vince16

Gee, thanks! Quickly done and looks great, too! Thank you very much! Edit: hate to ask for a favor in return of an another favor, but since you're so skilled, is there a possibility that you could create a "Bezels & Overlays" silver ring at some point? I can't find any on the internet, and I wonder how come, it's like people don't need it, like they have bezels & overlays for each single one of their game..?

Is it possible for anyone to create "Thunder Force Collection" and "Parodius Collection" dog tags, or silver rings as some people like to call it? Please? I can't even use MS Paint for the life of me... Gimp, barely more.

Yeah I just checked a little while ago, the 2 boxes saying "use BB's default pdf reader for manuals" & "use BB's default pdf reader for additional apps", or w/e it is, are ticked. It seems that, for whatever reason, BigBox only uses its default pdf reader for additional apps. It's the only case where I get to use it. For "platforms" (or "magazines" in this case), it's always looking for an emulator. I switched to CDisplayEX, but the problem is the same, I can only control it using the mouse, when BigBox's default pdf reader allows me to control it with my gaming controller. It's a minor issue compared to some I've had before, but it's quite a bit annoying. Seems to me there is room right there for improvement in a future update.

Err, as a matter of fact, like I said I would like to use BigBox's default PDF reader, Chromium it's called apparently?, for everything. I tried deleting sumatra pdf reader as an emulator, hoping that BigBox would automatically fall back on its default pdf reader, but no dice. I have some artbooks and stuff that I added as additional apps to already existing games that use BigBox's default pdf reader, and I'm fine with that, but the magazines I added as platforms under the "Magazines" platform category require an emulator, and like I said earlier, that sumatra pdf reader that I add doesn't cut it for me. I'd much rather have BigBox's default pdf reader to read everything, not just the artbooks, guidebooks, user's manuals, but also the magazines. I think turning off the option to use built-in pdf reader in BB settings is going to prove slightly counterproductive in this regard...

May I have just a last question pertaining to pdf files in LB/BB? For whatever reason my digital artbook of ResEvil 6, when read in BigBox, automatically uses a different pdf reader than sumatra. The way you zoom in and out in that pdf reader, in bursts so to speak, makes it not ideal (being able to continuously zoom in and out smoothly, by keeping R2 or L2 pressed for ex. would be so much nicer), but it's certainly way better than sumatra pdf reader since the document can be controlled with a gaming controller. But all my other pdf files in BigBox, when launched, use sumatra pdf reader. It feels disjointed, not sure how to express it, to suddenly have to use a mouse in BigBox. Is there a way to use whatever pdf reader BigBox uses by default for ALL my pdf files?

Yeah I got that now, thanks for the tip. I used to not see what's in that "parents" window, let alone at the bottom of it, maybe because contrary to the platform categories that deal with real hardware and list all the different platforms in a long column, there is no list or column that appears in the "parents" tab of the edit menu for these. Say, when I want to import my magazines, I have to add a new emulator, that actually happens to be a pdf reader, like sumatra pdf for example (in my case)? Then I import the pdf of the mags like they are roms?

OMG... I create a category, IT THEN APPEARS in the large box in the "Parents" tab of the Edit menu, it's not on the same column and even says (category), you go there, untick the box "Root", scroll to the very bottom and see the category you created and tick the box, et voilà, c'est fait! Ahem, sorry, meant to say, et voilà, it's done. Dammit, I really didn't pay enough attention to the way that parents thing works. It's all right guys, thanks for your help, I think I finally got it. Sorry if I bothered you.

If I add a new category I call "Magazines", here it is, but it's not a platform category like "Arcade", "Computers", "Consoles", "Handhelds" or "Pinball", since it doesn't show right under "Handhelds". There are my playlists "Homebrews & Hacks" and "Laserdisc Games" in between. And there's no arrow pointing right to show that it contains anything, and I don't see anything in the menu to let me add subcategories. @ Headrush69: Thanks for the heads-up. But how do I add another item then, may I ask? I'm just trying to figure out how I can have what Retro808 has in this pic.

