"Favorites" on Start Page Not Showing Up

[burns711]

I could yuse some help, and any would be greatly appreciated. I've searched for some info on this and came up with nothing. Here is my problem:

I've installed GameEx and everything works great except that I have no "favorites" list. When setup asked if I already had and existing .ini, I selected the one that I already had. That didn't work. I went through the Advanced Configuration and made sure that "show favortites" was turned on and all that good stuff. I updated my list after trying each of these options and nothing still.

I even tried it without importing my old list. I went to a game and hit "add to favorites"...still no "favorites".

Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

[bkenobi]

What format is your favorites list in? GameEx will import favorites from a file that's in MAME32 folders format, so if the list is structured some other way, you probably won't have anything show up. Maybe you could post your favorites file (or a snippet of it if it's huge) so we could take a look?

[burns711]

  bkenobi said:

What format is your favorites list in? GameEx will import favorites from a file that's in MAME32 folders format, so if the list is structured some other way, you probably won't have anything show up. Maybe you could post your favorites file (or a snippet of it if it's huge) so we could take a look?

Unfortunately, I can't right now because I'm at work....shhhh don't tell. Anyway, it's a regular .ini file called "favorites.ini". When I open it in notepad it just lists the games the way they would show up on any list. There isn't any special coding or anything. Just a regular list of game titles.

Did that clarify anything for you?

Edit: I had a chance to grab the file...........

A few from the beginning

2020 Super Baseball (set 1)

3 Count Bout / Fire Suplex

64th. Street - A Detective Story (World)

'88 Games

After Burner (Japan)

Alien3: The Gun (US)

Aliens (US)

Alligator Hunt (unprotected)

Altered Beast (set 5, 8751 317-0076)

Aggressors of Dark Kombat / Tsuukai GANGAN Koushinkyoku

APB - All Points Bulletin (rev 7)

A few from the end

WWF Superstars (US, Newer)

WWF WrestleFest (US set 1)

WWF WrestleFest (US Tecmo)

X-Men: Children of the Atom (USA 950105)

X-Men (2 Players ver AAA)

X-Men Vs. Street Fighter (USA 961023)

That's it. No code or anything.

[bkenobi]

I'm not sure how GameEx deals with favorites from emulators, but I know if you use the MAME favorites file option, it will import a MAME32 formatted ini file. If you are trying to add favorites from other emulators, things surely will be different. If you are using a different option to import favorites, then I'm not familiar with it. Basically, to import MAME favorites, you just create your list with the correct headers on the file and tell GameEx where it is.

[burns711]

Ok, I understand what you are saying. I'm using MAME32 v122...I think that's the version. I used the MAME setup from GameEx to import the .ini file, but came up with nothing.

So I'm assuming that I don't have the correct headers on my list, and for some reason, GameEx isn't creating a list for me? Could someone paste their headers from their favorites list here so I could copy that and give it a shot? That should work right?

[bkenobi]

Right. 2 problems here:

1) Your list is in the wrong format. It needs the MAME32 folder ini headers. Here's an example:

[FOLDER_SETTINGS]
RootFolderIcon = cust1.ico
SubFolderIcon = cust2.ico

[ROOT_FOLDER]
avalnche
cascade
gypsyjug
kick
kicka
peggle
pegglet
playball
snakjack
wallst

2) Your game names should be rom names. Your list should look like this:

wwfsstaa
wwfwfest
wwfwfsta
...

not

WWF Superstars (US, Newer)
WWF WrestleFest (US set 1)
WWF WrestleFest (US Tecmo)
...

I hope that helps!

[burns711]

Well that's lame that my list is like that. It came from another frontend. I'm still curious as to why it didn't work whenever I didn't import my own list though.

So I pretty much have to remake my list from scratch once I get the correct file setup? Thanks for all of your help bkenobi!

[fRequEnCy]

  burns711 said:

Well that's lame that my list is like that. It came from another frontend. I'm still curious as to why it didn't work whenever I didn't import my own list though.

So I pretty much have to remake my list from scratch once I get the correct file setup? Thanks for all of your help bkenobi!

This can easily be done by converting the name of the game to the name of the rom. Post your file here and I'll have a look see. That's of course you need to change the name in your file so it can be read.

[bkenobi]

Unfortunately, the only thing I can suggest is to print your list and go through the games one at a time adding them as a favorite. The only other option would be to use a script to convert your games list into a list of rom names. If I had a list with those two and a list of your favorites, I could script it for you. It all depends on how many games you have in your list whether it's worth the effort to code something up.

[burns711]

Wow fRequEnCy! That would be great if you could help me out with it. I think I have around 300 or so in my list bkenobi. You may have got off the hook if fRequEnCy can help

Feel free to add any games you think I might be missing out on too!

Thanks again guys!!!!

I had to save the file as .doc because I wasn't allowed to upload a .ini.

favorites.doc

[Tempest]

Tom has a gamelist in the GameEx folder. I've been using this code for something else. It would be a good start for what you want.

FileRead, MameList, C:\Program Files\GameEx\DATA\gamelist.txt	 
Search =|%Rom%|
	 Loop, Parse, MameList, `n, `r
	 {
	  IfInString, A_LoopField, %Search%
	  {
	   StringSplit, Temp, A_LoopField, |
	   Title := Temp1
	   Break
	  }
	 }

[burns711]

  Tempest said:

Tom has a gamelist in the GameEx folder. I've been using this code for something else. It would be a good start for what you want.

