Johnny T

Thanks for getting back to me RetroCove. I just wanted *that* category showing though. In other words, I want my Startup View to be a list of Platforms but with also the Pinball Category... so the wheel would be something like.... Arcade Atari 2600 etc Pinball --> -------------> Future Pinball -------------> Visual Pinball I know that you can set a Playlist to show in the wheel, I just wondered if you could do it with a Category? Thanks for your help 🙂

Hi all, I have got a few pinball platforms (FX3, Visual Pinball, Future Pinball) and (ideally) I would like one Category of "Pinball" and you can see on the main wheel and then you click into that and have the various platforms within there. The reason being, if people are playing on my cab, they may want to have a game of pinball but can't find the games (i.e. don't know to search for "Future Pinball"). Also, it would keep things neater. I've added a "Category" of Pinball. And I've edited the pinball Platforms to have the Category of "Pinball" as their parent. Not sure where to go from here though? Is it possible? What else do I need to do? Many thanks 🙂

Thanks Retro. I'll drop them a line. I've just emailed my mate to get his home email addy off him so I'll send that along as well and see if they can generate him the license. Thanks again

Hi there, I'm selling my old arcade cab (running Hyperspin) to a mate of mine. When the Black Friday sale was on I thought it would be nice to buy an annual license for LaunchBox and get that set up for him. I bought the license (I already own a lifetime license for LB on my main arcade) and reformatted my old arcade to Win 10, installed LB and I've just come to transfer the License.xml and it looks like it has my Name/Email encoded into it? Is there a way to transfer this license over to him? I've never installed the license (i.e. it's never "been online"). I've literally just downloaded it from my purchase email right now. Many thanks John

Big Box just launches whatever 'exe' it points to. If I'm understanding you correctly, you could just point Big Box to some batch file that opens the manual? Not sure of the intricacies of this though... would need all your manuals naming the same as the game I think. Other than that, it sounds like Big Box might not be your best option for what you're trying to achieve? It could be a case of using BB to get all the media/manuals etc and then rolling your own front end to display them? Maybe via an offline website arrangement through the browser?

Started watching a programme on Netflix called "High Score" last night. It charts the evolution of the gaming industry and the inspiration behind some of the (now) classic games - Pac Man, Space Invaders etc. Also some of the politics and shenanigans that went on behind the scenes. I've only watched the first episode but I really enjoyed it and thought it might appeal to others on here. 🙂

No problem @Greedy Guido glad it worked for you and thanks for the thanks!! Your build looks awesome!!

Yep, that worked!! I changed screen 3 to be at the other side and it works now? Strangely, if Screen 3 is in the centre or at the left hand side then it doesn't work?? Many thanks for the great suggestion matey

Yep, good idea! I'll give that a go and report back

Hi Faeran, thanks for chipping in (great video's on YT by the way...). Good suggestion, I just tried it... Screen 1 goes to Screen 1, Screen 2 goes to Screen 2, Screen 3 goes back to Screen 1 again I wonder if it's a limitation because i've got three screens? Maybe I need to make my vertical monitor either Screen 1 or 2 ?

I've got three monitors. Two of them are just 1920x1080 but Monitor 3 is 1080x1920 (portrait). I've "identified" the 3 monitors and the vertical one is number 3. However, when I set Big Box to use Screen 3 as it's primary monitor (marquee monitor is set to 'none') then it just launches on Screen 2 instead? Anyone any ideas? I can probably buy a lead and mess around setting my vertical monitor to Screen 2 but thought I'd ask on here before I went to that trouble in case there was an easy fix?

As I said, I'm not 100% sure. I'm just very new to the Theme Creator. Just watched a few videos on it and still trying to get my head around it. It *looked* like that to me but I might be wrong. I'm sure someone more knowledgeable will be along to give you a definite answer

I'm not sure if you could use another 'game view' or not - which would be selectable through Big Box. Otherwise I think you'd be basically changing the theme itself through the Theme Creator.

