jonnieboyrevel

Hi Jason In terms of plugins, I have the ScummVM plugin which I used to import the ScummVM games. However, I don't think it imports directly, just creates the files to import via the LB tools. I also have PCSX2 Configurator Next but it doesn't import anything, just creates the configs for PS2. Other than those, everything has been imported using the LB import tool. It definitely hangs, I left it for over half and hour once to see if it would save but LB doesn't appear to be doing anything in Task Manager, no CPU usage etc... I assume something is corrupt somewhere but I can't work out how to track it down. It's taken the best part of 2 years to get to the point I'm at, so I very reluctant to attempt a fresh install... I considered trying to reinstall and copy back in the data files but I assume I'd probably be copying the problem back in again...

I think it might be something to do with the LBCache folder. If I clear it I don't get any errors for a little while. If I open the folder I get around 200 files that are corrupt, pngs with 0 file size and that can't be opened. My guess is that when I update a game it refreshes the images from the cache, hits a corrupt file which causes the crash. Unfortunately I don't know how to stop LB from corrupting the files... Hmm, maybe not. It looks like LB makes a dummy file for images you don't have yet...

Oh well, spoke to soon... It's back to crashing regularly again. I've changed the hard drive for a new one and still get the same problem. Something is definitely not right but I have no idea where to look now...

Just to throw something else into the mix... I use Retroarch for the 3DO and converted all my ISO's to CHD. They all load and I haven't had any of the problems mentioned above. It also has the benefit of reducing the amount of storage needed for the games.

Hmm, definitely worth a go. I'll run it and see what comes up. Thanks Thank you DOS76, Since running the chkdsk I've not had a crash. Fingers crossed it stays that way

Here is another log from today. All it should be is starting Launchbox then attempting to download/update metadata/images for the Spectrum. It works a few times and then hangs until I force close. Debug 2020-09-29 09-13-11 AM.log And another one where it crashes almost immediately... Debug 2020-09-29 09-23-49 AM.log

No one has any idea? It's getting worse now, I can only edit the details for 1 game before LB hangs and I have to force close and restart...

I think these are the settings you are going to want: [Video_Stereoscopy] StereoDepthPercentage = 100 (Percentage of depth value set in the video configuration applied in-game.) StereoConvergenceMinimum = 0 (Base convergence value that's added to the value set in the video configuration.) StereoEFBMonoDepth = False (or True to enable "Monoscopic Shadows" respectively.) [Video_Enhancements] StereoMode = 0 (0 = Off, 1 = Side-by-Side, 2 = Top-and-Bottom, 3 = Anaglyph, 4 = Nvidia 3D Vision (D3D only).) StereoDepth = 20 (1/10th percentage of window width used to separate the virtual cameras.) StereoConvergence = 20 (Distance of the convergence plane.) StereoSwapEyes = False (or True to enable "Swap Eyes" respectively.) To use them on a game by game basis, you need to right click on the game in Dolphin and select Properties Then go to the editor tab and put the settings in the User Config section Note the way I entered it, you need the part in brackets and the setting you want to change. If you add any of the Video Enhancements you need that title in brackets before those settings. I don't know exactly which settings you want though as I don't have a 3D setup to test it out on. You'll have to have a play and see what works. Hope this helps :)

Ok, here are a couple of logs. Task Manager always shows this after a hang Debug 2020-09-10 02-24-27 PM.logDebug 2020-09-10 02-11-28 PM.log Thanks Jon

For a long time LB has been running with absolutely no problems. However, I keep running into a problem when I'm trying to edit games. It normally works fine for several games and I can add images, additional apps, metadata etc... but after a little while LB hangs after I click OK to close the game edit screen. It doesn't matter which Platform I'm editing, it does it on most of them. I have to click the LB is not responding button then force close LB. I can then open it again and it works for a little while... I did try switching LB to the text view rather than images and it seemed to work ok. However, I don't know definitely as it might have just taken longer to get the same error. I'm happy to upload the log file but as it hangs I'm not sure it will capture the error. Also, do I need to remove anything from the log before uploading? Any help would be gratefully received, it's driving me mad... Thank in advance Jon

Ahh, apologies. I wouldn't have posted it if I thought it broke the rules. I'll leave the post there, without the link. It might still give people a different option to explore on their own. Again, apologies for the oversight.

