3dlollo

Thanks; I am so confused about why the A and B button are not marked as default by "enter" and "backspace", because when you first download and run RA, those are the defaults on the keyboard. So, I was able to make progress. I did wipe clean everything and started from RA as suggested; and discovered that my X-arcade is a tri-mode. This means that the first mode is keyboard for mame, the second is keyboard programmable, while the other 2 modes are for direct input and Xinput; which means that RA and windows, see the controller as either 2 generic controllers or 2 Xbox controllers. spent 3 hours trying the various combinations, and cursing at RA because even after assigning the controls, it would disable the X-arcade (no idea why; I had to delete the prefs file multiple times until I got it right). As it stand now; I am able to use the X-arcade for RA, in Xinput mode (so like if they were 2 Xbox controllers) but no luck using it in launchbox, unless I use it in mode "keyboard"; but then it won't work in RA. I did wipe all the modifier commands in RA; so no conflicts there. The only issue is how to quit RA, since there are not enough buttons , but I solved by using select+start and then closing RA from there. I will hook up a simple microcontroller to the cabinet with 4 buttons that take care of RA menu, quit and probably volume up and down for the speakers. I didn't try yet with big box; that is my next step. As far as having both the Xbox wireless controller and the x-arcade, it works; except that when I have both connected, and I press start for P1, instead it start P2, so I guess it assign P1 to the Xbox controller, while the X-arcade get P2 (although I need to use the second set of controls on the X-arcade, which is bizarre but I don't care at this point, it works and I am happy ). This has been quite a ride for me; I never thought that going through 3 different apps (Launchbox/bigbox - retroarch and mame/other emulator), would be so complex, as far as setting up controls. But now at least I have a way to switch controls without have to pull out the keyboard every single time, from the cabinet. Thanks a lot for your suggestions! If I could ask for a magic wand, probably I would use it to set EVERYTHING in Launchbox/Big box, and have the frontend to deal with the RA and single emulator scheme for controls. I didn' even try yet with mame games, since it goes through Retroarch; but I assume that for mame stand alone, the x-arcade will just work out of the box, once I move the selector to the first position.

For example the confirm and back buttons are not exposed. I was not able to configure them, because in the settings there is nothing that say "confirm" or "back". I see those in BigBox, and they work there, but in retroarch I am forced to use the keyboard, because the same buttons used in BB does not work in RA. I am just doing as you suggested; I don't have much saved in RA since I do everything via LB; I just need to download the cores probably (and the shaders at most); and see if that fix the issue. I can't figure out which version my RA is; so maybe it is an old build. So in your case they just work; without the need to re-configure; I guess I have to start from scratch then, and set up one piece at time. I am trying now with clean RA only, without even use LB. I want to configure the Xbox wireless controller and the x-arcade; then I want to launch LB and configure the controls there, and see if that works. So far, I did configure LB after years using the xbox wireless gamepad; so that may be the issue. Thanks for the hints!

Awesome, Thanks!

I sometimes get a message that say that all the related game/rom info will be deleted; when I delete a game from Launchbox, and I also delete the ROM; but some files still persist in the Launchbox folder. For example videos, or snapshots; which are not removed when the actual rom is removed. Some does get deleted, while other does not. I am not sure if this is a bug or if it is expected. It is not a big deal but having various GB of data related to games you do not have anymore, takes space Is there a function in Launchbox (or plans for one), that parse the existing games and wipe what is in the extra folders (music, videos, snapshots, manuals and such), that is not associated with an existing game? A sort of purge that you may see often done on databases or other relation-based computer tools. Thanks!

I did map the controls, but I can map only the ones that are exposed by the application. So far I was able to quit retroarch with one button, no need for any hotkey, since I use side buttons. When using the joypad I use R3L3 as buttons for menu and select+start for quitting retroarch. But something is overriding the controls when I use Launchbox. I have currently 3 different areas where to set keys: Big box, Launchbox, Retroarch. Sometimes 4, since some retroarch core, like the CPC or Atari, do not respond to certain controls. The thing that I never did was "save current configuration". I suspect that is what set everything by default? Although when I close Launchbox or Bigbox and run the app again, when the emulator start, it does save the settings I have. Although if I disconnect the X-arcade and use again my 360 wireless controller, I have to re-define controls. From my understanding, it is not the fault of Launchbox, although I can't figure out who is overriding the configuration and settings, because there are 3 different layers here at play. On the raspberry pi running only the X-arcade, and via Emulationstation, everything just works, for some reasons. I will experiment further today and see if I can get to a point where everything works without the need to change things around all the time I swap controller. The idea is to have the computer run Big box most of the time, with the X-arcade and the wireless 360 controller hooked up, for games that require analog (like racing games or games that has cabinets that require analog controllers). Thanks!

