Mekax Xbox - Gamebrew

Mekax Xbox - Gamebrew

MekaX is an emulator for Sega Master System/Game Gear/SG-1000/SC-3000/SF-7000/MK3. Original by XPort based on the multi machine emulator MEKA, and updated by Madmab.

Features

  • Emulates Sega Master System/Game Gear/SG-1000/SC-3000/SF-7000/MK3.
  • Ported from Meka.
  • ZIP support.
  • Loads of hardware/software filters and video options to tweak.
  • Cheat system - Search/Create your own cheat codes (see notes).
  • Favorites list.
  • Save states.
  • Light gun support (not tested).
  • Fast forward/throttle.
  • Resizable game screen.
  • Text file viewer.
  • ISO9660, Relax, Samba support.
  • Take in-game screenshots and display them on the game selection list Record/Playback feature.
  • Every single in-game command is fully customizable on any of the four joypad controllers.
  • Map any emulator or UI command to a single button or a combination of two buttons.
  • Autofire capabilities for any emulator button on any controller.
  • One-button combos.
  • Traverse any directory on any drive.
  • All UI commands (save state, load state, screenshot, etc) can be invoked from the Options/Pause menu as well as in-game via your customized joypad mappings.
  • All the other standard features found in XPort ports.

User guide

You can find many SMS homebrew games at SMS POWER.

Samba shares

Old SAMBA library has been replaced. You should now have more luck connecting to your SAMBA shares (including a NAS). Especially shares with passwords which never worked under the old code.

Renamed Enter Samba Share Name to Enter Root Samba Share Name since it acts more as a shortcut now that you can Browse SMB shares. Samba Server Name doesn't really serve any purpose at the moment.

SMB shares can now be browsed. As a result how you use Samba shares has changed slightly, try these steps:

  • Clear out your Samba Share Name.
  • Use either the ROM browser or the Change default directories to browse to your share (press Y until you see the drive list and select SMB:\\).
  • If it doesn't work, try it again a couple times. For some silly reason sometimes it times out.
  • If the emu thinks your share needs a password a window will pop-up asking you if you want to enter in a username and password. Enter it as username:password.
  • As a result of this change you can set all your definable directories to any share with any password.

If for some reason browsing doesn't work, try entering your Samba server name in the Enter Root Samba Share Name under Network/Netplay Options. Format is "smb://servername_or_ip/sharename" or "smb://username:password@servername_or_ip/sharename". If the share is password protected. Browsing once within a share is much more reliable.

If you enter anything into the Root Samba Share Name, then you are stuck with that and can't use other servers for media streaming, unless they are on a Relax share.

If using Enter Root Samba Share Name works, you might want to consider deleting your emu_name.ini file in the SAVES directory.

Some suggestions if you decide to stream stuff over the network.

  • Try splitting the workload. Setup a Relax and Samba share (or even seperate servers) and divy up the workload. They both have seperate caches so it's more efficient.
  • Roms, Screenshots, Box/Cart art, Manuals, Commercials, preview movies and the like are great candidates for streaming.
  • If you do stream Screenshots and Box/Cart art set the timers a little higher and not the same. For example 5 seconds on screenshots, 10 on Box/Cart art. Or just set them to 0 (manual advance).

Streaming movies really depends on how good of a network you have For example streaming movies over a wireless network isn't gonna be so hot. Although relax seems faster, that may have changed with the new SMB code. You might also wanna consider bumping up the movie delay a couple seconds (only applies if Movie Streaming Style is set to Copy Then Play (slower?)). Pseudo streaming does not have this limitation.

An example of how to set up:

  • Screenshots and Box/Cart art on the xbox 5/10 sec delay respectivaly (or 0).
  • ROMS, GameFaqs, VGMaps, etc on a Samba share to NAS, as well as all of the commercials and manuals.
  • Movies on NAS using samba and pseudo streaming.

The possibilities are endless. Experimentation is worthwhile. Or you could just slap a super big hard drive in your Xbox.

Configuration defaults

This feature allows you to set default configurations for select emulators.

In the General settings menu, there will be a new option - Automatically Use Default Game Configuration (Yes/No). If you set it to Yes, it will bring up the game configuration screen and let you define the default (if no default.stg and default.key file exists).

In the Configuration menu, there will be a new option Set default game configuration. You can go in anytime through the Configuration menu to change these defaults to something else if they wish.

Once set to Automatically use Default Game Configuration, you will not see the game configuration screen again unless:

  • You press X when selecting a game.
  • Change Use Default Game Configuration back to No.

Keep in mind when it is set to Yes the game will use your Default game settings and not the normal x-port behavior. If set to No, the emulator will behave like it usually does. Each emu is typically different. But all, at the very least carry the controller settings over.

This feature will only be added to emulators in which it is feasible to use.

Maya Lin-Takahashi
Author

Maya Lin-Takahashi

Maya is a hardware enthusiast who tests and reviews smart home devices, smartphones, wearables, and audio gear. She focuses on practical consumer value and build quality.