SentaiBrad

As long as the sites they use utilize open API calls for metadata scraping, then it is an achievable dream one day. I know for a fact that Kodi utilizes free and open API's too.

You may not get Metadata based on the name of the system, or we honestly don't have that many entries. The LaunchBox Games Database is going to open soon for users to add all the metadata they want. Thank you Monkus for letting this user know about this stuff. It's also worth noting that the command line parameters can be applied to rom, but if it is a command line that is universal and that needs to be applied to every single rom then the command line parameters line in Associated Platform works well. In RetroArch's case we use the default command line parameters box to load the core. That command line is ran for each rom on launch. You can also use the same box to add the -c command for custom configs afterwards as well. For other systems the command line parameters box may not be populated with anything, but if you have a command that you need or want to use you can certainly edit the line manually to include it.

MattHenry said Sorry guys, noob here and Brad quit taking my emails and directed me here :) So I bought this "hyperspin" machine off of a guy and I have all of the files needed, Hyper didn't come set up as it was supposed to and I got tired of messing with it and found Launchbox (which has been a Godsend of ease). I'm using MameUI64, on Hyper all of my bezels come up when I load a rom. In Launchbox they do not and I can't find any good help of or walkthough of using all of these files with Mame. Sorry if this sounds like an amateur hour question, but after two days of messing with it, I thought I would take Brad's advice and sign up here... And being 34 and not a tech guru, please do not recommend me to use Mess or Retroarch. I've spent way too much money on this computer, cabinet and recroom masters controller and have it all dialed in as is. I just need to know how to work these files I have in the Mame emulator since they are not running through hyper anymore I'm guessing. I'm sorry if it seemed like I didn't want to take your e-mails, I am more than happy to actually. I just know that the forums are riddled with people and topics like this where answers to questions already exist. My suggestion of the forum was honestly so that you can get the best experience possible and have the full access of all of the great minds here. I never want to seem like I am unapproachable by anyone on our forums or through our support e-mail. So I am sorry if that is what happened here. Though Derek here knew the exact answer to your question and we have people who specialize in a lot of area's. I want all users to utilize our forums so that they know what to do. Here there is no such thing as a noob question. Like I said before, we want everyone to be able to enjoy their games as much as possible.

The PS2 emulation of PS4 I am much more interested in because of Trophies. I miss save states though because they're super handy. It's part of why I like the Nintendo Virtual Console. I don't like that I have to buy a game for each of my systems, my Wii U and 3DS are not linked in that respect, so I have to rebuy my SNES games now that they are on N3DS. My PS3, PS4 and Vita are linked though. Some of the games I bought for PS4 on this sale are also on my Vita, so that's nice.

Yea I was going to say it must have been by hand because there is no way we do any of that scraping. There are places to scrape, like where Kodi does, that we can use in the future for this sort of thing. We're just simply not ready for that leg of LaunchBox, but one day.

Yea between that and Hardcore 101 and just sleuthing across Fan Translations I find a lot. I love Japanese games. JRPG's are my favorite.

The name is supposed to be pcfx.bios, but it could be outdated? just remove the .bin for a test launch and find out. As for the games, It's primarily text heavy Japanese games, nothing is in English other than maybe basic menu's. If there are any shmups or some more basic games then you might be able to get away with it, but really it's honestly a pointless system to emulate. Of the small amount of games available, they're all in Japanese.

:O

tomf80 said I am having the same problem. I can launch RA from a command prompt using a zipped rom just fine. However, Launchbox doesn't do anything, aside from increment the play count, when trying to launch a game. I added -L cores\fceumm_libretro.dll to the command line parameters. I also tried adding an absolute path to the core dll. Unfortunately, nothing happens. I have also tried using retroarch_debug.exe, which displays a console window when launched, to see what is going on, however it disappears to quick. That lead me to make a batch file to capture the command being given to retroarch.exe, however, Launchbox refuses to launch .cmd or .bat files, saying the file was not found. I believe this to be an unfortunate programmer decision, as it makes debugging and customization more difficult. The full command I gave to RA to make it run is: d: etroarch etroarch.exe -L cores\fceumm_libretro.dll "c:\launchbox\games\Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)\Bubble Bobble (USA) [Hack by Dragon Eye Studios v1.0] (~Bubble Bobble Madness).zip" Aside from specifying the path to retroarch.exe in the actual command the sample command in the manage editors is identical. I wonder, is Launchbox not specifying the path to the ROM? Please, add some debugging to Launchbox so we can simply resolve these issues. So you can launch any type of file, that isn't an error on the coding part. You can launch bat's all day long. The command for -L "cores\fceumm_libretro.dll" looks correct so let's run down some few things that can cause it to not launch. You have the core downloaded because you loaded it just fine outside of LB, it doesn't require BIOS, and I thought most of RA doesn't launch zip or archived extensioned files, but I guess so. For RetroArch specifically more so than other emulators, the name in the associated path and the name on the left hand side in RetroArch need to match so that it knows what core to load. So in this case Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is the default name, so that would need to be the name used in both. Because it's a simple system there really shouldn't be too much to troubleshoot except for pathing errors. -L "cores\fceumm_libretro.dll" in the Default Command Line, matching names in Associated Platforms and your Platforms list, and making sure you've got the core downloaded, which you do.

