Problems with 7z ISOs

[uberpubert69]

My Dreamcast, 3DO, and TG-16 games wont load from GameEx anymore. I think this is because of my ISOs being 7Zipped but my PS1/PSP games are like that and they work fine.At first I thought I had some commands wrong again, but I noticed they will work if I turn off merge sets but then the games that I have that are multi disc bloat up my game list with multiples of the same game on my screen like 3 Shenmues and 4 Shenmue 2 games in my list.

I've come up with this problem before. Any way to fix this?

GameEx.ini

[nullPointer]

Hi Uberpuber

Thanks for posting your GameEx.ini. Another bit of information that would be very helpful to see would be your runitgame.bat after having experienced this issue. Depending on what that shows it might also be helpful to see the corresponding log as well. One measure you could try on your side would be to turn on debug mode for one (or all) of the problematic emulators to see whether any error messages are generated.

[uberpubert69]

Hi Uberpuber

Thanks for posting your GameEx.ini. Another bit of information that would be very helpful to see would be your runitgame.bat after having experienced this issue. Depending on what that shows it might also be helpful to see the corresponding log as well. One measure you could try on your side would be to turn on debug mode for one (or all) of the problematic emulators to see whether any error messages are generated.

The games don't run at all, I never leave the GameEx menu. So I doubt runitgame.bat would be of any help here. I just can't have merge sets on while I also have 7z support turned on. I just realized I had the same issue before with my PS1 games and I had to make an entirely different emulator setup with a different ROM directory. But even then I still have 7z and merge sets on and it works when its just multi disc games in the ISO directory. Then I had to group my PS1 single disc games with my multi disc games.

I really don't want to have to do this for all my other ISO based emulators. I like things nice and tidy. :/

[nullPointer]

I'm having a hard time understanding what it's actually doing. So you attempt to start a game, and literally nothing happens? Or does it look like it's trying to do something, but immediately returns to GameEx? Maybe your log will give some indication of what's happening?

Did it do anything differently with debug mode turned on?

[uberpubert69]

I'm having a hard time understanding what it's actually doing. So you attempt to start a game, and literally nothing happens? Or does it look like it's trying to do something, but immediately returns to GameEx? Maybe your log will give some indication of what's happening?

Did it do anything differently with debug mode turned on?

Debug mode achieved nothing unfortunately. What is happening is, I load GameEx, go to my Console Emulators, I choose Panasonic 3DO, I can see my games I have in my game list. I choose for example (doesn't matter which game) Crash 'N Burn. The screen comes up with the Title, Box, CD and Video snaps as well as "Add to Favorites". There is no "Play Game" option available. Thefore I get C**kblocked. And it matters not which (ISO based) emulator I choose nor which game.

[nullPointer]

Ah! OK, sorry it took me a minute to understand what was going on there.

One commonality that I see in your config (at least for the problematic emulators you've listed here) is that you have both RomsInFolders and GamesIn7Zips set as True. So that would mean that your ROM directories would look somethig like this as an example:

[Folder] Q:\Roms\3DO

• [Folder] Game Name 1
  • Game Name 1.7z
• [Folder] Game Name 2
  • Game Name 2.7z

Is that how your ROM directories look? It's a bit of an unusual setup that might (or might not) cause some interesting dilemmas for GameEx when it parses the game list. any chance you'd be willing to flatten your directory structure a bit to see if that would help to address the issue(s)? So rather than the above you'd set it up like so (and you'd set RomsInFolders as being False):

[Folder] Q:\Roms\3DO

• Game Name 1.7z
• Game Name 2.7z

I'm guessing that the above might help your situation. There may also be a GameEx bug in play here, but the above might be a reasonable work around until such time as Tom had a chance to look at it.

[uberpubert69]

Ah! OK, sorry it took me a minute to understand what was going on there.

One commonality that I see in your config (at least for the problematic emulators you've listed here) is that you have both RomsInFolders and GamesIn7Zips set as True. So that would mean that your ROM directories would look somethig like this as an example:

[Folder] Q:\Roms\3DO

• [Folder] Game Name 1
  • Game Name 1.7z
• [Folder] Game Name 2
  • Game Name 2.7z

Is that how your ROM directories look? It's a bit of an unusual setup that might (or might not) cause some interesting dilemmas for GameEx when it parses the game list. any chance you'd be willing to flatten your directory structure a bit to see if that would help to address the issue(s)? So rather than the above you'd set it up like so (and you'd set RomsInFolders as being False):

[Folder] Q:\Roms\3DO

• Game Name 1.7z
• Game Name 2.7z

I'm guessing that the above might help your situation. There may also be a GameEx bug in play here, but the above might be a reasonable work around until such time as Tom had a chance to look at it.

Hmm, well the way my directories are setup are like this:

[Folder] Q:\Roms\3DO\Roms

• Game Name 1.7z
• Game Name 2.7z

[Folder] Q:\Roms\3DO\Roms\Game Name 3

• Game Name 3 (Disc 1).7z
• Game Name 3 (Disc 2).7z

So I'll try taking my ISOs out of folders and keep everything in just the Roms folder and see if that fixes it.

[Tom Speirs]

Yeah, I think the combination of Sub Folders, Merge, 7-ZIP then ISO is a level too deep for GameEx to cope with right now. It would be confirmed if you try what was suggested.

[nullPointer]

Ah yeah. I'd definitely give that a shot. One of the things the Merge Sets feature is supposed to address is to make it so that you don't have to nest your disc sets into sub folders like Game 3 is in your list. With any luck that will help to get 'er licked.

