Integrated and automatic Daemon Tools Lite support. This improves the compatibility with included CD based emulator configs and can act as a replacement for the previous disc mounting support.
Happy new year to GameEx users new and old. I am happy to release the first
GameEx version of 2012.
Theme/Skinning:
New static HTPC style list option in the theme editor. This gives an
alternative list in the start page menus.
New theme editor option to not show the weather condition icon and
just the temperature
Weather condition icons can now be loaded from a theme if in the
[theme]\media\weather folder
The auto update image can be used with a theme if in the
[theme]\media folder. Change autoupdate1.png
Themes now support indivdual background images for start menu items. Located in the media\logos\background folder.
Display and Emulators:
New game specific background snap folder for emulators and MAME.
These images will be shown in the background when browsing the list when
set.
If the above path is not specified there is a new display mode to
show snaps in the background based on existing art paths.
Custom artwork paths for emulators now support videos.
The image ribbon display mode now support paging up and down.
Several minor cosmetic related bugs fixed.
Media:
GameEx can now act as a full UPNP/DNLA client. This is supported for
all media including the jukebox, pictures, media library and Videos. In
terms of the Jukebox, GameEx will try to load the entire library and act
as it normally does displaying the entire collection. At the present
time videos have to be download from the media server and do not stream.
The client has been tested with Windows Media Player, Mezzmo and
Serviio.
GameEx will now download and display artist pictures in the Jukebox
and will display these if album artwork cannot be found.
New Get MetaData menu option for the Jukebox to download all
artwork.
Better support of album artwork in the Jukebox.
With thanks, GameEx now uses the
TMDb API for movie artwork and metadata. In addition it will now
download movie ratings. TMDb has a
very good search engine so matches appear to be quite accurate.
Therefore with this release the movie database utility is legacy and no
longer included with the install. Please consider contributing to TMDb.
For videos the create snaps menu option is now called Get MetaData
since it now also retrieves box art, descriptions, year of release and
rating.
Their are now three separate folders for videos so GameEx can
properly identify metadata. That is Movies, TV shows and other videos. I
am currently awaiting approval from
theTVdb.com to do more with TV shows. Hopefully I will get it,.
Again, in my tests the matching is much more accurate than before.
GameEx will now display videos at the correct aspect ratio when they
have a different display size.
This release has significant user interface and display enchancements as shown in the video below. These are implemented as new "views" and are accessed by selecting "Change View" on the menu.
Video/Movie/Karaoke playing has been enhanced and the player now runs under the GameEx display engine giving a much better user experience.
Video previews now show for Karaoke.
GameEx can now show the full MAMEinfo.dat and History.dat text.
Folder listings for Pictures and Videos is now a little more intelligent.
Setup Wizard 2.5.1 by Ben Baker. The Setup Wizard now remembers the last mode and selections. The first and second pages have also been combine into one to save a click. Fixes issue because default theme was not set.
Some profling has been performed on GameEx and various code speed optimizations have been made. GameEx now starts up and runs quicker. There is also less logging at startup. When ROMS are unzipped they are now placed in the users temporary folder rather than the emulators ROM path.
Increases buffer and timeout of internet radio streams from 5 seconds to 28 seconds. This should help issues over wireless or patchy connections. Note: Streams may take longer to load now. Also updated audio libraries. Because of the audio library updates M4A files are now playable on Vista and windows 7. This should include radio stations. Fixes to audio tag reading. 12.19 had minor touchscreen and theme fixes.
This release has had significant time spent on it with the main purpose of giving GameEx
unparalleled touchscreen and tablet pc support. Every feature in GameEx has been optimized for touchscreen use and specific touchscreen features have also been implemented for MAME and emulators.
Enhancements:
All features including search, pictures, ebook reading, video/dvd playback are optimized for touchscreen use.
Touchscreen and tablet use now has its own configuration page in the setup wizard where various settings can be altered.
Can automatically detect a tablet PC and configure accordingly. Tablet PCs
don't use mouse emulation and therefore need some internal tweaks. This is automatic.
Thanks to Ben Baker, hooks into MAME to control lightgun and mouse games with a tablet PC and also the
ability to send credits and start games with special taps/clicks.
For emulators clicks can be mapped to key presses.
Ability to filter MAME and GameEx arcade games for only touchscreen compatible games.
New screensaver aimed at touchscreen use, which shows date, time, weather, scrolling message and optionally slideshow.
Touchscreen setting to exit games and applications with certain clicks.
Thanks to Ben Baker the bypass disclaimer feature is now working with modern MAME releases.
New feature and setting allowing the ability to quickly resume to the last menu and list when restarting GameEx.
New help text feature. This allows a simple way to show information and help when launching MAME, emulators or applications.
There are now separate snap image and preview video paths for emulators.
Fixes:
Many sizing, positioning, theme loading/restoring and scaling issues fixed and improved. Mostly for non theme editor themes.
Fixes not properly disabling the all games list when set.
Fixes weather icon no longer working.
Fixes issue where drawing primitives or weather could crash GameEx.
Improved performance of overlays when playing videos and DVDs.
Some minor setup wizard fixes thanks to Ben Baker.
Changes:
Touchscreen usage is only supported with non theme editor themes (ie default themes).
I am pleased to announce our server has now moved to a host which offers much better speeds to users ouside of the USA. e.g Europe. I would like to take a moment to thank Jeremy of EmuMovies for help with this.
The manual/ebook viewer now features a 2 page layout view. Press select to change view. Thanks to Ben Baker the default Daphne config settings for new installs is improved.
Due to a security issue, upgrading to this or future versions is required in order to continue to use GameEx online features. This includes YouTube, GameEx Arcade, and online MAME lists. They will no longer work in older versions. Sincere apologies for the inconvenience.
Video thumb creator is a simple utility from Spesoft that
will extract a single frame from all videos in a folder and
save them as PNG images to the output folder you specify.
In addition you can choose how far into the video you
wish to seek and whether to seek from the end as well as
creating the default middle frame.
It supports the majority of video formats assuming you
have the codec installed.
Spesoft has just launched a new mobile games site GameEx Mobile Arcade. The site is for mobile devices such as Android with Flash installed. Currently over 350 games are available and new games will be added frequently.
Spesoft free text to MP3 speaker 2.2 released. Now available in the following languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Danish, Swedish, Dutch, Portuguese, and Japanese.
For the language translations used within GameEx any missing translations have now been added (computer generated). In addition the title text/font will now display the full ANSI character set. This fixes accents not displaying.
Spesoft free CD ripper 4.2 released. Now available in the following languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Danish, Swedish, Dutch, Portuguese, and Japanese. Also features an improved Interface.
Spesoft free image converter 2.7 released. Now available in the following languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Danish, Swedish, Dutch, Portuguese, and Japanese. Can now output to EPS.
Spesoft free audio converter 2.6 released. Now available in the following languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Danish, Swedish, Dutch, Portuguese, and Japanese.
New GameBase setting, show desktop, whether GameEx should not try to hide the operating system displaying when launching GameBase. Defaults to true, not hide.
Fixes TaskBar not showing in themes when the mouse pointer is at y position 0.
Fixes album and visualizations showing in wrong position with version 4 themes.
Changes to frame skipping which should result in a smoother display for most people, including smooth scrolling. Scrolling text now increases speed with the display size The scrolling text position is now remembered The setup wizard now supports multiple control assignments for custom keyboard and gamepad controls. Thanks Ben. Visualizations now run faster. Fixes theme picker.
New setting to globally stop the escape key exiting apps (key combo still works). New Gamebase setting to turn off exiting when pressing the escape key or escape key combo. Fixes reduce cpu setting using the wrong setting name in the SetupWizard. Fixes to the top most foreground image setting.
This release adds the global exit keyboard and gamepad combos along with the shutdown keyboard combo to the input settings in the setup wizard. They were only previously accessible by manually editing custominput.ini.
This release of GameEx brings full integration with GameEx Arcade, instantly and automatically adding over 3500 flash games to the GameEx front end with new games added daily. Once simply enabled the integration works like any other games system in GameEx with full database, favorites, and last played support.
Also in this release Ben Baker fixed a couple of emulator profiles and the GameExtender publisher code and settings have been removed. The issue when exiting statistics is also fixed.
This version also has fixes for the latest MAME release.
This release brings a simple but much requested feature. There is now the ability to have a global key combination to exit launched applications and emulators. To change the setting a manual edit of config/custominput.ini is required.
This release brings a brand new GameEx Live page. Now based on the gamer tags. In addition all gamer tags now feature their own unique hosted page and are linkable. To get updated HTML code just regrab your tag from the site. This release should also fix the issue with displaying the wrong image in the tags. Ben Baker added the missing MAME data file settings to the Setup Wizard.
We now have a specific GameEx news feed at www.gameex.com/gameexnews.xml. This has other Spesoft news filtered out. In addition the news page on the GameEx site now only has GameEx specific news.
Spesoft video converter is a free, easy to use yet powerful single file and batch video converter handling many formats.
Easy: Convert 10,000's files in a few clicks
with its simple wizard style interface or simply convert
a single file.
Fast: Utilising the best and latest video libraries along with the .net framework.
Stable: Handles corrupt and invalid files with ease, keeping track of failed files and notifying you only when the process is complete.
Powerful: Convert between a wide variety of
formats, with options to change transformation and
filter settings along with the usual video quality
settings.
Audio:
Extract and convert audio from video files. Also convert
audio files.
This release is completely down to Ben Baker. The Setup Wizard and configuration of GameEx is now multi-lingual and we now have a 99% language translated GameEx product. The translations though are done by a computer as we are not multi-lingual ourselves! However, we appreciate it is a big non english speaking world out there and feel this is a big step forward for GameEx. In addition in this release the default news feeds have been cleaned up and fixed.
Screen saver new game timer now supports 1 minute. The arcade ambience setting is now for a folder and GameEx now supports multiple MP3s. NOTE: This will break existing setups. You will need to go in to the setup wizard and change the setting to a folder instead of a file.
More enhancements to the Setup Wizard with this release thanks to Ben Baker and it is now the single and only point for setup and configuration of GameEx. With this release the Advanced Configuration application is now retired and no longer included with the install. I know change is not always welcome but the Setup Wizard really is far superior and this move will simplify support, greatly simplify and improve the setup experience and also save development time.
Fixes issue after editing a version 2 theme. Ben Baker added more Setup Wizard improvements with changeable font size, memorized window sizing and ratings for emulator profiles.
Thanks to Ben Baker the Setup Wizard has an improved user interface and now supports window resizing. In addition the Setup Wizard should now support any missing settings from the Advanced Config Application.
The popup descriptions and ratings can now be disabled and in addition can be used with custom themes and the theme editor.
Single static images are now supported for custom gameextender artwork paths.
Fixes theme picker causing crash within the interface. Fixes Screensaver issues if running GameExtender or if other emulators set to run with screensaver.
This version has code, display and memory usage optimisations including the following changes:
Certain graphic images are now only loaded when first drawn improving
start-up and display reinitializing speed.
Only three emulator databases are kept in memory at one time as opposed to previously all.
Several arrays redimensioned to fit.
Removed activex web browser control and replaced with .net version. Web pages seem to load and exit a lot quicker now and it allowed several dependencies to be removed..
Some unused code
and variables removed.
Fixes view sometimes not being remembered.
Now does a more thorough scan when searching for valid favorites, most and last played games.
