SiriusVI

Thanks for your effort. This community is awesome! EDIT: I think tis is it:

Thank you for that. It doesn't seem to work for me, but maybe I entered the commandline wrong. I tried: "apple2ep -flop1 \"%romfile%\" " "apple2ee -flop1 \"%romfile%\" " "apple2 -flop1 \"%romfile%\" "

Yes I've also noticed tha and I've already tried some things. here are all the apple2 hash files that I have: apple2_flop_orig.xml apple2_flop_misc.xml apple2_flop_clcracked.xml apple2.xml apple2_cass.xml Now I checked which hash files correspond to my rom set. I found that "apple2_flop_misc.xml" and "apple2.xml" contain basically the same files and they both corresond to my softlist romset. When I open "apple2_flop_misc.xml" it says: <softwarelist name="apple2_flop_misc" description="Apple II 5.25 miscellaneous disks"> So I tried naming my rom folder "apple2_flop_misc" instead of "apple2", because I thought maybe these softists need to be separated. Still no luck however. I really feel that some command line in launchbox is needed in order to tell the mame core to load a specific apple bios. I tried the "apple2ee -flop1" as well as many other commands, but I haven't found one that works.

I mainly use retroarch for everything, including mame, because it just works. The Mame core needs minimal setup, I can use shaders and overlays, and I was able to emulate many smaller systems with it. I've just tried to get Retroach's Mame core to launch Atari 5200 games and it just worked (using hash files and softlist roms). I really don't understad why Apple II is the exception here. I gess I could use Mame standalone for Apple 2, but at this point it's just bugging me =D. I WANT to figure out how it works.

OK, so I've done some additional trial and error testing. I'm pretty confident now that the problem is that retroarch does not know which bios to grab when launching apple2 games. Can you think of anything I could add to the "Extra command-line parameters" in Launchbox that would tell retroach which bios file to use?

No, I had changed it, but I reconfigured it so the path is now correct. SUCCESS: I can now launch apple 2 games with Mame standalone. Now I just have to find out how to get the retroarch mame core to do the same. clearly there must be some rom file(s) missing in ma apple2 folder...

Well, my Mame just gives me this message without telling me which files are mising:

Thanks for the info. I am a total noob however and don't know how to launch anything from a command prompt. Where and how do I enter this command prompt? Will I have to change anythin if I use software lists?

So if I use mess2015 core, retroarch launches and I get this result: Is that progress? =D

I've just tried MAME standalone, but it doesn't work as well. I may have set it upincorrectly though. I've never really used mame standalone. Besides, all the other 5 systems seem to work with my method. I have the strange feeling that it might have to do with the different bios versions and mame not knowing which one to load...

I've just tried this, but unfortunately, retroarch still crashes when I try to launch a game =(. Do you have any other ideas?

Thx for the suggestion. Will tray that once I get home. I've also realized that there are many different apple 2 bios files, such as apple2ee or apple2ep, and so on. Which of these should I use? And if I decide to use a bios other than "apple2.zip", does that mean I have to change the name of my generation folder to "apple2ee" and rename the hash file to "apple2ee.xml"? Also I have found that there are more XML files for apple 2, such as apple2_cass.xml. how do they factor in here?

