Additional Arcade emus

[Lawrence]

I don't know if this has been asked for already (as this thread is enormous), but if it has, just consider this an additional vote.

I'd love to see additional emus thrown into the Mame part of Gameex, jumping to the other emu instead of mame, just like Zinc and the Model 2 emulator do now. Daphne would be great to have in there and a few of the others from the Nonmame list as well. Most of the Daphne games are in Mame (albeit not-working), would be nice to have them in that list, using the history.dat and mameinfo.dat and all that.

[bkenobi]

This has been asked and would be very much adored! In the interim, there is a workaround I put together that allows you to do this. There is a thread on the forum (don't have a link ATM) that discusses a loader I wrote called MAME_Loader. This allows you to launch any MAME rom in any emulator without creating separate emulators. It is currently set up to run MAME for normal games and MAME Analog+ for rotary joystick games (e.g., Ikari Warriors). It can be easily modified to run other emus with just a few lines of code. This loader will not affect GameEx as far as launching Zinc and Model2 games, so it just needs to be set up for other emus if desired...

For future reference, feature requests should be put in that thread...

[greatflash]

This has been asked and would be very much adored! In the interim, there is a workaround I put together that allows you to do this. There is a thread on the forum (don't have a link ATM) that discusses a loader I wrote called MAME_Loader. This allows you to launch any MAME rom in any emulator without creating separate emulators. It is currently set up to run MAME for normal games and MAME Analog+ for rotary joystick games (e.g., Ikari Warriors). It can be easily modified to run other emus with just a few lines of code. This loader will not affect GameEx as far as launching Zinc and Model2 games, so it just needs to be set up for other emus if desired...

For future reference, feature requests should be put in that thread...

the link is here

http://www.gameex.info/forums/index.php?sh...;hl=mame_loader

[Hunk_4TH]

Will this Mame loader let GameEx show Daphne in the Mame list like it does for Zinc and Model 2?

[bkenobi]

Well, I've never tried it and my guess would be "not easily". The reason it wouldn't work well is that the Daphne titles aren't part of MAME. In order for you to get them in there, you would have to manually add them to the list. Then you could modify the MAME_Loader to include Daphne games. It's certainly possible, just a lot of work that would have to be redone when a new version of MAME comes out (I suspect GameEx would clear it out of the database, but I'm not sure).

So, to answer the question: Yes it's possible, but it requires a reasonable amount of work.

[Hunk_4TH]

Well, I've never tried it and my guess would be "not easily". The reason it wouldn't work well is that the Daphne titles aren't part of MAME. In order for you to get them in there, you would have to manually add them to the list. Then you could modify the MAME_Loader to include Daphne games. It's certainly possible, just a lot of work that would have to be redone when a new version of MAME comes out (I suspect GameEx would clear it out of the database, but I'm not sure).

So, to answer the question: Yes it's possible, but it requires a reasonable amount of work.

I'm sure it would require a lot of work thanks for answering my question. It's a cool idea thoughl but no too import. I just thought it would be awesome to have all the arcade games in one list but your right it would be a lot of work.

[bkenobi]

The only part that would require a lot of work would be the MAME list in GameEx. I don't know how hard it would be to add things in there on your own. And, more importantly, I don't know if GameEx leaves custom added items in the database when it updates, or if it strips them out and starts over. If it didn't delete them, you could do what you want without tooooo much grief. As far as the MAME_Loader goes, it would require a moderate effort to get each game loading correctly. However, if you already have them set up in GameEx and loading correctly, it's not completely impossible.

I guess I would say if you are interested in doing this, try adding a game to the MAME list (c:\Program Files\GameEx\DATA\data.mdb), add it to the do not filter list (so it shows up without an actual rom, and update your list. If it's still there after you update, then it might be worth the effort since you won't have to do it more than once. I can offer advice on the MAME_Loader since it's not too complicated. If you know AHK at all, then it should be self explanatory!

[fRequEnCy]

The way I would go about this is to create a map file with the list of roms your wanting and then script a loader to run the emu based off that list of roms. Maybe an ini file could be read easily for the list of games to run the specific emulator.

[bkenobi]

The only down side to using an external emulator rather than the built in MAME one is that you lose a lot of the extras Tom put in for MAME. What you suggested would work fine, but it won't give you a single list with everything AND have the extra coolness of the MAME list.

[fRequEnCy]

The only down side to using an external emulator rather than the built in MAME one is that you lose a lot of the extras Tom put in for MAME. What you suggested would work fine, but it won't give you a single list with everything AND have the extra coolness of the MAME list.

But of course but only way of doing it from what they're wanting in this situation. I think it's not really worth doing IMO. But it is possible but as bkenobi says,

"Yes it's possible, but it requires a reasonable amount of work."

[bkenobi]

Agreed!

[Lawrence]

Agreed!

Has anyone attempted to get MultiMame running with Gameex? I stumbled across that last night, and it looks promising as a way to accomplish this task.

Looks like a fair bit of work to set it up, so I thought I'd ask here first before possibly wasting my time with it.

[bkenobi]

No, I hadn't heard of that app before. It looks like a more robust version of the MAME_Loader script though. I think I will give it a try next chance I get. It could be a good fit depending on it's setup. Thanks for the input!

[Hunk_4TH]

The only part that would require a lot of work would be the MAME list in GameEx. I don't know how hard it would be to add things in there on your own. And, more importantly, I don't know if GameEx leaves custom added items in the database when it updates, or if it strips them out and starts over. If it didn't delete them, you could do what you want without tooooo much grief. As far as the MAME_Loader goes, it would require a moderate effort to get each game loading correctly. However, if you already have them set up in GameEx and loading correctly, it's not completely impossible.

I guess I would say if you are interested in doing this, try adding a game to the MAME list (c:\Program Files\GameEx\DATA\data.mdb), add it to the do not filter list (so it shows up without an actual rom, and update your list. If it's still there after you update, then it might be worth the effort since you won't have to do it more than once. I can offer advice on the MAME_Loader since it's not too complicated. If you know AHK at all, then it should be self explanatory!

Thanks for the reply. It seems it may be more trouble than it's worth I almost forgot about the framefiles Daphne requires.