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Intel's core CPU nomenclature is pretty easy to understand. Bigger # = more power = higher cost. Assuming all comparing is done between the same generational release. You cannot use that same train of thought if you wanted to compare or choose between i7-2770 and i3-12300 for example. because most will go "i7 is better than i5 and way better than i3 so I'll get the i7-2700 of course!" not having any clue that it was released over 11 years ago and performs like it's an 11yr old CPU by today's standards lol. i3 / i5 / i7 / i9 is easy to understand. The 2nd bit of #'s is the specific SKU and designate what generation it's from. 2700 being 2nd gen and 12300 being 12th gen. Also, making sure you know what the F means in their CPU names....It means there is no iGPU! (integrated GPU) Which means you NEED to have a dGPU (discrete GPU) installed or you will have a great time staring at a blank screen lol. So if you really were hellbent on getting the i3-12100f you NEED to have installed a GPU. The one you mentioned is a bit ancient in itself also. Not that it means it's not a good fit, but might want to check into compatibility. It might not work on a newer motherboard because the VBIOS of the GPU might only work on legacy/BIOS systems as opposed to modern ones with UEFI. A new CPU needs a new motherboard, and compatible RAM which after a quick check looks like 12100f is compatible with both DDR4 or DDR5, so will give you more options in both the motherboard and RAM department! It sounds like you're considering building a system from scratch for emulation. So it would be a good time to ask, have you thought about all these considerations? If not I am sure there is several more that need to be considered too.

great suggestion about adding in MsgBox at points in the script! I make use of this too! It's a great way to make sure you have your scripts executing as you intended.

I 2nd PCGamingWiki is a great resource! Also FYI PC games with some sort of "launcher/configuration" window before booting into the actual game usually have more than one .exe file due to this. One is typically the launcher/configuration window, and the other being the actual game. In some instances you can simply boot from the game .exe file instead. So you could point LB/BB to launch that .exe file instead. There are some games that don't like this and will not boot unless you go through the expected sequence meaning the launcher/config window.

If you think it's Retroarch then you could absolutely prove it is the root cause culprit by doing what I asked you to try. If you delete the configs and use all default settings and then the problem goes away....there you have proved your theory and Retroarch settings was the root cause. Otherwise if the problem continues it would suggest there is some other complication going on in your setup. To figure out the exact setting, if you wanted to, you would first have to obviously resolve it. But then continue by adding back in your settings one at a time to determine when the issue returns. Then you would know exactly which setting(s) caused it too.

Hi @Sbaby I haven't done too much with the pause screen to know all the in and outs yet....but I would take a guess you could use a script that would hit Retroarch's full screen hotkey upon resume ? I know that doesn't fix the root cause, because it comes off as LB/BB is stealing back focus causing Retroarch to lose it, but knowing there is a "Resume Script" tab in the emulators, the scripts entered here will run upon resuming a game from the LB/BB pause screen. Something simple like this, assuming you also have the F key to toggle fullscreen. The Sleep, 3000 bit is telling the script to wait 3 seconds before continuing. I notice there is a slight delay in Retroarch losing fullscreen so you wouldn't want this to hit the hotkey too quickly or the script itself might end up being the cause of losing fullscreen. With that said, make sure there isn't anything already there in the Resume Script tab that might be causing this problem! It should be empty by default though Sleep, 3000 Send {F down}{F up} Further to test the theory if it's Retroarch or not please do the following. Make a copy of your current Retroarch config file, and save it somewhere. Next delete the original config file so it generates a default one upon next launch. Test with a game that doesn't have any specific core/system or game specific overrides so you know it's working with true default settings. I think it would be a good test to see if the issue goes away or continues and would help you figure out where to put your efforts in resolving the issue

Short answer is no you will not have problems. you're confused about something surrounding emulators and platforms. I'd like to mention Retroarch. This single emulator can be used on DOZENS of different platforms and the way LB/BB is setup allows you the ability to provide specific launch parameters for specific platforms. It's as easy as typing in the name of the platform in the list of associated platforms for the emulator you are editing or setting up. Dolphin is another good example, which emulates both Gamecube and Wii. You only need a single instance of this emulator setup in LB/BB for both platforms. Setup a 3rd platform for just "Wiiware" games even if you want! You can setup launch parameters per emulator, per platform, or per game even! To provide specific example for you. Imagine you setup your emulator instance of MAME in LB. In that "associated platform" list you would add both Arcade for arcade games and let's call the other platform Computers for computers, very intuitive, I know! You can check the default emulator checkbox assuming you want them to be the defaults. If they need different launch parameters you have at least two different ways to achieve your goal. Set them up per platform, or per game. It sounds like you tried to set it up per emulator which means you would only get one or the other platform to work if they do in fact need different launch parameters.

