123 replies to this topic

[Adultery]

Is your AV software blocking it? iRotate really needs to be added to your software's 'safe list' or it won't let iRotate do its thing.

[hansolo77]

How large, in file space, are these? I'd be interested in adding them to my setup, but I'm limited. Before venturing into this area again, I just bought a 1tb drive for my server to store a lot of this stuff. That was last week. Right now, with what emulators I have installed (still only consoles and MAME right now) and the artwork (haven't started getting videos yet), my 1tb drive is now down to 132gb left!

[Draco1962]

I have a 1.5 TB partitioned with the first partition containing the majority of my ROMs, snaps, etc. That is in addition to a 300GB primary drive which houses the emulators themselves Not even close to filling the first partition yet. Of course, I am not running as many emulated systems as you are.

[hansolo77]

Well, right now I've just got the 1 drive dedicated to emulation. It's only 500gb. I'm still downloading stuff in the background on the server, which is why that new drive is already full. My working plan is to download on the server, organize it for storing, then copy over everything I need as I have time/room for it. Everything is all on it's primary 500gb partition. I know this is a no-no, since partitioning is helpful in elminating data lost, and helps speed defragmenting; however...I don't really feel like repartitioning now. Perhaps, some day, I can afford a larger drive again. And instead of putting it into the server, I'll stick in the HTPC and move all these things around to new partitions. Maybe something like 1 partition for MAME, 1 for Consoles, 1 for Computers, 1 for HandHelds, 1 for Pinball, and 1 for all the extras. UHG. Do they still make partition magic?

[starbuck]

I running in excess of 200 emulated systems including MAME, MESS etc.. I have these on 4.5T of external harddrives. I have all the snaps, videos etc. from Emumovies on these drives and all the roms. On dvd's and cd's I have another 2T of CD based games. The biggest problem is not getting HD space because costs have gone way down. The problem becomes the more space you use up the slower the system runs.

[Draco1962]

Yes they do. It may not be needed as it appears that the Disk Management utility handles quite a few of the same features as Partition Magic within Windows 7.

[hansolo77]

Well, with Partition Magic, you could repartition on the fly without loosing any data stored on it.

[hansolo77]

starbuck, on 13 August 2011 - 01:35 AM, said:

I running in excess of 200 emulated systems including MAME, MESS etc.. I have these on 4.5T of external harddrives. I have all the snaps, videos etc. from Emumovies on these drives and all the roms. On dvd's and cd's I have another 2T of CD based games. The biggest problem is not getting HD space because costs have gone way down. The problem becomes the more space you use up the slower the system runs.

Must be nice having money. I've got trouble with stress and anxiety, so I can't really work a full time job that pays well. I have to work part time, in a grocery story deli, making minimum wage.

[griggs619]

Adultery, on 11 August 2011 - 11:43 PM, said:

OK, here's what I did to get this up and running on my Windows 7 cabinet:

• Download ArcadePC Loader
  You can get it from here: http://www.emucr.com...loader-v12.html
  
  
• Extract game files into appropriate folders in the ArcadePC GAMES folder
  This step is easy to do. Just make sure you put all the game files in the root of the game folder.
  
  
• Launch ArcadePC Launcher
  If you did the previous step correctly, you should see a green check mark next to your installed games.
  
  
• Setup your games and test run each one
  You can specify a few different things here, like resolution, free play mode, enable continues, set up your joystick/keyboard, etc. Some games don't allow you to change the rez, and one game won't load at all on my rig because I have dual monitors and it gives me an I/O error... (BlazBlue)
  A few things to try if the game doesn't launch: Change compatibility mode for game.exe or launcher.exe to Windows NT (This solved a couple issues for me). Also make sure if you have AV software installed, you set the ArcadePC folder to allow things to run from it. I use Avast! and it didn't like iRotate for games that used it. I assure you it's not gonna fubar your config, your AV probably doesn't care much for the way it hooks your display drivers. Windows Firewall also bitched at me about allowing SFIV to pass through the firewall, since I guess it collects your network data. The jury's out on why, but I have to assume the original machine could link up to other machines.
  
  
• Close ArcadePC Launcher and create some shortcuts
  In each game's folder, you will find an EXE that launches the game (for example, SFIV_Launcher.exe). Right-click this file and select "Create Shortcut". Name it how you like it, just make sure your artwork matches it if you want it to display properly. Take that shortcut and put it in a "shortcuts" folder you can point GameEx to for your game list.
  
  
• Set GameEx to use the LNK method for launching Windows games
  If you set your ROM filter to *.LNK and turn on "Show Desktop", and also set your working folder to the shortcuts folder you'll be golden. Your Cmd Line will be: ""[ROMPath]/[ROMFile]""
  
  
• Create an Advanced Config to watch the process
  You need to tell GameEx to watch the process since it actually loads the loader. I haven't fully tested yet, but I think I may need to create seperate emulator setups since some games use "launcher.exe" and some use "game.exe", I'll report back after further testing. If this is the case, we'll have to create an emulator group. Ideally I can add both processes in the "watch" list and if one isn't runnung GameEx will ignore it and watch the other one instead. The other rat in the woodpile is iRotate. Again, I have to do some more testing on this and get back to it. Expect an update in an hour or so.
  
