Phantom

Ok its working now and the settings are sticking so thanks for the help guys. Just another quick question.. Its been so long since I messed with all these settings, but when I highlight some games, their Snap video or Pic shows up as the background. I've tried the change view button but it doesn't fix that. I would like to have the Themes BG set across the board for everything. I don't remember if this was always the case or something new, but could you point me in the right direction? Do I edit the Theme file, the GameEx Settings? I've tried both those things but don't want to mess it all up. Thanks again Update: Its only the MAME games that are showing up as background pics, I think all other emulators are showing the proper theme backgrounds.

Ya I see that now. So is there any way in the ini file or something to get the view I want to stick?

Ok so I made some progress. I backed up my GameEx folder then reinstalled and put back some of my custom files so things would work. So now I have a working system but I see the problem. My Menus are all on the top bar. Thats even if I use or don't use my Custom Menus. I'm using the Vista Like theme, so on the Top Bar I see things like FAVORITE, LAST PLAYED, ALL GAMES, etc... When I pick a menu on the top I then see the Submenus in the main window, like Game Systems and Media.... So how do I get back to normal?

Sorry I didn't know you guys had replied. So I tried the new EXE you sent Tom and hopefully the log helps cause its still doing the same thing. Is it normal for GameEx to now start in the Last Played Screen? Cause it seems to always want to go back to it no matter what I do. Then it crashes I've also tried the lastest version Of GameEx and its the same. I updated all drivers and DirectX is up to date too. log.txt

Hi, I had my cab put away for almost a year. I turned it on a week ago and it ran fine. Then I decided to update GameEx to the latest version and.... now its all messed up yo? When I try to load a game by going through the emulator lise, random game or Lastest Games it goes to Daphne games or favorites, or some other menu I dond't pick.... then if I hit HOME to go back it goes to my another game list, then I hit home again and it crashes.... I 'm using the Vista Like theme with custom Menu's. I tried another theme but its still broken as well as turning off the Custom Menus. I deleted everything with the word CACHE in the Data folder... Has there been some major change in gameex that changes the way it accesses emulators??? Thanks for the help Nelson log.txt

Well I seem to have gotten around my Listinfo problem. I had to go back to an older version of Mame to get it to update and then reupdate the created files with the newer Mame afterwords. Guess something went wrong when I cleared out old temp files. So thanks for the help guys. Also next time I promise to be extremely specific with how GameEx crashes. I would hate to be the one to confuse someone with something I SED Back to Lovin my Cab Thanks

Sorry I figured when I said "it crashed GameEx" people would assume I meant it crashed GameEx. I'm still having this problem, is there any other way to update my list besides the command prompt cause that doesn't work either. Thanks Again

In the Setup wizard under Enables/Disable Features Make sure you have HIDE UPDATE LIST set to False.

No it does crash... it closes and the error box pops up saying it crashes. And after many more attempts it does do it every time when its dealing with Listinfo.dat Seems to be when it reaches 25%

