License Giveaway

[Tom Speirs]

License giveaway.

Inspired by that NPR interview. Four licenses up for grabs.

Registered users welcome to post, but please say if you dont need a license.

Please tell us: "How GameEx helps you relive your childhood video game memories".

I hope he's up for this but I would like Brian to pick the winners a week today.

One post per person

[Brian Hoffman]

Id love to. Ive been wondering when another giveaway was going to happen.

Cheers

Come on guys lets get some input and hear some stories

[Brian Hoffman]

First of all I want to give great thanks to everyone here at the forum you guys all rock. Everyones contributions make emulation more enjoyable. Id like to start by saying Gameex software is nothing short of amazing. When I was a kid (Still am just an older version) I day-dreamed of having my own SFII arcade. I loved Nintendo (still remember opening it up for christmas) and always wanted a room full of any game I wanted to play. Now its a reality. Over the years discovering Nesticle and Mame and others I was content in the fact I could re-live the games I played in my childhood. But navigating through the various emus and having to jump through hoops was tedious and while it was ok for me it wasnt for my not so pc savvy friends. When I discovered gameex I knew it could do anything. With the tons of options like launch before and after, Rom filters. Custom controls for exiting games and key mapping (To name a few). Before I knew it everything was coming together. Adding the fun stuff like snaps,Video preview, Controlpanels, Game info databases. Everything I always wanted.

Gameex makes everything so easy to use and navigate using one clean easy to understand interface.

I always enjoy having some friends over and having a few drinks and powering on the arcade. Gameex really gets it going and everyone is always impressed.

Thanks Tom and a BIG thanks to everyone else who puts so much time into making gameex what it is.

Brian Hoffman

BTW: I do not need a licence

[XenivouS]

I suppose Iâ??ll start by introducing myself, Iâ??m 25 and Iâ??m an IT specialist for a non-profit agency in Texas as well as father of 2 and an avid gamer. While I donâ??t generally post on forums unless I have something constructive to say or add, Iâ??m pretty much the type of person that trudges through tons of posts to find what Iâ??m looking for. However, seeing this topic really made me want to share my experiences with GameEx.

I have to say about 2001 it all started with an idea, one of my old military friends and I were in the dorms one weekend talking about games we used to play as kids and how awesome it would be to play those games again. And at that moment I fired on my pc and started googling any info I can find and that led me to the world of emulation. Over the past few years my collection grew and grew and pretty much spilled on to older harddrives and cdâ??s and dvdâ??s as my rank in the Air Force went up. However it all just kinda went blah when I couldnâ??t find a way to sort of have all my emulators and Mame live in harmony in a nice easy Gui that can be controlled by my Playstation 2 controller. So pretty much from time to time id play a game or two and continue to surf the web for miscellaneous things to read and so forth. I wanted to relive those days of sitting on the living room floor with my NES/SNES controller in hand and having the distraction of someone walking in front of the TV during a really hard level of Megaman. Or alternatively, one day owning a cab to relive my days after school walking into a Bodega (Iâ??m originally from Bronx, NY and for those that arenâ??t aware a Bodega is a convient store) and playing magician lord on a MVS cab or the original street fighter 2. But for the life of me I could never find a front end that would do everything I wanted!

Then about 2 weeks ago (yes im a GameEx newbie and loving every minute of it!) I was fumbling around the idea of using my P4 to be soley an emulation box or sort of consolized emu box if you will, since building a cab really isnâ??t feasible for my family because of finances and space and whatnot (plus my wife is a cheap, I swear she can squeeze a penny out of thin air sometimes). So insanely determined to find SOMETHING that I can use as a frontend I scoured the internet and actually accidentally came across the GameEx website. I started checking out the site and it really got my interest piqued. I then was thinking to myself, â??hrm its worth a shot its got a free version what do I have to lose?â? (and in the world of working for a non-profit agencyâ?¦if its free its for me!) Anywho, I installed GameEx which to my shock was completely painless and I was playing some mame games and SNES games in about 10 minutes. Then I though well I want to see what else I can do with this software and man I was blown completely away with all the features. I then showed my wife and she did what she always does when I show her somethingâ?¦..â?how much did you spend?â? I told her I was using the free version and she then became more interested and thought it was pretty nifty. To make a long story short (I think this is why I donâ??t generally post in forums, I over explain everything =P ) I began to find new ways to optimize my configs by delving into the GameEx forums and pretty much found everything I had trouble with along the way.

