shaunopp

Kool, have you double checked your mame .ini settings per the Ultimarc site: http://ultimarc.com/avgainst.html You definitely want Switchres on '1' and hwstretch set to '0'. That could be the cause of your 'blurriness' and mame not using your custom inits. I have an ArcadeVGA and a Betson 27' monitor it runs flawlessly with GameEx. It's odd that it would work through a command line though. How did you setup your custom inits, the Arcade Res Tool? Maybe take a closer look at what those custom settings are. see below: # # VIDEO OPTIONS # video ddraw numscreens 1 window 0 maximize 1 keepaspect 1 prescale 1 effect none pause_brightness 0.65 waitvsync 0 syncrefresh 0 # # DIRECTDRAW-SPECIFIC OPTIONS # hwstretch 0 # # FULL SCREEN OPTIONS # triplebuffer 0 switchres 1

Will be a couple days before I can test some more, am working on multiple cabs now so I've been dragging the comp and cp to the shop to wire and test. I'll let you know if the newest beta helps. I did try playing some games at the shop tonight and noticed some definite Xpadder probs while back in GameEx. Xpadder stays open while back in GameEx and it does wierd stuff like messing with my scrolling, and when I select a game, showing info for a different game. Alt-tabbing to the desktop and quitting Xpadder solves this. This goes for a Saitex game controller as well as my one programmed U360. Right with ya on this one, that's my exact definition and the word Dork and Nerd are interchangeable. Always seen Geek as the more preferable. I guess the fact that I'm contemplating this in the first place proves I'm a Geek.

Be sure to change the resolution in the settings.ini file to something your monitor can handle. I made that mistake and was getting a black screen since I forgot and left the default res in there which is really high, 1600x something. Since you say it's only some games that may not be it but I thought I'd throw it out there just in case. I'm using an ArcadeVGA card (which is ATI based) and have got every ZiNc game to run with Logics setup using D3D except the KN1 game Susume, still get the old black screen on that one. All of the KN1 games and Xpadder interaction I still have some probs with but the other games work well.

Hey Logic, thanks for working on this. I've tested it pretty thoroughly. See my comments below: Psychic Force issue seems to be resolved. You mention changing paths to correspond to the batch files. Not sure what to change there so I didn't change anything and it launched fine. I used a completely fresh install folder to make sure. I still had the below problems with the KN1 games: â?¢ Only 3 of the 4 games launched, Susume just got a black screen everytime. â?¢ Xpadder mapping would only work every other game, game 1 would work, exit and launch again, game 2 wouldn't, exit and launch, game 3 works, 4 doesn't etc. This held true for Hyper Athlete, Power Baseball and Wedding Rhapsody. â?¢ No sound in any of the 3 games. â?¢ After playing a game with the mapping working and going back to GameEx I noticed xpadder is still open and there's some strangeness in the navigation. Pressing up on the joystick would do a 'page up' or 'home' in my list. Also, when I'd select a game, Susume for example, it would select an alternate game from the list. Hitting return would still select the correct game. Alt-tabbing to the desktop and quitting Xpadder fixed this immediately so I think it's the mappings being retained when back in GameEx. Also used Xpadder to map one of my Ultimarc 360 joysticks and buttons which seemed to work fine for player 1 stick and buttons but when I went to do a player 2 profile it doesn't see my P2 U360 even though I can see it separately in the OS under my game controllers. Found this odd. The only other oddity I found is that HyperAthlete will crash after 1 event. Not sure if this is Xpadder related. Didn't have time to test fully. There you have it. Getting closer. Nerd and Geek are totally different.

Here's to another year of games and fun! Happy New Year All!

I know this is something simple I'm missing. Looked around on the epsxe site and the forums here along with the Ultimarc forums and couldn't find a solution. I can't get my 360's to work in epsxe. Here's a breakdown: 1. I've got ePSXe setup and running through GameEx. 2. U360's firmware is updated, they show under Game Controllers and move etc. I've mapped the U360 buttons and they work fine. 3. I've configured the controllers in epsxe. The config utility responds to the U360's and I set them to Digital/Analog (F5) 4. I've tried hitting F5 ingame to switch from Digital to analog 5. Works with a usb game controller I have, I just have to hit the analog/digital button on it. Seems the U360's should be the same. Sorry if this is a simple one, really frustrating me. Once I get this figured out I'll try Oggalz plugin for Vista for some custom profiling. I'm a glutton for punishment.

