Does GameEx look too much like MCE?

[headkaze]

I don't want to start a flame war here, so please don't take this post the wrong way. But it seems whenever there is a debate or question posted about which FE is the best it gets brought up that GameEx looks too much like MCE. This is at arcadecontrols of course. I usually try and say go to the wiki and judge for yourself, but there always seems to be someone who pipes in about GX looking too much like MCE.

I then start to think "this guy obviously hasn't seen some of the new themes", so I post some screenshots of some of the user submitted themes. But the reply back is the same "it still looks too MCE PCish" etc.

I am perplexed, apart from the animated selector bar, I just can't see any resemblence in the user submitted themes. And even the fact that GX can import MameWah themes, people still think that MameWah looks like an arcade FE, and GameEx looks like MCE running on a PC.

Am I going insaine? What is it about GameEx that makes it look like MCE. And what features do you think could be implemented to change that? Tom has addressed most of them I thought - options to remove buttons, remove the task bar, remove the date/time, change the selector bar and what not.

I would just like to hear some opinions on the matter, because I'm starting to think I may need to see an eye specialist if I am mistaken here

[amos_82]

The other mce'ish thing i can think of are the focus & select sounds, which i think are sampled from mce.

If i was building a cab, i would use gameex, i wouldn't even have to think about it. Maybe they prefer frontends which are a bit more basic.

[emphatic]

I think that GameEx just looks "too" good, you know (for some people, not me)? Not enough pixeled backgrounds and rough selector bars.

Emph

[amos_82]

Your right Emph, its too good

It could be stripped right down to mamewah standards to make them happy, BlueEx is quite close...but whats the point of putting a furry dice in a ferrari?

[TalkingBull]

I use GameEx in my MAME cabinet because it is the most versatile and best looking FE around. I sampled over 2 dozen before I settled on GameEx and there is no way I would use anything else.

Now here's the other thing... I have a PC set up on my Plasma TV with MCE and I hated MCE so much, I installed GameEx as a replacement... but I did this because GameEx looks and functions like MCE.

So I guess I both agree and disagree with you. I don't think it looks like MCE on my cab but it does on my tv... I use different themes of course and I don't have any games on the tv. I just use it to watch saved tv shows I have, listed ot MP3's through my stereo and look at the family photo album.

[Smiff]

is Microsoft going to sue GameEx?

yeah, it does look like, to people who don't know about this stuff, a bought (Should i say: big company produced?) product. is that bad?

maybe change the default colour scheme a bit. like red on blue. the Green/Blue has strong MS associations. if the sounds really are ripped from MCE you should change them for the sake of changing them imho.

i think its not "l337 hacker"/warez looking. i guess that doesn't fit in with all the warez people are launching from it. or something

edit: but of course, isn't the point that it fits into MCE for people who use it within MCE?

[tomdrake]

I'm happy it looks like MCE, it started out as a MCE add-in and I found out about it on thegreenbutton site, no mention of it back then on BYOAC. I use it with MCE in my living room but when I get around to building a arcade cabinet I'll change the theme and be happy that I can use the same front end so I can copy my config files over and be good to go!

[Hav0k]

Got ya fired up, didn't I ?

Since we can't all be graphic artists, many of us are at the mercy of what skins are already created. I think there should be more unique options for skins, instead of most of them here that appear to be the same basic design with re-arranged buttons and a different background.

Since most seem to be based off the same design, they have a similar look and feel that they share with the original.

Yes, I know you can convert Mamewah layouts, but how about some more GameEx originals? Most of the users here pay for the software, so shouldn't GameEx be held to a higher standard?

How about mimicking some of the cool XBox skins out there, for those people that don't want "pixeled backgrounds and rough selector bars" (kinda ironic considering what you are emulating). I think part of the issue here is that many people are using this in an arcade cabinet, emulating games from 10+ years ago, and want to preserve the look and feel of an authentic, "vintage" arcade...

With all that said, I just want to state that I do think it is a very well programmed, full featured front end. Get some more skins to compete with the other front ends, and you might just get quite a few "converts."

I'll be watching...

[night]

I don't want to start a flame war here, so please don't take this post the wrong way. But it seems whenever there is a debate or question posted about which FE is the best it gets brought up that GameEx looks too much like MCE. This is at arcadecontrols of course. I usually try and say go to the wiki and judge for yourself, but there always seems to be someone who pipes in about GX looking too much like MCE.

I then start to think "this guy obviously hasn't seen some of the new themes", so I post some screenshots of some of the user submitted themes. But the reply back is the same "it still looks too MCE PCish" etc.

i think the persons there thinks its MCE alike have just installed GameEx and didnt bother to change skin or get the other skins becouse the default skin are alike to MCE but thats really all there is to it....

just my 2 cents.....

Night

[NIVO]

i think it definitely depends on theme(s) used. Some prefer the stock look, most of us like to customize it. Personally, I use a theme to alter the stock look. It still comes down to the eye of the beholder, same as us building our arcade machines. What looks good to me may not appeal to others. Its the #1 reason why I love the word "option"

[TimeBandit]

Got ya fired up, didn't I ?

Since we can't all be graphic artists, many of us are at the mercy of what skins are already created. I think there should be more unique options for skins, instead of most of them here that appear to be the same basic design with re-arranged buttons and a different background.

Yes, I know you can convert Mamewah layouts, but how about some more GameEx originals? Most of the users here pay for the software, so shouldn't GameEx be held to a higher standard?

I'll be watching...

I guess I'm confused of the motive of this thread. As a MCE user, I perfer the default MCE theme and I'm sure some others do and others don't. The main reason why I paid for GameEX was the MCEish theme. Every paid customer has their own perference on what they like about GameEX including the ability to create and change themes.

