JoeViking245

I'm verifying with the developers. Are you currently using a 7+ year old, pre- 0.162 release of MAME?

Can you edit one of your games and show a screenshot of the Launching section?

I think what happens is when you hit Escape, it shuts down RA and essentially kills the emulators Running Script. But I also think that if the Escape sequence is set to close the emulator in addition, it works. So you want your escape sequence to Kill XOutput and THEN exit RA. $Esc:: { Run, M:\LaunchBox\Emulators\RetroArch - Original Controllers (PSX)\XOutput\KILL.lnk, M:\LaunchBox\Emulators\RetroArch - Original Controllers (PSX)\XOutput WinClose, ahk_exe retroarch.exe } If you read the previous page (or 2) in this thread, you'll see the XBox simulator thingys are a right p.i.t.a. to close! I don't use them, so can't do any hands on testing. I'd say 1st, make sure your KILL.bat (.lnk) does indeed work. Then try the above suggestion. As you'll read on the previous page, it was said that it worked without the "$" in front of esc, but not with. So try both ways. You might also find that one of the other programs being used will do what you need. Then just peek at their 'answers'.

Add start "" in front of the apps you want to execute. ::OpenBor @echo off del R:\LaunchBox\Emulators\OpenBOR\Paks\* /Q copy %1 R:\LaunchBox\Emulators\OpenBOR\Paks\ start "" OpenBOR.exe ::Sega Triforce @echo off rem start JoyToKey\JoyToKey.exe start "" f1button.vbs start "" "..\..\..\emulators\Dolphin Triforce\F-Zero AX\DolphinWX.exe" --exec=".\F-Zero AX.iso" --batch rem TASKKILL /F /IM JoyToKey.exe If you reinstate joy2key, be sure to do there as well. Once you're happy with that and then decide you don't want to see the Command Window popup at all, see here.

There's a plugin that will do what you want. It's actually for use with a Platform rather than a Platform Category. But that may be just semantics. This was written about a year and a half ago, but I assume it still works. Read and follow all the instructions. Most notably, the make a backup part.

If you copy all the folders except the roms folder(s), and then copy only select rom folders and select roms; start your portable copy of LaunchBox and select Tools, Scan, and from there you can select Remove ROMs for all Platforms or for just the Platform you're currently in. After that, you can select Clean Up Media (right below Scan) to then remove the images and videos for the non existent (removed) games. This assumes your roms are located on the same drive as LaunchBox for you Main Build and your portable build, respectively. i.e. Main Build: D:\LaunchBox\ D:\LaunchBox\Emulators\Retroarch\ D:\LaunchBox\Games\Atari 2600\ (alt) D:\Emulators\Retroarch\ D:\Roms\Atari 2600\ Portable Build: T:\LaunchBox\ T:\LaunchBox\Emulators\Retroarch\ T:\LaunchBox\Games\Atari 2600\ (alt) T:\Emulators\Retroarch\ T:\Roms\Atari 2600\ Note that the PC you plug your portable drive into will need to have to proper .NET Core installed (for LaunchBox) and not all emulators are portable. Most are, or can be made to be.

I was playing around with this a little last spring and am able to convert the GameBase database to xml, and from there import the metadata information into LaunchBox. It's kind of a grab-and-smash in that it'll grab the metadata, rom name and manual name, and smash each game into a new Platform and list the rom as being located in LaunchBox/Games/newPlatform/ and the manuals (if one was noted in the .mdb file) under LaunchBox/Manuals/newPlatform/. No more. No less. For now...? At this point it won't search for any existing physical roms and manuals. It just uses the data extracted from the .mdb file and sets the paths as noted. Images for the time being are out of the question. Getting "proper" game Titles may be a big (huge?) hurdle. There's always room for improvement. So you can give it a try if you're so inclined and leave suggestions to make it better. Or wait for the feature request to get added to a poll and receive enough votes to have @Jason Carr 'officially' incorporate it into LaunchBox. Tagging a few people from this thread who may be interested. @kev25b @dillonm @Retrofrogg @FistyDollars @Aevans0001 @harryoke @pitkin @mgtroyas "See a need. Fill a Need." (Robots, 2005)