I don't think it's a GameEx setting. The only place I've seen this effect is in the V1 Media Center theme and it's only on the first page. Basically when you go from item to item the letters and surrounding oval get larger. That's what I figured after going back through the forums. Just out of curiosity, why did you include tick boxes for these options before they're implemented in GameEx? I'd rather have a missing feature than options there to 'psyche me out' and make me think it should be working.

Sooo I guess there's no way to create the bubble up effect with V2 themes then? Bummer, I think this is cool. Ok, Is there a way to have custom layouts for modules and emulators now? I see the tick boxes in the Theme Editor but GameEx still only uses the coordinates for the [layout] properties in the Theme.ini file even though it creates custom .ini files for each of the modules and emulators you customize. GameEx just doesn't seem to use them. It will use the custom backgrounds but not the layout.

Looks like iano and I are on the same page. I've personally ordered from Ultimarc, Arcade Emulator and T-molding.com. All were good but Andy at Ultimarc is the king of customer service and really quick shipping at a capped price no less. How about Happ? http://www.happ.com Their shipping is a little expensive and you have to have a $15 min. order but they have tons of stuff. I got my monitor bezels, coin doors, momentary switches, marquee retainers from them. Also got some joy balltops from Lizard Lick Amusements http://www.lizardlickamusements.com/ and they shipped fast and were good to deal with. Happy arcade parts hunting!

It said everything was fine and I also double-checked it in the registry. Running Xpadder as admin. Would you mind posting the au3 file? I might learn something about what's going on under the hood. That's what I figured on all of these. I resolved this. Apparently I was missing a rom. Clrmame didn't catch it but ZincGui did. Scrounged it up and all works. No problem, easy enough to fix, just wanted to give a heads up. Found another couple issues after going through all other roms. Dunkmania appears to be missing bindings for P2. Prime Goal Ex is also missing a config. Psychic Force also had an oddball problem. See quote below from EasyEmu: With ZiNc_Loader this doesn't work, it always launches to the test menu. My fix was to run ZiNcGUI in the same folder and go through the steps above for the first launch. After this 'first run' it works fine with the Loader. Is there any way to assign the keyboard keys that KN1 games use? Your ZiNc games list says KN1 games are not supported by Winterblast so I assume no. If I could assign them manually I wouldn't need an automated solution. Not sure why I'm trying so hard to get those 4 damn games running anyway! I think you qualify as guru, although compared to me most people are on here. Had never tried Mr Driller. After giving it a whirl I liked it, fun and addictive. Definitely not the typical game you'd see a red-neck/skin-head looking dude playing though. Funny.

Yeah, I checked out Bootskin initially but unfortunately it's XP only.

Thanks Brian, that works great! Figured there was a registry change that would do it. It's easy enough to change back also by going into the task manager and restarting explorer.exe or back into regedit and changing it back to explorer.exe. Not sure if I'll use it though, it's still not entirely seemless. The load order goes: Dell bios logo, my custom logo, round windows logo (and sound), Vista 'starting' screen. Also when GameEx starts my custom music stutters a bit as it loads. Like I said, not seemless but at least now I know how to get that far. Baby steps. Thanks again.

Just curious if anyone has had luck completely hiding Vista and auto-launching GameEx on startup? Here's the experience I've had thus far: 1. Able to replace the boot screen with a custom screen although it still shows the Bios logo before and round Windows logo right after my custom screen. 2. I can hide the desktop manually by ending explorer.exe but haven't been able to do this automatically on startup. 3. When I add GameEx to my startup folder it causes problems. Seems like it tries to launch before the OS is completely launched and hangs. Anyone else using Vista and GameEx out there? ... insert chirping cricket sound here...

