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That was my initial thought too, and on the surface it’s very accurate. This method works great for standard emulators in which any particular game is represented by a single rom (or archive). So I started down the path of removing roms and artwork in tandem. My goal is to de-duplicate games in my set with a preference for U.S. and European games in the event that there are duplicates across regions. What this lead me to realize what there are a fairly sizeable number of games in which the Japanese version is considered to be the parent set while the U.S. Version is considered a clone. The most famous example of this is the whole Puck-Man vs. Pac-Man thing, but it turns out there are a bunch of games like this. Due to the fact that I maintain split MAME sets, removing the parent also meant I lost the ability to play the clone in many cases (the clone would often be absent from my game list upon rebuilding from GameEx). That left me with the rather unsavory option of unmerging my MAME sets, which I would prefer to avoid if at all possible (particularly over such a trivial issue of what videos I’d like to display in GameEx). After that I went down the road of manually excluding games from GameEx which seems to have worked well thus far. That’s about as far as I got too. I’m guessing that it’s the MAME.mdb contains the list (at least it is as far as I can tell). The trouble is that my artwork is not an exact match to the rom names contained in the list, so when I parse my artwork directory it misses quite a few files due to non-matching names. I think I’m probably going to go down the path of renaming my artwork using SkinnyMatch, at which point I can accurately parse the directory using the generated MAME list (from the .mdb). At this point I’m mainly wondering if the EmuMovies utility will start spamming me with duplicate videos if I try to update my MAME artwork after having renamed the video files. This may require some small scale tinkering on my on my part . . . If I can determine a definite answer I’ll post the result (unless someone speaks up in the meantime).

I'm looking for a way to filter my MAME video snaps so that my video snap directory only contains videos for the games I display in GameEx (after all filters and excluded ROMS are taken into account). Not only will this save some disk space, but I find it jarring when I'm scrolling through emulator lists and GameEx pops up a preview video for a game that I've either filtered or excluded from my game list. In my first attempt at this I used the GameEx generated MAME.mdb to create a batch file which moves video snaps according to matching ROM names. In other words I used the rom names contained in the database to create a batch file which I intended to apply to my video snaps. This batch script would segregate 'used' video snaps form 'unused' video snaps. The trouble with this approach is that a significant number of my video snaps (acquired from the EmuMovies Download Utility) are not exact matches to my rom names (i.e. 1943.mp4 does not match 1943j.zip). Thus the batch script fails to detect a number of video snaps to move over to the 'used' directory. So I have a few of questions: Is there a way to coax GameEx into giving up the video list it uses for the All MAME Games List? I know that GameEx.ini contains video lists for the other MAME Lists (MAME Originals, Golden Age, Spinner, etc.), but not so for the All Games list. . I'm thinking about applying Tempest's SkinnyMatch application to my video snaps so that the video names are an exact match to rom names. Using this approach the batch script I created should work as intended. That's fine and dandy, but will this cause me problems if I decide to update my artwork via the EmuMovies utility? I really don't need a 1943.mp4 and a 1943j.mp4, particularly if they are in fact the same video. Does the download utility apply a matching algorithm or does it simply look for an exact match? . Are there any alternative approaches for pulling this off? Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions!

