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Hi HowlingBlue, and welcome to the forums! In the Setup Wizard, if you navigate to the Advanced Emulator setup screen for any particular emulator you will notice fields labeled as "Custom Art." These fields allow you to define up to five additional artwork directories for any emulator. This should allow you to have multiple custome snap paths defined for any emulator. You may still have some work ahead of you, as you'll probably need to divide your artwork into multiple directories, but I imagine this functionality should be able to meet your needs (more or less).

Dunno if this will help, but Newegg turns up several results that might (or might not) fit the bill (Socket LGA 775 right?). You may still need to narrow results according to the frequency of your existing RAM but it looks like there's a fair number of boards supporting DDR2 are still available. Newegg - Socket LGA 775 Motherboards

Regarding funny Easter Eggs in games, I got a pretty good laugh out of this article over at cracked.com. The 5 Ballsiest Easter Eggs Hidden in Video Games It’s amazing the sort of stuff that gets left behind in code sometimes. It's definitely always a reminder that game development is a human based endeavor (rather than that of a faceless corporation). Likewise it always makes me feel a bit nostalgic for the early anarchistic days of home computing when often as not games were developed by small teams working out of a basement somewhere (although the current trends towards indie gaming certainly suggests this concept isn’t altogether dead . . .)

This is too crazy. Apparently a fully functional ZX Spectrum emulator has been discovered hidden inside the code of the N64 GoldenEye game. Ten Speccy games from Rare are apparently hidden in there as well. The full story and instructions are available at TheRWP. It would be utterly hilarious if you could unlock this through an N64 emulator (cuz . . . you know . . . I mean . . . yo dawg you just put an emulator inside your emulator so you can emulate while you're emulatin')

It's been a long time since I set up SSF. Perhaps this thread might be of some use to you. Short of that there's always a full on forum search, and then there's always Google. Not a lot of help, but I did notice some promising hits in that Google search. I bet we've also got some other users that are a bit more up to speed on setting up SSF (or at the very least have a better memory than I do ) Good question, although you see these two concepts frequently mentioned in the same sentence, they serve very different purposes. Basically a Map file maps an arbitrary display name to a ROM file. This comes in very handy for emulators in which the ROM name does not really indicate the underlying game. MAME is the best example here, although it's certainly not the only one. So while skykid.zip | Sky Kid is passable sf2ceb.zip | Street Fighter II - Champion Edition (USA rev B. ) is considerably less useful. So in the above example if you added those lines to a map file the name on the right is what will be displayed in your frontend while the file on the left is what will be launched by the frontend. A wrapper on the other hand acts as a surrogate launcher for an emulator that doen't fit well into the frontend model. This could be due to the fact that the emulator cannot be launched from the command line, or it might display info screens before launching a game (requiring the user to click through), or any number of issues that one may want to address for seamless frontend integration. In the case of a wrapper, the wrapper itself is launched from the frontend (which in turn launches the emulator). You may need to provide additional details here, as I'm not sure what exactly you're asking. An emulator is itself an executable after all. Perhaps you're asking about launching other external programs (external video players and the like)?

You could try out Map File Magician by our very own Tempest. Edit: I think Adultery is also still working on a Map File Utility. So there's also that to look forward to.

Draco allow me to introduce you to your edition of Star Wars (not quite sure about that extended scene, but a brilliant fan edit nonetheless). Back on topic, I have always felt like the entire Gargoyles Quest series of games is criminally underrated. It certainly didn't help the series that each sequel was on a different game platform (thus preventing it from ever getting a good toehold on any one particular platform). I think the Gargoyles Quest games are so much better than the Ghosts n' Goblins series that spawned them, and yet Ghosts n' Goblins is the series that gets remembered. I think that Demons Crest on the SNES is simply fantastic (and the best game in the Gargoyles Quest series), but it's also probably the least well known.

Nice work Krak! This theme is going to be awesome. The funny part is, I had never seen a picture of a Watara Supervison until today.

You need to compile MAME from source in order for it to work with CP/controller mapping software. Luckily it's not a terribly difficult adjustment to make. This thread may be of interest to you: XPadder MAME mod I'd recommend taking a look at that whole thread, but cutting to the chase this is what you'll need to do: Not sure of your level of experience, but if this all sounds like greek to you headkaze is also the author of the most popular MAME compiler software which is available over at his website. His software takes a lot of the guess work out of compiling MAME. Naturally we can provide some assistance with MAME compiling if you run into difficulties.

