[RESOLVED] GameEx Arcade - PCE/PCECD/TG16 in one List? (MAME)

[Endprodukt]

Hi

I'm using Mame to play PCE and PCE CD games and they launch fine from GameEx Arcade. I was wondering if someone managed to put both "Systems" into one list. 

Mame uses different commands to launch either PCE or PCE CD so I had trouble turning my head around it. 

Any help is appreciated, 

Olli

[RedDog]

Hey Endprodukt,

As you have already figured out, each emulator can only have one command line. If Mame is able to contain them in a single list, then I assume it is possible. Could you post the different commands Mame uses that will allow PCE and PCE CD to launch?

Alternately, I think this plugin might work for you. I have not used the Custom Lists plugin, but it does seam do what you are looking for. IF you decide to try it out and have questions, feel free to post in the Custom Lists thread.

[Endprodukt]

20 hours ago, RedDog said:

Hey Endprodukt,

As you have already figured out, each emulator can only have one command line. If Mame is able to contain them in a single list, then I assume it is possible. Could you post the different commands Mame uses that will allow PCE and PCE CD to launch?

Alternately, I think this plugin might work for you. I have not used the Custom Lists plugin, but it does seam do what you are looking for. IF you decide to try it out and have questions, feel free to post in the Custom Lists thread.

Thank you very much. I tried CustomLists but I have a feeling this doesn't work with GameEx Arcade. 

Mame CMD works like this: 

mame64 pce [rom]
mame64 pcecd [rom]

mame64 tg16 [rom]

That requires three different lists for the same system. Not very nice. I try to make my lists as accessible as possible. Problem is as soon as I add PCE it will also put my Arcade games yet into another subfolder (arcade), which is then also subdivided into the different systems. 
 

[Draco1962]

Having not seen your support files attached to your thread (gameex.ini and log.txt), I can only assume that you are attempting  to run MAME in separate emulator slots to achieve your goal with the separate systems.Please attach the files for review.

As GameEx Arcade Edition is derivitive of GameEx with many features stripped which impacts functionality of some plugins as well as other GameEx features.

Emulator Groups is one feature that  would allow for creating separate emulator slots, yet grouping them together under one list accessible from the Start Menu. If this is what you are attempting, then you will need to submit a Feature Request to see if @Tom Speirs can/will enable it for GameEx Arcade Edition.

 

Thanks!

[Endprodukt]

10 minutes ago, Draco1962 said:

Having not seen your support files attached to your thread (gameex.ini and log.txt), I can only assume that you are attempting  to run MAME in separate emulator slots to achieve your goal with the separate systems.Please attach the files for review.

As GameEx Arcade Edition is derivitive of GameEx with many features stripped which impacts functionality of some plugins as well as other GameEx features.

Emulator Groups is one feature that  would allow for creating separate emulator slots, yet grouping them together under one list accessible from the Start Menu. If this is what you are attempting, then you will need to submit a Feature Request to see if @Tom Speirs can/will enable it for GameEx Arcade Edition.

 

Thanks!

Thank you,

 

I did request that some time ago. Thank you again 

 

Olli

[RedDog]

Yeah, GameEx's Mame does not have support as a multi-emulator (aka MESS). I think it would take quite a bit of work to implement that sort of functionality.

I did also see in the thread for Custom Lists that it was not for GameEx Arcade (sorry about that).

I chewed on your request a bit before posting. I thought perhaps the Mame Executable might offer a command flag that could help or there might be some creative way to use the Setup Wizard. I could not come up with one as well. Like Draco said, in this case, Emulator Groups seams to be the feature to solve it.

As GameEx Arcade is an offshoot of GameEx that's purpose is to give users a more prepackaged setup. The benefit compared to GameEx is that there are a great many choices that are made for you to simplify the setup...it is more cookie-cutter. That also means you have less to tinker with. You might want to give the regular GameEx a look. You can certainly have both GameEx and GameEx Arcade installed at the same time as long as the target directories are different. One setup will not affect the other.

[Sliver X]

The way I handle things on my setup is that, with very few exceptions, emulators all point to a single script (Emulators.bat) that handles most of the logic for running things.

I currently base it off file extension: The script will examine the extension passed to it as a command line argument, and based on what it sees will jump to a particular subroutine and execute the game. This lead to having to give some things odd extensions (.ps2 for Playstation 2 games, etc) but it works pretty well. You could do something like use WMIC or string manipulation to see what directory the ROM is in (Assuming you use a structured ROM directory schema for that) and it would be better, I suppose.

You could put all three game types in the same directory and point the "Emulator" associated with the list to a batch script like this:

TurboPCECD.bat

::Set file extension as a variable.
SET EXTENSION=%~x1

::Check File Extension and decide what to do.
IF %EXTENSION% == .cue GOTO PCECD
IF %EXTENSION% == .pce GOTO PCE
IF %EXTENSION% == .t16 GOTO TG16
EXIT

:PCECD
START "..." /D "D:\EMULATORS\MAME64" /WAIT mame64.exe pcecd %1
EXIT

:PCE
START "..." /D "D:\EMULATORS\MAME64" /WAIT mame64.exe pce %1
EXIT

:TG16
START "..." /D "D:\EMULATORS\MAME64" /WAIT mame64.exe tg16 %1
EXIT

You'd have to give TG-16 games a unique extension, but yeah. This should at least give you an idea of what can be done this way?

 

 

Edited February 2, 2021 by Sliver X
Fixing Script