If anyone is interested in a different way of dealing with the Sharp X68000, this is what I've done. If you go here (I think I can add links here?) (link removed by moderator) Some clever folk have created a hard disk image with all of the main Sharp X68000 games installed and tweaked to work from a hard drive - It's just under 200 games I think. Instructions are given on how to set up the hard drive and get it running. Now, when you boot up the emulator it takes you to the Sharp user interface. You use the cursor keys to navigate to the 3 games folders, enter to open a folder and then enter again to open the actual games folder. Once you're in a games folder, you press 'Q' twice. This auto-boots the game. Obviously it's no good for Launchbox like this as you don't want to manually select the game from the OS every time. However, you get round this by using the method Cleverest (thank you for the tip by the way) uses for games with over 2 disks. You go in and set yourself up to quick save. Select the game from the OS and as soon as it boots you save the state. These save states then become the rom files that you use in Launchbox. What you end up with is games that are individually launch-able within Launchbox but they don't require any disk swapping, regardless of how many disks the original game used. They also load faster from HD than FD. The only thing to remember with save states is that they save the entire emulator setup. This means that each game is about 13mb, still tiny in the grand scheme of things though. The other thing to note is that all the emulator settings are saved in the save state as well. So if you want to use Munt for Midi for example (this sounds awesome), make sure that you set up the emulator with it before you start saving states, other wise they will all hold the settings for no or windows midi. I can probably do a proper tutorial at some point if people want it but I wasn't sure if there is enough interest to make it worth while. Between Cleverest, MCF and this, there should be a way for everyone to enjoy the Sharp X68000!

Bit of an odd suggestion... Have you changed mouse when you upgraded? I'm sure I've seen something in the past about this error popping up when no USB mouse is plugged in. If it works with it plugged in then that's your problem. How you make it work without a mouse plugged in, I have no idea...

Not sure if anyone will be able to help with this, I've read through a few 'Pause problems' threads and it appears it's just finicky about certain setups. However, my problem is slightly different so I thought it give it a go. My issue is that I can only activate the Pause screen using my joypad. It doesn't matter what I set as a keyboard key to activate it, it doesn't do anything. Currently I'm only getting it set up with retroarch, I didn't want to start the other emu's until I got this working properly. The issue is that most of the time the joypad buttons do something else in RA, i.e reset the system. Not great unless I want to reset every time I pause... If I un-assign the 'P' key in RA nothing happens at all when I press P. This behaviour is the same in both BB and LB. I can only assume RA is somehow taking priority of the keyboard keys and therefore LB/BB isn't getting the keyboard press to activate the Pause screen. So to summarise: All retroarch related. Pause Screens/Themes work when assigning a shortcut on the joypad. They do not work with any keyboard assignment. If anyone has had a similar problem and knows a fix it would be greatly appreciated. I really want to get the Pause screens working for the controller configs. Thanks for your time. Jon

Very jealous! A Racing Cabinet has always been on my 'want to build' list but I've never quite plucked up the courage to start. It looks great

Hi Zombeaver I just had a quick question regarding the !Automator.bat I've used the bat to create the folders for a couple of games and they load up fine in Launchbox. However, the cmd window takes focus from the game and I need to either click back on thew game window or alt tab. Do you have any suggestions as to how to solve this issue? Thanks for any help you can provide and for creating such a great set of content. UPDATE: Ignore my message. For some reason the vbs converter bit didn't happen. I've run it again and all is good.

@Nick_Arrow apologies for not replying. I haven't been online much. Did you get this sorted out? If not, what happens when you try and play a disk based game?

BBuser2k is right. I forgot I'd installed Autohotkey for something else... You could either go to the Autohotkey website and install it or as an alternative Autohotkey does come with Launchbox. When it asks you for a program to open it with you could try pointing it to the AutoHotKey.exe that came with Launchbox (it's in the Launchbox\Autohotkey folder.

