PurpleTentacle

Obviously, this isn't something you could do in LaunchBox, but I think it would be interesting to have a solution to this issue. It's one of the mild annoyances of having copies of LaunchBox on multiple computers, so it made me wonder if anyone has a solution to it. The way I do it now (and I haven't bothered to do it often), is to have the LaunchBox folder shared on my local network across all my computers, and then I can snag the RetroArch save states/saved games across the network. It's only a mild inconvenience, but I'd be curious to see if anyone has a way to automate this process.

Just wanted to quote you to made sure you saw that the wrong Clear Logo got approved (see my previous post).

Do you have that can at your ready? ? All my other Clear Logo submissions were accepted (and fortunately, all for the right games). It's actually been really satisfying to make these Clear Logos, given that I'm generally fairly limited in my visual arts skills. Most of them were as simple as using a magic select tool on a title screen/box art, and then touching them up. But it was fun to give them some personality. It's also satisfying to know that these semi-obscure DOS games will have Clear Logos available for other people.

Whoops, just saw these replies today. Anyway, here's the screenshots for the entries that I have for MAME. I also had a "MAME Fairchild Channel F" entry separately, so that must have been something I tried in the past (I thought I remember getting the games to work, but I'm probably confusing it with something else). I'm guessing I also tried the command-line parameter "channelf -cart" under the Channel F MAME entry that I made, this is just what I have at this very second, and I'm not going to change anything until you guys say to (just to make it easier for you to know what state they're in right now). Also, just for reference, when I try starting it up using MAME, nothing happens & nothing is launched. When I launch it with the "MAME Fairchild Channel F" entry, I get a command prompt that pops up really quickly with the file path/name, and it says, "Unknown System". It seems to not recognize the filename, and lists a bunch of alternatives. Does the file name have to match something specific? I uploaded a screenshot of it. It passed by so quickly that I never thought to screenshot it in the past.

Ok, since I already have MAME setup, I'm giving that a try. I put the Channel F bios in folders that MAME looks for bioses in. I used the command line "channelf -cart", since that what I read to do, and when I try to launch it, nothing pops up. Just tried launching Pac-Man in MAME (I usually use RetroArch, but I have MAME assigned as a backup for my arcade platform), and it worked, so I know MAME is working correctly. I did try a few other games that didn't work, but I think I just never bothered to put the various bioses in the right directory. Is there any more to making MAME run Channel F games, other than pointing it to the right bios? I want to troubleshoot this, but I need to make sure that there isn't something else I'm missing before I assume that it's a bios issue.

I know that RetroArch can do it, but that it's rather tricky (couldn't find details though), and while MESS is also tricky, it's apparently easier to set up for the Fairchild Channel F? Has there been any progress on other methods? I installed MESS to see if I could do it, but I ran into some issues. Even though I ran MESS, I can't seem to find the mess.ini file. I have the Fairchild Channel F bioses in the /roms/ folder, but since the ini file is missing, I'm not sure how to tell MESS to look for them there (or if I even need to anymore). Also, I want to keep LaunchBox 100% portable, so I assume that there are ways to write out the filepath in the ini file to keep it that way? I'd vastly prefer to use RetroArch for this, since I like making the hotkey commands as universal as possible, but if MESS is much easier, I'll go that route. Just not sure why I can't find the mess.ini file.

ha, will do! I have to imagine they won't accept Astro Grover for Bouncing Babies, but just in case, I know where to go for that can!

ha, alright, thanks! I uploaded the right logo with a message attached, so I'm sure you guys will take care of it. ?

Accidentally chose the wrong file, so I wanted to cancel it. Or will the people who review it just deny it, and I shouldn't worry about it?

For the longest time, I was having a major issue with RetroArch where RetroArch would stop responding to hotkeys if I used my hotkey enable button + the menu toggle hotkey in order to close the RetroArch menu & return back to my game. I had only found one other person who had this issue, and so I was baffled as to what the cause was. Well, after giving the latest RetroArch nightly build a try in order to see if the issue was fixed, I found that it wasn't. Disappointed, but not discouraged, I tried making RetroArch fullscreen, and I noticed that it opened the RetroArch menu... with the RetroArch search menu opened. It then became painfully obvious that what I was doing by using the X button as my "RetroArch menu toggle" button, was accidentally opening the search function, and then closing the RetroArch menu. So it's no wonder why RetroArch stopped responding to my hotkeys. The other person I saw having this issue was using Select, which opens up an information window showing what the highlight menu option does in RetroArch, so it's no wonder they had the same issue. Solution: Make sure to choose a menu toggle hotkey that isn't used by RetroArch for something else. Right now, I'm using my left analogue stick button as my "hotkey enable", and Start as my menu toggle hotkey. From quick testing, this works fine, but I haven't used it long enough to claim that it's flawless.

