PurpleTentacle
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Posts posted by PurpleTentacle
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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.
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4 minutes ago, neil9000 said:
Are you sure they havent, have you looked in the relevant folder to see whats there?
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.
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14 hours ago, neil9000 said:
You should scrape that platform as Arcade to get the best coverage. Which specific image types are you missing? Could it be that you do not have "Advertisement Flyer - Front" as a option in your image priority settings? Obviously being a Arcade system there were no "Boxes" for them, so flyers are used in most cases.
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?
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Alright, thanks Jason. I know you've been busy with the controller issue, so thanks for getting to it.
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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).
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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).
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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.
Quote(Inner Exception)
The process cannot access the file 'C:\Users\usernamegoeshere\LaunchBox\Data\Platforms\Sega Master System.xml' because it is being used by another process.
App: LaunchBox
Version: 10.3
Type: System.IO.IOException
Site: Void WinIOError(Int32, System.String)
Source: mscorlibat System.IO.__Error.WinIOError(Int32 errorCode, String maybeFullPath)
at System.IO.FileStream.Init(String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access, Int32 rights, Boolean useRights, FileShare share, Int32 bufferSize, FileOptions options, SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES secAttrs, String msgPath, Boolean bFromProxy, Boolean useLongPath, Boolean checkHost)
at System.IO.FileStream..ctor(String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access, FileShare share, Int32 bufferSize, FileOptions options, String msgPath, Boolean bFromProxy)
at System.IO.FileStream..ctor(String path, FileMode mode)
at (DataManager , String )
at Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Data.DataManager.LoadGames(String filePath)
at System.Threading.Tasks.Parallel.<>c__DisplayClass17_0`1.<ForWorker>b__1()
at System.Threading.Tasks.Task.InnerInvokeWithArg(Task childTask)
at System.Threading.Tasks.Task.<>c__DisplayClass176_0.<ExecuteSelfReplicating>b__0(Object <p0>)
(Outer Exception)One or more errors occurred.
App: LaunchBox
Version: 10.3
Type: System.AggregateException
Site: Void ThrowIfExceptional(Boolean)
Source: mscorlibat System.Threading.Tasks.Task.ThrowIfExceptional(Boolean includeTaskCanceledExceptions)
at System.Threading.Tasks.Task.Wait(Int32 millisecondsTimeout, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
at System.Threading.Tasks.Parallel.ForWorker[TLocal](Int32 fromInclusive, Int32 toExclusive, ParallelOptions parallelOptions, Action`1 body, Action`2 bodyWithState, Func`4 bodyWithLocal, Func`1 localInit, Action`1 localFinally)
at System.Threading.Tasks.Parallel.ForEachWorker[TSource,TLocal](IEnumerable`1 source, ParallelOptions parallelOptions, Action`1 body, Action`2 bodyWithState, Action`3 bodyWithStateAndIndex, Func`4 bodyWithStateAndLocal, Func`5 bodyWithEverything, Func`1 localInit, Action`1 localFinally)
at System.Threading.Tasks.Parallel.ForEach[TSource](IEnumerable`1 source, Action`1 body)
at (DataManager , Boolean , Boolean )
at Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Data.DataManager.Load(Boolean settingsOnly, Boolean forceReloadAll)
at Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Data.DataManager..ctor(Boolean bare, Boolean settingsOnly)
at Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.App..ctor()
at (String[] )
at Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.Program.Main(String[] args)Recent Log:
6:01:15 PM Exception
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.
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Ah, ok. As long as it's a known issue, then I won't worry about it.
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(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?
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On 9/27/2019 at 6:01 PM, Ryekn said:
Bought it. Very nice.
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.
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22 hours ago, DOS76 said:
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After lots of tries i got this one working in mame 0.192 core. I did the following:
- copy over complete mame official build as described above.
- copy over plugins.ini and mame.ini to retroarch/system/mame/ini folder
- set ALL paths in mame.ini. Mine look like this: Pastebin 205
- in plugins.ini set highscores to 1
- DELETE mame.exe
- Play game. Make Highscore and close Retroarch normally.
With this settings i got it to work. Highscore .hi-Files are stored under /retroarch/hi/.
Strange is the following. Without mame.exe i get the following message from mame on booting up a machine, e.g. dkong.zip: “Error: Failed to open File or Load Operation” But Highscores saved fine. After rebooting the game theyre all there. If i keep mame.exe in system/mame/ directory i get message “… Loaded Successfully” but highscore save won’t work.
Dont know why this happens but I will investigate"
Maybe this will help also
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...
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20 hours ago, DOS76 said:
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After lots of tries i got this one working in mame 0.192 core. I did the following:
- copy over complete mame official build as described above.
- copy over plugins.ini and mame.ini to retroarch/system/mame/ini folder
- set ALL paths in mame.ini. Mine look like this: Pastebin 205
- in plugins.ini set highscores to 1
- DELETE mame.exe
- Play game. Make Highscore and close Retroarch normally.