Then the real test came, my 4 year old daughterâ?¦..after having children and getting married I wanted to share my gaming era with my children. I wanted to build something that they can pick up and play and play for hours without having fiddle with complicated emulators to get a game to run. The other night my daughter came to my desk while I was putting the final touches on my configs (which to be honest I keep finding too many cool things in the forums to try so I guess Ill never be â??doneâ?) and my daughter said daddy I want to play something. So I was like ok and proceeded to load up Diddy Kong Racing which loaded up crazy fast and handed my daughter the controller. I swear the intense concentration coming from that kidâ??s face almost made me break out and tear and I thought to myself, damn thatâ??s what I looked like when I played this game so many years ago. Then the ultimate of all tests came â?? the wife test -. On Sunday evening in the thread posted about 10 NES games in 10 minutes I clicked the link and began watching it, my wife turned around and was like OH MY GOD I remember those! So then I came with the devious plan of introducing her to GameExâ?¦. I handed her the controller and watched as she began to navigate her way through the menuâ??s and she found the NES section, she then proceeded to play Battletoads and The Addams Family and she was yipping with obnoxious glee. She was shocked how easy it was to load up and play almost any game she could image.

I cant even begin to explain what a feeling of happiness I get by controlling all my emulated games from 1 controller in my chair last night I actually played Megaman again and it felt right minus the head crushing blowing in the cartridge and NES. (I can live without that though) And for about 20 minutes of playing until I got disturbed with a â??daddy I want some apple juiceâ? I felt like I was an 8 year old playing on my couch. I just want to thank Tom and everyone else on the forums that have made my retro-gaming experience complete because with out everyone there would probably be no way for my family and I to have a simplified and amazing experience playing these games. Who knows maybe one day I may be fortunate enough to build a cab and I can tell you now Ill definitely be running GameEx on it! Thanks everyone!

[Hunk_4TH]

GameEx is so easy to use and to configure (even though I needed some help on setting some things up) I use to use the My Emulators plugin in Media Portal but its nothing compared to GameEx.

GameEx has given me the opportunity to play arcade games I never got to experience growing up. (lack of arcades in this area) Its also the best front end I ever came across! Its very convenient having access to all your emulators in one program. I also love the features one of my favorites being the attraction mode were GameEx loads random Mame roms for a few minutes. It also makes a great HTPC! Thats all I can really think of I must say though even if I don't win the free license I'm still going to purchase one. Thanks Tom for a very awesome front end! And thanks to everyone else involved!!

[mightypeniz]

When I was young, my folks bought us (me/my brother) one of the original atari 2600's - you know, the one with the fake timber panelling to make it look "classy". We played it to absolute death, but we weren't the only ones. It quickly became a magnet for the entire neighbourhood, both kids, and grown-up kids alike. Back then, it wasn't unusual to see 4 or 5 grownups (my parents + neighbours) getting stuck into a tournament of Space Invaders, Missile Command, or Breakout, lasting til around midnight. Our time on the 2600 was "after school, until dinner time".. after that, we were (willing) spectactors.

Flash forward around 25 years. My folks came up to our place for Christmas recently, and I was proudly showing off my new cocktail cabinet. I demonstrated all of the various emulated-systems I've got configured in it, which I'm sure confused the hell out of them - until 2005, when I set up a computer with some accounting software on it for their business, they'd not touched anything remotely resembling a computer since that Atari2600.

Shortly afterwards, I got called into work to sort out a comms issues. When I got back, I find both Mum & Dad sitting at the arcade machine, going hammer and tong over a game of Combat (the Atari game). By themselves, they'd worked out the navigation buttons on my control panel, sailed their way through GameEx' menus, and fired up a game. I was gone an hour. It was the coolest thing I've seen in a long while.

In this case, helping my parents relive some of their uh... childhood memories, brought back some great childhood video game memories of my own - sitting behind my parents waiting for my turn

[Dante]

Hi everyone!

I'm a Portuguese "retro gamer" and emulator collector. Since I first heard of emulators they've became my passion!

Back in 1997 my best friend and I discovered a program named "genecyst" and the world became a better place!

WE WERE ABLE TO PLAY MEGA DRIVE (GENESIS) GAMES ON PC... (back then a P1 133MHz).

