JoeViking245

For stand-alone MAME, make sure you have socrates.zip in the same location as your (8) V-Tec ROMs (you can find it in your MAME fullset). Then under associated platforms, for your MAME emulator in LaunchBox, use the default command line parameters for that platform: socrates -rompath %romlocation% And enjoy all 8 of those games.

Unless you've added your ROM path into mame.ini, it may be a matter of adding to the default command-line parameters: -rompath %romlocation% You most likely already have both boxes checked.

Of course it's possible. To accomplish what you're asking, first you need to go to https://mameinfo.mameworld.info/ and download: *NEW* MAMEUI 0.2xx Category-, Version and Alltime inifiles (where "0.2xx" is the most recent MAME release) You might get an 'unsafe to download' warning. There are no executable files inside the zip. Just information (.ini) files [I'm guessing that's why it's flagged]. Inside the zip file is a folder called folders. Extract this folder into (the typical location is) ..\MAME\ini\ i.e. D:\Emulators\MAME\ini\folders\ Next (with LaunchBox closed), download and install this plug in following the instructions under "How to use:". In (How to use:) step #3, select the file "Version.ini". In step #4, select the version you updated to (0.256 as of your writing). Now follow the rest of the steps. You could of course make a playlist for each revision update starting from 0.129u5, if you're so inclined. Note: This assumes you imported the updated set into LaunchBox. That is, the plugin will show all the ROMs that were added (per the ini file) but the playlist created will only contain games you actually have in your selected platform (step #5).

Edit you Dolphin emulator (in LaunchBox) and make sure the "Remove Quotes" checkbox is Un-Checked.

Tools - Import - ROM Files When selecting (or entering your custom name for) the platform, be sure to set the Scrape As value to Arcade. [assuming you select MAME as your emulator] Also be sure to uncheck Skip non-arcade games

The registry for sure holds the ID (Steam's ID #) for the Running Steam game (as you can see in the script. The %1% variable). You'd have to start a Steam game and then open the registry to that path under HKCU and see if there's more info like possibly the exe. It's not going to have the PID. And the exe may not even be shown. That's just a guess, and you might get lucky. You can parse through the Process Explorer's processes, but you won't see anything referencing the ID as that's only a Steam reference. Process Explorer will only show the actual executable for the game.

I know the registry holds the value for a "Running" Steam app by its ID. The registry may hold the related exe for the ID. Here's a script you can setup as an 'emulator' in LaunchBox and then use to launch your Steam games (via their ID, just like regular Steam does). It'll launch the game and then wait for the game to exit for exiting itself. Useful for launching an app before and\or after a Steam game. You might be able to look in the same registry location to find the running exe. Maybe. ;========================================================== ; Launch before and after a Steam game ;========================================================== ; (1) If using Run Before and Run After, setup the programs/paths below. ; ("Edit These Paths") ; Save this file file somewhere. (i.e. D:\Misc\SteamLaunch.ahk) ; ; (2) Create/Add a new Emulator in LaunchBox ; ; Under Emulator Name:, give it a name. Something like "SteamLaunch". ; Where it says Emulator Application Path: click Browse and select ; ../LaunchBox/ThirdParty/AutoHotkey/AutoHotkey.exe ; Where it says Default Command-Line Parameters:, type in the full path ; to where you saved this file. Put quotes around it!! ; example: "D:\Misc\SteamLaunch.ahk" ; Check both boxes: ; (no quotes, filename only) ; Save this new 'emulator' ; ; (3) Tell the Steam game(s) to Lauch using this Emulator ; Edit game. Under "Emulation", check "Use an emulator..." ; Choose the emulator you ceated above ;========================================================== ;========================================================== ;=========================================================== ; Edit These Paths ;=========================================================== runBefore = D:\MyFolder\Utilities\myBeforeApp.exe runAfter = D:\MyFolder\Utilities\myAfterApp.exe ;=========================================================== ; ************** Do Not Edit Below Here ****************** ; (except to uncomment the Run Before and/or Run After lines) ;=========================================================== ;gets the path to Steam.exe RegRead, steamLocation, HKCU\Software\Valve\Steam, SteamExe ; Program that runs before starting the Steam game ;Run, %runBefore% Run, "%steamLocation%" -applaunch %1% isRunning := "0" While (isRunning = "0") ; Wait until the game is launched RegRead, isRunning, HKCU\Software\Valve\Steam\Apps\%1%, Running Sleep, 500 Sleep, 15000 While (isRunning = "1") ; Wait until the game is closed RegRead, isRunning, HKCU\Software\Valve\Steam\Apps\%1%, Running Sleep, 500 ; Program that runs after the Steam game has exited ;Run, %runAfter%

