Toonces

So yes, it's been 10 years since I last upgraded gameex, mame and daphne. My current setup is a tired P4 2.4Ghz, 1GB RAM, 300GB IDE HDD, ArcadeVGA (AGP), JPAC and an LEDWiz running on XP pro with GameEx 9.53 in a Namco Cyberlead cabinet. It's served me well over the last 10+ years but is overdue for a refresh. My new donor PC is a Lenovo M82 SFF i3-3220 (may upgrade to i5-3570) with 16GB of ram, 4TB HDD, AMD HD6450 flashed with ATOM-15 to be installed in my trusty Namco Cyberlead cabinet. The only emulators I had setup were MAME, Daphne, SNES and Zinc (The only way to play Mr. Driller on such ancient hardware). I have the latest MAME .201 and want to update the other emulators as available and add N64 and maybe a few other consoles. As I will be starting over, what is the current best setup suggestions? Windows 7 or 10? GameEX Arcade? I don't need the HTPC functionality really, just emulators. It's in a cabinet with dedicated controls and I still want my Blinky LED buttons too I am guessing I'll need to refresh my license file as well. Does the Arcade version use the same gameex.key? Any suggestions on replacing my ancient hardware with something a little more modern is appreciated! Thanks, Toonces

When you setup your controls using the zincfe, did you do it individually for every single game and save as you went? It took me a while but once I went through every game and set them all to use mame's default key mappings, they all started working for me. Including Mr. Driller (the #1 reason to use zinc!) Don't just check and set it for 1 game. They all have to be done on a game by game basis.

I think that is an awesome idea in itself. Not a full GameEx multi-emulator setup but a MAME only cab FE for linux would be great to play with. Toonces Ok, so I came to the dance a little late. It would still be nice to have a good looking, cab friendly FE on linux for a straight MAME install.

That's really cool! Toonces

Tempest, do you have a mame.ini in your MAME directory? I noticed similar behavior and my lights weren't correct. I checked the log file and noticed the plugin was looking for mame.ini and could not find it so it did not finish loading (at least that's what it looked like to me). I created a mame.ini (mame -createconfig) and everything loaded up including the game configs. I also stopped seeing that behavior where the last selected profile was being shown. Toonces

The multicolor labels IS a cool idea. I am hoping to do something similar using the Optimus Mini 3 keyboard though it won't be split screen per button it does allow for 9 different mappings using shift and control keys. More than plenty for MAME admin keys. I am using flat menus and have all of the mame sub items disabled so I only have All MAME games. I have 14 buttons w/ RGB LEDs and 1 LEDWiz. Buttons for player 1 & 2 are wired to the same ports so I that player 2 buttons mirror player 1 (I don't know if there are any or many games that would have different controls for player 1 & 2 (Lucky & Wild is all that comes to mind and player 1 is driver and player 2 shoots so it's not quite the type of game you can play with 6 buttons) so I wired them together and saved the $50 on a second LEDWiz)Here's what happens for me: ok, I was going to type this all out when it occurred to me to take a video instead. You can grab the movie from my server HERE and as you can see, my lights perform a little differently than what you describe. One suggestion I have is to be able to bulk set a button to a particular color in the MAME profile. The example I have is that I like my Player Start buttons to be Purple to match my cab and every game has them lit as white. It would be cool to be able to change it for all the existing games without having to do it in every game. Just a suggestion that has nothing to do with the problems Tempest is seeing. When I first set my LEDs up, I thought they would work the way Tempest describes. That as long as I was in GameEx, I would have the GameEx default lights. I quickly learned that I was wrong and even seemed to remember some conversations on the subject some time back when you first added LEDWiz support or maybe before where this behavior was discussed and it was said then that the LEDs would change as you scrolled through the list so you would see the controls before you even launched the game. I could be making things up though as it's been a while since I've had my LEDWiz and kept up on the subject (My LEDWiz was one of the beta group that Randy sold and I just now got around to permanently installing it. Talk about procrastinating!). Anyways, maybe you could add an option to choose when to switch the LEDs? Either the default way it is now or on game launch and if on game launch is selcted, they would return to the gameex default profile when the game is exited (or maybe 2 options, 1 when to switch and 1 when to switch back. I don't know, 2 options seems more than is necessary since you'd expect it to work one way or the other not necessarily a combination of both)? Anyways, I hope the movie helps show how the plugin works for me and that it is different from what you describe Tempest. What I would do (and did do when I mucked around too much) is download the latest plugin and remove all of the existing plugin and config files (for the LCDPlugin only) then just go in and set the minimum necessary to get the plugin working then go from there. Earlier in this thread, HeadKaze gave 3 screenshots showing how to configure the plugin. Those 3 screenshots are the best guide for setting it up and getting it working. I had it all mucked up before I looked at those and after I copied the plugin off to the desktop (as backup), reinstalled it from the download on the first post of this thread and set the config exactly how the screenshots shows it works perfectly. Then you can go from there knowing that it's correct from the start. Hope that helps, sorry it's so long. Toonces

