spycat

Hi folks. I've noticed that if I attempt to submit a new game that's already on the database, then it notifies me that the game already exists. However, if I try to submit a new game that has already been submitted by someone else but is still in moderation, then no such warning is given. Just wondering if it would be possible to notify uploaders that the game has already been submitted and is in moderation. It would save submitters so much time and effort, as, as far as I'm aware, if the first submission should be accepted for the database, then the second one is automatically rejected.

Many thanks to Jason and Brad for sorting the problem. There are still a few issues, but as the LaunchBox Games DB page still has the ALPHA stamp then these are only to be expected until all is ironed out. For my uploads so far: BBC Microcomputer 63 of my games are now on the database 9 games are missing Countdown to Doom Mikie Omega Orb Plan B Plan B2 Psycastria Son of Blagger Super Invaders XOR Entex Adventure Vision 3 games are now on the database 1 game is missing Super Cobra Funtech Super A'Can all 3 games are now on the database Memotech MTX all 14 games are now on the database And now back to submitting!

Same here. I've got quite a few uploads that were assigned the green Accepted status on May 4th and they haven't appeared on the database yet. Perhaps there's another process they have to go through, or else maybe it all just takes time. They should put in an appearance soon.

Just curious. What is the normal time delay between having an upload marked as Accepted and seeing it in the GamesDB?

Hi Brad I've been adding games to the BBC Micro platform. Can you list the games which have Overviews containing cheats and answers to puzzles, so I can see if this involves any of my uploads.

Hi folks. This is asking me for an eMail address and a password. Can this password be anything, or must it be the password normally used with the eMail address? Also, what is a Gamer Tag? Is it a user name, e.g. scree?

Hi kerszr. WinKawaks will automatically open your games when launched from LaunchBox if you set it up using the example in the attached image.

Breakout is a TTL game like Pong and it uses the same Mame driver, pong.cpp. I remember playing it with DICE. It's classed as working in Mame since 0.161. It doesn't seem to be included in the full Mame 0.172 romset. At least I couldn't find it. However, If you run Mame itself and do a search for it, it appears as Breakout [TTL]. To play it via LaunchBox, make a dummy zip called breakout.zip and add this to Mame's roms folder and then the game can be set up and played using LaunchBox.

Hi Jason. I just grabbed the beta 15 and it's working fine except fot the VLC engine issue. The error will always occur whenever VLC is selected as the video option for either LaunchBox or BigBox. In LaunchBox, with the right sidebar (game details) open, the space for the video window just shows as the sidebar background. Right clicking the sidebar brings up the LaunchBox error I posted earlier. In BigBox the video window briefly shows part of the Desktop before the LaunchBox error appears. However, this is not a biggie, as the WMP option works perfectly for me in LaunchBox and BigBox. As I mentioned before, I'm running Windows Vista SP2 x86, which may be causing my issues.

I use those additional app settings to play many games including PC games and all work ok. As far as I'm aware other members use the same additional app structure for Xpadder. I did have issues with some PC games that could read my controller and would do their own thing. So when Xpadder said Shoot the game might also tell the character to jump. Disabling the game's own controller support and just leaving keyboard input support solved those issues for me.

You need to make 2 additional apps. One to start Xpadder before the game and the second to close Xpadder once you quit the game. See attached images for examples.

All the mentioned emulators will work fine with Neo Geo games through LaunchBox. On the WinKawaks issue with frontends. This emulator automatically opens games via LaunchBox provided the following two boxes are enabled in the Edit Emulator window. Don't use quotes etc. Use file name only without file extension or folder path etc. If you add a parameter to open WinKawaks in proper full screen, then you will most likely have an error on exiting the game. This is a WinKawaks and not a LaunchBox issue. It's best to run WinKawaks in full screen windowed mode. A niggling thing with WinKawaks is the need to pause emulation in order to quit. And WinKawaks limits you to CPS1, CPS2 and NeoGeo systems.

I'm also confused about the buying premades reference. I don't use RL, so I make lay files to use bezel artwork with MAME. If I can't find artwork then I make my own. For example, I couldn't find any backdrops for the games Chaos Heat and Alligator Hunt, so I went ahead and made my own. Also I totally agree with Drybonz. Making bezels for your own use is great fun.