Hi All, Loving Launchbox so far and thought I’d try and contribute something back to the community. I’ve wanted to get the FM Towns system running in a way that I’m happy with for quite a while and have finally managed to get somewhere close… I will say this is still a work in progress and is not perfect but I’ve got to the point where games are launched through LB, the CD is inserted and either a boot/User/Blank disk is inserted automatically. The emulator then switches to full screen and captures the mouse. Exiting the emulator is done with Esc. I have CD,FD and pre-installed HD games working (all the ones I’ve tried so far), I haven’t got my head around installing games yet though. This is not a one click and done set up, so if you’re not that bothered about the FM Towns then I wouldn’t try to follow this tutorial… This is also my first LB Guide, if anyone spots anything that's wrong just let me know. Ok, firstly, things you need: Unz emulator - - I would recommend getting the ‘Neo Kobe Emulator Lite’ pack - not sure If I can link as it includes BIOS files but Google is your friend. Daemon Tools Lite - - I paid €4.99 for the ad free version but I assume the free one will work just as well. FM Towns Roms - Again Google can help you here hint: searching “Neokobe FM Towns” will set you in the right direction. AHK Script - attached Blank Disk - attached Bat file - optional but makes life easier - attached Getting Started: Daemon Tools Install Daemon Tools Lite and get it set up. Fairly self explanatory, the only thing to note is that you need to make sure the settings are configured to mount discs to the same drive, not to keep creating new drives. You can also set a drive letter for the virtual drive, I’m using E: but if you pick a different drive then amend settings accordingly. Unz If you got Unz from the Neo Kobe pack then the BIOS files should be in the Unz folder already. If not, you need to find fmt_dos.rom, fmt_sys.rom, and mytowns.rom and put them in the Unz folder. I’m using the BIOS files for the ‘FM Towns II UX’, I’d recommend using the same as they seem very compatible. The first thing to do is start Unz by double clicking the Unz.exe file in the folder. You’ll then see this screen We need to set up the CD drive and change a couple of other settings. First head to the CD-ROM 1 tab. You need to change the selection to ‘Select Drive’ and then pick the drive letter from the drop down. This will be the drive you specified in Daemon Tools I’d have a quick look in the General Tab to make sure it matches this Note: Don’t select FM Towns II UX if you don’t have the right BIOS files, it won’t work! Next go to the Video Tab and enable High Resolution and Full Colour - this is also the screen you enable V-Sync in if you experience tearing problems Now go to the Resolution Tab If you’ve tried to get Unz working before in full screen you’ll be aware that it doesn’t seem to work properly. What I had to do was change the bpp for each setting to 32 instead of 16. Leave the resolution as it is as this will allow Unz to scale properly. My settings are like this Finally, go to the Sound Tab. Tick the ‘Enable Midi’ box and select Microsoft GS Wavetable from the drop down (unless you use a third party midi mapper, if so, use that). You can now click Ok. Unz will auto close, so don’t worry that it disappeared. Testing I’d run a test at this point to make sure you’re not wasting your time. You need to mount one of your games to Daemon Tools. Obviously we’ll do this automatically later but at this point you should be able to double click a cue file and Daemon Tools will mount it for you (Note: game files for Unz need to be unzipped, Unz zip each to it’s own folder). If it’s mounted correctly you’ll be able to see it in Windows explorer If it’s mounted, double click on Unz to open the emulator. Give it a few second and if you see the clock in the bottom right hand corner then it’s loading the CD If you get a Disk, CD and Hard Disk image constantly alternating in the bottom right hand corner then it’s not recognised the CD. Check that it’s mounted correctly and that it’s mounted to the drive you specified in the Unz settings. Leave Unz running and do the second test. Press F11 on the keyboard. If Full Screen is working then Unz should switch to full screen and capture the mouse (make it moveable within Unz). If it doesn’t work you’ll have to fiddle with the resolution settings to see what works for you. To get back out of full screen just press F11 again. If you press F12 you’ll get the windows mouse back to close the emulator. The AHK Script The ahk script I’ve attached can be put wherever you like (just remember where), I put it in the Unz folder for neatness. For some reason I had issues getting the in built ahk tab (in Launchbox) to properly interact with Unz, so this is just a way of getting the functionality I wanted. You can test the script out by double clicking it. Nothing should happen initially. Then double click Unz and don’t touch anything. If it works, the script will grab the Unz window and activate it (this is important later on…) It will then switch to full screen. For some reason the Menu stays present at the top of Unz, so the script also sends F12 twice. This de-captures and re-captures the mouse which gets rid of the menu. If all has gone well, you should be in full