JoeViking245

Arcade Games Won't Launch (stand-alone MAME) - Troubleshooting View File Question: "When I try to launch an Arcade game using stand-alone MAME, all I see is a flicker of a black screen then it goes right back to LaunchBox. Why?" Answer: "Because something is wrong with your ROMs and/or something is wrong in your settings." This plugin gathers data and provides checks to help you determine what that something may be. Features: Shows the required dependency files needed (if any) Launches the game in MAME and captures the command window output that you never see. (Potentially useful 'Why the game isn't launching' data) View the emulators Running Script. (Typically never contains "the issue". But doesn't hurt to look.) Verifies ROM and dependency (BIOS & Device) file(s) exists and are accessible to the emulator when launching**. If found, checks and verifies the zip file contents (all inner files exist and CRC32's match). If a CHD is required, this only verifies the file exists and is accessible to the emulator when launching**. ** "accessible to the emulator when launching" The plugin looks for the "rompath" setting per MAME's order of prescience. This dictates which folders MAME will scan for ROMs and dependency files. This will NOT "fix it" for you. But should tell you everything you need to deduce "why" you can't launch a MAME game via LaunchBox. Once you know why, all you need to do is fix that part of the equation. Requirements: Requires LaunchBox 13.19 or newer Requires the games emulator to be mame.exe Only works with MAME Arcade machines. No software lists Only works with ROMs that are .zip (Not .7z) Since MAME is generally an all-or-nothing type of thing, this is essentially a one-off plugin. But if needed, it should provide sufficient information in a one-stop-shop to resolve your MAME launching issues. Installing: Extract the contents of the downloaded zip file into your /LaunchBox/Plugins/ folder. e.g. D:\LaunchBox\Plugins\MAMEtroubleshooting\MAMEtroubleshooting.dll Using: Start LaunchBox Right-click an Arcade game and select MAME Troubleshooting. Read through the Quick Analysis tab Click Test Game to capture and see MAME's command window Output If it indicates the game launches fine and you know it doesn't, click it again to see if it tells you a different story. Note: clicking a 3rd time won't change the answer it showed the 2nd time. Click Running Script to view the emulators Running Script. This usually is never the issue. But doesn't hurt to look. Click Check ROM(s) to scan the contents of the games ROM and Dependency (if any are required) zip files. This verifies the contents of the zip files and cross-checks those contents' CRC32 value against what MAME says they should be. (Works with both Merged and Non-Merged sets) For games requiring CHD files, it will only check that they are accessible to MAME and provide the files size. It won't do a hash check. Click Save Report to create a text file of all the produced data that you can share with your friends and family. Files are saved to /Plugins/MAMEtroubleshooting/Reports/[rom_name].txt (or /Reports/[rom_name] (Clone of [parent_rom]).txt) Once created, 2 icons will appear to open the txt file or open the /Reports/ folder. Once you've studied all the data and see "the issue", fix it and play games. 😎 Submitter JoeViking245 Submitted 06/29/2025 Category Third-party Apps and Plugins  

the {dash}id{equals}1 (-id=1) would go in place of the "full/path/to/rom.zip" @echo off echo Starting 3DSen with game... "D:\Launchbox\Emulators\3dSen\3dSen.exe" -id=1 echo Game loaded. pause You might need to add cd "D:\LaunchBox\Emulators\3dSen" before the 3dSen.exe line so that you're starting in that directory. (unless the .bat file is already in the same folder as the exe). Or... you might not need it. Dunno. If you want to launch this [batch file] from LaunchBox (aka: not have an associated emulator) and have it work with the shutdown screens, you'll want to add a "wait for game to exit before continuing" (/w) start /w "" "D:\Launchbox\Emulators\3dSen\3dSen.exe" -id=1 (when using this in LaunchBox, you don't want the other lines.) But doing it this way, you then have a bazillion batch files. But if you insist on doing so, you'll want to hide the command prompt window that pops up. To do that, create a shortcut of the batch file. Right-click the [new] shortcut, select Properties. Change the Run line to Minimized. Click OK to save. Then add the shortcut to LaunchBox. Note: you'll now have a bazillion batch files and another bazillion shortcuts.

That's kind of what I figured. That's exactly what I hoped. Glad [in the end] it works. Be sure to read through all the other cool Data Bindings in The LaunchBox Strategy Guide link I gave above. You might find something you never knew you wanted to add to your theme.

The error indicates something is up with your license file. Email support@unbrokensoftware.com and they can sort it out for you.

It shows using ActiveGame, but it may work for SelectedGame also. Data Bindings - LaunchBox ActiveGame.PlayTimeHms The selected game’s playtime in “##h ##m ##s” format <TextBlock Text="{Binding Path=ActiveGame.PlayTimeHms}" Foreground="White" />

I asked for 4 screenshots. You provided 2. Only 1 of the 2 was 1 of the 4 I asked for. I try not to ask for things unnecessarily in order to best help. Hopefully, I may still be able to help. In your 1st screenshot under Default Command-line Praameters, add -rompath %romlocation% after what's there. -keyboardprovider dinput -rompath %romlocation%

In LaunchBox, go to Tools, Manage, Emulators. Click your MAME emulator and then click Edit. In LaunchBox, select an Arcade game. (aka click on it once). Press Ctrl+E to edit it.

