ANNC: GameEx is NOT going Shareware

[Tom Speirs]

Dear group,

Since feedback has been so important to the success of GameEx I thought I'd put the following to the group.

Over the last several months I have been working hard and paying for some additional features to GameEx. These are not related to Emulation or MAME at all, but are aimed more at the HTPC/Build your own Console/Media box community. Although Cab users might like it too.

I want to get some payback on these features, but in the spirit of the MAME community and the hard work of the talented people that contribute to MAME and of course other emulators, I want to keep the emulation side of GameEx free.

In other words if you want the complete ultimate solution with features I am not entirely disclosing just yet, although Media/HTPC based I will be charging a small fee.

Everything in the current version (and previous versions) will stay free with the exception of videos. In addition, I will still be working on the existing features, taking requests, fixing and putting up regular updates.

Now I have a few questions for you all. Call it Market research if you now see me as a tycoon (which I am not!), but I believe an application is never finished, and I design apps based on what other people think as well as what I think.

The questions are:

1. If you wanted to 'upgrade' to the complete solution, DVD (complete), Pictures (Including Slide Shows, and operatable from a cab or tv (like everything else)), Radio (Internet most formats), Video (enhanced and all file formats) and features I cant disclose yet.

a. Would you be prepared to pay for this.

b. how much.

2. The other option is to make all the features free, but have nag screens, adverts for the 'premium' version all the time. Of course the nags would be ArcadeCab and TV friendly, but slowing startup/exit down and with a constant 'upgrade' list item on the start page, until you either stole from me and cracked

the software, or b paid a few buck for it.

a. Would you prefer all features free with nagging unless you paid a few bucks.

b. or two versions, Emulation/MAME/Jukebox (free), or full solution.

3. If you chose 2A How much would you be prepared to pay?

Thanks, for your time. Lets decide the future together

[pavlov70]

I'd gladly pay $30 or so for improved customization and jukebox capabilities. Not sure how hard some of these would be to implement, just throwing them out for consideration.

- ability to customize/re-organize menu

- improved jukebox (some of these features may already be there and I just haven't discovered them and/or know how to use them properly)

* being able to go by Artist -> Album -> Title

* pressing a Play button plays entire selected. For example, highlight the group "Blues Travelers" and hitting Play plays all of their songs. Highlight their album "Four" and press Play and all songs on that album play. Hitting Enter still takes you to to the next sublevel.

*Playing a selection either Adds to Queue or Plays Now

-ability to map controls to buttons/sticks

Thanks,

Rob

[Toonces]

I agree with Rob. I would gladly play $30-40 for a registered version with all the features.

As far as Improvements. Things that are important to me are:

1. Kid Friendly - This would mean maintenance functions like rebuilding the list, gettting to config, etc would be able to be hidden but still accessable though a key combination that is not accidentally hit and possibly be password protected. I have everything hidden and and it works much better now until I have to update then I have to go back to the desktop using CTL+ALT+DEL (this is more difficult since 3.47 as GameEx keeps regaining control once the task manager is up. Takes about 4-5 tries before I can actually exit) and then reenable update list or go into configuration directly. The newly added -listupdate switch does make this scriptable but I would still like to be able to conbtrol & do everything from the frontend itself. I am using GameEx as a shell. The ability to auto update GameEx for the registered version would also be a great addition to this.

2. Better Jukebox control. I got very confused with this. The controls do not seem obvious and I could never get it to play what I wanted to hear. Even with the jukebox disabled it played whatever was in my playlist and I wasn't able to change it. Pretty much I just didn't understand the controls enough to use it and ended up not using it. Perhaps an easier to use, arcade controls friendly "front end" for the jukebox would make it easier.

3. Ability to remap controls & better gamepad support. I am in the process of switching over to the new groovygamegear interface for Happ 49 way sticks. This is seen by Windows as a standard gamepad. I am not completely switching from my jpac as I plan to leave the buttons as is but the ability to navigate with a combination of gamepad & keys would be needed. If you've been looking for a really good 4/8 way switchable joystick and don't like the tight ultimarc or omni sticks, the Happ 49 way with a GP-49 is the way to go. It feels like a wico balltop stick with the added benefit of being switchable between 2 way, 4 way, 8 way, 16 way and 49 way! Definately a must have if you don't want a panel stuffed full of joysticks.