I dunno, I think it’s a valid question. It would certainly be the most simple means of managing something like this. Managing a single map file would be easier than managing multiple map files encompassing several directories. It would also be easier than adding/removing entire lines/sections from a single map file as needed (i.e. commenting/uncommenting sections would be easier than adding/removing those sections). I don’t think I would use it personally, but it would be nice to know that I could. For that matter the ability to add comments to map files would occasionally be useful in ways beyond simply commenting out lines in the map file. I mean sometimes you might just like to leave yourself a trail of breadcrumbs explaining how and why you did what you did (particularly for those just getting started). To answer the OP, no I don’t think it’s currently possible. If you’re really interested in this functionality it wouldn’t hurt to add it as a feature request. Also to the OP, you might want to change the title of the thread as currently it sounds like you’re trying to force your games to come out of the closet.

Glad to hear you got everything worked out. Nice work!

On the topic of the worst games on the NES, I’m hard pressed to think of anything worse than the Uncanny X-Men game produced by LJN. Not only is it a completely awful game on its own merits, but they suckered you in with the promise of an awesome X-Men game. To quote GLC Councillor Bernard Brook-Partridge (on a completely unrelated topic), “[it is] unbelievably nauseating. [it is] the antithesis of humankind. I would like to see somebody dig a very, very large, exceedingly deep hole and drop the whole bloody lot down it.” Note that Atari actually did do this for E.T. on the Atari 2600, whatever that tells you. *Also fictional bonus points if you know what Councillor Brook-Partridge was actually referring to.

Just like Han noted, overrated doesn’t necessarily mean a game is bad, it simply means that the hype surrounding a game is much greater than the perceived quality of that game. Having said that, one game I feel is somewhat overrated is Shadow of the Colossus. Once again I’m not saying that I think it’s a bad game, but I feel like most of the uproarious praise that it receives is based on an excellent design and concept rather than being a fantastic gameplay experience. Can I appreciate the world building, the well crafted sense of melancholy, and the overall tonality of the experience? Sure. Do I have a blast playing it? Meh. Perhaps I’m pegging myself as a luddite, but I think high concept ‘artsy’ games tend to run this risk. OTOH I’m certainly not against games that challenge the idea of what a game can be. That’s how games evolve. I think To The Moon is a good example of this tendency (and while the design and style elements of that game are important, they never feel like they are more weighty than the game itself). As far as underrated games go, I’d have to say that Psyhonauts is an absolutely brilliant game. (I’m starting to see a Tim Schafer trend developing here, so I’ll go ahead and add that I also thought Brutal Legend was pretty great, though admittedly targeted at a niche audience).

Hi jmk, and welcome to the forums! A couple of questions to assist us in troubleshooting your issue. When you say that games are running fine outside of GameEx, are you running them from the command line or from within the emulator? The other piece of info that would be hugely beneficial would be to take a look at your GameEx config for one or all of the emulators that are giving you difficulties. This information can be found in your GameEx installation directory under ... GameEx\CONFIG\GameEx.ini (this will contain all GameEx settings) or in the interest of brevity you can also export settings for any individual emulator. This can be accomplished from within the setup wizard. Go to the Emulator Selection screen and highlight the emulator you'd like to export settings for, then click the export button (it has an arrow pointing to the right on it) and save the resulting file. Once we have a better understanding of your emulator settings, we will likely be able to better assist you.

This is probably the most untimely of suggestions (sorry), but I've been extremely happy with these controllers. They support both DirectInput, and XInput. This is accomplished via a switch at the top of the controller. Flip it once and you're rocking out in XInput (with analog triggers and all), flip it back and you're back in DirectInput mode (triggers are treated as buttons again). In addition, it offers all the same functions as the old Logitech Cordless RumblePad 2 (which it replaced). In the case of the OP I would imagine the layout of buttons would likely match his Xpadder profiles, but would also offer the advantages of XInput at the flip of a switch.

Happy Birthday Simbamame! I hope it’s the best one yet! @Draco: Best. Birthday. Greeting. Ever. If all else fails you can always start writing greeting cards.

