PurpleTentacle

I should mention that this was an experiment on a backup copy of LaunchBox that I have, so I don't need to fix what I did, I just need to do it properly next time. I also have a curated set of arcade games, so if it's really tricky, I'll probably just stick with my curated set. Also looking to avoid importing mechanical games (I suppose it might be easy to remove them after importing). Also, one issues that I have after importing arcade games is that I have to test each individual game to make sure I use the right core in RetroArch for it to work. I didn't mind doing that with my curated games, but is there any easier/automated way to make sure RetroArch uses the right core when importing it? (Just mentioning that I basically have 2 LaunchBox collections - a ~200 gig size with the curated arcade collection, and one that I'm trying to make huge with things like the full Sega CD/PC Engine CD collection, so the full MAME romset would go in the huge one.)

The nice thing about LaunchBox is that it's portable. I copy my collection from one computer to another quite often. One of the main things to make sure emulators work as a relative installation is to not use installers to install them, at least when possible. For instance, on the RetroArch download page, you can see that for Windows there's the option to download the Installer, and right below that, it says "Download". You just want to download the 64 bit Windows version, and then extract it under LaunchBox's emulator folder. After that, you add RetroArch as an emulator within LaunchBox, and it will add it (just a side note, I'm not sure if the RetroArch installer makes RetroArch non-portable, but I do know that the "Download" version will be portable). Most emulators I use are portable, but every now & again you'll get one that needs specified folders or have INI files that have specific folder paths in them. Dolphin, the Gamecube/Wii emulator, for example, does have a specific folder path that it uses to store the game files. Fortunately, LaunchBox removes the need for Dolphin to search in specific folders, but if you open Dolphin by itself, it won't show any games like it normally would (which is fine, since LaunchBox will organize the games). Other things might break, like if an emulator keeps a list of "recently played" games, the folder paths in the INI file might not be relevant anymore when you move everything, but again, not a huge deal. Not really a whole lot you have to do with LaunchBox to make it portable, but the biggest one is to make sure that when you import your games, to either copy or move the game files instead of using them in their current location (the exception to this is if your game files are already in LaunchBox's game folder, in which case, you can just use them in their current location when you're importing them). This comes up when you import your games. A window will pop up asking you which you prefer. There's a video showing you a bit of the process here. Also, if you want to make ScummVM portable, I highly recommend using EpicFail's ScummVM launcher.

I have the SN 30 Pro as well. Loved it so much that I got the SN30 Pro + once it came out, since all the reviews were glowing. Cannot recommend enough!

Ohh, right. Kind of forgot about that. Given that I use EpicFail's ScummVM Launcher to make ScummVM portable, I'm not sure it will work the way I want it to, though (the EpicFail ScummVM Launcher creates bat files that point to LaunchBox's version of ScummVM, which I could potentially edit/redo, but I'm not 100% sure that would work, and even if it does, it would take a bit of fuss to get it to work). Might look into it if I have the time, but for now, probably not worth the effort for me. Thanks for the response!

I read that the update added a "pixel perfect" scaling option, as well as compatibility with a few games, improved Roland MT-32 sound emulation, and support for syncing save games via cloud services (pretty impressive set of new features!). I went to update my non-LaunchBox version of ScummVM, and I noticed that it uses the installer, which I'm guessing isn't ideal for the LaunchBox version. I'm looking at the download page on ScummVM's website, and I assume I'd want to use the "Windows 64bit zipfile" version to overwrite my files, but I'm not sure if there are any files that I *shouldn't* overwrite. It's worth pointing out that I'm also using the EpicFail ScummVM Launcher, so I need to be careful about not messing up those settings (one of my hard drives is pretty big, so I'll probably make a copy of my LaunchBox folder & experiment with it, once I get the chance. I'll update this post once I do). Related question - anyone mess with the pixel perfect option in ScummVM? One thing that has bothered me, including with DOS Box, is that the resolution scaling can be off. I never really notice it, but I like to try to capture the original experience as much as possible (minus quality of life things - I don't need to emulate the load times of old floppy drives, or switching disks, although I do like how the Amiga emulator has the option to simulate that, down to the disc reading sounds ?). Also curious about the improved Roland MT-32 emulation, since I LOVE that feature, but sometimes the notes sound a bit sour.

I do think this is a good idea, since I went a long while without realizing that the collective updates was eating quite a few gigs of space. I don't really need that feature since I can just do it manually, but I'm thinking more of new users who don't realize the old update files are still on their hard drive. If there's a reason why adding the option to delete the old updates isn't feasible (even if it's just a prioritizing features thing), maybe just adding a notification letting the user know that they can delete old updates manually would be a good temporary solution. For instance, just a line or two of text when you confirm installing the latest update (maybe also mention that it's advisable to keep an old update or two in case you need to revert to a previous version).

Thanks for fixing this, Jason! I presume this is in the official 10.6 update that came out, and is no longer in beta?