Have you considered buying just the box and installing the joysticks buttons etc. yourself? Mameroom offers some cp models that you can assemble yourself. You can also custom design one to fit whatever components you get: http://www.mameroom.com I built my my first control panel to fit a Xevious cab I purchased. It wasn't terribly difficult but if you don't have the right tools like a router and slot cutter for the t-molding, jigsaw or spade bit for the holes it'd be a major pain. I used mamerooms plans to build my 2nd, 3rd and 4th cabs from scratch. Haven't tried their products directly (other than the plans) but they have a good reputation. Other things to consider having on your control panel are: volume control, headphone jack, master power, audio power and marquee power buttons, usb port.

Ok, finally got around doing some testing now that the holidays have past. First off, thanks Nologic. Really cool of you to volunteer your time and put something like this together and 'how-to' docs to boot! This makes it way easier to get ZiNc up and running with GameEx and ties everything together nicely! I think I'm 95% there now, my questions/comments below. I believe I have x-padder setup correctly but I get the following AutiIt error when I try and launch KN1 games. 'Line-1: Error variable used without being declared'. Using Vista, could this cause a problem? In your instructions you say to copy Renderer_GL2.znc and sound.znc to the ePSXe plugins folder and rename them to gpuPeteOpenGL2.dll and spuPeopleDSounddll. Is this necessary if you already have those plugins since they are just copies of them? Just to confim, they don't need to be copied back to the Zinc folder and renamed after they are config'd with ePSXe correct? As I understand it, your setup is looking for them in the ePSXe plugin folder. I did quite a bit of tinkering with the GL2 settings. I wasn't able to get good results with GL2 and ended up changing all back to D3D. I'm using an ArcadeVGA card which recommends D3D. My only audio complaint is a terrible tinny screech at the beginning of levels and during replays on Tekken3. No adjustments seemed to do anything to remedy this. No problems in other games so I'm assuming it's just that game. Looks like you missed Bloody Roar in your config files. Got a black screen when I launched it and then noticed there wasn't a config for it. Just duped a Beastorizer config and named it Bloody Roar 2 and voila. I'm getting a black screen on Fighters Impact A too but there's not missing setup files. Think it's probably something similar. I've only double-checked games through the G's so far. Any suggestions on jury rigging the KN1 games for a keyboard encoder? Thanks again for putting this together, it's a great help.

Thanks for updating this, didn't know you'd be able to get to this so soon, that rocks! I haven't had a chance to check it out yet, been a really busy week but I will this weekend and give full feedback. I would be interested in a version that works with the I-PAC as I've got a cab that uses an I-PAC and Ultimarc MagStiks besides my other that uses U360's.

If you've got ZiNc setup to run in mame using custom controller and render config's how about sharing the info? The response above seems the equivalent of a Nya Nya. The logical way to me would seem to be command line switches with the [ROMNAME] dynamically inserted when ZiNc launches. For example: --use-controller-cfg-file=C:/Emulators/ZiNc/pcfg/[ROMNAME]cp.cfg. As far as I know this is only possible by adding emulators and launching them separately. I did get Nologics Simplewrapper.exe to work, not sure why he didn't just give me a quick walkthrough on how the wrapper's are setup since he took the time to respond anyway. Franky, it really wasn't that hard and should be posted on the ConfigHQ site along with the files. I notice now since it's a separate emulator that I don't have some of the art options like control panels and cabinets. Am I missing something here? Anyway you look at it, the ZiNc setup in GameEx is seriously lacking. Why build it into the core installation if people have to run it separately anyway?

I understand that Nologic's files are meant to be used with ZiNc setup as a separate emulator, my question was how to set it up. The directions on the ConfigHQ site basically just say put all these files in your ZiNc folder... Ok and then what? I've got the wrapper in there, I've got the init folder, I've got the settings config... and then? My black screen issue was because I had Hide Desktop set to 'Make Black and Hide icons' instead of 'no'. Nologic answered this in a previous post to someone else HERE, not sure why he didn't just suggest that in his response. It's frustrating that hiding the desktop is even an option in GameEx with ZiNc selected as it in effect breaks it. So now I can launch ZiNc games in GameEx through mame but get no custom controls or rendering. I can launch ZiNc games through the DaFreak GUI with custom controls and rendering configs. These configs are created in folders called pcfg and rcfg respectively. I either need to change my ZiNc command line to find these custom files on launch for each game or change ZiNc to launch as a separate emulator from GameEx and use one of the wrapper/batch file solutions floating around. Can anyone tell me how to do either of those?