Hey everyone, I've recently started adding a bunch of smaller systems to my Launchbox collection, but since there aren't any specified cores for them, I haven't gotten them to work, until now. Using Retroarch's Mame core, I was able to launch the following systems: - Philips CDI - Emerson Arcadia 2001 - Entex Adventure Vision - Fairchild Channel F - GCE Vectrex However, I just cannot for the life of me, get Apple II to work. If I try to launch it, retroarch will crash. So here's how I got the other systems working: The process is rather simple if you know how to do it (example Fairchild Channel F). 1. You need the system specific hash file in place at: YOUR_PATH\RetroArch\system\mame\hash\channelf.xml 2. You need your games in softlist format named and zipped in a way that is readable by mame (e.g. alieninv.zip) 3. Your games must be in a folder named after the softlist entry in the hash file: YOUR_PATH\channelf\alieninv.zip 4. The BIOS file(s) need to be in the samefolder as the games: YOUR_PATH\channelf\channelf.zip 5. In Launcbox --> manage emulators --> associated platforms, change the core for Fairchild Channel F to mame (without name tags) This way I've been able to get these 5 systems working. Apple II however alsways crashes retroarch, even though I've folllowed these exact steps: 1. You need the system specific hash file in place at: YOUR_PATH\RetroArch\system\mame\hash\apple2.xml 2. You need your games in softlist format named and zipped in a way that is readable by mame (e.g. alf.zip) 3. Your games must be in a folder named after the softlist entry in the hash file: YOUR_PATH\apple2\alf.zip 4. The BIOS file(s) need to be in the samefolder as the games: YOUR_PATH\apple2\apple2.zip 5. In Launcbox --> manage emulators --> associated platforms, change the core for Apple II to mame (without name tags) So I'm stuck here. Does anyone know where I went wrong?

I figured it out. The black bars appear if I set the graphics scaler to something other than "normal". Graphics filters work well for some games, but not for all of them.

Thanks for the reply, exo. I use a desktop PC with an nvidia card. Other than nvidia control center, I don't use any GPU software. I don-t know about hardware acceleration. How do I turn that on/off? Could custom DPI settings play a role? EDIT: It's not the DPI settings, I just tested that. Additional info: I do use multiple displays. One of the displays runs in 1080p, the other one has a higher resolution. I'm not sure that this is the problem, though, since every system I emulate (other than dosbox) works with this setup, and there are some dos games that display correctly, as I mentioned. I've since found more games that display correctly:

This is wht most of the games I launch look like. How can I correct that? This is the only game being displayed correctly so far:

Thank you so much for all of your hard work eXo. This pack is the easiest way to get Dos games up and running! I would like to know if it is possible to run your collection through retroarch, since I would very much like to use overlays. If this isn't possible, I would like to know if there is any way to change the resolution the games run in. Some games just run in a rather small window within a large black frame (when I run in full screen). Correcting the aspect ratio in the config menu does nothing.

Hey there, I've just tried importing an MS-DOS collection into LaunchBox and I have noticed that many games have the wrong names. For example, LaunchBox falsly identified the game "Lords of Doom" as "Doom". I think this happens, because the .exe of "Lords of Doom" is called "Doom.exe". Is there a way to make LaunchBox use the folder names for DOS import? I think that would solve this problem. Thanks!

Thank you for this tipp, however, I really don't want to rename all of my roms, since I've already importet them into Launchbox and I have save files within retroarch which match the exact rom names. I think it would be great if a tool scanned for something like file size to identify roms, but I guess something like this doesn't exist.

I wrote a quick tutorial (I had problems formatting it, so some sections are highlighted in white. I don't know why. Maybe someone can fix this):