Update: March 11, 2022 - See official release here: Below retained for 'historical reference'. GameBase Importer (plus metadata) Import games and metadata from GameBase database file(s) into LaunchBox. Based on information in your GameBase database file(s), this plugin will: Create a new Platform Add games to that Platform Add available information to each game: Metadata Title Release Date Genre Developer Play Mode Max Players Platform Publisher Favorite (check box) Media Game Manual Path Launching Application Path This will ONLY supply the information noted above when importing into LaunchBox. You will need to have your own GameBase database file, roms and manuals. More on those later. Game images (box art etc.) are not handled by this plugin in any way, shape or form. GameBase images are stored inside pdf files and there’s no reasonable way to extract and allocate them. That’s for someone smarter than me to figure out. If you’re not familiar with GameBase, you can check it out here: https://www.bu22.com Also check out their forums for more complete and updated databases. Installing the plugin Unblock “ImportGameBase.zip” by right clicking the file and checking “Unblock” and clicking “OK” Open the zip file and copy the folder (containing 2 files) into /LaunchBox/Plugins/ Using the plugin Start LaunchBox Select Tools, Import GameBase Click Browse and navigate to your GameBase folder, Platform folder and select the database file (i.e. “Amstrad CPC.mdb”) Click Convert to xml (may take a couple seconds) (Optional) rename the Platform to be added Click Import to LB Once you’ve clicked Import, you’re stuck until it’s done importing! Once it’s done, close the window. Other kind of important stuff: You cannot import into an Existing Platform. It must be new. Application paths will be set to: Path_to/LaunchBox/Games/new_platform_name/game_name.ext Game Manual paths will be set to: Path_to/LaunchBox/Manuals/new_platform_name/game_manual_name.pdf The Release Date will be set to January 1st of the actual year supplied. (GameBase only provides the year) The Platform will not be setup to “Scrape As...”, so you’ll need to set that. It’s all imported. Now what? Copy your game roms and manuals into the respective folders noted above. If the existing game roms (and/or manuals) are in a bunch of different subfolders, you’ll need to copy them out of those subfolders. Optionally, you can change the respective Application Paths. o Select all games in the Platform, then click Tools, "Change ROMs Folder Path for Selected Games". Setup your emulator to include this new Platform under Associated Platforms and check Default Emulator. Click OK. When asked “Would you like to update all [platform_name] games to use this emulator as well?”, select Yes. ImportGameBase v1.0.0-beta.zip Disclaimer I don’t use GameBase myself. I only know how to convert the database file (platform.mdb) to xml and get it to Import into LaunchBox. So that part I know works. 😎 I believe I got all the metadata that LaunchBox/BigBox has fields for (listed above) to import. There is other metadata available in the database file (Musicians, License, Programmer, Difficulty and some others) which could (future?) go into the games’ Custom Fields. I left those out at this point so as to not clutter things up. Even though this works as intended (by me), I'm putting it in the beta section because it might not be what works for actual GameBase users. As always, I’m open to comments and suggestions.

Supposedly that's supposed to be really good. I just have a hard time paying for an app when there're free alternatives. But a different app I doubt will fix this issue. Hopefully that's the simple 'fix'. In surfing around about it this morning, there were a couple of "update video drivers" (and a forehead slap to follow). lol Sometimes it's the simple things. Though options are a little bit limited, I wonder if using {Win}+{P} works any better, worse or the same. If things are the same, I'm thinking back to updating video drivers or maybe even a setting on the TV for that input. Or even a setting for the video card for that HDMI output. (I'm running out of straws to grasp here...) If you find yourself needing to go that route... well, you shouldn't have to go that route.

My setup is the same (monitor connected to the DVI port and tv on HDMI). I don't recall seeing the exact same issue as you, but switching Main (Primary) Displays was an issue. Well, not really an "issue". More, 'there's got to be an easier, less convoluted way to do this'. You shouldn't have to reboot for the changes to take affect. But I did find with mine, I need to have the AV Receiver (where the HDMI goes to) and the TV both physically on before 'making the switch'. Even though the PC "sees" the TV even when it's not turned on. This was written a little over 3 years ago, and it's what I use to this day. The batch file I use is a bit different, but the underlying method is the same.

lol. No! Not a challenge in any sense of the word. I just wanted to give credit where credit is due, and the adoration of the project is deserved.