New
compatibility full screen mode fixing a crash when returning from videos for some users and also allowing full screen mode under remote desktop.
GameEx is now remote desktop aware and will reinitialise the display if running full screen on session starts and ends.
DVDs on disk now scans quicker.
DVD Ripping now built in to the interface via the use of
Handbrake CLI. Simply place
handbrakecli.exe in the GameEx folder.
For game card users multiple game played statistics are now stored on the server. This will allow me to add profiles to game cards and build in some social networking features. The GameExtender internal web server is now multi threaded.
The search music feature will now additionaly search online for playable radio stations. Registered users will also be able to add found stations to favorites. Eg Example search - 80s new wave
The existing additional radio stations available to registered users have been audited and validated
New client side web api for GameExtender server. Good things coming from this soon hopefully.
GameEx new GameExtender features. New features include custom images for different systems. Display Marquee, box or whatever you like on a per system basis. Images display during navigation within GameEx as well as when in a game. New remote control features when using any modern web browser with specific iPhone and iPad web application. Control GameEx as well as launch and also exit games along with being able to bring up the in game page. Note iPhone demo 2/3 way through video.
Fixes not finding game music with GameBase systems.
Fixes search when GameEx rotated.
Pop up descriptions now show system biography
Latest version of EmuMovies download service utility
Fixes remove brackets from MAME games. Fixes web browser issue some users had. Fixes for latest MAME release which added a lot of new games. Improves/fixes lag with YouTube videos. Hopefully fixes crash after viewing videos some user experienced. Please report. Fixes mouse cursor not visible when viewing web pages.
Would you like a GameEx registration but don't want to pay for it? Try or buy one offer from your favorite brands and get GameEx free with TrialPay. TrialPay uses money from the advertiser to buy your product for Free. It's that easy. Get GameEx Free with TrialPay here.
This release is the work of Stilkdog and includes many updated configurations and downloadable emulators for use within the Setup Wizard. Thank you Stilkdog.
Fixes Jukebox play instantly mode and media library playing random songs after selecting a song.. Fixes game music not playing if a radio station is playing. C64.COM's SID Stream is a new default radio station.
More GameBase enhancements. GameEx will automatically find and fix paths. Thanks to the oldsk00l and sidplay2 winamp plugins Gameex can now play Amiga and C64 music within the front end if available for a game. This release also fixes a crash and memory leak issue with visulalizations and fixes game music not playing if the jukebox has been accessed.
GameEx can now utilize an existing GameBase installation and support and make use of included collections. The feature is pretty much plug and play with only two settings and does require the newest version of the GameBase front end to be installed.
It includes substantial database support and also works seamlessly with artwork and extras.
C64 Rulez!
GameBase is the work and copyright of James Burrows and is a great standalone
front-end in its own right. Hopefully, I am improving on the concept by bringing
it a step closer to being used on Media Centers and Arcade Cabinets.
Theme/Skinning enhancements
Now ALL modules can have a custom layout and background. Including MAME list select and Emulator system selection.
Video backgrounds although implemented in the theme editor were not working. This is now fixed.
New scroller object in the theme editor. Can have custom text or a news feed for each
module or system.
New weather object in the theme editor. See below.
More to come in upcoming releases.
Weather ICON
New weather icon in GameEx which displays the current conditions and temperature. You can select your location by using the weather application, also
accessible from the setup wizard. Its enabled by default but can be turned off.
Other fixes and enhancements
Fixes issue where you could not clear the playlist when Jukebox set to play randomly on queue end.
New screen rotation available - Flip Y
Software moves on and it was time for me to update the GameEx pricing structure for registrations to reflect the huge amount of time and effort spent maintaining, updating and introducing new features in GameEx whilst also modernising and keeping things fair for new and old users. This is not a bad thing, just a new thing. GameEx registration is now actually cheaper in half of the new pricing structure but a one off $25 does not fairly cover over 500 free updates in 5 years. So things have changed a little, hopefully for the better. Existing registered users are being looked after and anyone registered before today will still get lifetime free updates.
The secondary image/snap/video is now loaded on a thread. This resolves temporary freeze ups when loading some 3D cabinets and improves input response. Fixes audio in MNG videos.
Jukebox
The jukebox will now stop playing when it reaches the end of the playlist.
The Jukebox has been tightly integrated with YouTube support to allow auto search of
albums and playlists and then queuing them to play as videos automatically.
File tag reading is quicker due to updated libraries.
YouTube
Playlist support. Play all and play all randomly
Search
Search Jukebox has been changed to Search Music and in addition to searching your Jukebox will now search online for albums
- match tracks with you tube videos and play all.
Somewhat of a killer feature!
In addition the interface is more intuitive when using a keyboard.
Emulators
A snap or video can now be selected to be shown when no artwork is found.
Navigation
The letter select has been improved to support multiple letters so typing "DONKEY" will take you straight to donkey kong in the list.
User Interface
When the application is showing the please wait animation additional status information will now often be shown if the task is taking a while to complete. For example when the Jukebox is scanning for files, ripping a cd or when searching media.
Status messages are shown at the bottom at the screen to give more of an
indication of what GameEx is doing in certain situations. For example indicating a music file has been queued.
Web/HTML Application
The web browser control will now automatically resize to full screen when the
taskbar is not displayed.
New exclusive YouTube features. Easily search, browse and play YouTube content within GameEx using simple controls. Fixes play all and play all random for videos. Launch command lines now retain case and are not forced into lower case. [ROM] varialbe can now be used with MAME support (including Zinc and Model2). For new installs Hulu is a default HTML application. Includes new version of the EmuMovies download service utility.
Search is no longer a registered version feature and now available for free. Search feature now includes an on screen keyboard operatable with arcade controls and game pads.
If a netplay request comes in when the screensaver is running the screensaver will now exit so you can accept the request. As of the last version the select sound will play when a request comes in. This version contains a new WAV file for NetPlay which is based on the theme in use.
The screen now fades to black when launching. Don't know why I did not think of that before!
This is potentially quite a special release and something new.
GameEx now has support for Client/Server MAME and with a custom GameEx client and back end has the potential to offer multi user MAME internet network play using just arcade controls and gamepads.
GameEx code should be stable but it is obviously a slightly experimental release.
I will be extending the GameEx online features and user accounts but for now to use this new feature you will need to get and install a GameEx game card as this creates your user account on the server
I strongly suggest checking this out.
For all comments, support, and suggestions please head over to the forum at gameex.info
Client/Server MAME and Client/Server MESS is the work of Digital Ghost.
To request a NetPlay you must have port 5805 mapped. GameEx does however try to create this NAT mapping using uPnP and will also try to create a firewall rule for the executable.
This release would not be possible without the work from Ben Baker (AKA Headkase) who helped me implement most of this and also tirelessly converted the 3D files.
GameEx now supports 3D Cabinet files as an optional MAME artwork. You wil find a pretty big file on the web site with all the currently available ones. Setup is by just simply setting the path. The GameEx demo also no includes some samples. GameEx will display and animate the 3d models when available.
Id also like to mention that credit for these files should also go to folks working on the 3D arcade front end, which is where they came from in there original format. If you like something a bit different Id recommend checking out the 3D arcade front end. It was very much ahead of its time.
In other changes, there have been a few little cosmetic enhancments here and there and in addition to GameLauncher mode there is a new "Simple" user interface mode which basically hides the menus and give full operation without them. Allowing easy browsing and paging. For people who were experiencing crashes when using the video player and HTML applications, I think I have fixed the issue, although I was never able to recreate it myself. Please let me know. Album artwork no longer displays foder.jpg if it is a system file, allowing correct artwork now to show if your collections is not organised by album.
The GameEx emulator databases have an update. There are four new databases:- Amstrad GX4000, Entex Adventure Vision, VTech Creativision and WoW Action Max. These are only small databases with just a few games but they are emulated systems and there is content for them from EmuMovies. In addition where games did not have a description they now have an auto generated description based on the other database fields.
To install the new databases either do a manual install of GameEx setup or download the offline file on the download page.
These new databases and updates are independent of the ongoing database project and neither progress or hinder it.
Fixes window resizing and video/dvd crash affecting some systems. Also fixes MAME list updating finding too many games, and fade out when using 3D transition animations.
GameEx display libraries have now moved from DirectDraw to Direct3D.
The benefits of moving to Direct3D are quite significant.
- Should run significantly better and faster on any vaguely modern hardware.
- Alpha Blending.
- PNG with transparancy support.
- Fewer driver incompatibalities.
- Proper anti aliased fonts.
- No more reliance on DirectDraw which Microsoft depreciated some time ago.
- Improved and smoother transition effects.
- Fast rotated display support.
Thank you to everyone who took part in the Beta test, and a special thank you to Ben Baker (AKA Headkaze) for his help and support with this transition.
Fixes font being cut off when outlined. Fixes startup crash when using background videos with latest Codec packs. A few optimizations. Themes with single backgrounds (AdvancedGfx=False) working again.
Something a bit different for this release. Here is a new game card feature. You can get a game card / tag from the web site to put on any web pages, blog, or forum, and its fed from GameEx.
Similar to GameEx live but personalized and something you can use yourself. To setup your game card go to the web site and go to get game card under the community menu.
Ambiance will now resume after running an emulator. GameEx will now run without administrator rights. You will need to install GameEx to a folder that does not require administrator rights such as C:\GameEx. This is now the default install path. Fixes path double quotes issue. Fixes font issue at high resolutions.
GameEx now has full unicode text and scripted language display support and the Japanese transalation has been fixed. The display corruption/glitch on windows 7 and vista when GameEx is running windowed is fixed. Improved font display when viewing the control panel. GameEx themes now support these additional background images or videos - "EbookBak", "KaraokeBak", "DVDBak", "NewsBak", "SearchBak" and "LibBak".
Further improvements to startup time and when restoring the display. Fixes installer issue with karaoke and mounting support. The advanced graphics setting has been removed since backgrounds are now loaded dynamicly.
The main configuration ini file is now stored and operated on in memory. This allows potentially significantly faster loading and operation of GameEx, and also much faster upgrade of GameEx when installing this and future versions. Fixes windows media player and iTunes playlists. Fixes issue when emulator treated as single pc game and the info page is not enabled.
Several updates to gamesdbase.com. Including Intellivision videos and arcade (MAME) PCB's, artwork, commands/moves and in game controls. The only web site to show MAME controls and commands.
Thanks to Headkaze and him very kindly giving me the particular code from CPWizard. GameEx is now the only multi system front end to have command.dat support. It is set to work out of the box. In addition this is a slightly optimized version utilising less system and video memory. Several fixes are also included. For the setup package the mounting and karaoke support files are now separate downloads to reduce the size of the install. The system previews have been extended to use images if no videos are available.
For those that don't know what Command.dat is, basically it's a data file which shows you controls and special moves for games like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. So should be really nice for fans of the fighting games.
Creating video snaps has been improved with on the fly and faster encoding and now producing larger videos. The in game menu now has an option to create a video. Also includes various other fixes.
The freezing issues reported are now fixed. A big thanks to Jeremy (Frequency) for helping me with that. We both put a lot of effort in.
In addition there is a now a new in game menu with gameex that can be called up when running MAME, Daphne and emulators. You can view control panels, artwork and instructions and then either resume or exit the game. This is one of those dream features in a front end, and I intend to extend it in upcoming releases. As always please give your feedback.