I've been scouring the forum all day but so far nothing works. I decided to update Mame and my roms to 0.136. All got all the newest dat files too. (I think) Now when I start GameEx and go Update my Mame list, it will make it just passed the Verifying and then crash Game Ex. I erased most of the stuff in the Data folder but that did nothing. I turned off Verify Roms and that did nothing too. After each crash I look at me Log file and it seems to crash mostly when Processing the ListInfo.dat. I even did a reinstall of Gameex. Any ideas? Here's my latest log 21:50:00.5 1/7/2010: GameEx: Version 10.35: Starting Log 21:50:00.5 1/7/2010: Operating System Platform: Win32NT 21:50:00.5 1/7/2010: Operating System Name: Windows XP 21:50:00.5 1/7/2010: Operating System Version: 5.1.2600 21:50:00.5 1/7/2010: Checking for versions of .net Framework installed 21:50:00.5 1/7/2010: .net Framework 2.0 Installed 21:50:00.5 1/7/2010: .net Framework 3.0 Installed 21:50:00.5 1/7/2010: .net Framework 3.5 Installed 21:50:00.5 1/7/2010: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 3200+, 1535MB 21:50:00.5 1/7/2010: 2.19Ghz 21:50:00.5 1/7/2010: Running Randomize() 21:50:00.5 1/7/2010: Loading PlugIns 21:50:00.5 1/7/2010: Loaded Plugin:"LCD/LED Plugin" Version 2.87 By Ben Baker 21:50:21.6 1/7/2010: PlugIn: "LCD/LED Plugin" Initialized OK 21:50:21.6 1/7/2010: Using Plugin System Version: 1.3 21:50:21.6 1/7/2010: Checking for applications to Launch On Startup 21:50:21.6 1/7/2010: Running Misc startup tasks 21:50:21.6 1/7/2010: Setting Menu types 21:50:21.6 1/7/2010: Opening Configuration File 21:50:21.6 1/7/2010: Getting Configuration Values 21:50:21.6 1/7/2010: Using Theme: Vista Like 21:50:21.6 1/7/2010: Checking for alternate Image Directory for Theme: Vista Like 21:50:21.6 1/7/2010: Launching HideOS.exe 21:50:21.6 1/7/2010: Initialising Video/MNG DLL's 21:50:21.8 1/7/2010: GameEx will check for media insertion (may affect performance) 21:50:21.8 1/7/2010: Hiding Taskbar 21:50:21.8 1/7/2010: Using Cabinet Friendly Control System 21:50:21.8 1/7/2010: Is Media Center running? 21:50:21.8 1/7/2010: Checking/Creating LCD Registry values 21:50:21.9 1/7/2010: Check Media Center Exit/Start Mode 21:50:21.9 1/7/2010: Media Center Mode 0 21:50:21.9 1/7/2010: Video previews on. Warning: Only recommended on modern systems 21:50:22.0 1/7/2010: Custom Keyboard Input enabled: Getting custom codes 21:50:22.0 1/7/2010: Snap Delay set to: 4 21:50:22.0 1/7/2010: Get other settings 21:50:22.0 1/7/2010: Desktop set to Hide ICONS and set Background to Black 21:50:22.0 1/7/2010: SlikStik support enabled 21:50:22.0 1/7/2010: Using DirectInput for keyboard input 21:50:22.0 1/7/2010: Start work for Form 21:50:22.0 1/7/2010: Getting Original Screen Size 21:50:22.0 1/7/2010: Opening Database Connection 21:50:22.9 1/7/2010: Initializing Component 21:50:22.9 1/7/2010: Retrieving resolution setting 21:50:23.0 1/7/2010: Initialising Windows Media Player Component 21:50:23.1 1/7/2010: MAME Path is: E:\Games\Arcade\Mame 21:50:23.1 1/7/2010: MAME EXE file is: Mame.exe 21:50:23.1 1/7/2010: ROM Path is: E:\Games\ARCADE\Mame\Roms 21:50:23.2 1/7/2010: Catver.ini is located at: E:\Games\ARCADE\Mame\DATA\catver.ini 21:50:23.2 1/7/2010: