Too Many games and not enough time

[starbuck]

Playing games has become more of a headache then the fun it once was. As a rom fanatic I have thousands of roms and am contantly scanning them, fixing them etc.. But, rarely playing many of them. Because of the sheer size of the roms and number of systems, GameEx takes forever to load databases, etc. This lag too reduces the fun factor.

Since there are only cerain games in each system that I play, I have decided to

1) Still contine to collect all gamess and systems.

2) Still audit all games and contine to get scans, manuals etc. for all roms

3) Create a folder in my roms and call it "My Games"

I will only have GameEX load these games. This will reduce the sheer size of my files that need to be loaded. I then can add some of the other systems that I have been wanting to add, but didn't because of the already huge number of systems I already have running in GameEx.

Now my question. We all only play certain games anyhow. Could a thread be started that shows the various systems, and then keep a running total by votes as to what the best games are for each system. These then would be the games that I could put in my "My Games Folder" Would this list benefit anyone besides me.

I see no need to have games in my folder that I will never play. But, I'm sure there are games that I have never played that should be in my folder. As GameEx incorporates more and more features, the size reduction of roms should be of great help in keeping the system running smooth and fast.

I plan on doing this for my movie files, karaoke, mp3's

etc.

Any thoughts .............

[bkenobi]

There are ratings for games in MAME that GameEx displays during the screen saver. I don't know if there's a rating for any other systems' games, but it would be nice to have. Then, you'd just need a threshold to determine whether a game is worth keeping in your active set. If you are planning on testing all games on your system before including them, this rating could provide you a place to start anyway.

[IMBerzerk]

Welcome to the obsession of game collection....

After a while, you begin to realize that it's not worth collecting them all, and settling for the systems that spark old memories, or fun 'beer chats' are best kept working.

I keep systems like Atari, Intellivision, NES, Sega... MAME... up to date so when friends come over, they can pick an oldie and walk down memory lane.

Other than that, it's sheer hell trying to keep-up with all systems.

IMB

[Adultery]

I have to agree. I'd rather keep stuff I'm gonna use myself. Never had a situation come up where I wished I'd installed xxx emulator. My list is like 29 emus or so and those are whittled down to USA sets, and it suits me just fine.

/end my opinion

@bknobi: those ratings you speak of are also in the popup description box if you have it enabled.

[mesk]

This could be very useful.

I was like that.Being anal and obsessive compulsive having roms.Then one day as I was about to have 10,000+ commodore64 games I said to myself "what the hell are you doing? You are NOT going to play even 1 C64 game,why have 10,000+?"

Im really hoping that a feature request that Draco and myself had suggested a while back becomes reality soon.(hint hint Tom).

That request was being able to have favorites for individual systems,like playlists instead of having one HUGE favorite list.But I also like the suggestion by the OP.

I have been thinking for some time about slimming down my emulator\rom collection.Right now I have 60+ setups in GameEX.Im thinking of removing some older,obscure consoles such as the Fairchild chan f,magnavox odysee and some others.The idea I had at first was to have a sort of interactive history of console gaming,and while I have achieved that,it has gotten a little our of hand as of late

[hansolo77]

For me, it's really just a matter of storage space. Yeah, I'll never really play a Fairchild F game, when I can play something a lot better. It's cool to have it there, and brag about having it. But when it comes down to it, it's not really all that important to get rid of it either. I think the filesize for the Fairchild rom set is like 64k! That's smaller than a picture. The only real advantage of getting rid of it is just to help in the database loading.

I really think there should be a setup like what I requested here:

http://www.gameex.info/forums/index.php?showtopic=10189&view=findpost&p=78085

in that it uses 2 database setups to minimize loading. The first database would just be there to catalog all your system/roms. The 2nd database would be the ones containing the details about the roms for that system. But rather than have GameEx load all the databases, just load the first database on load, then the second database PER SYSTEM as you enter them. Your search function would still work across all systems because the first database has them.

As for the OP, did you know GameEx is watching you? It reports your activity to an ongoing database hosted on homepage, keeping track of the top 200 emulated games and the top 100 MAME games.

Emulated:

http://www.gameex.com/Community/Mostplayedemulatedgames.aspx

MAME:

http://www.gameex.com/Community/MostplayedMAMEgames.aspx

[celly]

Try hitting the "Play Random Game" every once in a while. I felt the same way about collecting and not playing but I finally decided that (51 systems emulated later) playing is more fun. The artwork aspect, is still an obsession. It will never be finished, boxes, titles, snaps...

My top games, I add to my favorites. Usually we hit Random and Favorites the most on my cab. Unless my kids are playing and then its Angry Birds or Home Sweet Home decorating games *yawn*.

[starbuck]

For me, it's really just a matter of storage space. Yeah, I'll never really play a Fairchild F game, when I can play something a lot better. It's cool to have it there, and brag about having it. But when it comes down to it, it's not really all that important to get rid of it either. I think the filesize for the Fairchild rom set is like 64k! That's smaller than a picture. The only real advantage of getting rid of it is just to help in the database loading.

I really think there should be a setup like what I requested here:

http://www.gameex.info/forums/index.php?showtopic=10189&view=findpost&p=78085

in that it uses 2 database setups to minimize loading. The first database would just be there to catalog all your system/roms. The 2nd database would be the ones containing the details about the roms for that system. But rather than have GameEx load all the databases, just load the first database on load, then the second database PER SYSTEM as you enter them. Your search function would still work across all systems because the first database has them.

As for the OP, did you know GameEx is watching you? It reports your activity to an ongoing database hosted on homepage, keeping track of the top 200 emulated games and the top 100 MAME games.

Emulated:

http://www.gameex.com/Community/Mostplayedemulatedgames.aspx

MAME:

http://www.gameex.com/Community/MostplayedMAMEgames.aspx

Knew GameEx did this. Was thinking if it would do it by system, then that would be the ones to include on your system. This would also tell users which systems are being played the most.

[Tempest]

There is a topic at PD that covers a lot of systems: The Games Room > Best Game Ever.

No link because of forum rules. If you don't know what I'm talking about, don't ask.

[hansolo77]

I wonder if Tom could maybe add a built in link for GameEx that would allow you to launch a game from the Top 200 list hosted on the site? That would be really cool, as you could easy see what people play the most, and then play it yourself.

[Draco1962]

The MAWS and GameEx Live list options under MAME already does this at least for MAME. Would be a nice feature to be enabled/disabled for each emulator// The caveat being if you do not have the ROM, the game will not appear in your "list" for such a feature. Now there's an idea - why doesn't someone put in a Feature Request under the pinned topic!