bkenobi

Good one!

Thanks for the Mugen set! I've been wanting to try it, but it looked like a lot of work to get the different sets installed, so I wussed out. This is exactly what I wanted to have and it's already to go! One question...where do you set the controls in Mugen? I assume it's an ini file, but I haven't dug into it yet. Thanks!

One other option you could try is to disable the video snaps or the non-video snaps (erase the path in the GameEx setup). If it's crashing because of one of them, eliminating them (for the time being) might help it play without crashing.

If a window is popping up asking you to use a codec for something, then it's not a GameEx issue (the update didn't do it). Did you play with codecs at all on that machine? My guess is that you installed another codec somewhere along the line and it changed what codec is being used for certain file types. I don't know an easy way to fix that but I have two suggestions. 1) Reinstall the ffdshow codec off the link on GameEx.net. 2) If (1) doesn't work, uninstall all codecs and start fresh only installing the ones you need There are ways to pick what codec you want to use for certain types of files, but I don't know where to access them. If Nologic or Brian don't chime in, one of these two methods should work.

Yup, the time limit would have been my next guess

I have two guesses, but they are only that. For an actual answer, you need to do what Brian said and check the log file and/or run the game that quit unexpectedly through the "Run Last Game" batch file. 1) Game is crashing due to some MAME related problem (bad/corrupt rom, wrong version, corrupt build of MAME, etc.) 2) You are playing a game from the screen saver and after a time, it quits back to GameEx after seeing a certain key pressed. I've had this happen for some reason, so I know it happens.

That's a nice setup! It just won't work for 360 games...

You mean this one: Shall we play a game? Thank you google!

I've seen some of the stuff you are talking about, but I would just suggest that the attitude outsiders see is based on other BS they deal with internally and don't let out. Not trying to suggest that there's strife amongst the MAMEdev team (cause I wouldn't know), I'm just saying that there's lots of people all over the world that contact them about a variety of issues (including self serving things) but they don't tell all casue it doesn't matter. Either way, I'm just happy that the MAMEdevs are still working on new things rather than just calling it!

I saw someone talking about it once, but I've never played with it personally. As I recall, the opinion was it was better than using a spinner for driving games, but nowhere near the real thing. I guess I would look at it like the Wii "racing wheel" which is basically a plastic wheel that you fit the Wiimote into. It's not a steering wheel, but it feels more like one than the normal controller. If I wanted to play racing games on a spinner, I would definitely consider it. If I were designing a cabinet, I would go for an actual wheel. Actually, I would ask spouse/friend/relative that might play it and ask their opinion. Although they aren't going to be able to make design decisions for/with you about the cabinet or it's technical details, I've found my wife a really good resource as far as general opinions.

Then what about King of Fighers 2003? 2003+6=2009? SNK is still making games for the NeoGeo and they are still on route in some locations. How can the MAMEdevs let it go? I'm not complaining, just asking for understanding.

You know, the 360 nomenclature of the 360 wheels is a bit misleading. It can rotate indefinitely (as you noted). But, it's not so much that it can rotate 360 as it is that you have to keep rotating it to keep turning. In most of the 360 games, you sling the wheel around madly to get the car/truck to negotiate the course (which is why it's fun to play with a group). The 270 games are more controlled and I look at them more like simulators. Meaning to me, they are fun, but not a party thing. In other words, Mario party is not a very fun game on your own and it's not very technical. But, you throw a bunch of people playing and watching, and it's a blast. Anyway, to play 360 games, the wheel must spin freely like a spinner. If you want, you could play them with a spinner, but don't expect it to be the same type of experience. The truth is, there are 2 types of racing games that require 2 types of setups. A casual viewing of the setup would lead anyone to beleive that they are the same (a steering wheel and a pedal or two), but they are very different internally. It's possible to play both on the same setup, but you won't have the same experience with the game play using a single wheel as you would with a dedicated wheel for each. On the up side, you can use the same pedals for both!

So let me get this straight... You're not crazy yet you are flailing and drooling uncontrollably?

I don't know if there's anything set in stone that says "thou shall not release games that are less than xx years old", but I suspect it also has to do with the availability for collectors to obtain the boards as much as a rule. If a game is making money, it's going to be hard for a collector to get one off a route. So, unless a collector is so dedicated as to buy a new cab, it's a bit of a waiting game.