Hi HeadKaze, I've been meaning to ask for some time now but keep getting busy and forgetting. Are you familiar with the Art. Lebedev Optimus keyboards? I have the mini 3 (Optimus Mini Three) and was trying to think of a way to use it in a mame cabinet. Maybe for admin controls or something. Anyways, I was wondering if maybe you had some ideas on how it might be used and if you would be interested in writing or extending your plugin for said use (see Tempest, more than one person can talk that way). For plugin development, a mini 3 is not required as you can use the control panel app to see what is going on but it's possible that I could get one to you for the hard work on making it a little more useful Let me know what you think. Toonces

From reading his posts, it sounds like he's expecting them to go back to the gameex default setting instead of whatever game is selected.

Hi Tempest, I read your post in feature requests and from the way you describe it sounds normal to me. You said when you exit the game it goes back to the Game Information page and does not go back to your default settings until you go back to the the game list. Since the plugin changes state with every game as you scroll through the list I am assuming it is taking you back to the game list and doesn't change back until you go back to the main menu? At least that is the way it works for me. When I am on the main menu I get the GameEx LEDs. As soon as I select MAME from the main menu and see my list of roms, it starts showing me the buttons that would be lit for the particular game I am looking at. When I exit a game it takes me back to that list and I can continue down the list and it changes according to the one I have highlighted. You shouldn't get the GameEx LEDs unless you are not in the MAME listing (or other listing like Favorites). At least that is how I understand it to work. HK, is that right? Toonces

Ah, I assumed that nintari was talking about the download in Daphne since it uses bittorrent as well. I already bought the 20th anniv set so I am covered there Toonces

What? We don't speak of purchasing legal DVD's for use with Emulation? Isn't that why there is a DVD check built into Daphne? To verify that you own a legal copy of the Dragon's Lair DVD in order to use the HD versions they make available for download? It would seem to me that would be one of the few things we could speak freely of in regards to obtaining content & games for an emulator. I for one am loving gridlee under MAME!

Hopefully it will. I was just going through the same process and updated list after setting zinc up in case I missed a step or something. Mr. Driller is the only reason I even set zinc up Tom? Any chance you could fix this little niggle? I'd really rather have that great zinc integration rather than setting up another emulator. Along the same lines (zinc related), susume uses an older CHD from the current mame version, is there a way to maybe specify a specific zinc rom directory while maintaining the integration? If not, it's not a big deal as I only use zinc for Mr. Driller but I thought I'd ask since it does kind of break the integration for that game. Thanks! Toonces

I know this is a little late but in case anyone is looking for said answer (as I was, I forgot how to do Aplha paging), Button 1 is the first button. I.E. the Fire button in many games. It corresponds to Left Control on the IPac in the IPac's default mapping for MAME. The button usually most often used on an arcade machine. The button that would be considered the first of your buttons associated with player 1. In a six button layout it is usually the top one to the left closest to the joystick for player 1. Hold that button down and move the joystick up and down for page by page or left and right for letter by letter. It's late but hope that helps someone. Toonces

Hi Guys, Long time since I've been around. My current install was done using XP Jacked bare and GameEx after version 5 (5.09 maybe?) does not work with it. After such a long time I figured I'd start from scratch and give my own nLite build a try. I have no idea at this point what broke it but will play around and see what I can come up with. My hardware isn't low end but it's not exactly high end by any stretch either. P4 2.4Ghz, 1G RAM and a 120G HD, ArcadeCGA AGP. I can and have run everything just fine with a full XP install but want to strip out unneeded stuff while still maintaining a majority of the functionality. For me that means networking services and wireless networking are a must as I like to remotely manage my install via RDP or VNC and network shares. I got around this in Jacked by using an FTP server and VNC but want to do more and of course, have full GameEx support. I may be going overboard by trying the nLite route but what the heck. Toonces