The video and DVD player has also had a few user interface improvements.
.net framework 2 service pack 1 is the minimum required framework for GameEx since the projet was upgraded to visual studio 2008 and the installer has been updated to detect and install this. Id also like to point out that windows 98 and ME are no longer supported. I would have personally supported them still, but the development tools I am using do not allow me to. The minimum supported OS is 2000 SP4 and XP SP 2. Its been this way for a few releases but I had not pointed it out. In addition HTML applications are fixed on windows XP, and favorites now also feature the random preview videos.
In other news - in partnershup with Micosoft I have purchased compenents used in Windows Media Center and full TV support is on the way.
This release includes the new MAME Emu mapping utility by Tempest. Making the feature much more powerful and easier to use. Please join me in thanking Matt for his contribution.
The new emulator preview video feature has been extended for Daphne, MAME and most played. For MAME and most played the videos are unique to the games in the individual lists. In addition background videos now support MP4 and WMV and some of the video code has been updated and may run a little quicker.
Gamesdbase.com has had some substantial design and content updates.
Including a new video player, music playlists, and ZX-Spectrum manuals and audio. Along with some other design improvements including an improved games list.
This is a bling release. GameEx now features a video thumb view, allowing multiple game video previews to be displayed. You need a fast PC to make use of it. E.g Quad core. In addition when viewing a list of emulators random video previews for the system are shown continuously.
The MAME list updating now does a more thorough search for recommended
and games in series.
In addition, when updating the MAME list - MAME32 favorites and custom
lists are loaded at the start and any games in these lists are now forced to
be present, overriding any other filters.
There is a new "remove duplicates/clean list" feature which defaults to
on if using a game filter and clones. This produces a clean list of games
for MAME, and is more like what I intended from the beginning for GameEx
MAME support. Supporting clones but a filtered list.
Video box art downloading was broken and is now fixed.
Another new feature is now GameEx will try to download a description for
DVDs and Videos.
When in thumbnail view, video and DVD preview thumbs will be created
even if the preview videos setting is off. In addition if it cannot create a
preview thumb it will not try again.
The preview videos feature has been extended to allow not previewing for
DVDs and large video files (ie HD).
When selecting ebooks, pictures or videos, GameEx will now navigate
directly to within the folder if you only have one path setup.
Note: If you are upgrading, the new features are configurable.
The ebook and game manual viewer now supports txt files.
Although already supported in GameEx cbz and cbr comic files can now also be used for game maunals for MAME and emulators
Fixes issue where MAME game manual would not show if for the games parent
The package in the setup and the offline installer for ebooks and game manuals has been updated and will need to be installed again for txt file support
Some subtle but worthwhile changes when on a game information page. The video and artwork for the selected game or item will continue to display and play when browsing up and down the info page. The last played date and number of times played is now also shown for MAME games.
New multi-user feature for GameEx. Setup up to 10 users who can have their own theme, game list and favourites. Each user has their own username, avatar and password (optional). Setup accounts for the whole family and restrict game lists for children. All user administration such as adding, deleting and editing users is done using an admin password. You can shutdown the computer directly from the login screen. You can also use Instant Sheller to launch Login.exe at startup for a complete multi-user arcade gaming front end.
Once you login under a user you can either configure the user in GameEx with the Advanced Configuration application or exit and run the Setup Wizard. You must login under the user before you can configure them.
Fixes logo drop down selection not updating in Setup Wizard
Fixes error when using the MAME emu map feature with certain MAME versions
Fixes parameters not working when using Also Launch with an emulator
Development has been moved to visual studio 2008 from 2005. Not really relevant apart from the fact the executable is a little smaller and therefore might perform a bit better
Always trying to improve and make setup more accessible in the world of
emulation front ends, we are pleased to release GameEx version 10.35.
Featuring an updated Setup Wizard application by Ben Baker, with help and
support from Brian Hoffman and Matt (Tempest), this release brings further
enchancments and seamlessness in making the download, installation and
configuration of retro gaming systems easier than ever before.
Here are the technical release notes for Setup Wizard 2.1.2
'Download Emulators' section will now prompt to import profiles.
You are now always prompted for default paths, database download and
emulator download when you import. You can now turn these off using the
'Always Show' checkbox.
Sorting emulators via Name, Category, System and Emulator.
You can now move multiple emulators up and down at once by shift/ctrl
selecting emulators in 'Emulator Selection.'
Logos now have a drop down list.
Columns showing all the extra info added to profiles such as System,
Category, Emulator, Version, Rating, DownloadUrl, RequiredFiles, Website,
Info.
Automatically creates the file structure for you when you import.
POV Joystick support.
Lot's of work remaking the profiles and getting downloads updated
(thanks alot to Brian and Matt for the help with this).
Several enhancments to audio visualizations. Windows Media Player is no longer a requirement, and Sonique, BassBox and windows media player plugins are supported. You can select which visualization to show directly within GameEx and additional ones can be added in the media\visualizations folder. Fixes issue where audio would lose sync coming in and out of visualizing, and the whole process is much more seamless. When GameEx shows the currently playing track it will also show a visualization while in the menus. This is also now shown in all modules.
New screensaver mode to suspend the system.
Fixes issue where audio not working after a resume from suspend
GameEx will now detect gamepad attachment and removal
Gamepad POV support. Currently can only be customised via custominput.ini. Will be configurable via the setup wizard in the next release.
New setting to enable gamepad support just for activity checking. This allows gamepad detection for the screensaver and inactivity timer but ignores usage in the front end. If your using gamepads but using something like xpadder instead of the gameex support then turn this on.
Ive spent several days working on the video and dvd playtback resulting n the following fixes and enhancments:
Fixes DVD menu overlays not showing
On Vista and Windows 7 the Enhanced Video Renderer (EVR) is now used instead of VMR 9. This improves quality considerably on windows 7 as VMR 9 does not use any scaling filters on Win 7
When EVR is used 4:3 content on widescreen displays will be dynamically streteched as it reaches the edge of the display improving the viewing experience
Fixes mouse moving during playback
Fixes issue where 4:3 DVDs could not be stretched on widescreen displays
Improved memory usage
Responsivness improved
Removed old compatibilty code used for when Vista RTM was buggy with Aero Glass turned off. GameEx wil now run much better on Vista and Windows 7 if Aero not turned on
By default Gameex will use its own player for WMV files and not windows media player now. If you want to play DRM content there is a new setting to use windows media player
Fixes first preview video not playing if first item in the list when GameEx starts up
New startup animation for default theme
Fixes window animations not being restored on exit
Headkaze has been working hard on some nice enhancments to the Setup Wizard. They should hopefully be available soon
Spesoft Free Image Converter
Version 2.00 Released
Optical Character Recognition (OCR). Convert images into text files; with recognition performed after image processing to allow effects and resizing to improve accuracy.
I am pleased to release GameEx 10.24. I am now running a RTM of windows 7 ultimate x64 and I am pleased to report GameEx runs like silk on it. Significantly better then Vista and potentially XP. No changes were required.
Enhancments:
DVDs on Disk now features a resume option when returning to a movie
When playing videos and DVDs the window can now be resized without stopping playback
Snap images and preview videos are now loaded on a thread, providing smoother navigation
Faster brigtness adjustment (alpha blending) in 32 bit colour when playing preview videos as the background image
Slightly quicker startup and return from emulators
Changes:
New windows media center start page logo thanks to Alan Reddan
Pictures and videos now default to standard user documents paths for new installs
VMR9 now default for new installs
Detection if preview videos fail and turning off future previews
Fixes:
Fixes aspect ratio getting distorted in slideshows
Some image fille types not playing in slideshows
Fixes movie database info not showing for DVDs on Disk when video previews are off
Spesoft Free Audio Converter 1.9 has been released. It now converts a large collection of video game music files, including NES, SNES and Genesis/Megadrive. Get it here
Fixes various emulator database and map file matching issues
Improved caching of emulator databases. May result in speed increase
Due to the above emulator databases will recache on first run after installing this release
Setup Wizard now allows configuration of the three custom emulator artwork paths
When selecting to edit keyboard or joystick controls in the advanced config tool the setup wizard will now launch on the appropriate page to allow easier configuration
Key/Combo to toggle external sub titles. As per previous release audio and subtitle stream switching is now supported. Ill also be adding a pop up menu to the video/dvd player in a future release to simplify selection of audio streams, subtitles, zooming and dvd navigation.
New setting to allow turning off of the launching game dialog shown when running MAME and Daphne games
Thanks to Ben Baker with this release there is now support for switching subtitle and audio streams when using FFDSHOW. It should work automatically where appropriate, and is operated with the paging keys/combos. Page Up and Down for switching subtitles and Alpha Paging for changing audio streams. Ie button 1 and left and right. Also in this release is iTunes support. The iTunes library and playlists can now be used in GameEx if your using iTunes by setting the Jukebox mode to 'iTunes Library' as opposed to windows media player or file tags. Protected files are not supported, and it does take a little while to load up.
Font styles (bold, italic etc) are now implemented
The settings have been tidied up and now both the title font and main font can be changed seperatly
Emulator Databases
Lawrence has been diligently carrying on Flash's work on the databases, and updated and improved files are available with this release. Thanks Lawrence
To get the files do a manual install of GameEx and ensure to keep the database download option selected. As always GameEx will automatically upgrade
Other changes
Keyboard remapping now supports mouse buttons
After GameEx has launched something it now uses less cpu time when running in the background
Fixes error at end of install launching setup wizard when UAC is turned on
A new feature packed release bringing GameEx up to version 10.10.
GameEx now supports a movie database, and there is a new configuration tool included to add custom descriptions and box art for both videos and dvds. You can manually add your own detail and/or automatically download it. The online matching accuracy has been greatly improved also, meaning box art is much more likely to reflect your movies and the automatic download of descriptions is accurate.
Another multimedia enhancment is there is a new a big thumbnail view available.
For MAME support the emu map feature now allows setting game or types of games to run with different command line options avoiding the need to setup another emulator. New games not in MAME can also be added to the GameEx MAME list, and database information and descriptions can also be added. See the exsiting MAME Emu map support for instructions.
This release also contains the new rotate plugin by Headkaze, allowing those of you with hardware rotated monitors to get more use of GameEx.
Headkaze is also busy working on another great feature that should be available soon. This will allow login and logout of GameEx for different users, switchiing settings and data based on who's logged in. There is an initial release on the forum.
Spesoft is pleased to release their latest freeware software product - Spesoft Free Video to DVD.
Spesoft Video to DVD is free, fast, stable, easy to use software that allows you to convert various video formats to DVD video disk.
All common video file formats are supported and a single layer or dual layer dvd disk can be created at the quality level you specify.
Unlike some other software which you often have to pay for the application automatically detects aspect ratio, crops the source video, and can fix videos with the wrong aspect ratio.
A DVD can be created with optimum quality using the same quality as the source video.
A simple wizard interface guides you through the entire process of converting your video and writing it to a DVD.
With this release there is an official properly compiled lite version included. This has about 28% less code in it and just includes purely core game features. Everything else is removed including plugins and search. Themes are still supported. It should start up and run a fair bit faster. Its not for everyone, but should suit people just wanting gameex for games on older hardware. Because we now have a proper lite version and shortcuts to run GameEx in MAME only mode, the lite and MAME only options have been removed from setup package. This release hopefully also fixes an issue where directinput devices were not reacquired if lost.
