PurpleTentacle

Space isn't too much of a concern, although it's nice to save space where I can. I frequently backup my Launch Box collection, and I copy it over to my laptop after making big updates, so it kind of helps to save space if I'm not going to use something. But the biggest reason is probably keeping things tidy so that menus/files/settings don't get too cluttered. If someone else uses my collection, it will help make things a bit less confusing, as well.

I did test all my MAME games, and they all work, so I don't think I should need any of those older versions. The only reason I could think of for keeping the old versions was because (I think it was) MAME 2003 Plus allows for high scores to be saved, but there's no point in using that unless I use it all the time (I'm kind of hoping Retro Achievements tracks more arcade high scores in the long run). Only downside is that some of the cores aren't available on RetroArch anymore, although I don't know if there's archive of past cores or not... It is tough trying to decide between cores sometimes, especially since all it takes is for an update to make a core obsolete or the new "best" core to use. I'll try to look into Mupen more.

My MAME setup used to be a mess before I swapped to the MAME 0.217 romset since I used to have arcade roms from various random sets (I didn't quite get the concept when I first started setting it up). I used to have an entry in Launch Box for various MAME cores in order to find the version that worked for each rom, but now that everything runs on the MAME 0.217 RA core, I don't see a reason to keep them. But before I delete them, I wanted to see if there was a reason to hang onto them as an option, for whatever reason. So I have the following MAME cores that I never use: CPS 1 & 2, 2003, 2003 Plus, 2010, 2014 & 2016. The upsides of deleting them is that it would save some hard drive space & make Launch Box a bit less mess in terms of "Launch With..." menus & the Emulator entries. The downside is that I can't use them as an option, but I'm not sure there's a reason for it (for instance - for SNES, I like having SNES9x as my default since it supports RetroAchievements, but it's nice to have BSNES as an alternate option for the Mode 7 HD feature, on top of other features). I also have BSNES Mercury Accuracy & higain SFC cores for SNES, and at the moment, I don't see a reason to keep them since SNES9x & BSNES are pretty comprehensive, between the two of them. For N64, I have Mupen Plus 64, which I've heard is outdated, so I'm thinking of deleting that as well (I use Parallel 64 as my default, and Mupen 64 Plus Next Gles3 & Mupen 64 Plus Next (I'm not sure which to use between those last 2). I typically try out Parallel 64 first, and if something seems off about it, I'll switch to Mupen 64 Plus Next Gles3. Still deciding if I just just make Mupen 64 Plus Next Gles3 the default or not... To sum up, here's a list of the cores I'm thinking about deleting: MAME CPS 1 & 2, 2003, 2003 Plus, 2010, 2014 & 2016 BSNES Mercury Accuracy & higain SFC Mupen Plus 64 (should I also keep Mupen 64 Plus Next, or should I delete it & just use Mupen 64 Plus Next Gles3?)

Just a quick follow up, now that I'm thinking about it... I also have a copy of Launch Box on my laptop that has the hiscore.dat setup, and I've yet to have issues with games crashing on it. I should mention that I tried renaming & removing the fbneo folder on my main setup, and while the games launched after that, I think that was coincidence because they went back to crashing. The only thing I can think of at this point is that I made a change to the core options that has caused this issue. I was going through all my games in my AES & MVS Platforms to make sure the Uni BIOS were set to the right Region & console/arcade settings (this is why I used FBA for AES & FB Neo for MVS, so that they'd retain their settings). There were a few games that didn't run (some of them were set to the wrong core, others I couldn't get running, so I deleted them & moved the MAME version to my Arcade platform). I'm not sure what changes to the core options I tried, so I can't really narrow it down. I'm kind of curious - are the BIOS files that are out there all the same? I'm not talking about the neogeo.zip files, since they often have different files in them... I mean is there one set of BIOS files that are for MAME & an another for FBA? I'd kind of like to cross check them by comparing the CRC32, but I don't know where that info is available (if it even is). I don't think my issues are related to the BIOS because I swapped the one from my backup to my main set, and it didn't fix anything. It's just something I'm trying to keep in mind. I'm making a backup of my current Launch Box setup to my external hard drive, and once that's finished, I'll probably delete it & copy my backup to where I always store my main version. But I do want the backup so I can mess with it to see if I can solve the issue, just so I know to avoid doing that in the future.