controls.ini is located at: E:\Games\ARCADE\Mame\DATA\controls.ini 21:50:23.2 1/7/2010: History.dat is located at: E:\Games\ARCADE\Mame\DATA\history.dat 21:50:23.2 1/7/2010: nplayers.ini is located at: E:\Games\ARCADE\Mame\DATA\nplayers.ini 21:50:23.2 1/7/2010: MAMEinfo.dat is located at: E:\Games\ARCADE\Mame\DATA\mameinfo.dat 21:50:23.2 1/7/2010: Loading Controls.ini map file 21:50:23.2 1/7/2010: Snap Path is: E:\Games\ARCADE\Mame\Snap 21:50:23.2 1/7/2010: AVI Snap Path is: E:\Games\ARCADE\Mame\Video Snap 21:50:23.2 1/7/2010: Flyer Path is: E:\Games\ARCADE\Mame\flyers 21:50:23.2 1/7/2010: Cabinet Path is: E:\Games\ARCADE\Mame\cabinets 21:50:23.2 1/7/2010: Title Path is: E:\Games\ARCADE\Mame\titles 21:50:23.2 1/7/2010: PCB Path is: E:\Games\ARCADE\Mame\PCB 21:50:23.2 1/7/2010: Artwork Preview Path is: E:\Games\ARCADE\Mame\artwork 21:50:23.2 1/7/2010: Panel Path is: E:\Games\ARCADE\Mame\cpanel 21:50:23.2 1/7/2010: Manual Path is: E:\Games\ARCADE\Mame\Manuals 21:50:23.2 1/7/2010: Icon Path is: E:\Games\ARCADE\Mame\icons 21:50:23.2 1/7/2010: Marquee Path is: E:\Games\ARCADE\Mame\marquees 21:50:23.3 1/7/2010: Loading Custom Emulators 21:50:23.3 1/7/2010: Loading Emulator 1: Colecovision 21:50:23.5 1/7/2010: Loading Emulator 3: DOS Games 21:50:23.5 1/7/2010: Loading Emulator 4: Future Pinball 21:50:23.6 1/7/2010: Loading Emulator 5: Visual Pinball 21:50:23.7 1/7/2010: Loading Emulator 6: Atari 2600 21:50:23.7 1/7/2010: Loading Emulator 7: Atari 5200 21:50:23.8 1/7/2010: Loading Emulator 8: Atari 7800 21:50:23.9 1/7/2010: Loading Emulator 9: Atari Jaguar 21:50:24.0 1/7/2010: Loading Emulator 10: Atari Lynx 21:50:24.0 1/7/2010: Loading Emulator 11: Nintendo NES 21:50:24.1 1/7/2010: Loading Emulator 12: Nintendo SNES 21:50:24.2 1/7/2010: Loading Emulator 13: Nintendo GameBoy Advance 21:50:24.2 1/7/2010: Loading Emulator 14: Nintendo N64 21:50:24.2 1/7/2010: Loading Emulator 15: Sega Master System 21:50:24.3 1/7/2010: Loading Emulator 16: Sega Genesis 21:50:24.3 1/7/2010: Loading Emulator 17: TurboGrafx 16 21:50:24.4 1/7/2010: Loading Emulator 18: Slots 21:50:24.5 1/7/2010: Loading Emulator 19: HamsterBall 21:50:24.5 1/7/2010: Loading Emulator 20: Sonic Heroes 21:50:24.6 1/7/2010: Loading Emulator 21: Frets On Fire 21:50:24.6 1/7/2010: Loading Emulator 22: UltraStar 21:50:24.6 1/7/2010: Loading Emulator 23: StepMania 21:50:24.7 1/7/2010: Loading Emulator 24: Drum Machine 21:50:24.7 1/7/2010: Loading Emulator 25: Daphne Laser Disc 21:50:24.8 1/7/2010: Loading Emulator 26: KaraFun 21:50:25.0 1/7/2010: Loading Emulator 33: Bejeweled 2 21:50:25.1 1/7/2010: Loading Emulator 34: Chuzzle 21:50:25.1 1/7/2010: Loading Emulator 35: Feeding Frenzy 2 21:50:25.2 1/7/2010: Loading Emulator 36: Insaniquarium 21:50:25.2 1/7/2010: Loading Emulator 37: Peggle 21:50:25.3 1/7/2010: Loading Emulator 38: Peggle Nights 21:50:25.3 1/7/2010: Loading Emulator 39: Zuma 21:50:25.6 1/7/2010: Using 3D Alpha Blended Animations. This could be slow 21:50:25.6 1/7/2010: Using General Font: Trebuchet MS 21:50:25.6 1/7/2010: Using Title Font: Trebuchet MS 21:50:25.6 1/7/2010: Initialising DirectDraw 21:50:25.6 1/7/2010: Applying GameEx is Loading Image 21:50:25.8 1/7/2010: Creating DirectDraw Device 21:50:25.8 1/7/2010: Using Device: Primary Display Driver 21:50:26.9 1/7/2010: 120mb video memory available 21:50:26.9 1/7/2010: Setting Resolution to 800x600 32 bit color 21:50:26.9 1/7/2010: Creating DirectDraw Surfaces 21:50:26.9 1/7/2010: Creating Primary Surface - Full Screen Mode 21:50:27.0 1/7/2010: Creating Back Buffer 21:50:27.0 1/7/2010: Version 2 Theme being used. Loading. 