[RESOLVED] GameEx Arcade setup

[funkydmunky]

Hello folks. New to the GameEx community so hoping some of your wisdom can rub off on me

I am running the latest GameEx arcade with the "MAME GameEx system" pack installed.

First issue is when it goes into attract mode the gfx reverts to landscape. I am running it portrait like an old school arcade. I can't seem to find a setting for this (although it is probably right in front of me!)

Secondly when choosing directories in the GameEx Arcade setup wizard, MAME settings I am finding it hard to find a match. For example "Snap Path" and "Video Snap path". In the MAME directory there is only one folder named "Snaps". For some directory's there is no logical folder to choose. I have been through a number of guides but they are either out of date or I am missing something.

Any help is appreciated.

Ken

 

[Draco1962]

Hi Ken - if you don't mind, please attach (no copy and paste) copies of your gameex.ini and log.txt files.  This gives us information about your system we need to quickly make suggestions regarding file paths that are consistent with how they are on your system.

[funkydmunky]

Thanks for you interest Draco1962.

Not sure if you meant copy/paste the contents of the file? They were hella large to be pasting so I just attached them.

Correct me if I did it wrong.

log.txt

GameEx.ini

[Draco1962]

35 minutes ago, funkydmunky said:

Thanks for you interest Draco1962.

Not sure if you meant copy/paste the contents of the file? They were hella large to be pasting so I just attached them.

Correct me if I did it wrong.

log.txt

GameEx.ini

You followed the intended instructions perfectly. Attached is always better than copy & paste unless it is a very short segment being discussed.

[Draco1962]

First I will recommend that you install the latest version GameEx Arcade Edition 15.36. You are behind by one update which shouldn't have an impact on assisting for the issue you are reporting, but always best in to be on the latest build when reporting an issue.

As relates to question #2 - For selecting your media paths for MAME, I will tell you that there is no hard and fast rule. Personally, I have been using the following path schema for several years and it has worked out well for me:

For still images - \Assets\MAME\Snaps

For game videos - \Assets\MAME\AVISNAP (this is an older name from when AVI was one of the few video formats available. I have replaced all of my AVI files with MP4).

For menu wheel Logos - \Assets\MAME\Logos

For background videos - \Assets\MAME\ThemeVideos

 

You are using \Media\MAME\ which is similar and fine. If you have other systems that will be added later, just keep the same format for your media files. I hope this makes a little more sense.

 

As relates to question #1 - Open Setup Wizard and navigate to the Display Settings section and you will find Rotate Display. I believe you do not have this enabled. There will be some things to be considered if using this option per the information verbiage:

Rotate the display suitable for a vertically mounted monitor or display. There are a few restrictions for this which GameEx will automatically detect but mainly only resolutions between 640x480 and 800x600 are supported and it runs in 16 bit colour. This is a registered version only feature although is possible to use if not registered so you can see if you like this features. Turning this on automatically configures GameEx to only list MAME vertical games in addition it adds the command line to rotate MAME 90 Degrees. It also applied this to Attract Mode.

I am not certain how this is implied in GameEx Arcade as this is the same instruction in regular GameEx. SInce it already shows AutoRotate set to True for MAME, changing Rotate to 90 degrees in this setting should fix your attract mode issue.

 

[funkydmunky]

Hi and thanks.

I will update soon but wanted to try your solutions first.

I have installed the "MAME GameEx system pack" and it creates a folder called Media which holds a MAME folder where I direct my GameEX MAME setup to the correct directories. It has some folders but not others. From your example there are no AVISNAP or ThemeVideos folders. Are you suggesting I need to create these folders? Where would the content come from?  I am confused in this matter as I cannot tell GameEx the correct directories and therefor get numerous errors when I select Verify in the GameEx Wizard.

 

As for the rotation of the Attract mode when selecting  to rotate 90 deg now make everything landscape. Regular gaming mode and attract mode. Remember it was only attract mode that went wrong. GameEx worked perfectly in the portrait mode automatically. When attract mode kicked in it would switch to a landscape. Never had this issue before. Attract mode always stayed the way GameEx was setup.

 

Third issue, was going to wait until I had the others sorted, but I might as well ask. When I start GameEx as soon as I move the selection wheel it freezes and prompts me to update games list. I say yes, then it configures/DL's for about 15 minutes. Is this normal? It appears to be doing a similar process for what I can tell, each time.  Is this part of the setup and will eventually finish or is something wrong.

 

I hope I am not misunderstanding your instructions and thanks for your patience. I am now going to update GameEx Arcade.

[funkydmunky]

I have now updated. None of my issues have changed.

 

[Tom Speirs]

You can set the artwork paths to whatever you like. You don't have to set them if you don't have the media. You can ignore the errors when validating. Its really just informational. It wont affect GameEx. It will just assume you don't have the artwork. If you installed the MAME system pack this would have set some of them.

