Bill_Loguidice

It's an HP AMD 64 3300+ with 1GB of RAM, ArcadeVGA card, Wells Fargo 27" arcade monitor, 160GB HD, Windows XP Home, etc. As long as I don't use GameEx to launch a version of MAME, I can get everything running perfectly, no matter how long the system is on. I'll try some of the tweaks you suggest.

Well, I've been going at this for many days on and off, as my time permits. Everything runs at the right speed (zero dropped frames, normal sound) when both MAME and MAME32 are run on their own, without being "intercepted" by GameEx. They run fine as EXTERNAL programs, just not directly from within GameEx, no matter what settings within GameEx I either tweak or turn off. The sound is much quieter and it skips frames like crazy, which does not occur when run on their own. It's odd, I know, but that's exactly what's happening. That's a good idea about the clean install. I'll try a from-scratch command line MAME directory and a few ROMs and point GameEx to that and see what happens. As usual, I'll post what happens. Fingers-crossed... (I'll be able to mess around some more late tonight) And just an FYI, I still plan on using GameEx, of course, as it's nice all by itself, but I just may not be able to use it specifically for MAME for whatever reason, other than to launch it as an external application...

Well, just a reminder, I have a new Dream Authentics Excalibur cabinet and I purchased GameEx, even though I was already entitled to a copy for being a Dream Authentics customer (I didn't know that at the time). Anyway, like I said, everything works great in MAME32, but trying to access MAME32 from GameEx changes everything about it unless I run it as an external program. Support at Dream Authentics suggested I use the command line version of MAME, since they already include pre-made configuration files for that with the cab. I uninstalled GameEx, put in the new version and pointed to MAME instead of MAME32. I still have quiet sound, but at least now - as long as I turn off GameEx's ArcadeVGA stuff (my cab has a Wells Gardner monitor and ArcadeVGA card) it displays in the correct arcade resolution (Pac-Man at 15Khz, etc.). Unfortunately, it's still dropping frames like crazy, anywhere from ~5 - 20 at a time. Unacceptable, since I obviously have a top-of-the-line maxed out PC in there and no such issues when running MAME32 directly. I'll try a few more things, like removing Triple buffering and what-have-you (which I thought I already did once within GameEx), but I think for whatever reason, it's a lost cause. Bizarre. I'll maybe try a different front end and just GameEx launch that instead, or just work through MAME32. I don't know.

Unfortunately, it did not work. It doesn't matter much as far as pass-through settings go if I have the path empty or not, or if I have ArcadeVGA on or not. It simply doesn't cleanly pass-through the settings, instead insisting on using it's own settings for several items. Even the sound is much quieter than when not using GameEx as the MAME go-to. Beyond giving AdvanceMAME a go, any other suggestions?

Thank you, Emph. I might have already tried that, but I'll definitely give it a go again (I'll let you know what's still messed up if it doesn't fix everything different). Are you aware of anything else with GameEX that might intercept settings? There are obviously quite a few check box options in MAME32 that I've tweaked and it took me quite some time to get something that worked the way I wanted it to.

Hi, I am a newly registered GameEx user. While I see that there is a new version of GameEx just released today, I won't get a chance to install the update until late tonight and I suspect it won't solve my problem anyway. In any case, I can't seem to tweak MAME's usage within GameEx to the parameters I need. I have everything configured perfectly in MAME32, so what's the easiest way to EXACTLY transfer those settings (or tell GameEx to use) for GameEx. I have an ArcadeVGA card with a standard Wells Gardner 27" monitor. I also have a Slikstick-style panel, though it has a few extra features. Control-wise I can make everything work in GameEx, but I'm having trouble using proper resolutions and refresh rates and configuring settings so everything runs at 100% speed. Like I said, I have it "perfect" going straight through MAME32 rather than using GameEx. As a work around, I'm just having GameEx run MAME32 as an external program, but obviously that's not what it's meant for... Thanks for any guidance with this...