Important: With this release I have had to disable the first type of GameEx keys that went out several years ago. If your affected please contact me to get a new key. You are still enittled to a key, just email me. I am sorry for the incovenience. If your email address has changed since you reigstered, I will need the paypal receipt, or else PM from the forum if the email address on the forum is the same as the registered one. Please email in the first instance and not PM. Paypal.com keeps history going back many years.
With this release there ia s a new GUI tool for the recent custom menus feature and a new setting for HTML applications to hide the GameEx interface if the app is for full screen video or a game.
Well, here it is folks - GameEx version 10. I wanted to do more for this release, but there will be more to come. Finally with this release probably the most requested feature is now available. Complete menu customization is now possible. Organize the layout, structure and appearance of the gameex pages, and create your own menu system. Unfortunatly there is no GUI tool for this yet, but I plan to work on one shortly. In addition, I have idiot proofed things a little. Errors with an emulator configuration are now reported directly in the front end, and when a theme wont load due to a resolution difference GameEx will switch to the default theme. GameEx will also search for a MAME executable if the path is correct but the executable is not. Finally theres vaiious minor bug fixes and optimizations.
GameEx 9.95 brings what I think is one of the nicest core features implemented in quite some time. Via en emulator map configuration file (available from the start menu group or in the config folder) specific mame games or mame game types can be configured to launch with other emulators in GameEx. Daphne is also supported. This I believe is similar in function to MultiMame. The feature is quite powerfull and should support any scenario where you wish to use an alternate version of MAME or a faster or woriking emulator. Also with this release the MAME list update has been optimized and is a fair bit faster. There is a new hibernate option on the exit menu, and a new custom input feature to allow shutdown or hibernate of the pc with a key combo. Finally the theme editor has been updated (thanks Ben) with a new option to hide the game info/selected item text. No April fools joke this year. Just a cool GameEx update.
Ive tried to perfect and optimize a few things with this release mainly the input system. There's also a new merge feature for lists.
Input:
ALL keyboard controls are now configurable, that means you can specifiy specific keys for volume and page up/down among others. This is of course welcome for control panels, but should also allow a wider range of remote controls to be used
Directions are now customizable for game pads. Useful for control panels and if you want to navigate the interface with a d pad
As with keyboard controls, now multiple buttons can be set to perform the same navigation functions with gamepads
The global gamepad exit combo is now read and set in custominput.ini instead of previously being fixed
If using an advanced emulator config, and not mapping the gamepad exit combo within that, GameEx will now check for the global exit combo
Merge feature:
There is a new merge feature for emulators that will list distinclty only one item for all clones with the same file name. When selecting the parent, the clones will be displayed on the info page. This can work in conjuction with the existing zip/7-zip support if wished. In addition Flag icons for merged and goodmerged games now work with NoIntro and Tosec format on the game info page
Other changes:
The MAME only mode now also allows access to favorites, last played, most played, and random game
Games Database at gamesdbase.com has been updated to include arcade games including content such as videos and manuals. In addition a substantial amount of game music has been added, and also more images for various systems.
GameEx now scans sub folders within a specified rom folder (AKA Roms in folders). In addition in order to clean things up slightly, offline list support has been removed (it didn't work anyway), and map files using the pipe seperator are no longer supported. The latter may break existing setups. The roms in folders is probably the oldest feature request for GameEx, so I hope that makes a few folks happy.
Spesoft is pleased to announce its latest in house project
and sister site Games Database.
Games Database is a site aimed at 30+ retro video game
enthusiasts, with a goal of being a repository for all available media and data
relating to video games.
You will find live on line videos for thousands of games.
As well as artwork, and information on games, their developers, publishers and
the systems they run on. It takes a slightly different approach from existing
games sites, with the data being based on emulation information, and available
media currently used with emulators and front ends. It also provides media such
as game manuals, system manuals and advertisements in a single site.
Visit the site at
http://gamesdbase.com and please spread the word about it. Due to the amount
of content, hosting is not cheap, so I would like the ad supported site to
become reasonably known.
In the near future the site will be expanded to become a
community and allow user interaction and contribution. Additional content is
also constantly being added.
Includes latest version of MAME high score support
Fixes create snaps option missing if using emulator groups
Fixes databases not selectable in setup wizard
Fixes advanced emulator configs retaining wrong information
Fixes encoded unicode characters in database descriptions
Fixes issue where a game first selected from most played, favorites or last played where the emulator has a database and is in a group shows the wrong game information
Also in this release is a new feature for registered users that allows auto exit of a game or application after a period of innactivity.
With perfect timing for the holidays, I am very pleased to release this
version of GameEx. It contains two major enhancements and various small fixes
and changes that I won't mention here.
First of all image lists have been implemented in GameEx. You can now view
game lists and other pages as an image list giving a thumbnail display. To
access the image list you need to be running a version 3 or 4 theme, and to
access the view either change in the configuration applications or hit the
Change View menu item. In this release the view is remembered for restart. I
think you will like this new feature, and I think it fits in really well with
GameEx. It should work well on both cabs and media centers, and it also looks
great when the display is rotated. It will display a thumb of videos, and will
cache this but it takes time to get the frame, so I recommend you ensure you
also have image based snaps setup for your systems and MAME.
The other improvement is enhanced database support. When on the game
information page, you are given menu options to find "more" games with the same
developer, year, or category. This effectively links all systems together, and
there is also now an All Games list available. Any database caching issues have
been resolved, and this really does make GameEx the ultimate repository for when
you have many systems.
Here are some notes from Flash on this new feature.
Along with the new improved game database support much work
has been done on the current databases to aid the overal functionality.
These databases have been improved/modified, some more than others.
Atari Jaguar (nearly complete)
Vectrex
Supergrafix
Pc Engine
Nintendo 64 (complete)
Super Nintendo
Nintendo Gameboy
Sega Saturn
Virtual Boy
Commodore 64 (very early stages, 20,000 games)
Sinclir ZX81 and Spectrum.
For these to work correctly they rely on your romsets to follow one of these
naming conventions, Tosec, No-Into, GoodName.
To go hand-in-hand with the new "More:" feature, both Publisher and Developer
fields have been modified across ALL databases. To make the matching easier
certain concessions have been made. Examples are: All Sony subdivisions are
listed as "Sony Computer Entertainment", Rockstar is just Rockstar Games (no
Rockstar North, Rockstar Tokyo, etc). You will see the reason for this when
using GameEx and this does make it a lot easier to bring up a FULL list of games
by a favorite Developer (I.e. Rare, Treasure) rather than having several entries
for the same developer. I hope this is acceptable to all as we felt that the
slight loss of software divisions far outweighed the benefits.
You will find that some games may not appear in the More: lists as expected.
This is not a fault with GameEx; but rather a problem of incomplete databases.
As the databases get more and more complete, the issue will become less and
less. When they are all done (and trust me - I am doing my best) all games will
match across the board including Publishers, Manufacturers, Years, Genres.
If you do find any genuine miss-information within the databases; please pm me,
I won't take offence and any help to get them closer to the overal goal would be
deemed a benefit by me.
Many thanks to flash for his diligent work on the databases, and also for his
testing and ensuring the quality of this release.
Thanks to Headkzae now features an advanced emulator configuration tool which can be accessed from either of the configuration utilities. It makes configuring advanced emulator ini files a lot easier and user friendly. Thanks Headkaze
The advanced configuration utility has been improved slightly to allow more emulator configs and an improved file and folder browse
Fixes emulators not running in the screensaver when MAME enabled
Fixes issue with most played list
Fixes the broken music playlist feature, which is used for just playing a simple playlist throughout GameEx when the jukebox is disabled
Latest version of HiToText.exe. Now supports clones. Thanks Fyrecrypts, NOP and Headkaze
Improved speed loading emulators and databases once cached. Note the first time they are accessed GameEx will recache and this may take a few minutes if you have a lot of systems setup
New cmd line option and item in program group to run GameEx with only MAME support, turning everything else off. - mame
GameEx now features simple to use ISO mounting support
To enable it it needs to be selected during install of GameEx. It has been
bundled with the install Karaoke option. Just select the checkbox on install.
DVDs on disk now support ISOs for both the internal and any external player. If
using windvd9 as an external player BluRay ISO images will play. You don't need
to do anything special to use the ISO support with DVDs on disk. Just set the
paths as normal, and ensure ISO support is installed.
For Emulators its now very simple to have mounting support.
Assuming your files for the emulator are ISOs just add [-VIRTUALDRIVE-] to the
emulator command line setting to tell GameEx it should just mount the image.
That's it, no more complicated launch before and launch after scripts.
Example: unz.exe -fs[-VIRTUALDRIVE-]
If you wish to put the drive letter of the mounted image into the command line
use [VIRTUALDRIVE] ie without the dashes.
Example: powerdvd.exe [VIRTUALDRIVE]:\
Ive updated all the default emulator configs to use the new in built support.
The feature also supports BIN and CUE files for emulators.
Now has high score support for supported MAME games thanks to Fyrecrypts project. For supported games and if enabled you will see an option on the game info page to show high scores for a game. For more info on the project please see Here on BYOAC. Feel free to get involved in the project. There's a few of us helping out, and Ill be providing some hosting for it shortly. A special thanks to Fyrecrypts, NOP and Headkaze.
Improved control support when playing videos in the video player. Fixes a key repeating issue, and video skips are now a more friendly 20 seconds instead of 30
Improved support for displaying GameEx on a secondary display. GameEx will now run in ful screen windowed mode on the secondary display, and continue to be accessible when working on the primary display. Im assuming this is going to be better for everyone, but if it's a problem for you please let me know on the forums.
Lots of improvements and fixes here. Now supports the favorites,
most played, and last played list along with the game information page.
A MAME list update can be performed, and the issue with custom mame
lists is resolved. The presentation of the list over the background snap
or video has also been greatly improved.
Hiding windows:
When hiding the taskbar GameEx will also hide the start button on
Vista Systems.
When the desktop is set to be hidden, GameEx will also turn off
window animations, so launching between games and returning to GameEx is
now totally seemless.
The Hide Desktop setting is now on by default on new installs.
If the GameEx process is unexpectedly ended and the desktop is not
restored, GameEx will restore the wallpaper on next launch.
Smooth as silk:
Transitions have been improved. The 2D transition is now a little
slower and smoother, and GameEx will load the first snap or video in the
next list while the list is off screen. This makes everything look
really nice, especially on HD displays.
Skinning extensibility:
GameEx now supports snap/video logos for categories, manufacturers,
and years. These should be placed in a folder named 'database' within
the Themes logo folder.
Transparant (Color Keyed) video logos are now supported. Simply
suffix an AVI or MNG filename with '_TRANS' (before extenstion)
I look forward to seeing what people come up with.
Screensaver:
The screensaver will now run even if not using MAME.
Fixes turn off display screen saver mode
MAME Support:
Extra formatting is performed on the Manufacturer list to group
companies together. For example Atari and Atari games becomes Atari. A
list update is required.
Also in this release:
New GameEx ICON
Fixes key/joystick repeat issue.
New cmd line option -glaunch to launch GameEx in GameLauncher mode.
There is also a shortcut in the program group.
Turning off Anti Alias on fonts now does just that and not set it at
the system default.
I've just launched a GameEx novelty store here: www.cafepress.com/gameex. Get your GameEx T-Shirts, Mugs etc and other novelties. You won't find GameEx beer or a GameEx ash tray, but just about everything else is there.