FileRead, MameList, C:\Program Files\GameEx\DATA\gamelist.txt	 
Search =|%Rom%|
	 Loop, Parse, MameList, `n, `r
	 {
	  IfInString, A_LoopField, %Search%
	  {
	   StringSplit, Temp, A_LoopField, |
	   Title := Temp1
	   Break
	  }
	 }

I wish I knew where in the world to start with that ^^^^

[fRequEnCy]

Here ya go burns711!

I had problems with only 2 of your roms that you had listed in this file. These names didn't match so I used what I have posted below to what I think they would be. I tried to match up as best as possible from the known name. You can change these if they are incorrect. The rest went smoothly. Here's the results:

Caveman Ninja (US) did not match so used Caveman Ninja (US ver 4) whose rom name is cninjau.

Double Dragon (bootleg with HD6903) did not match so used Double Dragon (bootleg with HD6309) whose rom name is ddragonb.

favorites.zip

[burns711]

Thanks fRequEnCy! Unfortunately, that didn't work. I even tried it by inserting bkenobi's code before it. I did use the setup wizard to locate the file too. I tried to place it in the custom folders in the setup wizard, but that made a list of about 1200 items and GameEx crashed on me. Now I'm completely lost. I haven't registered my copy of the software yet. Does that have something to do with it?

[fRequEnCy]

  burns711 said:

Thanks fRequEnCy! Unfortunately, that didn't work. I even tried it by inserting bkenobi's code before it. I did use the setup wizard to locate the file too. I tried to place it in the custom folders in the setup wizard, but that made a list of about 1200 items and GameEx crashed on me. Now I'm completely lost. I haven't registered my copy of the software yet. Does that have something to do with it?

It's not documented anywhere that it's a registered feature so I don't think that's the problem. I don't know the format that's required for it to be imported into GameEx. Give me awhile to download mameui32 to figure it out.

[fRequEnCy]

The header suggested by bkenobi should have worked. I just tested and it added to my favorites. Did you make sure to update your list after you added that file to Favorites File in Basic MAME Settings?

[burns711]

  fRequEnCy said:

The header suggested by bkenobi should have worked. I just tested and it added to my favorites. Did you make sure to update your list after you added that file to Favorites File in Basic MAME Settings?

Ok, here is what I did, step by step.

1. Ran setup wizard and deleted the line that pointed to my favorites.

2. Ran GameEx and updated my list to make sure it wasn't there...it wasn't

3. Copied bkenobi's header and pasted it on top of the list that you edited to say this:

[FOLDER_SETTINGS]

RootFolderIcon = cust1.ico

SubFolderIcon = cust2.ico

[ROOT_FOLDER]

2020bb

3countb

And the rest of the games

4. Saved that file.

5. Ran setup wizard again to point to that favorites list file.

5. Ran advanced config to make sure the "show favorites" was set to "yes"

6. Saved all of that info.

7. Ran GameEx again...nothing

8. Updated my list, and.........got nothing!

Now I'm completely 100% STUMPED.

[fRequEnCy]

  burns711 said:

Ok, here is what I did, step by step.

1. Ran setup wizard and deleted the line that pointed to my favorites.

2. Ran GameEx and updated my list to make sure it wasn't there...it wasn't

3. Copied bkenobi's header and pasted it on top of the list that you edited to say this:

[FOLDER_SETTINGS]

RootFolderIcon = cust1.ico

SubFolderIcon = cust2.ico

[ROOT_FOLDER]

2020bb

3countb

And the rest of the games

4. Saved that file.

5. Ran setup wizard again to point to that favorites list file.

5. Ran advanced config to make sure the "show favorites" was set to "yes"

6. Saved all of that info.

7. Ran GameEx again...nothing

8. Updated my list, and.........got nothing!

Now I'm completely 100% STUMPED.

This is what I used and it worked fine after updating my list:

[FOLDER_SETTINGS]
RootFolderIcon golden
SubFolderIcon golden

[ROOT_FOLDER]
punchout
puyopuy2

I used the latest version of MAMEUI32 v0.129u1

[bkenobi]

Just to eliminate a silly oversight...the games you want to add to your favorites list do show up in your main list, correct?

[burns711]

  bkenobi said:

Just to eliminate a silly oversight...the games you want to add to your favorites list do show up in your main list, correct?

Yea the games show up and work fine. I could understand if things were in the wrong folder or something if I could at least select the menu option for "Favorites", but that's not coming up. Just "All MAME Games ", "Trackball Games", etc.

fRequEnCy: That didn't work either. I'm using v120. I even found the fav list that comes with that version and used that header. It was the same one you found. Is there some .ini or .cfg file that I can open that points the the list that I can open and paste it here to see if something else is going on?

[fRequEnCy]

This data is stored in the data.mdb file.

Try adding a game manually from GameEx and see if it shows then. It should show on the Main Page when GameEx loads. If it doesn't show by adding one yourself from within GameEx then the issue lies within your GameEx.ini or something.

[burns711]

I've tried to ad a game to my favorites within GameEx before. That was one of the very first things I tried and that didn't work.

[fRequEnCy]

  burns711 said:

I've tried to ad a game to my favorites within GameEx before. That was one of the very first things I tried and that didn't work.

Please post your GameEx.ini found in the CONFIG directory of your GameEx install.

[burns711]

Ok, here you go. Thanks again for trying to help. I'm sure you're getting tired of me by now

On the plus side, i did level up!

GameEx.zip

[fRequEnCy]

Try a different theme maybe? I looked and all looks to be in order except for the way you're displaying roms. Not sure if that would conflict or not. Check your pm!