Hi @caligvla1 it's not totally clear if you're trying to map buttons for navigating through LB/BB or for actually playing your games on your emulators? If you're trying to change button mapping for navigating through LB then in LB you would find that under Tools > Options > Game Controllers > Mappings If you use BB you will find the BB version of these settings under Options > Controller Mappings If you need to change buttons for when you're playing the games then you need to do that within the emulator itself. LB/BB is just a frontend that launches the emulators and games but it does not control how they work such as button remapping

this is exactly where I was going with this. because I found their support/download page and this appears to be small time niche emulator and I didn't immediately see any docs on what parameters it needs and accepts. if @Sandroace cannot get these commands to work in a command prompt then said commands either don't exist or are being typed in improperly. there is a chance that maybe "-h" or even "-options" (try them with with two dashes -- also) might list out available command parameters/switches? with this all said, due to our line of questioning and the answer Sandroace is after it might be better asking on their forum. this more or less proves that they need to figure out what the proper parameters are if it currently doesn't work via the command prompt. for all we know, like what JoeViking245 was eluding to, the emulator may not even have parameters to launch games like this

Hi @Sandroace Can you post a screen shot of the GensHack emulator > details page? I think it might help seeing what you're currently trying. Initially sounds like the launch parameters aren't set up correct since I've had some emulators behave like that, just open but not launch a game, if I didn't have all the parameters entered properly

lol I clearly confused myself not paying close enough attention when reading, I think I mixed you up with another user 🤦‍♂️ chalk this up to a multi-tasking fail of not keeping track of who I was posting to and what issue they were trying to solve. I mean for fucks sake I even said "glad you work through your challenges" in my first post here and then had a brain fart on the next post apparently thinking there was a need for help. but hey, our ramblings still helped us learn some new bits so it's still all worth it to me! 🤣 12 years! never knew one existed on there either. Now I wonder why they never would update it on the Steam platform, might as well remove it if they want to guide everyone to their main website to download it. If you're feeling cavalier and want to mess around Retroarch should be considered "portable". It wouldn't mess up your current install if you make a new one in a different folder location. Alternatively If you wanted to preserve the current install but test the new install in the same spot you could try this. take the main Retroarch folder and rename it to Retroarch.old or whatever you want so you can put the new folder in the same place and test. If it doesn't work out and need to revert it's as simple as deleting the one that didn't work, and renaming the original back to the normal name without .old or whatever was used.

