[RESOLVED] Really enjoying Gameex but stumped setting up IGT Slots

[m1rock]

Hello all! Im new here and about a week ago I installed gameex, as I am working on a multicade project, something ive wanted to do for YEARS but have not until recently been able to afford. I bought my license registered and all that, and have been getting my emulators all running and have been pretty much doing pretty well on my own! But there are a few issues I am having that ive been racking my brain over and cant seem to find the answers to in my searches.

1. I am having a hard time getting external apps to work. I bought a copy of IGT slots and installed it to my pc I set it up in the setup wizard during the External Applications section, made sure it was running in full screen, set the cmd as the executable, tried setting the path to both the folder where the game is installed, and when that didnt work to a folder with a shortcut to the games exe with no luck. It shows up in gameex, but when I try to launch it, gameex acts like its loading something and then just returns to the menue. Saw some stuff on how to use something called an Advanced Configuration tool but the version I have right now, the latest version I believe doesn't have that tool. Any idea what I may be doing wrong?

2. I made a short little 50 second intro video for gameex in windows movie maker, It plays fine in media player and when I boot gameex it loads and all, but the audio is really choppy and the video is also laggy. I have a fairly fast laptop (Aspire 57327 with a dual core) so I dont think its that. Is it perhaps in the wrong format? (its in WMV)

3. A tutorial for the Custom Menu tool. Ive looked around and cant seem to find anything on this. Id love to streamline my menues a bit, get rid of some options I dont need, and have my emulators on the first screen with MAME rather then under a generic "game emulators menu

4. And last but not least, running two versions of mame but having the games all show up together in gameex. I have a bunch of roms that only work in mame32, and a few other ones that run in mame plus. How does one go about having gameex launch a different version of mame for the corrasponding rom?

Anyways, any help on these issues would be VERY much appreciated! This project I am embarking on has been a dream of mine ever since I was a kid (im 30 now). I grew in a rural area where there where no malls or arcades nearby but I still remember the excitement of sometimes getting the rare chance to go to visit an arcade as a kid and am very excited to get my project off the ground, And my apologies in advance, as Ill be the first to admit...im not the sharpest tool in the shed so I may ask some dumb questions trying to figure this all out, but I do try my best to figure most of this out on my own and I am more then happy to clarify anything I say or provide further info. Its just these four things have royally stumped or intimidated me. lol Anyways thanks for any help!

[nullPointer]

Hi m1rock! Welcome to the GameEx forums!

Always great to see such enthusiasm from new members! It sounds like you've been pretty successful overall in getting your system setup thus far. Well done! So let's jump on some questions.

1. I am having a hard time getting external apps to work. I bought a copy of IGT slots and installed it to my pc I set it up in the setup wizard during the External Applications section, made sure it was running in full screen, set the cmd as the executable, tried setting the path to both the folder where the game is installed, and when that didnt work to a folder with a shortcut to the games exe with no luck. It shows up in gameex, but when I try to launch it, gameex acts like its loading something and then just returns to the menue. Saw some stuff on how to use something called an Advanced Configuration tool but the version I have right now, the latest version I believe doesn't have that tool. Any idea what I may be doing wrong?

I’m not entirely familiar with the IGT slots line, but based on your comments I’d recommend looking into setting it up as an emulator rather than an external application. That will provide an edge over running it as an external application (among other things you’ll be able to leverage an Advanced Emulator Config).

2. I made a short little 50 second intro video for gameex in windows movie maker, It plays fine in media player and when I boot gameex it loads and all, but the audio is really choppy and the video is also laggy. I have a fairly fast laptop (Aspire 57327 with a dual core) so I dont think its that. Is it perhaps in the wrong format? (its in WMV)

I’d recommend converting your movie to MP4 format. GameEx supports several video formats, but that’s currently the most common/preferred format. Handbrake should be able to handle the conversion without breaking a sweat. (it’s a brilliant piece of kit if you’ve never had the opportunity to try it out)

This may or may not lead to questions regarding codecs. If the MP4 doesn’t play in GameEx the standard advice around here is to install the Shark007 codec pack

3. A tutorial for the Custom Menu tool. Ive looked around and cant seem to find anything on this. Id love to streamline my menues a bit, get rid of some options I dont need, and have my emulators on the first screen with MAME rather then under a generic "game emulators menu

There’s not a tutorial available, but the app itself is not terribly difficult to dive into. Several members here are running custom menus, so there’s a lot of assistance available should you hit a rough patch.

