[Running Windows 3.1 Games]

On 3/15/2023 at 5:15 AM, viritys said:

Yeah it's a big one  And yes, migration is a bitch, at work and at home. It will require some manual labor unless you're better than me in scripting. It's been awhile, but I was having the exact same nightmare and I avoided it successfully by doing the following (I think you don't have previously installed Win3x games on your existing LB installation, but I'm typing those instructions in as well for future googlers ie who are trying to migrate two existing platforms inside LB. The steps are more or less the same anyway):

To avoid confusion, let's call your existing LB LB and the new LB LB-exo. Let's also call your existing platform Win3x (if you already had it) and the platform we're about to create Win3x-exo.

1) Install LB-exo to a new directory ie creating a separate Launchbox installation.

2) After LB-exo installation, go to its LaunchBox\Data\Platforms to make sure the new platform ({name}.xml) is named something else than your existing LB's \Data\Platforms\ Windows 3.x's xml-file so LB considers it a new platform after migration. I can't remember what the name was, but I'm going to call it "win3x-exo" from this point. 

2a) If the name is different or you didn't have pre-existing win3x games, you're done! Wheee!

2b) If the name is the same, rename one of the platforms to something else from GUI ie open LB, right click the platform and change the title ("Win3x -> Win3x_old" or whatever). This makes LB rename all the necessary files.

3) Open LB and create a new platform "win3x-exo" with a single game in it. This creates all the necessary files to your LB. Tools->Import->Rom Files, point to some random file, when it asks "what platform", be sure to name it "win3x-exo" ie the name that you found from LB-exo's \Data\Platforms\{name}.xml

4) Close LB and manually override the files of your newly created platform by manually copying them from LB-exo to LB. At least Data\Platforms\Win3x-exo.xml, Images\Win3x-exo & Manuals\Win3x-exo have the good stuff.

Congratulations, you now have a new platform populated with plethora of games on your LB! Depending on where you installed or want to install the games, you might have one more annoying step ahead of you:

5) I don't keep my games inside Launchbox\games or even on the same drive where my LB is installed. If, like me, you keep your games elsewhere, we're going to do some file editing! Fun! I use Notepad++, you use what you want. As long as it has "replace all" function, you're fine. 

Open the LaunchBox\Data\Platforms\Win3x-exo.xml with your favorite editor. See the rows

<ApplicationPath>[somepath]\eXoWin3X\!win3x\Aliens3x\Aliens (1993).bat</ApplicationPath>
<ConfigurationPath>[somepath]\eXoWin3X\!win3x\Aliens3x\install.bat</ConfigurationPath>
<RootFolder>[somepath]\eXoWin3X\!win3x\Aliens3x</RootFolder>

Replace "[somepath]" with wherever you put your games into. ie open your favorite editor and

 

Note that as I can't remember what [somepath] was, so if it's like "..\", please don't replace that but instead add stuff from its surroundings so you don't replace something you don't want to. ie you could always replace ">[somepath]\eXoWin3X\!win3x" with ">e:\games\Win3x\eXoWin3X\!win3x" to make sure it's unique enough not to break stuff.

And now you're done! Well, unless you're like me and already had plenty of Win3x games installed. In that case you now have two Windows 3x platforms on your LB and you're about to start the slow and painful migration process by copying your existing metadata over the new platform wherever applicable. The pain depends on how many games you already had inside LB and how much custom work you've done as Exo has done a great job with images, descriptions and other metadata. For me, I use "Series" creatively (think tags; if a game exists that features "Ninja", "Civil War", "Politics" & "motorcycles", I think I'm the only person in the universe that can check it faster than one can type "mobygames"   and don't want to lose them, so I had to copy the series tags over each game. Anyway, always think positive: when you're done and feel confident enough to delete the old platform, it feels like you've accomplished something! I know from the experience.

Anyway, I know I was somewhat late to the party but decided to write this anyway because  a) it might help the next person googling in b) for retrogamers, month is nothing

Cheers!  

Thank You very much for the reply. I will give this a try when I have time. Thanks Again. If I run into any difficulties I will post it here.

[Running Windows 3.1 Games]

On 10/13/2022 at 7:14 PM, viritys said:

BTW https://www.retro-exo.com/win3x.html has every Windows 3.x game ever published preinstalled AND it uses LaunchBox as its launcher. Can't get easier than that

Curious on how this will interact with my current LB setup. I downloaded the exowin3x all 345GB of it lol. Now it comes with a setup.bat file to set it up. My concern is that this will create a separate LB file that will conflict with my current setup. Basically I'm asking if you know a way to integrate this with my current setup?

[GensHack emulator lauching but not automatically launching selected game.]

2 hours ago, Your Friendly A.I Overlord said:

I downloaded the correct rom. Applied both patches. Used the hacked emulator. Runs fine from LaunchBox. (just not wih the command-line parameters shown in your screenhot.)