Hi @Zkyo! OK now I know exactly what you're trying for here. So though my original method does work out just fine, I understand this may not be desirable for a library so large since I did all that setup manually. With that said, I got a couple ideas one idea (lol) of how to do this better that would be useful for you. The easiest idea that came to my head right away is why not launch LaunchBox and/or BigBox from Steam instead of launching just the emulator from Steam? By theory if you launch LB/BB from Steam, then any emulator and/or game launched from LB/BB will still have the Steam overlay and all related options, customization and features available as if you were launching the specific emulator or game directly from Steam. You therefore would get all the Steam related benefits like controller remapping, but everything LB/BB/emulator/ROM related will work as business as usual. You wouldn't need to edit any emulator launching arguments or have custom stuff setup for games etc. Assuming everything works for you now per your "normal" setup, all you need to do is add LB/BB as a non-Steam game and launch LB/BB from Steam. Just confirmed this method works! 🎉 I did not get the ability to open the Steam overlay until I actually launch a game though. It would not come up when navigating around LB or BB. When a game was launched I see the little pop up notification in the bottom right corner from Steam and then I could bring up the overlay! So please give this a shot and let us know if it makes your setup how you need it. I had another idea using AHK to automate a few things but it failed miserably as I tested it tonight. Made a script to look at the ROM files in a selected folder that would then make shortcuts named from the ROM file name, and at the same time insert in arguments/parameters to load the right core and ROM file. This worked, but next steps fell apart because it requires manual work...or at least stuff I'm not going to bother figuring out how to use AHK for lol. Damn Steam does not transfer everything in the target field when you import it as a non-Steam game. It just removes anything written beyond the actual executable. In other words it omits all the arguments and parameters. So you then you have to manually enter that stuff into the Launch Options field, which would be required for every game. Same sort of issue getting it linked up in LB/BB, it would require manual work. Well.....this idea sounded good in my head until I trialed it out. All these photos are showing how this sort of setup would work. The method I original used, but requires manual editing. Great method if it a few games....not if its a few thousand 🤣 Gotta turn of emulation. That's how I got this working in the past. I REALLY liked your idea better....but it just doesn't work like that apparently. LB/BB will determine the shortcuts are "not a valid application for this OS platform" if you make the emulator application path something like a shortcut in the ways we just tried. At least now we know! Notice how arguments/parameters must go into Launch Options. Steam only transfers the text currently shown in the Target field as in just the text to launch the exe. Steam omits arguments/parameters when importing non-Steam game. Quite annoying quirk! Showing you can get steam rungame ID's from viewing the URL shortcut's properties Using the steam rungameid - using the .URL file path here is also OK (emulation is OFF!) Gotta turn OFF emulation so LB/BB treats it like a standard app

Hi @Zkyo From reddit... 🤣 more details the merrier I say though! OK so you have a boatload of unique and exotic requirements here I think, so I'm glad you work through your challenges. I did notice one blurb on the reddit post That's not entirely correct. Shortcuts will use parameters as if they were written anywhere else. The "Target" field of the shortcut is where everything goes. I bet you left out the parameter needed to tell it to load a core. Or, at least, I made the same mistake first time I tried launching Retroarch games from command line/parameters. You would need it pointing to the executable of Retroarch (or the Steam URL that in itself is pointing to the Retroarch exe if you launch Retroarch through Steam), and then follow that with the required parameters. If you tell Retroach to open, that is all it will do. If you tell Retroarch to open, and specify a game to load, all it will do is open Retroarch because it wasn't told to load a core, so doesn't know what to do so defaults to just plain opening. You were so close, but didn't quite connect the last dot. Retroarch requires you to also specify the core. I would type it out so it launches Retroarch, then you tell it what core to load, then tell it what game to load, then I usually also tell it to go full screen as the last parameter. This is partly why we have to specify what core is used for what system in LB/BB. Retroarch launching through command lines needs those three things to work, run the exe, load core, load game. For example, check this help page. Also included a specific example I made a while back to learn this myself along where you would put this https://docs.libretro.com/guides/cli-intro/ D:\Arcade\Emulators\Retroarch\retroarch.exe -L D:\Arcade\Emulators\Retroarch\cores\snes9x_libretro.dll "D:\Arcade\ROMS\Super Nintendo Entertainment System\Contra III - The Alien Wars (USA).zip" -f

hi you will want to put it in the emulators "Running Script" tab. You will get to this page through Manage > Emulators. Select the emulator to edit it, then select the Running Script tab on the left hand pane. Insert that script there. What it is doing is running this script as launch of the emulator, it makes ESC a hotkey. Whenever ESC key is pressed it will execute the code which is telling the program, the emulator, to close

