Agrajag

I was wondering how that works especially given the software list complication.

I'm wondering if this exists or if other people feel this would be useful. One thing I'm experiencing (going through the MAME collection) is loading up a game only to realize it uses a light gun, a trackball, two joysticks, etc. In other words, something I can't really play with the setup I have at that moment. One thing that would help is an entry in the database for what devices this uses so it could denote that it uses a Paddle and 2 standard buttons, for example. Even more useful would be a way to filter games based only on what my setup is. So I have a Mayflash F500 and it has one joystick and 8-10 buttons. Thanks for listening.

That, of course, was it. I didn't realize the necessity of the relationship between these. Makes total sense now that I think of it. I'll keep that in mind as I move forward. Now onto the real fun of figuring out what MAME did with laying out the INTV controllers! It's a real mess.

Here's my Platforms screen:

No. These came from the current software list (.208) for MAME.

I don't have the non-software list versions, but as noted, the software list versions work from the command line. Note again that the Coleco setup works great just as you see it. No need for -cart because their software list roms and the intv setup works from the command line with vanilla MAME64 perfectly.

Yep. I followed my experience with ColecoVision (which you helped with--thanks), but it's not working the same way.

Thanks. Bummer... I'm trying to figure out why I can run a game from the command line for MAME just fine, but the same options seem to fail (I'm sure it's something I did) when "matching" those settings in LB.

I'm having an issue with getting Intellivision carts to work (software list versions) with MAME and LB doesn't flinch at all when I click a title. I'd like to see what's going on behind the scenes. Is there a method to see what's happening to help troubleshoot this and similar issues? Thanks!

I was under the impression that -cart was only needed for legacy ROMs and NOT software list versions... Wrong? RA, as I've been told, uses the legacy roms. Also, notice what I laid out: In MAME via the command line, I don't need -cart: mame64 intv advtron That runs on MAME just fine. I added -cart to the emulator/Associated Platforms section and that didn't fix things at all.

Okay, I thought I had this down as I just finished manually adding my ColecoVision collection to LB/BB using MAME (software list) which required doing a lot of manual entries. However, it all works great and looks great. So onto Intellivision. I figured I'd do the same approach and import what titles could be imported and then manually add the bulk that remained. I pointed LB to my intv folder (software list roms) and it imported 32 titles. However, on clicking them I found that they were all just somehow running MAME arcade ROMS of those games and NOT the INTV romes even though they pointed to the INTV roms. So, no idea what happened there, but I deleted those and then started with a test case with Adventures in Tron. I went to MAME64 and ran "mame64 intv advtron" and it popped right up. I then went into LB, made sure I had the platform there for it and the emulator set to MAME with the associated platform section noting the parameter invt. I then clicked Add, added the title. Searched. LB finds its entry and fills in the info it has. I point it to the ROM file advtron.zip. I go to Emulation and pick MAME. I add images. All looks great. It imports. It's there. I then click it and nothing happens. No errors. Nothing. Ideas?

is this the app you used: https://sourceforge.net/projects/monitorswitcher/

Replied in the other topic.

Joe, So this sounds similar to what I've done via MAME.INI but with Monitor Switcher (I'll need to look that up) you're getting the system to see the monitor you want as Primary? If so, that's even more elegant than my simple batches. What I'd really love to see is if LB/BB can implement something similar. Then it would a a simple matter of telling LB which monitor is primary (via a menu with a check box or via a command line parameter at worst) and then we'd be home free. My question: Have you checked this setup with MAME (I assume so) as it sees its own "Primary" display so I'm wondering if this approach tricks MAME as well without having to muck with its .ini file.

So I have a challenge and I think I have a solution that will work, but wondering if there's a more elegant way to deal with it. I have multiple monitors on my Windows 10 PC and one of them is linked to a projector in my modest home theater next to my desktop in my office. 90% of the time I work and play on my desktop in the office and LB loads there just fine as do the games. However, the rest of the time (especially when guests are over) I'd like to be able to enjoy playing via the projector. Turns out that doesn't seem to be as simple as I thought it would be. I can load LB on the projector but MAME (which runs 90% of my emulation needs directly) will always launch on the desktop as it sees the desktop display as "Primary". So, solutions I came up with: 1. I found out MAME supports a command line parameter called -screen X where X is the monitor you desire, but it's not just a number. For example, loading MAME -v and quitting will tell you all the monitors it sees and their "names" so the projector is "//./DISPLAY3". So I created three MAME.INI files changing the SCREEN line item to that "name" in one, changing it back to the default of "auto" in a second and a third that preserves the baseline .ini. Then I just load the batch for what I want prior. The problem in this approach is that it's prone to forgetting which state the setup is in, plus any .INI changes now need to be made to three files instead of one. 2. It occurs to me that I can create a different set of platforms whose only difference is that they include -screen //./DISPLAY3 in the command line parameter setting. The problem with this setup is that it seems highly messy to me. I'll have Arcade and Arcade Theater, ColecoVision and ColecoVision Theater, etc. Not sure what that will do to the database and its view/count of my library. I'm wondering if there's a better way. At the least I'd also like to know if there's a way to see if the devs would be interested in streamlining this. Perhaps a setting somewhere to check off which "state" I'm in and, based on that state being selected, follow the appropriate rules. So, if I check state "Theater" LB will know rule #1 is to say, "IF Emulator = MAME then append -screen //./DISPLAY3 to the command line. Rule #2 might be to do a similar step for my other 10% cases (currently I prefer emulating Atari 2600 natively through Stella as it shows you when you change the Difficulty buttons which is nice to know, but I might just dump it over this issue alone). Thanks. I know that's a lengthy post, but I wanted to be sure to do my best to explain it all. After this is all resolved I'll tackle setting up BigBox for theater use (glad to have supported it).