Gottcha. That's good to know, just so I don't accidentally double the size it takes up.

Actually, I may have figured out how to add the games to the SNK Neo Geo AES Platform while pointing to the same roms that are already there. I had to do, "Force Import Duplicates" when importing. I was afraid that might might a second copy in the same folder, but from what I can tell, it didn't. Now I just have to figure out the best way to make a AES & MVS config for RetroArch, and have RetroArch load that with the Final Burn Alpha core.

What I have right now is my Neo Geo romset (Ghostware) imported simply as Neo Geo, with the RetroArch Final Burn Alpha core set as the default emulator. Most games run fine, but a few games, like Battle Flip Shot, won't run under any RetroArch core that I've tried. Also, in Aero Fighters/Sonic Wings 2 & 3, I don't get sound past the menu (initial sound is fine, for reasons beyond me). Anyway, the important thing to me is trying to get it setup so that I have both a MVS & a AES platform/playlist so that choosing which version to play is as simple as choosing the right category. My plan was to make separate config files for the Final Burn Alpha core with one set with MVS as the default, and one as AES as the default. Unfortunately, when I create a "SNK Neo Geo MVS" platform, even if I tell it to scrape as "Arcade" (done through editing the Platform to default as scraping as Arcade), it still scrapes as SNK Neo Geo MVS (which doesn't have as many media files). When I name the platform simply "Neo Geo", it's fine. So my question is, how do I get it so that I use those files downloaded under the Neo Geo platform for 2 separate Platforms/Playlists so that I don't have to have 2 sets of the same files? I was planning on importing as "SNK Neo Geo MVS" as my basis for a "SNK Neo Geo AES" playlist that has the option selected to appear under the Platform list (with only the games that were released for AES), but how to then set it so only that playlist uses a AES config for the Final Burn Alpha core (I could easily do this if it was a Platform, but to my knowledge, I would have to reimport everything... or can I point the Platform to those same folders? I attempted to create a Platform named "SNK Neo Geo AES", but then changed all the folders to the Neo Geo folders, but when I tried to scan to add new roms to the AES platform, it only imported 2 games (I think those 2 were ones I removed from the Neo Geo Platform because one was the Neo Geo CD bios & the other was a Korean version of Art of Fighting 3, but Art of Fighting did latch onto the image & video files in the Neo Geo folders). Any ideas? I hope I explained that well enough.

It looks like myself & clank10 are having a similar issue where it only scrapes as Arcade when done manually, so here's a screen shot of how I have my Platform set up, and as you can see, it says, "For SNK Neo Geo MVS" under the title. If I search for the metadate manually, that changes to Arcade.

I actually happen to be adding Neo Geo games as well (I had a bunch already, but they kind of got split between "Arcade" and "Neo Geo". Now I'm trying to import the full set to "SNK Neo Geo MVS", and while I have that Platform set to scraping the roms as "Arcade", they default to SNK Neo Geo MVS anyway. If I search the meta data for each individual game, it will pick the Arcade version (or allow me to), but then I'd have to do that for 170+ games. I'm not sure how to get it to scrape as Arcade automatically (like I said, it's set to Arcade as the default in the Platforms editor, but it's not using that). Should I scrape it as Arcade first, then sort by date added, and just select all the new ones & edit the platform to "SNK Neo Geo MVS"? If I download images & videos under the Arcade category, and then edit the platform, does it move the images & videos to the proper folders? I'm also debating on how to make another platform/playlist with all of the AES games listed, and then set it to use Final Burn Alpha within RetroArch, and have it load the AES version by default. Is there a way I can do that without having to reimport the entire romset (which I know how to do that), but also have it point to the SNK Neo Geo MVS images & videos folders so that I don't have to have 2 copies of those?

Alright, thanks Jason. I know you've been busy with the controller issue, so thanks for getting to it.

I tried the 10.5 update today (on a back up copy I made), and after starting & exiting Big Box a few times, I thought the problem was resolved. Unfortunately, after enough attempts, I got the crash again (same issue). I'm going to avoid upgrading until whatever is causing this is fixed, or, if it's somehow a problem on my end, that I can fix it. The platform that is always causing a conflict is the Sega Master Series platform, so even though I'm not having the problem on 10.1, I'm still wondering why it's always the Sega Master System. I'm gonna try exiting Big Box a few more times on the 10.1 version, just to rule it out. I'll update this in a few... EDIT: Tried it a bunch of times, never crashed once in 10.1, so I have to assume it was the 10.3 update that introduced the issue for me (I never used the 10.2 update, just fyi).

I created a similar thread semi-recently, although I was asking about syncing save games/states. I settled on using SyncThing, which, once I got it setup, has been pretty headache-free. Someone else mentioned syncing various aspects of their LaunchBox collection using this program, but I've yet to do anything like that. You might want to give the thread a look, although I don't know if it would cover all your needs (I think the trick would be figuring out which files control the aspects you want to sync).