There is a Logitech setup that allows for switching between steering wheel types? Is it just in software, or does it have some type of physical stop and recentering hardware? I'll have to take a look! EDIT: I took a look at the CNet review here and it looks like although the wheel can calibrate itself to whatever rotation is required in software, that doesn't do the type of switching I was talking about. A 360 wheel is like a spinner and can rotate indefinitely in either direction. It may be possible to use a 270 wheel for this if you could configure the software to continue rotation if you were at the extent of the 270 rotation. Not ideal, but it might work. EDIT 2: I found 2 of the threads I was referring to, but I can't find the 3rd (containing a second design for a switchable wheel). link link

Yeah, if you don't want to dedicate a whole cab to just racing games played through MAME and want to get others in it as well, then I HIGHLY recommend AGAINST 360 wheels. They are truly a ton of fun and I enjoy those games enough to make it worth it for me, but if you want to play other systems games, then 270 is DEFINITELY the way to go. There are a couple options on that front. 1) Pick up a Dreamcast and Dreamcast Steering wheel. There's been several cabs done this way for examples and since Dreamcast had a bunch of direct arcade ports, you would be able to play those unplayable MAME games on your cab. You would be able to play some MAME games on there too since there's a build of MAME for the Dreamcast. 2) Pick up an XBox and XBox steering wheel. Same as the Dreamcast but better. There aren't as many direct ports, but there are a ton of racing games that are a lot of fun and since it's hackable, you can boot everything off of it without the need to swap discs if you don't want. Also, since the controllers are USB (with a different plug), if you want to switch to a PC, you could do it easily with the same controls. 3) Find a Logitec or other steering wheel system for the PC. Again, 270 wheels here and since the PC has a bunch of games as well as access to MAME and all other systems, this is probably the best way to go if you don't have one of the aforementioned consoles or the desire to hack a system a different way. 4) I've seen designs for a switchable 270/360 wheel floating around and even rumors that some company might build a batch, but I don't think it's ever come to fruition. This design basically takes a 360 wheel and adds a pair of centering springs and hard stops that can be disabled. The idea is that you get both the 360 and 270 without costing extra space or swappable hardware. The concept is good, but I don't think anything was ever finalized despite the reasonably large interest for it. I don't remember where the thread was at byoac, but if you search the forum, it should pop up pretty easily. Heck, if you ask in that thread, there might even be some movement that wasn't mentioned. If you do ask and they respond, PLEASE report here so I can check into it as well! 5) Swappable controls. Get a 360 wheel off ebay and a 270 from wherever and make a swappable CP for the 2. I don't like this method because it's not intuitive for end users other than the builder to use. I suggested this concept to my wife and it looked like the cab may stay in the garage if it had 2 CP's. Just some of my thoughts.

Well, first things first. What are your goals of this cabinet? Are you looking to play a specific game or set of games, or are you trying to play ALL racing games? I personally was most interested in games like Super Sprint, Championship Sprint, Super Off Road, Super Off Road Track Pack, Danny Sullivan Indy Heat, etc. I also wanted to play all the other games, but those were my goal initially. I did a bunch of research and found that there are 2 types of steering wheels used in games (270° and 360°). I assume you've done some research so you know that a 270° wheel is spring loaded to recenter and can rotate 135° in either direction before it hits a hard stop whereas the 360° wheels can spin continuously. Turns out that all of those games I want to play use 360° steering wheels (duh) and they were all emulated well. The other games were purportedly playable with a 360° wheel but the reverse is not true (you can't play Off Road with a 270° wheel). I can get more into it if you want, just let me know what you are interested in hearing so I don't ramble on and on just to see myself type...

In case you choose to go the PC route, I can help out a bit. I built a cab based on a Championship Sprint cabinet. Let me know if you are interested in any details or help with choices. No biggie either way.

Well, I won't get into the licensing part cause it's not my call when you need a new license. In order to transfer your GameEx to the new computer with all your settings, you need to do a few things. 1) Copy the C:\Program Files\GameEx directory to the new computer 2) Install GameEx on the new computer in the same location 3) Register your copy of GameEx on the new computer with the registration file Tom gave you or a new one (again, that's up to you) 4) Make sure all other emulators and programs are installed EXACTLY how they were on the first machine. Any changes may require tweaks on the new machine to work again. 5) MOST IMPORTANT: Have fun!

Red neck? I think you have to have a 6-pack on you at all times to be a red neck.

My first guess would be that GameEx is taking over the use of the codec when it loads. If you have video snaps running, try disabling them and trying again. Second, try running GameEx in windowed mode. Perhaps it's trying to black out the background and that includes the second screen. Actually, now that I think about it, GameEx has some settings for setting the desktop to black, hiding icons, etc. Maybe one of those is causing problems. Try disabling all of those options.

GameEx is scanning all roms and rebuilding it's database from scratch. This takes a long time since it has to do check sums and such. There is no way to avoid this step if you want to have access to the new content.

You would be looking at minimum of hundreds of hours, and more likely thousands. The machines I remember with burn in most are computers at the library running on the old dos type input screens. They never turned them off. If you want to prevent burn in, just make sure you have a screen saver running that doesn't have anything constantly the same color on the same location. I wouldn't worry about it unless "extended time">days.

You know, if we didn't have to use power, we wouldn't have this problem. Stupid laws of physics and that damn power thing!

Hehe, step 1: RELAX