Game EX Won't Run Properly

[Capone1212]

Hi,

I was battling earlier to even get into the application but saw a post about DirectX. Installed it (DirectX9) and the 'GameEX has encountered an error' message went away and seemed like it was going to work.

The application booted into the nag and wait screen and counted down from 20 seconds.

It freezes on 1 second.

On a few occasions after pushing keyboard buttons, incl cntr+alt+del it went in. I managed on two occasions to navigate to the All Mame games and it proceeded to do some sort of game list and got stuck on 2% complete.

Most times I had to hold the power button down and restart my machine. When my machine booted up each time my desktop background was on black. I reset it back each time.

On the occasions where I managed to open task manager and force shut my background was black and the desktop icons missing.

I have deleted Game EX and reinstalled it on a number of times. This made no difference.

I run Windows XP Pro SP3.

My Mame runs 100% and my PC has no issues I'm aware of.

Please help me solve the problem.

I am about to start manufacturing arcade cabinets for a living and need a front end to make my system look professional. I cant be selling a system with bugs.

Thanks,

Alex

[nullPointer]

Hi Alex

Sorry to hear about your issues. If you would be so kind as to post a copy of your GameEx.ini as well as a copy of your log after experiencing a crash of this nature we may be able to provide more useful feedback and suggestions regarding the nature of the problem. Please refer to the help thread for instructions on accessing that information.

Hey just a quick word of advice as well. It's likely that you'll want to contact Tom regarding the distribution of GameEx on those arcade cabinets you're selling. If you've already worked it all out with Tom, then feel free to disregard the advice. If you haven't talked to Tom, you will definitely want to do so in order to avoid running afoul of the GameEx EULA.

Thanks man! Look forward to hearing from you.

[Capone1212]

Thanks for your reply.

I'll need to get hold of him in due course. Just weighing up my options right now to see what works better (just nothing is working right now)

I've attached my log file. Not sure how to attache the other file as I cant get into the app.

log.txt

[Capone1212]

ok, didn't read your post the 1st time properly.

Attached is the GameEX.ini file.

GameEx.ini

[nullPointer]

So just a couple of questions. Have you configured GameEx using the Setup Wizard yet? If not, you'll want to have a go with that. Here's a good source of reference to that end. Part of the reason I ask is this:

16:55:30.9 2013/05/06: Running: mame32.exe -help
16:55:31.0 2013/05/06: Running: C: C:\Emulators\Mame\mame32.exe -help > C:\Emulators\Mame\help.txt

That command will only display the help text for MAME (rather than actually run a game).

So if you haven't configured yet, you'll want to do that. If you have configured GameEx, taking a look at your GameEx.ini will help. You don't have to run the program to access that info. It's just a file that lives in your GameEx installation directory. Check this out:

2. Post Your GameEx.ini

If you are having a problem with Mame, Daphne, or someother "built-in" feature of Gameex, we may want to take a look at your GameEx.ini, which can be found in this folder: C:\GameEx\CONFIG\

If Windows wants to know what program to use to open the file, Choose "Select a Program From a List of Installed Programs" Choose "Notepad" from the list. (You may want to make sure that "Use This Program Everytime" is checked.)

Copy and paste the text from Notepad into your next post, by using the keys:
Ctrl + "A" (select all)
Ctrl + "C" (copy)
Ctrl + "V" (paste)

Thanks man

[Capone1212]

I posted the GameEX.ini file.

I have been through the setup a number of times. Maybe that mame help directory might be an error on my side. I'll go through it again and ensure it's the .exe file.

Thanks.

[Capone1212]

ok, so I went through the setup wizard again. The mame32.exe file seemed ok, however I deleted it and added it again (I went to the mame32.exe file and clicked on it to ensure it was the .exe file and it did open mame).

It goes into Game EX better however it still stops at 1 second and I manually have to press enter. Maybe that's just the way it works, but doesn't seem right.

When I'm in Game EX and go to all Mame games, it says I have none. When I click to search or add then it shows me a windows popup saying 'unknown option "-list.xml" continue anyway? I select continue and it takes me back into Game EX and seems to get stuck on creating list info.dat (2%)

It did do this earlier when I managed to get in.

Please help further. Thanks

[Capone1212]

Also going through the setup wizard, then I get to some screensaver screen a window pops up telling me about some unhandle error, but I have the option to continue, which I do.

[nullPointer]

When I'm in Game EX and go to all Mame games, it says I have none. When I click to search or add then it shows me a windows popup saying 'unknown option "-list.xml" continue anyway? I select continue and it takes me back into Game EX and seems to get stuck on creating list info.dat (2%)

Are you fairly comfortable using the command console (i.e. the command line) to interact with applications? What happens when you run the following command (where C:\GameEx\gameex.exe is the location of your GameEx executable - you may need to alter that bit depending on your configuration):

"C:\GameEx\gameex.exe" -listupdate

That command is used to update your MAME list manually. It might help to at least get your games to display within GameEx.