4. And last but not least, running two versions of mame but having the games all show up together in gameex. I have a bunch of roms that only work in mame32, and a few other ones that run in mame plus. How does one go about having gameex launch a different version of mame for the corrasponding rom?

If I may be so bold, we’ve got a lot of very sharp members here. Tempest is one such member. A while back he wrote an app called MAME Mapping Magician to address this very need in GameEx. You can find that utility here:

Start Menu > All Programs > GameEx > Configuration > MAME Emu Maps

So those are some brief answers to some very good questions, any one of which could open up an entire topic of discussion. Don’t be afraid to ask any questions you may have regarding any aspect of it! This forum has a lot of very knowledgeable, helpful individuals, and we tend to keep the snark to a minimum (as opposed to some emulation based forums). Noobs welcome here!

We all had dumb questions when we started out (heck I have them on a regular ongoing basis). But the point is that they’re not dumb questions at all as that’s how we all learned the ins and outs of this (nuanced and occasionally frustrating) hobby. The only deficiency occurs where you’re afraid to ask.

Hope to see you around man!

[Draco1962]

m1rock, on 17 November 2012 - 12:10 AM, said:

1. I am having a hard time getting external apps to work. I bought a copy of IGT slots and installed it to my pc I set it up in the setup wizard during the External Applications section, made sure it was running in full screen, set the cmd as the executable, tried setting the path to both the folder where the game is installed, and when that didnt work to a folder with a shortcut to the games exe with no luck. It shows up in gameex, but when I try to launch it, gameex acts like its loading something and then just returns to the menue. Saw some stuff on how to use something called an Advanced Configuration tool but the version I have right now, the latest version I believe doesn't have that tool. Any idea what I may be doing wrong?

I’m not entirely familiar with the IGT slots line, but based on your comments I’d recommend looking into setting it up as an emulator rather than an external application. That will provide an edge over running it as an external application (among other things you’ll be able to leverage an Advanced Emulator Config).

One thing to try is to change your command line to look for .lnk files when attempting to use the shortcut to launch.

After you have have advanced with your understanding of GameEx, you may be able to set up a single emulator slot for your PC games and create a custom database file with the file names, descriptions, etc. as well as your own snaps and artwork.

An interim solution, provided you have a STEAM account online, would be to leverage the use of the STEAM launcher by adding your game to it (you can add non-STEAM games).

[Krakerman]

I have IGT Slots and and use shortcuts .lnk files for each one and have GameEx cmd line set as [ROMPATH]\[ROMFILE] and the filter as *.lnk just as Draco mentioned above.

I made a folder for my .lnk files and had the Working & ROM folder point to where my .lnk files/folder is.

[DazzleHP]

3. A tutorial for the Custom Menu tool. Ive looked around and cant seem to find anything on this. Id love to streamline my menues a bit, get rid of some options I dont need, and have my emulators on the first screen with MAME rather then under a generic "game emulators menu

I made one just for you check it here

[m1rock]

Hey folks! Sorry its been awhile since ive posted but Ive been working like a madman on my cab lately organizing my games setting it up. Just got my xarcade stick, been breakn that in too. I just want to say YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME! You responses have been a huge help. And thanks Dazzle for putting together that awesome custom menu tutorial! That was a big help as I was afraid to edit it without proper instruction for fear I would mess up my menue beyond repair. lol Anyways things are going great but just tonight as I was testing out some settings something odd happened...