Around this time period, I had a 486 "multimedia" PC, so my CD-ROM needs were met, but I was curious about what games I was missing out on. These days, it's more about seeing how each system handled their interface & design, or how the PC ports were handled (like the 3DO Need For Speed port). I feel like it's impossible to get the full CD-i experience without having to put up with the awful controller, on top of everything else (not sure how those Gravis gamepad looking ones are, but the stock spoon thing looks awful for games). I remember condescendingly writing off the Playstation as another electronics company failing at entering the video game console market when it was announced, all because of Panasonic & Phillips not quite getting it right (or getting it all wrong, depending). I'm usually pretty good at predicting how these things will turn out, but I was dead wrong about that one!

Yup, I ended up ordering the M30 & loved it. It was exactly what I was looking for, since I wanted something that made me feel like I was actually playing on a Sega Genesis, instead of using what's essentially a SNES controller to play a Genesis game (makes it easier to figure out what buttons do when you read a manual). It just feels right, too. Really enjoy it for Shmups, too. I originally bought a N30 Pro, which I loved at first, but the built quality wasn't the best, and the D-pad & analogue stick kind of got funky. Fortunately, I gave them another shot with the SN30 Pro, cause while the D-pad isn't *perfect*, it's pretty solid & close to the original. I do find that the latest 8bitdo controllers are a good balance between retro look & feel, but with modern features that let you also play more recent games. I do wish they'd make a controller with L & R buttons that are analogue for games that can benefit from it, such as racing games where they act like pedals instead of a button to just "go".

Yeah, the stand alone MAME was a bit easier to make sure it runs, but I absolutely love having the universal hotkeys of RetroArch to unify things like exiting the game or save/load states, so it's worth the bit of extra effort for me. The real challenge for me was just not getting the concept of "sets", as well as finding the proper bios & parent files for non-merged files. But I understand it a great deal more at this point.

Alright, thanks. That's kind of what I assumed. Even though I've been working with MAME stuff for a couple of months now, it can still be a bit confusing (understandably, given the complexity of creating something that can emulate so many different platforms). I had no idea what I was getting into when I first started. ?

Thanks, a list like this is just the kind of thing I was looking for. I kind of like that my collection has some stinkers because I like giving the full experience, but I'm at the point where I want to make sure I have those "must have" games, so No Filler is right up my ally. Just a quick question - is there any quick way to tell what version of the MAME core I should use in RetroArch for any given file? Right now, I just have all the MAME cores setup in LaunchBox, and just do trial & error, but it's not very efficient.

I'd also accept a list of Top arcade games to browse. I grew up playing arcade games from time to time, but I was much more of a home player.

All of the startup videos I have are from the downloads here, so they're all mp4 (I use the randomizer plugin in order to randomly play one of the videos). For my main computer, I use an external sound device for my headphones, which I tend to have turned up a bit so that some of the more quiet apps are loud enough, and I turn down everything else (hence which Big Box is at about 40%). So I think I'm going to end up editing the videos so that they're permanently a bit lower, just so they don't blow my eardrums. I am using VLC in Big Box, yeah... I suppose if that saves the volume level, than that could work. I'd have to turn the Big Box video volume up in Big Box to accommodate for that. That's a pretty easily solution, but then that does kind of complicate things for using Big Box on other computers (I.E. the volume levels wouldn't be relative to each other). I think I'd rather edit the videos to have a lower volume, just because I'd rather have the volume settings within Big Box to be relative to each other (in other words, the menu sounds being somewhat similar in volume level to the game preview videos).

