demosthenes2010

Having some trouble getting DICE to work. I went out and grabbed all of the correct ROMs from my MAME set and placed them in properly named folders. Then I tried launching the dice.exe and used the menu to select "New Game". As soon as I do, DICE seems to crash. So, I tried launching a game from the command line using "dice antiaircraft" Upon doing so, DICE will load but will not load the game. From here, it will intermittently allow me to navigate to the "New Game" screen without crashing. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it. The same gamename will sometimes work and sometimes will crash DICE like launching it from the UI will. Also, I noticed that DICE would tell me that I did not have the properly named .zip file where it should be. For example, it will state, "rom/antiaircraft.zip" isn't there and so the game will not run properly, but... I was under the impression that it needed the .zip file in it's own directory as indicated in this post by @spycat I've found, however, that it didn't run the game (even when it wasn't crashing and would let me get that far) until I had a copy in the roms/ directory (not a gamename specific subdirectory). Thinking this is what it really wanted, I moved all of my zip files out into the main /roms directory only to find that without the subdirectory also present with the .zip in it, some games would also not work there. I know this post is a bit rambling but it seems like one odd issue after another with this emulator and I'm just curious if anyone has any pointers. Youtube is pretty empty when it comes to tutorials on this. I'm guessing this is because the interest in TTL games isn't that high anymore. With all of this said, I read in a post from back in 2015 or so that the MAME team had received permission from the creators of DICE to integrate their work into MAME. Has any appreciable work been done in this area that anyone is aware of? Are there any other alternatives for running these types of games in 2021? I appreciate any guidance or information anyone can provide. Thanks, D2010

@ajhickin I just happened to stumble across this post while doing some research on AAE and saw your last post regarding the Tiger Game.com I have configured mine by adding a new emulator called game.com that points to the mame64 executable. To make it work, you have to add gamecom -cart1 to the default comand-line parameters so MAME knows that you are attempting to launch the given ROM using the gamecom machine MAME is programmed to emulate. When adding ROMS, just select your game.com rom directory as you would for any other system, select the game.com emulator, specify that you are importing Tiger Game.com games for the platform, and off you go. I added the Tiger Game.com in the Associated Platforms, as well. Maybe not the most elegant way to do it but I intend to do the same with the CD-i, Intellivision, and Vectrex when I get around to it.

@Headrush69 Excellent response! Thank you!

Hello All, I've collected every arcade platform I'd care to collect up to the TeknoParrot stuff. I've collected several dozen consoles up to the PS2. I've just never bothered to put much effort into the older computer platforms. In your opinion, which ones must I absolutely include in my collection if I am building a collection that captures "the essence" of North American gaming history? Meaning, I probably don't want to include the BBC Micro or Fujitsu machines but AM interested in including the Atari 8-Bit Computers, Commodore 64, Amigas, Apple IIs, annnnnd? What else? I'm hoping someone who is highly interested in this area can help me trim down the list to the essentials so I capture those machines that had a real impact from the 8-bit computer era. I don't want to forget any major platforms that had real contributions but I also don't want to go overboard and grab every single platform ever just so I can have one game on one platform that was ported to something else I already have on my list anyway. Thanks to all of the informed and helpful people who always pop up to give me advice! ?

This may help provide a little guidance. Outside of that, though, I think it depends on how extensive your setup is. For example, do you have Daphne set up for laserdisc games? Are you using a batch file for it? Is it using a ./ to just indicate the root drive where the command is being run from or do you have the entire path specified like f:/launchbox/emulators/daphne/daphne.exe. If you keep all of the drives the exact same, you should be able to mitigate much of this but in my experience the larger a system you build out with multiple emulators and batch files etc... the harder it gets to keep a Launchbox setup portable unless you take portability into account at every step. Good luck!

Hey guys, in case you check back in on this thread, I did find one more I'd like to emulate outside of MAME. I think I'm going to use Kronos to emulate ST-V games because it has greater compatibility than MAME for a few. In the last few days I've configured Demul to emulate System SP, Gaelic PVR, Naomi 2, Cave CV1000 and Hikaru. Sure you can't think of any other one offs I should really consider? Also, since you are both apparently vets in all of this, I noticed that there is one Hikaru game that nobody seems to have. Virtual-On Force is missing from everywhere that I look but it was a notable title and I'm starting to wonder if perhaps it was just never dumped. Let's say I was interested in contributing to the community a bit and grabbing a copy. Either of you know where I'd start to figure out who to get it to?

It strikes me that perhaps there is different matching logic occuring on the Scan For Added Roms feature vs the Import ROM feature. Might that explain the difference in Launchbox's ability to recognize new games?