My mouse and toolbar disappeared in gameex! I went into the config wizard and made sure both where turned on (which they where) I tried turning them on and off but no matter what I do I cant get them to come back...I havnt made any changes to my theme or anything lately, Ive only just been setting my inputs to my xarcade stick. I searched the web for a solution and the only thing I found was that a guy had this problem and updated gameex and it fixed it. I got my gameex set to auto update and I registered it for a year of updates so I assume I am running the latest version...is this a bug in the program? Any insight would be greatly appreciated! Thanks again!!

[m1rock]

Also I decided to go the steam route with IGT Slots just because I figure it would be easier but....I downloaded steam, set it up, got IGT slots in there and can launch it from steam, set up steam in the wizard, and maybe Its because of the custome menues, but I go into custom menues make a menue for steam, set it to steam as an item type, but when I go into gameex steam is dark blue and wont launch just like it was not enabled. :/ Perhaps im missing some simple step and It just isnt dawning on me due to it being so late at night, but im totally confused. lol If anyone can figure out what im doing wrong and let me know that would be awesome. Thanks!!

[Draco1962]

You are correct to set it up as an item, however, you probably missed a step in setting it up. If you refer to the 8th illustration in the instructions DazzleHp put together, you will see that there are two settings, Item Type and Item/Menu Properties with dropdown for Emulator/Group/App. Likely you have not set up for Steam in those locations. Check it out, change it if not, and report back. If still an issue, please upload a copy of your custominput.ini file for us to take a look.

[m1rock]

Hmmmm, well checked the Item/Menu Properties for steam in custom menus and it is grayed out and unselectable. And my mouse is still awol. :/ Anyway as asked here is my custominput.ini file (I hope this is the right one) Let me know what you think. Thanks!

http://www.mediafire.com/?au5rb6ak6tpj155

[DazzleHP]

Hmmmm, well checked the Item/Menu Properties for steam in custom menus and it is grayed out and unselectable.

That is correct - if you choose Steam as an Item Type the Emulator/group/App section will be unselectable (greyed out) as Steam is it's own self contained item, just like MAME

Anyway as asked here is my custominput.ini file (I hope this is the right one)

Actually, on this one very rare occasion Draco made a booboo ^^ he meant CustomMenu.ini - but as he works so dam hard on these forums we'll keep that between us

If you would please upload CustomMenu.ini that would be great (its in the same folder as custominput.ini) you can upload straight to the forum using the full reply editor - but i have a suspicion the Menu's are not at fault here - rather your Steam config. In regards to that can you check your Username is correct in Steam config. It must be your actual username - not your screen name/tag/handle etc but the username you use to log in

The fact it is unselectable within GE tells me there are no entries in your steam list. Please report back your findings.

[Draco1962]

I really shouldn't try to diagnose things from work - thanks for the catch, Dazzle!

[m1rock]

lol dont worry my mouth is zipped. Even the greats make mistakes. Once again you where spot on Dazzel. I went and bought my self a game on steam and low and behold the program launched! Just had to make some adjustments to IGT slots and that worked as well! Now the only thing that remains is trying to figure out why my mouse and toolbar disappeared :/ Any chance you gentlemen might know the cause? If I can figure that out, and figure out how to combine my two mame programs (which I will start on tomorrow night, and I hope to figure out on my own) I will have all the hiccups (hopefully) on the software side figured out just in time for my cabinet to arrive!!

[m1rock]

On a perhaps related note: Right about the time my mouse and tool bar failed to show up in gameex (even though both are selected in setup wizard) I started seeing an error message upon exiting gameex. I also noticed my intro video started looking glichie (which it did not look before) kinda faiding in and out. The only changes I made graphically was I tested out both the 3d menu transitions and the display image video list under display settings in the setup wizard which I set back. I also returned all video and input settings back to default hoping to resolve it but no help. Its like gameex worked, I changed those things, it looked messed up, I changed it back, and it still is messed up. :/ Maybe I corrupted some sort of setting file with all my experimenting.

Perhaps I need to reinstall gameex? If I reinstall will it mess everything up more?

gameex errors.txt

[DazzleHP]

Glad you got that section sorted!

Perhaps I need to reinstall gameex? If I reinstall will it mess everything up more?