I'm having something similar. I am currently running two emulators under LB/BB: Stella and MAME (which is running most of my platforms). I have three monitors, but only two I care about (the third is just a side-monitor). I run most days on my desktop monitor (#1) and it's great then. I run LB and then launch a game and it all comes up on #1 as expected. However, I also have a projector and a decent home theater which is connected to my PC as monitor #2. I'd LOVE to find a way to easily (or otherwise) get games to come up on that monitor, but so far I end up having to launch the game, hit ALT-ENTER to get it to not be full screen, then hit SHIFT-ALT-ARROW to move it to the projector (#2) and then just live with it in windowed mode as if I try to then make it full screen it jumps back to #1. I then have to repeat this for every new game and, on say ColecoVision, every load as that system doesn't have a replay function generally. There HAS to be a better what. Sort of wondering if I should create some sort of batch file that swaps MAME.INI files to have it see the different monitors based on what I want to do, but that won't fix Stella. Had been hoping LB would have something. Perhaps MAME has a parameter for monitors. Then, perhaps LB could have a feature down the line to say, If I set Monitor #2, pass that parameter for #2, but if I set Monitor #1 don't pass it, or pass #1. Ugh.

Okay, so I get part of that, but that still leaves the main question: Why am I able to manually import one file at a time, but if I multi-select files in the very same wizard, it fails??? I would prefer that it add all the ones I select and then I can at least skip the IMPORT part of the job and just edit each entry to link it to its LB DB entry. Should I report this as a bug somewhere?

Neil, As noted, I managed to find the MAME software list roms which is what I suspect is the issue.... That's okay from my end and I'll deal with consequences, but just want to know what's in store when I move to Intellivision or if there's a "better way", etc.

Okay, so I'm continuing my learning with LB/BB and ran into something unexpected. I decided to stick with MAME for my ColecoVision needs and have that functioning finally with full MAME/ColecoVision bios and Software List roms, etc. I noticed things were different from when I did this via LB/RetroArch in that my favorite game, 2010, imported into LB with full info, but this time around it acted like it didn't know anything about it. I assume that's because with RetroArch and my old roms the name of that rom was "2010: The Graphic Action Game (1984) (Coleco)" which is a heck of a lot more to search on than just "2010". Anyway, the real issue was that I now had the Coleco folder with all 165 roms ready to import. I decided to do an Import Folder and selected the folder. It came back only seeing 52 games. Huh? So I tried Import File and selected all 165. It came back and offered to import 52 of them. I then imported the 52 and realized 2010 wasn't there, but I knew it worked. So, I then I did Import File again and selected JUST the 2010 file and it imported just fine, aside from lacking art. Once I edited it and gave it the full name LB found its DB entry and appended everything. What am I misunderstanding? I'm now finding that I have to go one-by-one to import the other ~110 titles. This could take weeks. hehe

GREAT info! That explains some other issues I was having the other day (I just got the F500). So glad I posted....Thanks!

Good to know. I just switched over to dinput mode so that might be the issue I was having. I'd still be curious to get this all working with MAME for the experience, but certainly won't be looking to spend ages on figuring out what I did wrong, if anything.

Thanks. I'm not an RA fan for a couple of reasons. First, it adds a level of complexity to everything that I'm trying to reduce as, at least for me, I find it entirely unintuitive. Second, it doesn't like my Mayflash F500 very much and that alone is a major issue.

Ah, okay. That explains why MAME64's UI doesn't see them either. Will look around. Thanks.

I noticed that ColecoVision is now emulated in MAME (awesome), so I figured I'd give it a shot. I THOUGHT I had this figured out, but apparently not. 1. I created a subfolder under MAME64/roms called /Colecovision and put all the ColecoVision roms there including the zip of the coleco bios roms (all the roms were from my ColEM working set). 2. I added the subfolder to the MAME64 ini file (MAME is working fine running arcade roms): rompath roms;roms/Colecovision 3. I added a new Platform called ColecoVision. 4. I edited the Emulator settings under Associated Platforms for MAME to and added a new line: ColecoVision with the Default Command-Line Parameters set to "coleco -cart" (no quotes in field). I also set it to default for that emulator. 5. I then used the batch importer and it ran and added 161 games, the right info and updated the ColecoVision system info. Nice! Everything looks fine, but then when I launch a game from the list literally nothing happens. No pause, no message, nothing. What might I have missed? I'll be doing Intellivision next so I'd like to get this process down. Thanks!

Thanks. Forgot all about that option and it, of course, works great!