• 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.

• Fixes error when using a custom genre.
• Fixes issue not finding drives if many are installed.
• Lyric download working again.

• For registered users:
• 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

• Spesoft Image Converter 2.5 released
• Allows batch conversion of PDF files
• Converts from text files to any format including PDF
• Product Home Page

• 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

• Fixes minor bug in the Setup Wizard

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).
• Updated logo's for all systems.

Happy New Year.

• New wrap around/loop list input setting feature. This was a highly requested feature.
• The start menu program group has been reorganised and now looks much better on newer windows versions.
• Note: If your upgrading the old start menu items wil not be deleted. You can however just delete the program group prior to installing

• Several small bug fixes
• Background now fades in when changing when using default display settings
• Emulator theme layouts now load after a list change rather than incorrectly before

• Adds conversion from RA (Real Audio), AU, and ATRAC audio files.
• Supports audio files with no or the wrong extension.
• Product Home Page

• Removed windows media player detection, requirement and install from setup package.
• Removed Windows Media Player requirement from Video and DVD Playback. Windows Media Player is now only optionally required for Jukebox WMP mode

• 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

• Windows Media Player is no longer a requirement in the setup package.
• Improved performance of roms in folders

• Fixes intermitent startup intro display issue
• Improved startup speed
• Other minor work

• 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

• Lyrics now working again thanks to lyricsplugin.com
• Daphne launch before and after now accepts rom as variable in command line

• Now allows batch conversion of audio in video files instead of previously only one file at a time.
• New options to stream files to a web browser. In built mini streaming server.
• Product home page

• Can now select an alternative MIDI sound font to use for conversion.
• New settings to specify play length for emulated game music files.
• Product home page

• Optical Character Recognition (OCR). Convert images into text files; with recognition performed after image processing to allow effects and resizing to improve accuracy.
• Convert to and from PDF files
• DPI Increased when converting from vector formats
• Handles files with no extension
• Improved handling of multiple page images

• 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

• Just a maintenance release
• Fixes custom setup types in the setup wizard
• When using custom menus and logoff, now works with Ben Baker's login application

• Fixes album art downloading

• 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
• Several other minor fixes

• Movie/Album artwork and description download working again
• Fixes issue where album cover downloading was not accurate
• Videos with 3GP and M4V extensions are now supported

• New launch before and launch after settings for Daphne
• Fixes issue showing wrong system Biography
• MAME is now linked to the all games list when selecting more games from the same category, developer or year

• Jukebox can now read MP4 tags
• 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

• Now converts ADX files
• Now converts OptimFrog files
• Improved converting from video files
• Now converts AC3 from video files.

• Fixes utilization issue, affecting smoothness of DVD and video playback

• Theme Editor 2.2 by Ben Baker
• New feature to right justify title text
• New option to hide list number text
• 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

Spesoft Text To MP3 Speaker uses "Text to Speech" technology and can convert text into a MP3/OGG/WAV audio file.

It uses standard SAPI technology and is an easy to use solution to convert any text file or cut and pasted text to an audio file.

The rate of the voice along with volume and pitch can be modified.

Support ID3 Tag for MP3 and OGG Files (you may add such info as Author, Year, etc. into MP3)

Convert text to MP3: full text or just selected parts, quickly and easily.

A quick, free and easy solution when you want to create audio files from professional SAPI speech engines.

Convert articles, emails and more and listen to them on your MP3 player.

Can create standard WAV files compatible with Spesoft free audio converter, if you wish to convert to more formats.

Link

• Allows multiple input videos.
• ISO creating.
• Option to loop/auto repeat created DVD.

• Updated LCD Plugin
• Fixes MAME list update not working first time
• Fixes removable media insert detection
• Fixes merge feature for certain naming conventions
• Now shows please wait animation when building thumbnails
• Fixes title/toolbar fading out then in when mouse over it and pressing a control
• Fixes all games list when using custom menus

• New cursor hiding plugin thanks to Stu. Allows you to hide the mouse cursor in GameEx and emulators.
• Updated advanced emulator configuration application thanks to Ben Baker. Allows the enter key to be mapped
• Ability upon setup to set Windows Media Center to use the lite version of GameEx
• Fixes issue where games do not match on game info page
• Fixes create snaps option not available

• Fixes displaying on secondary device
• Fixes issue where interface would become disabled when the screensaver ran and it had nothing to do

• Amiga CD32 game music
• Amiga Manuals/Instructions
• 3DO Manuals
• Apple II Manuals
• Atari 8-bit manuals
• CDI manuals
• Channel F manuals
• Odyssey 2 manuals
• TI 99/4A manuals
• Vectrex manuals
• Odyssey 2 snaps and titles
• TI 99/4A snaps and titles
• TRS-80 snaps

• Added a button to set auto login if user account has a password
• Resolves potential issue if application later deleted or moved.
• Cosmetic fixes.
• Link

• Fixes snap matching

• Faster MAME list update
• Much faster initial load and caching of emulator databases

• 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
• The MAWS live list is now working again

• The all games list now uses the start background
• Any music will now resume when retuning from an emulator list that has selection music

• Optimized version
• Fixes secondary monitor support
• Last aspect now remembered for videos

• Fixes CD and DVD insertion detection
• Fixes traditional zip support
• The all games list now includes MAME games

• Resolves stability issue with movie/dvd video previews
• Fixes last played game snap showing transparent background

• Latest Ultrastik and LCD Plugins included
• Fixes last played game snap showing transparent background
• Other minor fixes

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.