Hey Gang, I don't usually post about bargains and promotions, (or typically front for game sellers), but this was practically too good to pass up. GOG is offering the fantastic classic RPG Fallout as a free download. It's definitely one my favorite old school RPGs, and I still think it's one of the best sci-fi based RPGs out there. If you're at all a fan of the genre it's worth checking out. I also feel like it's worth supporting GOG. They offer great games at low prices, and always DRM free. Apparently this promotion is good for 48 hours, so if you're interested, now is the time to jump. /shameless promotion.

Hi Celly, I thought I might throw out a workaround idea for this feature request. If you select the Custom Mode rather than the Advanced Mode in the setup wizard you can select only the screens you want to include in the navigation flow. So in my setup for instance I have Mame Settings, Emulator Selection, Emulator Settings, and Advance Emulator Settings checked off. (Remember to include both the Emulator Settings and the Advanced Emulator settings in these selections, otherwise the navigation flow will only include the Emulator Selection screen). Now that the Setup Wizard remembers your selections, those settings will persist between sessions. It’s basically (almost) like having customizable shortcuts to those sections (or any other section). If you need to adjust other settings you can go back to advanced mode (or better yet temporarily add the pertinent settings screens to your custom navigation flow), and your custom settings will still be there when you're done. Just a thought.

Hmm . . . I seem to remember a lot of issues if the version of VisualPinball you’re running doesn’t match the table version. Much like MAME I suppose, except moreso since many tables only exist for a single version of VP. Like I said I haven’t used it for a while, but I remember that factor alone being a huge headache. I’m sure you’ve probably verified table version vs. software version, but if not it would probably be worth looking into. Edit: Adultery beat me to the punch . . . Damn my verbosity!

Hi Han, I haven't run VisualPinball/PinMAME for quite a while (i.e. I don't run it on my current rig, but have run it in the past), so I don't know if I can help with the troubleshooting component of your query. However, I do plan on getting VP going on my machine again, and as such have been following this thread with great interest regarding a wrapper for VP. Howard Casto typically puts out high quality software, and generally won't release anything unless he feels it's up to his standard. Given its date of release, I can practically guarantee that this is the most current up-to-date VP wrapper out there. If you want to jump right to the release itself, it can be found here (or more specifically here). Again though I haven't tried it out yet. If you decide to give it a shot, it would be great to hear how it works out for you.

Another copy of your log would probably be helpful here, possibly along with a more in depth description of the problem you’re seeing now. Also a question: How do you feel about codec packs? Previous to trying the Shark007 pack, I was never a huge proponent, but the quality and configurability of that pack has greatly changed my outlook. If you’re willing to give it a shot, I’d recommend taking a look at Shark007. (Be sure to follow the installation instructions carefully to avoid headaches/heartaches). Lastly, you might want to post this new issue as an all new thread (with a reference back to this one), or remove the [RESOLVED] description from the title of this thread. Some of our best troubleshooters might gloss over a thread that’s already been marked as resolved.

I was thinking the same thing at first, except I don't think you can select what game you'd like to initiate the create snaps process on (as far as I know). If you only have one game that needs an image you're good to go, but if you have 20 games without images and you want an image for the last game in that set, you need to go through the previous 19 before you get to the one you're looking for. (I think most of us would prefer to have all the missing images anyway, but if you really only wanted/needed the one it would take some doing).

Oh sorry about that! I was saying 'snap' when referring to the control image(s). I thought we were still talking about the controls path?

If it’s possible to use the emulator for single snapshots then that is typically an excellent option, but there are of course several emulators that don’t include this functionality. This factor makes leads me to think that it would be a pretty cool feature request to add a configurable in-game snapshot key to GameEx. One question might need to be clarified as part of the request though. If a snapshot already exists for the game in question, should the snapshot key overwrite the existing image, or should these images be stored in a separate artwork directory? If the latter option is preferable (it is in my opinion), then an additional artwork directory would also need to be added to GameEx.

The snaps have to match either the name of the ROM being loaded, or you can have one single snap that displays for all games regardless of what's being loaded. In the case of the latter you must specify the full file path for your single image (i.e. "C:\My Directory\My Image.png").