[Pulling MAME Roms out of a non-merged set]

A shot in the dark, when you downloaded the MAME xml, did you set the version there?  Or just in the search?

 

Next I'd say, open the xml, look for "puckman" and compare the ROMs it lists with what's in your zip file and make sure those match up.

Above is the 0.78 set.

[send Alt F4]

3 hours ago, musarezeq said:

But the strange thing the command that I use, actually work on other games but that one is not , although it can still be closed by pressing the Alt+F4 on keyboard!!

Since it's a Windows game and you're not using an emulator, how exactly are you setting up the command?  I assume an AutoHotkey script launched via an Additional App.  What does your script look like?  Are you trying to set it to a key on the keyboard (i.e. ESC)?  Or a button on a controller?  Both?

[send Alt F4]

5 hours ago, musarezeq said:

Hi,

I tried most of these scripts to close most of the games. They were working flawlessly with the most but with some are not.

let me more specific, Most of "Outright Games" like, PawPatrol Adventure City Calls.

when I press physically Alt+F4 on my keyboard, the game close with no problem but not with the script !!

any help is really appreciated.

If you have the Steam version and are using the Steam ID# to launch the game, it's not going to work this way.  If you use the Steam game.exe to launch it, it may work.  But either way, you really should be exiting it through the games' menu (for Steam games).

If you have a console version, which emulator are you using for your game?

[BannerBox Mega Drive game box art/banner]

There are Mega Drive versions available.

What you might try doing is in your Sega Mega Drive platform, select all the games then click Edit (or press Ctrl+E) to open the Bulk Edit Wizard.  Then when it asks which Field you want to change, select Region. For the Value, select Europe.  

Once that's completed, when you download/update metadata and media for those games, I believe it should grab the "(Europe)" versions of the images.

[Merge platforms?]

6 hours ago, maxforwardspeed said:

Well, I tried starting from scratch and named my platform "Sega Naomi" and imported all of the games from the individual categories into one but I still didn't get the platform media and data to load. No big deal I suppose. I'll just have to look for the Naomi platform info manually.

To be honest, I'm not sure how I got the System metadata in there for Sega Naomi 2.  (It was done quite a while ago) 

I tried to reproduce it and the only way I could get it to work was to import the ROMs directly in LaunchBox into a new platform and setting the Scrape As value there.

The plugin was set to assign the Scrape As value to Arcade for all 9 systems.  I have updated the plugin (v1.01) so it will now set the Scrape As value according to the system.  I figured this way it'll get the appropriate System metadata in there.  Then if later, anyone wanted to change to Arcade it'd be a lot easier as Arcade doesn't really have any metadata.   It goes something like this:

System                     Scrape As
---------------------       -----------------
Atomiswave            Sammy Atomiswave
Cave3rd                   Arcade
Gaelco PVR2           Arcade
Hikaru                     Sega Hikaru
Naomi Cart             Sega Naomi
Naomi GDROM      Sega Naomi
System SP               Sega Naomi
Naomi Cart 2          Sega Naomi 2
Naomi GDROM 2   Sega Naomi 2

[thunderhoop_gal16v8.f2 not found eror rom mame]

55 minutes ago, catalaman said:

SHOULD YOU KNOW THAT ROM WORKS FINE ON MAME 0.222 , and dont work on mame 0.236 .

in general normally the update facilitates and corrects the errors, why the update of the mame becomes more and more complicated with the old roms .

 

As MAME (mame.exe version 0.xxx) updates, they've updated ROM dumps as well.   Not every ROM gets updated with every MAME update.  This is why if you update MAME and not the ROMs, most of the games will still work. In your case, Thunder Hoop is not one of them.

The rule of thumb is you always want to have a ROM set (version) that matches you MAME version.  

The reason your Thunder Hoop works in v0.222 is because you ROM (zip file) is from version 0.225 or earlier (i.e., 0.222).  If you look inside thook.zip, you will see that it only has 7 files.

c09
c10
c11
c12
sound
th18dea1.040
th161eb4.020

 

When the ROM was updated along with MAME version 0.226, it now has 11 files.  Those previous 7, plus

thunderhoop_gal16v8.f2
thunderhoop_gal16v8.j16
thunderhoop_gal20v8.d21
thunderhoop_gal20v8.h11

(see the resemblance of the 4 yours says is missing?)  So, MAME versions 0.226 and later (i.e., 0.236) are looking for all 11 files.