The race for roms began, every day a new rom. The downloads took like forever and the only place we could access the Internet was on our school's library. But we never gave up.

These new "programs" allowed us to play games we never had the chance to play and remember the days we spent trying to finish sonic and other master-pieces.

Soon after this, other systems like Snes, nes, gameboy, master system, ATARI... followed and were also good discoveries. But MAME... was like the "genecyst discovery".... The possibility to play all the CLASSICS(!!!) overwhelmed us once again.

College arrived, dark times for emulation, the fever continued but the time was too short because of the exams and all.

After college the time for hobbies returned and the idea to make an arcade machine came up.

At first I thought few people had an idea like that. oh the arrogance!!! I started "on my one" to gather material.

In Portugal it's hard to find arcade controls, and for a while the machine kinda slowed down.

One fine day I googled "arcade construction" for fun and found arcade plans, controls and all I needed to build an arcade machine! I was not alone...

For like six months I gathered all the information I needed, the arcade was not a distant dream. The only problem now was that windows xp was always present and the illusion of an arcade machine was lost.

In one of those google searches I found something that I consider, one of the most useful pieces of software in the world, "GameEX". My first thought was "this is too good to be truth".

I had to have it.

Tried the unregistered version once and... the second time I runned GameEx it had a "Thumb up" in the end of the setup wizard!

Now I don't want to make a arcade machine. I want to make a Multimedia Station shaped like a arcade machine that I'm sure will allow me, all my family and friends remember the good gaming times we had.

You have to try it to see how useful, simple to use and complete GameEx is.

Thanks Tom for all the hard work and dedication.

P.S. - As you may have noticed and don't need (another) license. Just wanted to share my experience.

[DanGT]

hey all, ive just started using gameex and i love it , i have to say its the best frontend ever, i use it mostly to play old nes and snes game that me and all my friends used to play, i remember we would be sitting there for ages playing "zombies" on my old snes, recently my mum threw out my old snes, so now i use gamex as a front end to play all my fave games again!

[Orclord]

GameEX makes me relive my childhood because the wonderfulness of it makes me dribble and shit my pants......

Incense I don't want no incense

[Tom Speirs]

GameEX makes me relive my childhood because the wonderfulness of it makes me dribble and shit my pants......

Come on don't make excuses. You have that problem anyway.

PS: Sorry, you left yourself wide open there!

[Orclord]

Come on don't make excuses. You have that problem anyway.

Ahhh yes....

But things are looking up.....

Due to our glorious NHS I now have a bib and a sort of liner in my pants....

Seems to work OK.....

Till I have a few beers and a vindaloo that is.....

Must be the viscosity they said......Design fault if you ask me.....

Can't shop in that Tescos again.....

[mightypeniz]

<br />Ahhh yes....<br /><br />But things are looking up.....<br /><br />Due to our glorious NHS I now have a bib and a sort of liner in my pants....<br /><br />Seems to work OK.....<br /><br />Till I have a few beers and a vindaloo that is.....<br /><br />Must be the viscosity they said......Design fault if you ask me.....<br /><br />Can't shop in that Tescos again.....<br /><br /> <img src="style_emoticons/default/sad.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="sad.gif" /><br />

You should've been a writer for Red Dwarf.

[Weta]

When I was young, I traveled all over the world. I have gaming memories in every corner of the globe, from Battletoads and Ironsword on cold nights in Islington to weeks of Street Fighter Alpha 3 at a beachside house in New Zealand.

I played in arcades too - Sunset Riders and Philips CDI games at Disneyland, Rolling Thunder and Shadow Over Mystara in Germany. I fought Dracula, Quick Man and Eyedol on the road in America, and spent countless hours on the DKC series in suburban Melbourne. Growing up, gaming was an important part of my life - it was a good way of shutting me up on my family's globe-spanning adventures. As a side benefit, it made me happy.

What GameEx does that no other program can is to unite this distant history under one banner. Configuration is simple, and I no longer have to jump from emulator to emulator to regular games, etc. Now with the click of button I can jump from the Mushroom Kingdom to Corneria and back again, effortlessly. It's like digital globetrotting, summing up your unique history of gaming in as much detail as you can remember. No more hoops to jump through or cartridges to blow, just the freedom to dip in and out of your past as and when you like.

Anyway Tom, I'm grateful for it, and for the fact it's still free after all this time. Thanks for the memories.

