Feature & Enhancement Requests

[Vic Rattlehead]

FEATURE REQUESTS

GameEx is an awesome frontend, thanks for all your hard work Tom! You have made a very customizable front-end that (if you take the time to understand it) is user friendly and not overtly complicated. Your long dedication and many updates to this program makes me believe that this is a project that will last a long time.

My wishes for the Evolution release may be a bit different from the average user since I don't use GameEx for a cabinet. What I wanted it for in the first place was as a launcher for all my console emulators that kept track of how many times each game was played and for how long. But as I started to use GameEx I have really come to enjoy things like having the game box artwork available and the ability to sort the games by year, developers and publishers.

My biggest wish for the GameEx Evolution is that the statistics screen and the statistics themselves are improved. I'd like to have available a list of all the games that I have played, sorted by the number of plays and another that is sorted by time played. The lists that are already there lists only a few games and the "time played" list is sorted the wrong way so that games that have been played for 8 minutes rank above those played for 10-79 minutes. A separate top-list for each of the console systems would also be very nice! (Or by developer, publisher, genre or release year! Though that would be much less important.) Another less important, but nonetheless cool feature would be a third type of top-list called average playtime, which is the amount of time spent divided by number of plays.

I don't know how many GameEx user there is besides me, that thinks these features would be nice though.

Also, when GameEx Evolution is released, will there be a possibility for importing the statistics from GamEx (automatically or manually) or will the databases be too different?

[Vic Rattlehead]

FEATURE REQUEST

This has probably been requested already, but here it goes: The ability to create and delete various user made categories from within GameEx. For example, I want to make a category for Mega Drive Shoot em' ups. I create a new category and call it "Mega Drive Shoot em' ups". I then go and add the games myself. Later I can add more games or delete the whole category if I want to.

[Vic Rattlehead]

So what does anyone think of my idea? idk how to explain it quite right. :/

It's a cool idea. It's not something that I would use, but I'm sure there are some that would.

[Vic Rattlehead]

FEATURE REQUEST

(This may already exist, I just haven't seen it)

The ability from within GameEx or the config file to switch between screenshot and Game Box view on the game select list. For those games that are missing game box artwork, nothing should be shown. Also, a mode that switches of the screenshots, title screens, (and videos if you use those) would be cool so that you sometimes could just browse the games by game art and not know how it looked, before you booted up the game.

[cnells2000]

when the game starts a short window of opportunity is given (Like 5 Secs) to read the control layout for that emulator. could we get an option to extend that time?

[hansolo77]

when the game starts a short window of opportunity is given (Like 5 Secs) to read the control layout for that emulator. could we get an option to extend that time?

You can always go down and click the option to view controls, it will stay up till you go back to your romlist.

[larson92]

I'm a newbie, and there may already be an easy way to do this--but here is my request:

1) For external applications, the Setup Wizard only has 50 slots. Since I have over 50 non-emulated games to add, I need more slots.

2) Provide an easy way to re-order how the applications show in the menu (which appears to be based on their slot number in the Wizard). Going back to the Wizard and taking everything out of one slot and moving it to another slot would be a royal pain.

3) While I'm at it, it would be nice to be able to change themes without having to move or copy all of your snapshots to the new theme Media folder.

Thanks!

[Draco1962]

I'm a newbie, and there may already be an easy way to do this--but here is my request:

1) For external applications, the Setup Wizard only has 50 slots. Since I have over 50 non-emulated games to add, I need more slots.

2) Provide an easy way to re-order how the applications show in the menu (which appears to be based on their slot number in the Wizard). Going back to the Wizard and taking everything out of one slot and moving it to another slot would be a royal pain.

3) While I'm at it, it would be nice to be able to change themes without having to move or copy all of your snapshots to the new theme Media folder.

Thanks!

1 - If you have say, 50 PC games as an example, there is no need to put one in a slot at a time. Simply create one Emulator slot and copy the shotcut .lnk files to a folder and point your path to this folder. for the ROMFIlter, enter *.lnk . All of you PC games will now show in one emulator selection.

2 - There is an easy way to customize how your applications are ordered. It is via enabling Custom Menus using the Custom Menu application in your GameEx root folder.

3 - Not likely this is going to change. Copying files is not that difficult and no frontend will do it all for you.

If you need assistance with items 1 and/or 2, please post your request in the GameEx General forum.

[Lighty]

Here's what I think would be a neat addition to GameEx, if possible in the future, or maybe to GameEx Evolution.

I REALLY hope this is in the right thread, since I have the tendency to unintentionally jump through the wrong hoops, lol. I asked about TV ads for emulators (rather consoles) earlier, and that was addressed afterwards. I probably didn't explain myself too well. I kinda meant on a bigger scale. Here's my idea. (Not sure if this was already discussed.)

You know how when you highlight a game (example: highlighting Alien Trilogy, under Playstation) and it shows you the summary, year of release, box art, cart (or CD), and in some cases a video clip? What if the same thing could be done when you highlight an emulator?

For example, let's say I have Nestopia, but I have it named as "Nintendo Entertainment System" in my emulator selection menu within GameEx. What if I could highlight the console name, and it would display all sorts of information, just like GameEx does with the roms? Maybe it could show the original packaging that the system came in when it was new. Or maybe its original release date. An ad from an old Nintendo Power, or a TV commercial from 1986. Its original retail price upon release. How many units it sold. How many "bits" it was (8 bit for NES of course). It's top 5 best selling games. The years of its life span.