 

Sometimes you will get "lucky" when you update MAME but not the ROMs, and the ROMs will still work.  But it is NOT advisable to it that way "hoping for the best".

[Box Back displayed instead of Box Front.....]

If you select the ".38" game, and then press F5, does that fix it?

Of the 8 images you have, are they all unique?  "Box - Front", "Box - Back", "Clear Logo"... etc..

[Auto Hotkey Scripts]

9 minutes ago, skizzosjt said:

I didn't see the problem with keeping them blank right away because the test script I made was just a test, it had no other code in it to run....but as I looked it over again it dawned on me this approach is problematic. 

When you place subsequent "blank" hotkeys, they'll all get assigned to command(s) that follow.  Hotkey assignments should also be 'terminated' with a Return. 

j::
K::
l::
Soundbeep
return

b::
n::
m::
send joe was here
return

Here, j, k and l are all assigned to "Soundbeep".  b, n and m will all type out "joe was here".

 

j::
K::
l::Return
Soundbeep
return

Here, j, k and l are all assigned to Return.  Soundbeep and the last return will never do anything.

 

SetTitleMatchMode, 2
#IfWinExist Notepad
{
  j::Return
  K::
  l::
  Soundbeep
  Send joe was here
  return
}

Here, ONLY if Notepad is running, j does nothing. k and l will both sound a beep and also type out "joe was here.  

 

Hopefully that helps makes the mud more clear.  

[Merge platforms?]

1 hour ago, maxforwardspeed said:

I'm not getting anything (clear logo, videos, etc) for Naomi. Do I need to rename the category for launchbox to see it correctly? Right now the platform is titled "Naomi Cartridge"

I didn't test with EmuMovies setup for videos, but setting the platform (not to be confused with the term 'category') to Scrape-As Sega Naomi (aka, Naomi cartridges) I was able to get metadata (which you didn't have issues with) and (I only checked) Arcade Cabinet, Clear Logo and Advertisement Front.  For my test, I selected the 1st 6 games, then Tools, Download, Update Metadata and Media for selected games, went through the prompts checking the 3 mentioned images and all was good.

 

10 hours ago, maxforwardspeed said:

"Naomi GDRom"

Same as above except setting the Scrape-As to Sega Naomi 2.

The Title of the Platform doesn't matter. As long as Scrape As is set.

 

[Auto Hotkey Scripts]

37 minutes ago, Sbaby said:

I found a solution by entering script  "BlockInput, On" while loading, and "BlockInput, Off"  as soon as the game starts

You might be able to, in between those "blocks", assign some do-nothing hotkeys for the joy buttons.  I don't know how you set the 'blocks', probably something along the lines of  while game_not_started_yet, BlockInput, On..... then add your joy buttons...  Joy1::Return   Joy2::Return.... etc.

Then [hopefully] those hotkey assignments only do-nothing 'while loading'.

[Windows 11 (September 20, 2022) Update - BigBox significant improvements]

(1) PC, (1) laptop and (1) cab [PC].  All say the same thing. lol

[EmuMovies Not showing Videos for Metadata]

35 minutes ago, brett190 said:

Yes, I do have the window showing up and no videos show up in the menu

It could be the platform you're in.?.  To test, go to Arcade and select one/several/all games and click Tools>Download>Update Meta Data... and see if they show up then.  (the game 1942 is always a good, all-around test game.)  You can click Cancel afterwards so as to not download what you [may] already have.  Also try [what you did before] and edit an individual game ("1942") and look in the EmuMovies tab.

If they do show up there, then chances are what you were trying to download the videos for simply doesn't have any (some other platform?).

If they don't show up there, then it sounds like an in-house issue with either LB, EmuMovies or both.

[EmuMovies Not showing Videos for Metadata]

14 hours ago, brett190 said:

Videos are not showing up as an option in Tools>Download>Update Meta Data

In the Download Metadata and Media Wizard, when you get to the "Would you loke to download media from EmuMovies?" page (next page after "Would you like to download images for your games?"), are any options (check boxes for images or otherwise) showing up?  

Right now, mines not looking too good. But I'm on my test PC and I may have something screwed up.

[Auto Hotkey Scripts]

2 hours ago, Sbaby said:

At the moment it didn't work but I added these two lines and it works fine now . It is also perfect with Windows 11. Thank you very much

Good to know it works on Windows 11.  Thanks.

If you wanted, you could replace those 3 BigBox lines with just 1 like I showed.  Start ("RunWait") BigBox.exe (or LaunchBox.exe) from within the "Core" subfolder.