The site would not be possible without the help and development work from Ben Baker of Headsoft (http://headsoft.com.au), and tireless effort from the retrobytes portal (http://retrobytesportal.co.uk) and emumovies (http://www.emumovies.com)

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.

Feedback and suggestions are actively encouraged and there is a forum here: http://www.gameex.info/forums/index.php?showforum=12

• Updated support for Model 2 Emulator 0.9

• 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

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.

Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays.

• 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

• With a lot of help from Headkaze (Ben) the video libraries have been updated in GameEx. This means the following
• Now works with latest version of FFDSHOW
• Startup video can be in any supported format
• Can preview any supported video type including DVDs on disk
• Create snaps for videos is now much faster and more user freindly
• Can now play FLV files (assuming FFDSHOW installed)
• Movies and DVDs now use latest MS SDKs
• Also fixes an issue playing DVDs/Videos full screen, and issue when previewing videos in the video module the previews would not always show
• I can't thank Ben enough for his help with this
• Make sure you uninstall existing codecs before installing the latest version of FFDSHOW

• 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

• Fixes issue with image mounting when file system is not known to windows
• Fixes issue with line breaks not showing in database biography

• 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.
• Images are automatically unmounted.

• 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.

• Fixes variable bit rate MP3 slider reversed
• Remembers folder locations

• Just a minor release before I start work on the improved database support
• For snap/video logos videos are now searched for before image files
• Video logos are now supported for custom MAME list logos
• By default the list of emulators will now be sorted alphabetically. This can be turned off in the advanced configuration
• Due to the drastic change in currency exchange rates, the donation/registration price has been changed to US dollars from British pounds

• GameLauncher Mode:
  • 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.

• Instant Sheller 0.51 Released
• Now disables window animations.
• You won't see front ends and applications minimizing and maximizing.
• Link

• CUE support. Create a single file in any format with a CUE file
• Automatically downloads lyrics.

• 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
• The Karaoke module now supports bin and zip files

• Fixes rights issue on Vista
• Automatically filters BIOS images
• More responsive
• Only fully working on by default
• Get it here

• Minor updates to:
• Atari 5200
• Atari 7800
• Colecovision
• New databases:
• Intellivision
• Sega Naomi 1 Arcade Hardware

• Convert between over 75 different image formats.
• Transform images with options for resizing, cropping, flipping and rotation.
• Apply effects. Sharpen, Blur, Contrast..
• Adjust Brightness, Hue and Saturation.
• Simple wizard style interface. Convert 10,000's of images or just one in a few clicks.
• Crush your PNG images to the absolute minimum size without losing quality with PNGCrush support.
• Free solution for creating thumbnails, or converting from obscure formats.

• GameEx can now use an external video player
• Foreground images are now supported for the standard modules
• Now supports three custom artwork paths for emulators. Supporting both png and jpg, and also pdf files
• Searching media is now faster
• Fixes emulator artwork not showing if not using a database

• Spesoft Free Audio Converter 1.2 released
• Now also allows conversion of AC-3 files.
• Get it here

• 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
• Other minor fixes
• Please report any issues on the forums

• 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
• Fixes surplus snap matching
• Fixes show buttons setting with version 4 themes
• Other minor fixes

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.

• New Features:
• 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

• Database naming format matching is now automatic

• 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.

• Easy: Convert 10,000's files in a few clicks with its simple wizard style interface.
• Fast: Utilising the best and latest audio 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 sample rate and channels.
• Unique: Convert MOD and MIDI files to any output format without having to pay for other software.
• Advanced: Apply replay gain to all files. Also supports fast CD ripping with automatic tag lookup.
• Complete: Transfers tag information to converted files.