screen Unz. The script also adds the ability to close Unz with Escape. So if it looks like it worked, press escape to close the emulator. A Bit about FM Towns Roms The FM Towns had a CD Drive and Floppy Disk drive. It could also have a Hard Drive. What this means for us is that it’s not normally as simple as just mounting the disc in the CD drive to actually be able to play games. Some games run just from floppy disk. Some run just from a CD. Some will boot from CD but then ask for a blank disk in the drive for game saves. Some have to have a ‘User’ disk formatted in a particular way to work. Some have ‘Boot’ disks that have to be in the drive as well as the CD. Some run from the hard drive. You get the picture… I’ll try and cover all the different combinations I’ve come up against so far but can’t promise that it will cover every game type you try and run. The Blank Disk As I said above, some FM games need a save disk in the drive before the game will load. The ‘BlankDisk.hdm’ I’ve attached is a pre-formatted disk that will work with these games. To make my life easier I use the attached .bat file. Important: This is reliant on you having your FM Towns games unzipped and in a sub folder for each game. If you haven’t done it that way, this guide probably won’t work for you. If you have got your games in a folder with sub folders, then drop the ‘BlankDisk.hdm’ and the ‘CopyDiskToFolders.bat’ into the main folder and double click the .bat file. If all has gone well, you should now have a copy of ‘BlankDisk.hdm’ in all of your game folders (we’ll use these later). Adding Games and Getting Them to Work Ok, this is the bit that’s a real pain. You can either try and bulk import your games but you’ll then have to go through each one changing the settings. Or you can add them one at a time, I’d recommend this as although it’s a pain it means you don’t miss anything and to be honest the FM Towns library isn’t huge... Launchbox In Launchbox, add a new emulator. I’ve called mine ‘VirtualDrive’ but you can call yours whatever you like. In the details tab, set it up like this, take note that the Emulator Application Path is to ‘DTCommandLine.exe’ (it’s in the program folder) and not the main application. For ease, the command line is ‘-M -l "E" -p’ (without the quotes) Go to the default emulator tab and set it as the default for your FM Towns platform. Then go to the ‘Running AutoHotkey Script’ tab and add the following Run "D:\Emulators\Unz 0.5L30\UnzSelect.ahk” You’ll need to change the path to wherever you are keeping the AHK Script you downloaded. The Games How you set up different games will depend on what format they are. CD Only Games For games that just have a CD, the folder should look like this Add the cue file to LB as your rom (either drag and drop or through the menus). Let LB do it’s thing RE metadata but don’t be surprised if there isn’t any, the LB database appears to only be for FM Towns Marty so the number of games is limited. Once the game is imported, right click the game in LB and open the ‘edit’ screen Then select the ‘Additional Apps’ tab and then ‘Add Application’ Call the App whatever you like, I stuck with Unz so that I know what it is. For the application path, click browse and then select the Unz.exe in your emulator folder. The command line is going to be as follows: -f0 “FullPathToBlankDisk” (including the quotes) This needs to be the blank disk you created using the bat file earlier. This will be slightly different for each game as the disk should be in the game folder. You also need to tick ‘Automatically Run After Main Application’ Something like this You can then click OK and OK again to exit the game edit screen. Now the moment of truth… You should be able to double click the game in Launchbox. If everything has gone to plan Daemon Tools will mount the cue file, LB will call the AHK Script and then the additional app will launch Unz with the correct command line to put the blank floppy disk in drive 0. After a couple of seconds the AHK Script will activate and switch Unz to full screen and capture the mouse. You should also be able to use Esc to exit the emulator when you’re done. This process then needs to be repeated for all the games you have (that are just CD images). A Note RE .mds & .mdf These function in the same way as bin/cue. Use the .mds (the small file) as your rom and Daemon Tools will mount it like a CD. Games with a ‘boot’ or ‘user’ disk + CD image The process for these is almost identical to the CD only games. You still add the cue file as your rom. Obviously you don’t need to create the emulator again if you’ve done it with the CD only games. If you haven’t done it yet, follow that part of the guide. As I said, everything is exactly the same as the CD Only Games apart from the command line in the additional apps screen. Instead of including the path to the blank disk, you include the path to the boot/user disk. Like this Note: There are some games that load using a boot disk and then ask for a blank disk. In these cases you have to disk swap in Unz. Pressing F12 will give you back control of the mouse and show the menu, you then click Drive0, Insert and browse to the game folder. If you followed the bat file part of the tutorial earlier, there will be a blank disk in the game folder that you can insert. Disk Only Games (Single Disk) Some