Any platform? OK. I'm using LB 13.6, like everyone I assume.

You see, THAT right there, "Magazines", "Playlists", with the little arrow pointing right, indicating those categories are collapsable or extendable and contain sub-folders, that's exactly what I'm talking about! That is what I'm trying to create! And right-clicking and adding "New Category" doesn't give me that over here...

Yes I know, my Launchbox is always on "Platform Category" by default. Well, on this screenshot it's collapsed but usually it is not, it's just to show you. As you can see I have many sagas, or collections, and I can tell you that had I known I could create a new platform category called "Sagas" or "Collections", I would have done that. Instead, I just created playlists that I all called "Saga..." so they would be together, at the bottom of the other platforms. So, as shown on the image my Launchbox presentation is "Platform Category", that's what it reads in the window at the top left of the screen, but whether I choose "Manage" -> "Platforms" ...or "Import" -> "Manually Add a Game", I do not see any option to make it a platform category... Believe me, I'd like to have the possibility to make other platform categories, called "Media" "Publishers" & "Sagas", since it would start with a letter that comes after "Arcade", "Computers", "Consoles", "Handhelds" they would end up at the bottom, that would be perfect for me. I'm not a big fan of all my collections (or sagas) in BigBox being on the same "wheel" as the plkatform categories Arcade, Computers, Consoles, Handhelds, but it's just the way it is because I created playlists, and to my knowledge there is no easy way in Launchbox to turn a playlist into a platform, let alone a platform category. I've been using LB (free version) for 2 years I think and Launchbox Premium/BigBox for only over a month, so maybe something has escaped my attention, but I don't see how to create new platform categories after "Arcade", "Computers" etc., that I could collapse or extend to show or hide the platforms they contain... sorry 😳

I thought "Platform Category" was only for the 5 platform categories that Launchbox handles, i.e. -Arcade -Computers -Consoles -Handhelds -Pinballs (since there is a pinball icon in "Platform icons" in the LB image folder, not sure how to use it but anyway) Call me a dimwit or blind or whatever, but I don't see any option in "Tools", "Manage" to create a new platform category... the closest I see is "Manage" -> "Platforms"... but that won't let me have different categories within for the different magazines, artbook or guidebook publishers and whatnot, as you pointed out. I could create a playlist, like I usually do, but same problem, as you say it can only list games, games that meet my criteria, but it would mean I would have a long a$$ list of Arcadia magazines, I would need to scroll down a long time to see another publication, it wouldn't look very nice. Is there a way to create a new platform category, then?

I'm not sure I'm getting this right: you mean I create a new category, like it's a new console, so "Manage platforms", "Add", and I call it magazines? but in that case all the different magazines (Arcadia, Neo Geo Freak, Famitsu, Electronic Gaming Monthly, etc) are all going to be all over the place then? Add to that that ideally I'd like to have a "Media" category with magazines, artbooks, guidebooks and stuff, isn't there a way to sort all of that? What I mean by that is, make folders, I guess. One for EGM mags, one for Arcadia mags, all of them inside a "Magazines" folder, next to other "Artbooks" folder, "Guidebooks" folder and whatnot. Is it possible to do that in Launchbox?

By the way, is there a particular method to have a whole "magazines" category in LB/BB? I'd like to have a category with plenty of magazines, can I just import them as .pdf files as though they were roms, have the cover of the mag as though it is the front of a game box?

