[RESOLVED] Problem with Gamex bezels and mame command line options

[Bonscott]

Hello,

I recently updated my MAME rom set and executable to 0.144 using the high score diff file. I've also installed the latest Gamex version 12.32.

I noticed that my attract mode screen saver wouldn't launch. The screen goes dark for a second and then it goes right back to the menu. I verified that if I disable the Gamex bezel option, the attract screen launcher will launch normally. I also verified that if I enable the Gamex bezel option for normal MAME operation (vertical games only) and launch a vertical game, the game won't launch. Without the Gamex bezel option, there's not problem playing MAME games.

I noticed in the log file that Gamex is launching MAME using this command:

D:\MAME32\mame.exe cloaksp -rompath D:\MAME32\roms -triplebuffer -nowindow -volume -32 -bezel -artwork_directory artworkgameex

When I run this command in a DOS box, MAME complains about the -artwork_directory switch. After doing some research on this forum I found that on recent versions of MAME this option should be -artpath. I also saw that this was supposed to be fixed in Gamex earlier this year where it looks at the MAME version and will use the appropriate MAME option version. It doesn't seem to be working for me on 0.144

I reloaded my rom list to make sure that Gamex knew I had a recent version of MAME. That didn't fix the issue. This line was in the listinfo.dat that was created.

<mame build="0.144 (Nov 26 2011)" debug="no" mameconfig="10">

Also, I don't see any bezel artwork in the artworkgameex directory under my MAME main directory. I used to have a bunch of files for each game but I deleted them to see if that would fix the issue. It didn't fix the issue and I haven't seen the custom Gamex bezels being recreated there. Are they deleted when the game exits?

I didn't see any this issue reported recently so I wanted to report it. I'll attach my gameex.ini and log.txt file for reference.

GameEx_ini.txt

log.txt

Thanks for your help in advance,

Bonscott

[deadboy]

I got the same thing when I upgraded to .144. I wound up turning off the bezel option and that made it work OK. You can also downgrade to the .141 that is downloaded by GameEx and get the bezel to work. I assume this is something that's being worked on but as yet...

[Tom Speirs]

This was due to a bug I introduced a few versions ago. Its fixed in 12.37

[deadboy]

Hooray!!!! Thanks sir for speedy updates on a great program!

[Bonscott]

Tom,

I downloaded the GameEX 12.37 version and tried it out but I still have the same problem. The MAME command line is still -artwork_directory instead of -artpath.

log.txt

Thanks for your help,

-Bonscott

[Tom Speirs]

Its cached your mame version. Chage the MAME Exe to something else. Start GameEx. Exit. Change it back. Restart.

[Bonscott]

Tom,

I changed the name of mame.exe to mame22.exe but GameEX is too smart for that and found the new filename and used it automatically. I tried changing the name in the setup to a random name and that didn't work either as GameEX found the executable on startup again. So I copied the mame.exe file to another directory and started GameEX and this time GameEX wouldn't load since it couldn't find the mame.exe file (finally!). I exited and copied the mame.exe file back into the mame directory and started GameEX up again and I still have the same problem as before, the attract mode screensaver won't start with GameEX bezels option enabled.

Thanks,

Bonscott

[Adultery]

What you need to do is put in a different version number or build type and update the list, then put your current version in and update the list again.

It doesn't work the way you're doing it because the exe will always report the same version no matter what the file name is, get what I mean?

[Bonscott]

OK, copying an old mame.exe file works. The GameEX bezels are working again. Yeah!

Thanks for the help Tom and Adultery.

-Bonscott

[Adultery]

You bet and you're welcome! Marking as resolved!