AlphaUMi

That update screen matches perfectly with your wonderful BlueBox theme, Adultery! But what if we change a theme? Even if GameEx don't overwrite the png in question, when we change a theme we should need a picture that matches with the theme, varying according to the theme's style. In short, my opinion is to bundle AutoUpdate1.png in the theme package, and make GameEx able to read the \THEMES\YourTheme\Autoupdate1.png, according to our current theme, instead of having only one update screen. Does not this make sense?

You can't hide anymore, Tom, I discovered your real identity. Don't try to make us fool. video unmask you. Nobody else could be so quick. EDIT: By the way, following the metaphor, I think the bad guy is the "bug".

Attract mode enabled. Launched GameEx. After the attract mode the joypad works, the input comes... Only after launching and exiting a MAME game the error comes... EDIT: now I read your last comment about the global exit key. Let's try to disable it and see what happens. EDIT2: No way, even disabling the global exit command, the joystick doesn't respond. (I tried with BlueBox Mod v2.0).

Thanks anyway, I appreciated your support sooooo much! We can't mark this as [RESOLVED] but... we'll see. Who knows? Alpha.

I found this: http://www.zerstoerung.de/.

Ok Adultery, here is my report, read it carefully because it is very interesting: With internet explorer, I was able to browse and have games loaded, no problems at all (I remember you I have IE8, since it is the last version available for XP). But with the browser no problem, except for "Extreme Heli Boarding", that did'n want to load... but it has been an exception between 12 games or so... [Note: after "Extreme Heli Boarding" not loading, I loaded "Battlefieldgeneral", and it loaded correctly, hence I argue it's not related with this topic]. And I found that the numerical keys do not work correctly if you have to jump in a certain part of the list: for example, il I press 'A' on the keyboard, I have the list with all the files starting with 'A', and so on... But the same didn't happened with arcade, where pressing a mumerical key (1-9) leads to jumping to wrong locations in the list. But anyway... Then I returned to GameExArcade (in GameEx), and here I can confirm that the chain consequence is always the same. I performed a vast range of trials, but I think the following will explain enough about the situation: 1. I load a game (previously loaded successfully in IE), and It loads fine. In my case I tried with 3d motorcycle racing, -Wordsmith-, Yang Long Legend, Extreme Heli Boarding, and A-Bot. The first time I load each of these games all is good. 2. The second time I have a black screen. I mean: I loaded game1 the first time, I load the same game immediately after... and I have a black screen. 3. I load the same damn game a third time and I have a crash. Just to be clear: if I keep loading the same game, the first time it loads, the second time I have a black screen, the third time GameEx immediately crashes. This is the log of the last game I've tried to load: P.S. Why GameExArcade isn't cited in the log? Maybe it has to be implemented in the debug system yet... P.P.S.: Thanks for your assistance, you are great persons! I appreciate it very much, sincerely. P.P.P.S: Another thought: Is my video card (which is starting to be in my opinion the main culprit of this issue) so old that I can play Half Life 2 and Oblivion, which I'm actually playing, and, on the other side, I'm not able to see two videos consecutively? But, I'm not giving up: Next step, I'll try Shark codecs and let you see what happens.

@Adultery: I already have the latest Flash Player installed (10.3.183.5). @Draco: But aren't Shark007 Codecs only for Vista\7? I'm running XP....

Uhm.. forgive me if I'm wrong... but what's that -help doing in the command line? 13:17:44.6 2011-08-19: Running: mame0143b.exe -help 13:17:44.6 2011-08-19: Running: D: D:\MAME\mame0143b.exe -help > D:\MAME\help.txt Check your GameEx.ini file you can find in GameEx\CONFIG\ directory, and make sure the entry "MameOptions" is set to "-nowindow -joy -skip_gameinfo" Adultery Ninja'd me! +1 for him!

Thanks in your interest, Adultery. Yes, I tried GameEx Arcade... a wonderful thing, I would add. Your question give me the opportunity to tell my story with GameEx Arcade: First time I updated GameEx with Arcade feature enabled, I noticed that the led of my external drive (where GameEx resides) wasn't stopping to "flash" (if I can say so), indicating that a write\read activity was in process. This activity lasted tooooooo long to wait... Obviously I linked this activity to the new introduced feature, and so I waited imagining that GameEx was downloading something like a database or something else... Well, answering to your question, some games plays, some don't. I haven't found a criteria in this, but I can do some testing if you want. And... guess what happens when I pick up a game that doesn't work? The screen remains black, but GameEx is not freezed. I return to the Arcade menu and pick up another game. Well, whatever game I choose, this second time GameEx crashes. But some games just don't work. Some others do. What can we argue from all this stuff?

I'm not using "Attract Mod" but I'm going to enable it and checking it now...

Thanks Draco, I learned something more today. But guess waht? I had the latest version already installed... In fact dxdiag says I have version 4.09.0000.0904. My video drivers are the most up-do-date for my old graphic card. I have an ATI Mobility Radeon X700, and I can play PC games released until 2008-2009 with no problems. I already checked it, newer version of the Catalyst are not supported by my X700. Third point: I use K-Lite codec pack. Could this be the reason causing the crash? I'm not sure, since GameExtender Viewer causes GameEx to crash and it's not codec related. My external player works very fine.. we should to know how GamEx interacts with codecs... Strange. I will continue troubleshooting the issue, please continue supporting me. I want to say thanks to all you highly estimated people, from Tom to the occasional user. This is a great community. Though, my chances of resolving this issue are going disappear. What else we could try?