[Auto Hotkey Scripts]

10 minutes ago, Sbaby said:

I didn't understand what I should do ...

Right now if I run 1.ahk everything works fine and everything goes black

Then if I run 2.ahk it restores everything except original wallpaper

how should i correct them?

 

OHhhhh..... you removed the semicolon to uncomment the line(s).  Gotch'ya.

21 hours ago, JoeViking245 said:

You will still need to have the script running, or save to fore mentioned variables externally to be recalled when restoring.

The file I attached was a library that you are to make reference from in your original script.  You can reference it by using the #Include statement.  

 

I suppose you could try to use it the way you did.  But use just one script file.  Uncomment the 2 lines and somewhere in between them, add

RunWait, "D:\LaunchBox\Core\LaunchBox.exe"

[Auto Hotkey Scripts]

1 hour ago, Sbaby said:

Wow, that looks great and very interesting 😮
I did a test on a virtual machine with windows 10. I used your script ToggleAllLibrary.ahk
I changed it by removing the semicolons from ToggleEverything: = HideDesktop () and magically it's all black ( This is great  )

Then I used a second identical script but removing the semicolons from RestoreDesktop (ToggleEverything [1], ToggleEverything [2])

This brought me everything back to normal...icons, bar, etc except for the desktop background which remained black, instead it should have brought me back the original wallpaper, where did I go wrong? 🧐

The call to RestoreDesktop doesn't (shouldn't?) have any semicolons.  Removing the semicolon from ToggleEverything changes it from an expression method to a legacy method in which both are different in how they set the array ToggleEverything. So that may have something to do with it.

Removing the colon from ToggleEverything := HideDesktop() shouldn't have made a difference in "hiding" everything.  But it may make a difference in setting its array (originalWallpaper, origBackground) that are returned from HideDesktop().  If those aren't stored properly (or at all), attempting to run

RestoreDesktop (ToggleEverything [1], ToggleEverything [2])

Would be just the same as running

RestoreDesktop ("", "")

..then RestoreDesktop won't know what the originalWallpaper was to restore it.

[Auto Hotkey Scripts]

2 hours ago, Sbaby said:

I would like to set a Windows desktop wallpaper when launchbox starts.

This is for those milliseconds when I occasionally can't cover the desktop for some game loads (They are few but it happens to me).

But then I would like the Windows 11 wallpaper to return when launchbox / bigbox is closed.

Is it possible to do this with ahk script?

This works on Windows 10.  Not sure about Windows 11.  Also, not sure about dual monitors.

To RESTORE the original wallpaper, you would need to keep the script running until you close LB/BB, or store the originalWallpaper variable to a txt file (or something).

; Store original desktop wallpaper (probably has issues with multiple monitors)

RegRead, originalWallpaper, HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop, WallPaper

; Set desktop wallpaper to null (not saved to registry.  Changes will revert after rebooting PC)

DllCall("SystemParametersInfo", UInt, 0x14, UInt, 0, Str, , UInt, 2)

 

Unless you want a 'special' wallpaper while LB/BB is running, it might be easier to have no wallpaper ("null") and set the background color to black. If your default is something other than black, you'll want to save the origBackground variable as well

; Store original background color

RegRead, backgroundRGB, HKCU\Control Panel\Colors, Background

StringSplit split, backgroundRGB, " "

origBackground := % RGB( split1, split2, split3)

; Set the background Color to black

DllCall("SetSysColors", "Int", 1, "Int*", 1, "UInt*", 0)

And if you're saving (storing) origBackgound,  you'll need this subroutine also.

;this subroutine is a part of desktopBackground

RGB(r, g, b) {

   SetFormat, Integer, Hex

   Return, (r << 16) | (g << 8) | b

}

 

Then to restore things after LB/BB closes (again, uses the variables originalWallpaper and origBackground that were saved from before.)

; Restore original desktop wallpaper (image)

DllCall("SystemParametersInfo", UInt, 0x14, UInt, 0, Str, originalWallpaper, UInt, 2)

 

; Restore the original background color

DllCall("SetSysColors", "Int", 1, "Int*", 1, "UInt*", origBackground)

 

If you'd prefer to have all that in a library and just call a function to hide and another to restore, you can call the attached library using #Include.  Instructions are in the file.  You will still need to have the script running, or save to fore mentioned variables externally to be recalled when restoring.