Thanks; I did that but when I launch for example an arcade that use retroarch mame 2010 core, the buttons are repeated. Also when I am in retroarch, I can only move, none of the buttons are actually selecting or going back. I can select and go back in BB for example, but not in retroarch (and this is without any core selected). Also I don't see any key binding for confirm and cancel in retroarch; I was able to find the quit option, so I can quit a game from within retroarch, but I can't see the controls for general usage. I did update retroarch cores; I guess I need to update retroarch app too?

Hi all, I did get an X-arcade; not the tank model, this is the one with just the 2 players controls without the ball. I was able to use it in retropie without problem, so I assumed it would be the same on Launchbox and big box but it is not the case. Probably because on the Pi I use only the keyboard and the X-arcade, while on windows I have multiple controllers, including the x-arcade and keyboard. Basically I launch BigBox, I use the keyboard fine; then I plug in the x-arcade and it somehow works; I have it set to position 1, which is the default for MAME. The controller works as far as moving up, down, left and right. I did change in BB the controls so I have them mapped to the X arcade, and I am able to navigate, launch games, go back to the system selection and such. Although when I play, nothing seems to work. I thought the issue was retroarch, so I launched it and configured A B X Y R L Select Start, but the buttons overlap. For example, the button I did mark in BB to be the back button, and in Retroarch to be the B button; is instead magically assigned to "add coin"; same for the other buttons I assigned; it seems like there are 2 set of assignments going on top of each other, and I can't figure out how to solve the issue. The x-arcade is emulating a keyboard, and that is the default setup for mame games, so I thought that it was all that I had to do to use it; but it is not the case. If anyone have the X-arcade, I would appreciate a crash course about how to use this thing

Awesome, thanks a lot!

I have the TOSEC FM towns collection; and from what I understand, there is no core for retroarch. I found the marty, as scraper, which is the toned down version of the FMT from my understanding. Is there anyone that was successful with the FMT integration in launchbox? I am probably just going for floppy for now; since from what I read, to use CD you need daemontools and an emulator called UNZ, which seems pretty hard to configure. Thanks!

Got it, so there is no real usefulness in getting a newer version, if I have older ROM. Thanks!

BTW on the mame site they are up to 0.207; should I also grab the latest MAME or should I use an older one? Probably I should go for a version that match retropie for example; in case I want to make a case using the RPI? I assume that as long as the mame version match; it should not matter if it is running on windows via Launchbox or on the PI.

Oh, I see! So the single rom contains all it needs to run on its own. I think I have a split romset because games like 1941 for example; have 2-3 zip files, and they are all required to run the game, even if I don't care about the clone or the different regions (I play mostly USA region, unless there is no USA region, in which case I get the EU variant). If I can find a torrent, with the latest non-merged, I can select only the games I own and get those; that should save me the hassle to get the whole 110 GB (and any legal issue if the tracker is tracked). Thanks for the hint!

I see; so without knowing the version; the only thing I can do is to try to load it in launchbox; and see if it works. I can keep what works and dump the rest; and then try to hunt down only the roms I need . Sounds like a lot of work, but once I am done, I can just make a backup and keep that mame+roms combo and there won't be need for me to make any changes. To be honest I don't care to get ALL the arcade games; I just own like less than 100 jamma boards; which I collected in the past 20 years; and those are the only games I really care to play after all

Thanks for the clarification. So fundamentally, it is a waste of time to use both MAME and FBA because the latter has the same ROMS that MAME handle. This is, assuming that the versioning is correct, of course. I have no idea which romset I own; one is from 2009 and it is pretty old; the newer one was from the Android version of Mame; which was on the nvidia shield I bought (it came with the software on it already); so that add complexity for sure. I am just tempted to start clean with the latest mame romset; but due to constrains on my internet connection, and issues from the legal perspective, I may not be able to do so (I am using only the roms for the games I actually own; for practical reasons my original games and jamma boards are in storage; and it is much more convenient to have 1 computer running all the roms in my upright arcade). Is there an easy way to know what romset each rom belong to? I can read the version for Mame, but roms does not have any file in it that show the version; so I am totally clueless about which romset each rom belong to.