• Spesoft Free CD Ripper 3.5
• Fixes not setting tags for WMA files
• No longer requires admin privileges to run

• Fixes key repeat when returning from viewing artwork/picture
• An Emulator list will recache if the database is updated
• When in Video lists, will now also show box art with V3 themes

• 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

• Now automatically downloads album cover artwork

• 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
• You can see a video of what this all looks like here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyJZVA2uJQs
• 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

• Only playing favorites in screensaver now also works for emulators
• Fixes not playing videos and Karaoke in some configurations
• Fixes not playing selected playlist when Jukebox set to play at startup
• Fixes aspect ratio of system logos in favorites

• Fixes .lnk files not working in 9.25
• 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

• Hugely better performance when GameEx is windowed

• Fixes startup videos
• Fixes left side of GameExtender viewer display not showing
• GameExtender viewer no longer exits with escape key
• New options to start and exit GameExtender viewer with GameEx
• Fixes last played list showing snap of last mame game played in screensaver

• Includes Headkazes latest LCD/LED Plugin. Thanks Headkaze

• Lots of minor fixes and polishing in this release
• 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

• No longer requires admin privileges.
• Works on Vista with user account control turned on.
• Installs properly on 64 bit Windows.
• If upgrading you will need to configure and update list again.

• 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.

• 3 X Faster ripping!
• Rip an entire CD in 3 minutes
• Fixes tag issues with MP3 and FLAC
• Ability to use custom Genre
• Less CPU usage when ripping

• Fixes and performance update
• 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

Instant Sheller Version 0.50 released

• Now hides login mouse cursor
• Ability to not change shell application
• Upgraded to .net framework 2.
• Get it Here
• Special thanks go to Inigo Montovia for identifiying how to hide the login mouse cursor.

• Another day, another GameEx enhancment
• 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
• Happy Easter

• A maintenance release fixing the following issues:
• Fixes issues when paging down to end of list and only last item in list is displayed
• Fixes themes with custom emulator layouts
• Fixes emulator backgrounds not being displayed when set in theme editor
• Fixes mouse selection for toolbar when windowed in version 2 themes
• Fixes toolbar not displaying properly in version 2 themes

• Spesoft Backup 1.20 released
• Fixes for UNC paths

• Fixes for windows 98SE and ME

• 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

• Console Classix recently released their new classic video game front end interface
• The software project was designed and developed entirely by Spesoft

• Fixes GameEx minimzied when coming out of standby
• New instructions image path for emulators
• Can now specify a single image file for emulator controls
• Includes Headkazes LCD Plugin 2.4
• Special thanks to Headkaze for help with this release.

• Spesoft Backup 1.10 released
• Various fixes and enhancements.
• If using 1.00 its highly recommended you upgrade

• Improved display initialisation and reinitialisation routines
• Should fix issue with setting wrong resolution when returning from game
• Over half a second faster return from screensaver and MAME

• A fairly nice update featuring some new features
• 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

• Japaense language translation by Takemi included. Many thanks for working with me in implementing unicode support in GameEx
• Fixes setup overwriting the ultrastik plugin ini file

• Includes Headkaze's LCD/LED Plugin version 2.35
• Updated Italian translation by sBaby
• Thanks a lot

• 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.

• Fixes for when display rotated

• 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

• Fixes to plugin system. Thanks to Headkaze for indentifying the issues.

• 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

• Various minor bug fixes
• Now includes Ultrastik plugin by Oqqalz. Special thanks for this fine contribution

• New Dutch language translation thanks to Bitmind
• Updated Danish translation thanks to Creek
• Updated Italian translation thanks to Sbaby
• Setup wizard 1.83 thanks to Headkaze
• Performance optimisations to Manual/Comic and eBook viewer
• A few general memory optimisations to GameEx. Uses a little less.
• Thanks again to everyone who contributed to this release. You make GameEx all it can be

• Fixes image locking issues with ebook/comic/manual viewer and GameExtender
• Special thanks to Headkaze

• For registered users GameEx now features an eBook and Comic Book viewer
• Supports: PDF, CBZ, CBR, CBT, ZIP, 7-ZIP, RAR and all common image formats

• Fixes launching games and apps that have been exported to Media Center

• Now supports MAME artwork preview images
• Video player now supports files with .mod extension

• Now supports MAME PCB images
• Video player now supports files with .mp4 extension

• Improved alpha blended transitions
• Should fix .net broadcast error when performing auto update
• Fixes not restoring desktop background after auto update
• Fixes background videos/snaps and 3D transitions being slow with ATI cards

• Stability and performance improvements to snap videos, background videos, and videos in screensaver. (Including MNG)

• Spesoft Backup
• 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.
• Read more here

• Updated MNG libraries
• Fixes screensaver not running after playing some MAME games
• Video backgrounds may be slightly faster

• Setup wizard now supports 250 emulators
• Emulator groups can now be placed under emulator menu

• Spesoft Free CD Ripper Version 3.0
• Upgraded to .net framework 2.0.
• Make folder option.
• Fixes FLAC ripping.
• Select Genre from drop down.
• Fixes no Genre.
• Fixes displaying tracks for non audio CD media.
• Now works with Vista