UPDATE: In order for CDi emulation to continue working, you need to get the updated cdimono1 bios file from mame. It was updated some time ago and CDi emulation on newer mame versions without the updated bios file is broken. This has been quite the ordeal, but I finally got it working, so I thought I'd share what I found out. There is some conflicting information online, so it took me a while to figure it all out. I found this discussion / tutorial written by people far more capable than me. My tutorial is based on that. I just wanted to write a more comprehensive tutorial and give some additional info (also this tutorial is technically for andriod devices, so I think it should be stated that it works for PC as well.) https://www.reddit.com/r/EmulationOnAndroid/comments/980mar/tutorial_phillips_cdi_on_android/ 1. What you need: 1.1 Retroarch's Mame core (without year tags) 1.2 This Archive: https://mega.nz/#!0OQ2zASD!UKoefHzpnsHBj79MdYRMWzdZYSv6kpPvxud0DmSSX3A (I hope I'm allowed to post this here) 1.3 CDi roms (I only tested the .chd format, but I'm pretty sure that cue/bin will also work) --> Keep in mind that there are many CDi roms that flat out don't work (more on that later) 1.4 Philips CDi bios files (mainly "cdimono1.zip", but I also have "cdimono2.zip" and "cdibios.zip". I don't know if they are needed for any games though) --> I cannot provide links to these bios files. You'll have to get them on your own. 1.5 LaunchBox, of course. 2. How to get your CDi games running: 2.1 Navigate to your main roms folder and create a folder called "Philips CD-i" (You can name the folder whatever you like, I just used the name that LaunchBox uses). 2.2 This is important: Inside the "Philips CD-i" folder, create another folder called "cdimono1". It's very important that you use this exact name. It doesn't work otherwise. 2.3 Copy all of your Philips CDi roms into the "cdimono1" folder. 2.4 Also copy your Philips CDi bios files into the "cdimono1" folder. 2.5 Download the archive from 1.2. Inside this archive you will find two more archives. Open the one called "CDI_blank.zip". Inside this archive you will find many different empty, "dummy" .zip files. These files have shortened title names for the CDi games (much like Mame roms). You'll need them so the Mame core is able to load your roms (more on that later). Copy all of these empty .zip files into the "cdimono1" folder. --> To sum up, in your "cdimono1" folder there should now be: your Philips CDi roms your Philips CDi bios files your empty .zip files 2.6 Open the archive from 1.2 again, but this time open the second archive within it called "RetroArch.zip". You don't need everything in here, just one specific subfolder: Go to "Retroatch --> system". In here, you will find a folder called "mame". Take that folder and put it in your own Retroarch directory in "YOUR_PATH\RetroArch\system\". 2.7 Download Retroarch's Mame core (without year tags) and leave all the settings at default (you can change the resolution if you want to) --> This is where misinformation held me back. There are many tutorials which tell you to change various settings, but believe me, you must keep the default settings. 2.8 Open LaunchBox and import the empty .zip files from 2.5. Important: You cannot import your CDi roms directly, it doesn't work. Unfortunately, this means that you will later have to rename all your imported roms with their actual names manually (There maybe a way to automate this, but I don't know, I just trail-and-errored my way through this). Also important: when importing, make sure that you choose retroarch as your emulator for the Philips CDi platform. --> you might want to start with just one file at first, just to make sure everything works. You can uset Hotel Mario ("hotmario.zip") for this, since I can confirm that this game actually works. If you have done everything correctly, you should have a game called "hotmario" in your LaunchBox. You can rename it to "Hotel Mario" and get all the metadata for it. 2.9 In LaunchBox, go to "Tools --> Manage emulators". Select retroarch. Go to "Associated Platforms", scroll down and add a new Associated Platform called "Philips CD-i". Choose "mame_libreto" as your core. Important: Don't add any "EXTRA Command-Line Parameters", despite what you might have read elsewhere online. --> You can now run Hotel Mario in LaunchBox and if you have done everything correctly, you should see a light blue screen. Wait a few seconds. You will then see a grey Philips CDi bios screen. Use your mouse and click "play". The game should now start. If it starts, you can import your other games. Keep in mind however, that not all of them will work. To find out which games are not supported, navigate to "YOUR_PATH\RetroArch\system\mame\hash" open the "cdi.xml" (here you can also find out which actual games the empty .zip files correspond to.) If it says something like "<software name="7thguest" supported="no">" that means that this specific game will not work, so you don't need to import it. 3. Further configuration (optional, but very much necessary in my opinion): 3.1 Since you most likely want to use a controller and not your mouse + keyboard, you'll have to map the controlls within the Mame GUI to your controller (I use an Xbox One controller). Once your game is up and running, hit TAB on your keyboard to bring up Mame's GUI. Navigate to "Input (this Machine)" and map the inputs to your controller like this: Mouse Button 1: Joy 1 B or A (your choice) Mouse Button 2: Joy 1 Y or X (your choice) Mouse X Analog: Joy 1 LX (press your left analog stick to the right) Mouse X Analog Dec: LEFT (press left on your D-PAD) Mouse X Analog Inc: RIGHT (press right on your D-PAD) Mouse Y Analog: Joy 1 LY (press your left analog stick up) Mouse Y Analog Dec: UP (press up on your D-PAD) Mouse Y Analog Inc: DOWN (press down on your D-PAD) Now go back and navigate to "Analog Controls". Reduce the two sensitivity settings drastically. "10" is a good point to start, but I found that even lower values ( 5 or even 1) are better for some games. Mouse X Sensitivity: 10 (your choice) Mouse Y Sensitivity: 10 (your choice) 3.2 Now your controlls should be mapped to your controller. However, when I did this, characters in games would start moving by themselves. This is because for some reason, the deadzone seems to be too small. If you experience this, do the follwoing: Once your game is running, press F1 to bring up retroarch's GUI. Navigate to "Settings" --> "Input" and scroll down to "Analog Deadzone". change the value from 0.0 to 0.5 (this worked for me). Important: you don't want to change this setting for all of your games or even for all platforms using the same mame core. You want this change to be in effect just when you play CDi games. So head back to "Quick Menu" --> "Overrides" and hit "Save Content Directory Overrides". This will save the changes you made just for CDi games. If the issue isn't solved for you, try increasing the deadzone value. Congratulations, you are now done! You are now able to experience a bad Mario game and three bad Zelda games (Why did I spend so much time on this?) Jokes aside, I hope this helps someone.