The library I made actually also hides/restores the desktop icons, taskbar, minimizes all windows as well as the wallpaper/background thing above.  Basically it gives you a black canvas.  So you'll want to comment or delete those portions you don't want out.

Have fun.      ToggleAllLibrary.ahk.txt  (be sure to remove ".txt" if/when you go to use it.)

 

[Changing Bezels]

7 minutes ago, bwunk said:

Is it possible to change the bezel art that is displayed for a single game?  

Example: Golden tee'99 has a nice theme bezel with control tips on it, but golden tee 2006 does not so it shows the default "arcade" bezel.  Can I edit the metadata for Golden Tee 2006 to show the same bezel as '99?

Easiest way (only way?) is to make a copy of the bezel folder for Golden tee '99 (which will be "gt99" [same name as the games ROM file]) and rename it (the copy) to match the name of the [other] ROM you want to also use it for.  If it's Golden Tee Fore! 2006 Complete, the ROM name is "gtfore06".  So the copied folder will be renamed to "gtfore06".

For stand-alone MAME, the bezel folders are located in the artwork subfolder of your MAME emulator.  Example:   ../Emulators/MAME/artwork/gt99/

[Joystick encoder + RocketLauncher + LB/BB]

15 minutes ago, jfree427 said:

check out retroarch for the rest of my emulators

Here's a helpful guide regarding stand-alone emulators and/or RetroArch cores to use, by system.

 

[Bulk Convert cue/gdi/iso files to CHD]

13 hours ago, maxforwardspeed said:

Looks like another great plugin! My roms are not yet imported into LB and were all in zipped format. I just extracted them but they are now in separate folders named after each game, and the roms are GDI. How should I import these into LB so I can use the plugin?

Thank you!

So yours is not really a question about the plugin. I've never imported gdi files nor ROMs that are in individual subfolders.  But I know there's an option when you import ROMs where you can select a folder or files.  In your case a folder (containing the subfolders).

[BigBox: Turn off "Game Over" Screen for Windos Games?]

2 options:

Per game - Edit the game

 

To change all at once for several or all games, select the games, at the bottom of the LaunchBox window, click Edit to start the Bulk Edit Wizard.

[Setting up Pinball FX3 to launch directly into tables]

4 minutes ago, cleverest said:

I don't believe you can launch into specific tables with FX3 without a special license. (unlike FX2), but If you or someone else figures out how and verifies it working, please let me know how. Thanks.

You're right. You can't.  But the "special license" is free.   

[Auto Hotkey Scripts]

@maxforwardspeed Try adding     ,,Min     to the end of your 2 run lines

#SingleInstance Force

 

Run, E😕Emulation\LaunchBox\Sinden\Player 1\[the rest of the long path]\Lightgun.exe,,Min

Run, E😕Emulation\LaunchBox\Sinden\Player 2\[the rest of the long path]\Lightgun.exe,,Min

 

~Esc::

    Process,Close,Lightgun.exe

    Run,taskkill /im "Lightgun.exe" /F

    sleep, 500

    ExitApp

return

Edit:  lol  it likes changing : \ when their right next to each other.  But you get the idea  

[Auto Hotkey Scripts]

11 minutes ago, maxforwardspeed said:

Unfortunately it doesn't help in my case.

Was that checkbox even an option for you?  Does it actually start it and send it to the taskbar (if checked)? 

If you don't use the additional app, does your game start full screen and in focus?

[With the additional app in place] try disabling the startup screen.  Any change?

When you have to Alt+Tab to the non-fullscreen game to bring it in focus, can you see what application you're Alt+Tabbing from?  (The application that is stealing focus)

Is the Alt+Tab thing required in BigBox only? Or do you need to do that when launching the game from LaunchBox as well?

Can you show the script you're using to launch the Sinden software?

In the emulator Startup Screen settings that you're using for the game(s) you load the Sinden software with, Is Hide All Windows that are not in Exclusive Fullscreen Mode box checked? Try the opposite.

[Auto Hotkey Scripts]

9 minutes ago, maxforwardspeed said:

Do you guys know how to have an AHK run as an additional app to launch software in the background and keep it in the background? I'm running a script to launch Sinden software before games but Launchbox and Bigbox seem to lose focus on actually keeping those apps as background processes, and the game never launches Fullscreen, but I see it below in the taskbar. In Bigbox I have to Alt-tab my way out of a completely black screen, even though all processes are running, just not in the right sequence I guess?

Does this help?