Coming back to GameEx.....

**se_lees** · June 19, 2011

Trying this out again.

1. arcade ambience: I'm.......flabbergasted.....that you can *still* only select a file, and not a directory of files. Like. Really?

2. screensaver change period: the minimum is.....*still*.....2 minutes?

(( Curiously, the start time *does* go down to one minute. Things are not looking good here.... ))

3. setting the MAME directory did not handle all the parameters on the page - ie: 'custom lists' and 'favorites' file had to be manually selected. (This isn't critical, but again surprising.) It still clips the first (or second, even weirder...) and perhaps another game in each category/sub-folder in the file - and in some of the sub-folders doubled the entries of one or more games. I remember last time that I had to add a space between each sub-folder designator and the first game (actually rom) name, and this allowed the first game of each sub-folder to be recognized....but then it started creating more double entries in GameEx itself.

4. Daphne: (minor) setting the exe directory does not affect the 'options'. (MAJOR) there are still extra Cobra Command entries, with blank entries after that. Not all the games are default. I mean, seriously, either put in all the supported games - or don't put none of 'em in. I anticipated this, though hoped for difference.

So, after another year hiatus, and even though it's cheaper, I'm still not compelled to use GameEx. Alas.

**mesk** · June 19, 2011

Ok thanks for stopping by

**Draco1962** · June 19, 2011

Hi se_lees. It sounds as if you are having some difficulty and I am sure we can help you to find some solutions. I can't tell with certainty if you are merely venting out of frustration or using this as an opportunity to slam the software. I am hoping for the former as opposed to the latter. If you would like help, please start by providing us with a copy of your gameex.ini and we will be glad to assist you in reconciling some of the issues you are having.

Regards,

Mike

**se_lees** · June 19, 2011

Hi se_lees. It sounds as if you are having some difficulty and I am sure we can help you to find some solutions. I can't tell with certainty if you are merely venting out of frustration or using this as an opportunity to slam the software. I am hoping for the former as opposed to the latter. If you would like help, please start by providing us with a copy of your gameex.ini and we will be glad to assist you in reconciling some of the issues you are having.
Regards,
Mike

Neither, actually. I presented what I found fault with, along with some feelings about what those faults were. The forum is the place to put such things, no? I said nothing personal nor obscene about GameEx. At this point, it's up to Tom whether he's interested in the things I found fault with, and proceed some way if he is.

**Draco1962** · June 19, 2011

Ok, I see your complaints and while I understand expressing one's feelings, when asking for help or noting an issue with an aspect of the program, I see them getting in the way of you obtaining any resolve to the issues you have presented. What are your expectations? Let's start with the first 3 items.

Item 1 - What are your expectations for the arcade ambiance? How many files do you wish to access? Are you expecting the program to be able to rotate through x number of files randomly or sequentially?

Item 2 - Attract Mode Screensaver expectations, what are they? Are you expecting it to have a minimum of 1 minute between games?

Item 3 - Now this is a big one and clarification of your expectations is critical. Also, I would like for you to provide a copy of your gameex.ini as previously requested so that we can take a closer look and see if there are any settings that need to be tweaked to meet your expectations as closely as is possible.

As moderators and admins, we do more of the "heavy lifting" in troubleshooting problems experienced by the users and providing advice or workarounds. You may find other users assisting with advice as well. Once we have determined that the issue is indeed a bug (and you need to give us the opportunity to examine things and not just tell us it is), it is at that point Tom will usually step in.

**se_lees** · June 19, 2011

As moderators and admins, we do more of the "heavy lifting" in troubleshooting problems experienced by the users and providing advice or workarounds. You may find other users assisting with advice as well. Once we have determined that the issue is indeed a bug (and you need to give us the opportunity to examine things and not just tell us it is), it is at that point Tom will usually step in.

Okay. Thank you for your assistance. Listed in increasing importance (to me) :

-screensaver: yes, I would like the minimum time between games during screensaver mode to be 1 minute.

- Arcade ambience: I would assume the parameter would by default allow more than one file, so that people could select one, or as many as they like. It occurs to me that Tom might've had in mind Arcade Ambience (the file), rather than 'arcade ambience'. And perhaps he may think people would use the 'player' for this; perhaps they do, though I think that would be untidy.

