Marker0077

I wanted to have a copy of GameEx that has mature games & also a mature theme (using a modified version of Women We Love to Play) but at the same time, I don't want the kids to have access to it. Here's my solution... Basically, you're running 2 copies of GameEx. Create a folder in the root directory called "Mature" & change the security settings on it so that only the accounts you want to have access to adult material may do so. It's better to deny 1 particular folder than a variety of folders scattered all over the place mainly because you do not need to go into safe mode to change the security settings for each folder, as long as you add it to the Mature folder, it's blocked in the kids account (provided their account is at "user" level, they can't unblock it). This is also ideal for things outside of GameEx as well, in my case, I use Media Center for videos. I can add this folder to the individual accounts that have access to it. In the kids account, it appears it's not even there. As for how I got the Media Center start page to have a single "GameEx" (or "My Games" by default) button, I changed the link to point to a batch file that checks to see if access is granted to the mature version of GameEx, then launch the other if it does not. Here's what my batch file consists of... I also have the Media Center button pointing to a shortcut in the Windows folder that runs the GameEx batch file minimized (unneccessary, just looks better, especially in the "Kids" & "Big Kids" accounts due to the taskbar & desktop icons are hidden via DesktopX, so it appears as there is no batch file being used).To change the Media Center GameEx button, open up regedit, goto "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Extensibility\Categories\Start Menu\{3de6904a-d9c7-4ef9-b77d-c1216b39161a}", from here you can modify "Title" to read whatever you like in Media Center (default is "My Games", I prefer "GameEx") & you can change "Run" to start whatever you like; I chose "C:\Windows\gameex.lnk". Well, that's it. That's all there is to it. The only problem I have come across is using the configuration program on the copy moved from the original path. Changed settings, while are active, do not get saved in some cases, particularly with themes. Hope this is as useful to some of you as it is for me. IMPORTANT NOTE: If you're new to the "security" settings tab, it may be accessed in safe mode (unneccessary in XP Pro). Do not "deny" anyone, just remove all permissions, grant full access to "system", "owner" & whatever individual accounts you'd like to have access; if you deny the "users" group, you're also denying everyone above them as well, including administrators. P.S. In case you're wondering, yes this does exit/enter in/out of media center exactly as it did before the changes.

Am I the only one that is having this problem? Can anyone else get this feature working? I am under the impression that the purpose of this feature is to have GameEx search subfolders. Well I have tried this with Atari ROMs (zipped & unzipped, filter with .zip & .rom), I have also tried this with the PC emulator - nothing works. I'd like to know if this is just me or if anyone else has it working & how they have it set up. I remember someone saying that they have their ROMs categorized by USA/EUROPE/JAPAN, etc; etc. but I never tried it out until now.

Set the TV as your primary vid.

Emph, is there a way to do that with MAME lists also? Currently I have 2 copies of GameEx going, one for kids, the other for big kids. Using a different .ini would eliminate the need for having 2 copies of GameEx if I could also have 2 copies of the MAME lists (filters out mature MAME games). FYI, in case anyone is going to say it, choosing "No Porn" in the configuration does not remove the mature games, it only removes the field for viewing mature games only.

You have to manually add each game for Daphne, if that's all you're using GameEx for, what's the point of using it? Why not just make MC shortcuts or something to that effect? You have to manually set up each game anyways. As far as the problem goes, go into the configuration, disable everything, see if it starts up, if it does, enable what you want one at a time (which will be short if all you are using it for is Daphne), then you should know where your problem is. Most of the time when GameEx fails to load for me, it's because I have an incorrect path to the roms. If it can't find the roms, it kicks out.

I would imagine you would have to make a custom theme for that.

I've tried emailing Tom on this, I realize he's busy but I am still waiting on a response. Does anyone know? I'm working on 2 themes right now & I'd really appreciate an answer.

emubak is for the "Emulators" menu (where most of the games are placed), MAMEbak is for MAME - I've not only rechosen the theme, I've swapped between the "Women we love tp play" theme & a couple of my own that I'm working on. I really want to get the emulators menu & mame menu backgrounds working. Does anyone know how to accomplish that goal?

After filtering out the (except better) clones I get around 2500. Let's try this again, I think this is going to be my last time to try & explain this...MAME = Arcade emulator with over 50 Mah Jongg games Mah Jongg = Not in arcades Me = WTF?

anyone?

I just created my own custom backgrounds for the emulator menu, mame & a variety of other emulators. All of them work except for the mame & emulators menus. I double checked the filenames, those are correct, I have "Background Mode" set to "Display Background Images", does anyone know of some other setting I should have set? Well, I've been up all night tweaking out my theme, I'm tired & going to bed. Any feedback would be great, thanks.

alright, perhaps I'm not being clear enough. It's not that there are so many MJ games - it's that they're in MAME. I tried doing some research on the internet & could not find anything on there being MJ arcades, so why is there over 50 different versions of this game in an arcade emulator?

right but not in the arcades - that's the point. MAME is an arcade emulator.

split sets are better. Now it shows NBA Jam & NBA Jam Extreme. Haven't tested out the actual games yet & hoping I don't have ot switch over to unmerged.

