RedDog

Make sure you have Debug Mode set to No for each of the emulators in the Advanced Emulator Setup.

kakawak, Please keep in mind that the people who assist others on this forum do so voluntarily. I am here to assist people with GameEx. I do not have a lot of extra time, so I will not be assisting further. I do wish you luck though. However, if anyone else would like to help you, that is their choice. I do suggest that you thank them profusely for offering their time and expertise.

Do you think this is a GameEx issue or a PC issue? Because this still sounds like a PC issue to me. If you can get into safemode, you may be able to uninstall software, revert to a previously good state, etc. The hope here is to get the PC working in general on one video card. After that, hopefully you can get the other working. After that, determine if everything else works. You sound like you are not inexperienced with PCs and troubleshooting, which is great; however, if this is PC related, you may need to try a forum for troubleshooting WindowsXP or PCs at least. However, if I am incorrect and this turns out to be GameEx related, we will try to help as best as we can.

This sounds like a hardware issue such as a loose cable, bad cable, faulty monitor, bad video card, etc. Does the display show anything when booting? Can you access the bios and does the monitor stay on during that time? If you can see information on the screen during boot, can you boot to safe mode?

Cute

@Circo Happy B-Day!!!

OK, I will close it out.

You might consider this: https://docs.mamedev.org/advanced/devicemap.html

Hey sms, Does Mame loose it's joystick and button config every single time you close GameEx/Mame down? Are GameEx and Mame the only thing that needed to be reinstalled or did you have to reinstall Windows 7 as well? Nevermind on this one. I see from your other thread that you reinstalled Windows 7. I assume you set up global controls for Mame and then have been testing on one game or a small set of games, correct? I have experienced this sort of issue myself when using controllers that I do not always have plugged in. I have also read comments on other forums of users experiencing similar thing even when they have dedicated controllers. Knowing what I know about GameEx, I believe this is likely related to how Mame and Windows handles USB Controllers. As a test, would you please run Mame outside GameEx, set up a controller, exit Mame, and then rerun Mame again to see if the issue reoccurs? Also, If you happen to still have your previous version of Mame data, you might test with that. Perhaps an older version of Mame will handle it differently.

The icon is not coming up for my personal theme either. I also rechecked the config in the setup Wizard and it shows the correct city. My guess is that something is off at the source. Also, when the Weather page is enabled in the Setup Wizard, it displays "Not Unavailable" on the Weather page in GameEx. @Tom Speirs I am guessing that this is something you will need to check into.

Look for a file in the CONFIG directory calledGameEx.UpgradeBackup.ini (or GameEx.UpgradeBackup). It is a backup that is made during the upgrade process. Check the date to see how old it is. If it looks like it isn't too old, copy and rename it to GameEx.ini.

Thanks Draco.

Here is a link to an old post that shows the command line parameters and a suggested command line.

Ah, Gotcha.

Just to clarify, Draco meant to say that the GameEx.ini file that holds your settings, not the settings.ini. My suggestion is that if you are going to completely reinstall (which again I think would be best), make a back up of the entire GameEx install so you have all the files handy. When you are happy that things are running 100%, get rid of them then. These are the things you can just copy over: ...copy your MegaMame Theme from the backup\GameEx\THEMES folder to the new THEMES folder (and then select it in the Setup Wizard) ...copy your old GameEx.ini from the backup\GameEx\CONFIG folder to the new CONFIG folder ...copy your old CustomMenu.ini from the backup\GameEx\CONFIG folder to the new CONFIG folder (if you use custom menus) ...copy your old CustomInput.ini from the backup\GameEx\CONFIG folder to the new CONFIG folder (if you use custom inputs) ...copy your old GameEx.ini from the backup\GameEx\CONFIG folder to the new CONFIG folder ...copy your old Plugins folder from the backup\GameEx\PLUGINS folder to the new PLUGINS folder ...copy your old Emulator database files from the backup\GameEx\DATA\EMULATORS to the new EMULATORS folder (easier than re-downloading I tend to do this sort of thing alot when trying to troubleshoot other peoples issues. After moving a file, I like to go through the Setup Wizard and browse the parameters to see that they look right. I do not recall anything not being where it should be, but I like it as a sort of check. I believe that's all of them, but I could be wrong. The only one I am hesitant about are the plugins. If you go to the newest GameEx version, you may need to upgrade some plugins...so you may want to review them on the website before actually moving them over.