• Fixes Create MAME Videos

• Fixes videos not playing in screensaver with certain Codecs

• Fix to frame skipping. Stops the interface runnig too fast at high refresh rates

• New GameLauncher mode feature.
• 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
• www.gameex.net

• Patch for faulty ArcadeVGA driver/hardware where the cards are reporting the wrong refresh rate
• Theme Editor 1.81 by Ben Baker (Headkaze) that fixes not being able to select AVI videos
• A few optimizations on Gameex initialization, may possibly start up quicker
• Fixes AVI/MPEG files not playing in screensaver

• New feature: MNG videos now playable in screensaver

• New screensaver mode feature with the ability to have GameEx turn off the monitor/display
• Fixes wrong reolution being set after return from screensaver

• Fix to frameskipping where the interface would run much too fast when monitor refresh rate was above 60

• Fixes setting wrong resolution after returning to GameEx
• For registered users the ability to block keys and mouse buttons via an advanced emulator config file
• Auto update will now restart GameEx if it fails. Completely cab and shell friendly.

• Fixes for oriental/asian systems or any system with a double byte code page

• Reduced size of gameex install by 2mb
• Hard disk space requirements for the install are also reduced.
• Size of default themes download reduced by 2mb
• Fixes autoupdate when set to update at startup
• Fixes detection of controls to not exit screensaver

• Thanks to the best graphic designer I currently know, new not played and live MAME logos by Amos

• New and improved Auto Update
• Fixes the IO error
• Frees up MS Windows to do other things (system friendly)
• Can minimize window
• Can cancel by closing window
• No pause before and after running
• Progress bar when downloading
• Can clearly see install running
• Tells you if an error occurs
• (Auto update is a registered version feature)

• For registered users - live online MAME game lists, GameEx most played, and MAWS hall of fame
• Is it about time you internet enabled your cab?

• Cosmetic fix to menu transitions
• This fix makes things look 10 times smoother when selecting menu items
• I always thought it was because of slowdown in GameEx but not all.
• Improvements to frameskipping. Will now skip up to 20 frames, which is how I discovered the above

• Frees up more memory before launching
• Could fix a few performance and memory problems when launching games on lower spec systems

• Added recent new settings to setup wizard
• New setting to tell GameEx not to reduce CPU usage, if you want full FPS as often as possible

• New MAME Not Played list, listing all the games you have not played in GameEx
• Think its another first.

• Even less CPU utilization

• 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.

• Music track details in taskbar now scrolls
• New features to specify a different folder of music to play while browsing different emulators
• Taskbar stays visible when mouse is over it, so you can see track details (V1 Themes)
• If GameEx cannot play a background video (normally due to missing codecs) it will now not error and display the image instead
• Fixes rom name instead of game name showing on info page when using a map file
• No more command/dos windows are shown.. Ever.. Headkaze will be cracking a beer open!
• Improved startup of MAME and in screensaver also
• Improved bypass disclaimer, will only send keys when it needs to.
• Ambience MP3 will stop (for good) when loading the jukebox
• Possible to exit from MAME game in screensaver almost immediately after its started
• If the jukebox is disabled and your using a playlist folder or file, gameex will retrieve the tags for each track now
• If using a low res aracdeVGA resolution, the control panel will now be completely visible when launching a MAME game.
• After exiting an emulator, the current audio track will be resumed exactly from where it was rather than playing the next track

• New low resolution Ultimarc ArcadeVGA theme included, with suitable settings for running at 640x288 out of the box
• New theme included 'Media Center - Background'
• Various small startup errors fixed thanks to error reporting
• Minor cosmetic fixes
• Fixes to snaps not showing when switching between certain themes

• Improvements to error reporting. Better support when internet access is not available or has limited connectivity.
• In the case there is an error playing a startup video, GameEx will now still continue

• Thanks to the new error reporting (loving this!) fixes an error when switching themes for unregistered users
• I encourage everyone to report your errors. I know with MS it seems its futile, but I can assure you with GameEx its making a huge difference.

• Thanks to the new error reporting just fixed a bug affecting brand new users
• Also found someone trying to hack the registration!

• GameEx now features error reporting
• 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.

