JoeViking245

Here's one for history.xml. Do not expect anything for mameinfo.dat. (at least not from me.)

MAME History.xml Viewer View File View game specific history from MAME's history.xml Inspired from MAME's built in feature in the main UI and via their in-game Tab menu Prerequisites Requires LaunchBox 13.3 or newer MAME or MAMEui set as the game(s) emulator "history.xml" (download it from https://www.arcade-history.com/) MAME users: Place the file in the "history" subfolder of your MAME emulator. i.e. D:\Emulators\MAME\history\history.xml MAMEui users: Place the file in the "dats" subfolder of your MAME emulator. i.e. D:\Emulators\MAMEui\dats\history.xml Currently only available in LaunchBox (not BigBox) Installing Download and then open the plugin file using 7zip. if you don't use 7zip, first unblock the file (Right click, select Properties, and click Unblock) then open it as you normally would. Extract the main folder from inside the zip file into ..\LaunchBox\Plugins\ i.e. D:\LaunchBox\Plugins\MAMEhistoryXml\ Start LaunchBox Using Right-click on a game and select View MAME History. Updating history.xml When loading the plugin, it will check your local version of history.xml against what's available on https://www.arcade-history.com/. If a newer version is available, you will be given the option to Update your local copy. Updating will attempt to download and then replace your existing file. As always, all thoughts, views, opinions, suggestions, comments and accolades are welcome. 😎 Submitter JoeViking245 Submitted 12/19/2024 Category Third-party Apps and Plugins  

No. Only if you're real lucky, copying the files will work. But don't do that. What was stated was "reinstalling LaunchBox over your existing installation"

When running LaunchBox-xx.xx-Setup.exe and setting the install location, the installer will add "LaunchBox" to the end of the location you chose. Just delete the trailing \LaunchBox before proceeding [when you see it doubled up]. And as you found/noted, you can't install it into a root Drive. No. Your saved data and imported games will remain when doing the update. Typically when this error occurs, it means that one of the program files somehow got corrupted. You can try reinstalling LaunchBox over your existing installation which will repair the file(s). Which you have done. So, this could indicate the ...Setup.exe file you have is corrupted. If you don't have a Premium license and you need the older version 13.11, contact support@unbrokensoftware.com and they should be able to help you with that. Worse case is there's something wrong with your license file. If you need to recover your license file, you can do so at https://www.launchbox-app.com/premium/lost-license.

Understood. But I'd rather not make any assumptions. That said... I assume that on this different PC, launching a game (just like you could on the 1st PC) "through Flycast directly, it works perfectly by opening the in-software game lists, then click on the game to open and play". If it does work that way, I'm not sure what to tell you. If it doesn't, then your issue is with the Flycast emulator.

I don't want to imply that I don't trust what you're saying or that you're a liar... But can you share those same screenshots from your 'different PC' please. Because based on what your writing, flucaste.exe I don't think will ever work in any situation. And as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Looks like I missed saying to uncheck the "Remove quotes" and also the "Remove file extension..." boxes. Srry 'bout that.

Thy removing the Default Command-Line Parameters.

To help determine what's going on, in LaunchBox can you: edit your Flycast emulator and share a screenshot of the Details section and the Associated Platforms section. edit one of those 2 games and share a screenshot of Launching section

The installer will install the most recent version of MAME. If your version is not the most recent, copying and older version on-top of a newer version is never a good idea. Conversely, copying a newer version on-top of an older version is OK. When 'updating' your MAME emulator, that's essentially what you're doing. Or at least that's how I do it. Your emulators do not have to be within the LaunchBox folder structure. The easiest way for you [in this case] would be to go to Tools, Manage, Emulators, Add New Emulator. Call it "MAME" (or whatever you want) and point the Application Path to your existing mame.exe file. You can, of course. But that just gets messy. When you do install/setup LaunchBox (if not already), create an Emulators folder under LaunchBox and a MAME (or whatever you want to call it) folder under that. i.e. D:\LaunchBox\Emulators\MAME\ Then copy (or move) your existing MAME files/subfolders into the new MAME folder. Then Add New Emulator as mentioned above. Since you have a bit of time invested into your current MAME setup, you may want to copy it rather than move it. Or at least create a backup of the existing install. (Cheap insurance) This is a whole 'nother topic in and of itself as there a several factors involved. Bottom line is you can freely add and remove games from LaunchBox (as you mentioned: "edit the ROM selection to my taste").

Glad it works (finally. lol). I stick with v1.x because that's what's integrated with LaunchBox. v2 may have some enhancements over v1 (never bothered to look). But in some cases, the structure is different between the 2 (as you discovered). And (luckily) so far there hasn't been anything I need to do that can't be done in v1.x. On a side-sidenote: I use CodeQuickTester for all my testing (outside of LaunchBox). It has a super small footprint (<100kb). It does need AutoHotkey.exe to run. You can have multiple 'copies' of it, each pointing to a different version of AutoHotkey.exe. Or just point it to ../LaunchBox/ThirdParty/AutoHotkey/AutoHotkey.exe (i.e., you don't need to have AHK installed).

Looks like it might be a port of Yuzu. Try adding -f -g to the Default Command-Line Parameters.

Not sure if this is just a rant, or you're looking for support. If you haven't done so already, please email support@unbrokensoftware.com for any licensing questions/concerns. They're the only ones that can help with that.

