JoeViking245

July 3

12 minutes ago, Bucky said:

I have 2 rom folders, ones for mame the other is specifically a zinc romset.

I'd been thinking about saving space by eliminating roms in that zinc folder and replacing the roms with mames. Seeing how I have the full mame romset.

Since you already have your Zinc platform imported, and those games are pointing to MAME-named-ROMs (e.g. sfex.zip) (aka: ROMs all have the exact same name. It's just that these are currently in the \...v1.9.5\roms\ folder. And the ones you want to use are in /MAME/roms/ folder), you can just change the path for the games in the Zinc platform.

Click one of the games in your Zinc platforms, then press Crtl+A. That will select all (86) games. Now go to Tools < File Management < Change ROMs Folder Path for Selected Games... and point to the path to your where your MAME ROMs are located.

Now... e.g. Street Fighter EX, was pointing to Emulators\ZiNCGUl Fix+Hacks v1.9.5\roms\sfex.zip and is now pointing to Emulators\MAME\roms\sfex.zip

July 3

2 minutes ago, Dybdal said:

Is there a %command% to tell LaunchBox where to place the "FULL\PATH\TO\ROM\FILE" ?

%romfile% is what you're after.

Emulator.exe -command -command %romfile% /command

July 3

In my one test (Donkey Kong Jr. + Jr. Lesson), simply removing the + symbol found the correct game right away.

But that may not be the best example to provide a good "Stress Test" of the system.

With the + symbol in place, a 404 - File or directory not found. error is what appears.

July 3

On 5/16/2025 at 1:32 PM, jestermgee said:

is it possible to select that music is just played 1 time and not constantly looped?

(Quoting [tagging] the OP to make sure they get notified.)

18 minutes ago, Red_Fawkes_1991 said:

Sorry for the long time answering.

Good catch on an 'older' post. Thanks!

July 3

3 minutes ago, wolfhound89 said:

The systems that require emulators other than RetroArch (Dolphin) will take some time. Non-RetroArch have been a big hill for me to climb in the past but I think that I will succeed this time.

LaunchBox can install AND setup a few of the recommended emulators for you. Making [some] "non-RetroArch" emulators more of a 'downhill slide' rather than a 'climb'.

These (as of this writing) include:

BigPEmu (Atari Jaguar)
Dolphin (Wii and GameCube)
MAME (Arcade)
PCSX2 (PS2)
ScummVM
Xemu (Xbox)

e.g. When you go to import your Wii games, the Import Wizard should ask you if you want LaunchBox to install the recommended Dolphin emulator. (Suggestion, click Yes) It will then, at the end of the import process, install Dolphin and configure it to be portable. Then it's just a matter of selecting a game and clicking Play.

An added bonus with this is, if there's an update available for these emulators (MAME excluded as the versions are ROM-set-version dependent), when you go to Tools - Manage Emulators, the status column will indicate if an update is available.

July 3

The error message seems to be missing some data. aka can't see the whole message to be able to best decipher the actual cause. For future, you can copy and paste the whole text that's in the message.

Lately, that type of error message depicts that's there's an issue with a 3rd party plugin. You can try removing them from the Plugins folder. (the 3rd party plugins, that is. Not LaunchBox's plugins)

Or, to change the Theme, you can edit /Data/BigBoxSettings.xml. Look for <Theme> and change the value to Default. e.g. <Theme>Default</Theme>

July 3

35 minutes ago, jardine said:

Why would having no speakers have such a detrimental effect on the setup. Seems very unusual to me.

You and me both. lol When I searched the error, that was one of the "possible fixes". So simple. Yet so mind boggling.

Glad to hear [at least] that is all working now!

July 2

29 minutes ago, Bucky said:

Im going to let both mame and demul point to the same roms directory. I just need demul to call related roms from the mame list within LB. How can this be done?

Can try this:

29 minutes ago, Bucky said:

Is there a way I can bulk select all games in the atomisewave category and set them all using my working command line parameter?

Can try this:

July 2

8 hours ago, jardine said:

Results for your viewing pleasure.

Thanks.

