pc games

[gonchal2004]

hi all. I am trying to make an option in game ex to play Pc games. Does anyone Know how can i do it?. i know one form: consist( in the game ex config) in list one by one the games in individuals emulators but what i am looking for is to make only one list. Sorry about my poor english and thank you

[EMKO]

you could make a folder and put shortcuts to the games inside that folder

[gonchal2004]

i heve tried that way but doesn´t work because in the configuration of an emulator you need to put a commnad line. so ¿what commnad line may i write if each game have diferrent ones?

[headkaze]

This is how I launch PC games. Obviously replace the PC dir to your own containing shortcuts to your games.

[Emulator_1]
Enabled=True
StartPageName=PC Games
TitleText=PC Games
StartPageLogo=pc
RomFilter=*.lnk
RomsInFolders=False
ROMPath=D:\Games\PC
SnapPath=D:\Games\PC\shots
WorkingPath=D:\Games\PC
MapKeys=False
WaitBeforeKeys=
SendKeys=
ReplaceDash=False
ReplaceUnder=False
Capitals=False
RemoveBrackets=False
AlsoLaunch=
ShowDesktop=False
Debug=False
MapFile=
OLDatZip=
Command=[ROMPath]\[RomFile]
TitlePath=D:\Games\PC\shots
BoxPath=
LaunchBefore=
LaunchAfter=
CartPath=
configFile=
ExcludedFiles=
CustomBackground=

[gonchal2004]

thank you very much. it works but i have had to write only "Romfile". [ROMPath]\[RomFile] doesn´t work i don´t know why. I have the problem that when i hit escape the game exits but don´t return to game ex. Do you know why?

I have installed the games in a folder and the shortcuts in another. i tell game ex that the rompath and working path is the one where the shotcuts are. Is this correct?. map keys is on.

[gonchal2004]

Can anyone tell me why whwn i press escape in the pc games doesn´t return to game ex, please?. in the task manager appears game exs working but i only see the desktop

[headkaze]

This is only a guess, but launching a *.lnk (shortcut) from GameEx means GameEx can't get a handle to the game's window or process. I assume Tom uses a hook into the game's message system to process the ESC key and close it down. Even if he uses a global hook he dosn't have a handle to the game's window to close it down.

Another issue is that GameEx has no way of knowing when the game has exited without a process handle because it can't wait for the process to end, therefore it dosn't know when to make it's window foreground. We will need Tom to verify exactly how GameEx launches .lnk's (I'm assuming it's using ShellExecuteEx which won't return a Process Handle/ID or Window handle launching a .lnk).

I just tried launching a PC game using a shortcut from GameEx and it returns to it fine. So I'm not sure exactly what your problem is then. It looks like you will have to exit the game using it's normal exit method (via a menu option usually) instead of ESC, unless pressing ESC is the game's proper way to exit. I hope you have a trackball or keyboard handy.

The only way around it would be for Tom to enumerate the windows until it matches a caption specified by the user. This dosn't seem very practical since there is no easy way to know the caption of every game. Unless each game can have it's own config file containing the caption (found by using Spy++) it's impossible to do.

I guess the only other solution is to use the game's main .exe instead of shortcuts. But that may cause problems with the game locating it's files.

[djrobx]

The way I handled PC games was to rename the game executables to "rungame.exe". Then I could add "rungame.exe" to the advanced emulator config, so GameEx knows that rungame.exe needs to be killed when ESC is pressed.

[Spyhunter]

i got this working now and it appears fine when exiting the pc games as it goes straight back to the gameex menu.

my question is i have created a snaps folder but its not showing any snaps for the roms (eg: links) what is the process to get each game have its own snap on the menu?

I have tried to rename them the same as the shortcuts in the images folder but it still doesn't show them? any idea's?

[EMKO]

it should work if u have the screenshot the same name as the .lnk file