Feature & Enhancement Requests

[Draco1962]

Would be great to have some additional features in the Karaoke setup. If you setup your Karaoke program as an emulator, I think that you could use a mic pass through emulator program to launch before to start the program and create a bat file to kill the program that would run under launch after (see advanced emulator config in Setup Wizard).

[Adultery]

This, Tom. I hope you would consider this option.

Another post after mine misled my understanding. [Why I drink so much? Eheeheheh! ]

It wasn't mine was it? I was hinting at replacing the stats screen with a database description screen.

[AlphaUMi]

It wasn't mine was it? I was hinting at replacing the stats screen with a database description screen.

Yes it was, Adultery! I got confused by the assonance of "database" and "gamebase", although they are obviously different things!

[Chaos.Tiki]

Custom BGs for Emulator Groups

[Tom Speirs]

It wasn't mine was it? I was hinting at replacing the stats screen with a database description screen.

Oh, I see, you mean like game description, category etc?

[Adultery]

There ya go! Exactly what I was thinking. Maybe even it could use a custom image for the backdrop?

[Krakerman]

Ability to change what Images or videos display in image1 and image2 in the theme editor. Image always shows either snap/video and image2 is always the box images. I want to select what is displayed in that box whether it is a custom image or not.

Unless you can do this already and I have just overlooked it and can't find it in the setup wizard at all.

[Krakerman]

Also ability to disable video ghosting!!

[ClassicGMR]

I don't know if this has been brought up before but sometimes there's a need to be able to display more than one manual - example: ColecoVision game Fortune Builder has a manual AND a guide. There are a few Final Fantasy games that I have the map as well as manual.

I have no idea how the code for GameEx is done but would it be an option to add a "Supplement" field or something similar? Not even sure if this would be an option that would be used by anyone else but me but just a thought I had.

[Draco1962]

I don't know if this has been brought up before but sometimes there's a need to be able to display more than one manual - example: ColecoVision game Fortune Builder has a manual AND a guide. There are a few Final Fantasy games that I have the map as well as manual.

I have no idea how the code for GameEx is done but would it be an option to add a "Supplement" field or something similar? Not even sure if this would be an option that would be used by anyone else but me but just a thought I had.

I will second this request. I know that with a number of console and PC games, besides the manual, there are often supplemental documentation including maps, clues, etc. To have a supplement category that would consist of a folder that follows the ROM naming convention and display when available would be a great addition!

[AlphaUMi]

I will second this request. I know that with a number of console and PC games, besides the manual, there are often supplemental documentation including maps, clues, etc. To have a supplement category that would consist of a folder that follows the ROM naming convention and display when available would be a great addition!

Doesn't GameEx already have 5 custom folder for stuff like that?

[Tom Speirs]

Doesn't GameEx already have 5 custom folder for stuff like that?

Yes it does. It should already be supported.

[ClassicGMR]

Yes it does. It should already be supported.

Well there's Video, Title, Box, Cartridge and Manual. On most systems I am already using all 5 of these. Am I missing something?

EDIT: Oh wait! I think I see it! On the Advanced Emulator Setup page I use the Custom Art Name and Path?

[Tom Speirs]

Yep

[thurmansevolution]

Hello to all! ...And a big thanks and full support for GameEx team members so far!! Y'all have been doing an outstanding job!! When I started looking at front end loaders during planning for the arcade machine I'm building, I was highly impressed with GameEx and quickly chose it above all others. I'm proud to be a registered user, and keep up the good work!

One thing I would like to see added, if possible, is an option to play Youtube (music) vidoes, from files in jukebox, as a screensaver.

Also, to split the external application list into two - one being the external applications, and the other external games not being loaded by emulators.

[thurmansevolution]

Oh, and one more thing - just thought about lol....if it would be possible, would you be able to add a feature in the MAME game options (where the "play game", "cabinet", etc list is displayed), where you can go into the game's settings to where you can adjust the volume, number of coins/credits, etc instead of loading the rom and then pressing F2 to get into the settings. I've noticed that the rom's settings are saved even after you exit the game.

