hansolo77

I'm getting an idea for HK's next application! A MUGEN configurator! Just have the folders setup, and run the app to have it scan the folders for characters, stages, etc.. and it automatically creates the proper ini's for you! Hey, I can dream...

Yeah, I actually had a bit of trouble but I came out on top eventually! What I tried to do first, was just compile what diff's I had done... to see if it would even work. It came out ok, but I didn't really like the fact that it compiled everything into the "Mame Compiler\MAME" folder, where I also had the source files. I didn't remember which ones were new, and which ones were source. So, I deleted everything in that folder, and created a new subfolder called "!SOURCE". I figured that would be obvious enough for me to know which folders are new, and which were source. I re-extracted the 119 source to the new folder, and proceeded with patching. For some reason, the compiler didn't like the source in a nested subfolder like I had it. It gave me a whole bunch of RED ERROR txt in the readout. I tried to uninstall the compilre, but one of the files were locked and wouldn't allow me to delete it. I shrugged it off anyway, and reinstalled again. This time, it gave me an error that a file already existed, and when I tried to overwrite it, it gave me permission errors. I decided to ignore that too. Another attempt at compiing and it completed. However, the compiled version was now in the "!SOURCE" folder as well! UGH! Then I noticed it didn't actually create the executable. Something very wrong here. I tried another uninstall, had the same file come up protected an undeleteable. I tried manually deleting it, still no go. Then I tried to adjust the permissions of the file so I could grant myself delete permission. That wouldn't even happen. It came back on the permissions tab saying I didn't have permission to edit the permission settings of that file! WHAT GIVES!?! Is that file now permanetly locked on my computer? LOL! I ended up doing a complete shutdown. Had dinner. Came back and cold booted. Manually deleted the file, and it worked! I then reinstalled the compiler and put the source in the MAME subfolder as originally stated. I also opened a NotePad and wrote down the names of the 4 things in that folder so I would know which ones NOT to copy to my MAME drive. Then I began to apply the patches once more. Here's how I did it: hi_119.diff 119u1.diff 119u2.diff hi_119u2.diff 11i9u3.diff Then for compiling, I selected "Pentium M/Dual Core" from the drop down, and checked the Dual Core box. I wasn't sure about the other options, like force direct input, debug, clean version, etc. So I just left those blank. The compile took about 8 minutes for me. I brushed my teeth while I waited. Then I copied over the new files to my MAME drive, in it's own \MAME\ folder. I erased everything I had so far in that folder because I have my roms and extras and chd's backed up on another drive. I wanted to make sure nothing from previous MAMEs would interfere. The I launched the program. "mamepm.exe -cc" I don't know why it's mamePM, but oh well. It created my config file. Then I copied over my roms to the ROMS folder. Then I launched the command-line (this is a first for me, I've always used MAME32 with the GUI). It came up instantly with the little in game menu box, displaying a list of games randomy. If you start typing letters, it displays the games that match. Every letter further shrinks the list of games found. I tried to play a game, and although it ran fine, I couldn't get the controls to work. I have a gamepad I'll eventually use (in reality, I'll eventually be using a real joystick control panel), but right now I just wanted keyboard functionality. I already know 5 coins and 1 starts. But nothing else happened. I hit TAB for the menu and could move the bar with my cursor keys, but now I can't go into the Input options. It's like the "Press enter to select option" [ENTER] key is remapped some how. Any ideas? Oh, and yes. I was successful in compiling MAME (yes!) and getting GameEx to work with it (yes!) and able to launch games via GameEx (YES!). ----------------------- :::::::::EDIT:::::::: Nevermind, I figured it out! -----------------------

OK great. Then I'm glad I stopped. I almost patched up to u3 then go back and patch the hi. Thanks a lot!

Are you sure about that Brian? HK said to apply the u-diffs first, then the hiscore. Now I'm really confused!

I'm gonna try and do this. I've done everything according to your instructions in the first message. However, I'm holding off right now on finish until I get an answer for this question: Do I need to apply the hi_119u2.diff patch to the 119u2 patch before patching up to 119u3? Or should I continue and patch to 119u3 then apply the hi_119u2 patch? It doesn't seem clear to me because in my eyes, applying an older patch to a newer version shouldn't work. I just wanted to know for sure which patch I should do next.

Just curious about the Windows/DOS versions. How does the database compensate for the manually renamed shortcuts? For instance, some of my PC games are by default like a 6 character blob (like UT2k4.exe which is Unreal Tournament 2004). So to make it easier while within GameEx, I renamed the link/shortcut used to the actual game name "Unreal Tournament 2004". So, once I get a full db for PC games, how will I be able to see the info for that game specifically? Also, as mentioned above, it started out as building the db's based on the goodname format. While this works out perfectly for GoodMerged sets, how does it handle games other than GoodMerged sets, like No-Intro or TOSEC? This is a great followup to my first question. It also coincides with my other poll topic about which naming format is prefered. Will the DB's work flawlessly with different names?

But some of the homebrew are cool. Like new maps for Super Mario, or different race tracks on Virtua Racing. Granted, a lot of the homebrew stuff isn't all that great. I've seen things like mods where all the female fighters in Mortal Kombat are naked, or Sonic is already Super Sonic when the game starts. It's not really worth it in the long run. Well thanks for your input guys. I'm gonna wait and see how this poll pans out, and see where to go.