21:50:27.0 1/7/2010: Loading Button Data 21:50:27.0 1/7/2010: Loading Font Data 21:50:27.0 1/7/2010: Loading Layout Data 21:50:27.0 1/7/2010: Loading Taskbar Data 21:50:27.0 1/7/2010: Loading graphic Surfaces 21:50:27.0 1/7/2010: Display is running at: 800x600 32bit color, 60hz 21:50:27.0 1/7/2010: Creating Surfaces Flags 21:50:27.2 1/7/2010: Creating Surfaces Misc and Dialogs 21:50:27.3 1/7/2010: Creating Surfaces Volume 21:50:27.3 1/7/2010: Creating Surfaces Arrows 21:50:27.3 1/7/2010: Creating Surfaces GameEXlogo Text 21:50:27.3 1/7/2010: Creating Surfaces Toolbar 21:50:27.4 1/7/2010: Creating Surfaces Backgrounds 21:50:29.1 1/7/2010: Creating Surfaces Toolbar Controls 21:50:29.2 1/7/2010: Creating Surfaces GameEx Logo 21:50:29.2 1/7/2010: Creating Surface Unselected 21:50:29.2 1/7/2010: Creating Surfaces Snaps 21:50:29.2 1/7/2010: Creating Surfaces Menu and List Bars 21:50:29.4 1/7/2010: Creating Fonts 21:50:29.4 1/7/2010: Creating Game Font 21:50:30.1 1/7/2010: Creating Game Font Faded 21:50:30.9 1/7/2010: Creating Title Font 21:50:30.9 1/7/2010: Restoring Title Font From Cache 21:50:31.4 1/7/2010: Creating Font Black 21:50:31.6 1/7/2010: Creating Font Black Small 21:50:31.8 1/7/2010: Fonts Created Succesfully 21:50:31.8 1/7/2010: 75mb video memory left available 21:50:31.8 1/7/2010: Creating instance of global keyboard hook 21:50:31.8 1/7/2010: Initialising Bass Audio Library 21:50:31.8 1/7/2010: Attempting to load game list 21:50:31.9 1/7/2010: Applying Language/Text 21:50:31.9 1/7/2010: Text/Language: English 21:50:32.0 1/7/2010: MAME CMD options: -nowindow -joy -mouse -bios us 21:50:32.0 1/7/2010: Loading last used Game List 21:50:32.4 1/7/2010: Loading Start Page 21:50:32.5 1/7/2010: Creating DirectSound Device 21:50:32.6 1/7/2010: Trying: Primary Sound Driver 21:50:32.6 1/7/2010: Loading Sound Files 21:50:32.7 1/7/2010: DirectSound Device Created Successfully 21:50:32.7 1/7/2010: Gamepad/Joystick disabled 21:50:32.7 1/7/2010: Initialising DirectInput for Keyboard support 21:50:32.8 1/7/2010: Initializing MCE Remote 21:50:32.8 1/7/2010: Playing intro sound file 21:50:32.8 1/7/2010: Initialization OK! Starting GameEx! 21:50:33.0 1/7/2010: Testing Main Loop Once: Processing Frame 21:50:33.8 1/7/2010: Testing Main Loop Once: Main Loop ran successfully 21:50:48.5 1/7/2010: Updating MAME Game List 21:50:48.6 1/7/2010: Running: E: E:\Games\Arcade\Mame\Mame.exe -listxml > E:\Games\Arcade\Mame\listinfo.dat 21:50:54.6 1/7/2010: Opening Listinfo.dat 21:50:56.1 1/7/2010: Reading ListInfo.dat 21:51:08.1 1/7/2010: Reading ListInfo.dat - DONE 21:51:08.1 1/7/2010: Running: E: E:\Games\Arcade\Mame\Mame.exe -verifysets -rompath "E:\Games\ARCADE\Mame\Roms" > E:\Games\Arcade\Mame\verify.dat 21:55:09.9 1/7/2010: Opening Verify.dat 21:55:11.0 1/7/2010: Processing Verify.dat 21:55:11.3 1/7/2010: Processing ListInfo.dat