Thanks again! And keep up the excellent work!

EDIT - Oops, I've noticed a couple of things that I want to take a moment ot clerify lol -

When I was talking about the game's settings where you can "adjust the volume, number of coins/credits", I was meaning "virtual credits", not actual coins - I do not support, in any way, charging anyone to play games.

Also, just to add (about the Youtube Videos being as an option for a screensaver), if there was a way that the track list could be shuffled. I've noticed when I would select the "Play all in Youtube" option in the Jukebox, that it would build the same list everytime.

Thanks again!!

[sty151]

I would like to request that previews for karaoke be independently controllable from video previews. I asked about this in the general forum but found out it is not yet incorporated in GameEx. Here's a quote to help jog the memory. Thanks again for a great program and thanks for all the improvements.

Is it just the audio you would like to turn off? I can add an option for that.

Audio would be fine, as would the ability to turn off previews entirely from karaoke. Chaos Tiki's idea also sounds nice. But I'm not picky, whatever is easier. It's just a little distracting to try to find your song when random songs suddenly blare out at you while you scroll through the list. Sounds like this is a feature request. Is there a way to move this post or should I just add a new reply to the feature request topic?

[Krakerman]

Also possibility to add additional images to your theme in the theme editor. Currently only supports image 1 and 2 maybe 2 more would be nice like image 3 and 4 and have them link to custom art 1 and 2 maybe .

This way we could have not only a video and a box image, but also the ability to have a cartridge and a custom image maybe all change with each game selection on the screen at the same time now that would be cool.

[Chaos.Tiki]

Since my suggestion was referenced in an above post...

Turning off the audio is cool for previews. Also is there a way you can make a setting that will let the jukebox play on the karaoke menu?

[u-man]

FEATURE REQUEST:

Dear Tom and all the other coders of GameEx,

as i am going deeper into theme-editing, i found out some aspects which are really annoying if you are creating new themes.

lets start:

my request is regarding the image and image2 fields of the theme-editor. you have nearly no influence on what is displayed here.

even if you have it as you like, the trouble goes on. in my case, i wanted marquees to be displayed by one image and on image2 the snaps/videos (or vice versa... doesnt matter). if GameEx doesnt find a marquee, he will display title, if he dont find title, he will display flyer and so on. this is very contra-productive, as you can see all this stuff allready if you click a game.

you can have a NO_IMAGE.png for all emulators, for the case if nothing is found, BUT this will nearly never happen if you have used all the media available through Emumovies for example.

the image and image2 fields are automated to show the next available media, if it cant find the stuff which it is intended for.

if you are creating a theme, this will completely destroy your look of the theme, because all the media differs in size. imagine you created a box for viewing marquees in your theme and then a flyer or title will show up in that box, if GameEx cant find a marquee for a game. that will look extremely ugly.

as a workaround i thought, i will make a nice NO_IMAGE.png (displaying a nice logo for the choosen emulator i.e.) depending on the emulator that is used, only to realize that i would need to disclaim all the media i have, just to see it.

in my case i have the titles twice on my theme (one title in the list-view and one if he can not find a marquee ), that is really sad and i dont have a solution for this.

the image and image2 fields should belong to all theme-makers, without this automated feature. i dont see a logic behind this behaviour. we should have more control for this... especially what is showed.

here are some collected posts which are allready describing the necessity for the image and image2 fields:

http://www.gameex.in...sts/#entry55087

http://www.gameex.in..._360#entry87796

http://www.gameex.in..._340#entry87432

http://www.gameex.in..._320#entry87162

http://www.gameex.in..._260#entry80036

as you can see, this is not a minor problem regarding theme-creation. why is this such a problem to change, is beyond my imagination. PLEASE, PLEASE make us theme-makers a little happy. and because we are at this point, make these image-fields either BOTH centered (best solution) or BOTH left-anchered, as this is not the case in current state, which leads to even more problems. hope you understand my description, if not feel free to ask.

somewhere in the forum i read that a new theme-editor is eventually coming.

do you know, if the new theme-editor refurbish is still in progress?

could we have some news on this state??

but anyway, thank you soo much, for this great frontend.