Well, it turns out that the joypad problem occurs with BlueBox Mod 2.0 (downloaded half an hour ago), other than Enter the Dragon. It's annoying that the most beautiful themes have this problem now. It's not forgettable, since having to restore GameEx every time you launch a MAME game means that there is no way to go for that theme in my setup. I tried with Giga Drive (which is a v4 theme) and all is good. V2 themes present no problems too. I use a joypad made by Kraun which works with direct input: no need for drivers, immediately recognised by Windows. Never had a problem before. The joypad works perfectly. I use no key profiler, so the input goes directly to Windows without intermediating stuff. I have the latest DirectX 9.0c installed, so the DirectInput is updated too. And I have Windows XP SP3. @Krakerman: do you have WinXP too? If yes, maybe this could be related to the issue... And here is my log, in which you, who can read it, can find something interesting near the end, something regarding exceptions not handled and other boolean stuff. This log was created only by starting GameEx, starting a MAME game, returning to GameEx (and at this point the issue appears), finally closing GamEx. Since this never happened before version 12, it could be that at least something recently modified in the GameEx code causes the issue to arise. Log: I'm wishing well... EDIT: Reading the log with more attention, I think the plugin "Process Commands" could be the culprit....

Uh... I found this. The page reports v 9.29.1974, released on 18/04/2011. I need definitely and update, regardless of GameEx. Thanks for assisting me guys, I will check a couple of things with the frontend and soon I let you know.

In fact I ask myself (and you) if a Lite version has still sense to beeing bundled with GameEx. How many players in these times need to use it? Just a personal opinion, of course.

I never used the search feature before, but I will try later and see if I can confirm the bug or not. EDIT: I tried to perform a search (three different search, actually) but I can't confirm it's a bug. I got all the result as expected. So, I don't know...

This issue has gone away as soon as installed 12.xx. Stuff like this is the mystery of IT... Or do you have looked into it on purpose, Tom? Anyway, this problem is resolved.

Troubleshooting the problem I found out that the culprit isn't GameEx, but my current theme: Enter the Dragon (or maybe the culprit is GameEx that changes things... relativity, you know... ). I tried with v2 themes and with another v4 theme, and the joypad works as expected. Draco, could you test Enter the Dragon on your system, and see if you can reproduce the bug? By the way, I haven't touched the theme in any way.

Thanks for this quick release, Tom! But I'm afraid I have to report a strange behaviour. After upgrading to 12.02, when I exit a MAME game I get the input control disabled. To explain better: I press ESC or my global exit combination key, and GameEx re-appears, but my joypad doesn't work, nor the arrow keys. GameEx is not freezed, just the controls are disabled. The mouse works fine. Note that this happens only with MAME, with my other emulators GameEx acts right...

Wonderful, Tom! The new cycle of versions has just started out! I foresee v13.00 in three months! P.S.: Please... don't forget to take a look at that little problem I have...

Try to close other background programs. Try to update your video card drivers. I have had a similar issue and it was due to drivers not updated. Cheers, Alpha.

From this thread comes out that GameEx from v. 12.00 needs .NET Framework 4.0 or above. By chance I had it already installed. .NET Framework 4.0 is not installed automatically by Windows Update. You have to browse to Windows Update with IE and install it manually. You should find it under 'optional updates'. Let us know if this works for you!

Let me know if I can be of help, maybe giving me instructions on what I could try do do, or whatever else... Thanks Tom and Adultery!

These days I'm in the process to extend my GameEx experience to its full possibilities using html applications, youtube, videoclips, etc... I can see images, read e-books, listen to the music, only videos and html apps are affected. I started using GameEx since v11.50 and I had the same problems from the beginning, and this led me to avoid using these functions and concentrate myself in build up my emulators and romsets. Maybe these problems are not directly GameEx related, maybe it's a matter of damn codecs or special system configuration... I remember that a lot of people had these kind of issues in the past. Basically, here is what happens: I launch an html app (for example the browser to read this forum), or a you tube video, or a videoclip from my collection. I can see them without problems. The second time I try to launch an html app, a youtube video or avideoclip, the screen remains black but I can return back to the main interface with the back button. The third time I try to launch one of those stuff, GameEx crashes. I hope someone can have tips with this issue, I'm very sorry I can't manage to get these stuff working correctly. These are my specs: Windows XP SP3 updated ATI video card (mobility radeon X700) K-Lite codec pack Here is my log: My config file is attached. Please, do you have any suggestion to give me? Cheers, Alpha. GameEx.txt

Good to hear that, hansolo! You found a very smart and sophisticated solution for your issues. Personally I had the same result in the simple way: 1. Used the default script that basically acts like [launch emulator "ROMPATH\ROMFILE"], without taking control of the emulator settings, instead of the WinVICE script that was written for a very old version of WinVICE (1.6, according to the script). 2. Enabled fullscreen via vice.ini (yes, it's strange, but I haven't ever seen an option in the gui to start the emulator automatically in full screen). The entry is FullscreenEnabled=1. Personally, I think there is no need of complicated scripted configuration files, I don't like GEMUS too much...

Oh, it was so simple! According to the game, you could have to switch port 1\port 2, although port 2 is generally used for game. Regarding the save issue, try Options (Or settings.. I don't remember) end near the end (Save settings on exit).