So within Launch Box, I have 2 Platforms - Neo Geo AES & Neo Geo MVS. For AES games, I use Final Burn Alpha, and for MVS games, I use Final Burn Neo. These both use the 3.3 version of the Uni BIOS. I also have a 3rd configuration for using the normal AES BIOS using the Final Burn Neo core for the purpose of using Retro Achievements. The problem that I've been having is that, for the MVS games using Final Burn Neo, some games are randomly crashing on startup. I say randomly because the same game will open fine sometimes & crash others. If I manually load the games in RetroArch, they work fine. Usually, after loading them in RetroArch manually, they'll launch fine next time, but after that, it's a crapshoot. The thing is, I have a backup of my current Launch Box setup that is nearly identical except for it doesn't have a fbneo folder with hiscores.dat in it (this allows FB Neo to track high scores). It can reliably load Neo Geo games (with a few exceptions, which I assume have to do with those specific games), so I assume I messed something up on my main Launch Box collection. The only thing I can think of is that the fbneo folder with the hiscores.dat is some how messing things up. I did have different neogeo.zip BIOS files, but moving the BIOS from my backup didn't change anything, so I don't think the issue is the BIOS. Both my current & backup Launch Box collections are using the same version of RetroArch & FB Neo core, so that's not the issue either. Naturally, they're also using the same romset (they are by Ghostware, which I assume is the FB Alpha set because they don't work in MAME). So I'm probably going to revert to my backup, but I want to try to understand my current problem to avoid it (I like using the high scores, but obviously not if it's what's causing the issue). Is there anything else that could be causing this issue?

Whenever I change the settings in the Manage Emulators/Associated Platforms menu for RetroArch, it asks me if I want to make RetroArch the default for a few platforms (GameCube, since I use Version 5.0 of Dolphin for Metroid Prime, for example), but unfortunately, I can't figure out which Sega Genesis game doesn't use RetroArch as the default (or potentially uses a different command line parameter). I tried using the audit tool, but unfortunately, that doesn't list what emulator is used. I want to find which Genesis games are using something different (including specific command line parameters, which was something that happened with a Game Com game). I was easily able to find which Game Com game was different by manually editing each game to see the default settings (it was a command line parameter). The Genesis has way too many games for me to do that, so I'm hoping there's an easier way.

Alright, then we're definitely having different issues. I'm baffled as to what could be causing your issue. Good luck!

It happens with any core for me, at least once I hit a button combo that Big Box was using. Makes me wonder if we're having separate (although maybe related?) issues.

I think I might have figured out the source of the problem - have you made any hotkeys in Big Box/Launch Box that you also use in RetroArch? I made turning the volume up/down the same button combinations (pushing down on the left thumbstick + d-pad right/left), and I noticed that the issue would start right away because the first thing I do in RetroArch is use the hotkeys to turn the volume down a bit. I'm assuming there's some kind of conflict going on. For now, I just undid those button hotkey combinations in Big Box. I didn't use them a whole lot anyways because if you have one of the keys assigned to another function, it will do both, instead of just the one assigned to the hotkey combination. I suppose the trick is to save some buttons to not do anything at all when pressed by itself, but to use 2 different button combinations assign to the same button, if that makes sense... That way, it only does 1 thing at a time.

