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Have you used bezels in MAME? Bezels do much of what you describe, and are relatively easy to setup in MAME. You can even setup a default GameEx bezel in MAME through the setup wizard (bearing in mind that it will override all other MAME bezels). EmuMovies has a great set of MAME bezels. Definitely worth checking out.

I've found it to be very beneficial to leverage an image verification tool against my disc images. ClrMamePro is what I use, but I believe RomCenter would also work perfectly well in this capacity. You can find verification DATs through Redump.org (my preference) and TOSEC. Here's a handy guide for using ClrMamePro in the event that you've never tried it out. Once you've verified your disc images it becomes a bit easier to determine whether there's a problem with the emulator or with your disc image (although only a bit).

Hmm ... It's sounding like your disc images may be corrupt.

We've all hit that wall a time or two. Glad to hear everything worked out!

Oops! Dupe Post ...

I can’t view the image of your error message since it’s blocked by my filter at work. ~ahem~ Among other things though, you don’t need the [-virtualdrive-] flag if you’re opting to manually mount the image via a Launch Before command. The [-virtualdrive-] flag in GameEx is intended to automatically mount your disc image to the DaemonTools drive. I’ve never had any luck getting the [-virtualdrive-] flag to mount to a SCSI drive which is required for ePSXe (thus the need for the Launch Before command - other users may have better luck in this regard). At any rate you don't want to use the [-virtualdrive-] parameter if you're already taking care of mounting the disc image via the Launch Before command. In practice you won’t specify the ROM in your emulator command at all. You’ll need to go into ePSXe itself, and configure your CDR plugin to point at the virtual drive you’re mounting images to. Then when you start ePSXe it will automatically run the image mounted to your virtual drive. Once all that happens the resulting command will probably look something like this: It’s been a while since I’ve looked at my ePSXe underpinnings, but if you need additional assistance in setting up ePSXe, I can post further suggestions when I get home this evening and have a chance to take a look at my own setup (or someone else may do so in the mean time).

Just like celly I’ve been meaning to comment on what a great idea this is. Another homerun for Adultery! I’m definitely going to give this a run through, although with my current work situation it may not happen until sometime in July (at which point it probably won’t need testers). Thanks Adultery!

I imagine the solution proposed by Bigby will go along way towards getting you on the right track. Be aware that the command line for DTPro will differ slightly from the command used by DTLite (notably, the DTPro version of the executable is called DTAgent.exe). The provided links should provide some guidance regarding how to best configure your command line.

This had me rolling! Seriously though, this is how Draco normally opens his brew:

A bit too hardy in this case! I'm a Guiness man myself. Visitors to my house know that they're welcome to any beer they find in the fridge unless it's the last Guinness.

Just out of curiousity, what format are your disc images in, and what do you have your ROM filter set to (if anything)?

Alright, so far this is sounding good, but we haven’t made a huge amount of progress from the original issue (maybe slightly less! ). At least we can be relatively certain that your DVD rips are valid at this point. Don't worry though we're on the right track. First, a couple of questions. Did you also install the Shark007 codec pack? This has been a boon to several GameEx users, as it tends to enable flawless playback of MP4 files in GameEx. Having said that, you must be sure that you get the version of the codec pack that is correct for your operating system. It sounds like MP4 files are playing natively in Windows Media Player, which leads me to believe that you’re using Windows 7 (or possibly Vista). Does that sound right? My next question is whether you’re using a 32bit (x86) or a 64bit (x64) operating system? All of the above factors will play a role in which Shark007 codecs you select. Make sure you’re grabbing the right ones for your system. If you’re using a 64bit OS, you’ll need to install the 32 bit codecs, followed by the x64 components in that order. Report back if you have any questions about this, and if something appears to have gone wrong uninstall the 64bit components followed by the 32bit codecs (in that order) and start over. I’m not sure if there’s a way to revert GameEx back to default video settings (I’d love to hear about it if there is). I’m away from my GameEx machine, but I can post a copy of my GameEx config tonight if that would be helpful (I’ve never modified any of my GameEx video settings to my knowledge). Finally, if you believe that you have followed the above steps closely, but are still experiencing problems, please post a copy of your GameEx log. This is pretty easy to do, but in order to be most effective in troubleshooting please follow these steps: Start GameEx Navigate to your video section and attempt to play a problematic video (i.e. recreate the error) Exit GameEx Navigate to Start Menu > GameEx > Log File and open that file Post the contents of that file right here. Good luck, and I’m fairly confident we’ll get this sorted out.

Hi clair It definitely sounds like this is a non-standard configuration of GameEx. Accordingly, a copy of your GameEx.ini will be the most valuable information you can provide for the purposes of troubleshooting this issue. GameEx.ini can be found in the following directory (assuming GameEx is installed to the default location on your machine): C:\GameEx\CONFIG\GameEx.ini Let’s have a look at that bad boy, and we’ll see what we can see!