Regarding the -listxml error, that's another inbuilt switch which should be recognized as a valid MAME command option. See here for further info, although once again I'm not certain why GameEx would be trying to append that option to your MAME command unless specifically configured to do so.

According to your config these are the options which should be applied to your MAME command when running a game:

MameOptions=-nowindow -joy -skip_gameinfo

[Tempest]

I would assume that the OP is running an older version of Mame.

Capone1212 - are you using a full version of XP, or a stripped down version?

[Capone1212]

Thanks for the replies. I had a friend come around who knows command line and your recommendations, NullPointer, didnt work (but thank you), however Tempest, yours did. I changed Mame version and it started working. You guys rock!

Now I have another slight problem. Not sure if should post a new thread but here goes...

When I do an update to the games list it only gives me 73 games, however I have over 5000 roms and in mame itself at least half of them work.

Under the setup wizard the mame setup is ok in terms of roms location.

Please assist.

[nullPointer]

Hi Capone1212

I'm glad to hear you're making some progress. Well done! The fact that there are only a few games showing probably boils down to one of two things (as a first guess).

• Any time you make a change to MAME settings (for the most part) you'll want to rebuild your list in GameEx. This can be done inside GameEx from your MAME menu, or via the command I mentioned above.
  
• The following two settings will have a big impact on what ROMs are displayed in GameEx depending on the variances of your specific configuration:

OnlyWorking=True
AllowImperfect=True
VerifyRoms=True

ROMs marked as non-working in MAME may or may not reflect how well they actually play in MAME. Sometimes It can be a minor glitch that caused the game to be marked as non-working (although in most cases non-working means just that).

Verify ROMs can have a huge impact on the number of ROMs displayed in GameEx if the version of your ROM(s) is not an exact match to your version of MAME. So it sounds like you changed updated your version of MAME; did you also update your ROMs to the appropriate version? If the CRC of the ROMs doesn't match what your version of MAME says it should be, the VerifyRoms setting will prevent all non-matching ROMs from being displayed. Turning off this setting will likely have an impact, but you may also be opening the flood gates to add a bunch of ROMs to your list which are not compatible with your version of MAME.

[Capone1212]

Hi NullPointer,

Where do I find the verify roms?

How do I update my roms?

I downloaded the latest version on mame 148 and have reformatted another computer to Win 7 Ultimate.

Changing to the latest version on Mame (from Mame32 0.90) took me from only having 73 games to 1467 games which is great but there are still plenty of games missing.

I have over 5000 roms all in zip form.

Please assist again. Thanks.

[Capone1212]

Ok, found the verify roms option.

I now have 4717 showing.

No Slap Fight .... boo hoo

Thank for your help NullPointer

[nullPointer]

I'm glad to hear things are looking up for you Capone1212!

So ... the next step depends on how far down the rabbit hole you want to go. To my mind it still sounds like your ROMs don't match your version of MAME, especially where turning off Verify ROMs made a big difference in the number of ROMs displayed.

The good news is that there are tools available which will help you determine whether the version of your ROM set matches your version of MAME (this process is known as auditing your ROMs, and accordingly the tools typically fall under the umbrella of ROM auditing software). The bad news is that there is a learning curve involved, and some users simply can't be bothered to get into the nuts and bolts of MAME configuration. Either way is a valid answer. If you just want to play games and be thankful that you've got something working you're good to go. If you want to feel safe in the knowledge that your ROMs match your version of MAME and will behave in a predictable fashion then auditing your ROMs is a sound decision.

My advice? If your approach to emulation goes beyond a passing interest, learning how to audit ROM sets is an indispensable tool in your utility belt.

For new(ish) users I tend to recommend ROMCenter. It’s a great application and fairly user friendly as far as that goes. Here are a couple of tutorials to help get you started with ROMCenter:

Romcenter 3 tutorial
ROMCenter Wiki

Another great tool to be aware of is the venerable ClrMamePro. ClrMamePro is not nearly as user friendly as ROMCenter, but it’s got a lot more history behind it, and you’ll often see grizzled old emulation veterans using CMP over ROMCenter.

Here’s the complete guide to using ClrMamePro.

[Capone1212]

Thanks for all your help. I have used the RomCenter on your advice.

Its given me a few more games in Game EX with Verify Roms turned on.

I have 1754 games in it now. I'll have to live with it as I dont think I'm going to get any better. Is that good?

Just one more thing, what is the best mame to use with Game EX? i.e. the version that gives the most games. I am now using the latest version, being 148.

[Tempest]

The best version of Mame to use is the version that matches your rom set.

[nullPointer]

Yep, Tempest nailed it there. If your version of MAME doesn't match the version of your ROMs it's asking for trouble.

A brief anecdote: On the bass player forum I frequent (lurking about mainly), there's a long running meme about "What is the best bass for metal?" which is a question that pops up a lot more often than you might guess. The answer of course depends on what you want to play, your style of playing, your equipment, etc. MAME is also a bit like that. Assuming that you have matching set of ROMs for your version of MAME, the answer to the "best" version of MAME will largely boil down to personal preference and what works best with your setup.

Good luck Capone1212!