djrobx

Er, I have had 2.0 beta (2.0.40607) installed from the get-go of using Gameex, and there's never been a problem on my machine. 2.0, 1.1 and 1.0 all coexst on the same machine and are supposed to be available to apps that are built for a certain version. See the folder: C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework Please undo that change. You can't use Micrososft's free developer tools without 2.0 beta. -- Rob

I know there have been some problems with the recent installers. However, looking at the longer history of GameEx releases, I don't think getting into the whole "beta version" thing is necessary. It's been truly rare that an update inhibits overall operation, and the good almost always outweighs the bad. Having new releases labelled "beta" might deter people from using the newer versions. That might deprive Tom of valuable input, and create more of a support headache trying to keep track of which version people are reporting problems about. Still, keeping a "golden oldie" around might not be a bad idea, for people to try out as a last resort. -- Rob

I think Tom meant "Advanced settings for MAME", the feature he's referring to automates typing "OK" for the disclaimer screen with the regular version of MAME. Mame 0.99 takes a fricken' eternity to load on my machine just from the command line. No idea what's up with that.-- rob

Although it's great you've reported the bug, you can always go here http://tomspeirs.com/gameEx/tips.htm to donate and get a key that will remove the nag screen. -- Rob

How are you launching GameEx? If it's set to "Close and Restart", Media Center (ehshell.exe) should not be running when GameEx is running. Somehow it's still running, which is what we need to figure out.

I think currently, the best way to get GameEx to use directory names is with a map file. I've attached a small .BAT that will create or update the map for you. Extract it to and run it in the directory that you need it for. It will create a dirs.map file. Then in the GameEx config, set the MAP file to point to YourDir\dirs.map. Use the ROMFile parameter as the folder name for your command line. makedirmap.zip

Run the Config app. Go to Tweaks/Performance. Check that "Media Center Exit/Start" mode is set to "Close and Restart (Recommended)" Right now it looks like it thinks Media Center has been invoked, so it is killing GameEx and restarting Media Center. I'm assuming you're running GameEx from within Media Center. All else fails you can change the second option "Exit GameEx if MCE loaded" to No. That will prevent it from shutting down due to the presence of MCE. I'd recommend not changing this though, as your system will get in a really fouled up state when you press the green button while gameex is running. -- Rob

Try Command=start /MAX /WAIT m1.exe [Rom]

Setting show desktop to true should be all you need to do. Can you post the relevant section of your C:\Program Files\GameEx\Config\GamEx.ini?

Ooh, I like that idea a lot! Instead of just shrinking the existing logo, it might be good to also support images specifically for that purpose (e.g. consolename_icon.png). Some of the console pictures won't shrink well (a company logo might be more appropriate). -- Rob

First try going to Start->Programs->GameEx and choose "Run last game". That runs the last game you ran in GamEx directly. If it still doesn't work, go to Start->Programs->GameEx. Right click on "Run Last Game" and choose Edit. Then go to a command prompt and try passing those parameters to MAME exactly the way they look in runitgame.bat file. It may make the problem clearer or you may see what error MAME is giving you. You can then experiment with the other parameters that GameEx passes in to determine the culprit.

MNG is PNG's version of an animated GIF. It's lossless compression so there are no video distortions like those which are typical of mpeg or AVI. Using a lossless codec with AVI would probably be a bit more elegant than a MNG plus an MP3, but MNG is more portable across operating systems. Windows doesn't include any lossless, compressed AVI codecs so there isn't a single AVI standard for people to use. They'd need to install a separate codec like huffyuv. MNG has the potential to be *very* useful when it comes to making animated skins, because it supports PNG features like transparency. You can have objects that fade and blend into the background. A couple years ago we used it extensively for our touch-screen home control interfaces. Back then the only trouble was finding a good tool to actually export the MNG files in a way that fully utilized MNG features. I don't know what's out there now. -- Rob

I think a good deal of the files installed are themes anyway, which apply to both lite and full versions.