Should have clarified Artist @ Title.zip more... Its just the way I named MY collection... it was a naming suggestion. I'll add my Database in case you can do something with it. Maybe get more names for you scraper. (Don't pay attention to the frenchy music... ) As a side note, is there anyway to change the names at the top of GameEx... like Manufacturer to Artist? Songlist.zip

FINALLY! Its done! I let your script run unattended for about 3 days (except for the odd song that was corrupt but that actually helped me filter out the garbage) and it worked perfectly. You really helped to add a "uniqueness" to my cab so thanks for that. I had to run all the video captures through an encoder afterwords cause once I was done capturing all 2980 songs, I had 80 gigs of video snaps, but once they were re-encoded it was down to 2 gigs. I've uploaded a little video so Tempest can see the outcome as well as maybe tease you others to do the same. My tip to anyone that does decide to do this is to really pay attention to the naming of the songs before the video capturing cause its such a headache to have to rename so many files to match each other. So really get the file naming down before you start. ( I used "Artist @ Song.zip" so its easier to make a mdb database or map file) Thanks again Tempest and everyone that helped with this one. Sorry for the quick jumping around between songs... trying to avoid youtube's copyright policy

script runs great and i've already used it for other emulators by changing a few things. I'll update more on the original thread.

I can't scan the folder for everything cause some songs have an mp3 that goes with a CDG file so I can't have it making a snap for the mp3 aswell as the cdg. I'll just do it one file type at a time, its no biggy. Thanks for all the help Matt, I really appreciate it. If you lived in Toronto I'd buy you a beer... Thanks Nelson

So I was playing around some more with this... I unzipped all my songs into separate folders since your script scans subfolders. I tried editing the script to do more file types but it doesn't work with a semicolon or a coma. Right now I'm doing one file type at a time and its WORKING! Just a few things I notice... In KARAFUN, you can NOT have the START FULLSCREEN option enabled. It has to be a window, but thats fine cause somehow FRAPS captures only the window and nothing else. Also in your original post you have an extra line in the top code FileDelete, %TempFolder%\*.avi I took that out and its working fine... not sure if I should have done that but with that in there, the files weren't being renamed and moved... they just disappeared. So right now it would just be great to have multiple filetypes, I'm not too worried about the zip support cause the size difference isn't that great and once the scanning is done, i can just rezip the folders. But if the script stays as it is right now, its totally usable.

Hey Tempest, I tried out the script and it wants to run but the problem is that my songs are zipped up. Karafun can read songs inside the zip and I tried changing the extension in your script to .zip and set windows to use Karafun as the default zip program (thought it would be easier) but it doesn't work. I don't mind extracting all the songs and then extracting them once the snaps are done if that makes your life easier. But if thats the case can I add more than one extention to your script since there are multiple file types Karafun uses? (can I just seperate them with a semi colon? .kfn;.cdg;kok....) Or maybe if the script has the actual path to start Karafun (E:\Karoake\Karafun\Karafun.exe) so it can use the zipped files? Just a thought. Thanks

