C-Beats

Have you ever been able to successfully open Big Box? If so, were you using a theme other than default?

There wouldn't be a need to add two API keys, only change the profile name. Though I'm not entirely sure if the install check would work or not because I'm not sure if the family sharing games store the installation data in the registry the same way or not. If you try it let me know how it goes for ya, you got me curious now.

You could theme this in if using premium but at the moment there is no built in way to do what you're asking.

LaunchBox is program/file agnostic. As long as the item in question can be launched via command line we should be able to do it for you. You can download the free version of LaunchBox and make sure the setup process works for your situation and get everything set up and working before you decide to purchase anything. Sounds like for your situation you'll want Big Box eventually, but I'd least grab the free and make sure you can get everything imported the way you were wanting before taking that plunge.

There are several fields that can be used like Source, or Version (though depending on how the rom is named you'll need to put it there yourself). You could also use a custom field to store that information if you are using the premium version of LaunchBox.

1. LaunchBox CAN extract archives with any number of files in them, but if the archive contains more than one file we just basically grab one at random to pass to the emulator before launch. A game is NEVER extracted to the games folder though, it's extracted to a temp folder that is destroyed when you close LaunchBox. Because of this you only really should be passing LaunchBox archives with a single file in it, because those are the only ones that are guaranteed to work 100% of the time. We do not EVER unarchive an archive file on import because we assume if you passed us them, you want to keep them in that format (or you'd just have extracted them before you imported them). 3. What you're asking is "Isn't it faster to unzip my file several times instead of once?" and the answer that will always be no. Truth of the matter is for ANY cart based system leaving the rom zipped typically is a waste of time since you're increasing the load times (since even if the emulator can read the encryption data without the need to completely unarchive it, it still has to perform the decryption in memory which of course takes extra CPU cycles thus increasing the load time). For most of the systems the space saved by todays standards is beyond minimal, and should LaunchBox or the emulator actually have to extract the archive to disk before running you're actually shortening the lifetime of your hard drive (though I admit not by a TON). The reason you typically find the files zipped is simply because it takes less net bandwidth which helps those will slow or metered net connections 4. There are several ways to extract an archive and several places to do it. Some emulators can read the archive (depending on the format) raw and extract them in memory, others require doing it to disk. When they do it to disk it will almost NEVER be to the same location the original archive was. They typically have their own temporary location they extract to (as does LaunchBox) that they can then clean up when the process is done. Extracting to the same folder the archive is in could lead to a whole lot of potential issues and so it just isn't done that way in most cases. Long story short, just because you don't see it, doesn't mean it isn't happening. 5. Any update regardless of when or how you get it has the potential for danger. Much like any day you walk outside you could potentially be struck by lightening. You definitely want to vet your sources before downloading anything but if the source is trusted, then typically the updates are safe. Bleeding edge and beta updates to software have a much larger risk though typically not in the malware sense, but in that it potentially breaks or only half works on your installation. Most of the stories of old regarding people getting hacked by updates are because they fell for a phishing scam and "updated" their software with an infected file they didn't ACTUALLY get from the trusted source. Other Random Questions: Build bot is an automated tool used by software developers that automatically builds a release application when they push a code change. It just builds the app and then makes it available with the single press of a button instead of them manually deploying all 15+ versions of the thing when they update versions. When importing I believe there is a checkbox to download out of date cores. Fairly certain you manually have to tell us to grab the latest RetroArch proper though. I admit Jason did most of the work on that feature though so I could be wrong on this point. Just since we are getting to more detailed responses before I answer the questions about updating RetroArch I want to make one thing clear. RetroArch is NOT an emulator. RetroArch is a compatibility layer to make emulation across the libretro cores consistent. The core itself is the emulator, because of this you can get away sometimes with updating a core and NOT RetroArch. This is not typically true of stand alone emulators. So you CAN have the most up to date emulator and settings for that emulator but still have an older version of RetroArch itself (assuming the emulator didn't NEED a newer feature set of RetroArch to make it happen, which typically it doesn't). Regarding the whole don't update LB or any other software bit, essentially yes that what's he's saying. You don't HAVE to. You can stay on an older version if the newer version doesn't have a feature you want or doesn't correct anything you've found wrong in an older version. Some people would simply prefer not to bother as sometimes updating can be a pain, or introduce new issues where there currently are none. It's a decision everyone has to make for themselves, but both options are valid. I have the option to be on Windows 11 (an "upgrade" from 10) and I won't be making that leap until I absolutely need to, because frankly it can only cause MORE issues than I have now with Win10. The more experienced you get with the tech, the more the terms "upgrade" and "update" typically lose their allure, so you'll see a lot of people with more experience under their belt be far more selective of which update/upgrade they apply or not.