A copy of your Advanced Emulator Config would definitely be of assistance here. More and more this is sounding like the exact same issue I ran into with a special build of ePSXe/ePSXecutor. All the pieces seem to be the same (there’s a Launch Before and Launch After Command, the necessity for an Advanced Emulator Config, and The Launch After command running when the game is launched). [RESOLVED] Launch After Command Running Before Emulator Fully Loads (The first and last posts get at the real heart of this particular issue. The ones in between get a bit off track dealing with a separate issue – the necessity for images to be loaded to a SCSI drive in DaemonTools for the purposes of ePSXe) I got it working, but the solution was a bit convoluted. Basically I built a ‘Launcher’ batch file that takes in the name of the ROM file as a parameter. I used that batch file as my emulator command in GameEx. Within that batch file I inserted a timeout command, the intent being that it would give the spawned process time to load before exiting the batch script. To GameEx is looks like the emulator command takes a while to exit, and by the time it does exit the ‘watched process’ is running, so the Launch After command doesn’t run. That resolved my issue. At the time I thought this issue might be isolated to my own unique problem. Now I’m wondering whether the above combination of circumstances triggers a bug in GameEx? I’d be curious to see whether the above solution works in your situation. I’m away from my GameEx machine, but if it helps, I can upload my final emulator config for the special ePSXe build when I get home (which is just about the only thing I didn’t upload to the post I linked above).

James, you rock man. The proof is certainly in the pudding so to speak. So let’s get to some real troubleshooting, shall we? The first question I have for you is how are you ripping your DVDs? There are a few right ways to do this and several wrong ways. A good DVD ripping guide may be valuable in this process. The next question I have for you is whether or not you have any non-default codecs (or codec packs) installed on your machine? A codec pack is like a library of media decoding algorithms that helps your computer to figure out how to play a particular media format. Several of us around here are fans of the Shark007 codec pack. The instructions are fairly straight forward, but you’ll want to follow them carefully for the best results. I would imagine that the default settings should be fine for your use. Either of the above factors will have an impact on how your video files play back on your machine. I would first verify that your ripping process is correct, and if the videos still give you issues take a look at using the Shark007 codecs.

Hi bitwildcard Probably the most valuable piece of information you can provide here would be the Emulator Config for the emulator that’s giving you difficulty. The ‘Export Config’ button can be found in the Setup Wizard between the main columns on the Emulator Selection screen. Here’s a ‘shoot from the hip’ response though. I don’t know what you’re running for your Launch Before and Launch After commands, but some users (myself included) have had success with the following modification: Rather than: Launch Before=”Arbitrary Command” Try Launch Before=start “” “Arbitrary command” So yeah, that’s shooting from the hip. Your emulator config will be the best means of really nailing down the issue.

Hi James, and welcome to the forums! Before we dive in, let's address an issue of semantics. It sounds like what you're doing is ripping movies from DVDs (that you own) to your harddrive. If you were asking questions about playing downloaded movies, well that would be rather frowned upon in most forums (whether you owned the movies or not). Downloading copyrighted movies is illegal, and highly frowned upon by the starched collar crowd over at the MPAA. Love 'em or hate 'em they've got lawyers out the wazoo, and could shut this forum down in a heartbeat if they took a notion. So before we may safely assist you, we need to verify that you're backing up movies you already own to your harddrive. Does that sound about right? The other possibility is that you are attempting to get downloaded game preview videos to work within the frontend (possibly from a source like EmuMovies). That is perfectly legal and we are also able to assist you in that endeavor. Does one of the above circumstances describe your situation? Please let us know, and we can dive right into some full-fledged troubleshooting. Thanks for your patience and understanding!

Hi epicfatigue! There are a couple things that stand out to me in your emulator config. The first one is this: ePSXe doesn't have native support for compressed images, so if you're loading the compressed images from GameEx you'll need to have this field set to true in your emulator config (it's called Zip/7-Zip/GoodMerge on the Advanced Emulator Setup screen in the Setup Wizard). Note that decompressing disc images can take a while, so you may want to take that into account (I've done both ways on my rig, but currently run with uncompressed images). The other thing that stands out is this: In my experience it may be better show *.bin or *.cue in your list, but not both. Typically I configure GameEx to omit the file extension from games in my game list, so if I was showing both the bin and cue files, I wouldn't know which one I was launching. Interestingly enough I've had better luck setting my filter to *.bin than I've had setting it to *.cue (which is totally counterintuitive, but true in my case). OTOH I mount my images through DaemonTools so that may also play a role here. Note that if you do mount your disc images through DaemonTools it will require a virtual SCSI drive and not the default DT drive.

Awesome! Glad everything worked out.