Yeah, I've been using GameEx for a while Thanks for the info on the plugin. There's so much new stuff it gets a little overwhelming. The last version I was running was 7.09 and I think it was 5. something previous to that. It still amazes me the number of releases Tom does to GameEx. I think I've downloaded 3 versions since I started the rebuild! I started from Scratch this time using Windows XP Jacked Core. Very stripped build. Includes network but no shares. boots up quickly and runs fast. I think the default install only uses like 20MB RAM. Pretty much just enough windows to support running programs. I installed the .net runtimes, winvnc and an ftp server so I can upload everything to it. So far so good. It looks like I might even be finished by the end of the holiday weekend Toonces

Cool, I downloaded 8.79 earlier tonight to install when rebuilding my cab. Last version I had loaded was 7.09? Going to go grab this one! Wow, soooo many new features! Thanks! Toonces

Hi Guys! It's been a while now and I've decided to change things up a bit on my cab and start over. I've removed the 2 49 way sticks and GPWiz49's and replaced them with 2 Wico360's until I can acquire 2 Ultrastick360's. I really think the Ultrasticks will match the Japanese cab better so that's where I'm heading. Now, my cab has been running PowerMAME .105 for a long time now and I am considering updating to the latest version of mame. I still have an LEDWiz connected up to 14 RGB LED's for the player & start buttons. GameEx has come so far as well as Headkaze appears too have been more than a little busy himself. What I'm wondering is where to go when starting over? Do I need Headkaze's plugin(s)? or has that been incorporated into GameEx now? My setup is fairly simple for the moment as a 2 player, 6 buttons each, 2 start buttons and 2 8 ways. I will be expanding that to 2 Ultrasticks in the next month but that's it. I really liked the PowerMAME features but I don't think I need PowerMAME to achieve the same thing anymore. Am I correct? Thanks for the help! Toonces

Another quick thing that might help in figuring this out with your config Brewser. Please copy and paste the contents of the batch file C:\Program Files\GameEx\DATA\runitgame.bat (depending on where you have GameEx installed, your path may be different). Navigate to the DATA folder and right click on runitgame.bat and choose edit. Then copy and paste the contents here. That should show the command that is being passed to gpwiz.exe and can tell us if GameEx is interpreting the [MODE] correctly.

One other thing I just thought of. It could also be related to how GameEx selects the mode. If I recall correctly, the mode is chosen based on the output from MAME's listinfo which provides the joystick mode which is then mapped as a number by controlmap.csv. If MAME has changes the format of that output, it could be causing GameEx to not know what mode number to output. Just a thought. I'll try to verify what's going on in my setup soon as I am in the process of updating to the latest MAME/GameEx. Toonces

Yes, [MODE] is correct. I think the problem may be with the GPWiz program itself. Randy released a couple of versions and the first ones did not have support for command line options. I don't know which version he supplies with the product or at the default download as I found the one I used in a reply about adding command line support directly from Randy on Arcadecontrols.com. GameEx translates the [MODE] using controlmap.csv and passes the mode number so for example if the game is pacman, gameex looks at controlmap.csv and sees that it's 4 way control and what is actually run is gpwiz49.exe 4 (the map for 4 way control). I will look into this further with newer versions of gameex to make sure it still works the same way but it will take me a few days to do so. I would recommend using the set49mode method above until then. Toonces

hehe, ok, I won't tell anyone that your software is stable and reliable and just plain works Toonces

Another great plugin! I have been considering switching to the ultimarc sticks mainly for visual reasons. Running big, American 49 way sticks in a Japanese cab looks kinda funny but I love having the auto switching modes that GameEx gives me using the built in support for selecting the mode. Now that there's an UltraStick plugin I can switch to the sticks that will look normal for my cab and still get auto mode switching! WooHoo! Thanks! Toonces

Yep! I am still around. It's a real testament to GameEx that I haven't *Needed* to update it in the last year on my main cab. It's been working great with 2 GPWiz-49 sticks using GameEx's built in support and an LEDWiz using PowerMAME to get in game LED's. Now that Headkaze has built this plugin I guess I'll keep the LEDWiz in there! Cheers! Toonces

WOW! I am preparing to redo my cab after the last 2 years and was going to remove the LEDWiz since I wasn't getting much use out of it (PowerMame is quite old and I want to update to a later version of mame) and come to get the latest version of GameEx (still running 5.46) and find this! Excellent work Headkaze! I am reloading from scratch using the Jacked! version of XP Pro to see how a very thin XP install does for the cab. Hopefully there's enough of the core OS there for everything to work. When I get it all installed I'll try to help out with the testing. Thanks! Toonces

Any chance of this being addressed? It only happens if you don't have GameEx start with the Start page which kida looks funny with only Mame and Shutdown as the options.