I mapped my share to a drive letter first. Works fine that way. So many things have problems without a drive mapping.

Tom is asking for you to exit GameEx. Go to the Start Menu, All Programs, go to the GameEx group, and pick "Run last game". Let us know whether that works or not. It is just a shortcut to run Mame directly with the same options that GameEx uses. That will help identify whether the problem has something to do with GameEx or the MAME configuration.

The MAME team removed the skip_disclaimer feature. Tom may find a workaround for it (maybe something like sendkeys'ing in an OK). The only other solution would be to download the source and remove the disclaimer yourself. The MAME team explicitly forbids distributing versions with those things disabled, so you probably won't find such a binary available. You could also just use an older version of MAME. I'm using 0.96 and don't have any plans to upgrade until there's something new I really want. -- Rob

It works with KeyMonitor for my emulators, but I wanted to set it up so MAME also exits with the same button combo. I can probably come up with something to get it to run KeyMonitor for MAME also, but I figured it'd be easier to just use the built-in feature. If it's not user-assignable then I guess I'll take that approach. -- Rob

vpauto.exe should no longer be running once you've exited a pinball table. Is it still running once GameEx exits? VPAuto doesn't "signal" anything to GameEx. I know Tom added somethng to ensure that VPAuto terminates when you exit a pinball table, though.

In version 4.7, the feature to be able to exit an emulator or MAME with a game controller or joystick was added. However, I can't seem to find where you set this up. I've spent the last half hour looking through the GameEx documentation, the config app, and my custominput.ini and I can't see a trace of this feature anywhere. That said, I'm sure someone will point out that it was right infront of my face the whole time. Help?

Yup. Lots of batch files, that's how I do it. Each .BAT file becomes a ROM. So I have folders set up like this: inside the adventure games folder I have: nagi\ scummvm\ Space Quest\ Space Quest II\ King's Quest\ King's Quest II\ Day of the Tentacle\ Zak McKracken\ plus the bat files for each game: Space Quest.bat Space Quest II.bat King's Quest.bat King's Quest II.bat Day of the Tentacle.bat Zak McKracken.bat then each bat file changes folders and loads the approprate emulator. E.g. Space Quest.bat -------------------- cd "Space Quest" ..\nagi\runcd "Space Quest" ..\nagi\nagi Zak McRacken.bat --------------------- cd "Zak McKracken" ..\scummvm\run.exe --joystick=0 -f -c=..\scummvm\scummvm.ini -p=. zaktowns

I am also using an XBox gamepad with XBCD. It works very well. The fact that it works in GameEx means it's set up properly. You need to enable and otherwise configure it for every emulator you want to use it in. I recommend setting "Show Desktop = True" and "MapKeys = False" so you can get into the menus and such until you get the emulators set up exactly the way you want them. I've attached my Project 64 XBCD profile. In the Project64 controller config you can load this to set up the controller. Note that in the XBCD settings, I've assigned the right analog stick to Z and ZR, because a lot of Windows based emulators and games can't see the right stick if it's left at the default. pj64xbcd.zip

DOSBox is great. ScummVM and NAGI are useful, too! -- Rob

Those are in there, too. -- Rob

I don't agree. Most of the kids I know regularly blow lots of money on fancy clothes, iPods, PSPs, movies, etc. If a kid can afford to buy his own cab, surely he or she can scrounge up another $15 to give to Tom for the excellent work he's done on his software that finishes off the project with class. If you work at the federal US minimum wage, you'll have to work less than 3 hours to come up with $15.

If you go in the config, under Advanced Mame Configuration, you'll see the command line that's used with MAME. I'm using what was the default (at the time) of: -skip_disclaimer -skip_gameinfo -triplebuffer -nowindow -joy Try running MAME from the command line with the same options to see what happens. You might need to remove -triplebuffer or -joy if you don't have a joystick.