Not sure if this is related to the 10.3 update or not, but it only started today. I can replicate the bug on 10.3 (decent chance for it to crash, but it's not 100%), but on a 10.1 backup that I have, I've yet to have the same issue. I haven't worked on Sega Master System stuff in a long time, but I do feel like I should mention that I spent a decent amount of time on trying to organize my Neo-Geo collection by moving some games from the Neo-Geo platform into the Arcade platform (this was for games that were released for MVS, but not the home AES system). I did this by editing the Platform from Neo Geo to Arcade. I assume there's no issue in doing that to organizing games, but it's the first time I've done it, and this is the first time I've had a crash of this nature, so I figured I'd mention it for context.

Ah, ok. As long as it's a known issue, then I won't worry about it.

(I edited out the username in the file location. Doubt it matters, but I figured I might as well). Not a huge deal, but I figured I'd mention it in case there's a fix or something I can do to avoid getting that error. Is there any particular reason why this happens?

Just wanted to recommend the YouTube Scraper for when there isn't a default video, and if you don't feel like making your own demo video for a specific game. I'm sure you've discovered that lots & lots of games already have videos in the Launch Box database (and EmuMovies, although that's a paid subscription), but some do not. The YouTube Scraper made it a lot easier for me to import videos when I needed to. Just a word of note - sometimes YouTube changes its code, which can break the YouTube Scraper plugin, in which case, check back to see if its been updated to work again.

hmm, well, I messed around with it, and RetroArch doesn't seem to acknowledge anything with high scores for me. When I use MAME within my RetroArch/Bios folder (I changed the default directory to Bios instead of System, which I think was recommended somewhere, but I don't think this should matter since I changed all the paths in the ini to the Bios directory), I can get the high scores to save. But RetroArch isn't saving high scores, so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. I even tried installing it in the /system directory, and using both the 32 bit & 64 bit versions of MAME. I'm pretty sure I got the paths right, so... I'm not sure what the issue is. Only other thing I can think of is that this trick doesn't work with 0.212 for some reason, but I doubt that's the case...

Oh, weird! That's pretty nice. I'll test it out on the 0.212 core of MAME for RetroArch, and see if it works on that, too (I'm not at my main computer at the moment, but next time I am).

There is a systems folder, yes (I actually made my own folder called "Bios" for storing the BIOS files in, I forget if system is still used for anything). There are individual folders for the various MAME versions within my Bios folder (which is where the hiscore.dat file is stored for MAME 2003 Super), but there aren't any plugin folders. The regular MAME folder has an ini folder in it with "ui.ini", but no options for hiscore. I'll try messing around with it, just to experiment.

Yeah, I'm aware of that. That's obviously a hard limit that MAME can't get around (I mean, I don't know if it's theoretically possible or not, I just mean in the real world sense of what's currently available). I wasn't looking for RetroArch to be able to save all high scores, just to be able to do what standalone MAME can do, whatever that may be. As a disclaimer, I should add that I'm not complaining, since I know that it's easy to say, "Software should be able to do this!", but without actually working on it, I have no idea if there's a technical or legal reason why RetroArch cores don't save arcade high scores (outside of MAME 2003 Super, dunno if there's any others). More than anything else, I'm grateful that people develop/maintain/update these various cores & emulators, and that people are also working on making sure that future generations will be able to play these games.

It is unfortunate because my main intention in using RetroAcheivements was simply to be able to track my high scores for arcade games (before I knew that the platforms/emulators were limited). I'm hesitant to setup standalone MAME as my main emulator for arcade games because I intentionally chose RetroArch to try & unify the UI and controls for the emulator end of things. That, and I also don't like working with MAME's interface (given the number of systems it emulates, I understand why it's not simple, but I prefer to avoid it). In the end, I just wish all the various MAME cores in RetroArch allowed for saving high scores, but at the moment, I'll trade that away for the ease of use of RetroArch (and the fact that I already have that all setup within Launch Box anyway).

I know of a few, but I'm not really satisfied by any of them... 1. Write it down (obvious, but kind of takes away from the fun of an automated leaderboard). 2. Use the MAME 2003 Plus & enable high scores within RetroArch (works, but only for certain games, and I'm not really happy with the quirks of the 2003 Plus core, but admittedly, I don't have much familiarity with it, nor do I fully understand what makes it so different). 3. Enable auto savestate on exit, and autoload on startup (simple, and you get to skip the machine setting itself up, but if you need to or accidentally reset the game, there go your high scores). 4. Register & use RetroAchivements (don't think this actually even works with MAME emulators, but if you're interested in using it for a select few consoles, this is an option, and there are built in achievements you can go for. Seems like it would be fun, but given how limited it is, I don't quite feel like bothering, tbh). So far, option #3 is my favorite, but it's still not ideal. Are there any I'm missing before I potentially set that up? I just want to weigh my options.