Jason Carr

Please share the log files from the Logs folder so that we can investigate the issues. The import process was changed to be this way on purpose. It now should download media as needed, and there is an option to download all missing media from the drop down menu inside of platforms. Are you using the option to download all missing media?

Thanks guys. The pieces that need the most testing are the imports and the image downloads, so if you're willing to test those, I'd appreciate it.

Oh, I forgot to mention, if you do run into a crash, we would appreciate if you could share the log file for it from the LaunchBox\Logs folder. Debug logs are disabled by default, but if you're on a beta release, they're currently forced on, so you should have logs no matter what.

Apologies, but currently we don't have a way to handle that stuff (we're still working on the website side of things). We hope to have the official version out in a couple of weeks.

Hey all, I've just uploaded and sent out beta 2 of LaunchBox for Android to all of your emails. Updating to beta 2 will be a manual process, because the automatic update system had not yet been built when we released beta 1. Here are the changes for beta 2: Imports are now very fast, because LaunchBox does not download all media during the initial import process; instead, media is now downloaded as needed. This can be turned off in the Options menu. A new option to "Download All Missing Media" is available for each platform; this will allow you to download everything for the platform all at once, if desired New automatic update system New debug logging options and logs in the LaunchBox folder A million bug fixes Any testing you can do would be very much appreciated. We're looking at this beta as a release candidate for the first official release, so hopefully we can squash any bugs beforehand.

I'll look to see how easy that is to do when I implement the new Android exporter. Weird; I remember responding to you. Are you sure it didn't end up in spam somewhere? You should have two emails from us. Yeah, I remember responding to you as well. Please check your spam folder. What link are you clicking? You're not too late. Yes, we're working on resolving those issues. I also have a new version coming out shortly with some new stuff and a bunch of fixes. But the point of these beta threads is to test and report any issues. So if you run into a crash, please let us know and report it to us in this thread with as much information as possible. Yes, this is coming back.

Just sent out another batch of downloads and licenses, so everyone who has requested one should have them waiting for them in their email. I trust the app is working well for those who've downloaded it? My apologies, but not yet. It will be available very soon, however (in a couple of weeks or so). We still need to enable the purchasing process on the website. That feature is coming back, and should be in the next release of LaunchBox on the desktop. In the mean time, you can just import directly on your Android device.

We're hoping that themes and plugins will be supported eventually, but they will not be able to be transferred over as-is. They will likely need re-developed/converted. That functionality is a ways off, however.

Thanks guys; downloads and licenses have been sent out to everyone now. Let me know how testing goes. I've never had a Chromebook to test with. Can't say we'll be focusing on making it work well on a Chromebook, but let us know how it goes.

That's ultimately what we're doing with the version that is already available. It's just not native.

The Android version uses Xamarin.Forms, and will be upgraded to MAUI when .NET 6 comes out. There will be a native implementation of MAUI available for Linux. It will all still be written in .NET. Because of that, CPU architecture is mostly irrelevant. We've also experimented with running the full desktop version of LaunchBox and Big Box on Windows 11 ARM (compiled for ARM64), and we've confirmed that it runs well, and it's even usable on a Raspberry Pi using WOR. But the main problem is that there is no implementation of WPF on Linux, so no native version of the desktop app could ever be built with the themes support that we have (without a complete rewrite and reinventing the wheel, which is just not at all feasible).

Let me know how that goes. Unfortunately you may have to uninstall the previous version before the new version will install; let me know if you run into that. If you do uninstall, you might want to back your stuff up, because Android will delete everything in certain folders.

Thank you to those of you who have reached out so far. I forgot to mention; please use this thread and comment here if you run into any issues.