You can download the batch file HERE. You can see the post made on the mature hidden menu HERE (feature requests thread). You can discuss the mature hidden menu feature HERE. And as for the batch file, I tested it out, should work fine for split, merged or unmerged. If you guys & gals would like to give it a test run yourself & let me know about any problems or ideas you have for it, I'd appreciate it. FYI, there's not going to be a version of this file for console systems (including Atari 2600) or any other emulator that may have dodgy filenames. All games in MAME *has* to be named in a specific manner in order to function properly & that's the sole reason why there is a batch file for MAME & not any other emulators. Lastly, this only works on zipped roms. Thanks.

One thing I'd like to see added is realplayer & itunes. I have all the seasons of south park in real format & the codecs for WMP only work on some of the episodes, not all. I realize I could set this up as an emulator, however, I'd rather not have media in with games. I'm anal retenant when it comes to organization.

The reason why I asked is because originally I had my ROMs merged (meaning to have all clones in the same zip as the parent, right?). I've just switched over to split because I had GameEx set to "no clones unless better", well when I went to look for NBA Jam, it had the original & not tournament or extreme listed, so I didn't know if this was a problem with the way I have my sets managed or if this is the way Tom has GameEx set up. I don't want a bunch of clones but at the same time, if it's doing this with NBA Jam, how do I know it's not doing it with other games? I just recently switched over to split & will be testing it to see if it makes a different in a little bit.

Actually I was under the impression that oriental was used to describe chinese/japanese/asian people, didn't know it was specifically asians only.Secondly, the whole "friday night" thing was a joke. Don't take things so literal, lighten up. Thirdly, even if chinese, japanese, & asians all play MJ, why is there over 50 versions of it on MAME? I've never seen MJ in an arcade & I watch alot of G4, I've never seen any MJ games being shown in Japanese or Chinise arcades on the channel & some of the shows are nothing but japanese/chinese games. I'm just saying, why there are so many variations on this 1 game raises my curiosity. Just trying to see what all the hype is about & so far, I'm not. Again, 15 different veriations I could see - over 50? I don't have a problem with the games, I'm just making conversation. I'm just trying to see what the big deal is. Don't get me wrong, it's a cool game, I just don't think it's that cool.

all gamepads that are liek the PS2 controllers should have one, even if it's a generic one. personally I recommend a logitech rumblepad 2, the program that comes with it allows you to map any one key, a cycle of keys, a combination of commands, a cycle of keys and/or combination of commands, & it launches automatically whenever whatever program/game is launched. also allows you to map mouse movements & keys to controller, very nice controller.

Well that's another thing. I have all the 1.06 ROM sets, however, I am still missing individual ROMs, 486 I think. In the miss list, it only tells me what sets I am missing, not images or what sets the images are supposed to be in. Is there anyway to have clrmame tell me this so I can go get the individual rom sets? As for the tron thing, I'll redownload the set.

I downloaded the snapvideo for Discs of Tron & I noticed in the video there is supposed to be a different background on the walls in that game, a background that I do not have. According to MAME32FX, I am not missing any files & I couldn't find Discs of Tron in clrmame when I ran a quickscan, so I'm not sure how I can go about fixing this minor problem. Any feedback would be appreciated, thanks in advance,

I can understand a couple of Mah Jongg games, at the absolute most 10 to 15 different variations but there has to be at least 50 different versions on this game. Do oriental people spend their Friday & Saturday nights going to Mah Jongg town in the arcades over there? I figured you would have a few MJ games, maybe some varied table tops which can be used as skins & you can pick & choose your personal favorites but aside from that - that's it. Can anyone shed some light on the "WTF are there so many MJ games" mystery?

ooookay, anyone?

I have my ROM sets merged & I've noticed when you have it this way, allot of the duplicate copies are in the same zip file, so I was curious if GameEx detects this at all or if it goes strictly by the filename, or is it a matter of needing to verify roms in order for this to work properly. Thanks.

Setting "ROMs in folders" makes GameEx search all subdirectories so you want this on. Then make sure you have all extensions matching, i.e. if they're zipped up, the extension is .zip or .7z (depending upon what compression format you are using) & if it is zipped you also want to make sure that GoodMerge is on. If you do not have them zipped (how I have my all my console systems) then just make sure that the extension for them is correct, i.e. .rom for colecovision, .nes for nintendo, .bin for atari/genesis, etc; etc. No clue, I'll be playing around with this later today so I'll let you know if I come up with the sae problem & if not, how I have mine set up. That is really weird. When was the last time you did a scandisk & defrag? I know it's a long shot but whenever my system starts doing goofy stuff that's what I do & sometimes it does fix the problem. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.