xokia

Need way more information on what you are trying to do? Currently this is a random question with no context.

Do folks still use joytokey for PC games? Or is there something better? If joytokey is there any shared configs anywhere for platforms or games?

Gotcha nice! I was wondering where that was at in launchbox. I do use a portable version of launchbox so this is a helpful tip. I did get the esc to close to work with the v2.0 of AHK. The full screen part I did not get to function. I will uninstall AHK 2.0 and point to this version of hotkey. *edit* got the 1.0 version to work for the exit. I think I abandoned trying to get full screen to work. The window doesn't open in the same spot every time so trying to get the curser to land in the right spot seems like an exercise in frustration. Now I need to go learn joy2key for all my old PC based games. Does anyone know if there is any kind of archive for joy2key settings for specific platforms? I use exclusively xinput for all my controllers.

My batch script works this was the issue hiding the console window. Couple extra questions: 1. I want the program to close when Esc is pressed. I tried to create a "running" ahk script to close Arculator.exe but I think since its launched with the batch file the batch file exits after it launches arculator and AHK injection no longer works from launchbox. 2. I noticed you are calling .ahk file from your script after it launches Arculator and you are using AHK 2.0 If I install Autohotkey 2.0 does that screw up the autohotkey 1.0 code I have in launchbox?

Maybe an issue with loading .bat files I cant tell. Works perfectly from command line fails from launchbox and hangs at the loading screen. *edit* not a beta issue. Resolved in other thread

Attached is .bat file I am stuck. If I launch it from the cmd line it works perfectly. If I launch it from launchbox I get the loading screen and it gets stuck there. I cant escape it I cant close it just stuck on the loading screen. Doesnt even look like it called the batch script at all. This is the beta release of 13.27 if that matters. 2026-04-12T03:25:20.5062156-07:00 Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Activated Start 2026-04-12T03:25:20.5093746-07:00 Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Activated Before JoystickTimer Enabled Set 2026-04-12T03:25:20.5124524-07:00 Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Activated Before Resume Video 2026-04-12T03:25:20.5138663-07:00 Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Activated Before Check Already Focused 2026-04-12T03:25:20.5175106-07:00 DataManager.SaveInternal started. 2026-04-12T03:25:20.5195919-07:00 AddEditGameViewModel Closed Event Started 2026-04-12T03:25:20.5537363-07:00 Saving InputBindings.xml... 2026-04-12T03:25:20.7092213-07:00 Saving GameControllers.xml... 2026-04-12T03:25:20.8668946-07:00 Saving ListCache.xml... 2026-04-12T03:25:21.5215233-07:00 AddEditGameViewModel Closed Invoke Start 2026-04-12T03:25:21.7787300-07:00 AddEditGameViewModel Closed Updating GameDetailsViewModel 2026-04-12T03:25:22.7593521-07:00 Saving Settings.xml... 2026-04-12T03:25:23.3410678-07:00 Saving Y:\LaunchBox\Data\Platforms\Acorn Archimedes.xml... 2026-04-12T03:25:24.7328456-07:00 AddEditGameViewModel Closed Updating ContentBackground 2026-04-12T03:25:24.7369041-07:00 AddEditGameViewModel Closed Invoke End 2026-04-12T03:25:24.8655325-07:00 GameDetailsViewModel returning to pool... 2026-04-12T03:25:26.8514274-07:00 DataManager.SaveInternal completed successfully. 2026-04-12T03:25:28.2816651-07:00 GameDetailsViewModel return to pool: Video control dispose... 2026-04-12T03:25:28.2933052-07:00 GameDetailsViewModel return to pool: Video control nulling... 2026-04-12T03:25:28.2962608-07:00 GameDetailsViewModel return to pool: Invoking UI thread... 2026-04-12T03:25:28.6501658-07:00 GameDetailsViewModel.Dispose: Nulling out all image sources... 2026-04-12T03:25:28.6531369-07:00 GameDetailsViewModel successfully returned to pool 2026-04-12T03:25:31.0070656-07:00 Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Deactivated Start 2026-04-12T03:25:31.0186237-07:00 Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Deactivated Before Pause Video 2026-04-12T03:25:31.0217609-07:00 Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Deactivated Completed 2026-04-12T03:27:16.9172121-07:00 Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Activated Start 2026-04-12T03:27:16.9225028-07:00 Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Activated Before JoystickTimer Enabled Set 2026-04-12T03:27:16.9262204-07:00 Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Activated Before Resume Video 2026-04-12T03:27:16.9296341-07:00 Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Activated Before Check Already Focused 2026-04-12T03:32:23.1070636-07:00 ContentViewModel Context Building 2026-04-12T03:32:23.1864107-07:00 ContentViewModel Context Built 2026-04-12T03:32:23.1897897-07:00 ContentViewModel Context Opening 2026-04-12T03:32:23.2059828-07:00 ContentViewModel Context Opened 2026-04-12T03:32:27.8150038-07:00 Music.Pause Start 2026-04-12T03:32:28.0433048-07:00 Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Deactivated Start 2026-04-12T03:32:28.0481824-07:00 Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Deactivated Before Pause Video 2026-04-12T03:32:28.0513248-07:00 Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Deactivated Completed 2026-04-12T03:32:28.7409039-07:00 MameHighScores.Prepare: Beginning the preparation process... 2026-04-12T03:32:28.7566116-07:00 Aborting MameHighScores.Prepare: Uploading MAME high scores is disabled in settings. 2026-04-12T03:32:28.7579176-07:00 Begin M3U Check. 2026-04-12T03:32:28.7599059-07:00 RomPath after M3U build: Z:\Arcade\Acorn Archimedes\3D Tanks (19xx)(-).adf From What I can tell its calling the .bat file correctly <Emulator> <ApplicationPath>Z:\Arcade\emulators\Arculator_V2.2_Windows\arculator.bat</ApplicationPath> <CommandLine /> <DefaultPlatform /> <ID>931612fc-b33a-40ff-9edc-f01975d2d88e</ID> <Title>Arculator</Title> <NoQuotes>false</NoQuotes> <NoSpace>false</NoSpace> <HideConsole>false</HideConsole> <FileNameWithoutExtensionAndPath>false</FileNameWithoutExtensionAndPath> <AutoHotkeyScript>$Esc:: { arculator.bat

