MikeP

Thanks for the help, I'll give it a try. Just need to find some free program for editing MS Access files since I don't actually have MS Access myself. I'll give Open Office a try first and see if that works.

Does somebody have more information on how to do this? Like any documentation for the fields in the MS Access database, etc.

I have set up an emulator for PC games (using *.lnk for the rom filter, etc). All of this works great so far, including the "snaps" directory for the cover art of each game. However, I would like to add a short description to each game, much like MAME has for the other emulated games. But I don't see any options for setting a folder for description files. Is this possible? If not, can it be added?

OK, this is really odd. And I feel stupid for not trying this sooner. I'm a software developer myself and I know how difficult it can be to diagnose these kinds of weird computer problems. And in this case I didn't even follow my own advice to my own customers, which is to "reboot Windows and see if anything changes". Tonight we had a power outage, so my computer rebooted. Since we use the computer all the time for playing movies and stuff, we usually just keep it turned on. So it doesn't get rebooted very often. We all know how screwed up Windows can get sometimes when it stays on too long. After the reboot, I went into the GameEx Setup program and turned off the Hide OS option. Then I ran GameEx and this time it worked just fine. On a hunch I went back in and restored the Hide OS to it's original value...GameEx STILL worked. Who knows why it didn't work before. Maybe some game left the graphics card in a weird state. Maybe the Media Center stuff was messed up. Any number of things could have messed up Windows in the background. I should have thought about rebooting even before posting here...don't know why I forgot about that. Sorry for wasting everyone's time. The support that you all tried to give me in this situation really shows me the great support community behind GameEx, so I'll definitely be donating. Thanks for your patience and help.

Let's see, lots of stuff to answer: 1) (Draco1962) This was an OEM addition of WINXP Media Center that I bought many years ago when putting together this HTPC. So I've had it for years, all working fine. Although honestly I rarely use the actual Media Center application. I haven't "toyed" with the files in any way at all. The second set is from doing a fresh install of GameEx, and then running the config/setup, selecting the "Normal" (I think that's what it was called) setup option, and then just clicking "Next" through all of the screens. If a setup screen asked if I wanted to enable something (like Music, Video, DVD, etc) I selected the Disable option. In this second set of files, MAME is not installed at all. So anything in the INI or LOG file is whatever GameEx decided to use as the defaults. 2) (Adultery) The nag screen just sits there. If I press the (1) or (2) keys, then it goes to Firefox and opens up the donation pages in the browser. I've let it sit for 20 minutes after I hear the initial startup sound and it never changes away from the nag screen. If I try to use Alt-Tab to switch away from GameEx, then I just get a black screen. At that point I can't even get back to the nag screen. Just a black screen. I have to press Ctrl-Alt-Delete to bring up the Windows Task manager and then kill the GameEx task to get back to Windows. When I look at the task Manager, GameEx is running, and also something called HideOS. I have another WinXP computer I can try, but that's not going to help me a whole lot since it's my HTPC connected to my projector system that I really want GameEx to be running on a front end. BTW, Video card is a NVidia 9500 running in 1280x720 resolution (widescreen). I'm using the latest 260.99 WHQL drivers. I do have the Windows MCE remote connected along with a Logitech wireless mouse/keyboard. 2GB RAM, Athlon X64 6000+. That's really it as far as the hardware. Nothing special. WinXP has SP3 installed and the rest of the latest Microsoft updates. And I know it doesn't help to say this, but having used this computer for several years for my Home Theater and gaming, I've really had zero problems with it. Given how stable the system is, there is very little "tinkering" that I'm really willing to do just to try and get GameEx to work. I don't want to screw up this computer since I use it all the time (and wife watches DVDs with it on the big screen).

I don't have any roms or artwork for Mame on my system yet. I'm just trying to get the basic GameEx front-end menu to display. Instead of messing with all of the above, I removed GameEx and reinstalled it fresh. This time I turned off everything. I didn't tell it to download ANY emulators. When asked for a feature, like Media, or Video, or DVD, I selected the Disable radio option. Same problem. Just the startup nag screen and then the startup sound plays. Then it just sits there and never displays the main menu. If it is going to be this hard to mess with GameEx, then it really isn't worth my time. I just want a simple menu system for selecting games (both emulated games and normal PC games) and it seems that GameEx is so full of other features that I don't care about that it can't even act as a simple menu anymore. The author needs to test the "out of the box" install on a basic WinXP system and add more debugging to the log file to help solve these kinds of problems. I certainly don't have the patience for it. Still attached the new LOG file output and new INI file (as TXT) in case anybody else has any ideas. GameEx.txt log.txt

It's a plain install of WinXP Media Center Edition (with SP2 and all the latest Microsoft updates). Had it for several years and played lots of normal PC games on it and never had any trouble, including many current games. I've got MAME and MAME32 both working by themselves just fine. I consider myself very computer knowledgeable and can solve most stuff, but in this case the LOG file doesn't have any useful error message in it that I can see. I never use any of the MCE stuff which is why I turned off the MCE usage in GameEx. The first time I used GameEx it exited because MCE wasn't running. But I no longer get that error in the log. I have attached the zipped gameex.ini config file (I also attached it in TXT format since that might be easier for people to view). I hope somebody can figure this out. I'm definitely not donating until this is resolved since it's a bad sign that something doesn't run "out of the box" on a standard XP install. The only errors I get in the Verify screen are all related to missing or empty directories for various emulators I don't use. The only other thing I could think of was that if GameEx is trying to load or somehow manipulate my Media Player library, I have a rather large library. So maybe it's stuck doing something with that? Tell me what option to change to have it ignore media player and I can see if that makes any difference. GameEx.zip GameEx.txt

Just installed GameEx on WinXP for the first time. Ran the Setup program and accepted the default options except for in the Performance/Tweaks page where I change the Media Center option to be zero (don't do anything with Media Center). When I run GameEx, I get the nag screen about donating. After 10 seconds or so I hear the startup sound. Then nothing happens. It's just stuck on the nag screen. Here is the last part of the log file: 23:12:12.2 1/8/2011: Initialization OK! Starting GameEx! 23:12:12.2 1/8/2011: Testing Main Loop Once: Processing Frame 23:12:56.6 1/8/2011: Exiting GameEx! 23:12:56.6 1/8/2011: Saving Settings 23:12:58.3 1/8/2011: Disposing Plugins 23:12:58.3 1/8/2011: Closing database connection 23:12:58.3 1/8/2011: Checking for applications to Launch On Exit So it looks like it is immediately exiting GameEx but isn't telling me why. I tried playing with the screen resolutions settings also (using 1280x720) and didn't have any effect. I have no idea what else to try. There are millions of options in the Setup program but I'm not even getting into the program to be able to try anything. This was recommended as the best Mame front end, but my experience so far doesn't make me want to donate. I've attached the full log. I tried attaching my gameex.ini file but the forum won't let me upload that kind of file. Please help me so I can use GameEx. Thanks. log.txt