Sorry to be a pest about this. I'm not capable of making or editing a plugin so AHK is as far as I can go, and at this point this is the toughest script I've had to make for my cab. I've been messing with some different scripts but can't seem to get it to work. I have figured out the problem I think. When I select Create Snaps from inside GameEx it just seems to switch songs and not close or kill the Karaoke program (KaraFun) So no matter how I tell the script to send the capture key to stop recording it just doesn't work. I can get it to Start recording but stopping and then restarting at the next song is the problem. The only solution I have found is using the AHK WINDOW SPY I can see that the Window Title changes to the file name. The Class stays the same. Soooooo Anyone know how I I can get the script to press F9 to start Fraps to record and then stop and then restart once the Window Name changes? I'm using Stu's KaraFun Loader he made a while back, so I would like to alter it to do this job and then resort back to the original loader when I actually play. Again sorry for being a PITA... having a party this week end so I just wanted to get this working before then. Thanks guys.. This is the original Loader used to get KaraFun to start fullscreen, with the game always on top and remapped keys. ; <COMPILER: v1.0.47.5> SetTitleMatchMode 3 CoordMode, Mouse, Screen GroupAdd Display, KaraFun3 GroupAdd Display, ahk_class TKFNViewFrm run KaraFun.exe "%1%" WinWaitActive, ahk_group Display #Persistent SetTimer, Clicker, 2000 lctrl::r down::x up::g 5::space escape::!x return Clicker: SetTimer, Clicker, Off winHide, ahk_class TPlayFrm WinWaitClose, ahk_group Display WinShow, ahk_class TPlayFrm WinClose, ahk_class TPlayFrm run pskill.exe KaraFun.exe ExitApp

Considering I've been trying to make an AHK script to just send the capture keys to record then stop recording after 20 seconds and then start again while gameex cycles through the game list for the passed day without success I think my programming skills are pretty much tapped out. Thanks for the help

Just had a lil brain fart... Would it be possible to use the built in GameEx snap feature to grab a picture snapshot every say 20-30 seconds, (pictures cause they take up less space) but meanwhile have the plugin and fraps running to record video and sound during those 20-30 seconds? And could the plugin run and trigger the recording of the video every 20 seconds or so... does that make sense? I just don't want to sit there for hours hitting F9 like and episode of LOST... Thanks

Is there a particular reason why GameEx doesn't record sound when making snapshot videos? How do all the videos from EmuMovies get made with sound? I'll look into FRAPS I guess. Maybe try to make some kind of AHK Script that will load the songs one at a time for a few seconds then trigger FRAPS and then use your Plugin to name them... (I'm already over my head just writing that) My Create Snaps seems to always work in GameEX just wish I knew a switch to turn on sound

I started making some video snaps of my Karaoke songs for KaraFun. I wanted to be able to preview the highlighted song so video quality isn't really important. Well after doing a few with the built in CREATE SNAP option in Game Ex, I find out it doesn't record the sound. Is there anyway to have it record sound when making the video snaps? Ideally I just need it to play the song, but there are too many mixes of file types (mp3, kar, kfn, mid...) so I'd be happy with just a video preview playing. Thanks (Sorry For the double post... got click happy)

Delete me

Cool info thanks guys. So Reflex what other specs (mb ram) are you running to achieve those speeds. I've heard the E8500 is kinda overclock friendly so it seems to be the sweet spot as far as CPU's go. I'm really cravin an upgrade now that you all responded. Any red flags to stay away from? Chip sets, Video cards, etc....

Hi guys, I was just up organizing my cabinet, which led to browsing the web for pc parts... of course I thought I would come on here to ask you guys what you thought was a safe way to go if I wanted to upgrade my cabinets brains. I know GameEx runs on minimal hardware and it runs pretty smooth on the old Frankenstein pc I'm using now, and I know MAME varies depending on the ROM, but what are you guys running now that gives you the Balance you like. The heavy hitters in my setup that I'd like to play are; Game EX with all the purdy features turned on like transitions and video snap video playback The MAME CHD's like Blitz (I know that's the holy grail for MAME) Frets On Fire (been using that but its getting sluggish with all the newer updates) Future Pinball and the rest like NES SNES SEGA TG16.... I'm a total PC gear head and I know these are all variables that are hard to match but I just want to hear what you guys are running so I don't go out and get a quad core for no reason or a core duo that doesn't do the job. Thanks in advance

I keep having this issue too. I have manually downloaded the update and it stops trying to auto update but once a new version is out the problem is back.