spycat

Just tested another PS1 game. This is in mdf, mds format (607 MB). Testing the 7Z format (351 MB). Game launches ok with a startup time of approx 1 minute. On exit the temp folder is cleared Second run fails with the now empty temp folder still present. Deleting the temp folder itself allows the game to be run again. Testing the Windows created Zip format (408 MB). Same result as above, but with a startup time of approx 35 seconds I don't know why LaunchBox removes the mdf and mds files, but won't do it for a bin, cue format. Out of curiosity, when running these compressed games, does LaunchBox know to use the cue and not the bin?

I took the PS1 game Alien Ressurection (ePSXe emulator) as my test game. This is in bin, cue format (370 MB). Using 7Zip I made two zipped copies in 7Z (165 MB) and Zip ( 192 MB) formats. I also used the Windows Send To option to create a Zip (193 MB) format. Testing the 7Z format. Game launches ok with a startup time of approx 28 seconds. Second run fails due to the temp folder not being cleared on game exit. Deleting the temp folder allows the game to be run again. Testing the Zip format made with 7Zip. Failed. Testing the Windows created Zip format. Game launches ok with a startup time of approx 10 seconds. Second run fails due to the temp folder not being cleared on game exit. Deleting the temp folder allows the game to be run again. Using the old method of launching from the CUE is instant.

Hi Derek. There's a new tickbox in the Edit Emulator, Emulator Details window. It's default is blank, so you need to enable it on an emulator basis. Mind you I haven't tested it myself yet.

Wow! You guys are in Mame's Premier Division. I've got a handpicked collection of just over 100 games. My Mame roms folder is 1.8 GB, 390 MB of which is down to three CHDs. I don't bother with clones as a rule apart from the one that allows me to play Alligator Hunt.

For the Intellivision you can also try out the Nostalgia emulator. http://www.intellivision.us/intvgames/nostalgia/nostalgia.php For Apple II see here https://github.com/AppleWin/AppleWin/releases/ As regards MESS, I'm inclined to agree with Derek. MESS is a mess, but it's an organised mess which will work if you stick with it. I use MESS as a last resort. Currently I use it for two platforms because I can't find a standalone emulator for one, and the other lacks game saving which MESS supports.

There seems to be no standalone emulator for it. I haven't checked RetroArch as I haven't got around to trying that out yet. MESS emulates it with no bios needed. Parameters supracan -cart

This isn't working properly either. When you right-click to download images the Banner (jpg) downloads ok, but the pngs all download in a reduced size. And the attachments still throw up the 500 Server error. Enough of this, I'm away to play a game.

OK so here goes the full hog.

Hi Derek. Yes I've noticed it too. I get a 500 Server error. I'm also getting this error if I try to open very recent attachments by other posters, but older attachments open ok.

For anyone emulating the Funtech Super A'Can, here are some platform images for use in BigBox. Banner 600x513 jpg Clear Logo 900x300 png A choice of Device 1920x1200 png (16:10 ratio) and 1920x1080 png (16:9 ratio).

Hi GatoSoft. Sorry if I misunderstood you. Yes I see that LaunchBox uses the tallest box aspect ratio to work out a common vertical spacing for all rows. And this applies across all platforms. So one platform using just one tower box means that other platforms using all landscape style boxes are forced to use the same spacing. I had the same problem with my imported box covers having different aspects; some tall, others wide and the rest sort of squarish. I ended up manually sourcing my box fronts so that they all have a common tower style 5:7 ratio. I started with The Cover Project and then went elsewhere for anything they didn't have. This was ok for me with a tiny collection of about 470 games across 15 platforms. For big game collections this solution takes far too much time and effort. Also, it's not a solution if you prefer your N64 boxes and maybe others in landscape style. Hopefully a solution might be put in place soon.

Hi GatoSoft. I don't think LaunchBox has this as an auto- adjust feature. You can reduce row gap manually though. See Tools, Options, Spacing.

Yes it is. Many thanks Brad.

After logging in I get an error message when I try any of the tabs Profile, Options and so on. This message is for the Profile tab. Profile form could not be found: [Account Settings] You might try the forum - toolbox - housekeeping admin form and reset the profile tabs and menus and see if that helps. Where is this form?

If you use the keyboard instead of a controller to move about in BigBox you can do the same from a Platform's Games List without opening the game's menu. P to run the game. F to toggle the box cover front/back view. I to view the images. See Keyboard Mapping for full info.

These old advertisements are worth preserving if only for their artistic content. When it came to things like cars, wireless, television etc they invariably showed well heeled folk enjoying the benefits. Game advertisements suggested an experience a PS4 developer would kill for. The funniest by far were those showing a woman using the product with the unspoken message that this is so simple even the wife can use it. Try selling that today. However, the bottom line has not changed - buy our product and your life will change for the better. Yeah right, unless your product happens to be a winning lottery ticket.

Hi CriticalCid. Thanks for that link. As a newcomer to NeoGeo CD I'm still exploring. By the way NeoRaine 1.3.5 also pops up the IPL.TXT error if you try to run a zipped game. Using extracted games works fine just like the latest Raine32.

