But will it work?

[GeorgeBuford]

Hi all,

After playing with the demo of GameEx, I have a few questions before becoming a lifetime member.

Some background. I designed a custom interface for my MAME cabinet using ActionScript 3 and C#. It displays a video on startup, then jumps into a simple menu system. Each 'folder' ( using GameEx terminology ) on my system has a static background, and a random mp3 file plays when it is loaded. Each menu is read from XML files and must be hand edited when new roms or emulators are added.

If the menu sits idle for a set amount of time, the mp3 is stopped and a random video is played. If the video finishes or a button is pressed, we jump back to the menu we just left, playing a new random mp3. Eventually, an 'Item' ( rom ) is selected, the game plays, and we return to the launching menu once again.

There are also some digital IO signals generated that can be generated at times to control cabinet lighting. This was done by embedding Flash callbacks in the movie clips, telling me when to turn on / off the relay switches. I also check for a special button sequence during the startup video that puts the game into 'adult mode'. This adds the 'R' rated mp3s / videos to the random queue, and prevents kids from learning new vocabulary.

I would like to be able to customize the environment as described above, but rely on the GameEx database and internet updates on the 'back end' so I can focus on the interface. In general, I just need to be able skin the beast to match my cabinet's theme. And so I ask you, the experienced GameEx user / developer - WILL IT WORK?

Thanks in advance for your input.

-GB

[aldub516]

I cannot offer any assistance as this is beyond my expertise. But i will say it seems you added a lot of work on your end to achieve what a lot of front ends or emulators are made to do now a days. Or maybe im wrong, scripting and such was always beyond me. Gameex itself offers alot of options for music play, video screen savers and such. Im impressed by what you did as i wish i could, but from my perspective, that was a lot of unnecessary manual labor. Although some of your settings seem very specific such as the adult music and such. But I believe that can be done in front ends as well. With that being said, if you basically just need to run your own program through gameex, i believe it can be achieved and im sure someone will be able to help you using script launching, or other features within gameex, as it may need some custom settings to run. If you mainly need to skin, there are many themes available, as well as a theme maker. I found editing existing themes can be pretty easy with trial and error. Cheers on the build though! I would like to steer you towards becoming a gameex member, the program is top notch, and the support is beyond fantastic

[nullPointer]

Hi GeorgeBuford and Welcome to the GameEx Forums!

Fist let me say that it's always impressive when folks such as yourself put in such an amazing amount of effort and dedication to bring their vision to life in terms of how their cab(s) should operate. It really sounds like you've put together something truly impressive. I think GameEx can is capable of doing most of the things you've asked about, but we'll break it down point by point.

It displays a video on startup, then jumps into a simple menu system. Each 'folder' ( using GameEx terminology ) on my system has a static background, and a random mp3 file plays when it is loaded. Each menu is read from XML files and must be hand edited when new roms or emulators are added.

GameEx can easily display a startup video. It will also allow for Mp3s to be loaded as you're browsing through menus (a lot of folks use the 'Arcade Ambiance' mp3 which is a long playing track containing the types of noises you might here in an arcade of yore). You can fins more information regarding Arcade Ambiance on the Support Files page. If you were interested in randomizing this track, you could do so using Tempest's Randomizer application to swap out the Arcade Ambiance track with whatever you wished.

One huge benefit GameEx will yield is that you no longer would need to edit menu contents by hand. GameEx will detect changes to your ROM directories and make adjustments accordingly (For MAME you must click a menu prompt to refresh your game list, all other emulators are refreshed on startup).

If the menu sits idle for a set amount of time, the mp3 is stopped and a random video is played. If the video finishes or a button is pressed, we jump back to the menu we just left, playing a new random mp3. Eventually, an 'Item' ( rom ) is selected, the game plays, and we return to the launching menu once again.

GameEx attract mode is capable of doing all of this and more (with one caveat being that I'm not sure whether the Randomizer app is set up to trigger an event upon returning from attract mode - that one might require a bit of research). Attract mode can work in one of two ways. It can simply play random videos as you're doing now, or it can randomly launch the actual ROMs in succession with each one playing for a set amount of time. The super cool thing about this latter option is that you can immediately start playing the currently displayed game directly from attract mode.

There are also some digital IO signals generated that can be generated at times to control cabinet lighting. This was done by embedding Flash callbacks in the movie clips, telling me when to turn on / off the relay switches. I also check for a special button sequence during the startup video that puts the game into 'adult mode'. This adds the 'R' rated mp3s / videos to the random queue, and prevents kids from learning new vocabulary.

This is one area where you may need to bring in some (well, one) additional supporting application. GameEx doesn't directly support controlling aspects of hardware functionality being that everyone's hardware is a bit different. What it can do is that it supports LEDBlinky out of the box via a default included plugin. I think LEDBlinky would be very capable of handling your cabinet lighting (and more), which you can integrate into GameEx via the plugin.

In terms of swapping out media and whatnot based on user permissions, Headkaze has written a handy dandy program called GameEx Login. This basically sets up user accounts for your GameEx machine which allow you to customize not only the media and whatnot to display, but also allows you to create custom game lists by user.

I would like to be able to customize the environment as described above, but rely on the GameEx database and internet updates on the 'back end' so I can focus on the interface. In general, I just need to be able skin the beast to match my cabinet's theme. And so I ask you, the experienced GameEx user / developer - WILL IT WORK?

GameEx includes a theme editor which allows you to completely customize the frontend, and with the upcoming release of GameEx Evolution this feature promises to become better, deeper, and more robust (your knowledge of ActionScript could come in very handy in the future! ). In terms of the current theme editor the general advice is that you should create your artwork in the editor of your choice (GIMP, PhotoShop, etc.) and use the theme editor for placement of elements. Please do take a look at the GameEx Media Projects sub-forum to see some of the cool things you can achieve with the current theme editor.

[GeorgeBuford]

Thank you both for your quick responses. I am encouraged by your response NULLPOINTER ( if you worked at the Redmond Nintendo shop we are probably neighbors ). I 'had a dream' when I acquired my cabinet frame, and there were no front ends that met my needs at the time. So with a background in programming, I explored the wonderful world of Flash and Actionscript. Obsession and overkill - yes on both!

The main idea behind my machine is that when you turn it on, it jumps right to the startup video and the only way to switch user modes / maneuver the menus is with the joystick and buttons. Hiding the Windows OS interface is important; I will replace the shell with GameEx if things go as planned. You step up to the machine believing that some idiot actually created a video game based on the major motion picture I chose ( grin ). I anticipated having to hack into some code to make things work, so having as much of the system open source as possible will come in handy. The important thing will the flexability in scripting. I am 90% sold on the product and will most likely invest in it so I can 'play around'.

I will continue browsing and look at the plugins mentioned. Sounds like 'Evolution' will be an interesting research topic as well. This should be fun!

-GB

[Shermo]

Welcome George!

[tthurman]

Welcome George!

Sounds like you have a great setup on your cab. Hopefully GameEx will suit all your needs and desires!