ELDOAMark

Hello.. I have been fiddling with make alterations to the Critical Zone theme by editing the text files for the various "views".. I have managed to change some things like making the clear logo menu wheel disappear faster, changing the background video.. Two things that I am really struggling to find out how to alter just by looking at the text file (I do have a little bit of programming experience).. How can I add the total number of games to the little bit at the bottom that says the system name and year? I pasted below the part of the code that seems to refer to the metadata, but there seem to be so many little variables and things in each entry that I feel like I have no idea where to start. Could someone help me with making another entry(?) in the year and manufacturer section that has the total number of games for the system as well? <!-- METADATA GLASS BAR --> <Border x:Name="MetaDataGlass" Grid.Column="4" Grid.ColumnSpan="5" Grid.Row="7" Grid.RowSpan="5" Background="Black" Opacity="0" Panel.ZIndex="15" SnapsToDevicePixels="True" CornerRadius="10" /> <!-- PLATFORM TITLE --> <Viewbox Grid.Column="5" Grid.ColumnSpan="3" Grid.Row="8" Panel.ZIndex="20" > <DockPanel Height="36" Width="661" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" VerticalAlignment="Stretch" > <TextBlock x:Name="DetailsBar1" Text="{Binding Path=SelectedPlatform.Name}" FontFamily="Arial Black" FontSize="28" FontWeight="Bold" DockPanel.Dock="Top" TextAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center" > <TextBlock.Foreground> <LinearGradientBrush EndPoint="0.5,1" StartPoint="0.5,0"> <GradientStop Color="#FF1FA66F" Offset="1"/> <GradientStop Color="#FF30FF30"/> </LinearGradientBrush> </TextBlock.Foreground> </TextBlock> </DockPanel> </Viewbox> <!-- RELEASE YEAR AND MANUFACTURER --> <Viewbox Grid.Column="5" Grid.ColumnSpan="3" Grid.Row="10" Panel.ZIndex="20" > <DockPanel Height="26" Width="661" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" VerticalAlignment="Stretch" > <TextBlock x:Name="DetailsBar2" FontFamily="Calibri" FontSize="24" FontWeight="Bold" DockPanel.Dock="Top" Foreground="White" TextAlignment="Center" > <Run Text="{Binding Path=ActivePlatform.ReleaseDate, StringFormat=yyyy}"/> <Run Text=" " /> <Run Text="{Binding Path=ActivePlatform.Developer}" /> </TextBlock> </DockPanel> </Viewbox> </Grid> </Canvas> I was also struggling to figure out how to change the position on the screen of some objects. I would really like for the recently played game boxes to be off to the side a bit... I've tried changing the column number and row number etc but that just seems to have no effect or makes Big Box crash if I enter something invalid. All I've done is take the code for the recently played games and tried pasting it in different locations in the text file. I'm pretty happy with how things look now but I would love to just be able to add the total games for each system. Thanks PlatformWheel3FiltersView.xaml

Hello, I'm trying to make some minor tweaks to Critical Zone theme by editing the xaml files (without really knowing what I'm doing).. Platform View 2 didn't show the recently played filter box art on the right so I copied and pasted the code from Platform View 1 .. It worked only the boxes are really low and to the right. Could someone help me figure out how to move them just above the metadata, or maybe at the top of the screen? Thanks PlatformWheel2FiltersView.xaml

For some reason platform videos do not display in Critical Zone theme in big box. They show up for all the other themes. I tried copying my platform videos into the Videos folder in Themes\Critical Zone\Videos\ (both in the Plaforms and Background folders) and nothing shows up.. Settings are the same as the other themes that do display the videos.. Does Critical Zone only work with certain platform videos? Thanks

Hello, I am using default theme in big box. When I edit Platform Details, I am not able to remove the notes. I would like to just have the platform title and release year displayed. I can turn off everything in Platform Details.. If I turn Title back on then ok, that works. If I turn Release Date or anything else back on then the notes will appear even though Notes is turned off in Platform Details. I've tried turning things on and off different order and all sorts of wacky things but no matter what I do the notes will still be there unless I turn off everything or just have the Title dislayed. Thanks