No need for anything too drastic just yet - we'll get you there You're right there is definately a DX issue there though that shouldn't have any effect on your mouse - DirectInput would, i maybe wrong tho as unfortunately DirectX is beyond my scope i'm afraid. My advice would be for now is check you have the latest DX for your OS and it wouldn't be a bad idea to install your latest video card drivers. Someone with more expertese may know what the errors mean:

23:14:08.1  12/4/2012:  ERRORS DETECTED: EXITING23:14:08.1  12/4/2012:  Error in the application.23:14:08.1  12/4/2012:     at Microsoft.DirectX.Direct3D.Device.BeginScene()23:14:08.1  12/4/2012:     at Direct2D.Direct2d.Device.BeginScene(Boolean Clear, Color ClearColour)23:14:08.1  12/4/2012:     at GameEx.GameEx.mainform.c(Boolean A_0)23:14:08.1  12/4/2012:     at GameEx.GameEx.mainform.dx()

A few questions if i may:

You are using a tankstik correct? does it have the trackball? AFAIK the trackball emulates mouse input so this may be effecting your real mouse - have you tried using it? GameEx may disable the toolbar if no mouse is detected though i'm not sure on this.

Also do you have 3rd party mouse software installed? Ie a driver disc software of any kind or do you have a bog standard mouse? If so you can try re-installing such software or remove it completely and make do with basic mouse input.

As for your videos glitching and such it may well be related to the above DX issue.

[Tempest]

I did a google site search on that error and came up with several threads with that same error.

https://www.google.com/search?q=site:http://www.gameex.info/%20Microsoft.DirectX.Direct3D.Device.BeginScene

One possibility in a topic marked [Resolved]

http://www.gameex.info/forums/topic/11546-resolved-error-message-while-in-a-game/

[m1rock]

Hello! Well after doing some experimenting I figured out what it was that was causing Gamex to crash!! One thing I noticed is that it seemed to crash on bootup. So I started to look at things I might have changed that would complicate gameexes standard boot procedure. What I discovered was that I had selected play music/radio on start up,and that, trying to load while at the same time loading my intro video caused gameex to basically crash. I turned off the play on start up option and it fixed it! Im not sure if this was due to my computer or perhaps a bug that needs fixing. Would someone else care to verify? Anyways that solved that...

A few questions if i may:

You are using a tankstik correct? does it have the trackball? AFAIK the trackball emulates mouse input so this may be effecting your real mouse - have you tried using it? GameEx may disable the toolbar if no mouse is detected though i'm not sure on this.

Also do you have 3rd party mouse software installed? Ie a driver disc software of any kind or do you have a bog standard mouse? If so you can try re-installing such software or remove it completely and make do with basic mouse input.

Correct, I am using the xarcade tankstick w/ trackball. Ive used both the tankstick mouse and the integrated mouse at the same time in gameex before with no issue. I actually was using both in gameex for a couple of days before my mouse and toolbar decided to go bye bye.I mean I can still scroll with The trackball and mouse pad its just the it wont leave the main list and there is no curser. The computer I am using to make my cab is actually a Acer laptop with a touch pad mouse. Ive had a wireless usb mouse on here, and ive had my tankstick but never both at the same time. They both installed kinda did their plug and play thing but no real software program just a basic recognition driver I think. The issue occurred later though. Its like I had the tankstick going, and I still had my mouse and toolbar in gameex and then like one day it just disappeared. Its like it didn't coincide with adding any hardware devices just, had everything working then it just was gone one day after I exited playing a rom I believe. Thanks for the links too btw tempest, im looking through them now. Well at least I know the dx crash and the no mouse/toolbar issue are not related.

[Chaos.Tiki]

Did you happen to dabble in the plugin manager? I know there is a hide mouse function in there.

[m1rock]

Did you happen to dabble in the plugin manager? I know there is a hide mouse function in there.

I already check there, but thanks for the suggestion. I have figured out how to rig my arcade stick up to navigate well without the mouse so I think I am happy with that and will drop the mouse issue. I am having another issue but I am making a new post for that so people dont have to scroll down a billion messages.