SteveMAME

My WinUAE is working fine, except ... 1 - Escape sometimes works, but sometimes just results in a black screen. I've got MapKeys on (and the delay on), so I'm unsure why it only seems to work some of the time. 2 - I've got my configuration files saved with disks in the disk-swapper (thanks for your help, Night!). However, I was wondering whether there's any way to map a single key onto "End+1", "End+2", "End+3". Basically, this would allow me to allocate a button on my arcade controls to each of these shortcuts, thus not having to use a keyboard. Cheers :-) Steve

Hiya, I use an ArcadeVGA, and until today, I was having the following problem: - Via MAME32 (using directly), all games were nice and 'full-screen' ... BUT ... - Via GameEx, most games were fine, but some horizontal games (e.g. Mars Matrix) would be small, taking up only (approx) half the width and height of the screen (i.e. 1/4 of the screen area). However, today I tried setting the "UseArcadeVGASettings" option (in GameEx's configuration menu) to "NO". Although this might seem counter-intuitive, it completely fixed the problem - all games now play in full-screen. Hope the above info is useful :-) Steve

Cheers for the suggestion Will :-) Everything sorted itself out today - although I'm using an ArcadeVGA, I switched the "UseArcadeVGA" option to NO, and now everything is fine - weird but true! Glad you sorted your rolling problem out. Don't know whether you saw my earlier post, but I was having problems with some games being fine but others rolling. Turned out that the vertical hold dial on my arcade monitor seems to relate to a RANGE of frequencies. This might be technical bull, but the analogy I imagine is (all figures made up for illustration sake) that some games are 50hz, others are 60hz, and my monitor dial previously related to the range 60hz-70hz and hence some games were fine and others rolled. Yet, when I adjusted the dial, it changed to cover the range 50hz-60hz and so now all games are fine. (Whereas, previously I thought the dial would only relate to one single frequency, so I initially was reluctant to try adjusting it because I thought that by changing it to correct the rolling games would automatically make it incorrect for the good games). Also, I found that telling GameEx NOT to change resolution sorted out problems with GameEx rolling. Cheers :-) Steve

Wow - thanks a million Brian - that's really helpful ... !!! I didn't have a clue about changing the Mame configuration file (or even creating one), and the guide you've provided me with looks extremely useful - will definitely go through it in more detail - thanks very much :-) I still think it's very strange that some games (e.g. Mars Matrix) play fine (i.e. full screen) when directly loaded through Mame32, but only use part of the screen (approx 1/4 of surface area) when played through GameEx. Before I try changing the Mame32 configuration, I'm going to mess around a bit more with the GameEx configuration, because the nature of th problem suggests it's more likely to be caused by the latter rather than the former. I found a post on this forum from a while ago where someone with an ArcadeVGA card said that they got better results when they turned the GameEx UseArcadeVGA setting OFF (!), which sounds weird, but I'm going to give it a try as soon as I get back home. Anyway, thanks again for all your help - really appreciated Steve

Thanks very much for your suggestions Hansolo and Marker - much appreciated :-) I've tried your ideas, but still no luck! Beats me how those videos refuse to play - maybe the problem is something more fundamental, such as the video files being corrupted during downloading, or something wrong with my laptop (it DOES crash an awful lot). The funny thing was that last weekend I could view the videos on my parents' desktop, but it's had loads of programs installed on it over the years, so no idea what the difference is. Anyway, I'm going to give up trying to view the videos. I HAVE still got CrashTest's MNG videos, which are excellent, so will continue to use them instead - the only (slight) problem is that those only cover about 80% of the games, perhaps because they were recorded in mame 98 and I'm using mame 106 (so perhaps some of the video file names have changed). Thanks again for all of your help - if anyone has any suggestions about my other post (bigger problem with resolution/rolling/split screen) then please let me know. http://www.gameex.info/forums/index.php?showtopic=1908 Cheers :-) Steve

Hiya Brian, Thanks very much for your suggestion - much appreciated :-) I had tried messing around with the ArcadeVGA settings in the GameEx configuration menu, but no luck. HOWEVER, I stumbled across the following, which might help a bit ... Until today, I found that if I set my ArcadeVGA to 640x480 resolution, the screen was fine, but at 800x600 it would 'roll'. Obviously, you can stop the roll by adjusting the V-Hold dial at the back of the arcade monitor, but I ASSUMED that if I changed it to stop the 800x600 resolution rolling, then the 640x480 would then start rolling. Yet, interestingly, when I adjusted the dial, I found a position where both different resolutions are now fine (despite the two resolutions presumably being different frequencies - because one had previously rolled while the other was stable). Hence, I'm now wondering whether if I now go into some of the games that had rolled, they might now be ok. However, this still doesn't solve the problem of some games being unplayable due to the top-bottom halves being swapped. ALSO, since yesterday, I've found that some of the games that had previously been playing at full-screen, now only play in a small part of the screen in the middle - this only seems to affect a minority of games, but it's very annoying because it affects my favourite one!!! I definitely did NOT change any settings between yesterday and the day before, so I've no idea why some games (but not all) have now started playing on only a fraction of the screen. Very confusing, and frustrating! Cheers :-) Steve

