Found a workaround to two of my wish list items for GameEX

[starbuck]

Two requests I have had for a while with GmeEx have been:

The abilty for a user of my cab to know which games I have and which games I am missing on any one system. Using ClrMamepro, I have built a pretty complete set for many systems. But due to extensive number of games and systems I have under GameEx, load times are terrible. This has resulted because of sheer storage using a number of external drives hooked to my computer. This only addeded to mmy load times. Since there is only certain games on each system (Evem Mame) that I play, there was no need to have the other games on my cab.

What I have done is on my main drive I have created a roms directory for each of my systems, and only put in 3 to 5 games. I have my asset directory on my c drive and have Emumovies download all the great media to that directory, using the external drives with the complete game set.I then go to that system and run each of those three to five games that I have under that system.

Next I created a map file with all the games for a system on it and use it in GameEx for that system. I then check the boxs in the setup wizard for that system for last played. After diconnecting all external drives. I run GameRX. When I select a system. The map file loads all the rom names into the list. At the same time it puts the 3 to 5 games that I have at the top. I have a note on my cab using the help line in the setup wizard saying that the games the on games list above the blank lne are the ones I have currently available. Yet because of the map file all the games ae visible and all the media associated with that name is available. If you try to run one of the games below the blank line, you can view the media but the game won't load (Beacuse it really isn't there)

Load times are fantastic and I have over 150 systems on my cab, plus karaoke, mp3s, moves etc.

Now after all that, how many games will GameEx store on the last played list. Second is it possible to have a theme show a image when a game is selected that is not available stating that the game is not available.

My friends love seeing the list of all the games available for any one system. All the great media that I have from Emumovies shows for all the games. If a friend sees a game on system he would like to play sometime in the future he can write it down and I can change it out for another game currently on GameEx by the next time they come over.

How many games will GameEx show as played above the blank line.

[fRequEnCy]

May wanna check out the feature created awhile back where you can highlight missing games by a certain color. Tempest's application called Map File Magician has such a feature:

Tag Missing Roms can be used to add additional characters to the beginning/end of the names of roms that you may be missing, and/or highlight the missing rom with the color that you select.

May be something to check out. This application will create the map file for you with the missing roms tagged so GameEx knows to highlight them.

[Adultery]

The last played list is only 5 games. Here's my idea...

Make a printout by system of the games you have for your friends to reference. Add as you go along.

[Tom Speirs]

Thanks Frequency.

Yes if you prefix a name in a map file with [C]FFFFFF[/C] where FFFFFF is the colour it will display text in that colour.

[fRequEnCy]

Also why not resort to a map file to list all your games on the network to reduce loading times as mentioned in the FAQ?

Q: I have performance issues. Or how do I improve performance?

A:

18. If you have games stored on a remote pc or server and the list takes a while to show up for emulators, consider using a MAP file. GameEx automatically creates map files for your emulators. These are located in the data directory by emulator number. You can simply use these.

[starbuck]

Also why not resort to a map file to list all your games on the network to reduce loading times as mentioned in the FAQ?

fRequEnCy

Won't GameEx try to load all the roms on the external drives if I point GameEx to the external drives rom folders. This is one of reasons I think the system has long pload times.

Will check out map magician. Don't know if I want to span all the game into one giant map file. Would be hugh.

I am using the maps that GameEx are making. Would be cool if I had a map files for example:

Nintendo NES

USA

Japan

Hacks

Protos

etc

etc.

When yoy load a system a option would pop up asking:

All

Japan

USA

Hacks

etc

etc.

In some cases I have an emulator listed 3 or 4 times in the system list. One for new USA only, Japan only etc.

Adultry

Tried to make the list- was over 200,000 games way too much to read

Tom

Like the color idea, will gameEx automatically do colors based on if GameEx can find the game or not.

Thanks all for your ideas