As you change from Low to Very High, pay attention to the last five parameters on the page. You will see them change. When you exit the Setup Wizard and come back, THOSE settings should not have changed from when you exited. However, you are correct that the 'Medium' button will be highlighted. It appears to be sort of a default resting place. I can see where it might look like the setting doesn't appear to do anything. It certainly could be made more clear on what that selection does such as addig a 'Custom' setting that is selected if the last five settings are changed to a config that does not fit exactly with one of the other 'modes'.

Hey sms2169, Sorry you are having these problems. Normally installing GameEx over and existing version is fine as long as you are installing the right type such as installing GameEx over GameEx and GameEx Arcade or GameEx Arcade. The log.txt file you provided is from GameEx version 15.56 which I believe is from mid 2019. The latest version is 16.27. Of course, the more time between versions, the bigger likelyhood that something significant changed in the build enough that installing over isn't feasible. However, you mention that you are seeing a GameEx folder within the GameEx folder and that is certainly not correct. It actually sounds like a big ol mess. Because of that, my first instinct is to suggest a fresh install. Before we go there, I would like a littl emore background. How did you revert back using a backup? Since your C drive was wiped, GameEx would no longer be tied to the Windows registry. That would sort of make your install a portable install and I am not sure GameEx would run correctly in that situation. If we do have to resinstall, are you ok going to version 16.27 or do you still have install files for 15.56 or 15.73? Please keep in mind that we usually do not provide old install files.

That's fantastic!!!!!! Enjoy!

Sorry to say that you've gone in a direction that I would say is beyond the scope of support for GameEx. Zip functionality 'just works' for registered users. There isn't supposed to be configuration beyond that. For this setup, I really don't know what advise I can personally give as I do not know the ins and outs of what GameEx does in this instance nor do I know the ins and outs of 7zip interactions with programs. I know it is a matter of choice, but in my setup I don't zip anything. I found that the benefit of compression wasn't that significant considering how affordable storage generally is. I also get the added benefit of games loading just a wee bit faster. There is nothing wrong with your preference of saving any space you can. Since you began this thread with the games in iso format, I assumed that is how they came to you as I had no reason to think otherwise. I did not expect that you may have manipulated the format before that. You sound like you know a bit of 'stuff', so perhaps this will help. When you simplify GameEx down as much as possible, it is a loader that utilizes batch functionality to launch games. If a game cannot be launched using a batch file, GameEx cannot launch it (which is pretty rare, but there are emulators that do not have command line functionality). When a game is selected in GameEx, it uses the parameters we set in the Setup Wizard to build and launch a file called runitgame.bat that is located in GameEx\DATA. If you launch a game that you know is set up correctly, you can exit GameEx and review the runitgame.bat to see how it is formatted. I hope that knowing this may help you figure out a method that works to your liking. Otherwise, it may be best to set these up as External Applications. This is generally used to set up individual applications...but you won't be able to do a HOG group.

You got me confused. I do not see why anything is being decompressed. If you are mounting the iso to a virtual drive and then launching the start program on it, it should be no different than burning it to a disk and putting it into the DVD drive. Zip support shouldn't even be enabled for that emulator. I have to say, it is starting to sound like you may be adding additional complexity to your setup which in turn is adding additional obstacles. For instance, what is the concern about the game having thousands of files? There are many games today that have many, many files. The only thing I can think of is that you might be concerned about read/writes to an SSD wearing out the drive (but as I understand it, that limitation is no longer a concern with modern SSDs). As far as the question about 7zip folders (if it does indeed help you), open 7zip and navigate to Tools > Options > Folders and the option to choose the 'working folder' is there.