Thanks for the tip. I've just downloaded ffdshow, but WMP still comes up with the error: Windows Media Player cannot play the file. The file is either corrupt or the Player does not support the format you are trying to play. I've downloaded so many different AVI codec packs, that I'm starting to wonder whether the videos might have been corrupted or something when I downloaded them. But thanks for your suggestion - much appreciated :-) Steve Thanks Stephen. Unfortunately, when I tried gspot, I said it couldn't identify the files, which sounds unusual (they defintely have the extension .avi) Anyway, thanks very much for your suggestion :-) Steve

Hiya, I've noticed that quite a few vertical games are unplayable via GameEx - either the screen rolls, or the top/bottom halves of the screen are swapped over. However, when I tried loading the same games directly via MAME32, they were fine. Has anyone else had this problem - do I have a setting wrong ... ? (I'm using an ArcadeVGA, J-Pac, and 15hz arcade monitor). Thanks :-) Steve

... what codec is required to play the AVI video snaps from PleasureDome (Emu Movies) ... ? I've downloaded quite a few different AVI codec packs (including DivX) but still can't play the files. Thanks for your help :-) Steve

Thanks very much "MIKE FU" and "JAMMINJ" for your suggestions - much appreciated As an update, I downloaded the PleasureDome videos (EmuMovies) and Crashtest's MNG videos. Both are superb and make an amazing improvement to Snaps. At a pinch, the Crashtest ones are probably better at showing the gameplay right at the start of the video, which is useful if you're scrolling through the list of games quickly, although there are a few missing games (might be because of 98-106 Mame changes). The light guns - I'm probably just going to go ahead and buy and hope they work on my tilted monitor. The resolution / frequency problems. This is an interesting one ... some of the games (mostly vertical ones) are unplayable when I play them via GameEx due to rolling screens,or swapped top/bottom screens. However, when I loaded up the same games via Mame32 directly, they worked! Do I have a setting in Gamex wrong ... ? (I'm using an ArcadeVGA and J-Pac with 15hz arcade monitor). Anyway, thanks again for your help Steve

Hiya, I'm afraid I'm going to be one of those annoying newbies with questions - sorry! I HAVE looked on the web for answers, but am still confused, so even if you only have the time to answer part of this post I'd be really grateful :-) I've set up an original Smash TV cabinet (great artwork!) with a 15hz WG monitor using an ArcadeVGA and J-Pac and running Windows XP, MAME32 and Gamex (FANTASTIC program, especially looks and ability to customise - kudos to Tom Spiers!). Almost everything is working fine, but I still want to sort out the following: QU 1 - Most games run fine, but a few games have a rolling picture and a few have the top and bottom half of the screen swapped. The settings I have in Gamex are "ArcadeVGA on" and "Do not change resolution". If I download the "MAME Resolution Tool", then will this work with Gamex and allow me to change the settings for individual games to correct the picture, or is there a better way to do this ... ? QU 2 - I saw on this forum a thread about LCD Topguns being very good. My WG monitor is 15hz and is set at quite an angle (probably 45 degrees) - is this likely to cause problems with the gun ... ? QU 3 - When you scroll through the list of games in Gamex, most of the games don't have a screenshot (bottom left-hand corner). Ideally I would love to have a little video clip in the corner for each game, and for any game where a video clip isn't available I'd love to have a screenshot. Could someone please write me a short idiot's guide to doing this, as I'm really confused. In Tom Spiers' "Extras" section, I've noticed that there are 3 different video links - one is hosted on Tom's own site, one on Retrogames, and one on EmuMovies. What's the difference - do they overlap with each-other or do they cover different games ... ? Which one do I want ... ? Also, for any games without a video, where do I get the screenshots from ... ? I've noticed that "The Arcade Flyer Archive" has 1000's of arcade pictures in 5 different packs, but would these provide screenshots, or something different ... ? Finally (sorry for so many questions!) - for whatever videos/screenshots you recommend I download - where do I put them ... ? Do I put them in a Gamex folder, a MAME32 folder, and do I leave them zipped, or unzip them ... ? Sorry for the million and one dumb questions - I've managed to figure out most other things so far (small step for most of you probably, but giant leap for me!), but am really confused about the above issues, so would be extremely greatful for any help anyone can give me. Thanks very much :-) Steve