To celebrate the 4th birthday of GameEx, and to make sure you can still have fun in these difficult times, the standard registration price of GameEx has been slashed to 13 pounds (approx $23 dollars) until the end of November 2008. Hopefully better times will be with us soon, but in the meantime get it while its hot! Not only are you getting a feature rich and unique product with a huge amount of time and creativity put into it, your also supporting the author and community.
The speed of loading databases and emulators once cached has been significally improved
It should have been mentioned in the previous release, but also with this release, the first time a game information page is displayed all emulators and databases will be recached once only. This can take upto 20 minutes, and is due to the new other systems feature. However once cached, access will be quick now.
The other systems feature has been fixed for when used with .7z and .zip support and is also presented in a better way
The install now includes the most recent version of Karaoke for DirectX. You will need to install this for zip support
Headkaze has updated his LED/LCD plugin to 2.82, and this release contains it.
Here is what's new. - Split all the input codes into an external folder like CPWizard
- Faster ini file routines
- Added an "Input Form" now when you enter input codes for your "LED Input Map" pressing the "..." button allows you to enter input codes from your joystick or keyboard
- Can now save more custom speech sayings
New feature that lists and allows selection of other systems that a game will run on on the game information page. The list of 'other systems' is displayed when appropriate for MAME and other emulated systems. Im guessing its another first for front ends
When in the jukebox you can get lyrics for the currently playing track thanks to lyricwiki.org. To access the 'get lyrics' feature, select the 'playlist / more' menu item
I would also like to take this opportunity to again thank Flash and Headkaze for there work on the databases. They have both contributed a great deal
A special thanks also to Brian Hoffman who always seems to have my back on the forums
- "LED's Off When Game is Run" option is now working
- "Use GameEx Profile in List" option added. When viewing games in a list it will now show the default emulator profile unless this option is selected in which case it will show the GameEx default profile.
- "Light Game Buttons in List" will turn off lighting the game buttons while scrolling through a list and show the default emulator profile or the GameEx default profile depending on how the "Use GameEx Profile in List" option is set.
The media library module has been improved to allow viewing a slide show and one click queuing of all audio in a folder
There is a new setting which is on by default, where GameEx will check for DVD/CD or removable drive insertion, and ask if you wish to play a dvd, cd or browse the contents with the media library upon insertion of the media. Windows may steel focus from GameEx if its set to do things on media insertion so if you want to use this feature where GameEx is pretty much all that's run on the machine then you should turn this off in windows.
Fixes slide show transitions showing wrongly
BIOS images are now automatically filtered in the MAME list
Fixes Mr Driller not playable with Zinc
Manx TT added to model 2 support
Fixes back naviation issue when using emulator databases
Thanks to Flash new ScummVM database and configuration. Note: A manual install is required to get updated databases now and in the future
Updated to latest Bass audio libraries
GameEx will now properly resume from a system suspend/stand by
New options to use an external DVD software for Playing a DVD and DVDs on disk. This was put in place primarily for WinDVD 9 because of its great upscaling features
Fixes crash issue in Karoake when pressing left or resume
This release contains changes to the GameEx install. The emulator databases are now a separate download but by default downloaded with the install. There is also an offline version on the download page. The MCE glossy theme has been removed from the install and moved to the default theme downloads. Again this is downloaded and installed by default as usual with the install, and there is an offline install on the site. The old default theme has been removed entirely. This brings gameexsetup.exe down to 15mb. Also in this release are minor fixes to themes, and duplicate list items are now removed when using emulator groups.
This release, with thanks to Headkaze completes the version 4 theme implementation with support for foreground images that overlay the background and snaps. Im quite exctied to see what new themes people come up with, so in order to offer a little motivation there will be a competition until end of september for the best themes. The top 5, and we may not even get that many, will get a GameEx license and EmuMovies lifetime FTP access. Upload your completed themes to the main site, and then post on the forum under the Theme Competition thread. If you need to make changes to your upload just contact me.
New touchscreen input setting, for running GameEx in a touchscreen setup. It is recommended to use version 3 or 4 themes when using a touchscreen and turning this setting on
This is a major release and would not have been possible without the hard work of Flash (AKA GreatGlash) and Headkaze.
The changes are fully listed below but the two big enhancments are that now version 4 themes have been fully implemented, giving GameEx powerfull skinning capabilites that we would have all liked from the beginning. The Theme Editor has been updated thanks to the hard work of Headkaze.
In addition database support has been greatly improved within GameEx and Flash has very kindly updated 90% of the databases with the following been completely finalised - Saturn, Colecovision, PC-FX, Dreamcast, and a brand new Future Pinball database. Flash was also instrumental in fixing and perfecting the database support in GameEx.
Version 4 themes
Theme Editor version 2
Support second image
Run at any reslution with rescaling
Convert between all theme versions and resize. The Theme Editor will now allow you to create a new version of and convert any existing GameEx theme.
Databases
Includes Flash's new dbases.
New Biography page when using v3/v4 themes
When loading databases (for the fist time, prior to caching), GameEx will try an exact match of the rom first before trying with removed brackets and removed version number etc.
Setting in advanced config to use the name field from the database instead of the formatted rom name. If on this will override a pre set map file.
Fixes various database issues
Emulator Groups now fully support databases
Fixes all known issues with database support
Fixes/Changes
Please wait animation now shows when extracting games when using zip/7-zip support.
Fixes to snap matching
Several Performance/Caching enhancements
Fixes bug when pressing maximize button on window for second time.
Fixes issue where emulator list and database wouldn't use cache when using 7-zip/zip support
Smoother display/animations on slower systems. Please report issues.
Fixes Videos/DVD/Karaoke playing on primary monitor when set to run on secondary
As always feedback and requests are actively encouraged.
Thanks to the hard work of Flash and Headkaze for providing the tools, the first of the updated databases using the new format are in this release. These are for the Sega Saturn and NEC PC-FX
I realised today that the MAME manufacturer list and filter had really become a useless feature due to the huge amount of MAME games now supported and the data accuracy issues in the MAME XML output. Therefore GameEx now performs formating on the Manufacturer, resulting in less manufacturers in the list and more games grouped under each one as well as fixing the data accuracy issues in recent MAME builds. This results in a smaller list making the feature once again worth having hopefully. An update list is required
Changes:
For new installs by default GameEx will not set the resolution to 800x600 but will use the current windows desktop resolution. This is to provide a better initial experience for new users, and should only be a problem on really low end machines set at high resolutions
There is a slight change to the 2d animations. Hopefully for the better. Feedback welcome
When choosing the Lite or MAME only option on install, ebooks and search will be disabled. The theme is set at Media Center instead of MCE Glossy
Fixes:
GameEx should be more usable in touch screen setups as the issue where clicking the page down error did not return focus to the list from the menu with the default V3 themes is fixed
Fixes issue where the menu would not be visible after updating the MAME list
Fixes ICONS only being created on a restart when the first MAME list update is done
Includes Ben Baker's (AKA Headkaze) latest LCD/LED Plugin now featuring support for Ultimarcs latest product, the U-HID
Initial support for the new database project. With support for new naming fields, ability to select naming type, and new biography page in GameEx
Emulator list music playlist option now stops playing the music when exiting from browsing the emulator
Fixes issue where reading audio tags information would hang GameEx on Vista. This affected using the Jukebox in file tag mode and when using emulator specific playlists
Fixes issue where zip support would only list more than one game in the same zip if there were three or more separate games
A very special thanks goes out to Headkaze and Greatflash and all involed in the new database project.
The Bespoke Arcades Apex machine with a custom GameEx setup developed by us, was on UK's Channel Five Gadget show tonight. The Apex was compared to to two other machines, including a MegaTouch, and was voted best product of the three hands down. For more information on GameEx please visit gameex.net. If you would like to include the GameEx front end with your arcade product like our other partners, please contact us.
Album and DVD artwork downloading is working again. It needed to be rewritten to work with Amazon's latest API as the older API is no longer active
In addition album artwork is also now downloaded when GameEx starts playing a new track and for each track played as well as just downloading when viewing a track or album in the list in the Jukebox
Fixes Gamelauncher theme not loading
Minor fixes to the fix to emulator list feature
Theres a new quality setting for eBooks and comics, giving the opporutinity to use a normal quality setting and have them load up faster
3D menu transitions can now be used on Vista and with version three themes
An item has been added to the FAQ which explains what to do if your not getting SPDIF passthrough when playing DVDs
This is a major release, and features a new user interface also known as version 3 themes
The aim is to improve on the initial GameEx interface, offering things such as album and track display, two artwork previews at the same time, and a horizontal menu
The user interface will be expanded in the future to allow positional skinning and image lists
Most of the default themes have been changed, but the original version 1 themes are still available
Ben Baker AKA Headkaze has also been working extremely hard and this release contains his brand new ultrastick 360 plugin along with an update to the LCD/LED plugin now supporting BetaBrite USB
This release fixes horrizontal DVD menu navigation, along with Daphne games not being able to be added to favorites
When GameEx is windowed, the position and moving has been improved on non Vista Systems
New feature to use Ben Bakers CPWizard instead of the in built control panel viewer. Yourll find the settings for this under Advanced MAME settings. Please support Ben and his great software.
When using ZIP support for an emulator, if only one file is matched in the archive the game information page will act as it normally does and will show Play This Game instead of listing the contents of the archive
When browsing folders, you can now show an image for the folder by placing a folder.png or folder.jpg in it
Fixes Karoake and video player in some configurations
Contains Ben Bakers LCD/LED Plugin latest version
Fixes performance issue with videos/snap videos playing as the background image on Vista or with ATI cards when Videos are set to alpha blend
Slightly quicker startup speed
UNC paths are now supported throughout the application
When viewing by system in favorites the system image will now be displayed
For registered users 7-Zip support has been extended to support zip files. Allowing zip support in emulators that don't support zips
Flag ICONS are now shown when listing 7-zip goodmerge files on the game information screen
Fixes memory leak when launching MAME with the Bypass setting turned on. This could stop GameEx working after a couple of days of continuously launching games (eg screensaver). Therefore its recommended to update to this version
The default game pad exit combination has been changed to also include button 1
When map files are used fixes gameex displaying the rom name instead of the game name throughout the application
Fixes aspect ratio for video previews
Fixes issue where creating snaps would only create for the last played games
Create snaps now also works for goodset 7zip setups
Startup videos (if AVI, or MPEG) now play on a thread and GameEx continues to startup in the background
The last played icon on the start page has been changed to show the snap or video of the last played game
All applications are now signed (I missed a few previously)
GameExtender viewer has been improved to show status text when connecting, and It will now longer stop responding if it cant connect
GameExtender Viewer has also been improved to fade in new images
Fixes GameExtender server not sending control panel image when a MAME game is playing. GameExtender server has also been improved so when actually playing a game artwork will be sent as full scnreen images
There should be quicker return from games on most systems, due to some additional graphics caching
Ten more emulator slots in advanced configuration application, and this release fixes the crash when trying to import an emulator without selecting one
All emulator configs now have Show Desktop on as default
Fixes Visual Pinball and Project 64 Configs
The hot key to rotate the display has been changed from TAB to CTRL-TAB
There are also lots of other small fixes in this release
Id be very interested to hear peoples experiences with GameExtender on the forum
I am very pleased to announce GameEx has partnered with EmuMovies.com, the no.1 source for video game artwork. We have decided to join forces and deliver both products to you at a substancial saving. When you register for the full version of GameEx you will automatically be eligible to purchase EmuMovies products at a 25%-50% saving over the normal prices. For more information on EmuMovies.com please give them a visit.
