Draco1962

Nah - I don't quite fit those descriptions. I have to agree. I like seeing my opponent squirm, not hearing him mack on me when he is getting "pwned 10 states away." BTW, WTF is "pwned" anyways? I mean, talk about a moronic word. When I was growing up, "owned" meant that what was in your possession was not borrowed or stolen. There were just winners and losers. If my score was higher, you were the loser. Simple. If my score was lower, you were still the loser as I "owned" my console and you can just leave or get your own if you object. Same rules applied if I went to my friend's to play. His system, regardless of score, made him the winner. In the end, we were all winners because it really didn't matter and we were friends having a good time regardless.

One thing to consdered would be to verify what emus in the list still retain active links and to see what, if any, support they have received in the last 5 years if still active. Some may have moved to new servers and URLs while others may be orphaned or no longer exist. When I have some time to poke about I wouldn't mind checking through some to compile a list of emulators, URLs (website and download shortcut), and note last update and version. If we did a little divide & conquer it will move much quicker Is there an .mdb that was created for the purpose of tracking the download links, etc? Thanks - Mike

Alright - your opinions please. I have streamlined the frames a bit by removing the "control panel" and replacing it with the scroll window. I have added a third framed window that, when complete will actually be split between the weather, date and time on the left and marquee view on the right (there will be a "split" between the two with an accent border). The finished screen will tell the tale better than I can describe it.

I believe that OpenOffice is compatible as it is with most things MS Office. Since you likely won't be doing much super funky, there should be no compatibility issues. Before you begin down that path, you may just want to try setting up an emu that uses the dbs (MAME being a perfict start) and see how it functions with an existing mdb. Then, try opening/saving the file with the OpenOffice equivalent, then see if GameEx chokes on it. If not, then I would say you are good to procede with OpenOffice.

Since we have a seemingly renewed interest in compiling MAME builds I only see these types of queries increasing as others discover the benefits of compiling their own builds and updating via clrmame pro. <raising hand with my first successful .140u1 mame compile and clrmame pro update>

Anytime you are using a GUI you are demanding more from the GPU and potentially the CPU for drawing the additional graphics. The more layers, the greater potential. May not see as much of a performance hit on moderate to high-end systems with more GPU RAM and/or system RAM available. Machines at the lower end of GameEx recommended minimums will have a greater potential for this. Also, keep in mind that some emulators are themselves GUIs instead of direct command line systems. As far as I am aware, GameBase minimum requirements on their own are not that high. The combination, however, may be higher.

A GUI FE within a GUI FE within a GUI OS. From what I understand from those using it it works very well. I would be hesitant perhaps with systems at closer to minimum hardware recommendations.

Ok - here is a new mock-up. I am going to try enabling the Title display in the Title Bar (imagine that!). I will have the scrolling text as part of the "control panel" down at the bottom. Box top left will be the list (with list numbers displaying in the smaller window on the bottom border). Box top right will be snap/video display. Bottom left (not framed yet) will contain date, time and weather icon display. Bottom right will display for marquees/cabs, etc. I may consider either shrinking the "control panel" at the bottom or removing it altogether. The scrolling text could take up the place where it is at now. My goal to initially was to have it appear more like an actual game view and it ties in with the frame of the box top left. I could just dispense with the CP and that mini panel and put in a panel similar to that in the title bar and scrolling text window. WIll have to play with the various LED fonts to see what will actually work best. My concern with the calculator-looking fonts is legibility when reading. I may decide to keep with the font (or one close) to the original game to keep the theme consistant with the game. It will be easier on the eyes. Would be nice if GameEx would allow for a separate font setting for the scrolling text from the rest of the theme.

I'll have you know that I buy my own Live - screw the kiddies AND PS3! That came off kinda Xbox fan boy, eh?

I have done both. If you disable the GameEx screensaver, even with HideOS enabled, the Windows screensaver should display when idle. Give it a try!

I don't mind the extra steps. Gimme GUI!

Wishing you the best! Mike

I would probably look at some of the existing DBs we have available as a model for continuity and consistency.

