I hate GameEx more then paying my tax bills!

[SKIDLID]

No only joking.

But since i installed and paid for reg key about 3 months ago i dont think iv played a single game!!

I've sat sat in front of my little PC moving Roms, configuring Emus, download snaps, cartridge snaps, box art, flyers,cab pics renaming all my sets and then the pics to go with them, unzipping, re-zipping, moving my whole collection to external hard drives, Stop for a beer. Downloading themes testing the new theme and them making my own theme.

Im off to play the 360 see you all tomorrow for more of the above.

I love GameEx

But i think my wife has left me not seen her for a few weeks

[Tempest]

I rarely play any games.

Any other Non-Game playing GameEx users want to chime in?

[chriss]

Most of the time I play either Puzzle Bobble 4 or Tekken 3 on Playstation...

But I'm with you there! Setting everything up and keeping it running was the most part of what i did with my cabinet

but i think the most extreme ratio between actually playing and giving support/setting things up has probably frequency

[wubble]

I know what you mean SKIDLID. You must force yourself to play some favourite classics to remind yourself why you're doing this.

GameEx is my favourite software on the PC - partly because you can make it your own. That's the trouble, when do you take a break and have some fun?

[Palmore]

I too have spent a GREAT deal of time doing the create theme, add snap, configure games and emulators lol

It's a never ending bought, with well over 100 PC games, it's hard to keep track of what I still have to tweak controller wise, and I doubt I will ever have a full snap collection for all my roms!

But it's a labor of love, what more can I say =)

[fRequEnCy]

Most of the time I play either Puzzle Bobble 4 or Tekken 3 on Playstation...

But I'm with you there! Setting everything up and keeping it running was the most part of what i did with my cabinet

but i think the most extreme ratio between actually playing and giving support/setting things up has probably frequency

LOL. Only time I even run GameEx is for testing purposes, upgrades, or support. I don't ever play games. Not even for awhile. And I've been a member for over 2 years. LOL. Just a waste of time to be honest but a hobby and something that someone else can enjoy with all the work I put into it. Heck my cab is in storage. LOL. Have never ran it. I'd rather give to someone to enjoy since I've never used it. Cab was built from Mame Room. But oh well. I hope someday I'll get tired and actually sit down and play a game.

[Drakendoder]

it's weird eh, i guess for me it is the same...

i was talking to a friend lately about this, and i said for me this is therapeutic in dealing with a traumatized youth where i stood for ages at the campingsite watching all these intros of some 2 or 3 arcadecabs at the localbar for afternoons on end. I would watch the intro plus a random short piece of gameplay loop endlessly figuring how awesome it would be to OWN this. Now 20 years later i have it all set up, after working tirelessly on making it a work like it takes no effort at all, just to sit on the couch for 5 minutes, watching the game-exmenuscreen and think: I NOW HAVE IT ALL bwahahahaha!! But then....i don't feel as satisfied as i pictured myself feeling. I think i have to quit gameex for a month or two, then on a rainy day fire it up and think: wtf, i can just play anything at the click of a button how amazing is that. I now drag the mental recollection of all the hours i put in with me with each game i fire up, wich takes away the click-of-a-button-feel for me. I have to shrug it off first. I'm such a freak lol

[GotMame]

Count me in. I have built four cabs and the last two with lighted buttons. The enjoyment for me was learning new things along the way. I rarely play and when I do it is the basic old school tempest, asteroids, robotron games. My four year old son though loves it and enjoys playing the bowling games on it... and that is what makes it all worth while. Of course, anyone who has never seen one is just amazed beyond belief, also.

Beyond the physical part of building the cabs, if it wasn't for GameEx, I think it would be all for naught. This is such a great piece of software and it just makes the whole experience pleasant.

I haven't posted much in these forums but have been a member for a long time and would like to take this opportunity to thank every one here. This forum is a great contribution to the gaming community. There are so many knowledgeable and just outright great people here.

Thank you to everyone!

Edited February 15, 2010 by Tempest
I can't believe you put asteroids before Tempest!

[GeorgeT]

I might be just the opposite...I think it's quite tedious with all the updating, moving files and what-not. I love firing up the cabinet to play some Asteroids, Galaga, or Visual Pinball.

[SKIDLID]

My conclusion is we all love our retro games with most of us playing just a hand full of old favourites from the 2 gazillion roms we own.