I uploaded my amateur Platform Icon for the Microvision in case anyone out there needs one.. I'm no graphic designer lol. I edited one of the halfs of the Sharp X68000 icon

https://www.raphkoster.com/2017/05/07/microvision-emulator-release/ New user here and I'm really impressed by Launchbox and the community so far. As said in the notes for Handhelds platform category, this thing is the first real handheld system so I just wanted to bring some attention to this thread and the great work that was done on the emulator. I was hoping it might be possible to get this thing in database, platform icon etc one day. Thanks,

Hello. For some systems like Super Famicom you'll get some boxes oriented vertically and some horizontally. I went into the images folder and rotated some so they would all match. It worked for some boxes but there are some others that dont change their orientation even after I've deleted the file and even tried downloading another box image form a totally different source. There doesn't seem to be a way of doing this within launchbox. Am I the only one ocd enough to want to do this? 😅

Ok its working now! I looked at the Launching settings for each game and they were all pointing to the file names of socrates roms I had downloaded from somewhere else that were named with the full game name instead of their mame name. So it now works with just 'socrates' with no quotes as an added command line parameter. Thanks again.. most of my front end experience was with hyperspin about 10 years ago and this is so much better.

Still does not seem to work from launch box. Yeah, I thought you meant actually loading them properly as mame software list.. I'm kind of just getting back into MAME after a few years and I remember getting it running in MESS which I learned isn't a thing anymore. I am using mame .256 for arcade and everything so I thought by just downloading .257 and throwing the roms in the roms folder I could avoid having to learn how to do that properly lol. I did download a plugin for launchbox for importing mame software list (without really knowing what it was), and it asks for an xml file.

Sorry didn't realize I went rogue.. Still didn't work. I can backtrack and un-rogue if that helps

I don't think I have a socrates sub folder. All the socrates roms including socrates.zip are in the mame roms folder. I should make a socrates subfolder there? Also not sure if anyone is interested, but I have created some of my own Notes for each game. I have been able to find images of all the back of the boxes that were clear enough to read the description there and have that for every game except for Cad professor which I haven't been able to find the description of anywhere. I saw that a retro games podcast once did an episode where they play that game so I sent them an email asking if they could send me an image of the back of the box.

Ok yep the scroll lock thing worked perfectly. The database seems to have boxes and a screenshot for all the cartridges.. I meant I had to make an entry for the game that plays if the unit is empty. I didn't even know there was other games for when I was a kid lol. I just noticed that I can get them to run in mame but no in Launchbox.. If I remove those command line parameters then I can load socrates.zip (the custom entry I made) and play that.. I made a debug log of what happens when I go to load one of the cartridge games in launchbox with the command line parameters... Debug 2023-08-02 06-53-01 PM.log

Thanks, it works now I couldnt find a .256 set anymore so I quickly downloaded the socrates rom from MAME .257 and the socrates roms from the softlist. The only thing now is that MAME doesn't close with ESC once it loads a socrates game .. and there doesn't seem to be a database entry so I filled it in myself and took a few screenshots Had one of these as a kid and I must admit even at 39 it was fun to mess around with it for a while lol

Thanks for the reply and I apologize for being so late in replying myself.. I have the socrates.zip in my mame\roms folder.. I can load socrates.zip which plays the game that is built into the machine.. If I select any of the those games however it doesn't work. I think it might be because I have mame .256 romset and I have to have the corresponding roms for that version (I don't know what their short mame file name would be)? Are the other socrates games also in the regular mame set? I just downloaded a Vtech Socrates romset from somewhere and threw it in the mame roms folder

Hello. I was wondering if anyone might be able to help me get this running. I know years ago I had it running with MESS. I added the roms to Launchbox and it found some boxes and screenshots. I have tried using MAME or Retroarch MAME core as emulators and nothing happens when I try to launch the game. MAME says the empty cartridge slot game is not working but it seemed to work fine in the short time I tested it out.. Thanks