This will require that you delve into the wonderful world of ROM auditing tools. I feel that ROM auditing is one of the most important aspects of this hobby, and one of the key components that separate those that dabble in emulation from those that seriously address emulation as a hobby. There are typically two schools of thought regarding ROM auditing tools: those that favor ROM Center and those that favor clrmamepro. Clrmamepro has been around for a bit longer, and seems to have a somewhat steep learning curve. ROM Center seems to be a bit more intuitive, but my experience with it is fairly limited. Both programs are excellent at what they do. The following forum post contains links to some good clrmamepro tutorials: http://www.dadsfme.c...hp?topic=2616.0 In order to understand what clrmamepro is doing it would probably be best to work through those tutorials in order, but you’ll want to pay especially close attention to the last two tutorials in the series as they relate specifically to MAME. I’ve only dabbled with ROM Center so don’t really have good ROM Center tutorial suggestions. They’re certainly out there if you care to look though. Technically it shouldn’t matter. A lot of users would advise that you simply grab the most recent stable release (currently 0.144). More advanced users would advise that you take a look at the change logs to determine if the version of MAME you’re using supports the games you want to play. Notably 0.144 lost the ability to play a lot of the great Cave shmups (at least it’s still this way as far as I know – it’s certainly the reason I’m still on 0.143 ) Yes, it matters rather a lot. In your case I’d recommend simply downloading the binary file. Essentially this boils down to the following distinction: The binary contains an executable which will run on your computer. The source contains the source code for the project. Once you’ve been around a while you might decide that you’d like to compile your own version of MAME in order to enable custom features in the program (high score support, no nag screens, etc.). At that point you’ll want to grab the source code which can henceforth be compiled into an executable. Further discussion of compiling is outside the scope of your initial question, unless you want to go there. I’d recommend getting a handle on MAME and ROM auditing before you jump into compiling.

I’m a huge fan of CloneZilla. I can give it a very high recommendation (so long as console based applications don't scare you off). I’ve relied on it for a few years now. During that time I've recovered a disk from a backup image only a couple of times, but each time went off without a hitch. I'm a TechNet subscriber which (basically) covers all the Windows installations I can handle, but each TechNet product code is only good for 10 reinstallations. So rather than reinstall Windows I just roll back to a disk image made immediately after installing Windows (One image pre and one image post driver installation). CloneZilla has always worked very well in this capacity.

Thanks as always Tom!

I think you’re correct to take the version of Magic Engine you’re using into account here. I think the command line for Magic Engine has been modified over time. The command for previous versions may not be working with the current one (or vice versa). I can’t really speak from experience in this regard though; I’m a mednafen man myself.

At least two users have also reported success with the method reported here (although this was before native support of DaemonTools in GameEx)

Yeah, from what I can see you're absolutely right. The crazy part is that I've never noticed this before. Any way, thanks for the help guys. I'm going to mark this one as resolved since it has nothing to do with GameEx.

Thanks for the suggestion, and it does work, but I'd definitely like to avoid it if possible. If I rename my roms, it will break the naming conventions of the sets I'm using (primarily No-Intro). I could conceivably change the database names, but ultimately it's not accurate and really sort of defies the purpose of using the databases. Windows seems to be sorting these files in the order one would expect, so I'm not sure if it's a Windows problem or not. I should also add that the problem doesn't seem to be tied to games using numeric sequel numbers (that's the point I was >poorly< trying to make with the roman numeral numbering example). Here's an example of a sequel occurring before the original game in which the sequel numbering should have nothing to do with the sort order: EDIT: Actually I lied. It just created a file called simply Mega Man.zip and added it to my games directory. Low and behold it appeared after all the other Mega Man games in the directory. Looks like it was Windows after all. Thanks for the help simbamame. I'm going to dig into my Windows settings and see what got messed up.

I've been experiencing some unusual sorting of my games in GameEx. Basically where ever there's a series of games that are numbered consecutively, GameEx displays the series starting with the second game through the last game in proper order, then the first game. This is happening for all my emulators in GameEx, but for this example we'll focus on NES. The sort order looks something like this: SMB 2 SMB 3 SMB Here are a couple of screenshots which illustrate the problem: It also happens with games that use roman numerals for ordering: The games are ordered correctly in my game directory, so I'm not sure what's going on there: It's not really a huge deal, but it would be nice to get it cleared up and move on. To complicate the matter, I'm not sure exactly when this issue started, but I know it hasn't always been that way. I think it started happening at a time when GameEx was going through a few revisions in rapid succession. During the same time I was also editing the GameEx database files in order to add some missing games, and correct a couple of discrepancies. Be that as it may, this problem appears regardless of whether I'm using database names or not. Here's some data that may halp to isolate the problem. GameEx generated Map file for NES: [Console] Nintendo NES.ini: GameEx log from my most recent run of GameEx: Hopefully I can get to the bottom of this. Like I said, it's not a huge issue, but it is nice to have clean lists. Thanks in advance for any help or advice!

