SentaiBrad

I don't quite understand what you're asking either Neil, but I will try and answer broadly. I will say, I see most people come and ask that question without knowing what their PC does, what Big Box does, and they throw an entirely full library at it. First, it can totally be the PC. If someone has been using a PC for 10 years, hasn't done much maintenance on it or a re-install, extra software, clogged OS, viruses, bugs, those can all cause issues first, and most people just assume it's LaunchBox or Big Box's fault because "other front ends run". So re-installing the OS on a well worn system, or at the very least running IOBit Advanced System Care, Malwarebytes AntiMalware and IOBit's Driver Booster will get your PC in to shape. ASC has tons of amazing tools. Otherwise, there are tons of OS tweaks you can make, to turn off processes you don't need, turn the UI in to the old school one, reduce running and start up applications, changing AV software even. There's tons and tons of things you can do. There can also be hardware failure, and it doesn't need to happen like a switch where suddenly something is seriously broken. Replacing the thermal paste on your CPU, cleaning out the dust from all corners of your machine, re-seating RAM, cleaning the contacts on your RAM and GPU, making sure extra hardware isn't needlessly plugged in, it can all add up to a generally unstable machine (especially dust and heat). Past that, some hardware is aging. People think, well, "I spent $1000 on this 5 years ago, it's still perfect", and that's not quite true. As far as I know, Jason keeps up with the latest standards, that's why when Microsoft officially drops support of an OS, when our dependencies drop it, we do to. Like Derek said too, you can reduce the quality of images, the amount of images, transitions, RAM Cache (though it doesn't effect Big Box if I recall), so there are things you can do to help your performance. I wouldn't call a GTX770 a slouch for emulation, but only Big Box takes advantage of GPU's (LaunchBox might as well, but in a much smaller fashion), and things rely a lot on your CPU. I don't know what GHz that CPU is off the top of my head, but when people ask for suggestions I always say not to go back more than a few years. a 4k or 5k i5 / i7 would be the farthest back I suggest. It's not solely for LB/BB's sake either, it's for the stability of the entire system. So again, im not quite sure the question, but there you go.

I use HDMI, and VGA / DVI have a resolution limitation. So if you wanted to go to a resolution as large as you can, then you would have to stick with HDMI. Since you're gonna be on a 32", is it 4:3 or 16:9? You can technically reach 720p and 1080p in a 4:3 setting, but "1080p" is harder than 720p, and that will still require an HDMI. You could easily convert the signal, but a digital to analog convertor are generally not cheap, at least if you're going old school (which I assumed you were). I think it would be better to go with an HDMI capable monitor. If you're wanting to game on it, get the nicest monitor you can, there's no reason not to. If your focus is solely on old video games, and re-creating that old CRT look, then sure, you can go with a CRT and Analog signals, but it will look much worse. With RetroArch and MESS, you can apply CRT shaders and filters to simulate that style if that's what you're after. HDMI is technically and objectively a better design, cable, connection and image quality. Going back to Analog has it's purposes if that's the intention. Even then, people are starting to mod old console to output HDMI. I personally have a 27" 1080p and a 23" 1080p screen. First one is a monitor, second one is a real tv (for physical consoles). I never stretch my games, unless they were made in 16:9, and i usually run them in a window. I almost never run it in a fullscreen for personal preference. So like I said, I would want to know what you want to achieve to give you a full answer.

I'm not surprised if Platform Categories would come to Big Box, it's just a matter of people wanting it and Jason getting to it. I know Playlists are coming too, and that's something he's working on right now. If it hasn't already been requested, click issues/requests at the top and request that Platform Categories comes to Big Box. I would make a search though first, and see if someone else has already requested it. If so, vote on their ticket first, if not, create yours and vote on yours.

Per platform? I'm not quite sure about that. You can certainly change what type you prefer, or use Image Priorities, but not per platform, at least yet.

You actually need something to import first. So, whether it's roms or dummy files you put in, you need to import something for it to download media.

I needed that special edition in my life (sad it wasn't the master edition), so Wii U was out of the question.

Around 30? My Wifes store got like 15. Yea, im excited, and news from people who have it is good, so im more excited.

I would advise against Wikipedia, it can cause some issues down the line, but for the LaunchBox Games Database and EmuMovies, there's nothing special you should need to do. Have you tried logging out from within LaunchBox, restarting and logging back in? I'm trying to think of ways to refresh it without jumping to a bug. I just imported and updated some stuff last night and EmuMovies seemed to have run just fine.

If LaunchBox is on the same hard drive, then it should be relative. If you need to move them in the future, it is solved easily by editing the MAME.xml in the Data folder with Notepad++, and replacing the old drive letter with a new drive letter, but yea.

I never really bothered with MSX in RetroArch, that's why in the tutorial I had used non-RetroArch stuff. There are some sub commands, for example like the Super Game Boy stuff, but I'm not sure what it is for BlueMSX. Try searching up BlueMSX command lines for RetroArch, and if there are commands for each MSX system, set those commands to the proper system in the associated platforms.

Did you happen to also check your spam mail? If not, check that and see if it got placed in there on accident. If it's not there, I've forwarded this to Jason and he can take care of you from there.

