RedDog

I am glad I could be of service.

You could, but I will warn you...it took me quite a bit of troubleshooting and a few forum posts before I figured out how the databases interacted with Gamex. If you know a bit about SQL and databases and don't mind tinkering to figure things out, you could probably work through it. If not, you may want to leave it alone. Here is a quick summary of what I did: I used SqliteBrowser as a SQL browser.The emulator databases can be found at in the GameEx/DATA/EMULATORS directory.I strongly suggest manually backing up the database you want to work on and then make your edits there. That way when GameEx updates, your custom database file will not be changed.To see the impact of your edits, you will need to configure your emulator to use your custom database in the Setup Wizard under 'Database'.The columns in the database that GameEx uses to make matches are GameBase, HyperList, GoodName, NoIntro, and TOSEC. Since you used the No Intro Dats, I suggest using that column. If a game is not showing game info in GameEx, most likely the fields under these columns will be blank or will not match your ROM name.You also need to pay attention to the Date, Category, Genre, NumPlayers, and Description. These columns are the actual data GameEx displays. If those are empty, then there is nothing to display.I should also point out that the above 'stuff' is somewhat simplified and does not cover all contingencies. Some databases have duplicate entries, missing data, and game names that may not quite match what you expect. There were many times I had to make educated guesses and use trial and error before I got the results I wanted. If you give it a go, then I wish you luck with it.

Hi Panja, I checked the NES database. There is nothing wrong with the names of your files. Unfortunately, the titles you listed do not yet have all the necessary data in the database to allow GameEx to find a match. There are just over 1200 items in the NES database and although that database was updated with the latest version of GameEX, there is a lot of work left to do (as greatflash alluded to). When I recently set up GameEx on my new HTPC, I went through the same situation that you are encountering and ended up adding entries to my own database to fill out the missing games...and it was a fair amount of work just for NES. I do not envy the GameEx team in the amount of work needed to fill out ALL of the emulator databases. It is a HUGE undertaking.

Congratz Dazzle!

Nice additions.

I recently installed GameEx on a new box and went through the whole mapfile relearning process for all my emulators (except Mame - just too many darn files for me to worry about). As I understand it, usage of the pipe ( | ) is an old format. The most recent (and best) format to use is the following format: Game Name "Game File Name.xxx" or, for example: 10-Yard Fight (U) [!].nes "10-Yard Fight" 1943 - The Battle of Midway (U) [!].nes "1943 - The Battle of Midway" 1943 - The Battle of Midway (U) [!].zip "1943 - The Battle of Midway" For those roms that are compressed (zipped/rarred/etc), I have not tried the mapfile without the extension as Dazzle commented. Personally, I like having the full file name for completeness (but that's probably just my too-detailed nature).

Fusion will handle iso files as well. I am using the same command line as nullPointer and it works fine.

Regarding the black screen, I believe that this is related to the HIDE DESKTOP option in the DISPLAY SETTINGS. I suggest turning it off while you troubleshoot the MAME situation. I suggest that you request help with the slow GameEx close/black screen issue in a separate thread.

I also strongly agree with DazzleHP. Unless you have some reason to believe that the names on your MAME roms are incorrect, do not change them. The problem you noted in your original post is the type of problem you can run into if you do. Something is probably off in your config. Given a little troubleshooting, this should be able to be resolved. There are a few questions that have not been asked, so I will: - What MAME are you using and what is the version? - What version are the roms you are using? - Does MAME work outside GameEx? Also, now may also be a good time to suggest that you to post your GameEx.ini file. It can be found in the CONFIG folder in the GameEx folder. As a side note, console rom file names are not nearly as consistent as MAME roms, so there may be times when you may want to rename those...

I recently added nullDC to GameEx and had a bit of a time finding a valid Command Line setup that would load the target image. Here is what I eventually found on the internets that worked: nullDC_Win32_Release-NoTrace.exe -config Emulator.Autostart=1 -config ImageReader:LoadDefaultImage=1 -config ImageReader:DefaultImage="[ROMPATH]\[ROMFILE]" I know that this thread is a little old, but I found it to be so darned useful when setting GameEx up again, so I figured I would post this.

Great! Thank you for the help.

Thanks for the reply Tom. Where can I find the option to turn the Video Snap sound off? I have not been able to find it so far.

I would like to have the volume of the Video Snaps in GameEx to be more subdued than they currently are. Are there any options in GameEx to adjust the Video Snap volume? If not, can I submit this as a feature request for Evolution?

Thanks for the background Greatshot. I have the information that I need regarding this topic. The 'fix' for the 'mismatch' issue is that the GameEx databases need to be updated and in a separate thread, Greatflash commented that it is something that is currently being worked on for the release of GameEx Evolution. Marking this topic as Resolved.

Hey Greatflash. Thank you very much for the reply. Since you have spent so much time already making updates to the databases, it has made me reconsider going through the work myself. I will hold off until the database or Evolution release. As for the updated databases you have waiting int he wings, what would the drawback be in releasing them now instead of with Evolution? If the structure has not changed (As Adultery stated above), I would think that releasing the finished databases prior to Evolution's release would would give a bit of a jump start on testing (where the data is concerned anyway). ...and I am not just being selfish here (well, maybe a bit), but from my own experience working QA for website and database front end development, it seams like a reasonable step to take...unless the data has not been sufficiently tested for public release.