So here's my first attempts at bezel artwork for Mess systems in Mame. Mame Mess artwork is on the system level, unlike Mame arcade artwork which can be for individual games. Image 1 is of the Mame Epoch Super Cassette Vision system (scv) running the game Y2 Monster Land with bezel artwork. Image 2 is of the Mame Funtech Super Acan system (supracan) running the game Journey To The Laugh (aka CUG) with bezel artwork. My actual artwork backdrops are 2560 x 1440 (16:9), with a screen bezel of 1880 x 1440 (suited to 4:3 games).

Using beta 13.

Hi Jason. I can't get the videos to work when the VLC engine is selected. This applies to both LaunchBox and BigBox modes. LaunchBox just stops responding and has to be process stopped. BigBox returns the error box in the attached image. I'm using Windows 32-bit. The WMP option plays the videos ok in LaunchBox and BigBox.

Hi Jason. I just updated from Beta 6 (rolledback) to Beta 12. What can I say? LaunchBox latest is running away merrily on my Windows Vista SP2 x86. You are the cat's pyjamas.

Hi Jason. I'm on Windows 32-bit and I just updated to Beta 10. Downloading and extraction works fine. Then comes the Initialization and Populating part. Populating Emulators and Games seem to be ok. It's when it goes to Populating Settings that it hangs with the Windows error message. This is the same as was happening with updating to Beta 9. Now, if I try to run LaunchBox beta 10, it starts the Populating thing again and brings up the Windows error at the Populating Settings stage. But if I run BigBox beta 10, then this launches ok.

Hi Jason. I've emailed my XML file. And this is what I get when trying to install Beta 9.

I just tried to update from beta 6 to beta 9. I got the standard Windows Explorer error box telling me that LaunchBox has stopped and asking me to close the program when the installation reaches the Populating Settings bit. Rolled back successfully to beta 6.

Nice work Drybonz. I've decided to start using bezels. They'll be great when I get my own personal large screen tv for gaming. Here's a link to Mr Do for default Mame artwork for all games that can be included in a Mame compile. He does different aspect ratios and also horizontal and vertical bezels and he includes the lays. He also explains how to compile. http://mrdo.mameworld.info/mame_artwork_generic.php Personally, I don't want to compile as I prefer individual artwork for each game. Easy for me as I only have a small Mame collection. I decided to start with my NeoGeo game collection of 24 games. I wanted all my NeoGeo games to have the same look so I'm using a NeoGeo Hyperspin bezels pack as my source of Background pngs. I needed to use PaintNet to centre the bezel frame image on a transparency to match the Hyperspin NeoGeo Background images. Once done I made a lay file to match. I can now make a bezel for all my NeoGeo games by layering one onto the other with PaintNet and saving the flattened image. I've only done one game so far as I can't decide which style to use - game Background png layered over my frame png or vice-versa. The attached images show my two styles.

A bezel artwork file for Mame in it's simplest form will have a lay file and a png for the bezel. More complex ones will have several pngs for a choice of bezel as well as marquee, control panel etc. These multiple views are selectable from within Mame's Video Options menu. The lay file can be either named after the game or set to default. The artwork zip holding all these files should be named to match the game zip. The names for the various pngs can be anything, as they will be referenced in the lay file when it's being made. So the artwork file for the game mslug.zip will also be named mslug.zip, and it's lay file can be either mslug.lay or default.lay.

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!

Forget GameEx. We want Gold.

For default ones, one for vertical games and another for horizontal ones, see the link. http://www.jammaplus.co.uk/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=62800&title=mame-virtual-cab-widescreen-artwork The trick is in getting Mame to see that there is no artwork available for a particular game and use your default. To do this the default artwork needs to be a part of Mame, so you need to compile your own Mame. Scroll down through the link for help on this. If compiling is out then you could just make copies of your default artwork and rename to match all the games that have no artwork. The only easy way I know of getting Mame to use one artwork for several games is where the artwork zip is named to match a particular bios. If you made an artwork and named it neogeo.zip, then all your games that use the neogeo bios will recognise it. It may not automatically appear on first run like a custom one would, but you can set it in the Mame Videos Options menu. Any neogeo game that has it's own artwork would, of course, use this instead of your neogeo generic one.