spycat

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.

My vote's in. Now at 13.21%

Try these packs. They are customised for 16:9, but could be reworked for 16:10 if needed. When installed, 3 new settings are added to the Video Options menu. http://ouyaforum.com/showthread.php?9558-MAME4droid-DIY-artwork

And see here too. http://arcadeartwork.org/index.php?/category/17

Just an update on Mess bios files. With the integration of Mess into Mame, the Mess bios files are now included in the full Mame romset. So if you have the latest full Mame romset, then you will also have all the latest Mess bios files. On the other hand, if you just have a collection of Mame games individually sourced, then you will need to manually source any Mess bios files you need. Mess bios packs exist, but they are usually for old Mess builds and will predate the Mess integration. Most of a pack's bios files may be still valid, but some may be outdated. Look for an up to date source of Mame individual romsets and browse for the Mess bios files you want.

Hi fromlostdays. The Mame ini file does not have or need a setting specifically for Mess bios files. The rompath setting is used for all. So when I use a rompath setting of roms;roms\mess\scv;roms\mess\supracan Mame-Mess will pick up my scv.zip bios in roms\mess\scv This is just how I am doing it as I probably will never use more than a few Mess systems, and only then as a last resort. If you plan on using Mess in a big way and want all the systems, then using my approach would result in an unwieldy rompath and best avoided. Instead if you need to have lots or all of the Mess bios files, you would be better off keeping them together in one location. By the way I think there are about 1800 of them. As far as I know to do it this way some conditions apply. The Mess bios files must all go in the Mame roms folder and nowhere else. Each bios must be zipped. They must be named the same as their system shortnames. As regards being zipped and correctly named, they should automatically come like that from whereever. And then your games can go whereever you would like I believe. It's all down to what you need and prefer.

I really didn't know where to post this so I came here. Lately I've noticed a new file in my AppData, Local, Temp folder. Protect830ad659.dll With LaunchBox open, this file can't be deleted. Closing LaunchBox allows me to delete the file either manually or using CCleaner. Starting LaunchBox adds the file again. Nothing else on my PC causes this dll to install. Just wondering if it is part of LaunchBox and what it does.

Mess is integrated into Mame since version 0.162. I'm a newcomer to Mess and just feeling my way about. I'm using Mame 0.171 and so far only added 2 Mess systems, because I couldn't find an emulator for one and the other didn't have game saving in it's emulator. How you add your Mess stuff isn't too important as long as Mame is aware of where things are. The Mame Configuration Settings (ini) file, Core Search Path Options, rompath needs to be edited to know about any new paths. When I decided to add Mess stuff I made a new folder inside the Mame roms folder and called it mess as I wanted to keep Mame and Mess stuff separate. In this mess folder I made subfolders for each system I wanted to add. These subfolders match the system shortnames. For the Funtech Super A'Can system I made a subfolder called supracan. For my Epoch Super Cassette Vision games I added a folder named scv. Most systems need a Mess bios file unique to each system, but not all systems need a bios file. Super Cassette Vision games need a bios file while Super A'Can games do not. The bios is named after the system's shortname. So the Super Cassette Vision bios is named scv.zip and it goes into the scv folder along with my SCV games. Once all done in Mame, setting things up in LaunchBox is straightforward. Say you decide to add a new LaunchBox Platform for say Super A'Can games to run with the Mess side of Mame. Open your Mame Edit Emulator window and add the associated platform with it's own parameters. Usually you'll use 2 parameters, the system shortname followed by the media type. For the Super A'Can the parameters are supracan -cart And then add your games pointing LaunchBox to the game zips. Mess doesn't seem to be too fussy and it will accept the game zip in the full or shortname (Mame style) version. It will also accept the unzipped game. I use the Mame style, renaming where I need to. I agree with Brad and Derek on Mess. Most systems can be handled very well using either RetroArch or standalone emulators. If neither of these options can help you with a system, then by all means see if Mess will do it. Bear in mind that while the Mess systems list is large, not all work and some work without full support.

Just goes to show that underneath that Our Way Not Your's facade, Old Man Google is human.

Hi Jason. I'm testing PS1 games (ePSXe emulator) just using the 7Z format at the moment, and using the new beta 2. Testing a 7Z copy of Tombraider (mdf, mds format). After the 1st launch the temp folder is left empty. The 2nd launch works fine and after exit the mds file is gone but the mdf is left in the temp folder. This doesn't seem to matter as 3rd and later launches all work ok once the mds file is being removed on game exit. Testing a 7Z copy of Tombraider (bin, cue format ripped from my original CD). After the 1st launch the temp folder is left empty. The 2nd and later launches all work fine and after exit the temp folder is left empty. Testing a 7Z copy of Alien Resurrection (bin, cue format). After the 1st launch the bin and cue files remain in the temp folder. This prevents further launching. Now if the temp folder is manually cleared then the game can be launched again. Also if, after each launch and game exit you just delete the cue from the temp folder and leave the bin, then you can launch again. So it looks like the non delete of a cue, mds etc type file may be preventing new launches. Testing a 7Z copy of Metal Gear Solid (bin, cue format). This is a 2 disc game with 2 bins and 2 cues. After the 1st launch the temp folder is left empty. The 2nd and later launches all work fine and after exit the temp folder is left empty. On the subject of games with 2 or more discs, the accepted way of launching the other discs seems to be via Additional Apps. I don't know how this can be done for a compressed game. Launch times are more or less unchanged from beta 1. God only knows what the launch times for compressed PS2 games might be! So at the moment it seems that some games work fine on relaunching while others don't due to stuff left in the temp folder. Might it be better for LaunchBox to delete rather than try to clear the temp folder on game exit?