Freestate said My worries are under the policy we must have with the games without existent covers or really hard to find in good shape (download services, satellital, hacks, etc). There's many people that love custom covers when is hard to find a good cover or when they have a fantranslation that converts their japanese game on a unnoficial western release. My point is adding a label to custom covers next to the regional ones, like JP, US, EUR, CUSTOM to have everyone happy. In my case i made some custom covers to satellaview, nintendo power snes titles to avoid the lack of real covers of this titles and understand some people prefer unified custom cover of systems like neogeo, etc. My suggestion is here, what do you think? Well yea, we're flying by the seat of your pants right now, so it's all new. We certainly have thoughts and ways to expand the Database from what TheGamesDB or other sites offer. Having a custom section is a really good idea and can be the fall back for games who otherwise don't have front cover art.

scree said I forgot to mention it, but you can also use artwork files to apply bezels to the non-arcade (Mess) side of Mame. Unlike the Mame bezels which are for individual games, the Mess ones apply across a system. So the Mess nes.zip artwork will apply to all your Nintendo NES games emulated with Mame. You can find Mess artwork on the web, but while some of it is good, a lot of it uses poor quality pngs. If you're into DIY, the name of the zip and the lay file inside it need to match the Mame (Mess) shortname for the system. I don't normally use bezels, as I play games on my laptop using the laptop's screen. Bezels, especially the ones for horizontal games, reduce the game screen area too much for me. They do look good on a 40" TV, however. Also, if you're going to go down the road of making your own bezels, you can probably forget about actual game playing for a long time! That's why I thought that php applet that helps users create these Overlays was awesome. RetroArch has a similar thing though, if you set up an overlay for a core, it's saved in the RA config or the special config you have loaded. So you can make your handheld systems be surrounded by the image of the console. There's TV's in the default install to. You can find more specialized ones online too based on games.

I do wonder why LaunchBox and Kodi? Kodi very easily replaces us for TV Shows and Movies, not that I am saying you need to only use Kodi or not use Kodi, I am just curious about your choice.

It is creepy as hell. xD

Change the # symbol then try again? Maybe it can't process it? I have no clue, but I've never had RA not open a folder or not see a rom unless it was the wrong file extension.

Yea probably, it hardly works for me. In the RA root folder is an Info folder. Open the .info files with Notepad++.

Creating shortcut's of all the games and loading the shortcut in RA can potentially work... however, why not just use LB?

Outside of LaunchBox? No, RA doesn't have a way to see networked drives. If it was mapped with a drive letter then potentially, or use LaunchBox to directly link the game because of the command line. Now that I typed that and thought it, if you used the command line outside of LB then yea, that should work too as you're telling RetroArch exactly where the file is, but I am fairly sure there is no way to use the Load Content or Add Content commands over a network without the drive letter being present.

They're also finicky in RA, don't get me wrong. xD You would load it 1 by 1 in RetroArch, but there is automatic loading of these files by MAME. The Bezel or Overlay file for MAME is just named based on the game, found, then loaded up. The site I posted has a lot of them and some info. They're 1 by 1 downloads but DownThemAll or JDownloader 2 can batch download them all. RA's solution is more concrete though, you just go in to the Overlay's menu and set them up then change the size or position of the game inside the window if need be. Like I said, I did cover this in the GBA tutorial if you want some examples.

spacegoathlz said Awesome, thank you VERY much! Yeah, unfortunately iTunes was the only media player I could think of, and I soured on them within 10 mins of getting my kid his first iPod 15 years ago. I F'N LOATHE that company and their overpriced proprietary BS. I know there are ways around it now, but I learned to hate them so much when he had 1000's of songs he couldn't load that I walked away from them and never returned. If they were the only ones in the world with sexy maid robots, I'd just do without I guess lol. No problem. I don't care for Apple either really so I get it. Also I found this wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Tag_editors

It's also worth mentioning that if you want to categorize your tv or movies then Kodi also does this. You can sort and view by genre, year, collection, date added etc etc.

http://excellentcontent.com/xbart/

If all you want is Bezels though I am unsure if just adding RL for this 1 function is worth it. From all accounts I hear it is a PITA. We're working on archive decompression so that takes another feature that RL could have been used for, and granted we're not fully there yet obviously. Also, this feature is totally in RetroArch. They call them Overlays. I covered this in the GBA Tutorial on the channel.

For music I could easily tell you but for video I am unsure. WinAmp can deal with video, like it does with audio and edit the tags like you are asking for, iTunes could also achieve this. I don't use either to play video though, I use Media Player Classic or Kodi. I've never needed to edit tags and categorize like you're asking. I usually let a program called FileBot edit the name of TV and Movies for me so that I can import and scrape it in Kodi. As for importing you can import the files as rom's and add the program you want to use as an "emulator" or import them as MS-DOS games while using the bulk edit wizard to edit the need for DOSBox out. There is an item in that drop down menu to turn that dependency off or on. You can either use the Add Files function in the Rom Importer or drag and drop. Both ways you have access to the Windows Search function in the top right so you can batch add files if they're in sub-directories. I would also suggest to use a new install of LaunchBox just for media, especially if you have a ton of games added.

If you've had Plex pass, yes, but buying the app for 1 fee is a rather new thing. This hasn't been a thing on most or all of the devices you can get the App on. When we tested Plex on the Xbox One for my mother in law it was asking her to buy Plex Pass, and the last time I checked with Android it was asking me to buy Plex Pass, the secondary option to buy just the App wasn't there. I just checked 15 min ago though and I saw it. When we did all of our tests they were working on the standalone purchase (or so the forums had said) but that was about it, no actual way to do so. It doesn't even matter, can we please not completely take over this new users thread.

Then this is new, I literally checked two weeks ago and that wasn't the case. Bubble UPNP is still awesome, but I would have rather have had the Plex app.