I think the change went in just this release but IDK. Previously when launchbox unzipped files it did so to a /tmp/gamefile. This breaks a feature in retroarch to allow controller mapping based on platform because to retroarch the platform would be "tmp" The fix was to still use the tmp directory but it now copies the filename of the folder of where your gamefile is sitting to the tmp directory. So it would look like /tmp/sega/gamefile. Retroarch would see the "sega" and create an appropriate sega remapp file specific to that platform. If that plugin is using hard coded paths (bad coding style) then I could see it causing an issue. I would assume clearing out the "cache" would resolve the issue? But I would think \tmp should be considered temporary.

Some of retroarch's cores do not reliably work with zipped files. FB Neo, MAME, sega saturn, dreamcast, psx beetle to name a few. You will get mixed results. I'll try it out this weekend. Thanks for the update *edit* Launchbox unzipping the folder for retroarch appears to work correct now. They get mapped to the correct system when using the tmp directory.

Any news on if/when the fix to retroarch will make it in? This is the issue I pointed out a while back if your rom is zipped launchbox unzips to a /tmp directory. This breaks retroarchs ability to create console level overrides. Retroarch use the directory preceding the rom file as the console name. i.e. the console would be tmp and every console system that had zipped file would try to use the tmp overide file.

I think I found a potential bug in the MAME import wizard. I recently update my MAME 0.274 to 0.286. During that process I changed directories structures. I used to have z:\games\MAME_0.274\mamegame.zip I switched to z:\games\MAME\mamegame.zip I reran the import wizard and chose the upgrade option and pointed to the new directory. It did get a lot of the games correct. But about 1200 of them it changed to z:\games\MAME\MAME_0.274\mamegame.zip. I was able to manually hack the arcade.xml to fix it. But if you change directories during the upgrade it doesnt seem to get everything correct. What was weird about this is it caused it to fail in a weird way. Since I updated MAME to point to the directory where the ROMs where at some games would still work. I assuming when it initially failed it just started parsing the directory structure it knew about to try and locate the ROM. Other times it would just crash MAME and nothing would happen.

Other then logging everything to a logfile is there anyway to turn on a terminal window to see what launchbox is doing? Sometimes its just spinning its wheels doing something or waiting for something but gives no indication what its doing. Or why its so dang slow.

IS there any real reason to run the clones? Is anything extra included that the parent doesnt already have?

Selecting all the .iso isn't that hard. Much easier then trying to add the individual eboot.bin files. But an auto import for the .iso would be nice. I just select files to import then select all the .isos all at once and launchbox imports them just fine.