I'm very (VERY) new to Theme Creator but, if it's the box I *think* you're referring to, then it looks like a box with the background set to a "scanlines.png" and it's supposed to have the video snap running on it. But, I'm sure someone a lot more knowledgeable will pop on and confirm that or correct me. 🙂

For anyone who finds this thread in the future I thought I'd post back with the solution to setting up the image/video marquee on a theme. As Retro kindly pointed out in the earlier post, I just had to use the GameMarqueeView.xaml and PlatformMarqueeView.xaml and drop them into the Views folder within the Theme in question (even though they didn't originally exist in there (so I used the base files from the Big Box Default theme) - once they are dropped in then the theme honours whatever settings are in there). After much Googling and reading about xaml files and a BIG bit of help from Faeran, my GameMarqueeView.xaml ended up looking like this.... <UserControl xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation" xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml" xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006" xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008" xmlns:coverFlow="clr-namespace:Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Controls.CoverFlow;assembly=Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows" mc:Ignorable="d" d:DesignHeight="562" d:DesignWidth="1000" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" VerticalAlignment="Top" FocusVisualStyle="{x:Null}" BorderThickness="0" Margin="0" Padding="0" Background="#000"> <Grid VerticalAlignment="Stretch" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" Height="265" Width="1366"> <coverFlow:FlowImage CreateFallbackImage="False" DataContext="{Binding SelectedGame}" ImageType="Boxes" Stretch="Uniform" StretchDirection="Both" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center" RenderOptions.BitmapScalingMode="HighQuality"> <coverFlow:FlowImage.Style> <Style TargetType="{x:Type coverFlow:FlowImage}"> <Setter Property="Visibility" Value="Hidden"/> <Style.Triggers> <MultiDataTrigger> <MultiDataTrigger.Conditions> <Condition Binding="{Binding ElementName=MarqueeImage, Path=HasImage}" Value="False" /> <Condition Binding="{Binding ElementName=LogoImage, Path=HasImage}" Value="False" /> <Condition Binding="{Binding ElementName=MarqueeVideo, Path=HasVideo}" Value="False" /> </MultiDataTrigger.Conditions> <Setter Property="Visibility" Value="Visible"/> </MultiDataTrigger> </Style.Triggers> </Style> </coverFlow:FlowImage.Style> </coverFlow:FlowImage> <Grid VerticalAlignment="Stretch" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch"> <Grid.Style> <Style TargetType="{x:Type Grid}"> <Setter Property="Visibility" Value="Hidden"/> <Style.Triggers> <MultiDataTrigger> <MultiDataTrigger.Conditions> <Condition Binding="{Binding ElementName=MarqueeImage, Path=HasImage}" Value="False" /> <Condition Binding="{Binding ElementName=LogoImage, Path=HasImage}" Value="True" /> <Condition Binding="{Binding ElementName=MarqueeVideo, Path=HasVideo}" Value="False" /> </MultiDataTrigger.Conditions> <Setter Property="Visibility" Value="Visible"/> </MultiDataTrigger> </Style.Triggers> </Style> </Grid.Style> <Image Source="{Binding SelectedGame.BackgroundImagePath}" Stretch="UniformToFill" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center" RenderOptions.BitmapScalingMode="HighQuality"> <Image.Effect> <BlurEffect Radius="20"/> </Image.Effect> </Image> <Grid> <Grid.ColumnDefinitions> <ColumnDefinition Width="1*"/> <ColumnDefinition Width="6*"/> <ColumnDefinition Width="1*"/> </Grid.ColumnDefinitions> <Grid.RowDefinitions> <RowDefinition Height="1*"/> <RowDefinition Height="6*"/> <RowDefinition Height="1*"/> </Grid.RowDefinitions> <coverFlow:FlowImage x:Name="LogoImage" Visibility="Collapsed" CreateFallbackImage="False" DataContext="{Binding SelectedGame}" ImageType="Clear Logo" Stretch="Uniform" StretchDirection="Both" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Top" RenderOptions.BitmapScalingMode="HighQuality" /> <Image Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="1" Source="{Binding SelectedGame.ClearLogoImagePath}" Stretch="Uniform" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Top" RenderOptions.BitmapScalingMode="HighQuality" /> </Grid> </Grid> <coverFlow:FlowImage