I saw someone else on the forums have the 1st issue, which occurs for me after opening a game using RetroArch in Big Box (the other person had the issue when launching games in Launch Box, difference being that they were using a controller for the LB UI, and I'm not). After a bit of experimentation, I figured out that the most likely cause of this is because I set up the same set of hotkeys for Big Box that I did for RetroArch (pressing down on the left thumbstick & left/right on the d-pad controls the volume for both Big Box & RetroArch for me). This causes a "Port Mapping Failed" error, once it occurs. I'm assuming there's some sort of conflict with Big Box listening to the hotkeys & RetroArch doing the same (this is still occurring as of 10.10). I'm just going to remove the Big Box hotkeys for now (if the problem still occurs, I'll edit this post). Like I said, I saw someone else mention this issue on this forum, but I've narrowed it down to the conditions which I think recreate the problem, and wanted to make sure the dev(s) knew. The other problem I have is that Guardians of the 'Hood (MAME) is overlapping with the media files from the MAME game, "Guardian". Both games scraped to the correct Launch Box ID, but for some reason, their images are getting mixed up. I think the problem might be because the game, "Guardian" has the zip file name of grdian.zip, where as Guardians of the 'Hood has guardian.zip as the file name. Not sure if there's a solution for it on my end?

So I'm getting a similar problem with RetroArch (1.8.4), but it only happens when I use Big Box. It also happens with the MAME core in RetroArch, for me (I tried it with the Mesen-NES core, and it happens with that as well). The error message I get, once I open up the RetroArch menu (I use the keyboard to do that) is "Port Mapping Failed". Like I said, I haven't had the issue when I launch a game from Launch Box itself, only with Big Box. I think the difference is that I don't use a controller to control my Launch Box UI, only Big Box. Makes me wonder if there's some kind of conflict there. I notice that pressing Select on my controller opens up the MAME config menu, which means that Select is pressing Tab (unless there's another key for that menu). So the controller is still putting in inputs, but it's not mapping properly.

So the 10.9 update solved this issue for me. Box art & such loads very quickly now, and the scrolling issue I was having was also resolved.

Ok, a follow-up. I opened up RetroArch on its own without any core/game loaded (for some reason, when I try to save a config, it often fails when a core/game is loaded). I then set up my 8bitdo M30 contoller the way I wanted, and then saved a new configuration (Main Menu --> Configuration File, and then the "Save New Configuration"). Then I renamed it to RetroArchM30.cfg. I moved that file to the RetroArch root directory, and added the command line, "--config RetroArchM30.cfg" to the command line for Genesis GX Plus within Launch Box. I do wish I could get it working to where it would automatically switch the controller settings on the fly, but this works well enough for me, for now. I'm probably going to make a separate entry within the Emulators menu within Launch Box used just for my M30, that way I can use the same cores for either controller.

I'm wondering if the problem is that I don't understand how the RetroPad configuration works. I currently use the SN30 Pro & the Pro + as my main controllers (buttons are the same, so switching between them is effortless). When I connect my M30 (the 6 button Sega Genesis style controller), the buttons are all out of whack, so I have to go into Settings --> Input --> Port 1 Binds & rebind the controller (for whatever reason, with the way I have my SN30 Pro configured, I can't get the Z & C buttons on the M30 to map properly on any of Genesis cores, although Blast'Em will map the 3 Genesis buttons properly, for some reason (although I want to start using RetroAchivements, now that some features are integrated into Launch Box, and Blast'em doesn't work with RetroAchivements). So my impression was that each device had its own autoconfig that automatically changed when you changed controllers. When I remap the buttons, I make sure to click on "save autoconfig", since I had assumed that is what saves the device index for that controller. Am I misunderstanding how this works? I can only get one controller or the other to be configured properly, but not both. I'd like to get RetroArch to swap automatically, but if RetroArch doesn't actually do that, can I save a config specifically for Genesis games, and then use a command line to load that config when launching it in Launch Box? I don't know what the command for that would be...