Some of that I get but if I hide in launchbox what would be the reason someone would want to see in BigBox? Or if I tag a game as broken in launchbox it still shows up in bigbox. This is where I guess I had the false expectation that launchbox would be the "master frontend" and bigbox would be more of a "slave front end". Since bigbox is more gamer/controller centric and launchbox is more organizational centric. My time is put into launchbox organizing things, testing to make sure they work ect. The game controller is connected to launchbox because I test that things work there. I.e. launch the game from launchbox. I'm not trying to control launchbox from a game controller. When I switch over to big box with its simpler interface I want the config to be simple along with it, if its "broken" when running in launchbox it highly likely also "broken" in bigbox. Just my $.02

Do you know how many working ROMs are available in the latest MAME release including CHD? Trying to decide if I should upgrade.

What is the support like for the Mame core? I'm using Tsugaru because it has the widest compatibility. Is there any published compatibility list with the Mame core?

I assume you are using RPCS3 for the emulator? Just recently they added ISO support. So assuming you have decrypted the ISO RPCS3 will load the .iso directly. The other style files need to be installed. RPCS3 has an option to install. It will install the files onto its emulated version of a PS3 HDD. If you want launchbox to launch the game you have to browse to the eboot.bin file that is located in the emulated HDD and have launchbox pass it to the RPCS3 emulator.

As the title stated why does bigbox not take its settings from launchbox? Like if I hide a game in launchbox it doesnt hide in big box. Or I setup a controller in launchbox but then have to configure bigbox seperately. It sometimes feels like having to setup to completely different front ends. I spend a lot of time in launchbox because its PC centric and its easier to do things with a mouse and keyboard, and I have 1 usb xbox controller that I have attached. But then when I switch it over to a TV using bigbox I tend to have to reconfigure things. Is there some reason bigbox can't be smarter and take its queues from launchbox?

Path is correct just laziness in posting, I mistyped. Using citron.exe works perfectly its the citron-cmd.exe that doesn't seem to work. I'm using Citron and there were a few option in the qt-config I had to set [Renderer] fullscreen_mode\default=true fullscreen_mode=1 [UI] fullscreen\default=true fullscreen=true then also I run the f11 script seems to work perfectly now Loop { ifwinactive, citron sleep, 7000 { sleep,3000 send {F11} sleep, 1000 ;send {F11} break } }

Has anyone been able to get citron and citron-cmd.exe to launch a game? I can get citron to work manually from the command line citron-cmd.exe -f -g "path_to_game_file.nsp" boots up the game just fine If it try to pass that from launchbox, launchbox hangs at the starting game screen. I am running citron 2026.2.1 If I call citron.exe everything loads fine but full screen works funky. From what I can tell Launchbox isn't even passing the command 2026-02-10T20:39:20.6054346-08:00 DataManager.SaveInternal started. 2026-02-10T20:39:20.6081732-08:00 Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Activated Start 2026-02-10T20:39:20.6137377-08:00 Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Activated Before JoystickTimer Enabled Set 2026-02-10T20:39:20.6158028-08:00 Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Activated Before Resume Video 2026-02-10T20:39:20.6175496-08:00 Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Activated Before Check Already Focused 2026-02-10T20:39:20.6279624-08:00 Saving InputBindings.xml... 2026-02-10T20:39:20.7597265-08:00 Saving GameControllers.xml... 2026-02-10T20:39:20.9021768-08:00 Saving ListCache.xml... 2026-02-10T20:39:21.0814904-08:00 Saving Settings.xml... 2026-02-10T20:39:21.5600957-08:00 Saving BigBoxSettings.xml... 2026-02-10T20:39:23.0140258-08:00 DataManager.SaveInternal completed successfully. 2026-02-10T20:39:23.9525672-08:00 ContentViewModel Context Building 2026-02-10T20:39:24.2762420-08:00 ContentViewModel Context Built 2026-02-10T20:39:24.2816823-08:00 ContentViewModel Context Opening 2026-02-10T20:39:24.3032252-08:00 ContentViewModel Context Opened 2026-02-10T20:39:26.1233156-08:00 Music.Pause Start 2026-02-10T20:39:26.3216387-08:00 Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Deactivated Start 2026-02-10T20:39:26.3281637-08:00 Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Deactivated Before Pause Video 2026-02-10T20:39:26.3351114-08:00 Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Deactivated Completed 2026-02-10T20:39:27.3359668-08:00 Music.StopAndResumeBackground Start 2026-02-10T20:39:28.2192484-08:00 Music.Pause Start 2026-02-10T20:39:28.2253608-08:00 MameHighScores.Prepare: Beginning the preparation process... 2026-02-10T20:39:28.2456820-08:00 Aborting MameHighScores.Prepare: Uploading MAME high scores is disabled in settings. 2026-02-10T20:39:28.2642357-08:00 Begin M3U Check. 2026-02-10T20:39:28.2698693-08:00 RomPath after M3U build: W:\Nintendo Switch\ACE COMBAT 7 SKIES UNKNOWN DELUXE EDITION [0100E3401D660000][v0][US].xci 2026-02-10T20:40:16.9966959-08:00 MainViewModel.Window.Closing event started. It will just sit on the loading game screen and I get nothing. If I use citron.exe loads perfectly fine except unreliable full screen