4. Ability to arrange menu item order. Because I want to

As far as the method of how you would nag, etc for unregistered. How about a nag on startup and shutdown/exit and any time a registered feature is selected. That way the free functions are still free and the commercial is still shown on startup & shutdown and people who only want the free features can have it without constant nagging. I get really turned off by constant nagging and rather than using the product would be more inclined to find something else rather than purchase it. However, a few non-interfering nags that are well placed and lets me use the product for what is supposed to be free will tend to get me hooked.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head.

Toonces

[joey3002]

i dont know if i would pay 30-40 dollars since all i use it for is my mame unit. To me, its worth like 15.00 but its not due to you Tom.. its due to what i use it for and how much i use it. I already supported ya once by buying my slikstik from your banner. Id be happy to donate again, but i would not consider 30.00 even remotely do able. Sorry

i love the front end and love the way you handle your work it comes down to what i can afford. And with all the software i need, mame is way down the list.

Keep up the great work and i wish you well.

also, if you need the bandwidth, my offer still stands (mirror) if that helps.

[wrench]

I don't think $20-30 for a full featured version is asking for too much as long as updates will be included,like you said there are always changes being made.But I think if I were not interested in all the extras I would much rather see 2 different versions so as not to keep seeing nag screens,I really hate those taunts.

I'd like to see some change in the jukebox also,I don't care for the way it relies on the media player playlists either.I've got an mp3 of various arcade sounds that I have playing in the backround while in the frontend,and a huge collection of mp3 music files.Unless I'm missing something I'm having a hard time getting both to work,so I'm planing on using another jukebox progam as an external for my music files.

[David R Hilgendorf]

In advance I apologize for CAPS, used to differentiate my text from Tom's.

The questions are:

1. a. Would you be prepared to pay for:

NO: DVD (complete) IT WOULD HAVE TO BLOW AWAY XP-MCE FEATURES

NO: Pictures (Including Slide Shows) DITTO

NO: Radio (Internet most formats) COOL IDEA, NOT PERSONALLY INTERESTED

YES: Video (enhanced and all file formats) ASSUMING GAME RELATED & NOT EXCLUSIVE TO MOVIES/MUSIC

PROBABLY: features I cant disclose yet

b. how much.

HMM, for features I wouldn't use, not so much, maybe $15 max. These seem to be HTPC specific enhancements. I have to ask, for a project that started out as an MCE enhancement, not replacement, aren't you reinventing the wheel? There are so many HTPC solutions out there already, including MCE, that do all this stuff fairly well. IF you were to do it that much better your product would be worth a WHOLE lot more to the HTPC crowd. Like $50-$100 per reg.

2. Make all the features free, but have nag screens all the time.

a. Would you prefer all features free with nagging unless you paid a few bucks.

b. or two versions, Emulation/MAME/Jukebox (free), or full solution.

HAVE TO GO WITH OPTION B HERE, I DON'T USE GAMEEX AS HTPC.

Well since everyone else is throwing their requests into this thread, I wanted to point out that most of my requests are Emulation specific, not HTPC:

1) Relocate/resize/scale width and height of the various text and image boxes.

2) TWO or more images available on the various screens.

3) VIDEO clip as background for custom emulators (not just mame and daphne).

4) Alpha Page up and down.

5) Remove/hide the home button in the upper right.

6) Toggle ALL default categories on MAIN screen instead of having them forced.

7) Audio support when playing VIDEO clips, I can't HEAR the commercial videos I created for consoles.

8) Ability to arrange menu item order (Seems everyone wants this)

I see that a LOT of people want improved Jukebox support, a feature I don't use at all. I might consider playing background music on the main menu at some point, but I haven't decided yet.