What screensaver "Mode" are you using? 

Are you saying it "breaks" your display setup after attract mode or is attract mode itself displaying incorrectly. Please provide some more detail on this. This may well be a bug I need to fix but I am not sure at this point.

[funkydmunky]

Hi Tom.

Screensaver mode is set to "Standard GameEx screensaver".

GameEx front end and emulator work fine. When entering Attract Mode the display is rotating for no apparent reason. When attract mode is EXITED the display resumes its correct portrait orientation.

Edited August 31, 2018 by funkydmunky
changed excited for exited

[funkydmunky]

The Attract Mode very well could be a glitch. I haven't encountered it before and I have tried every possible setting in the Wizard that could relate to it without success.

As far as the directories for GameEx Arcade when configuring MAME, I guess I will have to be satisfied with the ones I could figure out. I am hoping someone could direct me to a guide that fully explains the MAME system pack with full setup within the Wizard.

So that leaves my only real concern that I can't figure out. As I mentioned previously, it is the loading of game lists on ever run of GameEx Arcade. The message I get is "Update List? Select to confirm. Back to cancel." I can't figure any keys/buttons that will cancel. The select (player one) button on my X-Arcade stick works for confirm. Once it starts it displays "Updating Game List. Please wait." It take about 15 minutes. I tried disabling options under GameEx Online and Automatic Artwork Download in the wizard thinking that it might be running one of those options with an error, hence retrying every time. Not the case as it made no difference.

 

[Tom Speirs]

The attract mode issue is fixed in 15.37. Now available.

It should be button 2 for back. However this issue shouldn't happen. Which version and build of MAME are you using? Try using a regular build and also remove the extra slash from the MAME path.

[funkydmunky]

Hello Gents. I hadn't gotten anywhere with my problem so I decided to try out regular GameEx. Upon install I noticed there was a Vertical theme. Trying it out. Setup directories etc...

Now every time I launch it a "Update GameEx? Select to confirm. Back to cancel." message appears. All I can do is accept a watch it go through the same DL routine. This is suspiciously similar to the problem I was having with GameEx Arcade. (Read above)

Whats happening? I never had these issues with the demo version and now when I subscribe, this?

Any help or insight would really be appreciated.

 

Sorry Tom I didn't catch your reply before I posted. I will attempt your suggestions and report back.

[Tom Speirs]

Yes. It should be fixed in the latest version.

Thanks.

[funkydmunky]

The version of MAME I am using is the one installed with the "MAME GameEx system pack". It is automatically found in the Emulators folder. Is this proper for me to use, and is there a preference under the MAME setup in the GameEx Wizard to choose the mame.exe, mame64.exe, or mamearcade64.exe?

[Tom Speirs]

I think the issue was just a bug and due to the double slash in the path. Just install the latest version and fix the path and you should be set.

[funkydmunky]

Installed newest version and removed all double slashes (should I have removed them all from each directory setup or just MAME?) Attract mode still flips to landscape.

The updating game list issue had been fixed for me.

 

[Tom Speirs]

Are you talking about MAME games playing in landscape? Could you be more specific please. Thanks.

[funkydmunky]

Thanks for the reply.

Same issue as explained in the previous posts. No change. I run GameEx Arcade in Vertical Cab style. Attract mode switches to a portrait mode, so as everything is turned on their side. Everything returns to normal when Attract mode is exited.

Could there be some sort of retained registry setting from previous builds? I have upgraded to the latest release each time I am instructed.

[Tom Speirs]

You mean switches to Landscape? I am asking what exactly is wrong. Attract mode can do various things, one is launch MAME games. What exactly is not displaying correctly?

[funkydmunky]

Maybe my wording is wrong. When it switches after a period of time to show demo's of the games with an auto switch at user set intervals. You hit a key and it goes back to user interface. I thought this was arcade attract mode.

[Tom Speirs]

Yes, but this is MAME that GameEx is launching. My point is its more to do with your MAME settings rather than GameEx but I did notice a small bug that I fixed in the last release.

[funkydmunky]

I am using the MAME included with the MAME GameEX system pack. It is unmodified except for adding X-Arcade and choosing default directories. I have not modified it in any way.

The video flipping in Attract/Screensaver(whatever you want to call it) is annoying as it never happened before. It is a fault of GameEx or the included MAME GameEx system pack installer. I assumed it would be an easy fix. It is beyond my simple abilities and attempts at this time. Should I ditch the included MAME build?

[Tom Speirs]

 

Note: I can see the issue occurring in your log but I fixed this in the last release as far as I know. Can you please post a new log?

[funkydmunky]

As a note I had just configure the MAME from the Wizard - Emulator Selection. Then set directories in Emulator Setup.

It made no difference in the Attract Mode/Screen Saver issue.

GameEx.ini

log.txt

[Tom Speirs]

You're not running the latest version. I made a release to specifically fix your issues.