why am I getting 3d box fronts as the selected image for all my platforms? I do not appear to have an easy way to switch all the platforms to box front. The only thing I can do is go to image group and select box front, but I have to do that individually for every platform

The doom thing is pretty impressive. Although doesnt look very playable. I take it you haven't had to buy a HDD over 4TB in the last 6 months? The savings is in aggregate over a large collection. The other benefit is if you load game save states. keeping them zipped preserves the save state. When launchbox uses the temp directory its using a "new" save state and it preserves the old game save state. I'm not talking abut saving a game. I am talking about when you dump the ram contents of a game and save the game as a save state. It will execute as it was loaded into ram. If you execute from the same directory you alter the save state. Keeping it zipped insures a copy is executed and not the actual save state. Anyway to much time on this discussion. The solution "seems" simple just preserve the directory directly in front of the game. This would prevent launchbox from breaking a feature in retroarch. I'll leave it to launchbox team to decide if the juice is worth the squeeze

I agree and I am saying this is fine. The user could fix it by adding all their roms at the root of Sega Master system i.e. no USA or Europe or they could add a redundant directory \\Sega Master System\USA\Sega Master System\game.zip Both the USA and Europe would use the Sega Master System.rmp file and be fine. You leave it to the user to figure out the best way to resolve the directory structure issue. You cant fix a users directory structure or guess all the combinations someone might come up with to organize their roms. As for passing to retroarch zipped. I have had varying levels of working not working. Sometimes you will get some roms that will not work if passed zipped but work perfectly fine if unzipped. Bug in retroarch....IDK I prefer to unzip to lesson the complexity of debugging later. Not all retroarch emulators support passing zipped files either.

When I searched online the common solution was to unzip files. I think folks just give up. If you kept the directory in front I "think" that would fix it. I could still see an issue if someone had z:\Sega Master System\roms\Altered Beast.zip and then they had some other system that \rom in front of the system name they would collide. The directory rempap file would be called rom and cause the same failure. BUT.......rather then launchbox try to find the correct system name I "think" launchbox just needs to grab the directory immediately in from of the rom leave it to the user to resolve the directory issue. Someone could create a redundant directory z:\Sega Master System\roms\Sega Master System\alteredbeast.zip. If someone had it sorted z:\Sega Master System\USA\alteredbeast.zip vs z:\Sega Master System\Europe\alteredbeast.zip the same redundant directory structure would solve the issue just my .$02.

I found an issue with launchbox and retroarch that was driving me nuts. retroarch allows controller remaps based on the directory the game was run from. So you can choose directory_name.rmp and it will load a controller remap based entirely on the directory the game comes from. This is useful for something like sega games where one emulator runs multiple systems but the controls can be different. So you remap the controls based on the system that was run. Retroarch uses the directory path to figure out how to name the map file. When it tries to load directory map files the directory name before the rom needs to match with the map file. Launchbox breaks this if the folder is zipped or compressed. In both cases the file is compressed as "Z:\Arcade\Sega Master System\Altered Beast.7z" (this happen if using .zip or .7z) If I dont let launchbox unzip the file and just pass it to retroarch directly I get the following in the retroarch log file [INFO] [Content] Loading content file: "Z:\Arcade\Sega Master System\Altered Beast.sms" If I choose save content directory remap I get Sega Master System.rmp and this will auto load anytime a game loads from this directory If I let launchbox unzip the folder first I get the following [INFO] [Content] Loading content file: "Y:\LaunchBox\ThirdParty\7-Zip\Temp\Altered Beast.sms". If I choose save content directory remap I get Temp.rmp Any other system that has compressed roms now tries to use Temp.rmp and is completely hosed The Temp directory is completely fine but launchbox should retain the directory directly in front of the ROM. I think retroarch would then function correctly. "Y:\LaunchBox\ThirdParty\7-Zip\Temp\Sega Master System\Altered Beast.sms"