• External applications now have an also launch setting for launching processes asynchrously. So there now in line with MAME and emulator support
• Fix to disable mouse setting. Now disables mouse wheel.
• In addition new setting to just disable the mouse wheel

• If available control panel will be shown for nine seconds or until key/button press when launching a game
• In game control panel shows and exits much quicker. It also shows a screen capture of the game as the background
• External applications now have options for launch before and launch after

• For registered users AutoHotKey style real time key remapping via an advanced emulator configuration file
• Automatically creates default MAME ROM cfg file before launching a game
• Fixes HTML apps turned off by default on a new install
• Much quicker exit from emulators when using an advanced configuration file

• 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

• Support for RMVB Videos (codecs required)
• Fixes Karaoke when VMR9 enabled

• Thanks to Ben Baker:
• Updated fixed model 2 support
• Much friendlier defaults in setup wizard for new installs
• Moving and sorting emulators in the setup wizard retains your favorites
• Model 2 emulator 0.4 games now supported in GameEx
• Fixes issue with loading screen not displaying
• Fixes issue with file names that contain apostrophes
• Improved loading speed when launched from Media Center
• Fixes issue with adding GameEx to Vista X64 Media Center start page
• Much better display quality of themes when shown at different resolutions

• 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

• Updated setup wizard thanks to Ben (AKA Headkaze) with more themes to download and added settings for emulators
• Should fix an error on Vista with colourkey at startup
• Now properly places my games on media center start page on Vista x64

• Should fix issue where sometimes minimizes at startup
• Improved key press detection in screensaver. Fixes screensaver detecting input and exiting when there is not any input
• Fixes Karaoke re-enabling Jukebox when its disabled

• Fixes MAME launch before command when in screensaver
• Fixes dialog text colour to be white instead of black in default (media centre) theme

• Updated Media Center theme thanks to Alan (AKA Amos)
• Fixes importing MESS emulator configs
• Should fix hideos.exe not always showing
• Fixes window not returning to correct position after running a game

• Supports MKV Videos (codecs required)
• Upgrading GameEx forces a re caching of graphics. Should fix a few issues
• Emulator groups now properly turn off any databases

• Fixes Karaoke
• Fixes track navigation not working in slideshow
• 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!

• Fixes radio station genres not showing
• Fixes GameExtender publisher issuing new user name each load
• In case you didn't notice Gameextender live page now links to MAWS when last played game is from MAME

• Small maintenance release
• Fixes MAMEseries when games in list start with open bracket
• MAME series list update faster
• Fixes screensaver not running after updating MAME list

• Should fix issue when Alt-Tabbing
• New Portuguese (Brazilian) language translation thanks to Cristian Azevedo Magadan

• Improved MAME series support. Now lists all clones
• Fixes a couple of font drawing issues going back several versions

• MAME Series support
• A list update is required

• Improved snap/preview handling. GameEx will use existing image if it's the same and not reload it. It also handles corrupt and invalid images better.
• Fixes wrong game displaying in info text when on game info page
• Should hopefully fix focus sound stopping playing after a while

• LCDPlugin 1.91 thanks to Headkaze
• Fixed cfg xml reading error
• Fixed config bug
• Also if your on dialup and new to GameEx I apologise for all the updates. Its just like that sometimes with the project

• MNG and avi previews wont reinitialize and restart when navigating between list and info page
• Makes things a lot smoother and tighter
• Fixes playing MPEG videos full screen
• Fixes videos previews restarting with the new preview feature

• 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!

• New emulator setting to control whether the most played games display at the top of the list or not, as opposed to always doing so before
• Media Center theme now has Vista style sounds. Thanks to the MCESoft Vista Media Center SDK

• VMR 9 support for Videos
• The quality is greatly improved

• All issues since 7.73 should now be resolved.
• Fixes anormorphic video aspect in vista
• DVD and Video aspect ratios are now separate. So you should only have to set the DVD aspect once
• GameEx now remembers aspect ratios for your videos

• Upgraded to .net 2.
• Fixes for latest version of MAME.
• Get it here

• Full video and DVD support in Vista
• Volume control working in Vista
• 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
• GameExtender server uses less cpu time

• Videos now work in Vista
• GameEx can now play protected windows media videos
• Includes latest version of Ben Baker's LCD/LED Plugin

• Snap preview alternates to another artwork image
• Added folder snap for pictures and videos
• Clock animation when time changes
• Please wait zoom animation
• Fixes not been able to use all game devices to navigate
• Fixes retuning to wrong position in list after exiting screensaver

• Fixes play timer being visable when full screen cmd line option used
• New command line option -hidemouse.
• Get it here

• Vista Fixes and compaitbility updates
• Caching of menu font for quicker startup and return from apps

• 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

• Fixes catver.ini
• Fixes multiple MAME rom paths
• There is also an offline install for the game manual viewer on the download page

• Fixes and compatibility updates for Windows Vista and 64 bit versions of Windows
• Should now run out the box on Vista
• The Setup and applications have been digitally signed.
• Ben Baker's Setup Wizard 1.74
• Fixes picture and slideshow transitions with latest ATI video drivers and on Vista.
• Asta La Vista.