lol totally unnecessary. paying it forward and helping a fellow gamer enthusiast, getting their appreciation is worth more than any tangible object! but I just thought of something that might be giving you a challenge. I just checked out the manual for perhaps what is your specific model? you will have to confirm.... https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0192/2714/files/X-Arcade_Manual_USA.pdf?4536 Check out page 10 about programming your stick, which means changing what your physical buttons correspond to what keyboard key. Did you even know you can change these?! This might be a better method for you, depending on your use case Otherwise I see the default layout would really NOT be friendly for Retroarch. For ex z, x, a, s are default keyboard buttons for retroarch.....yet the default layout on your arcade stick puts z and x on Player 1, and A and S on Player 2....lmao that is NOT going to be a good time! You might want to adjust the global retroarch file then as suggested by HeadRush69 so all their keys correspond to your arcade stick's default layout. This is what I said in my first post, about you may have another layer of remapping to worry about to make sure everything lines up correctly as you want it to. If everything was to be left at default, imagine this, you would be hitting the Z and X buttons over on P1 and need to hit A and S on P2 in order to have a good time playing a SNES game. You wouldn't even be able to move since the joystcks default the numpad for P1 and RFDG for P2.....in other words this thing is mostly useless for Retroarch until you configure everything So like I warned, you have multiple layers of remapping to be concerned with. You need to understand exactly what each button on your x-arcade stick corresponds to on the keyboard, and then use the keyboard keys to be used in the emulators. Thanks to headrush for making the list. you would want something like this if mapping stuff out in the vein of a modern controller. you can of course adjust this to your liking, but I hope this puts you on the right path, finally lol. note Retroarch uses "keypad" before the number for the NUMPAD keys. if you want to press the number keys along the top row of the keyboard those start with "num". also note I just gave example for player 1. you would absolutely need to do this for player 2 also. input_player1_up = "keypad8" input_player1_down = "keypad2" input_player1_left = "keypad4" input_player1_right = "keypad6" input_player1_a = "shift" input_player1_b = "z" input_player1_l = "space" input_player1_l2 = "c" input_player1_l3 = "nul" input_player1_r = "x" input_player1_r2 = "num5" input_player1_r3 = "nul" input_player1_select = "num1" input_player1_start = "num2" input_player1_x = "ctrl" input_player1_y = "alt" Which would like this (refer to photo below) under Settings > Controls > Port 1 Controls When you are done editing you need to back out the Main Menu > Configuration File and then select save Save current overwrites the current one - I recommend this option because Save new will create a new file which you will have to direct Retroarch to load. both work fine, but you have another step that you may not want to deal with

so to clarify, that is exactly what I was suggesting. the internet sounds right to me lol! F1 goes to quick menu, you then navigate to controls and adjust. honestly, it sounds like you may be confused how Retroarch's controls work because you're complaining about making the adjustment you describe you want to make....so I 'm not sure where your challenge might be. it sounds like someone saying "I didn't ask for a pepperoni pizza.....I wanted a cheese pizza with pepperoni on top!" they are the same thing. you can achieve changing controls the global way that HeadRush69 suggested. just understand that a change made there will impact everything, it's a global config file. the way I and the internet suggested to you will give you controls that are specific to either the core/system or game. you can do both methods if needed. maybe you do need to edit the global config, but still need more specific changes made per core/system or game. that sort of setup is also possible. I'll try to be specific to your arcade stick since you gave a couple examples of your buttons and it is basically a keyboard encoder by the sounds of it If "Button 1" engages keyboard key "x" this means if you were to for example, open Notepad and hit "Button 1", you would see a "x" type out in Notepad. Using the photo I previously attached, this is the controls menu found in the quick menu. Notice the names in the left hand side, specifically the first entry says "(Key: x)". This means if I were to press "x" on my keyboard, it would engage the virtual button "A". Since I also had an Xbox controller plugged in, it also shows I could engage the virtual "A" button by pressing my Xbox controller's "B" button Using your arcade stick, if you pressed "Button 1", it makes keyboard key "x", it would by default engage virtual button "A" If you wanted to change this, you simply click on that button in the Retroarch menu, and select a different virtual button, let's pretend you change it to virtual button "Y" Boom, that's it, you remapped a button. Dozo basically. Now to save this change so it loads the next time you boot this game or core/system you need to need to save it accordingly, either for the game or core/system. Whatever you prefer So now next time you hit "Button 1", it will still engage keyboard key "x", you would see x typed out in Notepad for example, but now it engages virtual button "Y". Now if you want to make global changes, or need to change the default keyboard layout you would do what Headrush69 suggested. For example You hit "Button 1" but you edit it so instead of engaging keyboard key "x" you want it to engage keyboard key "a" This would still engage the default virtual button "A" So if you wanted to additionally make a change to the virtual button, you do the method I detailed above. Note you also need to save the global config. That is in settings, configuration file, then save it accordingly Hope this helps you understand Retroarch's controls better. This is a case of all roads lead to Rome, there is multiple ways to achieve changing controls. None are wrong, you just need to use the method(s) that work for your use case That list HeadRush69 include is a good resource also if you wanted to manually edit the global config instead of doing through the built in menu of Retroarch. You could use the search function of Notepad or whatever text editor you use to find those lines in the config and edit accordingly. It's a bit annoying to find them by your eye alone because there are like 16 player inputs along with all the other global options, there are a lot of lines to search through.