Great, so far so good. The next step will be to create an Advance Emulator Config for Minecraft. I honestly don't know if there's a more 'official' way to create an Advanced Emulator Config, but I'm going to tell you how I do it. This method works just fine Navigate to the following directory in GameEx: C:\GameEx\CONFIG\EMULATORS This directory assumes the default install location, so you'll need to adjust it if you installed to a non-default location. Make a copy of the following file (Ctrl+C) [Mapping Off] Exit (Process Close).ini and paste it in to the same directory (Ctrl+V) Rename the copied file as something relevant to what it will ultimately do ("Minecraft Config.ini", or "Java Listener Config.ini", etc) Launch the GameEx Setup Wizard and navigate to the 'Advanced Emulator Setup' screen for your Minecraft entry There you'll notice a dropdown selection box called Advanced Config. In that list of selections you'll find an entry for the new config you created and named in steps 2-3. Select that entry and press the '...' button located to the right of the selection box. Welcome to the Advanced Config Editor. Open up the Process Wait tab. Double click the Process entry for Process1. In that field enter javaw.exe. So there we go. You've now configured GameEx to listen for the javaw.exe process to close before returning to GameEx. Take that for a spin and see how it works out. Now, there's still one potential issue to be aware of. You'll notice that the advanced config we copied was labeled as 'Process Close'. That's because when you press your exit key (ESC by default) that config will instantly kill the running emulator or game. That's fine in many many cases, but some apps get a little 'crotchety' if they aren't closed in a specific fashion. One possible symptom is game saves are not allowed to process correctly upon exit (thus loosing saved game data). You'll want to take a look at the Minecraft documentation/menus and see if there's a key combination that might be more suited to exiting Minecraft in an elegant fashion. If there it turns out that there is a preferred key combo for exiting Minecraft we'll want to modify your Advanced Emulator Config to send those specific keys on exit. Feel free to report back if that's the case. For a thread that started as a 'Noo-b' question, we're jumping right in to the deep end of the GameEx pool! Come on in the water's fine!

OK, thats basically what I expected. Here's what I suspect may be happening. When you launch an emulator or game from within GameEx, it will 'listen' for the launched application to close. When that application closes GameEx knows that it's time to return focus to the frontend. This can cause an issue if the application you launch is not in fact the game itself, but rather a launcher of sorts. Java applications (like Minecraft) run inside a JVM (Java Virtual Machine) by their nature. So when you start a Java application you're actually starting up the JVM and feeding in any parameters necesary for running the application. The launcher starts the JVM, feeds in application parameters for Minecraft, and promptly exits; it's sole reason for exsistence having been met once the JVM has taken over control of actually running the application. The trouble is that GameEx only knows about the launcher and not the JVM; so once the launcher is done GameEx figures that you're done playing the game. Badda Bing, badda boom you're back in GameEx. We need to tell GameEx to listen for the Java component of this application before it returns to the frontend. This will be accomplished through an Advanced Emulator Config. First we need to figure out the exact name of the process, so we can tell GameEx. Here's how we do that: Start your Windows Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc). Switch to the Processes tab. Take a brief look at the applications that are running. Pay special attention to see if there's anything related to Java already running (it will be called Java.exe, Javaw.exe, or something similar). Hopefully there isn't as it will make the next steps easier. Keep the task manager open and launch Minecraft Take another look at the task manager and see if there are any new listings for Java. If there is a new listing for Java, pay special attention to the exact name of that process. We need to tell GameEx about it. Before we dive into the next step of actually creating the Advanced Emulator Config, let's verify the steps above. No point in going too far down this road if we took a wrong turn somewhere. Here's a preview of what we're going for here, as the issue (and subsequent resolution) is practically identical. [RESOLVED] ParaJVE

OK, I suspect I know what's happening here, but let's get the basic clarification out of the way first. Does your Minecraft shortcut successfully launch Minecraft when launched outside of GameEx? (i.e. does it work when you double click the shortcut from Windows?) I must apologize as I'm one of the luddites who has yet to be exposed to Minecraft on any platform. For my edification (and potential troubleshooting), Minecraft is a Java application isn't it? (It's OK if you don't know, but that bit of information may help in troubleshooting your issue). Edit: No need to answer that Java question. I just investigated, and Minecraft is in fact Java based. This will probably develop into a couple of troubleshooting steps, but all the same let's still verify that the original Minecraft shortcut is working outside of GameEx.

I think that would be great Draco. I was just thinking the other day that it would be nice to have something along these lines. Would this also encompass project announcements and updates, housing the work of Adultery, Tempest, and others? Just out of curiosity, if you were to implement a couple different sub-forums has there been any discussion of a forum dedicated to theme development and questions? Currently we have a bunch of talented individuals working on various themes, but some of the progress threads tend to get lost in the shuffle of general support questions and the like. It would be great to have a centralized spot for theme discussion, progress updates, etc. (IMO). However it plays out, I’m in favor of your idea. Good call!

You've got your ROM filter (and command line) set to .ink (like from a pen). You need it to be set to .lnk (like the hero of Legend of Zelda but without the i (ironically)). .lnk is the proper extension for a shortcut in Windows. Additionally your command line can be set to simply "[ROMFILE]" (be sure to include the double quotes). That way the command will still work if you opt to add additional game shortcuts to your ROM directory. Good Luck.

That’s very interesting about the F710. I use an F710 myself, but not in conjunction with any Xbox controllers. I’ll have to remember that piece of wisdom in the future, should the need arise. Thanks! I know that switch has tripped me up a time or two as well. It’s nice to have the ability to switch between DirectInput and XInput, but it can be a real PITA when you need to troubleshoot controller issues only to discover the switch is in the wrong position.