Sequential or random is another thing. I prefer random - but I have a special idea on that.

- Daphne would be here in importance.

- MAME32/UI game list import. I use MAME32 as an easy way to group, filter, and shuffle games. In the four years I've known of and checked out GameEx, there has been an issue with how it recognizes the entries in the favorites ini regarding sub-folders.

Probably, no one else has created sub-folders in a main folder (as shown below), instead creating (if they created new ones at all) separate categories and hence inis, and so Tom didn't anticipate this possibility. I have each of these sub-folder entries as separate inis, so if I could import each one of them, that would work just as well.

GameEx.zip

**Draco1962** · June 20, 2011

Okay. Thank you for your assistance. Listed in increasing importance (to me) :
-screensaver: yes, I would like the minimum time between games during screensaver mode to be 1 minute.
- Arcade ambience: I would assume the parameter would by default allow more than one file, so that people could select one, or as many as they like. It occurs to me that Tom might've had in mind Arcade Ambience (the file), rather than 'arcade ambience'. And perhaps he may think people would use the 'player' for this; perhaps they do, though I think that would be untidy.
Sequential or random is another thing. I prefer random - but I have a special idea on that.

There is a utility called The Randomizer written by one of our mods, Tempest. Per the description: "The 'Randomizer' can be used to randomize files for which GameEx would normally only use one static file. E.G. startup video, ambience.mp3 files, background images, etc." I think that use of this may allow you to shuffle several files for use.

- Daphne would be here in importance.

I reread the original post regarding Item 4 and Daphne. "Daphne: (minor) setting the exe directory does not affect the 'options'." Please provide more details as prior forum posts did not appear to relate to this directly.

"(MAJOR) there are still extra Cobra Command entries, with blank entries after that. Not all the games are default. I mean, seriously, either put in all the supported games - or don't put none of 'em in. I anticipated this, though hoped for difference."

I believe that the intent behind placing some games and command lines was to provide example. I cannot speak for all the extra Cobra Command entries. Perhaps these can be cleaned out in future releases, however, we can also remove them ourselves so they do not show up in the menu (they shouldn't anyway so long as each Game is not showing in the config as Yes to Enabled). I do not see this part of the Daphne issue a deal-breaker but, perhaps, as a clean-up opportunity.

EDIT: As Mesk noted in a following post, GameEx is no longer supporting the Advanced Configuration app and is using the Setup Wizard. For our troubleshooting we may refer to the Setup Wizard from time to time. You will see the Cobra Command repeated there as well even if you upgrade from an older version. Again, you may check these to ensure they show disabled and delete any text reference in the fields for them.

- MAME32/UI game list import. I use MAME32 as an easy way to group, filter, and shuffle games. In the four years I've known of and checked out GameEx, there has been an issue with how it recognizes the entries in the favorites ini regarding sub-folders.
Probably, no one else has created sub-folders in a main folder (as shown below), instead creating (if they created new ones at all) separate categories and hence inis, and so Tom didn't anticipate this possibility. I have each of these sub-folder entries as separate inis, so if I could import each one of them, that would work just as well.

This one may require Tom and or/Ben's attention unless one of the other admins or mods has any further feedback to provide.

Edited June 20, 2011 by Draco1962
New Information

**simbamame** · June 20, 2011

This Guy sounds pissed, after reading threw i was annoyed with his attitude, seems to be slating GameEx cos it wont do what he wants, if he had asked for help in the 4 years hes claimed he has been here im sure his issues would have been resolved. I'm glad we have people like draco who can keep calm about this while addressing his problems, as i don't think id stay cool.

But then again that's just my opinion.

+1 rep for draco1962

**Draco1962** · June 20, 2011

Thanks, Ian. I admit I had to bite my fingers to keep from posting a negative response initially, but I truly think he has some legitimate concerns. If he is willing to roll-up his sleeves and get a little dirty in the details then I am willing to help where I can and ask for help above my "pay grade" on his behalf to get answers.