As others have stated you can make the Platform Category view look exactly like your mockup, though it uses the same view for all the items selected after the fact (like selecting consoles would open to the list of platforms and would look the exact same). You can write plugins to potentially help with that though. The reason something like your mockup isn't implemented is because very few people want to deal with the extra key presses and it just doesn't look all that great on an arcade cab when people walk past and see a generic welcome screen. Most users would prefer something that attracts the user TO the cab like a gameplay video or something similar to how original cabs had attract modes that made you go, "OH look at that!" and come over to it.

You have some examples of what you're looking for? What your initial post described is exactly what Platform Category view is by default so your post is a bit confusing.

Go to your Windows Desktop, right click and select "Display settings". When there you can see a logical monitor layout of your monitors. Make sure the main UI Window is the left most monitor (regardless of what number) and the marquee is positioned to the right of the main display monitor so that the upper left corner of the marquee monitor is touching the upper right corner of the main display monitor and then save your changes and see if that helps you out.

Almost every time we get reports of things not saving it is because there are backup files in your data folder that don't belong. Navigate to \\Launchbox\Data\ and makes sure there is only one file per platform in there and no files ending in "-backup.xml". You will need to look in all subfolders for those files as well.

We have native Windows Store / Xbox App import now so shouldn't need to do any of this for most games. You do need to install and launch the game at least once though for the import to be able to find the game (because of how their API is set up)

Welp was worth the shot. I got nothing else to really help debug the process for ya then. I don't ever really play Dreamcast and all the set's I've ever seen have GDI files NOT cue, that need passed to CHDMAN so unsure what set you're using.

I don't know MUCH about this process, as I've done it for one of my platforms and it just worked, but two things potentially worth checking are: Did you pass the CUE file and NOT the BIN file to CHDMAN? Is your emulator up to date? Not sure when CHD support was added but if its an older version it potentially isn't supported by that version but is a newer one.

This is a confirmed issue on EmuMovies end and they are aware of the issue and hopeful it will be resolved soon.

For some reason just now seeing the post my apologies @giotte. Basically do everything like they have above except in the textblock instead if Text="{Binding}", you want Text="{Binding Name}"

I believe that is done by design but would have to check the code again to make sure. Those should show up correctly in Platform Category view though I believe.

If you grab it from within the app it will be since we create a new emulator entry when doing so.

Meh you were half right at least. That IS what "SDK" stands for and what it's use case is.

Honestly don't remember the name, quick Google search looks like it very well could be though.

LaunchBox does NOT need the SDK to run, only the runtime. SDK is used to create and compile applications using .NET Core, runtime just has all the code that those programs require to operate on your machine.

Use Platform Category view and not Platform (which is the default)

If you're back in that area there is an arcade in Gatlinburg that has more retro machines and even a few pinball tables. Last time we were there talked with the owner a bit and he was surprised how much my son enjoyed the old pinball tables since most kids his age just liked the flashy newer games. Gave us a few free plays on them as appreciation.

Steam doesn't send information via their API regarding what games you have access to outside of your account. There MAY be a way to read registry to see if there are games installed that AREN'T tied to your account but I'd have to look. At this time there is no way in-app to do this though so I would go ahead and submit a feature request so I don't forget about checking for you. Right now I'm doing my best to get 12.10 finished up and am sure by the time I'm done with that version it'll have slipped my mind without the reminder.