[uberpubert69]

Ah yeah. I'd definitely give that a shot. One of the things the Merge Sets feature is supposed to address is to make it so that you don't have to nest your disc sets into sub folders like Game 3 is in your list. With any luck that will help to get 'er licked.

So I turned off Scan subfolders and I took my games out of the folders and they show up right in the list but now I can only play my multi disc games. When I go to any 1 disc game it doesn't have the Play Game button. It seems I'm going to have to make a separate folder for my multi disc games again... Thanks for helping me though

Yeah, I think the combination of Sub Folders, Merge, 7-ZIP then ISO is a level too deep for GameEx to cope with right now. It would be confirmed if you try what was suggested.

I really appreciate a response from you Tom. I tried the above suggestions with no remedy. Seems I've come across a bug of sorts and it still doesn't work even after Sub Folders are off. As soon as I turn Merge off all my games work but my multi disc games don't combine in the list.

[nullPointer]

It sounds to me like GameEx may be hanging on to the cached version of where it thinks certain ROMs are still residing. I would recommend deleting your cache files to see if that makes a difference. Try navigating to the\Gameex\DATA folder and delete all the files with cache in the file name or extension. The next time you start GameEx it will rebuild all these files including your game lists.

[uberpubert69]

It sounds to me like GameEx may be hanging on to the cached version of where it thinks certain ROMs are still residing. I would recommend deleting your cache files to see if that makes a difference. Try navigating to the\Gameex\DATA folder and delete all the files with cache in the file name or extension. The next time you start GameEx it will rebuild all these files including your game lists.

I anticiapated that and already did so. But it still did not change anything.

[nullPointer]

Along with the cache files try deleting all the map files as well. I had an issue recently when I was retooling my Model 3 setup where I actually had to delete the cache/map files a few times in succession before the changes were fully recognized. For what ever reason GameEx kept rebuilding the associated map file in an odd fashion. It's worth a shot at any rate.

[uberpubert69]

Along with the cache files try deleting all the map files as well. I had an issue recently when I was retooling my Model 3 setup where I actually had to delete the cache/map files a few times in succession before the changes were fully recognized. For what ever reason GameEx kept rebuilding the associated map file in an odd fashion. It's worth a shot at any rate.

I always delete everything that gameex generates for my Emus in the data folder. Like I mentioned before, no change.

[Draco1962]

I don't run this emulator, so just shoot me if I am way off base here, but couldn't you setup two emulator slots - one for the single disk games with merge off, the multi-disk games with a more flattened directory schema as suggested, but with merge turned on, then combine them under an emulator group so they appear as one list?

[uberpubert69]

I don't run this emulator, so just shoot me if I am way off base here, but couldn't you setup two emulator slots - one for the single disk games with merge off, the multi-disk games with a more flattened directory schema as suggested, but with merge turned on, then combine them under an emulator group so they appear as one list?

As I've said before, I did this for my PS1 games. But I really don't want to do that for ALL my emulators that are affected by this. Its tedious and redundant. I should just be able to have all my games in 1 emulator slot.

[Draco1962]

As I've said before, I did this for my PS1 games. But I really don't want to do that for ALL my emulators that are affected by this. Its tedious and redundant. I should just be able to have all my games in 1 emulator slot.

When dealing with the mutli-disk emulators you might not have much choice if you want it working well. Such is the way of our hobby.

[uberpubert69]

When dealing with the mutli-disk emulators you might not have much choice if you want it working well. Such is the way of our hobby.

Yeah, you're right. I pride myself in being able to get my GameEx setup as good as it is so I'm just gonna fix this issue slowly one emulator at a time until its completely fixed.

[Draco1962]

I certainly wish you luck, keep us posted on whether or not setting up the Emulator group for the two types (single disk vs multi-disk games)works out for you with this emulator.

[uberpubert69]

I made whole new emulator slots for all my multi disc ISO directories and everything works fine except my 3DO games still. I don't know what I'm doing wrong since Dreamcast/Saturn/PS1 games are all working properly. Frustrating to be so close. :/

GameEx.ini

[Malekar]

Hi uberpubert69,

I checked your ini file and I think your having same issue I had. You possibly moved some emulators around and uninstall reinstalled some. You might want to go into the wizard for Gameex and do a sort on the emulators list. It looks like your emu23 for 3DO has references to Wii and Sega which are incorrect. Usually after resorting the emulator list inside Gameex Wizard the values update and reflect correctly. I've also had to go to the custom menu tool and change my emulators to point to the right number. So if your 3DO should be lets say number 25 make sure it's pointing to the 25th item in list and not the 23rd for example. Let me know if any of this helps, I hope I have not caused more confusion.

[uberpubert69]

Hi uberpubert69,

I checked your ini file and I think your having same issue I had. You possibly moved some emulators around and uninstall reinstalled some. You might want to go into the wizard for Gameex and do a sort on the emulators list. It looks like your emu23 for 3DO has references to Wii and Sega which are incorrect. Usually after resorting the emulator list inside Gameex Wizard the values update and reflect correctly. I've also had to go to the custom menu tool and change my emulators to point to the right number. So if your 3DO should be lets say number 25 make sure it's pointing to the 25th item in list and not the 23rd for example. Let me know if any of this helps, I hope I have not caused more confusion.

The ini you checked may be outdated. I've just checked my configuration and I don't see that error you're talking about. I do appreciate the help though!