I am trying to wrap my head around what is the best platform for arcade. I am building an upright arcade; so I want to have just one Arcade platform. As now, I have mame 0.9 I believe, with its related romset; although many games I like do not work. So I did get an older romset; that I had on my ancient hd (it is like from 2009 or so); and some games I want, works there. Then there is FBAlpha, which support yet another romset; with more games I would like on my cabinet arcade. Is there a simple way to get a single arcade setting as platform, so I can put all the games I like, without the need to have 2 different MAME applications and FBAlpha on top of that? Thanks!

I see, thanks for the clarification. My understanding was that only the missing roms would be added and copied, but instead it just ended up mixing up things; I will start with a clean canvas and make a mame and a FBA import so they will be divided

So one import per emulator/platform? I thought that since the roms for FBA and Mame are often the same (and they work on the same mame version , I tried in 2 different launchbox install, one for each set), I can import them in the same platform. This case is unique to Arcade; since for NES, SNES, Genesis and so on, there are not multiple rom sets and variants (at least I never found different sets for these platforms).

Thanks, so it is as I thought. Regarding #3 I see many files imported on top of the original game. The most evident example is with PC engine games, where I end up with a game file, and a .sound file; but when importing, I see 2 entry for that game. One has the thumbnail, the other a blank thumbnail. I was assuming that the app would filter them out but it seems that it is just importing them, thinking that they are actual roms. Not a big deal since I remove them manually, although every time I scan a folder again, they are added once again.

While trying to figure out how to merge and have different rom sets for my different platforms (Vita, RPI, Android and Windows), I did find a peculiar issue, which looks like a bug. Basically if you have roms in Arcade for example, and try to import a different set (say a set for mame is already on your launchbox arcade category, and try to add arcade roms from FB alpha); even if you choose to copy the roms in the launchbox folder, they are not copied. I ended up with duplicate games; which was expected; if the name of the zip file match, the app does not overwrite, so there will be one copy of the game on location X and the other stay in my launchbox/games/arcade folder. So far so good. Although there seems to be a weird issue that happen when you delete a rom. If I have 2 copy of Strider for example, one on drive D and one in C, in the launchbox game folder, if I delete one rom file, the other won't launch anymore. I did launch both roms, they were both working; but once I delete the one in the D drive, so I can keep the one I have in my launchbox game folder, the game won't launch anymore. Tried 3 times with 3 different games, and the result was the same. 1) have 2 sets of roms, with the same name; one is already in your games folder, the other is not 2) import the second set of roms; put them into arcade as the first set, and select to copy the files in the games folder. 3) Launchbox will show duplicate games, if you look at the info, the rom name will be the same but the copy of the game will point at the rom in the original location from which you did import it. That makes sense since you do not get the old rom overwritten. 4) launch each rom; they should both work. 5) pick either rom and delete it; at the prompt delete also the actual rom file, and at the second prompt, delete the related files too. 6) try to run the rom again, it won't launch. Not sure if the step of deleting the rom and the related files is affecting launchbox; but I would expect that it should not. I also did not try to delete the roms and import them; which may or may not work. For sure, if the rom is deleted it is gone for good; so I can't reproduce this, unless I make a backup copy of the roms before the attempt. Is this a bug? I am aware that launchbox is not designed to be used as I do; but I would expect that changes to a rom in a different folder, would not affect the original rom in the games folder, which does not seem to be the case. Thanks

Not sure if I should post in the support area, send out a mail or the questions are not worth the time; either way I had time to experiment. Since I bought a license for this product; I tried different approach to get it to work; although the only usage I found is as replacement for my RPI in my arcade case. I think this is the main usage, since it doesn't seem to be possible to hold different sets of roms for a platform; unless you create instances of the library. I thought this could be my one stop app to keep track of roms and such; but I was wrong. Not a problem, since the license was cheap enough, and I was planning to put a windows machine in my arcade cabinet anyway, so the extra big box features come in handy for that. Found an interesting bug while trying to make different roms to co-exist ; which I will report in the appropriate area. Thanks

Hi, I have multiple rom set for different console, and in some cases, multiple sets of the same type (like mame, since I have emulators running on android devices, windows and ps vita). I did merge few sets, which ended up in having duplicate games for Arcade (using mame as emulator in Launchbox); and would like to clean up. 1) Can I have different sets of roms for the same category? So I can have Mame Win, Mame Vita, Mame android? 2) Can I display both the game name AND the file name in the UI? I can get this info only if I go to the edit page and see the actual rom/zip file. 3) is there a way to hide the extra game files, like the .sound files that comes with PC Engine games? Thanks!