No offense intended - in all honesty I'm pretty pumped if someone calls me 'kid' these days! Also don't know if anyone mentioned it, but - Welcome to the Forums!

Check it out right here: http://datomatic.no-...ownload&fun=dat Leave it to fReq to come up with the clean, elegant solution So yeah, that's a great solution for No-Intro sets. You're probably still going to be out of luck when it comes to some of the other more common sets though (Atari 2600 comes to mind). Have you ever messed with the Dir2Dat function in clrmamepro? Using that function you should be able to shuttle your unwanted ROMS into an alternate directory (or delete them) using the process I described above (or whatever whiz-bang GUI method you kids are using these days ), and use Dir2Dat to build a new DAT from the remaining directory contents. Should work just fine for any set that doesn't contain Parent/Clone realtionships. I'm not sure what it will do with Parent/Clone stuff (probably screw it up ).

Right on! Thanks for all the recent updates Tom. Guess we know what your New Year's resolution was!

I honestly think that the command line is the best tool to achieve this sort of filter. The common rom sets (No-Intro, TOSEC, etc.) all follow specific rom naming conventions. You can use clrmamepro to enforce applicable rom naming conventions and then leverage those naming conventions (and some strategically placed wild card characters), to move or delete games using the command line interface. For example, the following command would remove all Japanese games from your rom directory (when executed against a No-Intro set): del "E:\Emulation\Roms\[system_Name]\*(*Japan*)* This thread contains further examples of this sort of filtering. Edit: If you're doing this sort of thing for MAME roms you may want to take a look at RomLister (Tempest has a tutorial for it right here). In this scenario you can use RomLister to create the list of ROMS you wish to exclude then build a batch file from that list. RomLister even has the functionality to build batch files built right into the program, so your pretty golden as far as that goes. Lastly I would be remiss not to point out that GameEx has rather robust rom filtering functionality built right into the program. Using this functionality you can keep your sets complete (if that's your thing), but never have to worry about seeing undesired roms in your GameEx list.

So I’m finally getting around to doing something I’ve intended to do for a long time. I’m finally digging into my MAME control settings so that any game I load will respond in a predictable fashion with predictable control assignments. In doing so I’d like to setup my controls to handle a variety of MAME input types. For instance, I’d like to set up one profile optimized for 4-Way input, one for 8-Way input, one for Spinner input, one for Trackball input, 270 degree wheel, 360 degree wheel, etc. This is for my HTPC system, so the controls being used are two DualShock style controllers (one Logitech Cordless Rumblepad 2, and one Logitech F710). I can envision a couple of ways to accomplish this goal, but I’m looking an additional input as to what the best option might be here. Here’s what I’ve considered thus far: 1) Setup a good set of default settings to cover as wide a range of games as possible. Next use RomLister to generate lists by control type and set up those games one by one from within MAME. Address any fringe cases as the need arises. Downside: This could potentially take a long time. 2) I’d like to incorporate Xpadder into this setup anyway, so set up one Xpadder profile for each MAME input type (i.e. a 4-way profile, an 8-way profile, a spinner profile, etc.). The nice part about this is that I can use a single set of default MAME control settings, and leverage Xpadder to map those default settings accordingly. (In other words, the number of keys referenced in my MAME settings can exceed the number of physical buttons on my controller since each profile can reference a different set of input cues). Downside: This would require that I launch the Xpadder profile appropriate to the game being launched from GameEx. I could pull this part off using a combination of RomLister output and a (big) batch file, but the resultant performance hit would be hard to predict (if the batch file needs to analyze thousands of rom names in order to determine what Xpadder profile to launch, it could take a while to run). 3) Exotic solutions. I’m very vaguely aware of Mame ctrlr files, but don’t have a good idea of where to begin with them. I would think I could accomplish what I’m looking for using a combination of RomLister output and ctrlr file(s), but I don’t know if there are any automated processes available to help out here. I’m curious to learn more about this option. I also know that Tempest has a CFG Magician utility that I think could potentially handle these configurations, but all the instructions I can find reference CFG Magician data files which I can’t seem to find anywhere. Downside: I just don’t know enough about these options to determine whether it’s worth my time to figure them out. I have a feeling that the ctrlr file solution might be my best bet here, but I’m looking for any additional input regarding my best options. There’s a whole solar system of MAME utilities that I’m only vaguely aware of (and most not at all), so yeah almost any advice is good advice at the moment. Thanks!