So far, his response has been to provide some needed info to get things started so I ask all to give some space and not react to the initial post and let's see where this lands. We all have some level of love & loyalty to this software and our forum friends and if there is a chance to add one more, I will do what I can to help as I know all of you will.

**mesk** · June 20, 2011

I think i know what he meant regarding the multiple cobra command entries in DAPHNE,and that was to do with the old advanced config utility,which as we all now know,is no longer used so that issue should be void as well

**simbamame** · June 20, 2011

Thanks, Ian. I admit I had to bite my fingers to keep from posting a negative response initially, but I truly think he has some legitimate concerns. If he is willing to roll-up his sleeves and get a little dirty in the details then I am willing to help where I can and ask for help above my "pay grade" on his behalf to get answers.
So far, his response has been to provide some needed info to get things started so I ask all to give some space and not react to the initial post and let's see where this lands. We all have some level of love & loyalty to this software and our forum friends and if there is a chance to add one more, I will do what I can to help as I know all of you will.

Sounds fair to me.

**fRequEnCy** · June 20, 2011

Thanks, Ian. I admit I had to bite my fingers to keep from posting a negative response initially, but I truly think he has some legitimate concerns. If he is willing to roll-up his sleeves and get a little dirty in the details then I am willing to help where I can and ask for help above my "pay grade" on his behalf to get answers.
So far, his response has been to provide some needed info to get things started so I ask all to give some space and not react to the initial post and let's see where this lands. We all have some level of love & loyalty to this software and our forum friends and if there is a chance to add one more, I will do what I can to help as I know all of you will.

Well done. I had to hold my tongue. LOL.

**destrolennox** · June 20, 2011

There is a utility called The Randomizer written by one of our mods, Tempest. Per the description: "The 'Randomizer' can be used to randomize files for which GameEx would normally only use one static file. E.G. startup video, ambience.mp3 files, background images, etc." I think that use of this may allow you to shuffle several files for use.

This sounds great! I haven't used it yet but if it works as advertized it will be very helpful. Thanks Tempest!

**Draco1962** · June 20, 2011

@se_lees, All,

My wife is having surgery today and I will be of limited availability until later Wednesday. Please provide the information I requested and responses to my post and I will attempt to address upon my return. Also, anyone may feel free to step in if you have an answer or suggestion to address se_lees responses instead of awaiting my return.

Thanks everyone!

Mike

**Tom Speirs** · June 20, 2011

Hi, I have to agree the approach was a little off. I do tend to work with the user community a lot and am always working on and fixing ad hoc requests. Maybe that was not a realisation. I think its important to note that there is more than one way to skin a cat my friend although you do have my attention at the moment

**Draco1962** · June 21, 2011

Original Item 1 - Arcade Ambiance will only only point to one mp3. Fixed in version 11.82 to point to folder.

Original Item 2 - Attract Screensaver only go down to 2 minutes between games Fixed in version 11.82 to minimum of 1 minute between games displayed.

@se_lees - can you update to this latest version, please, and advise if this is working for you as expected? You will need to change the Arcade Ambiance to the folder setting.

**se_lees** · June 21, 2011

I always get your attention, Tom.

For those of you unfamiliar, that means I have been here about annually the last few years with the same requests, and trying to troubleshoot them. Because I've always liked GameEx. It just hasn't done those things, done those things properly, or in a manner I felt appropriately easy. Tom has always listened, though obviously was busy with other, arguably, more community-used items.

I wasn't and have not been upset. I expressed things a slight colorfully. Only a slight. Now if I'd said something in the vein of, 'why is GameEx suckin in dese ways hea??'..... Well, actually that would've been quite funny - the vernacular and imagery and all - and I sometimes am suckin at something....Anyways.

Draco, thank you for the depth of your communication.

I've always been using the Setup Wizard. Also, I started with a fresh installation.

So I just now installed 11.82 over 11.81 . Nicely, all my original settings were intact. The new options were available, I selected them, and they worked. So those are squared away.

(I don't know whether Tom put in a randomizer, though the files seem to be playing in a different order than they are in the directory. Just to present: an issue I've found with randomizers, is they will use some number generation method, and will somehow play the same or similar arrangment, or/and replay files before the complement of files has been played. My idea on this is for the randomizer to consider the files in question, arrive at an arrangement, then find a new one when the set is completed.)