The MAME Output says there's something messed up with the audio. (Not a common issue.) It could be a DirectX thing. If you're running the latest 0.278 MAME release (not an issue in 0.277), it could be that you have the Realtek app "Nahimic" running on your system. I've even heard your speakers not being plugged in can cause this and/or plugging in headphones fixes it. If none of that "turns on any lightbulbs" for you, we can start simple....

Have you done some customizations in MAME? Look in your MAME's root folder for "mame.ini" and [temporarily] rename it to something like "old-mame.ini". Also look in your C:/MAME/ini/ folder and do the same thing. (there should only be 1 mame.ini altogether and will be in one of those 2 locations).

Click Test Game and see if the output's the same.

July 1

Only certain emulators have that feature available. Generally the more popular (recommended) ones. Which coincidentally are also ones that regularly have updates. If you go to Tools < Manage < Plugins... you can see which ones are available. (or just at the section your screen comes from. )

July 1

A link to the .NET 3.1 dependency can be found in the LaunchBox Strategy Guide under Moving Your LaunchBox Instance to a New PC.

In general, most ("newer") Windows installs will (should) have the DirectX runtimes. But if you have issues with the PC you connect to, that's something to look at.

July 1

3 hours ago, james95t said:

Once the game of steam is launched (under BigBox), I can't open the pause menu and therefore can't view my PDF file.

Because of how Steam games (internally) launch another application that is the actual game, the LaunchBox pause menu cannot innately be used with Steam (and other applications that 'sub-launch' their games. ("sub-launch" is not the technical term. But I don't know what is. And it sounded good to me. )

July 1

And the game you're trying to launch (Asteroids for example) still doesn't launch from LaunchBox?

If so, see if this plugin can provide any insight as to what might be going wrong. With LaunchBox closed, follow the Installing and Using instructions.

July 1

45 minutes ago, jardine said:

No it did not.

Can you share another screenshot of the section where you added that parameter?

59 minutes ago, jardine said:

Just in case this may be an issue if it's not finding the right romset?!?

Having 2 folders with the same contents won't cause any conflicts. As long as the files you imported are still in the folder you imported them from.

June 30

2 minutes ago, jardine said:

I am sorry mate. Still learning how to navigate all this.

No worries. Were you able to get it to work with my suggestion?

June 30

2 hours ago, flatuswalrus said:

I will likely obsess over and continue to try and get it back up and running in RA simply because I know it is possible from having previously done it. Though, if I end up quitting I will give your suggestion a try; thanks for the info.

You got this! We have faith in you.

Though seems like a lot of work for all f o u r games. Nonetheless, when you're on a mission, you gotta follow through.

June 30

20 minutes ago, Bobadilla1975 said:

Hi everyone

I have tried to run tsugaru through launchbox with the parameters «E:\Fujitsu - FM Towns Marty\Roms -HOSTSHORTCUT ESC 0 0 FORCEQUIT -GAMEPORT0 PHYS1 -SCALE 200 -FULLSCREEN -FREQ 25 -YESWAIT -CD», when I run the game it only tells me «unable to load rom» does anyone know how to make it work? thanks in advance

Since your path to the Roms folder has spaces in it, try putting that part within quotes.

"E:\Fujitsu - FM Towns Marty\Roms"

June 30

Maybe try the forgot password?

But I suppose it'll try to email you [again] and we know how that went last time. But could still try it.

Otherwise, may need to email support or see if they respond here tomorrow (normal business days). (or both)

June 30

The LaunchBox Games Database site login now uses the same credentials (user name and password) as your Forums login. No need for separate ones. But you do still need login separately.

June 29

Assuming with your premium license you've updated to at least v13.21, you can read about the new locations here:

LaunchBox Media Pack Feature – Version 13.21 - LaunchBox

June 29

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

June 29

1 hour ago, zugswang said:

Here is what I tried if anyone knows what/where to add info the ID ? (ID =1 btw for this game)

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.

June 28

47 minutes ago, TrailerVert said:

it didn't seem to like ActiveGame

That's kind of what I figured.

47 minutes ago, TrailerVert said:

but just adding the "Hms" fixed it.

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.

June 28

6 minutes ago, ken1984 said:

Doesn't work after update, error code

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

June 28

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" />

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Posts posted by JoeViking245

Arcade Games Won't Launch (stand-alone MAME) - Troubleshooting