I believe that to be true because if you try to Google {{{startup}}} (or however it shows in your other emulators Running Script section) along with 'AutoHotkey', you won't find anything. But can't say for sure as I didn't write LaunchBox. The issue with Steam vs. your other emulators is that LaunchBox will start Steam and pass the games ID to it (just like other emus). And there's probably a 'variable' (PID or whatever) stored for this Steam instance. But Steam then starts the game (using the ID passed to it) and then closes itself (the referenced PID or Task thread or however that works) while the game continues to play. Thus LaunchBox sees this as the 'game' (the program it was told to launch in the 1st place) had exited and abandons any reference to that instance. This assumes you're launching the Steam game via it's ID (seen in the games Launching section) vs. directly to the games exe file. Also, this is unique to Steam only. Or, at least, I've never ran across this with any other emulator or platform.

If you don't have AutoHotkey installed on your system, you can make use of the one that comes with LB (link is to a specific post within that topic). Send Alt + Enter to a .Lnk shortcut? - Noobs - LaunchBox Community Forums (launchbox-app.com) You'll need to make a different script for each game as the exe's are each different. i.e. $Esc:: WinClose, ahk_exe mySteamGame.exe ExitApp You could make 1 generic one that will close the "active" window. The risk is, if they start a [Steam] game and somehow set focus to another window and press Escape, the 'another' window will get closed. $Esc:: WinClose A ExitApp If you do go this route, you can then add this Additional App (set to Run Before) to all your Steam games at once using this plugin:

1) You (they) really SHOULD be exiting those through the game's menu. You might be able to create a script that has your Exit routine in it and set that as an Additional App to the Steam games. Otherwise refer to item 1. You might need to help the 2-year-olds with that, but anyone over 5 can figure it out.

Once you go to the 1st search result, login and download.

Ya, that works much better. Since this is a web-based JavaScript app, I presume that we need to drop each individual file vs the script being able to "grab" files based on a relative path. (This may be where re-learning C# & plugin creation skills could definitely help to 'trim the process'. lol) My suggestions*: Step #1: Use \LaunchBox\Data\Platforms.xml. From it, grab the users platforms' Name and also grab its ScrapeAs value (to use later). Then use those Names to populate the dropdown box in step 2. aka. Show only the platforms the user actually has. (i.e. I might have simply "Famicom" and not "Nintendo Famicom Disk System") Step #3: Can Java set filters for the open file dialog? If so, set the filter to the Name selected in step #2, .xml. This way, people [that aren't stress testing the app] can't inadvertently choose the wrong platform_name.xml. Compare: Use the ScrapeAs value from step #1 to grab the platform from Metadata.xml. (ref: "Famicom") Total missing count: No cheating! lol Maybe break it down. Total LBDB games xxxx. Your total yyyyy. Then have the missing games be a count of the datagrid items. Save results to a text file(?), Excel file(?) button? *These are my thoughts only and may only be worth the 2 pennies you found on the ground or the piece of gum you stepped on. Do with 'em what you will. 🙃

OK, looks like I missed something here. You're running the batch file from within DOSBox? That's completely different and I know nothing about DOSBox. Since DOSBox doesn't recognize "start", it probably won't recognize Windows Scripting Host commands either. So looks like you're back to square one. Sorry.

I went back and forth about using that one, but it didn't make sense to me as this was to compare my collection (held in Data) against the database (held in Metadata). I'm usually pretty good about following instructions. So according to your screenshot, it looks like Step #2 takes care of my platform-by-platform question. I'll try again tomorrow using the 'correct' file and report back.