What platform and emulator? How were the bezels installed (what method did you use)? Can you share some screenshots of the following: Edit the emulator (in LaunchBox) in question. Share a screenshot of the main Details section the Associated Platforms section Edit a game have this issue. Share a screenshot of the Launching section the Emulation section

According to some recent posts on LaunchBox Discord and a 2 year old post on LaunchBox reddit, you need to add the games to 3dSen itself, 1st. It then saves game info into a rom.json file. Located somewhere in [%appdata%\..\LocalLow\Geod Studio\3dSen] After the games have been added, open the json file with any text editor. An example node looks like: "id": "64", "romPath": "C:\Nintendo NES (3dSen) Games\\Mega Man 3 (USA).nes", "title": "Mega Man 3", "lastTime": 1692883659 Look for the game and get the id number. Edit that game [that you've already imported into LaunchBox] and in the Emulation section, it should already be set to use your 3dSen emulator [that you've already installed into LaunchBox]. Check the box for Use Custom Command-line and in the box below it, put in -id=64 where "64" the id number you found. Save. Close. Play Yes. You'll have to do it individually, for each game. For me, this is all hearsay. But @ci2own says it works.

As Rafiki said to Simba... "Look harder..." If you need to set it for all games using a certain emulator, you can set it in the emulator. If the games don't use an emulator, there's the above Bulk Edit option. If you need more than a 30 second delay for some reason, you can set that per game, multiple games or per emulator using this plugin. But it maxes out at 5 minutes.

System Menu < Options < General < Skip Game Details Screen But this way you'll never see the Game Details screen unless you change it back. Instead, you could also map a button or key to "Play" the selected game (skipping the Game Details). System Menu < Options < Controller Mappings < Play

OPTIONALLY Edit the game In the Emulation section Leave Use Custom Command-line Parameters checked add a {space} and %noromfile% after the 2 you have in there. 2 %noromfile% You can leave the Launching section as is Click OK to save and close

Edit the game In the Emulation section, un-check Use Custom Command-line Parameters. In the Launching section, change ROM File to "2" (without quotes) Click OK to save and close

Prove it. Edit the new emulator you created and share a screenshot of: The main Details section The Associated Platforms section Edit your Street Fighter EX game and share a screenshot of: The main section The Launching section The Emulation section Requested screenshots may help determine that.

This plugin is no longer supported. Please see its replacement:

Replied to you on the other thread.

That plugin is no longer working nor supported (as indicated in its description). It has been replaced with the one below. Delete the one you added, then add this one.

Assuming you have the games imported into LaunchBox (so they have proper titles, metadata and media), you might be able to: Add a new emulator to LaunchBox Point the app path to your zinc.exe Check the boxes: Remove Quotes Remove File Extension... Set the Associated Platforms to include your Zinc platform(s) (whatever you've named them) Save Edit your Street Fighter EX game In the Emulation section Use an Emulator... should be checked if not, check it and select your new Zinc emulator In the Launching section Set the ROM File to "2" (without quotes) Click OK to save and close If not already, set your Zinc platform (whatever you've called it) to Scrape-As "Arcade". Otherwise, when you go to launch a game, it'll tell you something like "Gane ROM not Found". Wash, rinse and repeat for the other games, changing "2" to the appropriate number. Delete (or move for backup) all 'those' batch files.

From the Strategy Guide: LaunchBox Media Pack Feature – Version 13.21 - LaunchBox If you don’t plan to revert to an older version, it’s safe to delete the images from the locations listed below. There's more in this section of that page: https://feedback.launchbox.gg/help/articles/0459065-launchbox-media-pack-feature-version-1321#il0pze2b2mc

The issue here is it's 2 separate platforms. So it's looking in 2 separate folders. My cab has a 22" 1680x1050 monitor. TBH, I don't really fire up Big Box that often. And when I do, it goes to the 65" TV. But I don't really "look at it" because I already know what game I'm going to play. I just find the game, press "X" on the controller and it launches.

Update your local database Tools < Download < Force Update Games Database Metadata...

I use this and it's very convenient. @KRI$85 The [potential] problem with this is, you'd need to know which games are "duplicated" to symlink those. Or... I suppose you could symlink each platforms' respective Images subfolders' images to the other platforms' subfolders, as a whole. You wouldn't be able to link the folders because some platforms will have games that others don't. You'd need to link the individual images. Unless... you put every single platform image(s) into ONE folder (with the respective image-type subfolders), then link all the 'other' platforms' images subfolders to that one. So you'd have something like /LaunchBox/Images/EverySinglePlatform/Box - Front/everygame.png(s) Myself, I'd rather have each platform-specific image/video available. e.g. "1942" Box-Front If you're talking say, just Clear Logos, that'd make a lot more sense. You could also run an image resizer app on your images. Take the NES Box image above for example... will you EVER display that image at 1530 x 2100? Even the Clear Logo is 2400 x 790. Look in all your Views and see if you need/use a logo that big. For videos, you could a similar thing. For my cab monitor, I've resized them to 640x480 and trimmed them to a max 37 seconds.

Select a game in that platform then press Ctrl+A (to select all). Then.. Tools < Download < Update Metadata and Media for Selected Games... Make sure the platform is set to Scrape As "Arcade".

I'm fairly certain the process done in the video should still work (be relevant). At what stage was it not working?