Thanks for the reply Nologic, anything to make ZiNc a little easier to setup would be appreciated by all newbies for sure. I'm not trying to do anything fancy, I just want to launch ZiNc from GameEx and have it use the custom controller configs so my controls work. Since the ZiNc games have different button setups I need to map'em. Just basic functionality stuff. As it is, I can't even get it to run through GameEx, let alone worry about the controls.

I apologize for yet another ZiNc setup help request, I know this topic has been covered here before but I've looked through all of the Zinc threads, scoured online and am still stuck. Here's where I'm at: I've got Zinc running fine with the DaFreak ZincGUI (+winterblast plugin) and am able to customize the rendering and control settings to generate custom cfg files fine. I can't get Zinc to run through GameEx at all though. When I launch a game I get a black screen for awhile and then it goes back to GameEx. My only commandline option is still the default: --renderer=.\renderer.znc. I tried modifying this with --use-config-file and --use-renderer-cfg-file which didn't do anything. The GameEx log doesn't have any specific info on why it errors out: >>Running: cmd.exe /c/C: C:\Emulators\ZiNc\ZiNc.exe 61 --roms-directory=C:Emulators\mame\roms --renderer=.\renderer.znc >>Exiting GameEx! >>Saving Settings >>Disposing Plugins I've looked at NoLogics Zinc support files and downloaded another standalone wrapper mentioned on the forums but I'm not clear on how to use the wrappers and they're thin on explanation. Can someone give me a nudge in the right direction? Better yet a 'do X then Y then Z' explanation. I feel like I've got all the pieces I just can't quite get them to fit right.

Thanks for the suggestion iano. Yes, I've been searching here as well as the byoac and Ultimarc ArcadeVGA boards. Most of what I've read says to do exactly what I've done, turn off the GameEx ArcadeVGA option and use the ArcadeRes tool to automatically generate inits with the 'best' auto-selected resolutions for the games. I've found the resolution selections to be a good start but way off in some cases. I really don't want to go and manually adjust or double-check all of my games and thought maybe someone here had a better solution. I haven't found anything authoritative on any of the boards. I'll post what I end up doing and how it worked for me here to benefit others who might have the same question.

Is there a way to create the 'bubble up' effect used on the text in the V1 MCE Theme? With this effect the text and graphic of the current game selection gets larger and 'bubble's up' as you select it.

Hello All, I've just upgraded my former cab which used a 27" tv and S-video to a 27" Betson Imperial monitor and an ArcadeVGA card and am looking for 'best practices' type information for setting up game (primarily mame) resolutions. I've done some experimenting on my own using the ArcadeVGARes tool to create custom resolution init's for each game and also the default settings in GameEx and found the problems below: With the default GameEx settings some games aren't withing the parameters of my monitor and won't sync. Others don't 'maximize' the screen real-estate. With the ArcadeVGARes tool and custom resolutions some still aren't the best selections and I get vertical games that are stretched left/right a bit too much. I can compensate with the geometry controls but since games share these resolutions, adjusting for one tweaks another. I know someone here must have this setup (nearly ) perfect on their cab and I'd really appreciate some feedback. I think this would make a good standalone topic if it isn't already. Any help is greatly appreciated! -Shaun

After looking in the Theme init again I noticed there is already a Menu line. I deleted the Info entry and manually changed the coordinates of the Menu line and this did the trick, the block of items were moved in my layout. When I open the theme in the Theme Editor again however it restores the Info box to it's default position and adds the entry back to the init file. I guess the workaround for the time being is manually changing the Menu entry in the init file.

I'm having the same problem as gerg was with the info box staying in the same location and don't see a response from him trying Headkaze's suggestion. I've tried changing 'Info' to 'ImageInfo' in the Theme.ini with no luck. In fact, when I then open the Theme again it recreates the Info box (and init entry) with the default location and size: Info=20,160,251,159 Any other suggestions? Thanks for any help.