This poll has come out of a thread where Circo was discussing his video releases. I'm a little confused no, and just curious what everybody else thinks/uses. I've always used GoodMerge, and since Tom's program has 7zip/GoodMerge support, I assumed that was what everybody uses. However, I do know that GoodMerged sets are rarely updated. I always thought this was because they were "complete" and didn't need updated because no new roms were released. So the more I think about it, and here ideas from the other thread, maybe a no-into romset would be better. So what do you think?

Ok, this sounds great and everything. Now the question still remains for me... which set to get? I've always used GoodMerged, especially since Tom's included 7zip/GoodMerge support. I thought that was what everybody had been using. If No-Intro is a smarter way to go, I'm game for it.

Same here! When the new release of GameEx is made with them.. I'll try them out!

I'm just glad to see you back Tom!

Just a quick question.. are the "artwork" things just that? The movies with included artwork bezels, or are they the actual artwork themselves? If it's the latter, then we don't really need those if we have the "Extras" torrent that is usually released around the same time as new rom sets?

Well Circo, I don't know about everybody else, but I'm definately a huge fan of your work and love what you're doing to help the community out. I only wish I could help in some way. I've got experience in ripping dvd's, extracting individual streams, compressing, re-encoding, re-multiplexing, blah blah blah. Just let me know.

Personally,I've never been a fan of the No-Intro sets. Now this is only a personal point of view, not to be taken directly at face value. I prefer the GoodName sets. The first reason is because it cuts your number of files down almost 90% due to combining like games together. Also, it saves disk space is about as much percentages. Plus, GameEx now natively supports GoodMerge, so it only makes since. HOWEVER... If you were to release a GoodName version of your files, it wouldn't necessarily work right. The way it's setup right now, all of the movies are in the folder, already extracted. So you're still going to have a huge folder with a huge number of files to deal with. If you wanted to consolodate space and files, you could merely release 1 video for each game, then you're limited to just videos of each game set, and not the individual games inside. This may be ideal in some cases, but the way GameEx works will sometimes cause complications. For Instance... I downloaded your complete set of Sega Genesis roms, art, manuals, and movies from one of the torrent sites the "experienced" members here usually frequent. I belive it was a no-intro set, as you have mentioned that's the way you doing it. For the most part, GameEx's snap match set to "slow - best match" works out great. But it gets less accurate when you hit games like Sonic the Hedgehog. When you get to those sets of games, it plays the wrong video. This is because GameEx doesn't know which video to play. "Sonic the Hedgehog.7z" would contain probably 50 different versions of the game, both non-official and official. So the video it plays may be from some unofficial remake, or may be a completely different game intirely. A good example of this is the Nintendo set. Go down to Super Mario Brothers. Super Mario 3's video is wrong. There's no way around it when you're using a GoodMerge ROM set with a No-Intro video set. So anyway, it's like 2:00am here and I'm just ranting on about nothing. Just wanted to let you know that even though they don't ALWAYS sync with the right video to the rom, it does work for the most part in my case. And I'm very happy to see you doing this for us. Perhaps someday in the future, when you finally have all your sets done, I could assist in getting them all properlly named for GoodMerge as well. Keep up the good work!

You have 2 kids? I never would have guessed. I just wanted to put in my 2 cents here too. I think what you've done has been a great assistance to the team and I couldn't agree more with everybody else. Leaving is a good idea when you don't have the time, but also, don't LEAVE leave.. just take a break. And don't feel bad about it. Look at Tom! He's been gone for a couple weeks now and didn't even bother to make an official announcement (not that he has to). Personally, I know that I haven't been here as actively as I could either. I've gotten hit really hard with my depression as of late, and haven't had much of an appetite for doing anything with my computer and games and things. Plus, now that I've got a job, my participation here hasn't been what it used to be either. Just look at my number of Posts compared to yours (574 to your 929 currently). I guess what I'm trying to say is, it's ok to take time off and work on things that are more important on the personal side. We all support your decision and hope for your speedy return.

You can bypass that with ALT+X I remember that from my 13 years too. As for me.. I haven't downloaded them yet, because every time the thread is updated with a reply, it's about something that's been discovered and changed. So I've been waiting like everybody else, for an official announcements that production was complete and they were good to go. Still, I think this is a great side project, and I can't wait till it's ready.

Maybe he had to go to the dentist and had 8 teeth pulled like I did about a month ago. PS, I don't recommend it. Please take care of your teeth.

HILARIOUS!

Lol good call, wouldn't have thought to check his profile. Thanks!

Heh I was just thinking the same thing, and posed my version of the question in a reply to another thread. I hope Tom is well, and living life to the fullest!

Wasn't Tom going to have all these db's included in a future build of GameEx so they'll be there automatically? Also.. has anybody HEARD from Tom lately? I've just started to notice that there haven't been many messages from him on the forums of late.

No biggie, I found it after looking in the homepage after I typed it up.

Just throwing out the question... Redrocker, did you ever complete your videos? It would be awesome if you could upload them somewhere for everybody to use. Might even give Circo some help with his neverending quest to have video's for all the systems.

Megaupload link is dead.....

I'm gonna get bashed for this I'm sure. But it all seems like a lot of work, even with this program. I mean, rather than download a precompiled version with all these features added/removed, we have to download many seperate files, and hope they all work well together. You have to get the source version of MAME, then the individual diff files. Like I said, seems like an awful lot of work just to get rid of the disclaimer stuff. Still, for those people who DO compile their own version, this would make it a lot easer.