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'Nuff Said

Does (or can) Xbox One act as a DLNA client? If so, I would go that route, although I don't know how technically inclined your brother is. Before converting fully to HTPC I used my PS3 primarily as a DLNA client, and that's what we watched all our movies on. It worked really well for everything except for discs that couldn't be backed up due to more rigid copy protection, but in those cases it was the backup process itself that failed, not the DLNA client/server. Having said all of that, I'd be surprised if Xbox implemented this sort of policing. AFAIK nothing of the sort exists in Windows, so it would be unusual (IMO) for them to expend resources to implement this sort of thing for Xbox. Not saying it couldn't happen, I'd just be surprised if it did.

Clear back in the olden days, headkaze actually made a Maximus Arcade styled theme for GameEx. I don't know if the download link is still active, and I can't test it at my current location, but he may be able to provide the theme if not. It's not horizontally oriented, but if you were more interested in the MA look & feel, that might be one option. The theory is that GameEx Evolution will also provide many more options for theme creation, so that's also something to consider.

@VeryLonelyLuke

It's worth noting as an immediate point of clarification that GameEx does not come prepackaged with any games. It does come prepackaged with some demo media (i.e. pictures and videos) that are intended to show off some of the capabilities of the frontend. Although this demo media makes it appear that there are games present, the demo media will not actually run anything if you attempt to do so (if memory serves correctly, these demo slots may just be configured to open notepad or somesuch). You are responsible for providing the games that will actually be run via GameEx.

As usual tthurman is on the money. The most recent versions of the databases can be downloaded through the Repository Manager, which is the recommended means of doing so. Go to Start > All Programs > GameEx > Repository Manager. An alternate means of downloading is have a look in the Downloads section, but the Repository Manager is much cleaner and easier IMO.

Yes as you were advised (and acknowledged?) here, your GameEx license entry is registry based, and GameEx is not intended to be a portable frontend. Just run the registry key and you should be good to go.

This really is an awesome deal. I wanted to clarify on one caveat though (in the event that it matters to anyone). As opposed to most Humble Bundles, this one is primarily through uPlay (the Ubisoft gaming client) rather than through Steam. It looks like Call of Juarez: Gunslinger and Grow Home actually are through Steam, but the rest of them are uPlay exclusive. Again, it probably doesn't matter to most, but this has caught me unawares before (mostly because I wasn't paying attention). There's certainly some great titles in this one, so if you're cool with uPlay (and it really is a nice little client), this one's a keeper! Thanks for the heads up tthurman!

Oh sure! Didn't even think of it, but yeah I don't think it refreshes that image until it "synchronizes with GameEx" as it were. Otherwise when you upload the new background GameEx Online would have to go back, look at the last game you played, combine that data with your new background image, and refresh the server cache for it to appear. It's possible that it could work that way, but it would create a lot of overhead, and it's more efficient to simply refresh when it syncs up with GameEx. Wouldn't have occurred to me until you mentioned it (maybe eventually, but all the same thanks for reporting back!) Sounds like you're good to go then? (I can't see anyone's signature images at my current location )

How long has it been since you saved it? I'm wondering if the old image isn't temporarily cached at the server level.

All good points. Like I say I really do appreciate NonMame as a community resource, and naturally MAME is an awesome piece of kit; much respect to all of those out there making it happen on a daily basis! I think I just have a natural distrust of preferential treatment under any guise, which leads me to question the nature of that preferential treatment. In the end though, I'm just ever so grateful that the scene continues to grow and change, and that there are dedicated individuals that make it all possible.

I get that, and I actually really like nonMAME as well, especially as a starting point for systems which I've not previously emulated and definitely as a recommended starting point for those that are just getting into emulation. My main (and probably only) issue with nonMAME is this (emphasis mine): Why give priority to MAME? Sure it's the "grand daddy of 'em all" (much respect) but it's certainly not the be all and end all when it comes to emulation, particularly for those systems that were previously emulated under MESS. I dunno maybe I've just never fully appreciated MESS for what it is/was but AFAIC the best descriptor for it was right there in the title all along, a mess. RetroArch is the fully realized vision of what MESS was trying to do. Yes the mission statements are different between RetroArch and MAME (give the best emulation experience vs. duplicate hardware right down to bare metal if possible), but the whole point of nonMAME is to recommend alternates for those systems in MAME which are not fully emulated (as in playable). So yeah I dunno nonMAME is cool and all, but I think it's a bit shortsighted in scope to intentionally "give priority to MAME". There's a reason that we're not still watching VHS tapes anymore and that's because technology improves things over time. Sometimes that means admitting that what once was best, has been surpassed in new and unexpected ways. That's all I was trying to get at. Naturally that's all purely IMO. That was actually more for the benefit of Stigzler ... which was why I quoted him directly beforehand ( ) ... but sure OK. So crazy part about this is that there really aren't any links to give. RetroArch includes an integrated Online Updater which is used for the purposes of downloading emulator cores, shaders, bezels, databases, and a host of other stuff. With RetroArch there's not a lot of concern regarding "scouring the internet" since it's all right there inbuilt and at your fingertips.

There are somethings I disagree with about nonMame (for one thing they have tunnel vision in terms of, "if it can run in MESS/MAME then MESS/MAME is the best emulator for a given system"), but for the most part I think their appraisals are pretty accurate. Have you tried running PSX through Mednafen? I hadn't either until I ran it through RetroArch, and I was highly impressed with the results. That's pretty much my choice of PSX emulator at this point unless I have to use something else (i.e. if a game doesn't run under RA Mednafen ... hasn't happened yet). It's definitely worth a shot if you've not tried it. The number of cores you can run through RetroArch at any given time (even per system) is only limited by the total number of cores available. And each of those cores can have custom config / shader / bezel / plugin settings. Think of a "core" as an emulator and you're on the right track (it's just the RetroArch nomenclature). I'm sure this is an over-simplified view of things but I think of RetroArch shaders, bezels and so forth as being very much akin to HLSL in MAME. So yeah RetroArch allows you to run "HLSL type effects" for emulators that wouldn't allow you to do so in their standalone versions Bit more food for thought. The configuration options in RetroArch can be a bit ... intense (IMO). But those configuration options are the exact configuration options you will use for every core. So it's not a matter of "download one emulator, figure out esoteric configuration options, download another emulator, figure out a whole 'nother set of configuration options," it's "learn once, apply everywhere". All told, you should just download that sucker and take it for a test drive muh man! There are plenty of decent YouTube tutorials that can have you at least up and running something within a few minutes. It would be worth it to see some real time examples of where RetroArch deviates from 'standard' emulators and where it does not.

Batch please.