Here is the current change log that we have for the 0.34 release (in beta): Three new platform views have been added that much more closely resemble the Big Box experience on the desktop; we now have wheels and a new BannerBox-style platforms list (thanks to Faeran) Two new game views have been added as well, including one with wheels The app's theming has been completely overhauled with a dark theme that better matches the rest of the interface Games can now be favorited, which will optionally put them first in the game lists LaunchBox now defaults to using a new folder in the root of the SD card (priority) or in the root of the internal storage instead of Android's default location The LaunchBox folder can now be easily changed to a different folder via the Options screen Compatibility with the Nvidia Shield TV has been improved by using a LaunchBox folder inside of the NVIDIA_SHIELD folder in the root of external storage instead of trying to use a LaunchBox folder directly in the root LaunchBox for Android is now free for use with less than 100 games; a new licensing system based on our desktop DRM-free licensing system will unlock an unlimited number of games

Hey all, if you would like to beta test the new Android version, and you've previously purchased the app on Google Play, please see here: There are some further details on the app in the thread as well.

For various reasons, we recently decided to get back into development on LaunchBox for Android. Google never fully followed through on the security restrictions they promised, which ultimately would get in the way of emulation frontends on Android, and while they're still moving that direction, there's no conclusive information on if and when apps will be required to switch to the new security model. We've decided to jump back into Android development and just hope that when new versions of Android are released, they don't take away our nice things. One thing that we're doing differently this time though: we're completely avoiding Google Play. Going forward, the only way to install and use LaunchBox for Android will be sideloading it. This isn't really a major issue, because you basically have to sideload Retroarch anyways in order to get the best emulation experience on Android. Sideloading apps does not require rooting your device; it only requires enabling installing apps from outside the Play Store in your device's settings. If you previously purchased the LaunchBox for Android app from Google Play, and would like to help us beta test the new version of the app, please email us at support@unbrokensoftware.com with the email on the Google account that you used to purchase. We'll be sending out downloads and license keys to users who have previously purchased the app. Unfortunately we still have some website development to do for users who did not purchase the app from Google Play, so currently beta testing is only open to users who previously purchased the app on Google Play. Unfortunately, for privacy reasons, Google does not allow us to see a list of emails of people who purchased the app, so it will largely be a manual process to get people upgraded to the new licensing system (our own DRM-free licensing, instead of Google Play's). The app itself is in pretty good shape at this point with 4 different platforms views and 4 different games views (half of them are new and include wheels and a BannerBox-style platforms view). There are still some big things that need built, like the update system, and a few bugs, but in general it works very well. Below are some screenshots as a quick teaser. Please email us at support@unbrokensoftware.com if you've previously purchased the app on Google Play and would like to beta test.

I see. This game unfortunately might be extremely difficult to get running on Windows. It's worth a shot, but unfortunately not all old Windows games can be run on modern versions of Windows. You can try though by just mounting the disc in Windows (just double-click on it) and then running the setup from the virtual CD drive.

It depends on if the game was originally for Windows or MS-DOS. What are the system requirements for the game? What year was it released?

Can you take a screenshot of your LaunchBox\Core folder while Big Box is running?

First off, please try shutting Big Box down and rebooting. Most of the time a restart/reboot fixes this particular issue.

Thank you for the positive feedback guys. It does really help after having a stressful Saturday like this. I'm very glad we got it resolved.

Please see the post above to install 11.15 (manually, if needed). That should solve the issue for you.

So most likely in that case, it is a data issue, and usually a data corruption issue. The good news is that LaunchBox always makes backups of data, unless you actively turn it off. You should have various backups available under LaunchBox\Backups. What you can do is make a copy of your LaunchBox\Data folder (so that you have it available), then you can restore the latest backup from the Backups folder over top of your Data folder. If the latest doesn't work, you can go to the previous one, and so on and so forth. Does that makes sense?

No worries; we definitely appreciate the support, but we would never ask anyone to pay more than once.

Yes; if you would please, let's create another thread. I'm guessing you're running into a different issue than an anti-virus issue, but I don't know for sure. Can you create a new topic and call me out with @Jason Carr?