x:Name="MarqueeImage" CreateFallbackImage="False" DataContext="{Binding SelectedGame}" ImageType="Marquees" Stretch="Fill" StretchDirection="Both" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Top" RenderOptions.BitmapScalingMode="HighQuality"> <coverFlow:FlowImage.Style> <Style TargetType="{x:Type coverFlow:FlowImage}"> <Setter Property="Visibility" Value="Hidden"/> <Style.Triggers> <MultiDataTrigger> <MultiDataTrigger.Conditions> <Condition Binding="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource Self}, Path=HasImage}" Value="True" /> <Condition Binding="{Binding ElementName=MarqueeVideo, Path=HasVideo}" Value="False" /> </MultiDataTrigger.Conditions> <Setter Property="Visibility" Value="Visible"/> </MultiDataTrigger> </Style.Triggers> </Style> </coverFlow:FlowImage.Style> </coverFlow:FlowImage> <coverFlow:FlowVideo x:Name="MarqueeVideo" VideoType="Marquee" DataContext="{Binding SelectedGame}" PlayVideo="True" PlayAudio="False" FallbackToDefault="False" StretchVideo="True"> <coverFlow:FlowVideo.Style> <Style TargetType="{x:Type coverFlow:FlowVideo}"> <Setter Property="Visibility" Value="Visible"/> <Style.Triggers> <DataTrigger Binding="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource Self}, Path=HasVideo}" Value="False"> <Setter Property="Visibility" Value="Hidden"/> </DataTrigger> </Style.Triggers> </Style> </coverFlow:FlowVideo.Style> </coverFlow:FlowVideo> </Grid> </UserControl> The key parts are the Height and Width in the Grid tag - which align with my particular Marquee display. And also the VerticalAlignment="Top" near the top of the file which moves the marquee image up to the top of the screen. And, finally, the StretchVideo="True" (which Faeran kindly told me about) which stretches the marquee videos across the marquee screen. Once I'd sorted that then I also altered the PlatformMarqueeView.xaml as well. It became this..... <UserControl xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation" xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml" xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006" xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008" mc:Ignorable="d" d:DesignHeight="562" d:DesignWidth="1000" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" VerticalAlignment="Top" FocusVisualStyle="{x:Null}" BorderThickness="0" Margin="0" Padding="0" Background="#000"> <Grid VerticalAlignment="Stretch" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" Height="265" Width="1366"> <Image Source="{Binding Path=SelectedPlatform.BannerImagePath}" Stretch="Fill" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center" RenderOptions.BitmapScalingMode="HighQuality" /> </Grid> </UserControl> These files may not be "perfect" in the programming sense as it was a lot of trial and error so, if anyone is reading this who has more knowledge, feel free to chime in and point out any mistakes. However, they seem to work for my setup with a stretched LCD so thought they might help someone else in the future. Thanks to Retro808 and Faeran as we are all just standing on the shoulders of giants like that to get anywhere with this stuff (I know I am anyway!!!). 🙂

That's great Neil. Thanks for letting me know. I'll just have to hope that the Gods shine on me again during my next Fighting Hawk session after the fix.... get myself up to my rightful place near the top of the table..... 🙂

Yep, that must be it!! Well spotted Neil 🙂 I just went in to my MAME emulator folder and saw a new "hiscore" folder... And sure enough... within there is my Fighting Hawk high score from the weekend..... So, Big Box must still be looking in the "hi" folder I'm guessing? Is this something I can fix at the MAME end in the config or is it just a case of wait for a fix from the Big Box end? Thanks for your great help 🙂

Hi Neil Thanks for the info. I am using the official mame from the mamedev website. I tend to update most months so I'm using the 0.237 version. I've got my LB "connected" to the cloud. And I've got Mame integration chosen in my options. Anything else I'm missing?? It used to work (my old 126,000 score is still there for Fighting Hawk) but has stopped working recently. Thanks 🙂