If you see such a potential in a non-MCEish them, why not create this "higher standard" theme yourself and submit this on the forum like others have done?

I do not see the point of coming into a forum and "firing" things up for the sake of others.

[Marker0077]

By default, yes GameEx looks like MC; It's actually why I like it. I have my computer hooked up to a big screen TV with the MCE remote so having GameEx look like MC is ideal for me. While the other themes are incredible (especially Tron & Soul Caliber), it's not the image I'm going for.

For those whom are not into the MC look, download one of the different themes like the Tron theme, or the Soul Caliber theme, or that theme with all the chicks in it. Those make it look totally different than MC, now perhaps the moving around & functionality is the same as MC but if they're going to complain about that, well they may as well be complaining about the menus we had in the DOS days because they functioned the same way.

I actually prefer GameEx to MC specifically because MC allows files to be deleted where in GameEx I can have that disabled. If I could have GameEx running off of the start button on the MCE remote - I would.

[Hav0k]

I guess I'm confused of the motive of this thread. As a MCE user, I perfer the default MCE theme and I'm sure some others do and others don't. The main reason why I paid for GameEX was the MCEish theme. Every paid customer has their own perference on what they like about GameEX including the ability to create and change themes.

If you see such a potential in a non-MCEish them, why not create this "higher standard" theme yourself and submit this on the forum like others have done?

I do not see the point of coming into a forum and "firing" things up for the sake of others.

You don't have the whole picture - Headkaze is upset because of my comments on another forum, hence the post here.

As far as me creating the "higher standard" - did you see the part where I said... "Since we can't all be graphic artists, many of us are at the mercy of what skins are already created" ?

[TimeBandit]

You don't have the whole picture - Headkaze is upset because of my comments on another forum, hence the post here.

As far as me creating the "higher standard" - did you see the part where I said... "Since we can't all be graphic artists, many of us are at the mercy of what skins are already created" ?

No one here has any problems with the themes/skins as far as I can tell. In fact, some of us like them. Why do you consider MCEism themes/skins to be of some lesser value and that the paying customers need something better?

If you cannot create a better standard to share with us, then you are just ruffling our feathers.

[night]

As far as me creating the "higher standard" - did you see the part where I said... "Since we can't all be graphic artists, many of us are at the mercy of what skins are already created" ?

skinnin are still alittle new and many people dosent even know GameEx supports unique backgrounds for each emulator tho many do choose when making a theme to make one standard background becouse there are so many systems and really takes ages to complete a theme ....

still there are the "theme-Editor" where you really can do alot without being a grapichal wizz i guess sometimes its easier to just say others do that for me than give it a go yourself

this isnt meant as flame or anything i for one think there are alot of really well made themes i would say are in the "high standard" catagory

Night

[headkaze]

You don't have the whole picture - Headkaze is upset because of my comments on another forum, hence the post here.

As far as me creating the "higher standard" - did you see the part where I said... "Since we can't all be graphic artists, many of us are at the mercy of what skins are already created" ?

I'm not upset honestly. Your not the first person to say GameEx looks like MCE, so I was curious why people felt that way.

I work with Tom on the GameEx Theme Editor, so it's my business to know how to make it better for users to customize the look of GameEx. If I seemed upset it's only that I'm passionate about GameEx.

I guess I'm confused of the motive of this thread

No motive really, I'm actually curious about what can be done to make GameEx less like MCE (as an option) to those who don't want it to look like it.

[amos_82]

I think you've done a fantastic job with the theme editor headkaze. Once the custom emulator layouts are implimented, i reckon things will kick off

At the moment its a bit of a mission to make a complete theme, hopefully people of all skills will start submitting emulator layouts & backgrounds. The mamewah lot have a bit loads of skins, because its a bitesize task, and is just a bit of fun. Making the whole lot, can be a bit of a chore towards the end.

[emphatic]

It would be really cool if you could rotate the objects slightly, like this:

That would dramatically give GameEx an advantage, layoutwise, don't you think?

Emph

[Hav0k]

I just wanted to state that I think this frontend is great - just not what I am quite looking for now. I spent a good hour just hiding Windows from showing: no-one can tell what operating system my arcade machine runs when it boots into the front end: which is why I don't want anything that even resembles Windows once running. It runs games from the 70's and 80's - Windows wasn't around yet!

I am quite serious about watching for new skins, and perhaps I will even delve into the laborious task of creating my own unique skin. (That part may be like pulling teeth however)

Who knows, perhaps after a couple of updates on your end, I may switch over...

[Burchman82]

Thats an awesome idea Emph!!!! looks stylish as anything.

[emphatic]

I just wanted to state that I think this frontend is great - just not what I am quite looking for now. I spent a good hour just hiding Windows from showing: no-one can tell what operating system my arcade machine runs when it boots into the front end: which is why I don't want anything that even resembles Windows once running. It runs games from the 70's and 80's - Windows wasn't around yet!

I am quite serious about watching for new skins, and perhaps I will even delve into the laborious task of creating my own unique skin. (That part may be like pulling teeth however)

Who knows, perhaps after a couple of updates on your end, I may switch over...

It's obvious then that you're after a retro style frontend =more a theme issue than a frontend issue as far as I see it. Btw, have you tried "Instant sheller"? http://www.tomspeirs.com/gameex/Shell.htm

Emph

[stephenp1983]

Personally one of the reasons why I chose to use gameex was because I liked the mce look. You can easily change that though if you don't like it. Like you mentioned the user submitted thems don't resemble mce at all imo. I personally find gameex to be the easiest as well as most featureful fe available.

Now I have a question though you posted that you gx can import mamewah themes. I had no clue, and how do you do this, simple just place them in the themes directory?