So next is the MAME32 folders ini files.

On Daphne: Daphne is designed to have its own directory; I would set it up to find all the 'encompassed' paths if the exe path is set. Or I wouldn't support it.

I would set up Visual Pinball similarly, and make sure GameEx only recognized vpt files as tables. OR I would change 'working path' to exe path, and add in file type choice.

**Draco1962** · June 21, 2011

Glad those two items are resolved. Tom will have to answer for how the files are randomized. Regardless of whether or not there is a repeating pattern in the randomizing process, I think he has met your concerns regarding.

Regarding Visual Pinball - there are the ROM filter settings where you may enter the extensions of the files to open (e.g. *.vpt) or multiple file extension types separated by semi-colon (e.g. *vpt;*tbl).

As for what you are asking regarding Daphne and the multiple MAME ini files for Favorites, I am not sure that is possible but will defer this to the community and Tom.

I do have a few questions to ask if you don't mind entertaining them:

Are you currently using any front end software and, if so, what?

Another question based upon the issues you have presented regarding the MAME Favorite ini files and Daphne and dependent upon a positive for a front end in use currently or in the past - Have you found any front end that will handle these as you expect?

This is not meant to bait you, just trying to see a clearer understanding of where you are coming from.

Regards,

Mike

**mesk** · June 21, 2011

Im not understanding exactly what your issue is with DAPHNE.It works quite well with GameEX.Let me know if you need any help setting it up,as I have had it set up for quite some time now,and never have any issues with it.I am usually lurking around here......

**se_lees** · June 22, 2011

@Draco:

- I'm using Mala. I like it well enough, and it pretty much handles all my needs. I like some of the interface features of GameEx better, as well as the image and video file features - fades, etc. The screensaver feature of GameEx is far better. With Mala, I disable the screensaver feature, and run Windows screensaver on 'blank' - but sometimes I like to see the games running/cycling.

- importing my MAME32 game lists in Mala isn't perfect, but you can fairly easily do it from the Mala game list editor, then save/move those files to the Mala directory. It does it by ini, so I have an ini for each of my 'sub-folders/sub-lists' in MAME32, and it doesn't miss any of the entries in the ini.

- Daphne in Mala, on the other hand, is handled with bat files or shortcuts, either containing the following format per game:

d:\games\daphne\daphne.exe mach3 vldp -framefile "d:\games\daphne\vldp\mach3\mach3.txt" -fullscreen -x 1024 -y 768 -fastboot

Mala configuration is: exe path blank, rom path to bats/shortcuts, file extension is bat/lnk, and cmdline is %rom%.

I just figured out the above data corresponds to parts in the GameEx config, but I was confused by the 'Daphne options' and per game options. I now have it correct, and Daphne games run, hooray! (Not 'automatic', but I can live with it.) First time I've gotten them to run in GameEx.

(Incidentally, I do not have an 'all emus' directory (or *anything* other than OS stuff on C, dear lord). I have separate directories for all my emus, and in the cases of multiple MAMES that use the same romsets, I set their respective inis accordingly to share one rom folder.)

- now, VP: Mala needs the following - exe, rom path (tables), file extension, and cmdline vpinball.exe -play -"%path%\%rom%.%ext%". I use closemul as the exe, as VP's quit 'confirmation' is not toggle-able. Bizarre - but obviously the VP devs still see the app from the angle of table creators. There should probably be a kind of 'binary' spin-off for users.

--Edit: I missed your commentary about 'rom filter'. That makes the list right. Now I just can't get the syntax correct. Either it pops up VP (another 'throw-back' element of the app), or, more commonly, I get "Error loading file".

**Draco1962** · June 22, 2011

@Se_lees - Well that is good news about Daphne. It can be a bit of a bear to get going with much of the limitation being the demands of the Daphne software itself. Would you say we can cross Daphne off the list for now?

- now, VP: Mala needs the following - exe, rom path (tables), file extension, and cmdline vpinball.exe -play -"%path%\%rom%.%ext%". I use closemul as the exe, as VP doesn't have a toggle-able quit 'confirmation'. Bizarre - but obviously the VP devs still see the app from the angle of table creators. There should probably be a kind of 'binary' spin-off for users.
'Rom filter' seems the opposite of what's necessary in the case of VP.