[myonions]

I would like the option to add a default icon for games other than MAME.

When I look in my Favourites I have about 500 games for various Emulators and I cannot tell at a glance which are Genesis, Spectrum etc. especially when the game is repeated for different emulators.

Of course the MAME games all have icons but it would be nice if all other Emulators could have a "default" icon.

I.e. a spectrum one for ZX Spectrum etc that would appear against all ZX Spectrum games.

Cheers

[Draco1962]

I would like the option to add a default icon for games other than MAME.

When I look in my Favourites I have about 500 games for various Emulators and I cannot tell at a glance which are Genesis, Spectrum etc. especially when the game is repeated for different emulators.

Of course the MAME games all have icons but it would be nice if all other Emulators could have a "default" icon.

I.e. a spectrum one for ZX Spectrum etc that would appear against all ZX Spectrum games.

Cheers

Yours is a frequent request that is captioned here under Menus, item # 8:

I'd like to see an option to add a platform-specific icon to games lists. It'd be useful for emulator groups and the All Games list.

I have to agree that this would be a great enhancement!

[u-man]

i dont like the icons at all, as they barely have to do something with the game and are too tiny. but i like the idea, if the latest logo-releases would be used for list-view in any emulator. so if you choose a game, you would be seeing a logo of the console/emulator, that would be nice.

[u-man]

again i have a feature request regarding the theme-editor .

in particular i would like to see some changes in the field "menu". as this is a one-liner at the moment, it would be nice to get rid of the ":" and the SPACES. currently it look like this:

more: categorys more: manufacturers more: years

i can get rid of the "more" but there is still that ":" and the SPACE, consuming valuable room in the one-line menu.

my suggestion here, would be a single "by" and a single "more" and afterwards the different aspects.

it would look like this

more: categorys manufacturers years

by: categorys manufacturers years

thanks to the setup-editor you can change the naming of these aspects.

much better would be: genre brand year

so at the end, you have something like this:

more: genre brand year

by: genre brand year

this way we would save much more room in the one-line menu.

further i have seen that the categorys are shortened. it shows only "shooter", even if it is categorized as "shooter / horizontal", this is a very nice feature. maybe its a bug on my side, but it seems that at least two "adult"-categories are forgotten in this process.

breakout *mature* and casino *mature*, all the other adult categories dont include "*mature*" which is nice, but to be consistent in this part, these two categories should also be shortened too.

can we have this for manufacturers too ??

there are a few manufacturers with long names, it would be nice to shorten manufacturers who have a longer name than lets say 15 letters, into something like this:

Cosmo Electronics Corporation = Cosmo Electronics Corp. or Cosmo Elec. Corp. or even better Cosmo Elect...

the companys with long names represents often a single game or two but are consuming valuable room in the menu (it seems that companys with long names, are comparing penises ). would this be possible to do??

the "date"-field should be shortened, the month should only have 3 letters:

Jan., Feb., Mar., and so on.... because a month like September is also consuming valuable room.

and last but not least, the "list-num" field shouldnt change into something like this "25 / 54 (manufacturer)". it is better it stays like it is. in all other aspects of lists, this field is just a line-counter, only if you select the categorys, manufacturers and year it changes and get bigger. this is also not consistent and has no meaning, please change that to the "old" state.

if you follow this guide, we could have a single-line-menue with date and time in it and can have font-sizes of 34 for the most fonts, without to do a scrolling, just to read some stuff, which you can read elsewhere too. assuming you use this on a HD resolution. this really looks nice, and i have test it .

many thanks... u-man

[u-man]

ooops double post