Screenshots showing - a.) That I have the ROM folder correctly defined for where I store my Atomiswave ROMs through the "Edit" feature when rightclicking on the Atomiswave platform within Launchbox - b.) Showing the response from Launchbox when I ask it to scan for added roms - c.) Launchbox recognizing another ROM file that is sitting in that directory when it is specifically selected using the Import ROM feature - Please let me know if I can provide any additional details.

Hello All, I've recently been shoring up my collection in a few places. Today, I decided to complete the various arcade boards that demul can emulate and I ran into something interesting. I discovered from this thread - That I did not have a complete collection of my Atomiswave games as I'd thought so I went and found the ROMs I am missing. You can see the ones that I was previously missing selected in this screenshot - Next, I went into Launchbox and I did a Scan For Added ROMs for Atomiswave and the system only recognized one game, "Sushi Bar", to import and search for metadata on. After completing the import, I went back to my games directory and decided to search for one of the specific ROM files to see if it was a legitimate game. In this case, I chose ftspeed.zip which is the ROM for Faster Than Speed. When I used "Import" and then "ROM Files", selected the ROM file in question from the same directory that Launchbox had just scanned, and then went through the process, Launchbox found the game and imported it. I have double checked under "Edit" for the platform that Launchbox is pointed at the correct directory. So, my question is, why did Launchbox only import one of the new ROMs when using "Scan For Added ROMs" but then have no problem when I manually selected the file and imported it on it's own. I regularly shore up my collection by finding packs of ROMs that were not included in a smaller pack I started with. Is this a common issue or did I experience a one off? I only ask because I now think it is possible that for some of the very large sets (over a thousand GBA games, for example) that perhaps there were some which were not imported that should have been and I'm not sure how I'd even begin to reconcile them all when my collection is now over 12,000 games across dozens of systems. Thank You for any help you can provide with this!

I know this is an old thread but I've been looking for this for a few days. Thank you!

@Retro808 Thanks! I'm probably just going to keep using Flycast for Dreamcast, Atomiswave, and Naomi for now. If I run into a game I want to play that has graphical or audio issues then I guess I'll switch but for now I'm following the old, "if it ain't broke don't fix it" mindset. I'm not a stickler for accuracy or anything so long as I can have fun with it and have technically added it to my collection. Demul will just be used for those arcade boards I have not yet configured.

I'm trying to break out my Naomi, Naomi2, Hikaru, Atomiswave, etc... platforms not with Playlists but with Actual Arcade Platforms. I started off using Flycast in Retroarch for Dreamcast, Naomi, and Atomiswave but when I realized that only Demul can emulate some of the other arcade hardware, I went out and retrieved that. Now I'm using various websites to figure out which titles were for which arcade board and I am segregating the ROMs out that way. My thought is that I add Demul as an emulator in Launchbox, add each arcade board as a platform, and then import each set of roms from their respective folders separately. Does this sound like the correct approach? Also, a little off topic, but does anyone know if Virtual-On Force was ever even dumped for the Hikaru board? In every "complete set" I find, that one is missing. I'm not asking for the ROM as I know that is against the rules. Rather, I'm curious if anyone has ever even dumped it before? Might be my little contribution to the community who has given me so much if I can find a copy and learn how to dump it myself. I'm up to over 12,000 games now in my collection and would like to make a small mark of my own if I can.

Hi All, I noticed that when I edit games to update the metadata, there are occasionally what appear to be exact duplicate records listed. Are there minute details I am missing between them? I tried to check field by field to see if there were any differences but they appear to be exactly the same. Also, do they link to the images/videos in the Launchbox/EmuMovies database? I am not sure how the logic behind that specific mechanism works. Just curious if one is a better selection than another. Thanks!

I've been trying to clean up some of my collection and manually add images where Launchbox can't find them through either the LB Database or EMUMovies. One such example is Entex Super Space Invader 2 from the MAME set. The source file is named hh_hmcs40.cpp and while Launchbox does seem capable of identifying the manufacturer and such, it can't seem to assign a game ID to it, regardless of which combination of spellings I use for the game name. So, I went out and found some images and added them using the Edit Game - Images section of the application. This appeared to work but I'm wondering, does LB then import the images I attached from a folder on my desktop into a Launchbox directory or is it referencing them from the folder I'd originally saved them in (which happens to be on my desktop). I ask because I'm attempting to make LB portable and if I go through the effort to add all of these images and LB doesn't know to create a local copy on my portable HD, then when I go to unplug it from my desktop and into another PC, those images would again be missing.

For reference, I currently have M2E for Model 2, Daphne for laserdisc, Flycast for Atomiswave, and MAME for... well... you know. Outside of Supermodel, TeknoParrot, and Final Burn Alpha, what would you say belongs on a "modestly complete" Launchbox setup?

@zugswang a question regarding other system. Given the progress MAME has made in many areas, would you suggest I forgo using Zinc? What are, in your book, the essential arcade emulators and systems to make sure I check off my list? Same to you, @DOS76, while I have both of your attentions.