Yea, you don't have to add games to the Database if you don't want to, but if you want to and they follow the guidelines that's awesome and we appreciate it! By scrape manually, I meant Right Click -> Edit a game, and you can either change the file name (and update the rom file attached to that entry), or change the name in LaunchBox and press the Search button again. The FBA platform is a platform that actually shouldn't be there. We had come to an agreement previously that duplicate platforms should be merged with the proper platforms, and all of those arcade boards belong under Arcade. The only reason it hasn't yet (along with a ton of other Database updates), is because Jason, the owner, is the only developer. So needless to say, he is low on time. With Scrape As, it doesn't matter either, you can create any number of custom platforms and use the emulators you want. This is why I said they should have been ran through the MAME importer initially and scraped as Arcade. All of the roms should be regular MAME roms, with the internal shorthand names. So if you call the platform what ever, scrape it as Arcade, then check the box to force using mame metadata during import everything should be pretty much found.

Yea, I guess if you're gonna have to set the new path to begin with, that does work. I forgot about that.

Watch a few of our tutorials and see if it's something you'd want to do. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6pTDaHeAz-WMcNURVPU-1xLN_TVpT3FB There are quite a few that I've made, and there is a beginner tutorial a bit of the ways down. Let @Jason Carr and I know if they help.

Make sure to scrape it as Arcade (Tools -> Manage Systems, double click on this system then scrape it as Arcade). From there, make sure you're viewing just this platform, click on a game, Ctrl + A to highlight them all, then go to Tools -> Download Metadata and Images. This will re-run an import like process. Set your preferences and go. Keep in mind too, that not every game will found. The initial import and the downloader are strict to try and curb games being misidentified. So if the name of the game is different than the one on the Database, or is off too much you'll need to do it manually. If they're Arcade roms though, it should have been ran through the MAME Importer initially and most Arcade games exist actually. Otherwise, the game may also not exist on the Database, in which case someone would have to add it.

Sweet, glad you got it!

If you do want to separate everything out, you can figure out what any given game will require. In a MAMEUI version, there is a way it will list everything out, and you can go from there if you want. There might even be an automatic way, @CriticalCid or @DOS76 might know, but I think you'd have to go through it manually. If you pair down the files to the ones you'd need for your import preferences, then if you need to re-import you'll be good. You'd have to do it again when you update though. If you want to do a second import (on top of the one you have to add more games / versions), you wouldn't be able to as those files would be gone. It's part of the reason why a merged rom set doesn't work, it has to be split or non-merged.

That's what I was trying to get at though, sorry for not explaining it properly. There are BIOS in there, sometimes labeled in an easy to understand way, and some are extra files for games, and it's all pretty much needed. It's normal for out of that many files to have imported less than 2k, but it's all more or less required. A single game could require up to 12 or 13 files on it's own. Sometimes, you may only need the parent rom and not the child rom, sometimes you need 1 child rom, and other times you need every child rom in a chain. It depends on what games you want, what region, and what version of the game.

When you chose to copy the files in to the LB Folder, it moved only the games it was importing and not all the other required files. I personally don't let it move things, but in the case where a game requires multiple files, and you choose that, it's only going to move the 1 file it found. In MAME's case, move the rest of your roms to the folder it copied the games to. You're also going to need to edit MAME to point towards the place where your roms are going to be, since they're no longer in the default location. In cases like DOS, or systems where cue sheets are required, it may be a bit more complicated. As long as LaunchBox, your emulators and games are all on the same drive, it will also have the same portable effect as they'll user relative paths instead of absolute paths. So, if I needed to move all my stuff from my 8TB drive to say, a 10TB drive, as long as I keep the paths the same, the move will happen easily as LaunchBox will still know where everything is. If you do want all of your stuff in your LaunchBox folder, then try moving it first, then importing it. As long as you move it to the proper folder, it should stay where it's at. That's probably only useful for DOS or systems with cue sheets though. If you're importing single rom files, and you move them, there shouldn't be any issues.

Yea, PS Now was a good idea, but it's execution was very very flawed I think. The price is too high for the average person who is probably not even beating 1 or 2 games a month from that service. Unless you're someone who doesn't get PS+, games on sale, and then for us specifically emulation stuff, PS Now is another $15 a month for even more games that we may not need. Honestly, it's more expensive, but I've been finding PS3 gems for less than $5-8 loose. If you have a PS4 too, some of them got ported. If it was $15 for 2 months, or essentially ~$7-8 a month, that would be better, but I'm not sure I would even at that point, but that's me obviously. If you like the service, it runs well enough for you, and you see your self playing a bunch of the games on offer for that month, then it would be worth it.

I assumed we were talking about Phoenix. If you use 4DO in RetroArch you only need the regular RetroArch commands, and if you sue MESS you only need the MESS commands.

That's not how it works as far as I know, but I could be wrong. As far as I know, it's an app you launch then you choose the game from there. When you sign up for a trial, make sure to remove the auto-renewal which is on by default.

I'll see if I can't find command lines, but MESS also runs 3DO well apparently. Edit: Which I can't find any, that sucks.

When importing Arcade games and not using MAME, you need to check the box "Force using MAME Metadata" on the import screen with all those check boxes. Not every game will import if the system has parent and child roms, only the ones based on your selections will. I also still agree, Kawaks isn't as good of an emulator anymore.

It doesn't matter if they're rom files, you can add literally anything. Use the Add Files option, navigate to your Daphne folder, and filter out in the Windows search to file extension those files are.