A few questions and a suggestion - What version(s) are you running of Visual Pinball? I know that there are quite a few that run VP8 and VP9 as separate emulators because VP9 has compatibility issues with tables created through VP8 and prior. Are you using Visual PinMAME at all?

I would also recommend reviewing the forum post here as there is some useful conversation regarding the setup of VP in GameEx (with a config example or two) and a link to the VP Loader that may be of help to you as well, especially with correct exiting from a table.

- importing my MAME32 game lists in Mala isn't perfect, but you can fairly easily do it from the Mala game list editor, then save/move those files to the Mala directory. It does it by ini, so I have an ini for each of my 'sub-folders/sub-lists' in MAME32, and it doesn't miss any of the entries in the ini.

Now that you have detailed further what you are looking for, this sounds like it might be resolved by a feature request made by yours truly a while back.

What I was looking for was a feature to create a "play list" on a per emulator basis, cross emulator basis (e.g. create an Asteroids play list of all Asteroid incarnations from MAME, Atari2600, NES, etc.). This would function very similar to a "Favorites" list This would not require any manipulation of game lists within the emulator (MAME32 in your case). I am not certain what would be required in implementing such a request. Even if it could be setup with multiple play lists (or Game Groups) per emulator if global is not possible would be a big plus.

Again, since this is a functionality enhancement issue, we will need to defer to Tom and Headkaze to see what may be possible along this or similar lines.

**se_lees** · June 23, 2011

I think my working path was missing 'tables'. (I found this via another thread, where Adultery posted an image of his ini.) Also, I set up Tempest's loader, and that's pretty nifty. Even loads the tables faster than I've ever seen them load - like, 3-5 seconds! The only hitch is that it doesn't handle exit; the VP quit confirmation still shows up, and when exiting the table, there's a quick snap back to the desktop before the UI shows. I can't figure out how to get Closemul in the mix.

So that one's 95%. Definitely, there should be a stickied thread of emulator set-ups.

We'll see on the MAME32 game list import. Since it does support at last one ini, I might think it would be easy enough to allow multiple lists via various inis.

Also, I'm going to add another pretty minor issue: during vertical games run horizontally in MAME, the GameEx 'bezel' is not showing.

**Draco1962** · June 23, 2011

Also, I'm going to add another pretty minor issue: during vertical games run horizontally in MAME, the GameEx 'bezel' is not showing.

OK, ya got me with this one. Are you rotating the vertical game with something outside of GameEx? From what I saw from your gameex.ini, are you experiencing any issues with the bezel not showing when running a vertical game vertically?

**Adultery** · June 23, 2011

On your VP issue, I think you need to add vpauto.exe to the Also Launch field to make it work. I'll have to take a look at my setup and see if I use it because I don't seem to have this issue.

**se_lees** · June 24, 2011

On your VP issue, I think you need to add vpauto.exe to the Also Launch field to make it work. I'll have to take a look at my setup and see if I use it because I don't seem to have this issue.

According to this, you don't:

AlsoLaunch=

Command=""F:\Pinball\VPinballLoader.exe" "[ROMFILE]" "[WORKINGPATH]""

LaunchBefore=F:\xpadder\Xpadder.exe PinMAME1 PinMAME2 /M

LaunchAfter=F:\xpadder\Xpadder.exe Default1 Default2 /M

However, I set it that way, and while it does exit with one keypress, the confirmation still briefly shows, as well as the flash through the desktop. (I made sure to enable 'hide OS', but that doesn't change the behavior.)

OK, ya got me with this one. Are you rotating the vertical game with something outside of GameEx? From what I saw from your gameex.ini, are you experiencing any issues with the bezel not showing when running a vertical game vertically?

I'm not rotating the game at all. My monitor is in horizontal orientation, and MAME is in default display mode, which means all games are displayed horizontally. Vertical games are not set to fill the screen, so there are spaces on each side of the image, for which as I was under the impression the 'bezel' is for. Yes?

Coming back to GameEx.....

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