What does the contents of your batch file look like? Ya, "Start" doesn't work from the command prompt. Only from within a batch file.

I presume you need to choose Platforms.xml located in ..\LaunchBox\Data\ Takes quite a while, which is somewhat to be expected. But after 20 minutes, it started reminding me of a song about a spinning wheel goin' round. So closed the page. Would it be possible to do this on a platform-by-platform basis instead? like selecting ..\LaunchBox\Data\Platforms\Arcade.xml

Ya. A batch file. You can try opening the command prompt to the folder you have the batch file in and run the batch file from there to see what error(s) it gives. If you have command line parameters to pass to it, be sure to add those.

To run ('start') your game (program), replace the Comment (rem [short for 'remark']) line with: start "C:\Path\Program.exe" If you're passing a parameter to the batch file, use: start "" "C:\Path\Program.exe" %1 If you have multiple parameters, use: (example showing 3 parameters) start "" "C:\Path\Program.exe" %1 %2 %3 The last line will press "1" on the keyboard for you which corresponds with "MOUSE" in your screenshot. Hint: change "1" to "2" for JOYSTICK. For a more thorough description of what's going on, click the link I gave you, and then click the 3rd link in his post ("Press Keyboard keys using a batch file"). BTW, I still haven't tested it and probably won't. So let us know when you get it working and what you came up with.

The games' settings file (..\ini\polepos2.ini) might be telling it to load a different controller config file (on the ctrlr line), but I believe in the order of precedence, the games' configuration file (..\cfg\polepos2.cfg) will supersede. So you may try deleting both of those. If Pole Position 2 is still acting up, and it's the only one doing that, the easiest (only?) thing to do is start the game, once loaded press Tab and go into the configure inputs section and set it up manually [for this one game]. It'll automatically save polepos2.cfg for you.

It looks like you can send keypresses via a batch file by incorporating Windows Scripting Host. I've never tried this myself but looks intriguing and appears simple enough. @if (@CodeSection == @Batch) @then @echo off CScript //nologo //E:JScript "%~F0" rem Run Your Game Here goto :EOF @end WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell").SendKeys("1"); https://stackoverflow.com/a/25373908/11132805

I can't say for certain if it filters on emulation status or not, but [to me] it'd make sense to include "not Working" as Unplayable. But since you didn't select that filter, switch Views to Genre and scroll down to "System / Device" and remove those. There may also be a "System / BIOS" genre. If when removing those from LaunchBox, you're given the option to delete the ROMs also, don't.

Devices and others you mentioned fall under Skip games unplayable in MAME.

There is not a direct [built-in] way to do this. But I will always contend that there is pretty much always a way to do anything. It comes down to how determined you are and if what you say you want is really what you want. One way to do what you're asking: Start LaunchBox Start the MAME Arcade Full Set Import Wizard Create a new platform. "Arcade-Temp" or any name other than your existing platform Select your ROM folder and Manually Configure MAME Emulator and select MAME Skip leaderboards but do check Search for game information... Check None for all images and skip bezels Set clones and region to whatever you like Click Check All for Game Type and Features Then Un-Check Skip non-arcade games Under Create Playlists, click Uncheck All Then Check Create Playlists for genres After importing has completed, switch Views to Genre. Scroll down to and select Handheld / Electronic Game. Select one of the games Press Ctrl+A (to select all) Press Ctrl+E (to start the Bulk Edit Wizard) For Field:, select platform For Value:, enter a name you want to call your new platform ("MAME Handheld Electronic Games" or whatever) Click Next, Next, to finish up. Since we didn't import images, you won't need to migrate those. No more changes Now switch Views back to Platform. Right-click on your new platform and select Edit and set Scrape As to Arcade. Click OK. You can now remove Arcade-Temp. (right-click, Delete)

You should be able drag and drop the single game ROM (can do it with multiple games ROMs as well) onto LaunchBox. Then follow through the prompts. If on the last page it still shows 0 games to import, click Back and check the box Force importing duplicate games. Alternatively, Click Tools, Import, Manually Add Game. This will open a blank Edit Game window.