[gazman]

"How GameEx helps you relive your childhood video game memories"

To be able to play all my favourite atari 2600 games again just makes my day, sure todays games are just as good but I feel its mainly graphics and not gameplay. But to be able to play river raid which is still one of my favourite games, I remember when I was 6 and I broke my dads high score and I remember him tell me the next morning that he was up untill 2am trying to beat my score which he did not. I cant remember if he ever did but 24 years later I still find my self drawn to this wonderfull little game.

[Brian Hoffman]

Great job guys. Ill be choosing the winners later on today. Anyone else want to add a story or want to compete to win a licence? Ill be deciding the winners in about 6 hours.

[Adultery]

Great job guys. Ill be choosing the winners later on today. Anyone else want to add a story or want to compete to win a licence? Ill be deciding the winners in about 6 hours.

I love GameEx because of the feeling I get when it's all set up, but mostly the nostalgia and remeniscing with my friends when I show them how to breathe new life into their old favorites. There's no better feeling than that!

If I am chosen to win (which I doubt), I'll be giving away my license on CHQ when I relaunch it (which will be sooner than you think!) It'll kinda be like a grand re-opening of sorts.

[Oqqalz]

I have been an avid gamer for decades. I distinctly remember playing my first video game, a tabletop version of Pong, when I was 6. Since then, I have played, literally, hundreds of arcade machines in dimly lite arcades, malls, laundromats, and restaurant back rooms, everywhere.

A few years back, I ran across the wondrous MAME emulator, which allowed me to relive all those games that I played from childhood through my college years. The emulator, itself, is fantastic, but the user interface is somewhat lacking and not very intuitive. After spending a couple of years of playing these games on a keyboard and mouse, I finally surmised that such classics required a true arcade cabinet to do them proper justice.

Last year, I started work on my first arcade cab. Building the cab was a fun, and sometimes frustrating experience. As many other DIY arcade builders know, once you have the cab built, that it is only half the work. Software, especially a good front-end, is crucial to the "entertainment value" of your cab. I looked at the numerous front-ends available at the time and no product had a better bang for the buck, than GameEx. GameEx fluid interface made it simple for my kids and guests to navigate the sea of games and emulators with ease. Combining EmuMovies with GameEx, you not only have cab that is extremely functional, intuitive, and easy to administer, but one that aesthetically pleasing as well. The price I paid for GameEx was well worth it just for the gaming front-end alone, but that is only a fraction what it can do. The multimedia features, e.g., music jukebox, movie viewer, karaoke, photo slide shows, book reader, internet radio, etc., turned my arcade cab into the entertainment hub of my home. GameEx is a fantastic product with a fantastic crew and forum backing it. I would recommend GameEx to any retro-gaming enthusiast wanting to relive some of their youth.

[Brian Hoffman]

Ok guys the time has come. Here are the results of the winners for this competition.

XenivouS- What a great submission and the first to boot. I understand how having 2 kids can be a strain on the wallet. It was a wonderfull read and you can let your wife know how since you saved some $$$ it can be place elsewhere into building your cab... Congratulations!

Hunk_4TH- Short and sweet submission. We have all had help getting our perfect setups. Congratulations!

DanGT- Congratulations!

Gazman- Nice story. Congratulations!

------

Thanks everyone for all the contributions it has made for some good reads.

Weta- Very nice read Im assuming you have a licence already.

Adultery- Congratulations on the revamp of config HQ. No your not getting a license from this competition hehehe

Orclord- Where do I start.... aww shit nevermind.

Mightypeniz- The mighty-ist peniz of them all. Thanks for your submission. Im also assuming you have a licence.

Dante- Very nice read. Thanks

Well I believe this wraps it all up. Im sure Tom will be in shortly with contact info on how to obtain your licences.

Enjoy... And as always... Happy Gaming

Brian Hoffman

[Tom Speirs]

Please email me to get the licenses.

[headkaze]

Congrats to the winners and grinners!

[mightypeniz]

Congrats to all

(Brian yep I am of course already a license holder - was just adding to the chorus

[XenivouS]

Awesome, thanks brian and im glad everyone enjoyed my post. My wife and I both thank you immensely thanks everyone!

[gazman]

Thank you for choosing my entry its made my day

[Hunk_4TH]

Thanks Brian for choosing me as well! It too made my night I'm a little late replying to this topic though I love the auto update feature as well as all of the other features thanks again man!