With this settings i got it to work. Highscore .hi-Files are stored under /retroarch/hi/.
Strange is the following. Without mame.exe i get the following message from mame on booting up a machine, e.g. dkong.zip: “Error: Failed to open File or Load Operation” But Highscores saved fine. After rebooting the game theyre all there. If i keep mame.exe in system/mame/ directory i get message “… Loaded Successfully” but highscore save won’t work.
Dont know why this happens but I will investigate"
Maybe this will help also
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).
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8 minutes ago, DOS76 said:
In the retroarch system folder is there a MAME entry? and if so does it have a plugin folder? I don't know if its possible or not but if you were to put the proper file in that directory set to use HighScore it might be worth a shot.
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.
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2 minutes ago, neil9000 said:
You do realise that not all Arcade games even saved the scores right? So if the original Arcade game didnt save then you cant save in retroarch or mame.
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.
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43 minutes ago, damageinc86 said:
I wish the retroacheivements people could strike up a deal with the major emulators to have their code be included in official releases.
The hi-score issue is why I have stayed with standalone MAME. I got a hiscore.dat and then enabled it in the gui (still old mameuifx) and it works great.
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).
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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.
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Yeah, I know the feeling. There's something nice about having everything set up just right, and I hate having to redo it.
I tried making a core specific config, and then making a separate emulator entry into LaunchBox so that it loaded the config, like I mentioned. Some of the button settings are an improvement, but not all of them. I think the problem is that some of the changes that have to be made are in the core settings, and some of the input changes are in the general settings. I need to look into it more. It's kind of a shame because I find the using the M30 controller for Sega games feels right. I didn't even grow up with any Sega consoles, but I did play them at a friend's house (not sure how much the M30 would satisfy a hardcore Genesis fan, but I enjoy it).
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I tend to just stick to my 8bitdo SN 30 Pro (just ordered the Pro Plus after all the great reviews), but sometimes I like to switch it up, mostly to the 8bitdo M30 (I really enjoy it for Sega games, since the D-pad is a bit more Sega-like, and the button layout feels more legit). Problem is, the buttons end up getting mapped in weird ways, like the L shoulder button ends up acting like the Start button. Now, in RetroArch, it's not hard to remap the buttons, but it is time consuming to do it every time. I know RetroArch has various gamepad profiles so that the buttons automatically get mapped, but I find that the button layout ends up being different than what it should be (for the record, I've tried starting the 8bitdo controllers in the same modes (I.E. X-input, D-input), and issues still exist, like, for some reason, the D-pad on my SN 30 Pro works, but the D-pad on my M30 needs to be remapped before it works).
So I'm not sure if there's something that I have set up improperly or if this is simply a an inherent issue when using different controllers... or if RetroArch has a way of dealing with this that I'm not aware of (I mostly use RetroArch when I can, due to how uniform it makes everything).
There's 2 solutions that I've thought of, but neither solution is what I'm looking to achieve (to be able to use RetroArch by default, and just have it work). I always have multiple emulators installed for the same system (if available), so option 1 would be to config the controllers settings in the other emulators so that I just use those emulators when I'm looking to use my M30 controller (which would be simple enough since I basically only use it for Sega games, so it would just mean making Kega Fusion configed to work with the M30, but then I wouldn't be able to map my Pro Controller for other systems). Option #2 is to make specific configs for RetroArch, and then setting up new instances of RetroArch in LaunchBox with a command line that loads the controller settings. That way, I can simply use "Launch With RetroArch M30" for when I want to use that controller (and a Pro Controller setting too). Only problem is that I feel that can make things a bit messy, and I prefer to keep things like that streamlined when I can.
tl;dr My ultimate goal is to be able to plug in any given controller in RetroArch & have it work the way it should.
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Solved it, but I'm leaving this up in case anyone needs it. The command mount A "GazCD\" -t cdrom worked. For some reason, I thought I tried that, but I guess I didn't.
So I have Windows 3.1 in LaunchBox, and it uses a bat file with the following commands:
@echo off
dosbox -conf dosbox.play.confThat config file has "mount C C" in its commands to mount the root directory as the C drive, and then it launches Windows 3.1.
Now the problem I'm having is that a program that I've downloaded (Gazillionare) thinks the CD drive is the A drive, so it checks that & fails, since there is no A drive (I can't reinstall it, unfortunately). Now, I've gotten this to work by using the "-t cdrom" command & specifying a directory that has the CD files in it, but the problem is that the path is specific, meaning that if I move Launch Box to another computer, it won't work.
Specifically, the command is
mount A C:\Users\usernamehere\LaunchBox\Games\Windows3\DOSBox-Win31\CD -t cdromHow do I write the command so that it looks in that CD directory relative to the root directory? The original config file has #mount D "CD\" in it, but even after removing the # & switching the D to A, it doesn't work. I had assumed that "CD\" would make it relative, but that doesn't work.