Yes. LaunchBox is designed to be portable (just like MAME is 😎). With some minor caveats: A proper installation of .NET Core is required. Some emulators are not portable. (They need to actually be 'installed' in Windows.) Drive letter and folder/file locations. And possibly some other minor stuff. If you use the LaunchBox installer on the other computer, this will ensure the proper installation of .NET Core. Then you should be able to do a copy and paste and have him place his LB/BB license according to the instructions he receives. That one shows as "Preliminary" in MAME. So you might be able to get it to load (per se), but it may not run. I have no idea as I typically don't mess with MAME chd's. If you wish to put one last good-faith-effort into it, make sure you have all 6 files it needs. Also, this game unfortunately is not in hi2txt's arsenal. So you'd have to resort to screen captures to say "See!! I got a better score than you!" (if it even does actually run) That majestic accomplishment was done by @GreatStone as inspired by Fyrecrypts hitotext utility. 👍

Does it launch in the background without the script? Is it stuck in the test screen without the script? Probably so. Sounds like an emulator setup thing.

"Process, Close" should be closing it the same way as if you opened Task Manager and clicked End Task. Which tells me the Escape sequence isn't getting caught. Maybe try shelling out some money to Escape sequence by adding $ to it. Run, "C:\Users\Gerry\Desktop\X360CE\x360ce.exe",,Min $Esc:: { Process, Close, x360ce.exe WinClose, ahk_exe yuzu.exe } If that still doesn't work, as an "experiment" change $Esc:: to !a:: Load a Yuzu game and once it's fully running, press {Alt}+{a}. If that shuts down X360CE and Yuzu, we're getting somewhere.

With your setup pretty well dialed in and all [but a couple of] games are working, that says there's an issue with those couple of games. Assuming your MAME executable (mame.exe) and the rom set you're using are both release 0.224 and the 'few' games are noted as being able to actually run in MAME (and all other games do work), chances are you're missing a BIOS and/or Device file(s) for them. You shouldn't need to totally revamp your emulator settings nor have to do anything special or drastic in LaunchBox/BigBox for a couple of errant games. You really shouldn't be mixing release versions of the executable and rom sets. Many times, things will still work between them. But when they don't, you have no idea if it's because you're mismatching them, or something else. a.k.a. Never mix MAME releases and rom sets! Without trying to figure out why "a couple games" aren't working first, you could just install MAME 0.240 into a separate folder (i.e. D:\Emulators\MAME0.204\) and place your 0.240 rom set in that new setups' /roms/ subfolder. Now start MAME (mame.exe) from within /MAME0.240/, search for the game(s) in question and run it/them. Once you know they all work via the emulator itself, THEN bring them into LB/BB. 1st Determine if the 'couple games' are supposed to be able to run in 0.224. And if so, figure out why they're not. That all said, what games are causing you issues?

Edit the game in question. Go to Additional Apps. Select Add Application. Give it a Name. Browse to the executable (intro.exe). Check Automatically Run Before Main Application and also check Wait for Exit. That 'should' do what you're wanting. Oh ya, Click OK, then OK again to save it.

Good. Don't do that. So the only line in your Running Script is Run, "c:\blah blah\x360CE.exe",,Min? Nothing else? [correct] And x360ce loads and you controller does what it's supposed to do while playing a game? [correct] And since you no longer have the exit routine in the running script, when you exit the game, the emulator closes as it should but x360ce is "freezing"? Can you give a little more detail about "freezing"? Just X360ce? The whole computer? If not the whole computer, what happens if your start another game using the Yuzu emu?

When PPSSPP is fully running, does anything happen if you press the {Windows}+{Shift}+{Left Arrow} keys manually? In nothing happens, then this will not work. If it does move the window, try setting the Sleep timer to longer that 3 seconds ("3000"). i.e. 10 seconds (10000)

Try: go to Tools, Manage, Emulators, and edit you Dolphin emulator. In the Running Script section, add Run, "D:\Utils\DS4Windows\DS4Windows.exe",,Min Esc:: { Process, Close, DS4Windows.exe WinClose, ahk_exe Dolphin.exe } Change the path to where your DS4Windows.exe is located

Ya, oops! Of course that work change anything. 😊 The 'medieval' method should be: Process, Close, X360CE.exe

You might need to get medieval on closing x360ce. In the escape sequence, change only the one line from WinClose, ahk_exe X360CE.exe to Process, Close, ahk_exe X360CE.exe Keep everything else the same.

Is it saying that every time on all games? Are you getting 'local' high scores? As in, you get to put your initials in (say at 4th place) and next time you load the game it still shows you in the #4 slot? Does your custom command line have anything extra in them? In you Emulator settings and/or in Associated Platforms for Arcade . Or in the override when you edit the game, go to the emulation section and check the box for Custom command-line parameters?