• LCD/LED Plugin 1.5 Beta
• Ability to have custom MAME lists in MAME32 ini format
• Ability to import MAME32 Favorites.ini
• Fixes .net framework error at startup
• Should fix install exception if your GameEx install is old
• Updated MAME support files
• Fixes issues when using latest versions of catver.ini

• 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

• Fixes issue with MP3 ripping not creating Genre tag

• Enhancments:
• Plugin system 1.1:
• Enhanced timer event
• Updated C# Template
• A Visual Basic .net template now included
• 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

• Fixes to Caller ID and Exit Plugins

• Fixes error when opening MCE or pressing green button when GameEx running
• Fixes an issue with Vista build 6000
• Fixes to speech plugin

• Image file size of both gameex.exe and hideos.exe 76kb smaller (faster)

• Fixes all known issues with Plugins
• Fixes auto update not installing all files and updating the configuration (for future versions)
• Thanks to HeadKaze, Lingpanda, DJRobx, HanSolo and everyone on the forum for their help last few days

• This version of GameEx introduces a plugin system
• 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.
• www.spesoft.com

• Uses a mb or so less memory.
• Now scans for videos with the .divx extension
• GameExtender Publisher does not show windows screen when GameEx is not visible
• Updated Chankast config and wrapper thanks to Ben Baker

• Spesoft releases ShoutOff
• 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.
• Read more and download

• If you downloaded 6.97 or 6.98 you should get this version due to exception checking being left turned off
• Fixes Bezel feature
• Setup Wizard 1.5 by Ben Baker:
• Added HTML Applications/External Apps/Radio Stations & News Feeds
• Added the rest of the Daphne setup for each game
• Added a new feature at the end of the Wizard called 'Verify Setup'

• Better display at 1280 X 800 Resolution

• Fixes Create MAME Videos
• Now automatically detects MAME version and uses correct Bezel
• Many thanks to Mr Do. for the new MAME version Bezel
• Automatically detects change in MAME version and prompts to update list
• 7-Zip/Goodmerge support is now a registered feature
• Thanks to Ben Baker (AKA Headkaze) for the following:
• New Theme Editor ICON
• Updates to the Setup Wizard. Custom Setup, and all emulator settings now available
• Fixes to Model 2 support

• Version 2.50 Released
• www.spesoft.com

• Much quicker startup and window resizing when playing videos, dvd, and karaoke.

• Fixes to model 2 support
• Fixed cosmetic issues with and improved speed of updating the MAME List

• Update to video, DVD and karaoke player dialog box - less flicker, better cosmetics, and video and karaoke progress bar
• Enhancments and fixes to model 2 support thanks to headkaze

• 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

• Introducing the GameEx Setup Wizard!
• 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

• Fixes Create Snaps for both emulators and videos

• Sorry some test code got into 6.77 which stopped MAME from working and made random exits happen
• If you downloaded 6.77 then get this release

• Fixed a few issues with emulators in attract mode, and fixes a few issues with emulator list and database caching

• Random game can now launch goodmerge games
• Quicker Screensaver exit and less wait between games
• Slightly quicker startup and exit from games
• Screenaver should now properly clear keyboard buffer
• Fixes possible sound fx issues as audio files are now properly disposed of before reloading
• If an advanced emulator config is used and a key set to exit, now if the application does not exit it will be forced to
• For registered users its now possible to run other emulators in attract mode (turned on by default)

• Fixes checking for cpu at startup taking 2 seconds. Sorry about that, completely defeating the object of all the optimisations I made last week!

• 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

• Quicker startup still
• Quicker Running (Some threads moved to lowest priority)
• Optimisations to screensaver when it cant run
• Fixes no games found issue when loading emulators in the background

• Temporarily - Default themes are not dlownloaded when installing by default
• Log file now shows CPU Information
• Fixes Randomization issue with the screensaver

• Should fix all related issues since 6.58. If not please report
• Faster loading of emulators
• Faster startup time. I dont even see the loading screen now mostly
• Faster return from games
• Optimized loading of emulators in background. Should also not slow down GameEx too much on older CPUs
• Quicker Start Page Loading

• Fixes bug when viewing playlist in the jukebox it would just show all tracks and not show the playlist

• Fixes emulators not showing on start page when using flat start page
• Fixes emulator list corruption when less items in emu list than on start page
• Option to turn off start page zoom animation (Display Settings)

• 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
• I think thats everything. Enjoy

• Jukebox Enhancments:
• Can now view albums by artist
• Can now add all tracks to playlist queue without clearing
• When loading an emulator your last played game and 5 most played games will be listed at the top seperatly

• Updated default themes thanks to Amos
• New Spinner MAME games list, listing dial and wheel games
• New Trackball MAME games list

• Fixes create MAME videos.
• Uses up to 2MB less RAM.

• Should now support merged rom sets
• Enhanced image quality of icons/snaps/previews and backgrounds
• Several memory usage optimisations related to images
• Thanks to Headkazes help, theme editor themes can be displayed in windowed mode and at different resolutions
• Theme editor themes can be rotated dynamically
• Theme editor themes now work via remote desktop

• Fixes vertical games when using ArcadeVGA settings with MAME 0.107
• Animation added when dialog box shows
• 6.52 improved speed of loading Jukebox when in file tag mode

• Fixes the attract mode/screensaver when using MAME 0.107 or above.

