[RESOLVED] MAME Games only working via MAME Menu

[PStrafer]

Hi all,

 

Im using the Arcade Edition and everything works great.  My MAME games work fine when selected for the MAME Menu showing all the games but if I select from any other menu (Arcade, Recently Played, Favorites) the game does not load - only returns to the game's menue in GameEX.  Pretty much, whenever there is a menu screen for a specific game (has the cabinet art, you can add to favorites etc.) the game does not load.

 

Any ideas?

[RedDog]

Hi PStrafer,

That is a little odd. I checked my GameEx Arcade v16.74 setup and it is working fine for various areas. I have some thoughts on what may be happening, but it will be helpful to see your setup and a log file. Please do this for us:

• Start GameEx and run a game from the Mame menu.
• Exit the game but not GameEx.
• Run the same game from the Arcade section
• Exit GameEx.
• Grab a copy of the log.txt file from GameEx\LOGS
• Grab a copy of the gameex.ini from GameEx\CONFIG
• Post both files in a reply.

Thank you.

[PStrafer]

Thank you so much for looking into this for me - much appreciated!!  Please find the requested files attached.

 

Paullog.txt

GameEx.ini

[RedDog]

The log shows the first and second test as...
- Running: cmd.exe /c C: mame.exe simpsons -rompath "C:\Emulation\ROMs\MAME\Roms"
- Running: cmd.exe /c  \mame32.exe simpsons -rompath  -nowindow -joy -skip_gameinfo

There are two places you can set MAME up in the SETUP WIZARD: The MAME SETTINGS section and as an emulator under EMULATOR SETUP. You have both set up. This is a perfectly fine setup if it is what you want, but you will need to remember to review both configurations. One thing to note with these two areas is that the MAME SETTINGS has a number of features integrated into specific to MAME such as being able to show a menu entry for 4-player games, vector, games, etc, etc, etc.

Your MAME menu is connected to Emulator 2 in the EMULATOR SETUP, which you confirmed as working. This would be the top line of the log above. The bottom line of the log was generated from the MAME SETTINGS.

Please go to the MAME SETTINGS section and update the path to the MAME Executable, the Executable name (I assume you are using only mame.exe and not mame32.exe), and the ROM path. Also feel free to update any of the other paths you may be using. You can also remove any you don't care to see (like cabinets, flyers, etc).

It still seams a bit odd that the Favorites and Recently played games do not work unless they are pulling their startup parameters from the 'bad' MAME configuration...unless you did favorite them from within the Arcade menu and the Recently Played are from failed launches. Once you can launch from Arcade, see if these work or not. IF they do not, I suggest removing them from favorites and adding them again.

 

A few more thoughts...I assume you will continue to have MAME in both places. If so, I suggest updating the COMMAND LINE of EMULATOR 2 to this:
    mame.exe [ROM] -rompath "[ROMPATH]" -nowindow -joy -skip_gameinfo
Adding these switches will always launch Mame full screen with joystick/gamepad support and skip the gameinfo "wiggle waggle" screen (so it acts the same as the MAME SETTINGS setup).

You may also want to set the EMULATOR 2 DATABASE to [Arcade] MAME.

 

...and of course, please let us know how it goes.  

[PStrafer]

Worked perfectly!!!  Thank you so much!!

[RedDog]

Excellent!!!!