Fixes background videos not playing if the theme has anibak turned on (slightly animated backgrounds)
Fixes issue where all video previews could be alphablended. Ths might involve a good performance increase on some systems
Fixes having background videos makes gameex not startup
Fixes several directdraw erros that could cause gameex to error and finish
Drawing text to the display has been optimized a little
An automatic optimisation is performed by GameEx on systems that are running slowly after a period of time to turn off AniBak
Hopefully GameEx will run on more systems now, and Ill see a few less error reports coming in
Also contains updated Italian translation by sbaby
There will also be two new themes available shortly with fixed video backgrounds that will only work best with this release and going forward thanks to the fixes. They will be uploaded shortly. COM and Abyss
This version introduces a "last played" module/list. Similar to most played but listing games you played in order of when you last played them.
There are also updates to the code that handles videos previews. Hopefully for the better, but if you encounter any problems with video previews or snaps please advise
GameEx will no longer start the screensaver if its minimized. For when you just want to listen to music in a non cab or non HTPC setup.
The install will no longer overwrite unltrastick.ini
For registered users GameEx now features a fully functional search feature. Allowing searching of all games and media. The search feature works with remotes, game pads and arcade controls.
The media library now allows access to ebooks and Karaoke
The paging arrows are now more inuiitive and display based on the state of the list. They also animate slightly when first shown
The displaying of the amount of items in the list is now slightly animated when switching between lists
The number of items is now shown for an emulator or emulator group before accessing the list item
GameEx will retain the window state after an update instead of being forced into full screen
Fixes snap videos not being displayed when navigating from most played or favorites
New setting to lock down GameEx to only work with a single emulator or emulator group. All other menus are disabled
Fixes emulator music playlist folder when only one file in folder
Nologic from the community has been dligently working on expanding the emulator support in GameEx, with various default configurations, loaders and map files. He has taken on the not slight goal of 'getting every emulator to work in GameEx'. This release contains all his work to date and with this makes it a lot simpler to setup over 135 different systems. Thank you Nologic.
Also contains Headkazes latest LCD/LED plugin, which is probably the best of its kind out there. Thank you Headkaze
This release should also fix GameEx not running on windows 98 and ME
MAME Bezels are no longer a registered version feature
New feature to display game information and rating bezels for the screensaver. This looks really nice, and you can thank Headkaze for this.
Updated model 2 support to work with latest version. GameEx will also detect whether to use the multi cpu version automatically
IMPORTANT: Older versions of the model 2 emulator prioir to commnad line support are NO longer supported. GameEx will detect an old version at startup, and exit with an error to that affect if it finds one.
Basic control panel support for emulators has been implemented. You can specify an image folder for control panels now. If GameEx finds an image based on name, you will get a view controls option on the game info page, and same as for MAME GameEx will show the image for 9 seconds when launching a game. I don't forrsee expanding on this much, and if you want better control panel support I recommend using Headkaze's CPWizard.
When playing radio stations GameEx now shows the track/title information when available
Should fix array bounds error on startup when using GameLauncher mode
Fixes theme editor menu/info positioning issue
I'd like again to thank the GameEx community for al there hard work and support, and wish you all Happy Holidays
New Media Library. The Media library brings all your pictures, videos and audio together in one place. It can also be used as an alternative to the jukebox by allowing you to view your music by folder and filename. Registered version feature.
New jukebox queue mode setting, to allow disabling of queuing tracks when clicked and making them instantly play.
Initial support for Unicode languages such as Japanese has been implemented
Fixes picture slideshows not playing when 3d transitions used
Fixes please wait animation showing in wrong position when display rotated on Vista
Updated shoutcast radio stations for registered users.
The GameEx community has been very busy and with thanks to forum members LB11, PimpDaddyStu, BKenobi and NoLogic this release of GameEx contains all new replacement game databases as well as various new ones
Headkaze has been busy too, and this release contains his LCD/LED Plugin version 2.31 which also includes updated colors.ini thanks to DaveMMR from the BYAOC forums
Since the databases have come on leaps and bounds I have implemented an addition to when browsing by category so you can now select games based on number of players
Now includes Ben Baker's (AKA Headkaze) LCD/LED Plugin Version 2. This is probably the most complete plugin of its type in any of todays front ends. Its pretty new and cutting edge, so please report any problems on the forum. Also, please show your support for Ben, maybe donations, and even feedback and recognition goes a long way.
This replaces the version 1 plugin, so if you were using that you will need to reconfigure
New input setting, to enable/disable jumping in the lists by keying first letter of items. Useful for certain arcade controls, so it does not happen inadvertedly when pressing a button or control
New spanish translation by Manual A. Many thanks
Added Brazlilian Portuguese and Dutch to language selections in Setup Wizard
For custom keyboard input, multiple keys can now be assigned to the same function. This is accomplished by edited custominput.ini and seperating multiple key codes with the pipe symbol
New audio setting for Jukebox startup. It is now possible to disable the Jukebox automatically queuing your entire library and starting playing upon initial loading
Spesoft Backup provides you with a fast, powerful, stable and robust way to allow you to backup changes to a folder to another folder, network location or FTP site. It will also produce a command line to run the job again or automatically for scheduling.
This feature completely changes the way the user interface works is controlled and displays. It puts GameEx into a simple game mode, with simpler menus, simpler navigation, sinply navigating through your available game lists. Many of the menus are disabled by turning on this setting, and only games lists are available. Navigation is much simpler with paging by pressing left or right, and button 1 and 2 navigate the available lists. Button3 launches game. Recommended for simple cab setups, where you want to lock things down or its for young children. It also supports low resolutions such as 320X240.
Small screensaver stability fixes
GameEx setup will now automatically detect old version of MDAC (Micrsoft data access components), and download and install latest version. This is for Windows 98 and Windows 2000.
It wont be for everyone, but the Gamelauncher feature turns GameEx into an almost completely different front end.
Its like the original GameLauncher app, but with the power and advanced configuration of GameEx. I already credit Dave Dribin for helping inspire me with GamEx, but hats off to the original Game launcher
New, improved and completely redesigned GameEx web site. The site is now a portal, and aimed at supporting and promoting the GameEx community in a better way
GameEx now has accurate frame skipping (as opposed to not accurate), and now automatically reduces cpu utilisation based on ticks per frame and refresh rate
The reduce cpu utilisation setting has been removed from the configuration since its now automatic
If you really need this setting back, let me know
Also let me know what kind of CPU utilisation your getting, its on the gentle side to keep the fps up but DO let me know if you get any slowdowns.
When an unhandled error occurs, you will have the option to email me the log file. It can be turned off easily, and you can also set it to always submit error reports. By default it will ask.
It may not seem much from these release notes, but theres a lot of code gone into this release
Finally with help from Headkaze the Sendkeys used in GameEx is now fully stable and improved. It works better and fixes crashes in windows and gameex when sending keys to an emulator from GameEx and when sending keys on exit via an advanced config file
On the subject of advanced config files, 12 gamepad buttons are now supported, and there's a new section for remapping keys similar to AutoHotKey. Its not quite good enough for realtime gaming but is meant to cover the common issue of when credit and start buttons cant be redefined in PC games, and avoids the need for additional autohotkey scripts in that scenario. Its not far off realtime and does handle simultaneous keys, and Im pretty certain I can get it realtime in a future release
New database driven favorites and statistics. This will improve stability, reliability, validation and integrity of your game data
The data will be automatically be upgraded, but you will loose any stored video aspects
This is going to be much better going forward
There's new viewable statistics in GameEx for registered users and these are also available from GameExtender
Much faster and enhanced 7-ZIP support, GameEx will only extract the entire archive when launching, in the menu the files in the archive are just listed
Fixes two launching emulator stability issues, that address a windows error and gameex closing (not showing gameex log)
Fixes and improved m4a audio support
Updated model 2 loader script by Ben Baker for latest version of the emu
New "Emulator Groups" feature. This allows several emulators to be in one list
Fixes show info page setting for emulators
New emulator setting to not have an emulator launched from random game, and not display in most played. Useful if you've set up an emulator to launch a comic viewer or picture viewer etc
Emulator also launch setting now allows passing of GameEx variables such as [ROMDIR] and [ROMFILE]
For registerd users: CD/DVD support. GameEx can check for CDs and prompt for insertion. Allowing protected retail games to be integrated into the front end, and allowing access to offline content.
Fix to autoupdate. Will no longer reset language back to English
Happy easter and thank you for all your continued encouragment and support. Enjoy!
Now that video previews play a lot better in GameEx, I've implemented what I think is an awesome feature, and that is GameEx can now preview your actual video/movies
Its on by default, although I recommend it only for modern systems (dual core etc)
The setting is under multimedia in the advanced config if you don't like it and want to turn it off. Although I'm loving it here!
Windowed mode in Vista Aero is enhanced and no longer shuts down Aero
Cosmetic enhancments to the user interface when showing game info header, it fades.
Title toolbar auto scrolls out and hides with V1 themes when mouse not active, when set to always show
Fixes list issues after selecting play random videos
Fixes issue with not able to disable screensaver in some cases
Create snap on thread feature has been removed
New theme included "Media Center" and is the default
When playing a video or DVD windows screensaver is disabled
Full support for HTML apps in Vista
More responsive when playing videos or dvd's
The MAME list update is much more system friendly, and will allow you to do other things on your PC while its running, and no black screen when in full screen and alt tabbing out
Fixes volume control with SlikStik and DirectInput
Thanks to Headkaze - Theme Editor 1.76. It supports custom layouts for the different modules, but I still need to implement this in GameEx.
Should fix text being truncated in V2 themes when game list is shown on the left of the screen
Window Maximize button enabled when GameEx is displaying in a window
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New settings to change resoluton and refresh rate based on frame rate of DVDs and Videos
When GameEx is windowed it will now only draw to the screen when it has focus.
New setting to make the menu text same size as the game text. To turn on in theme.ini use MenuTextSameSize=False. This is a very welcome feature for low resolutions on cabs.
New theme.ini setting GradientTitleFont=True. And LowerCaseTitleFont. Look at the new Media Center theme for example
New functionality to be able to stop and start Jukebox with gamepad, keyboard and arcade controls
3D transitions are slightly faster and improved
Updated MCE Glossy theme for widescreen usage
The GameEx display main loop may run a little faster
For all you theme creators out there, custom layouts are now implemented for emulators. Sorry it took me a while to do this. Have fun, lets see what you can do!
Should fix any outstanding issues with updating the MAME list
Snap images/ICONS are now supported for custom MAME lists
Includes Ben's LCD Plugin 1.68.Beta. Read more about it on the forums.
Minor updates to the setup wizard and theme editor. Thanks again to Ben Baker for his continued hard work and support
I'm pleased to present the first GameEx release of 2007. There has been a lot of fixes and optimisations and the entire project has been upgraded to .net framework 2.0. Because of .net 2.0, auto update will not work until you upgrade manually to this version or future versions. You obviously need .net 2.0 installed but the setup will automatically download it for you.
The main new features and enhancments are as follows:
Setup wizard now features a search for setting feature.