I hope I'm not sounding too ambitions. I just thought it would be an interesting idea. We already have enough information about the games for the most part. Why not also have information about their consoles? Especially since the consoles are their home. They are the very core of what retro gaming represents. When we say "Super Mario Bros. 3", we automatically and subconsciously think "Old Nintendo." When we say "Sonic the Hedgehog 2", we think "Sega Genesis." Again I hope I'm not asking too much, but I felt it would be a neat and ambitious idea.

Edited December 8, 2014 by tthurman
Moved to Feature & Enhancement Requests

[DazzleHP]

There isn't a "page" so much that you are seeking, but it can be done already using pics, videos etc, which has been answered already in your thread I understand what you're saying though and a dedicated "System" page, with hardware stats and dates etc would be pretty awesome!

[tthurman]

Lighty, are you a member of emu-movies?

emu-movies, along with full set of mame extras will go a long way to giving you exactly what you are looking for. Additionally, much work is constantly continuing to bring more features as these to the table. A project started by Draco, then spearheaded by stigzler aims to bring developer information and logos to the mix, with a publisher project probably not far behind it.

There is all kinds of cool stuff like this going on all the time. In addition to the GameEx Media Projects, I would suggest you poke around a bit in the User Projects area, and at the emu movies site.

<edit> The suggestion being, most of what your describing is contributor driven, then incorporated into the front end. The content has gotta to be there first though, and as your post proves, there is plenty of data, videos and graphics collecting/creation and organizing that must occur beforehand. More hands are always welcomed on these projects, and if your so inclined, get involved with one that best suits what you are interested in.

Edited December 9, 2014 by tthurman
corrections

[Lighty]

I'll keep looking into emu-movies. I think it's only downloading pictures, but that might be something different that I'm thinking of. I'm pretty sure I signed up with their site. I'll check out emu-movies and give it a deeper look. Based on what you're saying, I think the site will have all the answers.

[nullPointer]

If you have a free EmuMovies account The Automatic Artwork Download functionality will only download screenshot snap and title images. If you have a paid membership it will download additional assets including videos and the like.

[Lighty]

That explains it. Thanks again null ;-)

[Zero Dreams]

In the Setup Wizard there is a Quick Startup Resume option that opens GameEx to the last known system at the first game entry. Upon exiting the system you are redirected back to the primary select screen where you would then have to navigate back to the emulator select screen to choose a different system.

Request #1 - List resume option where all systems can retain the last highlighted game.

i.e. Sega Genesis opens to Sonic the Hedgehog

Request #2 - Quick Startup Resume tiers down accordingly and doesn't eject to primary select screen.

Side request as I still don't know how to take a screenshot in GameEx and it seems natural to use Ctrl+Delete or PrintScr

Request #3 - Apply Ctrl+Delete or PrintScr to take a snapshot while in GameEx.

[oxbow]

I just tried the facebook notification option, wouldn't it be even more fancier if there is also a snapshot of the game added? If possible? So friends can see instantly what awesome games you play? ​

[psybertech]

Great app!

I have a few requests.. sorry if they have been mentioned.

1) in the All MAME Game list, add an icon or color an entry that has already been added to favorites. This would make life a little easier.

2) A "Favorite Favorite" - idea - I have 4000 roms... I add 200 of them to my favorites. It would be nice to be able to have a second tier favorite list that is my actual go to list of say 10-15 games I play the most.

Those two would rock!

Anyway....

cheers and thanks!

[Adultery]

Per #1: Good suggestion! That functionality may be pretty easy to add in when Evo is available.

Per #2: Multiple favorite lists have been a hot feature request, and again, hope for this in Evo.

[DazzleHP]

2) A "Favorite Favorite" - idea - I have 4000 roms... I add 200 of them to my favorites. It would be nice to be able to have a second tier favorite list that is my actual go to list of say 10-15 games I play the most.

As a workaround before Evo, you can make use of Custom Lists (MAME only unfortunately)

[stefano.rabaglio]

Suggestion: Add a path about "Favorites" games to show random image/video in "Favorites" menu item.

Thank's

[GeorgeBuford]

I mentioned to nullPtr that a way to limit the number the video clips played during the attract mode would be useful for my cabinet. Basically a way to play a random video from the specified directory, reset the attract timer and return to the current menu. This could be a variable LimitAttractPlayCount=1, for example.

Thanks for listening!

-GB

[u-man]

The lately added meta-data download function for the media-library is a awesome feature and I really like it. However this genius feature only works, if "create snaps" in the menue is enabled, thats why I ask for a feature request, to "unchain" the meta-data from the "create snaps" menue item. My main problem with this is, I have that menue item now everywhere and it clutters my menue bar, as I dont need it anywhere else, except in the media-library and only to use the meta-data feature.

Is there a possibility for this? Elseway a great addition to GameEx . Again, thank you Tom, for adding this.

[Duglim]

Suggestion: Make "Search" menu entry available if GameEx ist launched in Mame-only mode via "gameex.exe -mame"

Mame has so many games, search is very important for me.

Greetings, Duglim

[Draco1962]

A new Custom Menu application UI that will allow for moving existing menus and items via drag and drop to change how the are ordered.

Current version requires that the user create new menus and items and delete old ones when reordering.

Also allow for adding custom background for created menus and items, inclusive of integrated Online services such as Steam, Origin, and Uplay.

[murve33]

+1 for Star Ratings. It's the only feature that I feel GameEx is lacking.

It could be just like a music player with the star ratings of each game to the right of the game title (of course it'd be customizable).

And while the 5-Star system is just fine, it'd really be awesome if 1/2 Stars were doable.