Mike - that is awesome! I do this kind of support for a living so probably should have asked "when did you last reboot the machine?" I will be adding this to my "list" from now on for here. We all learned something positive so no harm, no foul, no time wasted. Again, welcome!

And may as well rekey the car and the house so only one key needed for EVERYTHING! j/k as always!

Try this link - http://www.eaglefonts.com/24-led-grid-ttf-145680.htm

Check out this font and let me know what ya think. SInce the font is not solid lines like most others, it should appear transparent in that it will have spaces through which the background will appear.

As Adultery says - Awesomesauce!

Dang, dude. How much power is that beast sucking up?

I still need to finsh the first two Assassin's Creed games before I start on Brotherhood (got it, tinkered, but need to go back and learn the basics). The only game I have really been playing as of late is "Break Out the GIMP and Create Another New Theme" (CAUTION! SHAMELESS PLUG AHEAD). I have a small mokcup of what to expect in the Themese thread on the Pinned Topics subforum. Let me know whatcha think and any feedback/suggestions welcome!

Cabirus - sorry about that, will get Tom to delete it so I can upload a new file with the theme.ini included. In the mean time, please download the attatched theme.txt , rename it to theme.ini and install. (My original post alos has the file attached). Adultery - Glad ya like it! I can't lay claim to other than being a good scrounge on the web! All - Let me know what ya think of this for a theme and provide some suggestions as to layout etc. it is a partial mock-up of the 1920x1080 of a theme I am working based upon the RTG4 PC Game "Sins of a Solar Empire." The intent is to give it the feel of HUD displays from a battle deck terminal. The Scroller text Text will display in the upper left border. The window displayed will be the Program List with list 1 and 2 in the spaces provided below. There will be 2 other windows similar to the List window; one with Program/game Snaps and flyers/cabs.the 3rd, smaller window will display date, time, and weather. Each major app/emu category will have an icon assigned on the respective list window in the upper right (and, of course will show in the Snap window). Of course, the control panel at the bottom does not function, but will have program/emu icons showing for some of the contents within the main category, etc. Needless to say, this will be a grand undertaking as I will be creating many custom menus, buttons, snaps, etc. Likely I will create the menus for the major systems and let the snap display the specific Game System icon. This will cut down on the turnaround time considerably. theme.txt

From what I have seen, the Happ with plastic internals is probably the easiest to manufacture a shoot that will accept any denomination and detect it to trigger a coin insert response. Why couldn't my dad have made me a piggy bank like this? I'd be a gazillionaire by now!

Upo, you may just want to do a web search to see what you come up with. It sounds like you may have a coin comparitor. This would require some sort of modification (for some, it is a simple as inserting a coin into the comparitor like the one you desire to use and the comparitor detects coins passing through based on the coin you provided as a template. Unfortunately, I am not aware of any way to do this and, likely, you may have to check with the manufacturere's site to see if they can provide a means of making such modifications to your hardware.

Mike - thanks for answering. We have to ask these questions as some of us have gone down the path only to find out that the OS was being run on another system (Linux or Mac) or a virtualized environment and there was no way to remedy those types of issues when the conflict imay be caused by the true OS or drivers that are other than Windows or, a pirated copy of same. We will continue to see what we can determine. What I would like to ask you to do for right now on the Media Center PC is go into the Advanced Configuration for GameEx and, under Display Settings disable Hide Desktop by changing Hide Operating System to No, then save the change. Let me know if you see any error messages or prompts (from GameEx or otherwise). Another place for possible clues may be under Event Manager. Note the time you tried to run GameEx and review the event logs to see if anything is notable for that same time. Let us know if anything is pre-loading when you launch Windows and, if so, what? As you can imaigine, it is difficult to diagnose another's PC or software issue when not involved with the setup or hands-on in front of the PC.

LOL! Um no, If I had a TIme MAchine you would not see me here as I would have absconded with the winning Megamillions numbers and been wealthy enough to pay the neighbor's kid to do all of this for me while sipping Tequila Sunrises in my infinity pool overlooking the Pacific in Maui.