• New version of the theme editor fixing saving issues
• Fixes vertical games not being correctly detected with MAME 0.107
• Fixes issues where the jukebox was scanning for audio twice when loading
• Hugely faster loading of Jukebox when in tag mode and new music has been added
• New feature to have GameEx automatically exit any game after a set amount of minutes (regardless of whether its in use)

• Quicker startup
• Fixes MAME categories with periods "." not being listed
• Fixes goodmerge support when games are unzipped and are read only
• Improved screen positioning and sizing at High Definition resolutions
• Compatible with latest MAME XML game list output

• Now features MP3 volume normalization
• www.spesoft.com

• No more flickering of overlayed toolbar,volume and text in DVD, Video or Karaoke

• New setting for Amos
• Make toolbar text white

• For registered users - Mouse Emulation
• Control games, applications and emulators that require a mouse with a gamepad and arcade controls

• This release fixes DVD and DVDs on disk

• New software by Tom Speirs
• 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.
• Get it here

• For registered users new LCD Plugin and enhanced support, now featuring play timer, current system and times played output.

• Fixes .net framework 1.1 not installed error, when installing on Vista
• Version 6.39 fixes MAME games not running if control panel viewer and game information not enabled.

• Vista Support. Should now run on Vista Beta 2
• Dropped support for .net framework 1.0 (not 1.1)

• 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.

• Much faster avi video creation for create snaps.
• Should resolve any choppiness or frame skipping on modern systems.
• You may see choppiness when the game is running, but this is after the capture has been copmpleted.

• For registered users its now possible to create avi video previews for emulator games. Just select create snaps.
• Create snaps now supports shortcuts.
• More stable launching of emulator games - No more not returning to GameEx.
• More Stable Create snaps.
• Create Snaps menu item now shows when emulator is using a database.
• Create Snaps always resumes now. Ie theres not two sets of commands.

• 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.
• Registered version feature.

• More intuitive menu navigation.
• 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.
• Fixex Most Played selecting wrong game.
• Fixes Favourites seclecting wrong game.
• Fixes Game Extender showing wrong images.
• Enjoy!

• The Spesoft Free CD Ripper has been updated to version 2.01 with the following enhancments
• Track numbers are saved with leading zeros
• Now has progress bar when ripping tracks
• Get it Here

• First off sorry for the delay in posting whas new
• 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.

• Sorry folks it seems a small bug crept into 6.19 that stopped emulator games showing up because of the faster file scanning
• If you installed 6.19 and are using emulators you need to upgrade to this release

• 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

• GameEx now features 7-ZIP GoodMerge support!
• Fixes issues with Most Played
• Fixes Emulator game information page sometimes not showing information from database when setting to remove brackets not used.
• Added additional 3 emulators slots in the configuration application
• Should hopefully fix auto update loop because of caching

• Adds support for the remaining and previously missing Model 2 games

• Updated Model 2 emulator script
• Should fix all known issues with Model 2 support
• If not please report on the forum
• Rotation hotkey checks to make sure not version 2 theme
• Screensaver/attract mode a little more responsive to key presses

• Two new themes by Amos on the downloads page here
• Check em out!

• Fixes frame skipping/stuttering in attract mode/screensaver (by minimizing GameEx)
• Overrides system default font smoothing setting when in 16-bit colour
• Fixes gamelist selection with mouse when rotated 90 degrees
• Fixes non default themes when default themes are not installed

• 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

• New ability to rotate display -90 degrees (as well as existing 90 degrees)
• Additional menu item to restart PC.
• New option to put MAME under the emulated games menu instead of the start menu
• Fixes update MAME list only creating list of vertical games, when only vertical games are set to show

• Correctly creates .mng file association.
• Works correctly if .net framework 2.0 installed
• http://tomspeirs.com/mnger

• 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

• For registered users - GameEx now has complete automatic update functionality
• It detects if a new stable version is available and if enabled, automatically downloads and performs an automated install next time GameEx is run
• No user interaction is required whatsoever, and it does not require a reboot
• It also only downloads the full 18MB themes package when your using them and then only when they have changed
• Screenshot
• Be aware this feature is enabled by default under Enable/Disable settings
• The startup video can now be a relative path
• Fixes V2 themes when GameEx set to not switch resolution
• Create MAME videos now creates videos so that every game in the list shows one

• New theme - Alpha Olive
• Created by Amos. Great job!
• On the downloads page

• 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.
• http://tomspeirs.com/MAMEScreenSaver

• 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.