games are just one disk image. Most of the ones I’ve come across are .hdm files. With these games, you import the hdm file as your rom. Still select the emulator as VirtualDrive (or whatever you decided to call it). This will mean the AHK script still gets called to switch to full screen etc… Once imported, open the Edit Game screen (right clicking in LB). Click on the emulation tab, check the ‘Use Custom Command-Line Parameters’ and enter -u This sends the Unmount All command to Daemon Tools. This is important as Unz will default to loading a CD over a floppy disk. You then go to the additional apps tab and add Unz as an additional app. However, in the command line you enter -f0 “PathToTheSingleGameDisk”, everything else is the same as previously. Click Ok and Ok to confirm everything and get back to the game screen. You should now be able to double click the Disk only game. Daemon Tools should unmount, Unz should start with the game disk in the drive and load the game. The AHK Script should still kick in and switch to full screen and add the Esc to exit functionality. Disk Only Games (Multi-Disk) These are a bit of a pain to be honest… Depending on the game you may need different combinations of disks in Drive 0 and Drive 1. The best way I’ve found to deal with them is as follows. Open Unz outside of LB. You click on Drive0 or Drive1 on the menu to insert the game disks. I start with Disk 1 in Drive0 and Disk 2 in Drive1. On some games, you start with Disk 1 and 2 in the drives, it will then prompt for disk 3 before loading the actual game. Once you’ve found the correct combination to get to the actual game, in Unz, click file and save state. Call the state the same name as the game. Close Unz. You can then add the Save State file to LB as your rom. As before, set the emulator as the VirtualDrive you created. The same as with a Single Disk game, you also need to edit the game and change the Emulation tab. As with Single Disks, check ‘Use Custom Command-Line Parameters’ and enter -u You then need to open the Additional Apps tab and add Unz as an additional app. However, this time the command line will be -s “FullPathToSaveStateFile” -- Note the -s instead of -f0 Once again, click Ok and Ok again to get back to the game selection screen. If you double click the game in LB it should now load back to the Save State (I.E the actual game) with the correct disks in the drives. A Note: To save anyone else wasting time, I’ve tried the Save States with CD based games. The disk in the drive always overrides the save state and reboots the machine. And Finally - Preinstalled HD Image Games Be very careful doing these, you don’t want to mess up your main Unz directory! Some games you get will come as .h0 files. These are basically a hard drive image with the game pre-installed. They normally also come with a CMOS.dat file. I’m sure the way I’m doing it isn’t the best, If anyone has any suggestions I’ll gladly take them… Basically the way I’m dealing with these is to create a completely separate instance of Unz. Copy the entire Unz folder and make a new folder called something else, I just appended the game name. You then copy the .h0 file and the CMOS.dat that came with it into the new Unz folder. It will ask if you want to replace the CMOS.dat, say yes. Make sure there is nothing in the virtual CD drive and open Unz (the one in your new folder). You then need to click settings, property and open the HDD tab, once there click Mount(0) Select the .h0 file to mount it to the drive. Click Ok and then exit Unz. You should be able to test it out by reopening Unz (in the new folder). The CMOS.dat should tell Unz to boot from the HD and the game should load. Note: some games will boot to Towns OS, you just double click the game file to load it. I created a blank .txt file with the game name and imported that to LB as my rom. Again, select the VirtualDrive as the emulator and go into the edit game screen. The emulation tab needs to be changed to the same as with the disk games, I.E. Custom Command Line Parameters -u The additional apps section is also slightly different. You still add an app and call it whatever you like. However, the Application Path has to be the path to the Unz in your new folder (the one that you mounted the hard drive on). You don’t need any special command line for these As before, Ok and Ok to get back to the game selection screen. You should then be able to double click the game to launch it. Games that come as CD but need installing I haven’t worked these out. If anyone has, a guide would be much appreciated Well, I can’t imagine that many people have made it all the way through this guide, it’s a bit of a slog! but if you have you should now have Unz up and running in a way that feels (reasonably) integrated with LB. If anyone has any other tips or information to make this better/easier please let me know. BlankDisk.hdm CopyDiskToFolders.bat UnzSelect.ahk

Thank you @BelgarathI can get it working now and have found the following thread which covers getting them set up with cmd files.

I'm having the same issue. Some games do work but Afterburner II does not. I've tried different rom version and different BIOS files. I've also tried running XM6 and Retroarch but still haven't had any luck. If anyone can point me in the right direction it would be much appreciated. Thanks