Draco1962

Sadly, many of the standalone emulator favorites are no longer supported by the original authors and an increasing number of them are becoming incompatible with the latest iterations of Windows. I agree that RetroArch can seem a little intimidating at first, but may be the best option going forward with Windows 10/11 and beyond.

And thank you for your patience. These oddities keep us on our toes!

Like 23H2, 24H2 will mean dfifferent things to different people. I have 3 different Win 11 Pro devices and 1 had an issue and the others were fine, and then a patch was issued to address 24h2 issues and a different device had issues that were subsequently fixed with another update... 🤬

And no instance of any of them launching and showing running when you alt-tab or look in Task Manager? That is what I find puzzling as my testing with the .bat files named with parenthesis launched, but GameEx returned to the selection and the "game" was running in a window found when I alt-tabbed to it. I don't think that Tom was able to find anything within GameEx that would cause this programatically. Not saying it will not be exploreed further, but at least there are now two workarounds - rename the files (least favorable) or select "Remove text from Brackets" set to "Yes".

Based upon the thought that there may be a conflict due to the two versions installed, does anyone think that uninstalling both versions, restart, and installing the latest version would be a possible solution?

It is essential that your ROM versions match your version of MAME. If you have been upgrading MAME and just adding new ROMS here and there, it is very possible that incompatiblity has crept in. Per the log you are currently using MAME 0.207. The current version of MAME is 0.271. Most times an older version ROM will work with no issues, but then won't in a latter version as new parameters are discovered and implemented. The following response to a question about forward compatibility illustrates this better: https://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,106212.msg1125776.html?PHPSESSID=0abgq5d3ci117rqks9qpmdvndp#msg1125776

But wait! You have no idea what Windows Hell awaits with 24H2!

The following reserved characters should not be used as they are reserved by the OS: < (less than) > (greater than) : (colon) " (double quote) / (forward slash) \ (backslash) | (vertical bar or pipe) ? (question mark) * (asterisk) & (ampersand) should probably be avoided as well as % (percent). Spaces, while not verboten, can be problematic from a naming perspective if you have a ROM filename with an extra space that is hard to be seen and your media does not have an extra space in the same place. Definitely try again with " surrounding your [ROMPath]\{ROMFile] replacing the instances of Command=cmd.exe /c [ROMPath]\[ROMFile] with Command=cmd.exe /c "[ROMPath]\[ROMFile]" as Tom has suggested. Test and provide updated gameex.ini, log.txt, and runitgame.bat files. Thanks!

If there's an issue with a current version it is always best to try to triage it for a fix. The further away you get relying upon an older version the less likely you may be likely to get support, and the more likely other functionality will breakdown as future OS updates are installed.

One thing to make sure of is that you are running the latest manufacturers driver update for your GPU in addition to the latest versions of the software following major Windows updates.

Ok, I am a little confused. In the file name examples you are indicating that none of the filenames listed with or without the ( ) in the filenames. Good info here and more for file naming conventions - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/fileio/naming-a-file Yes, Tom will need to confirm whether or not GameEx has additional character restrictions. It is not uncommon for apps to have additional restrictions. If that is the case, you may have some renaming in your future. Not what you may want to here but may be what you have to do.

When it happens can you confirm whether or not the games - testing both .au3 and .bat - are actually launching but not displaying? It will require ALT-TAB after launch attempt. Thanks

Would this warrant a separate thread in the General subforum if @Helshaks is having a problem with the requisite pinballx.ini is log.txt files attached?

@Tom Speirs if you are referring to the link for the table it is restored in the original post and here: https://vpuniverse.com/files/file/22258-gorillaz/ My apologies for the confusion as tables used to be verboten.

Please attach the pinballx.ini and log.txt files separately. Thank you.

So all good now? We gotsa know!

Per the change log, v2.65 is the latest yet the actual version available for download is v2.67: @Endaar - would you mind attaching (no copy & paste please) a copy of the CPWizard.log file? It may provide a clue as to the error condition you are describing for v2.67.

Not sure if it is relevant to your issue, but did you remember to install the latest LAV codecs?

I have tested further using a batch file to open Notepad++ to launch via the same emulator slot. Results: All files, either as .bat or .lnk pointing to the batch file with or without parentheses in the file name launched in the background only. Gamepad stopped funtioning so had to navigate with keyboard. Shortcuts directly to the Notepad++.exe, with or without parentheses in the filename, launched in the foreground and returned to GameEx Arcade Edition with no impacts to gamepad functionality.

UPDATE: Within GameEx Arcade Edition v18.84 and using one of my emulator slots and direct launching games using a shortcut or file with .lnk as the extension, I changed the filename to include parentheses. I was not able to replicate the error reported. Other than available options displayed, AE should be the same as regular GameEx. Excerpt from log.txt file after launching Microsoft Flight (Simulator X).lnk from Emulator 5: Flight Sims: 16:52:48.75 11/17/2024: Running: cmd.exe /c E: E:\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\fsx.exe @Tom Speirs will need to chime in with additional steps to triage or advise if there are limitations to launching files with () in the file names for Autoit Scripts (.au3) or batch (.bat) files. Attached are my gameex.ini and log.txt files GameEx.ini log.txt

I hope to test a hypothesis regarding this when a game is direct launched via GameEx emulator slot (e.g. via .bat, .lnk, or .au3 files) vs. launched via emulator through GameEx (e.g. MAME, DAPHNE, etc.). If my assumptions are correct and based upon the issue as reported this should only impact the former while emulator should be unaffected and launch properly when the ROM has parentheses in the filename.

Thanks for the answers regarding. I don't leverage Autoit scripts, preferring to, when I do, compile them into .exe files and created shortcuts (.lnk) for launching. I have not used .bat files for a long time. As an aside, it would be interesting to see if .lnk (shortcut) files with parentheses in the filename are similarly impacted. I will try to test that soon.

Are you leveraging the internal DAPHNE support or staged as a separate emulator (emulator 1 Laser Disc Games using .au3) when the error occurs? Or does it happen with both? My guess is with just the ones you are launching with Autoit scripts.

Let's narrow this down a little with a two-part question: Is it only the batch files with parentheses in the file names that are not launching via GameEx or is it ALL with parentheses whether launched via emulator or integrated emulator support (e.g., MAME)?

Yikes! Another few questions then - Has this ever worked for you with GameEx? If so, do you recall when it stopped? What is the purpose of launching game or ROM files via batch files? Would you mind attaching copies of your gameex.ini and log.txt files from right after launching one of the affected batch files? Thanks.