I finally got it to work! Yeah! =D Cdi Games through Retroarch's default Mame core. I'll post a description of how I did it soon!

Hey there, I haven't found an answer to this question anywhere, so I guess what I want is simply not possible, but just to be sure, I'd like to ask anyway: Is there an easy way / a program to search any of my rom folders for missing roms for a specific system? What I would like to found out, for example, is if e.g. my SNES collection is missing any officially released roms. I've tried using clrmamepro with the no-intro DAT file (no Intro is the set I use), but it tells me that I have "0" known games, which is obviously not true. What I'm aiming at is a collection consisting of US releases --> European exclusives --> Japanese exclusives --> (random other regional exclusives). I also only want the latest revisions of any given rom. Since I did all the sorting manually, I'm sure I made some mistakes alog the way. That's why I'd like to check. So if anyone knows of an easy to use way to do what I want, please telle me =).

I've only recently started building a collection once I fell in love with what Launchbox and especially Big Box have to offer. I'm currently at around 18.500 games. My "rules" are that I start with the US complete set (although I'm not sure that all my sets are 100% complete) and add all the European exclusives. I excluded Japanese games for now, but I might add translated versions of some of them down the road. There are so many crappy games in this collection, and some games flat out don't work. However, this isn't much of a problem since I just create playlists for the top 50 to 100 games of each system. Whenever possible, I compressed my games (PS2 to .cso, PS1, Sega CD and Sega Saturn to .chd, Wii to .wbfs, and so on.) I made all my setup portable and saved all of it on a 10TB external hard drive. I made backups of all my files on various other harddrives, but this solution is not ideal AT ALL. I'd much rather have a NAS Setup, but I'm too inexperienced for now and I don't want to spend too much cash. I use retroarch for most of the systems I emulate, except for PS2, Wii, GC, and WiiU. PCSX2 works like a charm and Dolphin standalone is still better for wii games, especially if you want to use a real Wii mote. Dolphin also has a cool widescreen hack for GC games that does not stretch the image. Desmume and citra perform better standalone and also run more games that way. However, the retroarch cores emulate the touch feature much more conveniently to the controller. I have to say that I'm pretty happy with my setup. I don't know what else I could add to it. XBOX games maybe if an emulator eventually gets the job done. But I think PS3 and XBOX 360 games are too big to be stored on drives for now. That would quickly blow up in size. I'm currently trying to get Philips CDI games running through retroarch's Mame core, which I couldn't get to work yet. Other than that, I'm pretty much settled for now. Someone wrote that they had more than 50.000 games. I honestly can't imagine how this is possible. This must include all the versions of games from different regions as well.

Thank you sooo much, this works perfectly =D.