@zugswang haha, I'm planning on waiting until PS2 is better emulated before I jump in there. I still have TeknoParrot, Supermodel, and Final Burn Alpha to get done and a little bit of work with the obvious Daphne ones ? to complete anyway. Wii is really the newest I'm going and even then it is only for those games that will work for a standard controller and because I can use Dolphin (which I already have for Gamecube).

@DOS76 that is exactly my thought but as you can see from my post, I've run into issues with that. I've decided to just grab another pack and see if they work better than the first. Will update this thread with my results.

I have a pack of ZINC Games with the ZINC emulator but even as far back as 2004 I am finding forum posts suggesting that everything Zinc can do, MAMe can do as well. The concern way back then was that processing power made the less efficient MAME incapable of running on lower end machines but given that I have a relatively new i7, I'm guessing this is irrelevant to me? The most recent forum post I found is from three years ago and that, too, seems to suggest that MAME has caught up with that subset of games and that ZINC is no longer necessary. Any good reasons to keep ZINC? Any games that it can emulate "of note" that would make me want to set it up anyway?

I'm beginning to get quite the collection together. I have roughly 10,000 games across many consoles. Took me so long to get around to the PSX ones due to the sheer number of them. I downloaded a rather large pack (1500 games). Took me a while on my 15mbps connection. Now that they are downloaded, I've started the process of turning the .bin/.cue files into .chd's to conserve on space. The problem is that during the conversion process, roughly half of them failed. So, I copied out the .chd's that did work and began analyzing those directories that failed. I found a few things... First, I have some games that contain a single .bin file. The .cue files have multiple .bin references but only the first .bin is present. I can create new .cue files to only use the single .bin and the games launch within my emulators. However, while they launch, I have no audio. I've read somewhere that this is possible but I'd like to know - is the audio in there somewhere and Beetle is simply unable to play them? Would I be able to use a different emulator for that subset of games that knows how to pull the audio from the single .bin file? Second, I've found some games that have an odd .cue file where the bin's are named - Game Game (Part 2) Game (Part 3) etc... but the .cue file appears to be designed for them to be named - Game (Part 1) Game (Part 2) Game (Part 3) These will launch in PCSX ReArmed but will not launch in Beetle without a modification to the .cue file. I've read that PCSX ReArmed is designed for use in lower power ARM devices. Outside of the inability to increase the internal resolution, is there any other downside to using ReArmed for a subset of ROMs instead of going through 500 directories to rename the first .bin? The only other alternatives I see are to download an entirely new pack of PSX ROMs (will take ages to get a complete one) or try to find a utility that will mass generate .cue files for each folder (similar to what the CHDMAN utility does). How would you play it? New ROM pack? Use PCSX ReArmed where necessary, Beetle where possible, and a third for the single .bin files (if Launchbox will support different emulators for different ROM packs... not sure if it can be configured this way)? Or manually go through and do what I can across all of the directories to replace the single .bin games and fix the bin's that don't match the .cue files? Quite a headache, I know. Any advice/help is appreciated.

@neil9000 and sorry for making that post as a statement instead of posing it as a question. I know how frustrating that can be.

@neil9000 You're a life saver (and I'm an idiot)! Thank you! System is back up for first time in a few months.

I tried this and it cleared all of my configurations, consoles, games, etc... ??? Been fighting to get the thing to just launch (no errors or anything... just double click, cursor spins, nothing appears to launch at all) anyway. Guess I'll rebuild it from scratch.

This post is one of the ones decrying the quality of .cdi's but there are comments further down that say the quality of the rip depends on the skill of the ripper. At this point, I'm going to lazily deal with it and if I notice especially bad quality, I'll grab new copies of specific games... http://www.racketboy.com/retro/faq-how-are-ripped-dreamcast-backups

Figured it out. The LARGE .gdi files were in fact .cdi's. They appear to be old rips shrunken to 700MB for the days when people were burning GD-Rom games to CDs. I've heard that there is some loss in this process. Will look into how bad that loss might be now to see if I want to keep them or not. Not sure which emulator was playing these files with the .gdi file extension when they were in .cdi format given what seems to be the pervasiveness of the .cdi file format AS a .cdi rip and the .gdi format AS the cue file, but I haven't been at this long so maybe it is an old standard way of doing it or there is an emulator that accepts them this way. Anyway, if you rename the file extension from .gdi to .cdi, they will play in flycast. So, for future people who might see this thread - Small .gdi files with bins and raws can be converted to CHDs using chdman. Single large .gdi files (around 700-750 megs in size) are likely old rips that have been stripped of some data to fit onto standard CDs instead of the larger GD-ROMs. Someone may have renamed them to the .gdi file format but simply renaming them to be .cdi's again allows them to run in Flycast.