bkenobi

Is comparing Tom to Bill really a compliment?

There was a major effort conducted last year where ~4 or 5 forum members scraped data from a couple web sites to construct one of the most complete sets of databases for a front end currently available. This data is now included in the installer and is usable for anyone. These databases replace the original ones (although they are also still included) and can be found in the GameEx installation folder. The new ones have bracketed system types (like [console] and [handheld] for example). If you have more data that is not included currently, please let us know especially if you are willing to share with the community!

Depends on what else will be on there, but I would go with 1 or 3...

The rolling is why a lot of people yank out the arcade monitor and opt for a TV or PC monitor. One game may use a different refresh rate and resolution than the next, so it may require tweaking the monitor slightly for each. I read a lot of stuff over at BYOAC when I was initially researching, so I opted for a TV in the first cab and a PC CRT in the second. The icons are going to look like crap in either case unless you have a high res arcade monitor. You will be running something like 500 lines of resolution (similar to a TV) which is crap compared to 800x600 or 1024x768. It will look nice when playing games, it just will look like garbage for anything in Windows (text, icons, etc.). Glad to hear you got it going though!

How can you expect to get help when you abandon the thread before anyone helps you? Like Brian said, post your config and someone will take a look!

You can go to the c:\Program Files\GameEx\CONFIG directory and edit the GameEx.ini file. Search for Daphne and copy the appropriate lines to the other thread...

You can read data easily via the JET engine which is included in visual studio among others. That being said, it's not quite as simple to develop a database editor inside a cabinet/HTPC friendly environment. I understand your point, but I respectfully hope Tom doesn't implement this. Editing databases is something that needs to be done to set things up, but is not something you would want to do every day. As a result, I would personally prefer a link being posted for a lightweight MS database editor rather than coding in a complicated one into GameEx. Either way, this is not in GameEx right now. If you want it, I would suggest adding it to the features requests thread in the sticky section.

I think I remember Tom saying something about a maximum resolution, but I don't remember what it was. This may be related to that. I think it was something like XXXXx960 or something, but I could be wrong.

It's possible that it's set to "Use bezel" by default. I don't remember off the top of my head. I don't think it's enabled when you are not registered. If you recently registered your copy of GameEx, that's probably about the time you noticed this situation.

What is the command line in the "Run Last Game.bat"? I'm guessing that it's not the same as you think it is...

There is no way to do this in GameEx. If you want to edit MAME info, you would need to edit the individual files that are used to build the MAME information (history.dat, etc.). If you want to edit the stuff for consoles and other systems, you can find the database you are using in the GameEx directory structure (forgot where ATM), and edit it directly via MS Access or one of the freeware editors.

I use D3D mode for MAME and have GameEx set to "Don't Use Bezel" and everything is fine. As Stu said, this setting is for people who want to have a bezel on vertical games but don't have the artwork for it. If you turn on this feature, it displays a GameEx bezel like the one you are describing. Incidentally, if you want to use a single bezel for all vertical games, you can edit that image to whatever you want.

I don't know about vista since I don't run it and haven't really followed it yet. I don't see why it would be a problem to clean it out, but I don't see how it would help significantly here. The paging file should only be needed if you are running low on ram. If you are launching this right away and it's taking a long time to boot, you could try more memory, but it depends on your current config and what you have running in the background. I would first try a clean and basic GameEx install.

Turn off -tripplebuffer...

Have you tried a shorter intro video to see if it runs to completion? Maybe it's a problem with a long video? Question for Tom: Is it possible that launching GameEx in it's own thread (separate from the intro video thread) could cause GameEx to launch when it's ready and not when the video is done?

I would certainly try making a backup of your GameEx directory and trying a reinstall. It won't hurt anything and you can easily go back!

It's possible that if you have multiple versions of MAME that you run out of the same directory, you could have a difference in the file structure between them. As a result, the different versions will assume it's corrupt and write the default one in it's place. I recently had this problem when I inadvertantly was running vanilla MAME and MAME Analog+. I am currently running MAME 0.122 custom compile, but Analog+ hasn't been updated in a LONG time (v0.71 as I recall). The current version of MAME uses an XML style for it's controller files, whereas the really old versions use a binary format (there was an INI type format in between). Anyway, that's my best guess...

Do you have the emulator set up to run in full screen? If so, then your config is telling it to switch back to windowed with: SendKeys=%{ENTER} That sends Alt-Enter which is the hotkey to switch between windowed and full screen mode. Either set it to full screen or use sendkeys, not both.

Yeah, I'm guessing this is just a difference between how D3D and DDRAW are implemented in MAME. I don't think the same modes are implemented the same. When I switched to D3D, I had to start from scratch determining what settings I liked since everything was different. I would have thought that you could get it to display the same given enough permutations, but sounds like you tried everything I would have suggested already. I'll let Brian go ahead and finish this one off

probably "default.ini"

try

Did it crash, or just exit? Post your log.

If you have automatic updating turned on, it could be checking to see if you need an update. Since you don't have connectivity, it might be waiting till the internet times out which could be 30 seconds or so. Check and make sure you have automatic updating set to OFF.

GameEx is designed to run anything that can run via a command line. It is possible to run other games/emulators/programs if they don't work off a command line, but it's a HUGE pain in the butt! As far as your question, typically we use the standard version of MAME released by the MAMEdevs (sometimes called "vanilla" MAME). You can run MAME32, but since you aren't using the GUI anyway, there's not much point in it. The advancedMAME section is for those that want to run the AdvancedMAME derivative. This version is better for some people who have certain hardware (arcade monitors is the main thing). It sounds like you are using a TV or PC monitor of some kind, so you probably don't need to worry about that. The main thing with EVERYTHING when working with GameEx is that you MUST have it working from outside the front end prior to trying inside it. If it's not working on it's own, it obviously won't work in GameEx. Also, if you have a problem with GameEx itself I suggest you post your GameEx log file. It contains error messages, related system info, and commands being run. Finally, if you want to see what error message MAME or any other program is spitting out that GameEx is hiding, you can run the game in question, quit the game, and exit GameEx. Then, go to the Start menu and find "Run Last Game.bat" in the GameEx menu. When you run that, you will get an error message that can help figure out what's going on. If it flashes up and disappears too quickly, edit the file and add "PAUSE" in a new line at the end and run it again. Let us know if you need anything else!

Maybe it's a resolution thing then. Perhaps that mode will only send a 640x480 resolution regardless of source? If that's the case, then new high res games should be cropped to inside the game. I had that problem with one of the pacman games as I recall and I think it was when I was using DDRAW. I run D3D now and everything works fine. I use a TV and a PC CRT for my two cabs, so I don't have a need to run in DDRAW mode (so perhaps things have changed). If I needed scan lines, I would probably experiment more though.