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There's another aspect to keeping the emulators present that may be beneficial. When you add a new emulator profile in the Setup Wizard it uses the [CATEGORY] System (Emulator) notation. Granted, this discussion is more focused on theme elements, but whatever naming convention is applied it would be extremely nice to utilize the same naming convention throughout the system. Naturally the Setup Wizard could be changed to follow some other naming convention but if it is to remain unchanged for the foreseeable future I would suggest keeping the current "Emulator" style naming. Just my 2p.

Hi Paul, When you have a moment would you mind posting a copy of your GameEx log? Here are the instructions on how to access that information. I'm hoping the log may provide a clue as to what's happening here. Thanks man!

I actually should have amended my previous statement to say that I can totally see [PC] Steam as viable, but I'm not so convinced that GOG belongs in the same category. Naturally this wouldn't stop anyone from creating a custom GOG database and/or theme elements, but my vote would be to avoid codifying it as a 'standard' category.

I had to go back and look but I don't think any of my GOG games use the DOSBox loader (ironically most of my GOG games aren't that old ... although that might be my own age talking . ... Some of them aren't all that good either.). I can buyin on sticking with the existing naming for Steam, ScummVM, and the others especially since we already have databases following that naming convention. I would still contend that GOG doesn't belong in that group since it's not a development or gaming platform. The next thing you know we'll be creating sections for [PC] Amazon and [PC] Wal-Mart. I guess the distinction I would make is that with GOG I download an installer which I can run to install the games anywhere on my system. In other words I have complete freedom over the installer and the game doesn't have any sort of 'integration' with GOG. For all intents and purposes it's a run-of-the-mill Windows game. With something like Steam the installation process is transparent as an integrated component of the Steam client, but I can't choose where to install the games, and for the most part will be running those games through Steam (even if I'm running in off-line mode). So to me Steam seems like a platform (or [PC] Steam) whereas GOG seems like a store.

@Crylen I meant to mention that none of this discussion is geared towards questioning the fantastic job you've done with Aeon Inspiriat. Quite the opposite actually. The job you did with Aeon Inspirat was so good (and complete) that it provides a good starting point for this discussion. I definitely think that MUGEN and OpenBOR are distinct categories. In order to play a MUGEN fighter you need to run it through MUGEN and nothing else is capable of running it. Same with OpenBOR. I'm not terribly fond of the [OTHER] label since it's very broad and not very desciptive, but I could probably be convinced. In terms of MUGEN and OpenBOR I could see adding [PLATFORM] as a category (or something along those lines). MUGEN is the platform used to develop MUGEN games and also the platform necessary for playing MUGEN games. (Same with OpenBOR). In many ways the [PLATFORM] label could also be applied to Steam. It doesn't really fit under [PC] since most of the systems in the [PC] list refer to either hardware systems or OS architectures. Obviously Steam games aren't developed using a "Steam Platform," but Steam is the platform necessary for playing games within Steam. ScummVM is an interesting question. It's neither a hardware system nor an OS, so I'm inclined to say that it's also closer to a Platform. Many of those games were developed under the SCUMM platform (and whole host of others if we're being completest regarding ScummVM), and ScummVM is the platform used to play those games (although they would also be playable on older systems I believe).

I just had a quick comment regarding GOG. I'm not really sure it needs it's own category. GOG is essentially just an online games retailer. Sometimes they've made updates to games so that they will run on modern systems, but there's very little separating a game I bought from GOG and a game I bought off the shelf / from amazon / from somewhere else. They're not technically a developer, distribution or gaming platform. Steam fits into it's own category since the games are all launched via the client, and Steam incorporates some other whiz-bang functionality (online community, achievements, etc.). Having said that does anyone actually still run Steam as a dedicated emulator in GameEx? The integrated functionality has been rocking my world since day one. I've never messed around with PopCap games, but unless they incorporate a common launcher, or represent a specific gaming platform I'd say they could also be shoe horned into one of the other broader categories.

Right on! Thanks so much for the heads up Han! Registered.

This. is. Awesome! Thanks for the share Gildahl. Great write up!

Hmm ... I suppose if you're running Steam you could always import the game into Steam and see if it plays any better through the integrated Steam functionality in GameEx. I'm a pretty big fan of importing my PC games into Steam for the purposes of GameEx so that they don't take up a bunch of emulator slots on their own. Just a thought.

I think this sounds like a feature request, but I'm not sure that queue is the correct term here. With the jukebox the queue consists of the list of songs that are queued to play in a certain order. The radio stations are just audio streams broadcast over the internet. I think the functionality you're looking for is that when you hit the Stop button while a radio station is playing that Arcade Ambiance resumes (if applicable) and GameEx 'forgets' the radio station so that it doesn't resume playing again (I'm not sure if that's the best terminology either ). Does that sound correct? Feature requests can be made right here.

Hi helpman and Welcome to the GameEx forums! Please contact Tom directly for assistance with your registration issue. You can send an email to Tom from this page. Hope to see you around!

Hi u-man Your current log doesn't actually show an error. Be that as it may, have you tried making adjustments to language settings (either at the GameEx level or the OS level)? The only reason I ask is that one of our Turkish users was experiencing an inexplicable problem that turned out to be related to the language of his operating system. I wouldn't say that the problem you've reported here is similar in any way to the problem he was experiencing, but after searching for months with no solution, it really seems like this problem is related to something non-intuitive. Good luck man.