  
• Play the game in GameEx!!!
  If you followed all my steps, you should be happily gaming. If you have anything to add I'd love to hear it. I'll attach my Emu Config and Advanced Config(s) when I'm done going through every game.

Hope this helps some of you out. Although most games are in JAP, they look really nice on my cab.

Thanks for the guide Adultery it's very detailed and helpful. One issue i'm having though. On some games it will load the game fine but when i hit ESC key to exit for some reason my resolution is messed up being changed to 1280 x 720 and i have to manually change it back to 1920 x 1080 from the windows display control panel. i'm am running windows 7 64. its doing this for most games but not all. Battle Fantasia is one game that seems to work fine when i exit yet SFIV i have to manually change the resolution back to normal? is anyone else having this issue?

p.s. i'm doing all testing with the ArcadePC Loader. I'm not running through Gameex yet because i haven't gotten that far. I'm wanna figure out this resolution issue before i set the games up in Gameex.

[fRequEnCy]

griggs619, on 14 August 2011 - 02:17 AM, said:

Thanks for the guide Adultery it's very detailed and helpful. One issue i'm having though. On some games it will load the game fine but when i hit ESC key to exit for some reason my resolution is messed up being changed to 1280 x 720 and i have to manually change it back to 1920 x 1080 from the windows display control panel. i'm am running windows 7 64. its doing this for most games but not all. Battle Fantasia is one game that seems to work fine when i exit yet SFIV i have to manually change the resolution back to normal? is anyone else having this issue?

p.s. i'm doing all testing with the ArcadePC Loader. I'm not running through Gameex yet because i haven't gotten that far. I'm wanna figure out this resolution issue before i set the games up in Gameex.

I am unable to duplicate. My resolution is fine when exiting with ESC. Are you setting the resolution for the game also to match that of your display?

[Adultery]

I don't do that for all games. I have a hunch what's happening here.

Turn GameEx's mapping off and let ESC kill the game instead of having GameEx brute force the process killing. If the game quits gracefully the loader returns your screen to the proper resolution.

EDIT: whoops, I didn't read your post close enough. I don't know why this is happening to you, my machine returns everything to normal on games I can't fix the resolution on.

[griggs619]

fRequEnCy, on 14 August 2011 - 02:35 AM, said:

I am unable to duplicate. My resolution is fine when exiting with ESC. Are you setting the resolution for the game also to match that of your display?

Yes i have a 1080P display and i set the resolution to 1920 x 1080. Of course only i would have these weird problems that nobody eles has. Well guess no Taito for me

[fRequEnCy]

griggs619, on 14 August 2011 - 05:23 AM, said:

Yes i have a 1080P display and i set the resolution to 1920 x 1080. Of course only i would have these weird problems that nobody eles has. Well guess no Taito for me

I'll be in chat room for a real-time support for a bit if interested. If I don't catch you then we'll try to troubleshoot as best we can.

[celly]

After struggling with just launching a game outside of GameEx, finally I got it ironed out and running. Thanks to Mesk, Adultery and fReq for the help (if you knew it or not). Now I just need a logo for both Type X and Type X2 hint hint Draco!

[Adultery]

Time to bust out Photoshop!

PS: There are a few non-Type X games in the launcher too. Guess putting a PC in a cabinet is the way to go these days. Lazy asses! LOL

[celly]

Well I guess I'm not all set, KOF MIRA still crashes like before (even with compatibility set to Win XP). Originally I thought it was the game I had acquired but I think its a Win7 issue.

[Draco1962]

Hmmm... another logo? Sheesh! "Working in the coal mines, going down, down...."

As soon as I get some game characters to add (hint, hint) to the logo I will gussy it up and post.

Attached Files

•  _Arcade__Taito_Type_X.png   158.31K   27 downloads

[Adultery]

KoF MIRA doesn't crash for me on Windows 7? Try setting compatibility mode to Windows NT instead.

[celly]

Adultery, on 18 August 2011 - 05:24 PM, said:

KoF MIRA doesn't crash for me on Windows 7? Try setting compatibility mode to Windows NT instead.

On it's own it crashed every time for me. Even switched to Win NT it would still crash. Once I loaded it through PC Arcade Loader, then using the _Launcher.exe shortcut method, it works like a champ.

[Adultery]

I had the same problem with a couple games. Not sure how the launcher fixed them for me but it did. I think some games need to be in 16-bit color to work.

UPDATE:
ArcadePC Loader has been updated to 1.3. Here's the changelog:
- Added support for the game "Beatmania IIDX 17: Sirius";
- Removed the "green box" in the corner of screen (on Windows Vista / Seven 100% working);
- Added new skin "Spots";
- Other minor fixes and optimizations.

Glad to be rid of the 'green box' issue. It was a minor annoyance.