Draco1962

Happy Birthday, Brendan! Hope yours is a good one - party long, hard, and have fun! But be sure to be home by midnight and enlist a trusted friend as your DD!

Unfortunately, I did not maintain the logos without the gradient, however, there is a way of cheating it! First, I would recommend downloading Logo Pack 4 if you haven't already. Next, using the PSD or XCF files (PhotoShop or GIMP), save the images with the pure black background selected. When you save as a PNG file, it will cause the layers to merge. You will end up with the logo and reflection, and no gradient (The gradient is actually a dissolve from pure black - hex value 000000). Hope this helps!

Yeah, those are the default themes, but the user submitted themes are on one of the side links (and the link I posted). Looks like you are well on your way!

There's about 67 themes on the themes link.. where are you looking?

1. Skinny Match by Tempest is probably one of the easiest to use for matching your images to your ROMS. 2. Setting up the paths is under the Options>Directories when using MAMEUI(32or 64). 3. Best emulators to use? That's a loaded question. I would probably advise getting all you need for one system at a time and then search the forums and/or see what the consensus is for that system. 4. Enter the Dragon is one of my faves with all features enabled (of course it is mine.. lol). You may also want to check out my logo packs as well. (Shameless plug mode: OFF)

Theme Title: Joust Theme Type: Cabinet Theme Version: V4 Theme Resolution: 800 x 600 Theme Description: Theme based upon the original bezel and elements and original game sounds. Theme Features: Large collection of original logos with system images. Date, Time, Weather, Select 1 & 2 features enabled. Color Key disabled to take advantage of "true black" and transparencies. Scroller and Pop-up disabled to avoid clutter and keep arcade machine "feel" as much as is possible. Date Submitted: 07/20/2011 Download URL: http://www.gameex.com/themes/Joust.zip Download Size: 67 MB Additional Notes: Special thanks to Adultery for providing feedback!

Theme Title: Space Invaders Theme Category: HTPC Theme Version: V4 Theme Resolution: 1680 x 1050 Theme Description: Theme based upon Bally Williams Space Invader bezel and elements and original game sounds. Theme Features: Large collection of original logos with system images. Scroller, Date, and Time features enabled. Color Key disabled to take advantage of "true black" and transparencies. Weather, Pop-up, and Select 1 & 2 disabled to avoid clutter and keep arcade machine "feel.". Date Submitted: 07/14/2011 Download URL: http://www.gameex.co...%20Invaders.zip Download Size: 94 MB Additional Notes: Special thanks to Adultery for providing the system sound files and to various members for providing encouragement and feedback! Also thanks to Celly for providing me with a copy of the theme in action!

Theme Title: Enter the Dragon Theme Type: HTPC Theme Version: V4 Theme Resolution: 1680 x 1050 Theme Description: Two-tone wood elements with an Asian flare. Theme Features: Large collection of original logos with and without system images. - Extensive Photoshop PSD and GIMP XCF files included for custom foreground and background files creation. - Theme-based Vertical Bezel and Windows Desktop/Logon Screen included - Works well with default menu or custom menu layouts. - Makes good use of transparencies with Color Key disabled. Date Submitted: 06/03/2011 Download URL: http://www.gameex.co...he%20Dragon.zip Download Size: 132 MB Additional Notes: Give it a try, let me know what ya think. Simplicity of display was the goal without appearing too busy with too many visual elements in the design itself, while keeping with most GameEx features enabled.

Thanks for the correction, Tom!

Ctrl-Alt-Delete should bring up Task Manager. From there, locate Instant Sheller and end program new task, Windows Explorer (see Tom's response below).

Mine are not all that extravagant. Sometimes Less is More in my opinion. I look forward to seeing it!

Even though we both include the PSD files, it really isn't fair to expect that every need is going to be anticipated and satisfied, nor is it fair to expect not to have to put a little effort into fine tuning things. Krake has a good point in that we should provide as much as is possible for the end user to be able to flexibly (is that even a word?) create additional foreground/backgrounds as needed. I have far greater concerns so far as trying to motivate or challenge others to pick up the tools and create something they can share with others. With the number of years that GameEx has been around and as many users as we have active over that period of time, I think it is a crying shame that only 33 people picked up their virtual paint brushes to create & share 67 themes. As a community, we are much better than that!

Here they are but I don't know how much diagnostic help they will be. I went into the Input Settings and disabled Keyboard Direct Input and this "resolved" the issue, however, I am not certain that this is how DirectInput should be behaving. I have also confirmed that no custom input settings have been activated and also tested with another keyboard to rule out a keyboard driver issue and was able to achieve the same results.

It doesn't mean you can't make one. A few hours here and there. It can be a continuous project as you are able to carve out an hour or two here and there! I have literally gathered GBs of images for use on current themes or future use (guess that makes me a hoarder). Believe it or not, that is where I draw inspiration, thinking about "I have this or that - how can I make them work together and within GameEx.." Boxee.zip

Not sure to be honest. Never noticed it happening before. Makes it kinda hard to search anything with A or S in them, though. Asteroids comes to mind.

I have several thoughts (imagine that). Most themes are initially created for the user's own system. Others are created just because the person enjoys doing so. While it would be nice to anticipate the needs or desires of every user, you have to keep in mind the investment in personal time the creator puts into the theme. Some of us have the time, energy, and skills to whip up theme ideas (I usually have 5 or 6 ideas swimming about at any given time and 1 or 2 end up available for download). I know that as I have progressed I have attempted to make it possible for the end-user to create additional foregrounds/backgrounds as possible. No matter how much we throw at our creations, there is always going to be someone that wants this or that, or would like something like it, but a little different. So whether we spend the time up front, or in the end, it is time that is valuable to us as creators. That is just the nature of doing stuff for the public. All of that being said, I also believe that the end-user has a certain amount of responsibility to learn to use the tools that are available to create some stuff on their own. There is a noticeable disparity between the number of users of GameEx and the number of users contributing themes. Last count, there were 33 members responsible for 67 themes. Imagine how many themes there would be if everyone contributed just 1 theme? There is no lack of encouragement and resources here in the forums if anyone needs help.

Tom - I think I can confirm that something isn't quite right since upgrading to MAME 0.143u2. I am showing a total of 10900 ROMS for MAME (nice round number eh?) when I am showing 12526 in my ROMS directory. This is with all filters off, of course. This seems almost like the issue we had a few months ago where Mesk reported having more than 10000 but GameEx only showed 9000 or so. It is odd also in that when I show 10900, games such as Vanguard do not show in All MAME Games, yet when I enable filters, I show only 2900 games (again, what is with the round numbers?) and it shows! Let me know if you require any further info.

Having a new issue with Search within GameEx. The A and S keys display Next Track and Previous Track respectively. Not entirely sure why this is occurring - here are my gameex.ini and log files: log.txt GameEx.txt

So far I am not able to play any listed (Tekken 1,2 &3, Soul Blade,SF EX and Strider 2). May be that the ROMS I have are bad or something else is not setup correctly.

Leave it to Uncle Fester to throw a damp rag on the cat....

I think pretty much the same as for me and HK. Mine is really no different even though it was said it is.. damned brevity. There I go trying to keep the explanation short... LOL!

actually not my work - just found them when doing some searches.

Possible you may need to delete the cached files. They are located under \gameex\data\. Try deleting all files that contain the word cache in them, then restart GameEx. The files will rebuild. Let's see if this resolves the issue.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it! I prefer to keep things zipped whenever possible to save on space and since GameEx provides ZIP support it generally works out well!

Have you checked the ROM filter in the emulator to make sure that .smc is shown?