Games are not found after windows 10 update

[jmelvin]

I have a 4-player Dream Authentics Eladius home arcade.  It is about 6-7 years old and has a well configured PC (for the time).  It was running Windows 7 and ran GameEx quite well with access to 10,000+ games.  I upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 10.  Now I can only see a very small subset of games.  For example, I can no longer see Ms. Pac-Man or Millipede or Defender and a great many other popular games.  However, if I search the hard drive, I do see some artifacts with the name Pac-Man.  This leads me to believe the games are still there, but GameEx is looking elsewhere.

Question: How can I configure GameEx to rediscover these lost games?  Happy to share file lists or screen shots if that would help.

 

Edited April 16, 2020 by tthurman
Moved: GameEx>General

[Draco1962]

Let's start with attaching copies of your gameex.ini and log.txt files.

Also will need to know your MAME  version.

[jmelvin]

Thanks so much for replying so quickly and offering to help.  Attached are the requested files...

Log.txt:

• c:\Program Files\GameEx\log.txt

GameEx.ini:  (several months ago I tried to effect repairs, c:\gx may have been an archive saved before Win upgrade)

• c:\Program Files\GameEx\GameEx.ini
• c:\Program Files\GameEx\CONFIG\GameEx.ini
• c:\Program Files\GameEx\CONFIG\Copy of GameEx.ini
• c:\Program Files\GameEx\CONFIG\Copy (2) of GameEx.ini
• c:\gx\GameEx.ini

I should note, I found Ms. PacMan and other games under c:\gx.

 

log.txt GameEx.ini GameEx.ini Copy of GameEx.ini Copy (2) of GameEx.ini GameEx.ini

[jmelvin]

c:\MAME\mame.exe reports a version of 0.130.

[tthurman]

FYI:  That version of MAME is no longer supported by GameEx.

 

You'll have nothing but trouble if you try and continue with it.  I suspect your OS upgrade exposed this.

[jmelvin]

Thanks for the info.  In my GameEx setup, I see references to Mame32.  On mamedev.org, I see an installer for mame 0.22 that is 64-bit for WIndows 10.  Will the installer also provide a Mame32.exe?  Or, do I perhaps need to change the Mame32.exe to Mame64.exe in my config... after I install.

 

Lastly, do the NAMCO games use MAME?

 

[tthurman]

I would opt for 64 bit.  You also need a matching set, or at least within recent releases as a lot has changed and a new mame.exe and old set won't function properly.

https://www.mamedev.org/release.php

 

There could be some NAMCO titles out there that it doesn't, but the golden age is covered well.

 

[jmelvin]

I installed Mame 0.22 to an alternate directory and held off on copying it into c:\Program Files\GameEx. 

As an experiment, I launched the existing GameEx which updated itself.  Then I launched GameEx and chose to update the Mame gamelist.  Took 30 minutes or so.  The Namco games, e.g Ms. Pac-Man, does show up in the list.  However, when selected it does not launch (just blank screen for 3 secs) and control is returned to GameEx.  I'm not sure how to diagnose this.  Pointers to docs would be most helpful.  I suspect a quick failure trying to run an old Mame version 0.130 with a new GameEx set of Mame games.

I could test drive the new MAME version.  Do I just copy in the MAME install directory and replace the existing one in c:\Program Files\GameEx?

 

[Tom Speirs]

Probably the new map file option to check if files exist. Turn this off for the emulators.

Your probably better off starting from scratch if its an old DA cab.

DA have not been using GameEx for about 11 years not 6.

[jmelvin]

Tom, thanks for chiming in.  You are right, I bought the DA cab in Sept of 2011. 

By starting from scratch, do you mean hardware (PC) or software (GameEx and emulators)?

If software, I had assumed my purchase from DA included software keys/licensing, etc.  If I removed all GameEx and emulator artifacts and reinstalled everything, would I re-incur the keys/licensing costs?  In this case, are any of the existing keys reusable?  Sorry, I don't quite yet understand the GameEx software config and how emulators and other parts are setup and accessed.  (Pointers welcome)

If hardware, eventually all PCs needs to be updated.  This particular PC has the Intel G45/35 Express Chip set.  Running any Norton 360 UI will instantly crash Windows 10 with an invalid parameter specified somewhere in the driver.  The driver support window is well past us, so I'm considering an upgrade to avoid the occasional BSOD.  Given the high-end specs of the DA Eladius cab, do you have any recommendations on replacement PCs or a pointer to where I can start looking?  BTW, new hardware would obviate a new software install of GameEX as well.

 

 

[Tom Speirs]

I meant software for now and I'm sure if you spent $3000 on a cabinet your not worried about $45 for a license. Not sure that is the biggest hurdle here. I'm not going to sweat it either,

[jmelvin]

DA 4-player Eladius in 2011 was way more than $3K. 

$45 for a GameEx license with all the same games shipped with my original cab... would indeed be peanuts.  I was thinking 10x that. 

Given this, I'm going to spend a few hours backing up, reinstalling Windows 10, and installing a fresh GameEx license with games.  Hopefully I can get a bit more value out of the hardware and the display driver crasher is somehow resolved with the fresh install.  Otherwise, it's time for a new PC.  Thanks for your guidance on this.

[Tom Speirs]

We cant provide info on where to find the games unfortunately but you shouldn't have to pay.

PS: I am a DA customer too and they have been my customer. Rick is a good guy. Happy to help you out because of that.