Glad that it works. But running LaunchBox as Admin WILL mess other things up! Don't do that. Instead, create a new AHK script. Save it to somewhere/something like 'G:\LaunchBox\0-UTILS\MyScripts\Kill-Lichtknarre.ahk` full_command_line := DllCall("GetCommandLine", "str") if not (A_IsAdmin or RegExMatch(full_command_line, " /restart(?!\S)")) { try { if A_IsCompiled Run *RunAs "%A_ScriptFullPath%" /restart else Run *RunAs "%A_AhkPath%" /restart "%A_ScriptFullPath%" } ExitApp } Process, Close, Lichtknarre.exe The new script restarts itself if it's not in admin mode, into admin mode. Then... as "admin", closes (kills) the app. Then in your Running Script, change the 1st line to: Run, G:\LaunchBox\0-UTILS\MyScripts\Kill-Lichtknarre.ahk So, I had initially missed/glossed-over/ignored that fact that you were initially starting the app as Admin. Which makes sense as to why you need to close it as admin. When you ran the script outside of LaunchBox, you were admin. Thus it worked. Something [for me] to keep in mind for future.

Ahhh.... now you're double-dipping into theme AND plugin creation. Congrats on being the all-time high scorer!

Process, Close is the most forceful way (in AHK) to 'kill' a program. The fact that you got it working outside of LaunchBox is a bit disconcerting. If Lichtknarre actually has some sub-process (multiple instances), you could try something like (replacing the 1st line): Loop 10 { Process, Close, Lichtknarre.exe Process, Exist, Lichtknarre.exe } Until not ErrorLevel This will look for up to 10 instances (which is a bit overkill) of the app, closing each one, until none exist, or 10 loops have been reached. If that doesn't work... not sure what to tell you. Especially since you got it to work outside of LaunchBox.

I have no idea what the command line is to mount/unmount an ISO to a drive letter, so I'm going to pretend it's -mount, -unmount and -driveletter. Process,Exist, dtagent.exe If ( ErrorLevel = 0 ) { Run, "C:\Program Files\DAEMON Tools Lite\dtagent.exe" -mount "D:\Roms\Microsoft DOS\Roms\Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego 1996\csworld96.iso" -driveletter G } $Esc:: { Run, "C:\Program Files\DAEMON Tools Lite\dtagent.exe" -unmount "D:\Roms\Microsoft DOS\Roms\Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego 1996\csworld96.iso" Return } The 1st line looks for the process. If the ErrorLevel (2nd line) = 0, then it's not running. Once you figure out the correct command lines, change the 2 "Run" commands to those (i.e. something that actually works. ).

Correct. You'd add it to the Running Script. But of course, you won't be starting ('RunWait') Dolphin as LaunchBox is already doing that. What you're needing to do at that point is wait for Dolphin to be running and then wait for it to 'no longer exist' (aka, you exit the emulator). Process, Close, Lichtknarre.exe Process,Wait,Dolphin.exe While WinExist("ahk_exe Dolphin.exe") Sleep 700 run "G:\LaunchBox\0-UTILS\Lichtknarre\Lichtknarre.exe - Shortcut.lnk" A potential problem is, when you exit the emulator, the Running Script gets abandoned. Possibly not allowing the last "run" to execute. I don't know how fast it gets abandoned when the emulator closes. As in, it may still execute the last Run line. If you find it isn't restarting Lichtknarre.exe, you can try replacing the last "run" line with: $Esc:: { run "G:\LaunchBox\0-UTILS\Lichtknarre\Lichtknarre.exe - Shortcut.lnk" WinClose, ahk_exe Dolphin.exe }

Sure. Anyone could make a plugin for those. The issue is, there are some "boxes" that need to be checked. The person doing so would need to have at least a little desire to use it personally. Then there'd need to be an expressed interest from the community to make the time, effort and commitment worthwhile. (Worthwhileness comes in many forms and is in the eye of the beholder.) Spending time to create a plugin that 1, 2 or maybe 3 people [think] they need to have may not be considered a good use of one's personal time. Conversely, it could/would be a great learning tool for that person [creating the plugin]. Making it totally worthwhile. For me, none of those boxes are checked. You mentioned a couple times, comparing the ability to view high scores and achievements. Neither of those are directly related to dynamically parsing MAME features. Unless you're talking about the high-scores plugin that can show you your MAME hiscores. The feature built into LaunchBox only shows the Community High Scores, which are captured when you exit a game and then get uploaded (if certain criteria are met). The achievements are something you find using RetroArch. Which of course is not recommended for Arcade (MAME).

There's always Help & Support > Request a feature. 😊

Myself, I've never found the information MAMEinfo.dat provides too useful. History.xml has similar info to what we get when scraping metadata (release date and a [more-brief] description). True, 'history' does have other info not available elsewhere. That said, I do keep those 2 updated for when I'm messing around inside mame.exe. Though not mentioned, gameinit.dat is useful for games that need it. Once. I do however see some practical use for command.dat. Hence, the View game specific commands from MAME's command.dat plugin. To answer your question, there is currently no way to view the 2 you asked about (1 .dat and 1 .xml) in LaunchBox. Nor is there a Theme that supports them.

Check that you don't somewhere, somehow have 2 copies of that particular dll file. It could be in a different folder. Had this happen to me just the other day and was driving me crazy. Plan B is to post on that themes Support Page.

In that case, in LaunchBox, Edit the game you want to change the default version to be played when you click Play. When editing that game, go to the Additional Apps section [for that game]. There you'll see the different versions of that game. [Single-]click on the games' version you want to set as default. On that same screen, click Make Default [located on the bottom right of that screen]. Click OK to save and close the edit window. Now when you click Play, that version you selected previously and had clicked Make Default for is the version that will be launched.