I'm currently going with the "game by game" basis, and I agree that it's what makes sense for something like this. I do like that RetroArch makes it easier to hotkey an exit hotkey as compared to standalone DOS Box, although I'm not too worried about that since I assume that the vast majority of the DOS games I have require a mouse & keyboard to at least start the game. As far as exiting scripts, I actually haven't ever used one. I just rely on the hotkey I have setup to exit RetroArch for that. I think the only emulators that I use that aren't RetroArch are DOS Box & the TI-99 4/a emulator, and both of those are the type of thing I'd only use if I had a keyboard handy (which I can always just alt+F4 out of). Can't really help you there.

I have the Big Box volume levels set to around 40%, so the startup videos playing at 100% volume is way too loud for me. If there isn't an option to turn down the volume within Launch Box/Big Box, I could always do it in a video editor, but I'd prefer to avoid that unless I have no other option. (Mostly unrelated, but man, I LOVE the difference in how well Big Box runs on my laptop with the controller fix.)

Currently, I use DOS Box by default, and I'll create a DOS Box configuration if the default settings feel off. Sometimes I get a game that just doesn't seem to run, even with tinkering with it, and that's when I'll use RetroArch's DOS Box core, which, for some reason, seems to run the games that I can't get to run using standard DOS Box. So this has left me debating whether I want to just use RetroArch or if I want to continue using my method of DOS Box first, and then using RetroArch for more stubborn games. My question is - what advantages do each methods provide? Does standalone DOS Box have benefits over the RetroArch version? For the time being, it seems like it's best to do each game on a game by game basis. For instance, Dark Forces oddly runs very poorly using RetroArch's DOS Box, but DOS Box runs it smoothly (I only get MIDI in RetroArch, but I feel like I'd have to tinker with the DMA/IRQ type of settings, DOS Box has no issue though). On the other hand, my impression is that RetroArch allows for better controller support (or at least it's easier to mess with), including the fact that it lets the player use the RetroArch hotkeys to exit & such. Lastly, is there a database out there of user-created DOS Box configs to help streamline the experience of importing & setting up games? I fear that I know that the answer is "no", but I figure it's best to ask anyway. (Feel free to mention how you set things up, even if you don't have specific answers to my questions.)

Just tested this out to narrow down the conditions which the problem occurs under. I used hotkeys like crazy (constantly saving/loading/resetting/changing the save slot, etc...), and it never stopped working. I then opened the RetroArch menu, and closed it a bunch of times by selecting the Resume option. It still never stopped working. Then I tried closing the RetroArch menu by using the RetroArch menu toggle hotkey combination. While the menu closed, all of the hotkeys stopped working. Saving/loading/resetting all stopped working, and so did the menu toggle hotkey. Obviously, I'm using the "Enable hotkey" button option, as opposed to the "Menu Toggle Combo" because I like to use hotkeys for doing stuff like loading/saving on the fly. Anyone happen to know why this problem is occurring? It has an easy solution of just not using the menu toggle to close the RetroArch menu, but A) it's easy to do it on instinct, and B) I want to give my setup to a few friends, and I want to eliminate issues like this.

Thanks! I'll take a gander at them.

I have a 8bitdo SN30 Pro & SF30 Pro, really love them, with a few minor criticisms (mostly that the D-pad, while good, is too mushy, the buttons feel a tad cheap when pushed in, but oddly still feel good, and the trigger buttons aren't analogue, so for more modern games, you lose the ability to have incremental values I.E. it's either on or off). Despite those seemingly like major complaints, I'm VERY picky about controllers, so this is me applying very high standards, so I otherwise love the 8bito SN/SF 30 Pro controllers. So after seeing the 8Bitdo M30 Sega Genesis/Mega Drive controllers, I'm rather curious as to how they stand up. Not sure I have a need for one, seeing as I have enough controller, but I loved the Genesis/Mega Drive d-pad, so I'm kind of hoping it lives up to that. Also worth mentioning that Retro-Bit is coming out with licensed 8 button Sega Genesis/Mega Drive controllers that are supposed to be really close to the originals. They're not out yet, so I'm not sure if anyone here has gotten the chance to try them (I'm also curious if the mode button on the controller can be used in Retroarch as an "activate hotkey" button, cause if not, it might be kind of rough to use in Big Box. They're also not wireless, which I can live with, especially since they're $10 cheaper than the 8Bitdo M30. As much as I don't need another controller, part of me would love to get a more authentic feeling when playing Sega games.