I should add I recently realized you can launch any program through Steam and said program will make use of Steam's overlay, which also means it makes use of Steam's controller remapping. So if all you really want to do is swap A/B and X/Y that would be super easy with this method. You would add BigBox to Steam as a non Steam Game, and simply launch BigBox from Steam. Then switch button mapping around as desired.

you mean like a program literally called "virtual controller" ? lol not sure if it does every single thing you listed but I know it will take multiple physical devices and remap them to the same virtual device. yea this link might call it "vjoy-controller" but it's not "vjoy"....this is "virtual controller". though vjoy is usable through this program too https://sourceforge.net/projects/vjoy-controller/ Also, if you don't mind, verify for me if checking or unchecking BigBox's "Use All Controllers" option makes a difference for you. In my recent experience that check box doesn't matter. If I have multiple controllers plugged in or connected wireless, they are ALL detected and usable by BigBox, even when that option is not checked. Which makes no sense to me. I made a post about it here for more details

Hi @superdavit Take a closer look in that Port 1 Controls section. Depending on what controller you have assigned to port 1 is what will show up there. There should be smaller text under each button. When I have an Xbox One controller connected it will for ex display "Port #1: XBOX One Controller". Using the attached pic for reference, the physical B button on my controller, or the physical X key on my keyboard will both act as the virtual A button for a SNES controller in a SNES game (since I had a SNES game loaded here). Next the physical A button on my controller, or the physical Z key on my keyboard will both act as the virtual B button for SNES controller. So on, and so forth. Take note what you are adjusting is what VIRTUAL button is assigned to your PHYSICAL button. You get to select the virtual button from the list that appears when you click on one of them You're in the right page to make the adjustment.....unless your x-arcade stick isn't supported you shouldn't be having any issues remapping buttons. Since you said your stick is basically emulating a keyboard you have an additional layer of remapping to make sure it is all aligned properly. ie if your "button 1" maps to keyboard key "X" then using the photo I attached as further example, that would mean it would engage the virtual SNES button A Then when you're done remapping do save core remap and all games used by that core will now use this remap

I just farted around with this out of curiosity. The Steam remapping system worked for me. I used an Xbox One wireless controller for the testing using Snes9x core playing Contra III. The plan does work if you want it to open Retroarch as if you were just opening the executable. So you would still have to manually navigate around to launch a game, not sure if that is what some users would want out of this. But if you want to launch a specific game at the same time you need to use the command line specifics. For example what I used "D:\Arcade\Emulators\Retroarch\retroarch.exe" -L "D:\Arcade\Emulators\Retroarch\cores\snes9x_libretro.dll" "D:\Arcade\ROMS\Super Nintendo Entertainment System\Contra III - The Alien Wars (USA).zip" -f This is what was entered into the "non steam game" "target" field. Then as I previously mentioned, make a shortcut for this non steam game, and use that steam url as the launching path in LB/BB

yea let us know if it works for you @annluan! The Steam overlay def worked for me! But I don't use any special controller mappings through Steam (so cant confirm that worked for me), which sounds like what you're after here I think, having Steam Input mapping stuff for you. So I'll keep my fingers crossed those features should also work since the overlay worked.

You would need to add Retroarch as a "Non Steam game" into your Steam library. Then in LaunchBox, use this newly created Non Steam Game Steam URL shortcut link as the launching path. To get that easily I normally go in Steam, right click on the "game" and create a shortcut. View that shortcut's properties to see the launching URL. That's what you would put into LaunchBox's Launching, Application Path field. Make sure you have emulation turned OFF under Emulation or it will not work since it would be trying to launch it through a separate emulator rather than treating it like a standard application executable. If you use startup/shutdown screens, I suggest turning that off with the custom settings for the Retroarch "game" unless you want that. I just tried it out, and it seems to work the way I think you want it to! It allows the Steam overlay to appear in Retroarch. Funny thing is I have done weird setups like this before lol. Gotta do what ya gotta do to get it working!