Are you two refering to the "Additional Apps" in "Edit metadata"? I did just that, Application name, application path (where the .pdf is located), but maybe because I didn't enter anything in the "Application Command-line parameters", it only appears as a name and a link (or several links in this case) below "play time" of a game. It's nice, but personally I could've done with an option to make the pdf images (the pages of the pdf) visible as if they were just images of the game. But it's not bad as is. What could be really improved upon however is if in that "additional apps" menu we could specify if it's a .pdf document, and what kind (Artbook, Guidebook, user's manual, magazine...) so it's referred to as that in BigBox, instead of just "Additional Apps/Versions" like there are other game versions like it's an arcade game or console game when it's a PC game, it would be nice if it were displayed exactly as what it is: Artbook, Guidebook, etc. with maybe even an icon to make it stand out in the menu (?) But I'm not sure this is the right place to mention this, maybe there's a thread dedicated to making suggestions for the next LB/BB system updates? Anyway, thanks for your help.

I'm also very interested in adding .pdf files that would be readable from within Launchbox & BigBox, I have guidebooks, artbooks, user's manuals and stuff, but I don't know how to do that, would anyone be kind enough to explain the walkthrough?

You want a snapshot of the folders section of my arcade category? Not sure why but here you go: Edit: just renaming the folder to Arcade did the trick, my arcade games now have their media again.

I was wondering what were the risks of not letting Launchbox move all my media, since it takes forever in this case due to the huge number of arcade games, well here I am: most of my arcade games don't have any media at all. Not even a box, when you can see one when browsing, but when clicking on the game and going to "Media" -> nothing!? Any suggestion, anyone? Do I have to just remove the arcade category and erase all the media from Launchbox and reimport my MAME set to start anew, or is there some folder's name I can change to solve this quickly?

Yeah I know of course, those 40,000 games are for the most part different versions of one same game. The first time I used Launchbox some 2-3 years ago, I imported my MAME full set, but LB got me something like 4000ish games, which was a far cry from the 37571 games displayed in my (split) version of MAME 0.223. So I deleted it and ticked some boxes in the LB import wizard to make sure I would have a 1:1 reflection in LB of what was in MAME, and... somehow I got more. 42,000ish games (or different versions). Mind you, I did that also because I wasn't sure if BigBox, when I would have it, would give me the option to select which version of a game I'd like to play, and I have sometimes different bezels for different versions of a game. Now that I know LB, and indeed BB, let me choose that, I regret importing the MAME set the way I did. It doesn't look good, it takes too much space on the HDD due to LB downloading several times over the same set of media for the different versions of one same game, and worst of all it seems to make the software hang, react soooooo slowly, and perhaps even bug... Like, what are all those zeros doing there? Or, how come when the app is in english instead of "ALL" the games it says "TOUT" (all in french), and vice versa, when LB has the language set to french, there are many things still in english?

Thanks a lot for your prompt help guys. As it turns out, I did try reverting the name back to "Arcade" even prior to reading your replies, and it seems to have solved the problem. I didn't wait for Launchbox to move all the media though. I did it when I changed the name to MAME and, man, for over 40,000 games it took HOURS on end! I'm not sure what the risks are...

Hi, To my surprise yesterday, I noticed that plenty of categories were suddenly missing as I was browsing my arcade games categories in Bigbox: 2 Player games, 4 Player games, Atari Classics, Fighting games, Sega Classics, SNK MVS, etc. When I reverted back to Launchbox, to my horror I realized that's because all the categories which were missing in Bigbox are suddenly devoid of games. MAME category (or "Arcade" as it was called by default) still has its games (as seen in last pic), but it seems Launchbox has forgotten where each one belongs. The games are still in MAME and can be played fine, AFAIK, but they're not sorted in all those categories that Launchbox has by default anymore. What the hell's up with that? There is zero way I'm going to bother sorting some 40,000 games by myself of course, and I shouldn't have to, since Launchbox had done the job for me, and well done. But I need to refill those categories to see them again in BigBox. I don't know what I should do. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Here are some scans (as you can see there's no query for a particular game in the search window):

Hi, Does anyone have a silver ring for the Atari Lynx handheld please? I can't find it anywhere.

This is the error I've been getting lately while just browsing my games with Bigbox. I have no clue what that refers to, so any help would be greatly appreciated. After getting it Bigbox shuts itself off. Extremely annoying. Here is a scan: