ROMs won't load in GameEx and I get a black screen

[Nippon]

Hello,

I'm new to GameEx and the whole world of retro gaming. I tried posting this to another topic but got no answer so I thought I'd start a new one. I can get my ROMs to load in GameEx and see them in the list. However, when I select the game it won't open and I just get a black screen. I can get the games to work outside of GameEx when I just run it through the MAME emulator. Can someone take a look at my log files and tell me what I'm doing wrong? Thanks!

GameEx.ini

log.txt

[B2K24]

Can you attach or pastebin your mame.ini?

[Nippon]

Sure. Here you go. Thanks.

mame.ini

[B2K24]

Run the GameEX setup wizard and find Advanced MAME Options.

Remove the -nowindow -hwstretch -ddraw leaving MAME Options completely blank. MAME will apply what it needs to from the mame.ini

Also, in the setup wizard, ensure the rom path points to the exact same location as the rom path option in your mame.ini

rompath roms

C:\Users\Shuan P\Desktop\MameUI64\ROMs

Is your MameUI64 folder on your desktop?

[Nippon]

yes, my MameUi64 folder is on my desktop. I'll give those things a try and get back to you.

[Draco1962]

It may be better to have your MAMEUI64.exe and ROMs in a folder on your c:\ drive. Generally, C:\Users\ is a hidden and protected location and may cause programs to not respond properly or update needed files within as a result.

[B2K24]

It may be better to have your MAMEUI64.exe and ROMs in a folder on your c:\ drive. Generally, C:\Users\ is a hidden and protected location and may cause programs to not respond properly or update needed files within as a result.

Good point there. I'd actually move the entire MAMEUI folder to C:\

[Nippon]

Ok, I moved the entire folder to the C:/ and deleted the command line. That seemed to help, making some progress. I got 1 of my 4 ROMs to work! Not sure why the other 3 won't load. Any suggestions? Here are my files again. Thanks a lot for the help!

log.txt

mame.ini

GameEx.ini

[B2K24]

These 4 games work manually running MAMEUI? Can you try in MAMEUI again to see if they work after moving them to C:\

I can't see anything wrong from your attached files.

What are the 4 games?

[Nippon]

Yes I can get the games to work running MAMEUI. I was able to get another game to work! The games I"m trying to run are Teenage Mutant Ninga Turtles (4 player edition), Double Dragon, and Street Fighter II: Champion Edition. The 4th game I had is actually a bad ROM (Star Wars for Sega Genesis). I can't seem to get Street Fighter II to work (in GameEx) although the other two games work just fine now.

[MNMax21]

It could be your filtering. I am going to be honest though. I was lazy and did not read through your .ini. I know I had a problem with mine. Some of my roms were japan in nature and the default filter in gameex will filter out japan roms. Take a look at the attached picture.

p.s.- Sorry, not a very good writer with the mouse. Maybe try changing the things I marked.

[B2K24]

Yes I can get the games to work running MAMEUI. I was able to get another game to work! The games I"m trying to run are Teenage Mutant Ninga Turtles (4 player edition), Double Dragon, and Street Fighter II: Champion Edition. The 4th game I had is actually a bad ROM (Star Wars for Sega Genesis). I can't seem to get Street Fighter II to work (in GameEx) although the other two games work just fine now.

I think the issue with a lot of people using MAMEUI and having the games not working in GameEX is they are not working with a complete set of good verified ROMs. In MAMEUI it has a show what is available column based upon what roms you do have, so you can pick something and those games just work most of the time.

Now you mention Teenage Mutant Ninga Turtles (4 player edition). MAME has 2 different U.S 4 player edition sets named "tmntu" & "tmntua"

It also has 1 World set which is the parent named "tmnt"

You might consider running the setup wizard when GameEX is closed and look in Advanced MAME settings. Enable the only existing roms option and see if you get a different list than what your MAMEUI shows under it's available games.

[Nippon]

Yes I've done that so only the games that are "working" are showing in GameEx. I'm even having some problems now with running some of the ROMs in MAME. I think some of them are not a good set of ROMs like you said. I sometimes get a blank screen when the game is trying to load. I've heard of ways to audit ROMs. Do you have any suggestions on the best way to audit or verify ROMs?

[B2K24]

In the GameEX setup wizard there is a verify ROMs feature you can enable however, I'm unsure of what that actually does.

Perhaps try this

http://www.mameworld.info/easyemu/clrmameguide/clrmame-guide.html

[nullPointer]

+1 to B2K24's comment. It's always a good idea to verify your MAME set using a verification tool like ClrMamePro or RomCenter.

The Verify ROMs setting will trigger the -verifyroms command to be run against your MAME executable when GameEx is building your game list. If a game isn't confirmed as valid by MAME that game will be excluded from your game list. As always remember to rebuild your MAME list when you alter list settings in the Setup Wizard.

[Nippon]

B2K24, nullPointer,

Thank you so much for your support with this. I know its been awhile since I replied to this post but I've been too busy playing my arcade games! All your suggestions helped and I am running on all four cylinders. I got a ROM verifying software and that seemed to do the trick. Nearly all my ROMs work and the few that don't are probably because they weren't good ROMs to begin with (1943, Street Fighter II and Galaga in case you're wondering). Thanks again!