Sorry, it's been quite a while since I had to use batch files. Apparently the 'sleep' command was retired. Try: timeout 5 /nobreak

Funny enough, I was going to make a comment that one way to go would be to make changes to the iso and rebuild it. I didn't expect that you would know how. LOL In Advanced Emulator Setup > Also Launch, enter F:\startgame.bat. This will launch the batch file at the same time as the iso is mounted. To make sure the mount completes first, I would add a Sleep command to the beginning of your batch file. I would think 3 to 5 seconds would be long enough.

I know that it can be made to work. What I am unsure of is how 'out of the box' can it be done without file editing. Please let us know how it goes.

What makes this sort of situation different is that most emulators involve launching an emulator with a Rom file. The emulator has one filename and the Rom file is unique for each game. These Big Fish games have no emulator, a file name for the iso and a filename for the exe, and the iso AND the exe have unique filenames that are not the same. I should point out that the example you gave in your second post with "Dark Romance 7- The Monster Within Collectors Edition" was incorrect (honest mistake I am sure). The iso name you provided is Dark Romance 7- The Monster Within Collectors Edition.iso while the executable name is DarkRomance7-TheMonsterWithin.exe. These details are very important. I do not have any games like this in my setup (all of my iso emulators support iso launching fortuantely) , but I have two possible suggestions: 1. I believe the QuickLaunch plugin (download) will give the extra options you need to allow for different names for the iso and the executable. I have not used this myself and I do not have an example to test it with to try and figure it out. You may want to crosspost a message in the Quicklaunch thread so that people familiar with it can offer some advice. If it does work, I have a feeling it may be the more elegant of the two suggestions. 2. If you do not mind renaming your iso images, I believe this will work: Name each iso filename the same as the executable. ie, rename Dark Romance 7- The Monster Within Collectors Edition.iso to Dark Romance7-TheMonsterWithin.iso. In Advanced Emulator Setup > Launch After, enter X:\[ROM].exe where 'X' is the drive letter used to mount the image. One drawback with BigFish games is that there does not appear to be a database for them, which results in your game list using the file name as the tile of the game. If you want things looking pretty (like I do) you can remedy this by using a mapfile (sample attached). Mapfiles are text files with the extension changed from .txt to .map. You can edit them with any text editor. They can be used to control what games show up in your games list as well as the name that is displayed. I suggest placing the file where you keep your other assets. Within the Setup Wizard, set the path to the mapfile via Advanced Emulator Setup > Map or SW list file (example: E:\#Emulators\BigFish\Mapfile\BigFish.map) One other consideration is that the filenames of your assets will key off of the filename of the roms. Therefore, if you go with this suggestion and wish to use Snapshots, Title Screens, VideoSnaps, etc with your theme, the filenames will need to match. There is a feature in Tweaks\Performance > Snap Best Match that uses an algorithm to allow for a looser matching of assets to filenames which will help if they are close enough but not exact. I personally like to have all my filenames be an exact match. Since you have a VideoSnap path defined, you may have already set up some videos, which means you may have to do some file name changes. Anyway, I hope this works for you or at least help you find a road to a solution. Of course, if anyone else chimes in that has direct experience with this type of setup, hopefully they can either confirm my suggestions or offer a better path. BTW, thank your for the files, screenshots, and taking time with the explanation. They were a big help in understanding your setup. BigFish.map

We will need more information than you have provided. Please post your GameEx.ini so we can see what your current setup is and let us know what emulator to review. Post your log.ini as well as it provides some other info. It would also be helpful to have a list of games, file names of the isos, and executables on the iso that need to be triggered. We will want to see what filenames and config options are similar between them to see if a single emulater setup can be done There is a 'Launch Before' and 'Launch After' parameter in the Advanced Emulator section for each emulator that are often utilized for these sorts of things. Hopefully they will be handy to use here.