Heh, ah, oops. ...but don't you mean "EVOLVing, not REVOLVing" (whatever REVOLVing would mean in any case)...

I will do that. It's also good to know that the database structure will stay the same for Revolution. Thanks again Adultery.

From browsing several of the databases, I have noted a number of entries that have not yet been populated with data. Of course, as a portion of GameEx is community-driven, it is understandable that projects like this are very time intensive. I am seriously considering going through and updating a number of the console databases so that the games in my collection that are not currently displaying info will be corrected. While this will fix my problems, it feels like it is a wasted opportunity to help improve others experiences as well. Before I dive in on the first database, I was wondering if the GameEx admins would be interested in receiving my updates once they have been done. If so, there are a few things that I would like to discuss with someone who is knowledgeable so that I can be sure that the outcome of the work will be useful for the GameEx team. For example, I would like a better understanding about the logic used by GameEx to match filenames against the database as well as what the GameEx team would like to receive to make the data integration easy. Of course, I will generally only be updating entries that are relative to my collection since that is what I have to work with, but I also figure that any donation of time and effort is probably worth something. The databases I would likely focus on are NES, SNES, Genesis, N64, and maybe GBA, Sega CD, NeoGeo, and NeoGeo CD. Of course, another concern is that with the upcoming implementation of GameEx Revolution, I am wondering if the current database structure will be used or if changes will be made. Perhaps it is worth living with these minor data issues for a time if their resolution if on the roadmap for that project.

You know, it did not come to mind to update the list after confirming the parameters...so I updated the list and the extra 'stuff' in brackets and parenthesesis is now gone. The list looks much better. Thank you good sir! ...and it looks like the gamelist.txt file in the CONFIG folder contains the list generated from the MAME Update List command, so I will tinker with that a bit.

I currently have the "No Bracketed Text" parameter under the Advance MAME Settings set to Yes. However, the MAME lists still have game names that contain bracketed text. Are there cache files for MAME that I can reset? Also, I was curious if there was somewhere in the GameEx folder that saves the list of Mame games that will be displayed for the "All MAME Games", "MAME Multiplayer Games", "Last MAME Game", and the other MAME lists. I did not find anything obvious. I am also considering switching over to using the emulator setup and map files so I can have more control over the lists. I am just not sure if I want to put in that work yet or not. I also attached my current GameEx.ini file in case it is helpful. Anyway, thanks for the help. GameEx.ini

OK, I tried a new emulator slot that had not yet been used and deleted all dbcache files. There was no change. The good news is that I think I figured it out where I am encountering the issue with the roms that have ", The". The roms that are not displaying game data in GameEx are listed in the database more than once. It looks to me like GameEx finds the first match in the database and uses that record...even if another record exists with all the data. My mistake was in not looking far enough down the database to check if the titles that had ", The" in the name might not have a record that starts with "The'. For example, The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle is has two records. GameEx chooses to use Record ID 3145 instead of Record ID 344. I assume this happens because GameEx first queries the GameBase value before querying the GoodName value. When it finds a match with the GoodBase value, it displays that records data, which happens to be empty. I tested this theory by adding bits of data to Record ID 344. ID: 344 Name: Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle GameBase: HyperList: GoodName: Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle, The NoIntro: Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle, The TOSEC: Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle, The Publisher: Kemco Developer: Kemco Date: 1989-01-01 00:00:00 Category: Puzzle Genre: Action, Strategy NumPlayers: 1 Player Description: This game is the first in the... ID: 3145 Name: The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle GameBase: Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle, The HyperList: GoodName: NoIntro: TOSEC: Publisher: Developer: Date: Category: Genre: NumPlayers: 1 Player Description: So, now my question is...can you tell me if I am on the right track? ...and if I am on the right track, where can I go from here so I can get these renegade roms to display data when viewed in GameEx? Side note: I am now comfortable that I can use GoodTools for my ROM renaming. At least now I can continue organizing roms. <queue victory music>

Adultery, the only 'best match option' I could find was the 'Snap Best Match' setting under Tweaks. Is this the one you were referring to? If not, do you recall which section the setting is in for matching rom names against the database?

I removed the dbcache files each time I tested to make sure I had a clean slate. I will try a different emulator slot to see what happens. Thanks.

OK, so I think I have figured a few things out on why some of my roms are not showing database info when viewed in GameEx. The first issue is that some rom records just do not have any associated data with them (Genre, Category, Description, etc). There is not much I can do about that unless I want to manually update those records myself...so I will ignore those for the time being. The other issue appears to be related to file names that have a The in the game title (such as Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle, The (U) [!].nes). In this case, even though both the file name and the GoodName value in the database is exactly the same, the associated data will not be displayed. However, if I remove the ", The" from the rom file name and GoodName field, it will work just fine. This is only specific to NES so far as it is not happening in SNES or Genesis. If you have any suggestions on how I might fix the ", The" issue for the NES emulator, that would be great. Short of reinstalling GameEx, I am not sure what I can do.

So, I have been tinkering around with the NES roms, GoodTools, and the NES database ([Console] Nintendo NES.db3) again and I have not been able to figure out what exactly GameEx uses as parameters to match a rom against the database entries. I have gone as far as adding data to the Name, GameBase, and GoodName fields and changing file names to try and figure this out...but my results have not be consistent enough to draw a solid conclusion. If anyone happens to know what logic GameEx uses, it would really help me to make some headway on getting my roms set up as best as they can.