We build cabs just for the fun of it and for the sparkly buttons . We love the pain of setting up new emulators working out command lines and generally making things ordered and looking nice.

We are all as bonkers as chocolate rocket ships...... right im off to put my marshmallow space helmet on

[Tempest]

What is it with you, and your helmets?

[Drakendoder]

My conclusion is we all love our retro games with most of us playing just a hand full of old favourites from the 2 gazillion roms we own.

We build cabs just for the fun of it and for the sparkly buttons . We love the pain of setting up new emulators working out command lines and generally making things ordered and looking nice.

We are all as bonkers as chocolate rocket ships...... right im off to put my marshmallow space helmet on

mehhh...personally i didn't like setting the emulators up at all anymore after a few days. I'm just a perfectionist, so i couldn't help myself getting further and further into it. What made it such a drag whas that i had a to-do list wich would outline say 5 things i had to do before i considered the setup finished, but by the time i had those 5 things finished, 5 new ones had popped up. I have litterally page after page of choirs that resulted because of this, and i was feeling like a donkey chasing a carrot on a string held in front of me...feeling 'almost there' for weeks on end is exhausting. Sorry to sound so negative, but i'm just really glad it is finished now and told myself to keep my hands away from it(because i can still think of 1 or 2 things that ...aaarrgghh).

Building a cab seems cool though as i like handyman-projects and it seems way more challenging(my personal drug of choice), but since i'm still a student i'm way too poor to afford it.

Now that i finished, i can finally start to enjoy the seamless wonder of retro-gaming i lost sight off in the process. And it's mighty fine i must say

[SKIDLID]

What is it with you, and your helmets?

LOL

your not the fist person to say that, my doctor told its a fetish, id say more of an interest.

I have a lovely collection in my loft, if you in England visiting the Queen your more then welcome to pop round to see them.

[Ninja Rygar]

I believe it satisfies the non-entropic nature of the human mind, without having the same financial burden of most hobbies.

Any MUGEN fan will sing the same song... rarely did they sit down and actually PLAY Mugen, it was more about the hobby itself. (And being able to add Mugen to GameEx? Forget it!)

So yeah, I'm with you on that. Sometimes I'll load up an old favorite, or try something new... but most of the time spent with GameEx is from setting it up, continuing to construct consistant controller configurations.... (nice).... modifying themes, or just trying to complete collections. (CLRMAMEPRO NEEDS MORE GREEN CHECKMARKS!)

I believe everybody has this nature inside them. People collect Atari games, but I highly doubt they actually PLAY those cartridges on a regular basis... or read all those comic books... watch all those VHS tapes... or do ANYTHING with those posable figures besides... pose them.

One thing about GameEx though... BRAGGING rights. Let me tell you... most people I show it to don't even understand the basics of emulation (and it's a tiring effort to explain why "Dude you should totally SELL this!" is not going to work.)

Also, it's really rad to have the screensaver just scroll through my favorites the way it does... or having access to whatever game I hear about.

[NizZ8]

LOL @ this thread . I play alot of 360, but love having the GameEx cab around for when i have friends over who want to bust out the old school games, like some DK or Golden Tee, etc... And having an arcade machine at home was always a dream i had as a kid!

[Red Menace]

Yeah I spend more time in set up and debugging mode than playing. Although I do have my gaming sessions.

My explanation for the time spent is it's for the kids and they love it!

[Tempest]

My explanation is that it keeps me out of the bars.

I'm just kidding...

It's a hobby, it doesn't have to make sense to anyone, but us.

[Nightlife]

I've set up a "perfect" version of GameEx and configured all my emulators only to zap the HD and start over with a clean installation from scratch more times than I can count.

I've made the declaration that "THIS TIME, THIS IS FOR GOOD" with this last setup, but we'll see how long that lasts.

My setup is juuuuuust about perfect for my TV-based couch-potato setup with gamepads, but I plan on getting a cab in a year or two, so I'll just "start all over again" when I upgrade. Update the romsets, update the emulators, you know, the usual.

To me, that's a credit to GameEx. I could have just installed it, dropped a few roms in there, have it generate a few screens, and call it a day. But the more stuff you fill it with, the more fun the software becomes. GameEx inspires us to become completists (albeit to an unhealthy degree).