• Hopefully fixes font issue reported by Headkaze
• Fixes 3d alpha blended transitions at 32-bit colour
• Automatically adds MAME CMD line options for new bezel feature
• Fixes V2 theme image centering

• 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

• Fixes exception issues in 5.99
• Fixes font issues at high resolutions

• New option to shell only for the current logged in user
• Added form and application ICONS
• Done message reminds undo is available

• Just a quick fix to font aliasing which I tried changing in recent version
• Also along with this news RSS feed, theres now a forum RSS feed here:
• http://www.gameex.info/forums/index.php?act=rssout&id=1

• Fixes cropped issue for lighter colour game font
• New option to filter all MAME lists for only vertical cocktail games
• New MAME lightgun games list
• An update of the games list is required to use these new features

• News module now includes new GameEx RSS feed.
• Applications set to launch at startup are now run before initialising DirectX again

• The news page is now database driven, and theres now an rss news feed available.

• Fixes for Model 2 Emulator

• Fixes and improves font anti aliasing.
• 5.93 was an update to the model 2 emulator autoit script to hide the mouse pointer.
• Install now has a simple license agreement, in regard to commercial use of GameEx.

• 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.

• Fixes Radio only playing for a few seconds after exiting MAME game
• Fixes chosen playlist not playing with music set to play on startup
• 3D Alpha blended transition is revered when navigating back
• Hopefully fixes memory leak in screensaver, if any.

• Button 4 on game pad should tell GameEx not to exit attract mode/screensaver
• Smoother transition from MCE when launching GameEx
• Fixes Favourites by system not showing all systems when navigating back

• 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.
• See here for more information on database support, and how you can help: http://www.gameex.info/forums/index.php?showtopic=1228
• 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.

• Updated MCE Glossy and new Dark Gloss themes by Alan R. Thanks, there great.
• New Atari MAME list.
• New Golden Era (1980-1989) MAME list.
• Fixed some theme images installing in the wrong location.

Download a video of GameEx in action:
GameEx Video (38MB - DivX - 9 Minutes)

• Enhancements:
  • Support for .OGM video files.
  • Support for .KAR Karaoke files.
  • 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.

• Fixes: Picture viewer showing last selected item.
• Config app now shows emulator name on main page for each emulator.
• Enhanced Karaoke module, based on the fact Karaoke files generally have no tag information.

• Fixes: Recent installs have been missing a DLL library stopping Jukebox in tag mode working and more recently the Karaoke from working.

• 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.

• Fixes various issues reported this week.
• 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.
• Happy Retro Gaming.
• Tom - Out.

• CD-Ripper now enters the Genre and Year tags correctly.
• Another value added enhancement to emulator support, GameEx will now find Title, Cartridge and Box artwork on a best match basis.

• Fixes Jukebox not finding any music when set to work with tags.
• Fixes rotate bug in theme editor.

• Fixes emulator lists not showing in 5.70
• Fixes configuration application not loading in 5.70 on Windows 98/ME
• Control panel editor now working in the theme editor. Note this is not implemented in GameEx yet.

• 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.
• Fixes
  • MNG videos no longer flicker.
  • Fixes configuration application truncating removed games.
  • Fixes custom emulator background video back bug.
  • Screensaver videos not playing
  • Various other fixes.

  http://gameex.net

• Please wait animation now does a VSYNC (no longer flickers)
• Fixes please wait animation when GameEx windowed
• Please wait animation can now be turned off
• Added twelve new radio stations (thanks to forum member wastedmind)
• 5.51 and 5.52 had minor fixes to the theme picker.

• Enhancements
  • 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.

• Fixes bug in 5.46 where emulators not available on start page.

• Fixes not returning to GameEx after exiting MAME Game on some systems. 
• Fixes favourites not showing when MAME not being used.

• 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.

• Much more intuitive for new users setting up MAME for the first time. If the games list has never been created it will prompt to update.
• For GameExtender, all artwork is now also cycled when a game is launched even when the Game information page has been skipped.

• There is a new Soul Calibur theme available on the downloads page authored by GameEx forum regular and expert Headkaze.

• Fixes big unnecessary slow downs when GameExtender enabled in certain circumstances.
• Sorry about that.

• Fixes GameEx crashing when launching MAME games when not using controls.ini

• Lots of improvements to GameExtender
• More stable.
• GameExtender now rotates artwork when available
• Displays Control Panel when available.
• When GameExtender is disabled takes next to no additional resources.
• GameExtender Viewer should definitely work on Second display now.
• Refresh rate option for viewer.
• Also in this release:
• Should fix Screensaver for some users.
• Screensaver now allows playing videos only

• 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.

• Fixes Games list and menu issues when return from attract mode in 5.37 and 5.38

• Fixes GameExtender Viewer not reading any settings and only using default values, IE you could not change Display On Sencondary, and IP.

• 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.
• Happy new year.