[CUSTOM MENUS] Working with Custom Menus

[Draco1962]

OK, I started working with the Custom Menus today and the first thing I noticed is that the Mame biographical data is missing and I see many more copies. Do I need to run the update list again to get this information to show again and pare-down the files to not show duplicates?

Thanks!

EDIT: I tried what I though above and this worked. I have come up with a new hiearchy to suit my needs as noted in another thread. I will try to post any issues I run across so as to assist anyone else wanting to delve into custom menus.

[Draco1962]

Alrighty then. Here is an example of my first attempt at using Custom Menus. One area of concern is that Jukebox functionality appears to not work any longer. Since my machine is not a dedicated HTPC, I am not overly concerned, but want to make sure that I have that ability should I desire it.

Also, I am in the process of modifying my Carbon & Steel theme to fit this new schema. One question I have is will this custom layout translate if I were to zip it and upload it to share?

Below is a screen scrape of my layout.

.:.EDIT - a few additional tweaks via the config editor and Jukebox restored

[Draco1962]

Here is an example of the layout I have created and some refinements I've made with the Carbon & Steel theme. Please let me know what you think about either.

[Tempest]

I like your custom layout. Nicely ordered.

[Draco1962]

I like your custom layout. Nicely ordered.

Thanks! It is a bit of a departure from the canned layout in that the emus are nested a little further from the Start. I know that I could acheive similar by just having the emu's in order of Arcade, Console, Handhelds, PC, etc. but this is more orderly and in line with my tastes.

[ehuonder]

I love the custom menus, and use them as well. Since you have just one MAME, do you just point to the MAME configuration in the GameEx.ini? To par down my lists for MAME and consoles, I have divided it up into:

Games->

MAME->

Atari 2600->

Sega Genesis->

More Configured Games->

MAME configured->

Atari 2600 Configured->

Sega Genesis Configured->

More Beta Games->

MAME Beta->

Atari 2600 Beta->

Sega Genesis Beta->

etc.

The ones just under Games are basically my 'favorites' for each system, configured means that I've tested them and have the control panel set up to support the game, and the beta means I have the rom. To do this, I treat each one as a separate emulator so I can point to different rom paths. It works out, with the top level game roms one directory below the configured roms, so they show up for both top-level and configured.

The problem I have is that it seems that GameEx treats the MAME emulator differently than the normal emulator directories. For example, the .X cabinets do not show up unless I use the specific GameEx MAME. I've hit some others, but it's been to long and my memory is poor...

[kozyura]

Hi,

I want to configure Custom Menus so that GameEX will start directly to All Games list so Start menu won't be shown at all.

What i did so far is removed all items from Custom Menu app and added new item with All Games list selected from dropdown list. It comes as second item in hierarchy. Result is Start menu with one item in Start Menu - All Games (already close but still not exactly what I want ) Could you please suggest how to avoid opening Start page and go directly to All Games.

Andriy

[kozyura]

I forgot to mention about one side effect of trick I described in first post - now when I'm selecting Exit GameEX shows confirmation dialog, but if I'm switching custom menus off then it exits directly. What is the reason for that?

[Draco1962]

If you don't mind, can you provide me with a copy of your gameex.ini and custommenu.ini files? You can zip them together and upload them in reply to this message. Thanks!

Mike

[kozyura]

If you don't mind, can you provide me with a copy of your gameex.ini and custommenu.ini files? You can zip them together and upload them in reply to this message. Thanks!

Mike

Here they are

ini.rar

[Draco1962]

What i did so far is removed all items from Custom Menu app and added new item with All Games list selected from dropdown list. It comes as second item in hierarchy. Result is Start menu with one item in Start Menu - All Games (already close but still not exactly what I want ) Could you please suggest how to avoid opening Start page and go directly to All Games.

Ok, I see better what you are seeing. With almost any menu-driven program, you will have to have a starting menu (regardless of what you name it, be it Start, Games, etc.) before you can have an item (i.e. All Games). I still feel that this will be a workable solution for you since you have control over what items will be available to your child.

I forgot to mention about one side effect of trick I described in first post - now when I'm selecting Exit GameEX shows confirmation dialog, but if I'm switching custom menus off then it exits directly. What is the reason for that?

I witnessed this in action by disabling the custom menus and, to be honest, I am not certain why. (Other GameEx gurus may want to take a look and provide feedback). I am sure that I am missing something, but not sure what as I do not see an option available within the Enable/Disable features of the Setup Wizard.

[kozyura]

Ok, I see better what you are seeing. With almost any menu-driven program, you will have to have a starting menu (regardless of what you name it, be it Start, Games, etc.) before you can have an item (i.e. All Games). I still feel that this will be a workable solution for you since you have control over what items will be available to your child.

But I don't need this control since 90% of games there are her games and rest 10% are mine boring stuff like Victoria 2 that she won't even consider to play. And no porn stuff of course

So now my start menu with disabled custom menus are looking like that:

All Games

Nintengo Wii (6 games)

Nintendo NES (1 game)

Windows games (5 games)

DVD (don't need it since I have PDVD10 with WMC plugin, but don't know how to disable it )

Configuration (can survive without it and start menu and use application instead)

Statistics (again I don't need this)

Exit (can be selected from navigation menu on top)

So you can see that I have 12 games in total. With this perspective sorting by emulator is basically not needed and reduces user experience because I (and my kid) will always select all games and choose smth from there. So in my case 'All Games only' setup will create only possible seamless experience with GameEX.

I witnessed this in action by disabling the custom menus and, to be honest, I am not certain why. (Other GameEx gurus may want to take a look and provide feedback). I am sure that I am missing something, but not sure what as I do not see an option available within the Enable/Disable features of the Setup Wizard.

I've checked once again - when i have Use Custom Menus unchecked in Custom Menus app then it's not shown, if it;s checked then it's shown mystics

[Draco1962]

I think you may have misunderstood my response. You will be able to enable Custom Menus, but there will always have to be at least one Menu category so your menu will look something like this:

Menu-

|_Item

or

Games -

|_All Games

The program will always require a place to start and this is common with almost all programs that support multiple features. This is especially the case with frontends that support launching of multiple emulators.

[kozyura]

Ok, pity that it's not possible.

[Draco1962]

Actually it is a good thing and I really think you can make it work. The only frontends that I have seen that are capable are focused on one specific emulator. Anything else I have seen that has multiple emulator support and other items have always been menu driven

[kozyura]

Then it's life Thanks for your support

[Draco1962]

Anytime! Here if you need any further assistance or want to bounce ideas.