rerun the gamelist is if you change a parameter related to generating the gamelist such as a new Mame version, new rom set, and (I believe) new data files such as mameinfo.dat, nplayers.ini, history.dat, etc, etc. For example, changing a parameter in the command line will only impact what is used to generate the runitgame.bat. In jimdeprados case, we don't know how his rom and mame versions match up. It sounds like he went forward with what he has and I think that is perfectly ok as long as he understands that mismatches may cause him problems. But...I think he is almost there...so once he has a working game, he can rerun the gameslist to check compatibility. After that, any problems he has is likely due to version mismatch or a game just not working with the mame he has. At least he will have a config setup that works that he can fool around with. Not trying to be a nay-sayer here, cuz you are a pretty good dude and I know that you (like always) are being helpful.

@jimdeprado I had a chance to test the '- mouse' option and having the extra space is definately bad. After running the game, GameEx will go black for a moment and then return to the game page (ie Mame no likey). Hopefully when you fix that up you will be good.

@jimdeprado In your MAME Settings>Advance MAME Settings>MAME Options, you have a space between the '-' and 'mouse'. Remove the space. I am not sure if this would cause Mame to crash or if it would ignore it, but best be safe. Otherwise, as long as your paths and mame executable filenmame are set correctly, I do not see a problem with your configuration. Double check those to be safe. If correcting the MAME Options does not remedy the issue, try running the runitgame.bat by double clicking on it (after fixing the MAME Options and trying a test via GameEx. That test will update the runitgame.bat). See if it launches the game. Also, if the Mame you are using has it's own interface, please confirm that the game works outside GameEx. Just want to make sure we are testing with a working game. I would think Karnov would be a good example since it is an older, simple game. If your Mame has no interface and you do not know how to test via a command line, let me know and I can put a test file together for you to try.

The controls for this game are a bit different than other fighting games. You expect that in order to do a move you would press a button and joystick direction at the same time. Actually, you press a button and then a direction. Because of this scheme, you can press and hold a button and then move the joystick in different directions to chain moves together. Pressing the punch or kick button alone actually does nothing. The one thing the game lacks is the ability to defend, so the best way I have found to win is to string combo attacks that have similar ranges.