I set it up the way you have it and it still just launches the emulator not the game. No biggie as mentioned I'll just use Retroarch.

[GensHack emulator lauching but not automatically launching selected game.]

15 hours ago, Headrush69 said:

Well played with this some more and got some interesting results.

1. The second patch is the problem one. No sound for me on that one with Genesis GX core in Retroarch.
2. Neither patched version will even load for me using Gens 2.14. (What version are you using)
3. I added Gens emulator to LB and when loading ROMs they didn't start for me either. Then I remembered I was testing with my current library which are all zipped. (Core supported) I turned on the LB option to extract archives first and now Gens emulator booted directly into the games. 

So looking back on your posts you said you tried all the options but maybe you didn't get them all right at the same time.

Don't remove quotes and extract archives if using archives ARE requirements. 

Also, from your screenshot, the option to extract ROM archives has a solid square, not a check mark. This leads me to think that you have multiple platforms listed for using the Gens emulator and not all have the same extract ROM archives option enabled or disabled. Are you 100% sure it's not enabled/disabled as need for you ROMs?

Bottom line is LB can launch a ROM directly in Gens emulator without command line options. It's just a matter of finding the configuration issue.

 

In regards to your points made. As to the first point the second patch is a problem for me as well but only using Retroarch and not Gens. With both patches applied the Gens emulator plays it fine. Which leads to your second point about the version of gens I am using. You have to use a cracked version which has support for roms larger than 4mb. That said I am using Genshack version 2.11. As for your last point I made the associated platforms for the Gens emulator to all have extract roms checked now the extract rom archive has a check mark and not a solid square and the emu still does not launch the game automatically. Perhaps the Genshack version is the culprit in regards to that. All good I'll just use retroarch with the one patch applied and play like that.

[GensHack emulator lauching but not automatically launching selected game.]

Ok so I may have figured it out. The UMK3 Hack has two patch files one called "Ultimate Mortal Kombat Trilogy h23(5125)" and another called "UMKT h23(5125) +TRACKS". If I apply only the first patch than retroarch plays it without issue. However if I apply the second patch as directed in the readme than retroarch no longer plays the audio correctly and only the Genshack will play it correctly. Seeing as the second patch only changes some music I think I'll just leave it with only one patch and use retroarch to run this specific game.

 

*EDIT* Just noticed your reply. I did try all cores related to audio in the retroarch menu none of which made any difference the audio was still messed up. Though as mentioned I likely figured out why. Though why the Genshack can play the rom properly with both patches applied and retroarch can't is still a mystery.

[GensHack emulator lauching but not automatically launching selected game.]

1 hour ago, Headrush69 said:

Can you provide more information on these issues (like a link) and is it up to date information?

I have no way to know what to listen for, and I only know MK by name and look, but I downloaded the hack and ran it with Retroarch and didn't notice audio issues. (Not to say there isn't any, I just don't know what they are.)

For example at the beginning with the rotating MK LOGO no audio is present at all(there should be audio) and the rest of the game the audio is garbled and scratchy. At first I figured I applied the crack to the UMK3 rom improperly or had the wrong UMK3 rom to begin with or both. So I checked the CRC32: 7290770d, MD5: 5a129779699f8b388e97c9c0d703d503, SHA-1: bf2da4a7ae7aa428b0b316581f65b280dc3ba356 and it all matched up. That is when I tried(as requested in the cracks readme) the GensHack emulator and the rom works flawlessly, so obviously this is an issue with retroarch and not with the cracked rom.

[GensHack emulator lauching but not automatically launching selected game.]

1 hour ago, JoeViking245 said:

Does the version you're using even accept command-line parameters?  Do they have a support forum?  You may be able to: Open the Windows Command Prompt and navigate to where the exe is located, and enter in something along the lines of   "gens.exe -help" or "gens.exe --help"

Doing that just launches the emulator as well.

[GensHack emulator lauching but not automatically launching selected game.]

41 minutes ago, JoeViking245 said:

Does it do anything (the same thing?) if your remove all the Custom Command-Line Parameters and un-check all the boxes?  So the Sample Command would look like:

gens.exe "FULL\PATH\TO\ROM\FILE"

Nope same thing just launches the emulator and not the game.

[GensHack emulator lauching but not automatically launching selected game.]

I have tried with remove quotes unchecked.

[GensHack emulator lauching but not automatically launching selected game.]

12 hours ago, skizzosjt said:

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

 

[GensHack emulator lauching but not automatically launching selected game.]

Ok so as the title suggests I am having some difficulty using the gens emulator. I recently came across a hack for the genesis game UMK3 called UMK Trilogy. Apparently retroarch is able to run said hack but the audio is all sorts of messed up and so I tried the genshack emulator and voila it works just fine. Problem is when I tell Launchbox were the game is and which emulator to use all it does is launch the emulator without loading the game. I know this is probably an obvious and simple fix but I can't seem to wrap my head around it. Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Telling LB to automatically mount older Windows Games.]