**EDIT:** Just wanted to mention that the DOSBox that's being used in this situation is contained within the directory, "DOSBox-Win31", and not the DOS Box in LaunchBox, so any folder mounted is relative to that directory, not the LaunchBox one. I also tried to mount the folder from within LaunchBox & use the copy of DOSBox from within LaunchBox, and while I can get Windows 3.1 to run, the drive doesn't mount.
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Just in case anyone is reading this, and wants to know what the response I got was, here it is:
"The MAME libretro core doesn’t support the remapping system, as you’ve found. Instead, you have to use MAME’s own internal remapping system (via the TAB menu). It may be helpful to use RetroArch’s “game focus” mode while you do this if you run into weird conflicting behavior.
The core gets updated whenever someone does it. We used to have a guy who did it like clockwork, but he disappeared a few months ago. Dunno where he went, so hopefully he’s okay…
If you get the new ROMs, you can indeed just overwrite the old ones. The upgrading comment is for people who use the update patches."
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That's a good idea. I'll try there.
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53 minutes ago, DOS76 said:
in the controller binding isn't there an option to save a core and game level remap?
Under the Quick Menu? Yes. The problem is that I can't change those bindings for Robotron 2084, for some reason. All of the settings for those controls are blank (they have "--" instead of an actual corresponding action). So for Street Fighter II, it says, "light punch, light kick", etc... but for Robotron 2084, there's nothing. The only way I can change the controls the way I want them is through the Settings --> Input --> User 1 Binds, but there's no option to save it for that game only (as far as I can tell).
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1. I want to set up Robotron 2084 so that it uses the right analogue stick to control the firing like a proper twin stick shooter. I was able to do that by going into Settings --> Input --> User 1 Binds (also made it so that the Y, X, B, A buttons shoot in those directions), but I don't know how to save those settings for that game only. If I save it under the Settings --> Input --> User 1 Binds --> Save Autoconfig, then it does that for all other games. If I try to save it under Quick Menu ---> Overrides --> Game Overrides or Quick Menu ---> Controls ---> Core Remap, it doesn't remember the controller settings (I also can't seem to change the controller settings under the Quick Menu ---> Controls). How do I save that control scheme for that game only? I'd love to be able to also save that control scheme for other twin stick shooters.
2. When does RetroArch update its MAME libretro to the latest version of MAME? I have the 0.213 set (still using an older set in LaunchBox, waiting before I update them) but the current MAME libretro is 0.212. I'm assuming there isn't a specific answer to this, and "it's ready when it's ready", but I've never followed updates the the MAME libretro, so I don't know how it works.
3. I always made the assumption that the various MAME romsets work with the specific version of MAME (with some backwards compatibility), although I'm aware that not all roms are updated with each new romset, only the ones that have something to update (at least that's my understanding of it). But I'm confused as to why some updated romsets still only work with older MAME libretros. I.E. some roms within the 0.213 romset only work with MAME 2010, and not the latest edition. I'm also not sure how some of the side editions work - for instance, Capcom Sports Club only works with final burn alpha (as far as I know, I haven't tested them all) - does final burn alpha ever get updated? Or is that just a separate thing?
4. I read that when you upgrade your romsets (at least using clrmamepro), that you're supposed to upgrade romsets sequentially... Is there a reason why I can't just overwrite my current roms with the same roms pulled from the 0.213 romset? I figured out a little bit of a trick to just upgrade those roms by making a copy of the 0.213 roms, and then moving them into my arcade folder (a backup copy of LaunchBox, not my main one), and telling it not to replace the roms that are already there. That way, it moves all the roms that I'm not using from the 0.213 romset, leaving behind the ones that I am. Then I can just copy & overwrite the roms that I'm currently using. Is there any reason why this doesn't work or is a bad idea? I tried this on a backup copy of LaunchBox (I have multiple so I can experiment without making big mistakes), and it worked fine. I just want to make sure I'm not going to cause issues down the line.
Sorry for the amount of text, but even after working with this stuff for months, there's still a lot I don't understand.
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7 minutes ago, neil9000 said:
I have mine set to Kempston also, as you say it was the most used interface. You will need to press the correct spectrum key to start a game with that though and its different per game. It will say on the title screen press "insert key here" to start with kempston, so just bring up the keyboard overlay with back/select and press the corresponding button to start the game.
Dizzy here for example says "press K for kempston" on the title screen.
So bring up the overlay and press K.
Ok, glad to get it confirmed that I chose the ideal setting. Thanks.
I did notice that a lot of games had multiple options for joysticks/keyboard, etc... I do find that this is part of the fun (and often frustration) of diving into emulation (or real hardware) because it gives you perspective on what it was like to get these things running in their time. I sometimes forget how handy it is to have USB everything, as opposed to different formats, which can lead to incompatibility. At least these days, if a Speccy game doesn't support Kempston, it's as easy as changing a setting. A lot better than simply not being able to play the game (or having to buy the right joystick/adapter).
I want to have separate platforms for Neo Geo MVS & Neo Geo AES, but since they both use the same rom files, I want to point them to the same rom & media files. What's the best way to do this?
in Noobs
Posted
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.