Includes Ben Bakers LCD/LED Plugin
Plugin system 1.3 with included .net 2.0 source code templates
Speech plugin now speaks game descriptions
New plugn - random arcade sound
For registered users theres a PDF game manual viewer for MAME and emulators
New setting to disable the game information page at the emulator level
New setting to have gameex not hide the windows taskbar
Picture and slideshows now show the GameEx toolbar when the mouse is active
The progress dialog bar when playing videos and dvds now takes up less screen space
GameEx should startup and run faster
Fixes menu crash issue with certain themes
Fixes games not launching when game information page is disabled in certain configurations
Fixes display issues with certain fonts
There's more but that's the main changes
Coming soon is search functionality and a new additional theme/interface style.
I would like to again thank Ben Baker for his continued help and support.
Note: If your upgrading from a previous version and get an exception when running GameEx or at the end of the install. Delete any files ending in .exe.config from the gameex installl directory (normally c:\program files\gameex)
New Plugin included, Just for fun and the source code is included. Small tribute to Dig Dug
Theres a new setting - cab control friendly. This makes navigation of the user interface easier when using sensitive joysticks and gamepads. With this turned on, controls have to be held down to navigate left and right. So it should resolve accidentily navigating outside the game list or menus. Something I should have done a long time ago. I am sure some people did not use GameEx in their cab because of that
Optimisations
Lots of optimisations in this release
GameEx starts up quicker uses less memory and may run a little quicker
The configuration application starts up and runs significantly faster
The gameex install should finish installation quicker
Fixes
Fixes English (Default) selection missing from install in recent versions
Fixes to emulator caching. This should fix all issues with lists not refreshing and changes to settings not taking affect
There are three new plugins included and a new plugin manager application
There is a caller ID plugin and a password exit plugin both by Ben Baker
In addition a simple speech plugin which speeks the names of games is included
If you can code in .net you too can get involved, and this is something that I plan to extend to be able to allow complete modules to be coded for GameEx
A big thanks to Ben Baker who helped me imensly with all this and still is. Ben is also working on a LedWiz and LCD plugin that should be available shortly
For registered users there's enhanced internet radio with shoutcast browsing, 1000's of stations, and a favorites manager
GameEx setup wizard 1.52 by Ben Baker
Fixes prompting to update the game list everytime a configuration setting is changed
Fixes volume up for SlikStik users
Should hopefully fix create MAME videos for some users
The final stages of the GameEx install should now be quicker
After a lot of googling and research and a few sleepless nights and damn hard work, I figured how to build a streaming mp3 server in vb.net using a variation of the shoutcast protocol, tweaked slightly so the streams should download from a web browser. The good news is I have saved you all the hassle of figuring this work out your self. So if you're fatigued trying to do this in .net you've reached a good place. The project is a visual studio .net 2003 project and in vb.net. It includes everything you need including the lame encoding exe, bass dll's and my own vb.net bass library (including source code). It's not commented or perfect, but it should save you an infinite amount of work if your trying to do something like this.
Besides from the source code, its actually a pretty good application in itself, and with a few clicks you can stream your mp3/ogg audio files over a LAN, WAN or the internet.
Spesoft ShoutOff is a high quality freeware application that allows browsing, playing and recording of shoutcast radio stations. It is completely configurable, supports recording at any quality to ogg and mp3. Its fast and easy to use although is completely configurable. Has support for automatic online shoutcast directory updates and product updates direct from Spesoft. It is intuitive i.e. can play your last station on start-up. It supports favourites. Automatically filters shoutcast stations to only list high bit rate stations.
Updates and enhancments to the GameEx setup wizard.
Many thanks to everyone in the community who has provided feedback on the new addition so far.
As well as thanking Headkaze again, I wanted to mention what I neglected to last time and that is a huge thanks to Adultry for providing all the emulator configurations
A new innovation in gaming frontends - The GameEx setup wizard allows wizard style configuration, download, setup of GameEx, MAME, emulators and all your media needs.
This makes the setup of GameEx even easier than it ever it was.
Now the gaming frontend with the most complex backend and amount of features, is probably now the easiest to setup and use.
The GameEx setup wizard is entirely the work of Ben Baker (AKA Headkaze).
You should get this version of GameEx as soon as you can.
Please give feedback and ask questions about this new addition to GameEx on the GameEx forums.
My thanks, gratitude and admiration go out to Ben.
The rom filter setting now works with emulators setup with GoodMerge 7-zip. You don't need to set the rom filter as *.7z, if you do it will list all unzipped contents, same as *.* So you can set it to what to filter on the unzipped contents such as *.bin.
Fixes CD-Player and CD-Ripper due to a missing file in the install
Most recently played emu games shown at the top of the list now show database info at the top of the screen if available
Create emulator snaps now works when emulators are setup as goodmerge 7-zips
Fixes to auto updater which will take affect for future versions
I recommend doing a manual download and install from the GameEx web site for this version if updating
First off I highly recommend upgrading to this release.
If you installed one of the buggy versions last week it really is a must
Ive removed the load emulators in background scenario and instead implemented really good caching of the emulator lists. This is a hugely better thing, and Im really pleased with it
The jukebox when used in File Tag mode also now uses hugely better caching techniques, and should load in seconds even when you have 10s of thousands of files (assuming you have not added files)
Fixed font caching issue when switching between full screen and windowed
Fixed Export to MCE putting GameEx in infinite loop
Various code changes, optimisations and caching implemented which should normally mean much quicker startup and returning from games
Loading radio stations in the background is now optional
GameEx can now load the emulator lists and databases in the background on a thread. This is turned on by default, and should be fine for HT or dual core PCs, but if you have an older system you might need to turn it off. Im not sure Im only able to test on high end equipment at the moment
Emulators with databases should now load quicker.
I think anyone who has ever been ticked off with loading or return times is gonna absolutely love this release. Enjoy the weekend folks.
Various optimizations and non cosmetic fixes that may make GameEx run a little a faster, startup faster and return from games a little faster. Please let me know if you notice improvements
Fixes games missing from the end of emulators lists
The last and most played games now only show at the top of an emulator list if theres more than 25 items
Radio stations now load on a thread, so there is no waiting or long pause when loading stations. They will start to play when complete
For non theme editor themes theres an additional animation when an item is selected on the first start page where the selected item zooms in a little
GameEx will not exit with an error if an emultor is not setup correctly but will just disable the emulator and log the error
When paging through long lists after a while GameEx will start paging two pages at a time
A small freeware program to allow complete control of windows media center with a gamepad or joystick.
The application runs in the background as a tray ICON, automatically detects connected devices, and buttons can be completely configured.
Practically all Windows Media functions can be performed, including launching the program.
Theres now an option to play DVDs with VMR 9. If DVDs wont play and you have a modern system, try this setting. Its better anyway. If Ive broken DVD for others please report. It is possible as Im not an expert with DirectShow in C++.
The unnoficial setting to relax rotation restrictitions now works with dynamic rotation
Fixes ICONS not showing in MAME game lists
Theres a new LCD Plugin version, with the the following enhancments
Can show Game Category
Can show Game Manufacturer
Shows MAME controls when available
Shows information at game playing in attract mode
Ive turned auto update back on, if your using a version prior to 5.36 yourll get an error. Sorry, theres nothing I can do about it. Yourll have to do a manual install.
New feature - ability to export all favorites, most played, and external applications to windows media center.
The games run straight from MCE but using the GameEx engine to avoid audio and video conflicts, and allowing return to MCE when the green button is pressed and ability to exit with the remote.
Two new settings (on by default) that change MAME and emulator games shown in the lists beginning with The to be renamed as "Game Name, The. E.g "The Empire Strikes Back" gets renamed for display to "Empire Strikes Back, The" and appears under E in the list instead of T.
These releases are to do with the GameExtender functionality which I still have more big plans for.
If you didnt know GameExtender is the name for the networking side of GameEx.
As the first post of the year states, theres going to be a lot more going on with this functionality in the future
The latest installment of this is an option (turned on by default) to publish what your cab or HTPC is doing to the gameex web site. Check out the live page at gameex.net
I realise its a bit self indulgdment of me to have this turned on by default, and I apologise for that. Although hopefully yourll all mostly like it
You can change the user name thats displayed and the message thats displayed under the GameExtender settings in the config
You can also turn off the publish to server option if you dont want to participate in this. Although rest assured no info is collected.
Anyway I have more plans for GameExtender but dont like commiting to things as regulars know as its less fun for me that way.
Default themes updated to fix one of the version 2 themes stopping media center from closing
The logging has been optimized, and some other optimisations have been done at initilisation, so GameEx should now startup quicker
Most of the scanning for files and folders has been optimised, meaning DVD lists, Karaoke, Emulators, and Jukebox when in tag mode should all load up a fair bit quicker. This will likely be very noticable when your content is on remote computers
Main point of this version is to improve on performance and resources use
The theme picker now displays the name of the theme only without starting with "Default - " in front
When viewing a picture in the pictures module, you can now navigate to next and previous pictures by pressing the arrow keys
GameEx will now dynamically rotate the display when the TAB key is pressed (assuming not running windowed and resolution is low enough)
GameEx will not automatically filter the list for Vertical only games when rotated, but use the Show Horiz/Vert setting in the config to decide. Theres now an additional option to make this automatic based on the orientation of the display
New menu option to launch the Screensaver at any time
A much requested feature - the ability to navigate jukebox tracks backwards and forwards when the screensaver is running
Fixes some themes crashing when launching a game or upating the list
Fixes possible crash and other issues when using a custom video or image background for an emulator
Fixes More Games & Programs not showing in recent versions for some users
Automatic updates has a new option to just prompt when a new version is available and ask if it should be downloaded. This is now the default setting
For when GameEx is running on a cab or TV for days, GameEx will check for updates once a day. So you can do an automatic update without having to restart
Fixes issue where Jukebox in windows media mode would not scan and list FLAC files
A few other things under the hood to make my life easier
There was still an issue with the only working setting, this going back several versions. Its definitely fixed now, but if your upgrading do an update list again.
The Only Working option was making the Screensaver only play non working games! This is now fixed.
Music tracks now free memory.
New option to not have the screensaver play clones (which is now default). Music play list now loads on a thread, so does not interfere with the screensaver, and the screensaver will run straight away.
The GameEx download has been reduce by nearly 70% to just over 11MB as the themes are now downloaded seperatly, and only 1 theme is included with the basic install
However, by default the existing themes will be downloaded and installed when installing GameEx, and the extra download size is 18MB
You can however tick the checkbox to not have it download the themes, say for example you have a low bandiwdth connection, or are already using a recent version.
For offline installs the themes archive is also available on the downloads page
And yes I completely understand how much a dial-up connection sucks!
Hopefully this helps a little. In relation to GameEx this makes a 50KB connection equivalent to a 128KB connection or there abouts.
By popular request: Two new themes included in install: RedEx MCE, and RedEx Arcade
Thanks to Headkaze for providing updated images, and thanks to Rob for the original versions
Fixes slide show transition when not using alpha blend
Create MAME videos now works if using a V2 theme
Create MAME Videos will now create videos for clones when the parent rom is not in the games list. In other words, it should create videos for every single game you have listed in GameEx.
New Bezel feature will now detect and use existing artwork if found.
