retroD999

So, it turns out it this was caused by a mame controller file that disappeared from the ctrl folder. I have some additional command line options in launchbox for mame, one of which is telling mame which controller file to use (I have a plugin that I wrote that can switch between controller files and updates the emulator launching options) Sorry for the post, maybe this can be helpful to someone else in the future that has a similar problem.

Hello! I have been using Launchbox for a few years. I have 2 cloned setups: one for my PC and one for my DIY arcade cabinet. My mame games have been running fine for years, until today. Suddenly they are no longer launching from launchbox on my arcade cab (everything is still working on my pc). If I launch a game, I can see the MAME pop up screen with the 'Initializing' text, and then it just goes back to Launchbox/Bigbox I can launch mame games directly from mame. I have also updated my LB install to v13.0 (was using 12.4), and copied all the data files from my PC to the arcade cab, in case something got corrupted, but still no joy. I have tried looking on the forum, but none of the posts I found applied to my case. I am not sure what else to try and how this could have happened, as I have not messed with the games at all on the arcade cab. I though it may have been something that got screwed with my mame settings, but I am ruling that out as I am able to run games directly from the emulator. Can anyone suggest something else I could try? The next step for me would be to reinstall the system on the arcade cab.... but that would take a veeery long time

I have a 2 player arcade cab with an IPAC2 (I don't have LEDBlinky) and a modified 2 player XArcade joystick with x2 zero delay boards instead of the stock board. I can say I prefer the IPAC2 purely for the flexibility of the customisation. You can program them to be read as DInput, XInput, or keyboard, and you can reconfigure the buttons to be whatever you want (e,g, triggers, the xbox home button, a direction of one of the 2 analog sticks, etc) The IPAC has also more buttons per player, and on top of that, each button can have 2 configurations (1 standard and 1 shifted - you pick what the shift button is), which I found super handy when you need some extra special case buttons in some emulators. - Great for an arcade cab, not that useful if you have a PC with a keyboard in front of you The wiring is not difficult but probably not as simple as the zero delay that come with their own connectors. I have seen places that sell the pre crimped wiring for them though if you hate doing that stuff yourself Programming the buttons was pretty straight forward in my opinion. You download an app that lets you reprogram the buttons via a user interface - I thought it was very intuitive. I guess what I am saying is that I would get the IPAC2, plus the LEDBlinky would make it even cooler :), but it depends on your budget/use case.