Hi Retro 808! I thought this was odd because I noticed there was a "use all controllers" checkbox and a field to select the specific controller you want to use. I have been using these, but never thought to test the functionality of them any further since I was blindly believing they worked as intended when I would switch controllers in the "Device" field and thought it worked fine because obviously the additional controllers worked based on how these options are currently working. What you shared is absolutely correct, but, this seems at complete odds with how these settings are presented. I would think anyone would generally interpret these options as "Do I want to use controller A or controller B, or C or D and so on, to control BigBoX" meaning if "use all controllers" is NOT ticked, and controller A is selected in Device, then ONLY controller A would be able to navigate through BigBox. Controller B, C, D and so on, wouldn't be able to navigate through BigBox. A picture attached for reference using this sort of setup. So this is certainly not how I initially interpreted how these options worked. I would even go further saying this Use All Controllers and Device option seems completely pointless the way the Device option currently behaves. It doesn't matter which controller I select in "Device". If I have multiple controllers plugged in or connected over bluetooth they all work for navigating through BigBox no matter what this is set at as long as "Enable Game Controllers" is selected. For example a second photo for reference. Each of these settings do not seem to change anything in how controllers behave....all controllers are seen as one giant gamepad with duplicate buttons apparently. I find it hard to believe this is intentionally how it was meant to function, it's very misleading to users like myself. Any chance anyone reading this knows what the intentions were with these options? Because it's just odd in my opinion how this currently works. Options should actually make a difference, and selecting different controllers doesn't make a difference

Hi @GAR I think you and @Morris Schaffer should check your hotkey assignments. the key (no pun intended) from Morris is The P key is assigned to pause as default in Retroarch. I would bet the only way it no longer pauses is because it was changed, whether on purpose or on accident. Hotkeys are global, not core/system or game specific, hence why if it happens in MAME it would happen in SNES9X Check if the pause hotkey got changed to same hotkey as menu toggle, F1.

Hi there @akaGrimus! you're right, some laptops do not have a traditional 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio which is what the bezel you used would expect. The bezel itself is made to cover a 16:9 aspect ratio display, with the center portion being transparent to allow the 4:3 aspect ratio game to be seen through it. so that does sound plausible that your challenges here are related to your laptop display. It might be 16:10 or 3:2 for example, and would therefore use a resolution that isn't conducive to using 16:9 bezels. If that is in fact the cause for the cropping issue example you shared, you would just need bezels that were designed with the aspect ratio of your display. I'm not sure if those are widely available, since 16:9 is sort of the industry standard for many years now. Enthusiasts may have not had enough demand to put in the effort to make bezels for other aspect ratios I could assist further, if you need/want it, if you wanted to use the 16:9 bezel and want to see the entire game screen. There are settings in Retroarch's menu to resize the game screen to any customized size really. So the caveat here is if you wanted to maintain proper 4:3 aspect ratio of the game, you could squish the game down to be a little smaller so the left/right sides aren't cut off, but you will ultimately end up with some black space at the top and bottom. Or you might not care at all about maintaining 4:3 aspect ratio, if so, you could squish the game size down a bit on just the left/right side (leaving the top and bottom at the current spots), and it will look as correct as possible given your system isn't 16:9

OK I wanted to give better advice. Here is more details of what to check, please do the following.... Open Retroarch and run the game as you normally would Once the game is running open the menu with the F1 key Go to "Main Menu", then "Quick Menu", then go to "Options" (Note it should default to going to the Quick Menu screen when you first hit F1) Adjust "Preferred Aspect Ratio" to 4:3 Now this only works if you have the main video settings set to "Core Provided". That is under "Settings", "Video", "Scaling". You want Aspect Ratio set to "Core Provided". I think this is the default setting, but if you want to be safe double check it is set like that Note on this same screen I have integer scale OFF and Crop Overscan ON Closing Retroarch should save the options file (.opt file) so double check it saved by reopening the game, or any game for SNES at this point, and it should look as intended without cropped off sides. And just to clarify, the BEZEL is what is pseudo cropping the game screen. The whole game screen is still there! If you turned off the bezel right now before making any other adjustments you would see the whole game screen but it would be albeit at the larger aspect ratio