Retro Arcader

Thanks! Yeah it’s super hard to be motivated when there’s literally nothing to do. Must admit I’ve lost a bit of the motivation now I’ve finished. Need to think up a new project but probably left it too late as I’ll be back in work in a few weeks! But I can cross one off the bucket list!

Hey Guys! Hope you are all keeping well during the zombie apocalypse! I'm over in the UK and was placed on furlough in December. This has meant I've had a lot of free time on my hands. Obviously I've been gaming a lot on my bartop. Being a child of the 70s I love playing the old shooters like 1942, Galaga, Star Force, Twin Cobra etc... Especially with Launchbox supporting shared high-scores. It's definitely helped keep me sane. Having a very casual interest in coding I thought it would be fun to try and make my own game but in the style of the 80s games. So thats what I did... At first my intention was to only have it on my own machine so that I would have something truly unique but after letting a few people see it I've been persuaded to share it. The games called XX Blast and its a vertical shooter! It's written using Godot and took me about a month to make. It runs on Windows and shouldn't need too powerful a computer (although I haven't got the machines to test this). It's certainly not taxing my i5-6600. Below are some screen shots... Features include... Free Windows game. Can easily be added to LaunchBox/Big Box Classic 80s vertical top-down view in 3:4 format.. Built for modern widescreen displays and includes a built in bezel. Looks great on arcade machines. Configurable inputs to map to arcade sticks/buttons. Locally saved high scores (If you make a donation, I have a version that shares with my own online server) 400 levels. Proper arcade credits system Intense nostalgia feels! It is my first game so don't expect it to be perfect but I have worked hard to make it feel polished and nice to play. On my system it runs fast and smooth. I would love it if you guys checked it out. Constructive feedback always welcome... You can find it on itch.io at https://sparkysoft.itch.io/xx-blast Thanks for reading!

Hey Guys, So this is a bit of a weird one. Love Launchbox and Bigbox and have been playing arcade games for 40 years! Well, like a lot of people I was furloughed in December so had a lot of free time on my hands. Having an interest in coding (only as a hobby), I thought it would be fun to have a go at making a game for my machine. I've never made a game before, just websites and utilities. Even then, they weren't exactly well coded as its just something I dabble with from time to time when I fancy learning something new. I love 80s vertical shooters like 1942, Galaga, Twin Cobra etc and wanted to make a game that looks like it would have been made in the 80's. Not this retrowave 80's tribute style, but to actually look like it was made back then. So I looked around and found a game engine that is good for 2D. I found Godot and spent a few months learning and putting something together. I wanted to show it off here and put links to download but I don't want to break any forum rules. I also wasn't sure exactly which forum to post in so I figured I would post here and ask permission first. Also, if the devs of Launchbox happen to read this, I was wondering if it would be possible for it to be added to the launchbox games database so it auto populates with screenshot and logo etc in bigbox? I've manually added it to my own installation and it launches the game fine. So yeah, if its ok to post, I'll post details of the game with links and screenshots. Thanks for reading!

@JoeViking245 Amazing! It looks like the core folder was the issue. Now working great. Thank you so much!

Hey Guys, Just a quick question. Is it possible to run a windows batch file after exiting bigbox? The reason is that my PC is running 2 monitors. one of which is inside my arcade cab. I have a batch file that currently does the following... Switches audio output to Arcade Cabinet Switches HDMI out to Monitor in Arcade Cabinet Launches OBS minimized. I know bigbox can do this but I like to launch OBS before starting Bigbox. Launch BigBox ideally I want the script to then... Wait for BigBox to exit change audio back to main display monitor change HDMI back to extended desktop display. The very untidy version of the script is below... so basically I either need this script to wait for bigbox to exit OR at least run another script as it closes that performs 6 and 7. Any help greatly appreciated. @echo off echo changing outputs rem nircmd setdefaultsounddevice "3 - 2369M" 1 rem C:\Windows\System32\DisplaySwitch.exe /internal echo starting OBS cd "C:\Program Files\obs-studio\bin\64bit\" start /min obs64.exe d: cd "D:\My Games\Launchbox" start /WAIT bigbox.exe echo restoring system nircmd setdefaultsounddevice "4 - LG TV" 1 C:\Windows\System32\DisplaySwitch.exe /extend

I think it must have been something like that as I deleted the big box config file and went back to defaults. High scores then worked fine.

No problem, I'll reset the DIP switches. I don't suppose the system is clever enough to recognize when its just a language switch? On Shinobi for example, the mission text defaults to Japanese unless you change a DIP switch. Also, I have one last question about Community High Scores. Can I view them in BigBox? there is a keymapping for "Show High Scores" but when I press it, BigBox crashes out to desktop.

Hi Guys, I just have a question that I can't see an answer to anywhere. Does setting the difficulty or other dip-switches in games make a difference to uploading? I'm old and tend to play games on easy. Also, 1942 defaults to 2 lives but I was always used to playing it with 3 lives in the arcades. If I have to leave them as default thats fine but just wanted to check if it makes a difference? Awesome job by the way. Craig