Jukebox will now look in the song folder for folder.png/jpg and album.png/jpg album art before attempting to download. Not entirely sure whether it was WMP that downloaded these but on my system I already have folder.jpg images and there hidden
The Forum news feed is now included when selecting News from the application. Great for keeping up with whats going on without reaching for a keyboard!
For registered users theres now an option under Basic MAME settings, to have GameEx dynamically create and use Bezel artwork for vertical games running on a horizontal display. Click the help link in the config app for more info
First of all Id like to give a
huge thanks to Headkaze, for all his help on this
release and for all his work on the theme editor. We
worked together a lot the passed couple of weeks and
he contributed massively.
Theres been too many fixes too
mention, including minor cosmetic fixes, and attract
mode runs smoother. I wont list
them all here and Ill just focus on the enhancements and
new features.
GameEx has been optimized a fair
bit again, and this version runs
significantly faster.
Ive also shaved a bit of the
EXE image size.
The biggest new feature in this
release is support for vertical rotated displays.
Theres a few restrictions on the resolutions you can
use with this, but turning on this one setting will
also automatically configure MAME for vertical games
only, and also automatically configure ArcadeVGA for
vertical resolutions when running MAME. There is a
screenshot here
The other big thing is that this
release includes HeadKazes Theme Editor version 1.51
which now allows the image display to be positioned separately
from the menus in GameEx, and includes various other
fixes and updates. There is still some functionality
to implement
in GameEx for the editor, but there should not be any outstanding
issues, and it is now possible to change the font
colour.
Theres a new setting to Show
Buttons, allowing complete removal of both the Home
and Exit buttons.
A new setting to not display the
title text.
Theres a new GameEx logo. Again
thanks Headkaze.
A new feature for the Attract
Mode/Screensaver. Theres the ability to play a sound
file when exiting attract mode after its been running
for over 6 minutes. The idea is to make it fun when
the cabs been running a while, and someone walks up to
use it.
Much like how GameEx can
dynamically use Zinc to launch MAME games based on PSX
hardware it can now do the same and has support for
Model 2 hardware and the Model 2 emulator. Most of the
work for this is done in the background, and theres
only two settings to set to get this up and running.
Note after setting it up youll need to update the
list again.
Theres now the facility to
view Favourites (we spell it like that in England)
by System/Emulator.
After exiting from a random
game you will be left on the game information page
for the game, so you can see what it is, and add
it to favourites.
DVDs module now caches the
list of DVDs the first time its loaded during a
session.
Fixes audio level output not
showing for the track when its showing in the
list.
Theres a new additional WAV
sound file GameEx uses - launch.wav. This is
played whenever a game is launched.
This release should fix being
able to not exit attract mode if you press coin in
or press a joystick button. If its still not
working for you please report on the forums.
A ton of emulator databases
are included with special thanks to Dave R.
(AKA Incubus)
Ive also improved and fixed
the parsing of the databases to fix where theres
no date, and provided some built in formatting and
cleaning of the description and category.
I have fixed the play random
videos option, and also improved it so it now does
a shuffle, instead of just randomly select files,
meaning videos wont be played again until the list
has been parsed. Been wanting to do that for a
while, making this feature pretty good now in my
opinion.
GameEx now attempts to
download and show box art for Videos when enabled.
Something very cool, for
folks running on good hardware. The 3D Transition
(selected under display settings), have been
greatly enhanced to give a very slick alpha blended
3d effect when going between menus. Not many front ends
do such things. Only one I know is Windows Media Centre.
It makes GameEx look even more flash and very cool
in my opinion, but dont even bother with it if
you have less than P4 1.8GHZ and a Radeon 8000 (or
equivalent).
Fixes please wait animation
still showing after GameEx start-up on
unregistered versions.
Ive also upped the minimum
requirements to a P3 700Mhz instead of 500Mhz.
GameEx may run on less though, but I want people
to know GameEx is really for newer systems.
Improved loading speed of
some menus including start page a lot.
5.81 allows the playing of
MNG video previews for other emulators.
New option in
attract mode/screensaver to only launch your
stored favourites.
Registered users
get the new DVDs (AKA DVDs on Disk module),
which allows playing and access of any DVDs
on your hard disk or Network, with automatic
DVD artwork download and the ability to use
FFDSHOW.
(A little similar I suppose to My Movies in
MCE)
(DVD Codec required)
Fixes:
Karaoke Playlist
and Playlist Shuffle
Configuration
now showing all help text again.
DirectDraw
bounds checking for audio level display.
Enhanced Karaoke module,
based on the fact Karaoke files generally have no
tag information.
Album artwork,
and video snaps showing at wrong aspect.
Lots of little fixes and
tweaks to things that I wont mention, but its
always a good idea to get the latest version of
GameEx.
Enhancements in this version:
New Karaoke Jukebox for
registered users!
Configuration application now
loads and runs much much quicker.
New functionality in
Configuration application to import and export
emulator configurations to a file, or import
included emulator configurations. I hope people
like this feature, it should help newbies and
people sharing configurations.
Theres now a SNES database
included in the install thanks to
"Incubus". It needs a fair bit of work
so I hope some of you will chip in to improve it
and even provide more databases.
Ive been busy on GameEx and
am pleased to release this version. It skips a few
versions to show its of substantial improvement.
Im going to list the enhancements by what they
relate to in GameEx, and then list the fixes at
the end:
Enhancements:
Themes/Theme Editor:
Thanks to Ben AKA
HeadKaze, GameEx now has an awesome theme
editor.
Its really a
fantastic enhancement to GameEx, and is beautifully
coded.
You must check it
out, its highly substantial so I want list
all the features but will just say what is
not implemented just yet: Font Colour
cant be changed just yet, Custom Emu
backgrounds, and custom control panel will
be coming soon. The editor only works with
V2 themes (templates included in the
install,) and currently these are fixed to
full screen usage only. There maybe a few
minor issues with all this, so if you find
any please report on the forum.
MAME:
New lists for
Horizontal and Vertical games
Control/Input:
There is an option to
use all and any attached Game device at
the same time rather than just the first
device or chosen one.
Theres
a shortcut control to show the game
information page, so you can add to favourites
etc if you turned this off
Emulators:
Database support.
GameEx now has database support for
emulators, allowing you to navigate and
show games much like you do for MAME. You
can navigate by name, manufacturer,
category, and year, and descriptions are
shown for the games. Thanks to Craig
Steinbeck theres an already an N64
database done, which is included with the
install. Huge thanks Craig, without you
this wouldve been months off.
Theres an option for
each emulator to run as a single PC Game.
So if you have an emulator setup just as
one game, say you have special control
mappings for it, you can have GameEx skip
displaying the list and just have gameex
launch the first/only game.
Jukebox:
Added FLAC support
Theres now a CD
Player with automatic CDDB internet
lookup.
For registered users
GameEx now has a one click CD Ripper.
Simply insert a CD, Rip with full tag
support, and automatically add it your
library and play - without dropping back
to windows.
There a small graphic
equalizer that displays when a track is
playing, either on the taskbar, or if the
track is currently visible in the showing
list, next to the track name.
New: Playlist. You
can now view and navigate the current
Jukebox play list.
Display:
Theres an additional
even bigger font size setting.
Please Wait animation
is more slick, and only displays if
waiting more than a second. Theres also
new graphics for this for the other non
MCE style included themes so it blends in
nicely.
A new theme with two
variations is now included - "MCE
Glossy" and "Default New". Many
thanks to Alan R. The MCE Glossy theme really
is something special and worth the download.
There is a new theme
picker available right within GameEx to allow
you to preview themes and change on the fly.
GameEx now plays a
"Please Wait" animation when its
performing tasks that are going to take
several seconds.
Its now possible to continue
playing music after launching an emulator, and
its possible to skip go to previous and stop
the Jukebox music while running an emulator.
GameExtender Viewer
application has been optimized to run faster.
Fixes
Fixes attract mode when
its set just to play videos
GameExtender Viewer now
resizes correctly when the resolution is
changed
Fixes Jukebox not
disabled when installing for MCE or Games only
usage.
Changes
Replaced the rectangular
blue GameEx logo in all themes.
After listening to some
feedback (and criticism), and so everyone
can fully evaluate all features, the only feature
that requires registration of GameEx -
GameExtender (one of the many non emulation
related features of GameEx), can now be used on
initial start of GameEx for several minutes for
non registered users.
GameExtender now also
features logging to help me troubleshoot and
support your problems.
When viewing game artwork
full screen you can now navigate through the other
artwork without going back, and can also view the
snap even if your using video previews. A feature
request asked for several times.
More intuitive display
initialisation:
If GameEx cant set a full
screen resolution it will run at the current
windows resolution and not error.
When 32 bit colour not
available will automatically switch to 16 bit
colour.
Much better compatibility
with Remote Desktop/Terminal Services. Because of
the above should run full screen without changing
settings.
In most cases GameEx will not
crash when connecting to it through remote
desktop.
Fixes issue where any
advanced emulator config game device mapping was
mapping all buttons above 6 to 6.
Fixes slowdown issue
navigating emulator lists when GameExtender
enabled and you have no snap for a game.
Fixes toolbar not working
when media controls disabled.
Fixes other applications and
html applications not available if no emulators
defined in recent versions. This was due to
undocumented (I forgot to mention) in recent
versions where if mame and emulators not used at
all then GameEx would show a flat start page, with
all game related items not visible on the start
page, such as random game, and most played.
The initial production
release of GameExtender is here.
As far as I know its a world
first for front ends.
When enabled GameEx runs a
tiny web server when running, this outputs sort of
like an LCD Display on steroids, on either the
same pc, or any networked or internet worked PC.
You can see exactly whats
going on with GameEx from a web browser, or via
the included viewer, which gives a full screen
output.
You have to check it out.
In addition, I believe
another world first for an integrated front end is
the ability to view the control panel while MAME
is playing, by pressing a defined key (default is
L). Thanks to HeadKaze for the idea, help and
inspiration.
If thats not enough, in
advanced emulator config inis you can now specify
up to 10 buttons.
NOTE: GameExtender
only works with registered versions of GameEx.
Being a fan of the movie,
video game and whole Tron theme and genre, Ive
knocked up a little theme. Its on the downloads
page. Hope you like it. Let me know on the forums.
First off happy new year to
all GameEx users and supporters.
5.34 is the first update of
2006 but probably just one of many.
Its only a maintenance
release.
I do however have some WIP.
Ive started work on custom
menus, this should be complete fairly soon.
And Ive also started work on
something Im calling GameExtender, which is the
equivalent of an LCD Display but on an actual PC
monitor/projector or TV. It can be run on a
different pc on the LAN, and will display game
artwork, and information about what your doing or
playing in GameEx. As you can see there is future
potential with this for future networking
support in GameEx but Im not saying anything else
or promising anything for now ;) (but its nothing
to do with XBOX!). But in the near future I see it
being used by people who wish to add or have
another display on their cab. Once I release the
first version of GameEx with this, Ill as usual
accept requests trying to enhance it.
TV Support is still planned.
Ive spent a lot of time thinking about this. It
will start off very simple but stable, and grow.
So dont expect MCE in the first release (or
ever), but expect solid timeshifting and analog
channel changing.
Anyway this is whats new in
5.34
Media controls now show at
all times in supported themes, even if your not
playing the Jukebox.
Aspect ratio is now
remembered when restarting GameEx
Fixed glitches when Toolbar
set to only display when mouse is over it.
GameEx will now install if
you only have .net framework 2.0 installed.