BTW: For MAME enhancements I think $20-$30 would be a good price, so I can see others paying that much for HTPC, if that's what they wanted.

Keep up the great work Tom.

[Ressurection]

I think it is a good idea to change GameEx to shareware. Personally I am not interested in any of the htpc extras as I see GameEx purely as an emulator frontend. I would still be willing to pay for a license for the emulator frontend side of things as I can see how much time and effort you put into the software. I also appreciate how you listen to people's suggestions and implement them if they are a good idea.

[cupid]

Hi!

Hope you can understand it since English is not my mother tongue...

I would prefer a GPL licence.

Not that i'm not willing to spend money for this great pice of software (already in this state). I actually own a licence of MS-MCE 2005 and have paid much more for it. As I have a cab running GameEx there are several impovements i would like to have in GameEx.

That is:

Custom Folders (like CPS and NeoGeo -> golden age, my favourite dual Player games etc.) arranged i a tree structure,

Web Interface (to manage these Folders, Videos etc.),

Filters for Gamelists (like in MCE)

Object oriented starting of games / videos / Emulators / programs (seems to me very hard-Coded in the moment).

Gamelists with roms running different emulators (e.g. all "Mario-Games", all "capcom-games")

An ALL Games Gamelist (running 30000+ Games :-) )

A Disc Burner - System maybe also for burning Videos-Recordings to DVDs

A TV-Recorder capable of writing Mpeg and NOT DVR-MS!!!!

and so on...

RSS Newsreader,

Kiosk Browser.

Own "before game runs" Nag-Screens (with Control Panel Informations, Graphic-Dimensions of the game)

Own Scripts for calling games (to speak to my self-Build electronics in my Cab with game informations like Size, Controls etc.)

Own scripts to read informations from roms (Nintendo-Roms often have some usefull informations in the header. maybe we could display them?)

Fullscreen Flyer, Titles and screenshot viewer.

I would be willing to help programming these features as i'm able to write several progr. languages myself. And I hope there are more geeks like me that are able to help to improve GameEx. But if it's shareware... i can't get the codes to improve them. I only could ask Tom accept my help and share the codes with me (what i did herewith), but i could understand Tom if he would not give his "child" away.

If someone isn't able to improve GameEx he/she could donate the hard work of Tom (and others). To help to get money for the running costs.

What do you think? Are there any other programmers here?

[evilpenguin]

I also only use GameEX for its great emulation support and none of the other features. So while any fancy mp3, video, etc. options wouldn't intrest me much, i'd still be happy to pay a resonable amont for solid emulator improvements. I'd say

Free emulator stuff w/nag

$10 for "emulator pro" with extra features and w/o nag

$20 for "emulator pro plus" for all of the HTPC features.

Keep up the good work, buddy.

[spotlanx]

yeah i agree with evilpenguin;

FREE: $0 - emu stuff with nag screens on startup and close (screen with reg details popsup for 10 secs or so)

EMU PRO: $20US all emu/jukebox and emu video features, with more customization, eg key remap, menu setup, skin browser diff setups for mame cab, or pure jukebox, etc)

HTPC: $HEAPS cause those ppl have money!! (all features plus extra video type stuff, for burning, HDTV cards, etc)

i mainly use it for my mame cab, but i am about to make a pure jukebox with game ex running off it.

[joey3002]

why make it free with nags? i mean, speaking for myself, i JUST want emu stuff.. none of the other things..

Thanks

yeah i agree with evilpenguin;

FREE: $0 - emu stuff with nag screens on startup and close (screen with reg details popsup for 10 secs or so)

EMU PRO: $20US all emu/jukebox and emu video features, with more customization, eg key remap, menu setup, skin browser diff setups for mame cab, or pure jukebox, etc)

HTPC: $HEAPS cause those ppl have money!! (all features plus extra video type stuff, for burning, HDTV cards, etc)

i mainly use it for my mame cab, but i am about to make a pure jukebox with game ex running off it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[oxbow]

I think there's a lot of work done to create this nice frontend so I've no trouble to pay for it..