22 hours ago, proghodet said:

Edit your game in launchbox, find "Additional Apps" and add WincdEmu there with the correct parameters, probably something like C:\Program Files (x86)\WinCDEmu\batchmnt, with the path to your image file as the application command line parameter. Check the "automatically run before main application", checkbox.

You can add another app that launches after your game closes, which unmounts the image again, using the checkbox "automatically run after main application". I think that would be something like C:\Program Files (x86)\WinCDEmu\batchmnt, with /unmountall as the application command-line parameter.

Thank You for that. I will definitely give this a shot.

[Telling LB to automatically mount older Windows Games.]

9 hours ago, proghodet said:

You can use WincdEmu as an additional application, and mount your disc image through that.

https://wincdemu.sysprogs.org/tutorials/cmdline/

I use that already, I just rather not have multiple disks mounted(I’d rather not have to mount & dismount every game as I play them) and having to hide them so I don’t see them in my This PC folder. It just seems more convenient to have LB know where to look for the games respective ISO and automatically mount & dismount the drive. Again not sure if this is a possible feature to add in future updates but would be nice. 

[Telling LB to automatically mount older Windows Games.]

Is there any way to tell LB to automatically Mount older Windows based games similar to how it does it for MsDos? I have plenty older Windows games that require me to insert the CD in the drive to play and sadly many do not have NOCD fixes available. Independence Day is one such example. Would be nice if this were possible and if not a feature to possibly add in the future.

[EmuMovies Sync Speed Improvements]

20 hours ago, JamesBond@ge said:

Same issue here.

It's particularly noticeable when I just want to download media for one title.

The LaunchBox content displays almost right away but "Querying EmuMovies..." can take more than 10 minutes.

Exit same issue. I fix the names of individual games that Launchbox did not recognize(because of the improper name) I than proceed to DL media. The LB media is almost immediately found while query emumovies can take an absurd amount of time.

[Creating a Sega Naomi folder from a MAME romset]

On 3/25/2022 at 8:56 AM, JoeViking245 said:

This plugin is able to import into LaunchBox, Sega Naomi MAME games.  One of its (optional) features is to copy the roms to a new location (folder). 

I suppose something you could do is run the plugin and add the games to a new Platform (vs importing into an existing Platform) and use the option to copy the roms.  Then when it's done, delete the new Platform.  Now you'll have the roms that got copied in their own folder.

I don't think it'll handle any of the CHD folders, but those you can easily enough copy/move yourself.

 

Just noticed this replay. Thank you for that I will give this a shot.

[Creating a Sega Naomi folder from a MAME romset]

I'm trying to create a Sega Naomi folder under Arcade from the full MAME romset I have but can't figure it out. As MAME is unable to play these games I'd like to create a separate folder for easy access to these games obviously using a different emulator core. I've tried individually importing the rom files and associated CHD folders but I know I'm doing something wrong. Is there an easy way to do this? Any similar info I've seen on the matter seem outdated. Thanks in advance for the help.

[Editing a specific Atari Jaguar game to use the Phoenix Emulator instead of the Default RetroArch Jaguar core?]

6 hours ago, Headrush69 said:

Edit: Thread on Phoenix Launcher

Thank You I will check it out.

[Editing a specific Atari Jaguar game to use the Phoenix Emulator instead of the Default RetroArch Jaguar core?]

4 hours ago, neil9000 said:

Not a emulator i have ever used (who cares about Jaguar  ) but if i recall Pheonix doesn't support command line arguments, which is essential for a frontend to launch a game into a emulator, hence the trouble you are seeing with it, id personally recommend the Retroarch core instead personally.

The problem is the RetroArch VJ core emulation is poor in comparison. The Phoenix Project EMU, emulates the Jag much much better.

[Editing a specific Atari Jaguar game to use the Phoenix Emulator instead of the Default RetroArch Jaguar core?]

9 hours ago, Retro808 said:

Right click a game and choose "Edit"

Go to the Emulation tab and change there in the "Choose an Emulator" drop down list.

Click "OK" when done.

Just changed a few games to make sure there is no issue and the changes only affected the games I edited directly.

Thank you for the reply. I swear that is what I originally did but for some reason it changed all emulators. I just tried again and this time it seems to have worked. I'm honestly not sure what I did wrong previously as I followed these steps, clearly I did something wrong. Either way it seems to be working now.

One problem has arisen though and that is all launchbox does it open the emulator but not the game. Not sure if there is something extra that needs to be done within the Phoenix Project emulator?

[Editing a specific Atari Jaguar game to use the Phoenix Emulator instead of the Default RetroArch Jaguar core?]

As the title suggests I am trying to have certain games use the Phoenix emulator instead of the VJ core from RetroArch. The VJ emulator will not run some games that Phoenix does. When I tried to edit the game individually and add the phoenix emulator it defaulted all games and machines to use that emulator so obviously I'm doing something wrong. Any help is much appreciated.