I don't know if I'd exactly say that earning 4 billion dollars was the worst mistake of George Lucas life, but it could certainly be viewed as (potentially) doing a disservice to his fan base. Closing LucasArts certainly seems to confirm this. On the other hand I actually had (and have) some degree of hope that new ideas and vision will help to reinvigorate the Star Wars franchise. First order of business - write midi-chlorians and Jar Jar out of the cannon (now those I might call the worst mistakes of his life). But yeah ... I was a bit sad to hear about this whole LucasArts business. I was looking forward to some of the games in development, but even moreso it's sad to think that this is the end of a gaming legacy. The Monkey Island series, Maniac Mansion series, Full Throttle, KOTOR games and (particularly) Grimm Fandango were all excellent games / series.

Hi deadpool18 Figured I'd jump in so you wouldn't feel like you're addressing an empty room here. Like you I never really used the radio station feature other than to peruse the plethora of content available. After reading this thread I fired it up, and my experience was similar to yours. You can start the radio station, but it doesn't look like there's any readily apparent way to clear the radio station queue. It might be worthwhile consulting the Input Settings screen in the Setup Wizard. On that screen you'll find the Advanced Keyboard Input section. Take a look at the Stop key. Honestly I've never attempted to use that input, but it sure sounds like it could be just the ticket for stopping the radio station and clearing the queue. It might also serve to stop and clear the standard jukebox queue. If you're running through a cabinet you may have to setup a new mapped key combination for this input, but that should be fairly arbitrary. Good luck man, and let us know how this goes.

Hi deadpool18 Sorry to hear about your troubles. It looks like you've got Typhoon 2001 setup as an emulator (which is fine). Currently you've got Show Desktop to true. It's kind of a shot in the dark, but see what happens if you change that setting to false.

I can't speak for Adultery, but I'd be curious to take a look at the GameEx log for this one. Mainly I'd be curious to compare timestamps to see whether GameEx is waiting for Virtual Drive Loader to parse the emulator command before attempting to run it. Does Virtual Drive Loader run on an asynchronous thread?

Hi jyturbo runitgame.bat is a batch script that GameEx generates every time you run a game through GameEx. (A batch script is [basically] a text file which contains commands to be executed in series from the command line, and can be run like an executable). So runitgame.bat will always contain the exact commands GameEx used to launch the last game run through GameEx. It can be found under your start menu at Start Menu > Program Files > GameEx > Utilities> Run Last Game. If you right click that selection and choose to open it with notepad (or plain text editor of your choosing) you can observe the commands GameEx is using to launch any particular game. If you simply click the selection it will attempt to launch the game exactly as GameEx is attempting to launch the game, but independent of GameEx itself. This all lends itself to a very effective troubleshooting tool. I'll let Tempest take it from here as he's explained it as succinctly as possible (pay special attention to Section B.). One way to troubleshoot a problem is to add the word "Pause" at the end of the Runitgame.bat file. When Windows asks "Do you want to save the changes..." Click on "Save". Next, double click on the "Run Last Game" Icon in the Start Menu. This will send the commands again, but the command window will remain open. It may show an error that will help you to understand what is wrong. If you get this error: 'Emulator name.exe' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file. It means that either you have the incorrect name specified for your Emulator.exe, or your working path is incorrect. If it gives an error that you don't understand, please let us know that you tried this method, and let us know what the error is.

Glad to hear you got it worked out Riffman81! Happy gaming.

I've said it before and I'll say it again ... fixes and stability enhancements are always welcome! Thanks a lot Tom!

Yeah I'm firmly in the Xpadder camp as well. I've looked at PGP and it does certainly look nice, but I figure I've already paid for Xpadder, I know the ins and outs of Xpadder configuration, and it does everything I could possibly want. As previously noted Adultery's Xpadder plugin makes Xpadder integration with GameEx a breeze.

Hi ddunne82 and welcome to the GameEx forums! Would you mind explaining a bit more about the setup for your cabinet? Last I knew there are only a few vendors authorized to sell cabinets with licensed pre-installed copies of GameEx, and it's never legal to sell GameEx pre-installed with ROMs included. I hate to act like the local gestapo, but we also have a responsibility to insure that GameEx licenses are being used responsibly and particularly within the (fairly lenient) terms of the EULA. Thanks man!

Hi Riffman81! You've got an error in your nullDC command line as configured in GameEx. You've got an extra "1" in there which will definitely cause problems for you. As a point of comparison here's the command line I'm using for nullDC emu_24_command=nullDC_Win32_Release-NoTrace.exe -config ImageReader:DefaultImage="[ROMPATH]\[ROMFILE]" Setting LoadDefaultImage=1 (and Emulator.AutoStart=1) in your nullDC.cfg are necessary steps to run nullDC from the command line I'm afraid. When testing outside of GameEx you'll want to attempt to run nullDC from the command line if possible as that will most closely duplicate the necessary steps for running the emulator within GameEx. Runitgame.bat can help immensely in that regard. You can tweak runitgame.bat and attempt to rerun the emulator as often as you like. If you add a pause command to runitgame.bat (as advised in the How to Ask For Help thread) is there any sort of error message output?

Hi bclinton Just to be clear does the Play Music/Radio on Startup setting get reset to Yes in your config? Or does the setting remain set as No, but music plays anyway? When you have a moment it might be helpful to post your config so we can get a handle on what's happening here. Here are instructions on how to do that. Thanks!

Congratulations on the richly deserved promotion Dazz!

MinGW is not actually associated with MAME in any way. It's just the compiler used to build your MAME executable from source code. So while it's probably good to update MinGW each time when you compile the most recent version of MAME, the two projects are not on the same release schedule.