A price between 25 and 40 dollar sounds really acceptable to me

[joey3002]

i am willing to pay..just not 40.00 since i only use the emu stuff.. tom i love ya man.. just gimme my crack!!! err i mean my emu

[Tom Speirs]

i am willing to pay..just not 40.00 since i only use the emu stuff.. tom i love ya man.. just gimme my crack!!! err i mean my emu

Hi all,

I have decided to keep GameEx free for non commerical use even including the forthcoming premium enhancments.

This is too much of an enjoyable hobby for me to try and make commercial, and it will be a real kick to rock the boat and give the other htpc non free software out there a run for there money

I am still not keen on making it open source just at the moment though but who knows.

You will see i've made the donations a bit more obvious on the home page, as it would be nice to cover some of my costs. Although this is a hobby, and every penny Ive spent has been worth it.

Thanks.

Tom

[joey3002]

Hi all,

I have decided to keep GameEx free for non commerical use even including the forthcoming premium enhancments.

This is too much of an enjoyable hobby for me to try and make commercial, and it will be a real kick to rock the boat and give the other htpc non free software out there a run for there money 

I am still not keen on making it open source just at the moment though but who knows.

You will see i've made the donations a bit more obvious on the home page, as it would be nice to cover some of my costs. Although this is a hobby, and every penny Ive spent has been worth it.

Thanks.

Tom

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks, your work and dedication has not gone unappreciated.. thank you very much.

[acroberts]

I have decided to keep GameEx free for non commerical use even including the forthcoming premium enhancments.

I am still not keen on making it open source just at the moment though but who knows.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I think you made the right decision, although I wish you would make it open source. Your initial plan to make it shareware started me up on MediaPortal, which looks uncannily like GameEx and includes a lot of the HTPC functions I've seen mentioned on this site. However, it lacks a well-integrated Mame plugin (at the moment).

Making GameEx open source would nip any parallel developments that might be in progress on platforms such as MediaPortal in the bud and save their developers wasted time.

Just my 2c.

[djrobx]

I'd be willing to pay as much as $50, if the source code was included with my registration. Without the source I can't fully customize it (or in my case right now, I can't fix my deteriorating speed problem ).

And before you ask, yes, I do make use of sources. I've made modified versions of the following emulators for use in my HTPC environment:

Z26: Added ability to assign joypad buttons to Reset, difficulty toggle, and POV HAT support for digital pad support on PS2 controller. Fixed paddle centering issues with analog stick.

Meka: Added HQ2X scaling, fixed choppy sound

Mame: Added relative analog joypad support so PS2 stck works for trackball games

Gens: Fived POV hat support, added HQ2X.

If I had the sources to GameEx, aside from trying to fix the bug I'm running into, I'd look into adding the ability to map remote control butons to emulator keys (or, map keys to keys). Specifically I want a unified way to be able to save and load states from a Media Center remote. I can probably do this by modifying every emulator, but it would be better done in GameEx. It already has the plumbing for this.

I wish there was more open-source programs for Windows, in general.

[mirthen]

well, when i found out about GameEx, i was considering buying Maximus Arcade for $20, but once i tried GameEx and seen how much more advanced it was, more features, AND it was free... i just couldnt resist.

i had planned on, at some point, donating the $20 i WOULD have spend on getting maximus arcade to GameEx. so i would be willing to pay $20 to maybe $25 for GameEx.

i would be willing to pay more, but sinking so much money already into new parts for the machine GameEx will be running on, so not left with much change in my pockets

the reasoning for why i would pay for this software...

1) i like the "media center" features, more what i want.

2) i dont really use MAME(let the flames start ) and like that it supports just about any other emulator

3) it seems that GameEX is VERY activly update and upgraded which is a definate plus in my book

would i like to see things done to GameEX like everyone else is mentioning.... sure theres lots of things i would like to see happend in GameEX, but it is still a very good app at this point in time, and even with what it does lack, is still worth my money.

do i WANT to pay for GameEx?? no... heh im cheap..

will i pay for GameEx is some or part go pay?? sure.. im cheap but not that cheap