bkenobi

Interesting. This actually makes it more attractive for new users since it saves them $10! Just a thought, perhaps you might want to add a way to upgrade to lifetime at some point. Thanks for all the updates!

That makes things very affordable. Hopefully this will push fence sitters over the edge to jump on board!

Absolutely! In the Configuration utility there is a section for changing text. I think it's the second or third page and I can't remember it's exact title. Unless Tom has added it recently, it's not in the Setup Wizard.

Short answer: You don't for MAME. Long answer: Well, that depends on the source of your files and the naming convention the author used as well as the type of romset you are using. For MAME, everything is nicely named so you just need to make sure things don't get messed up by putting them in the wrong spot. Other systems (consoles for example), don't have such a nice naming system. Although MAME roms don't necessarily have meaningful names (to the end user at least), they always have the right name. If they don't, then MAME won't detect them and you won't be able to use them. With console emulation, the contents of the file is god. As long as the file contains a valid rom, the emulator will generally run the image just fine. As such, you can have a copy of Super Mario Brothers with any number of file names (no intro, good sets, tosec, joe schmoe, etc). The problem comes in when you need to have a video and rom match for display purposes. If the file names match perfectly, GameEx is good to go. If they are off by a single letter, GameEx goes into a "find the best match mode", which takes time and is prone to accuracy issues. The best bet is to rename the video to the same name as your rom. You can do this manually, but there are a number of tools that have been generated to help you out and increase your accuracy. FatMatch and SkinnyMatch are 2 written by forum members, but there are TONS that have been written by other people and are available both linked here and elsewhere. From what I've seen, SkinnyMatch is the best one right now.

Yeah, I know about FatMatch. There's also another app Tempest put together called SkinnyMatch (updated and more feature rich). I wasn't aware it would do what you wanted, but if so...GREAT! I was pretty sure it would simply rename, not move to a different folder. Of course, if that's all it did and it "touched" the file to do the rename, you could sort by last "touched" date...

There might be an easier way, but here's one thought: 1) Create a list of roms that you have in a text file "dir /b * > list.txt" 2) Change the extension of all files in the list from .zip to .* 3) Create a directory in your videos directory called "tmp" 4) Move list.txt to your videos directory and rename it to to "list.bat" 5) Prepend all line in the file with "move " and append " tmp\." Whatever is left in the video directory didn't match your roms. Everything in the videos\tmp directory matches your roms.

No, but you can have dialog boxes displayed using VBScript or another language if you like. If it were me, I would not allow the user to drop to Windows easily if you are concerned about damage to the system. On my cab, I do not give any way to go to Windows. If I need to do something outside GameEx for whatever reason (something that can't be done remotely), I kill GameEx and then start Explorer via Task Manager. If a guest finds my wireless keyboard and knows enough to do all that, then they probably won't "accidentally" break anything...it would be intentional!

I was going to guess what Tom said the other day, but decided to let someone who knew for sure answer. Glad my intuition was right on!

I'm a little confused here. Why not just use the GameEx menu item for shut down? That command will quit GameEx and then shut the computer down politely. If you shut down using this method, you won't have any issues. I'm curious why you need to use the escape key to do this? You can always use the command that HK provided in the launch at quit if you really prefer that way of shutting down, but it opens up a can of potential accidental shutdowns.

Post a log. I can't see why this would be a GameEx thing unless your setup doesn't like the video mode for some reason. Perhaps you could try updating your video drivers. I doubt it's a lose cable if MAME/other stuff works, but that wouldn't hurt to check either.

One easy way...lock the file. If you make it read only, GameEx can't overwrite it. The only problem may be if GameEx pops a message up in the background during an update stating that the file can't be written. If that's the case, you could always write a quick script that copies the file from a backup location to the GameEx directory on startup.

I think that a lot of people will be very pleased with this update! The navigation improvement has been requested many times and it's a nice addition for those with keyboards (HTPC)!

It shouldn't take that long. GameEx should come back up in a few seconds worst case. Post a log for when this happens. Also, check to see that you don't have something going on in the background (disk scan, backup service, etc).

First things first. Does the game play correctly in the emulator without running GameEx? If it does, then you can move on to the FE side. If it plays outside of GameEx, then try running the "playitgame.bat" linked in the start directory.

Just to add to frequency's statement... You will find NO front end that includes roms. The games must be obtained on your own. If you find a copy of a FE that does include roms, then it is not an official release and is not condoned by any author.

You can disable the bezel or even change it to a different one (even customized). I believe the option is in the MAME options, but it's called something to the effect of "Enable bezel". As for screen resolution, that's based on how you tell MAME to display. By default, MAME will fill the screen as best it can without stretching, I believe. There are several modes that are available from no stretch, to fill the screen, to specific resolutions and refresh rates. You'll have to check the docks to see what command you need to specify to get things looking how you want.

I don't think that's possible right now. Probably good to add to the features request thread.

Not sure on this one, but it looks like it has something to do with your startup apps. Try disabling all possible plugins for starters.

I checked the stickies, but didn't see it. Hopefully Mercury will find it of use, though!

Yeah, I seriously doubt that's the way Tom intended the program to work.

1) Roms are only usable with an emulator that can read them. So, yes, you need one emulator per rom set. Some emulators can run multiple system roms (e.g., Fusion can play Genesis, SMS, Game Gear, etc), so you can shorten the list of emus that way. 2) The update will only update your MAME list. All other lists are generated on the fly using the files that are present and a database (if you select one). 3) Flat menus or build a custom menu. 4) MAME micro? If you can't set up MAME, then you need to do a little reading. I can't find a link to a guide here, but there are plenty out there, so if someone else doesn't post one...google it! 5) I'm not sure what demos/samples you are referring to. Each theme has certain media that is included with it. Some themes have a lot of audio/video content that the author included. If you are asking about the sample videos that show a game being played when it is highlighted in the list, you need to look into EmuMovies. If you register for GameEx there will be a discount for the subscription cost over there. Either way, there is a lot of content that they offer for free. Hope that helps!

Please post your full log. Also, did you install a full version of XP, or use something like TinyXP on your build? There have been problems in the past with missing components in some of the minimalistic builds of XP (primarily related to database functionality).

1) Yes, the installation should retain all of your settings you had from before. I would keep a backup just in case something gets screwed up, but it should be fine. Please make sure you update all of your emulator/content paths if they are different. 2) Probably not. There was a change in the format of the key ~2 years ago that may make your key not work. Also, I don't know if it needs updating to work with Win7. Email Tom directly to request a new valid key.

FWIW, I have 2 users on my cabs. I set the primary user "gamer" to instant shell into GameEx and all Windows screens are hidden. I have a second account "admin" that I log into remotely using remote desktop in windows. This allows me to manage everything from a more comfortable chair rather than having to sit at the cab and balance everything. I also am not limited to my low resolution TV screen and can instead use the high res LCD at my desktop to set things up. I'm using WinXP on both machines and this approach works flawlessly! Oh, if I do need to drop to windows for some reason, I simply ctrl-alt-del, kill GameEx, start a new process "explorer.exe" and windows pops up in full. Good luck.

I haven't played with CFG Magician in quite a while, but I just saw that picture you posted Tempest. That looks really nice, but I have one comment. Convention usually has radio buttons as a mandatory selection rather than an optional one. You have a radio button for freeplay and cocktail. Those should really be toggle (check mark) buttons since they are a binary selection. Also, the other options don't have a "none" option, so when you select one thing, it would appear you can't turn off the selection to disable setting the dip switch. One thing you could do is put a "disabled" or "none" option for each of those. Good stuff!