Please Help

[Streetwise Azteca]

Im New To This Whole Emulation Gaming Thing.  I Found Out About GameEx From Youtube. I Followed The Directions To The Letter And Hit A Wall. Nothing I Do Works. I Have Subscribed For A Year So I Can Get The Headache Free Version Of MAME But Its Taking Forever TO Get The Firts Zip File To Download (AND I STILL GOT 10 MORE!) I Seached Everywhere And Cant Find Anymore Info On Either GameEx Of Their FTP PROGRAM. Please Help. And In Answering Please Be As Detailed As Possible. I Have Been At This For 18 Hrs Straight And Im Just About Ready To Throw In The Towl :/

IDk If It Matters But Im Running An Alienware Aurora On Windos 10 64b

Edited March 10, 2018 by tthurman
Moved to GameEx>General

[RedDog]

Hi Streetwise,

First, let's get your post moved to the GameEx General forums. That is the place to ask for help with GameEx (don't worry, it happens all the time). 

Next, please post your GameEx.ini file from your GameEx\CONFIG folder and your log.txt file from the GameEx\LOG folder. We will start from there. In your next reply, you can drag and drop the files into an area at the bottom of the post. Easy peasy.

Also, could you please clarify what you mean by 'trying to get the headache free version of Mame' as Mame itself is not available via GameEx. Perhaps you are referring to the Mame System Pack which only contains media such as images and videos.

[Draco1962]

Be aware that nothing in emulation will be "headache free." Of course, if you have been at it for 18 hours, you've already discovered this.

[Streetwise Azteca]

Yea Thank You For Your Help... I Decided To Start From Scratch. I Have Downloaded The GameEx Setup File And Im Currently Downloading The Last 3 Zip Files For The Mame Pack. From What I Read Its A One Step Program. The Main Problem I Was Having Was Setting Up GameEx. I Have 6,896 Game Zip File Roms And Couldn't Get Any Of Them To Work. GameEx Didnt Even Acknowledge Their Existance.  Everything Is So Technical And Complicate. I Didnt Know What To Adjust And What To Leave Alone.

[Streetwise Azteca]

End All Be All I'd Like To Save Everything To My Desktop For Quick Access And Use. I Am A Disabled Gamer So Most Of My Time Is In My Chair And I Typically Pull 10-12 Hours Of Gametime A Day. I Just Hate Having To Juggle Emulators And Controllers, Hence My Attraction To GameEx.

 

[Streetwise Azteca]

If That Is At All Possible 

[RedDog]

First things first. Sit back and take things one step at a time. You are right that there is a lot of 'stuff' in the Setup Wizard for GameEx. If you try to dive into it all at once, it will feel overwhelming. Also, as Draco said, the emulation hobby does require some effort. You gotta love it or it will feel more like work than fun.      

Be aware that you don't NEED the Mame System Pack to set up GameEx. It will make Mame in GameEx look really nice, but you can just add it later too. Download it if you like, but I suggest you set it aside until you get Mame working and you understand a bit more.

You mentioned Mame, so I suggest starting Here. It is a Guide RIP-Felix made up a few years ago and it is pretty detailed. Please be aware that any emulator you want to set up in GameEx must work outside GameEx first. If it doesn' t work outside, it won't work inside. If you run into snags or have questions about setting GameEx up with Mame, post your questions along with your gameex.ini and log.txt files (as I suggested above). It is very difficult to help without being able to reference those files.

[Streetwise Azteca]

Thank You. As I Said In My Earlier Post Im Starting From Scratch. So How To I Get And Upload Those Files Here. I Havent Downloaded Anything. Please Feel Free To Imagine You Are Talking To A Complete Idiot. Do I First Run The GameEx Setup? Or Should I Create Any Premature Folders On My Desktop?

[Streetwise Azteca]

I Understand Now That This Is Gonna Be Harder Than I Thought So I'd Liken To Take This One Step At A Time If I Can.

[Streetwise Azteca]

This Is Where Im At So Far

Quote

 

[RedDog]

13 hours ago, Streetwise Azteca said:

Please Feel Free To Imagine You Are Talking To A Complete Idiot.

In saying that, it sounds like you are asking that we explain every little detail. I am sorry, but I am not personally going to do that. It takes too much time and effort. Please be aware that the vast majority of people who help out in these forums are donating their free time because they love GameEx, the hobby, and the community. Our  main focus in this forum is to support GameEx and while we very often help out with other GameEx related things (Windows, emulator, graphics, videos, etc issues), we expect that users are going to try and do the legwork themselves.

I suggested before that you start by looking at RIP-Felix's guide. From your question about folders, I have to wonder if you did because he talks about folder placement for Mame. So now my advice is that you go back to the guide and set up Mame somewhere on your PC and get it working independently of GameEx. You can place the Emulation folders anywhere on your PC (including your desktop), but I suggest you instead place them outside your Desktop and My Documents folder in a place that you have space to grow. Once Mame is working, install GameEx and continue following the guide. As far as installing GameEx, just treat it like any other program you have installed. A 'Programs' folder is fine

To get into this hobby, you will need to have some familiarity with how files and folders are kept and arranged within Windows. I can't tell from your posts if you are comfortable with that or not. If you are not, it would be in your best interest to look for some websites that explain how that stuff works. Learning about links will likely be helpful for you as well.

[Streetwise Azteca]

I Actually Watched SimplyAustins Video On Youtube. I Got Everything Right Up Until He Talked About Setting Up Mame. (wich He Skipped) Thats Where I Got Lost. When It Says To Verify Installation Everything Turns Red. End All Be All Where Do I Put My Rom Zip Files? Other Than That The Picture Attachment Is Where Im Stuck. If Its A Matter Of Donating Ones Time I Have No Problem With Compensation For Valued Time. As I Said Before Im A Disabled Gamer. Without My Games I Really Have Nothing To Look Forward To Each Day.  Thanks Again To All Of  You Who Have Tried To Help Me So Far.

[Streetwise Azteca]

[RedDog]

OK then, to set up Mame follow the instructions in the GameEx Setup portion of the guide.

  >>>> Mame Setup Guide <<<<

And I do like the idea the guide has of using one rom in the rom folder to begin. It makes the gamelist generation fast when you are testing it. Once you can launch and play a mame Game via GameEx, then you can dump all of the roms into the rom folder and update the list again.