I've been playing around with Raine32, NeoGeo CD games and LaunchBox recently. While Raine doesn't mind if the NeoCD bios is zipped or extracted, it would not launch zipped games due to the IPL.TXT file not found. I'm not really sure what this file's full role is. It seems that each game zip needs it's own IPL.TXT file. Apparently it's used to decide the initial files in the zip to load. I've sourced several NeoGeo CD games from various places and not one of them contained an IPL.TXT file. What I did was to extract the zipped games and place the extracted game folders in Raine's roms folder where my NEOCD bios is. Some games consist of an ISO and music files, others an IMG, a CUE and music files, and so on. Using the ISO or CUE launches the games ok. To get LaunchBox to launch NeoGeo CD games with Raine don't use the -g parameter in the Edit Emulator's Default Command Line Parameters. You can use the optional -nogui parameter. Then just point LaunchBox to the game's ISO or CUE etc. I've noticed that the same game can be say 40MB or 400MB depending on the source. The difference in size is down to the music files - a game might use MP3 files and the same game from a different source use the much bigger WAV files. Raine can also play NeoGeo cart games (the ones that Mame, WinKawaks etc plays), as well as Capcom CPS1 and CPS2 games, but I already use WinKawaks for these games. So how do these CD games compare with the cart versions for me? The CD music quality aside, I don't see any differences in the games. Some of the cart versions I play with WinKawaks actually look better, but I haven't played with Raine's video settings or shaders yet. The annoying thing is the almost total absence of documentation. I grabbed a text doc but it's for a much older Raine and I can't tell whats still valid and what's not.

Update: The copy of the emulator I was using was not complete. A new source (courtesy of Neo Kobe) works just fine out of the box and can open games from within LaunchBox. The only blot is that there seems to be no feature to save and load game progress - shades of the actual machine. Still, this is a nice emulator that allows 1980's Super Cassette Vision gaming to be enjoyed and preserved. An alternative to this emulator: Mess (pre 0162b) or Mame with Mess integrated (0162b and later) will work. I've tested it with Mame 0170b. For this you will need the Mess bios for the Super Cassette Vision scv.zip You'll also need to use the params scv -cart The possible attraction of Mame/Mess is that saving is allowed and it works fine for me, although it is officially classed as unsupported. A small number of games may not play and sound issues may be experienced. The epochtv.chr bit of the Mess bios is apparently a bad dump and there doesn't seem to be a good dump available yet. The upd7801g.s01 bit is equivalent to the bios rom used by the SCV emulator itself. Having tried out both I prefer the actual emulator over the Mame/Mess version. If you're interested in playing around with emulators for vintage Japanese systems then check out the Neo Kobe emulator pack. The SCV emulator can be found in the Toshiya Takeda subfolder.

Hi Darren. There are lots of emulators out there for the Spectrum. The best by far is Spectaculator. Unfortunately, this emulator comes with a price tag. You can use it on a 30 day fully enabled free trial. If you decide to buy, you have a choice of buying the current version or buying it with lifetime updates. You could also try a selection of free emulators and then make your mind up.

I see some nice games in here. Two of my favourites, however, appear to have slipped under the radar. Swordigo (Touch Foo). Blob Wars: Attrition (Parallel Realities). By the way, if you're looking for a good free PC game then check out The Legend Of Edgar (Parallel Realities).

I have the same dilemma where all my 2D box fronts are a standard tower style, while my 3D boxes are a mixture of portrait (tower), landscape and squareish depending on the platform. So my 2D versions look neater in LaunchBox mode, and my 3D versions suit BigBox where only one box is seen at a time. LaunchBox doesn't currently have a feature to allow different box fronts depending on the mode (traditional or BigBox). There is, however, an unofficial workaround, but this is only valid if you are not using the Steam Banners feature of LaunchBox. Add your 2D boxart as Fronts, and add your 3D boxart as Steam Banners. Then in LaunchBox go to Tools, Options, Viewing, and make sure the Prefer Steam Banners for box art tick-box is empty. Then in BigBox go to Options, Game Images, and make sure the Prefer Steam Banners for Box Images tick-box is ticked. LaunchBox will now always show your 2D (Fronts) boxes, while BigBox will use a 3D (Steam Banner) box if available. If a game has no 3D box then the 2D box will be shown.

If all of your NeoGeo games are causing a common issue, the fault may lie with your NeoGeo Bios version. Since Mame version 0167b the NeoGeo Bios rom requires an additional file called v2.bin

Now on 5.8 beta 4. Just wondering if anyone else is seeing this error. With the right sidebar open and playing a video, running the game works great, but when I quit the game I get the error shown in the attached image below. Clicking OK closes this error box, but the video never resumes. You need to select another game for video playing to resume.

Hi @ochief. Attached are 5 transparent images named after your 5 BigBox Platforms. These are 32 bit depth png images and are sized as per bd000's 600x513 format. You can download these. Then open your LaunchBox folder and navigate to Images, Platforms, Applications, Banner and put the Applications.png in here. Remove any existing file. Repeat for your other 4 pngs and platforms.