Glad it worked out for you. Happy New Year!

There's two ways to go about what you're trying to achieve. If you use one 'defualt' controller image for all games applying to a given emulator, you actually have to set the directory path to point at that image rather than the containing directory. For example: Controls Path = E:\Emulation\Assets\Nintendo_NES\Controls\Console_Nintendo_NES.png If you want to use several custom images so that any one of them will show controls specific to the game being loaded, the name of the image has to match the name of the rom. Under that scenario you can simply set the directory path to point at the directory containing all your controller images. Good luck.

It's a bit of a tough question. I primarily use GameEx as an emulator/gaming frontend. I'm in the process of setting up HTPC functionality in GameEx, but it's not my primary HTPC software (I use Media Browser / WMC7). The thing is that GameEx is capable of doubling as HTPC software, so why not enable it? I probably won't be replacing Media Browser but I figure if GameEx is capable of handling HTPC duties, I may as well set it up to do so. fReq: I couldn't help but think of the ' ' bit.

Happy Birthday Adultery! I hope it's epic!

Happy Belated Birthday IMBerzerk! I hope it was fantastic!

Sweet Deal! Glad it worked out for you. Smbergie200 hoped that this info would help someone out eventually, and it looks like it did. So yeah, guess I'll raise a glass of spiced egg nog to Smbergie this weekend . . . wherever he may be.

No-Intro sets are a very good starting place for console based systems IMHO, especially if you're just getting into emulation. The other popular options in this category are GoodSets and TOSEC sets. GoodSets attempt to include every known version of every known ROM. That sounds great until you realize that half of them are bad dumps, half-baked hacks consisting of palette swaps, and unlicensed Asian games that won't play right in any emulator. TOSEC is sort of the same thing only less so. The nice thing about No-Intro is that the sets include the single 'best' version of any given ROM (-mostly- no bad dumps, no hacks). No-Intro DATs can be found here: DAT-o-MATIC As far as ROM managers go don't forget clrmamepro. It's the 'old standard' of the community, so it's not a bad idea to become at least somewhat familiar with its operation.

Well according to this thread, it contains the only working GameEx config for MagicEngine 1.1.3 on these forums. Now I can't verify the veracity of that claim, but does it help at all?

Either way should get your there, but I was thinking of opening up the command prompt and simply pasting your commands in one at a time in the order they should properly execute. That way you'll be able to see any output to the console if in fact there is any. The other way would be to simply run the runitgame.bat file found under Start > GameEx > Utilities in the Start menu. This will be a batch file containing the exact launch commands GameEx tried to run most recently. The downside here is that you won't be able to see any output to the console.

Yeah sorry about that I realized that you weren't using a batch after rereading your original post . . . I picked the wrong day to stop sniffing glue I guess (or the right day to start) . I would suggest running your commands outside of GameEx to see what kind of results you get. This will help to narrow down whether this is an issue with GameEx or DaemonTools. If everything works fine it might be easiest to take a look at your GameEx output and emulator config to see what's going on there (sorry). Heh . . . well the RT and the OP stand for "Read The Original Post." I'll let you work out the "F". I got in a hurry and made a bad assumption about what you were doing when you had already clearly stated what you were doing. If only I'd paid more attention in grammar school . . .