The HP Gaming laptop actually does have a slot for a 2.5" SSD drive, so I figure I can buy a 1 tb SSD & install that as my secondary drive. Since they seem to go on sale for about $100 for a 1 tb SSD, that's not too bad. I generally don't need a TON of space, and I think those 2 drives combined would easily cover my needs. Oddly enough, HP's own official response team is claiming that you need a GTX 1070 ti to play freakin' Civ 6. WTF! A 1050 should handle it no problem. It's not like you need 60 fps for Civ 6 (I'd imagine Civ 6 is more CPU dependent anyway).

That is one of the laptops I was looking at! Unfortunately, the price is back up to $450 on Amazon. I'm also considering this HP Gaming Pavilion laptop for $500. Normally I assume "gaming" hardware just means that they charge you for the branding, but the specs on that laptop check out (still need to see if I'd be able to add another hard drive & that its build quality is good). There was another one I was looking at, but I can't seem to find it (I should have bookmarked it).

I might have spilled some water on my old laptop, which may or may not be working (spoiler: it's not working now) - assuming that drying it out doesn't work, I'll need a new laptop. Fortunately, my needs aren't necessarily that high. I'm basically looking for something that can run my LaunchBox Collection (with GameCube games probably being the most complex that I'd run, maybe PS2), as well as some of the simpler PC games like Civ 6 or Darkest Dungeon, while also being able to watch videos on a 2nd monitor (I have a little 11" screen that I hooked up to my old laptop for watching Twitch/YouTube while playing games). Looking to spend about $400-500, but of course, the cheaper the better. Ideally, I'd like a SSD for running Windows 10, but I'd also like to have enough storage for my LaunchBox collection (about 200 gigs), but also a handful of Steam games. So if it comes with a 256 gig SSD, it would also need room for another hard drive (don't mind buying that later). Just figured I'd ask here - not sure if anyone has any specific suggestions.

I believe I have the portable version of FS-UAE installed (I don't recall how I installed it, but the Portable.ini file is in the root directory). I downloaded the portable version of FS-UAE 3.02, and I *presume* that I can just overwrite my current files the way you can with updating RetroArch, but I want to be sure (especially with how time consuming it is to setup FS-UAE for each game).

I've mostly avoided them, partly due to the potential for performance issues (although my desktop PC has no issues with them), but mostly because they often don't *quite* look right to me. I'll turn them on now & again, but I usually prefer the unfiltered image. Now that I've kind of slowed down to working on my collection & LaunchBox config, I'd kind of like to experiment with them a bit more, especially for things like the N64, Playstation, & Gamecube. So far, for recreating that CRT look, I've kind of found that I like CRT-Royale & crtglow_gauss_ntsc_3phase (looks a bit more realistic to me, but it's also a bit harsher). I need to experiment a bit more with shaders for 3D games before I can really say what I like. I tend to prefer to not deviate too much from the original look, but I do like it when it makes things less jagged. Curious as to what others use (or don't use!). I'm also kind of trying to figure out my "philosophy", if you will, on using shaders. Part of me likes the idea behind CRT shaders since things like NES games do display slightly awkwardly on LED/LCD type screens, but it's not as if the lines on CRT screens was something we actually enjoyed, not to mention that some of the CRT shaders make it look less like the original than it originally did. Sort of like picking a palette for the NES - it makes you realize there never really was an official version of what things are supposed to look like. A lot of things we consider to be "accurate" are just byproducts of the equipment we used, and were never intended to be officially a part of the look (even if it was designed to be displayed on a CRT). In other words, just go for what looks best to you. And as far as "enhancements" on polygon based games, where the fact that they generated the images instead of using sprites allows use to use modern processing power & techniques, what are your thoughts on keeping it original vs. enhancing it? I find that the N64/Gamecube eras didn't age as well as the NES & SNES did as far as graphics are concerned (especially with the poor cameras in the N64/PS1 days, but that's another matter), so I really appreciate upscaling/anti-aliasing/shaders for these eras. You'll have to excuse my rambling, but getting into emulation really makes me consider some of these "philosophical" questions.