websherpa

I don't have much experience with other emulators and perhaps I have imagined the scenario incorrectly, but often when changing versions of the MAME emulator, you need to update the game ROMs at the same time. But I guess the idea here would be to delete the old ROMs and re-import, I was just wondering if it was worthwhile to test for a file created date to do a merge instead (i.e. keep most recent dates, replace older dates).

Is there an "Scan for Updated ROMs" function? If not, perhaps that should be built in (by file creation date compare), or it should replace duplicate Roms by default (perhaps with a warning dialogue) as presumably if you are scanning for new roms, then you want to replace your old Rom set if it exists. (Just a noobie thought.)

Odd then that I can't preview only the EmuMovies that are the non-Unified versions. It seems to find the files (the pause I am experiencing is likely them downloading and I have an exceedingly fast connection), but they never begin to play for me. All of the other videos (for the Arcade Emulator that is) work find.

P.S. Removing the VLC folder from Launchbox and then restarting Launchbox re-installs the older 2.2.2 version of the VLC and runs it from the local folder instead of natively from the updated version installed on the system (and the EmuMovies non-Unified videos still won't play for me).

You launch new Betas faster than I can test, lol! But in case the most recent doesn't take care of it: After latest LaunchBox Beta release: All EmuMovies that aren't "Unified" themes won't play for me in preview. VLC (2.2.2) launches, the URL shows at the top, screen remains blank .... long download wait, and then URL disappears from top (VLC window remains open). Video doesn't play (all other previews work for me and stream video almost immediately). URL for EmuMovies that won't run starts with: api.gamesdbase.com/ All other videos launch and preview as expected except that you must close their windows before playing an additional preview as launching a new preview doesn't close the prior instance of VLC VLC has now reverted to v 2.2.2 Weathermax whereas most recent version is 2.2.4 (which contains security updates). So far after taking out my natively installed VLC it hasn't asked me to update VLC, but I suspect it will (and when it does, it will install it natively on my hard drive's program folder BUT LaunchBox will continue to run the version in it's folder and thus trigger a circle of requests to update).

Thank you (I thought I was going nuts). I guess the question still remains for Nyny77 videos, and also about the integrated VLC app. i.e. when Launchbox runs VLC(from it's packaged version) VLC asks if it can Update, and if you do, it installs VLC natively, but LaunchBox keeps running the older packaged version.

I wasn't certain if this was the right place to post this. I am not sure if I am experiencing a Beta bug or just a set-up issue. (I have Launchbox and Emu Movies Premium "lifetime" Licenses. I can use the new "Download Platform Theme Videos" Preview link for BigBox Cinematic Videos, EmuMovies Unified and Nyny77 Videos (it launches a new instance of VLC , downloads and plays the video). But when trying to Preview either Viking or any other EmuMovies Videos; VLC launches, it sits there for a while (showing the video URL at the top, black screen with pylon) and then stops (URL at the top disappear). No crashing per se, just no video. I do notice that LaunchBox launches a pre-packed version of VLC included in it's distribution folder and not the VLC version installed on my machine (it keeps asking to be updated, but updates the installed version, not the packed version). Makes me wonder whether I'm missing something? Any ideas what might be going on? Thank you, great feature!

Sorry, it was my typo, I meant to type "difference between the two image sources" - sorry for the confusion. I haven't spent much time comparing images from the LaunchBox database vs from EmuMovies. Although I am being a bit lazy here, but is there much difference worth investigating (I've always had a lifetime membership to EmuMovies as well). I'm trying to figure out how one qualifies themself as in or out of the majority of users I guess! Thank you again for your time on this, and my apologies to the OP (I didn't mean to crash your party!).

Thank you for making it more clear. I for one wouldn't know the qualitative difference between the two movie sources (although I used EmuMovies back when I set up my first Hyperspin cabinet).

Sorry, just to help me understand better, was there a specific answer to smpetty's valid question " When scraping, is it best to select or deselect the "Prioritize images over the Launchbox Games Database and Wikipedia?" checkbox? I can't see to find the tutorial or another direct description of what this option does (since it is in the EmuMovies Import Roms tab, I have assumed that it means "If an image exists in EmuMovies, then use it before LB Games Database and Wikipedia." But it's not clear which images and if that also applies to movies? It might be useful to understand the scenario where choosing that option would be a good idea? Thank you for helping clarify.

Here's a rather good example of a community Wiki related to Emulation Gaming: http://strategywiki.org

Basically Wiki's are "living" documents and best contributed to by an entire community. Although in a semi-commercial product such as this, Wiki leadership is sponsored by the product's internal team, it doesn't have to be that way - ESPECIALLY since we're all contributing to an informal Wiki by participating on a forum answering questions anyway. Usually one person near the top sets out what they think might be an "ideal" starting index (with little to no content - or maybe even just links to existing Video Tutorials, or the odd relevant Forum post). And then community members jump in to take on adding content to an "area of interest" that they have experience with based on their journey. As members see mistakes or areas in need of updates, they start by simply marking it as such (so new reader's are caveated) and then someone who has the time / inclination jumps in to make additions, corrections, etc. Members can then easily add on "branches" of information pertaining to very esoteric set-ups if they want to share set-up knowledge (and screenshots, etc.). In an even more "ideal" setup, there is a dedicated but very knowledgeable editor who, despite not having enough time to add "Everything" gets notified of member's flags on existing content, and new content, and can do a brief review to tweak or correct where necessary (and/or police / moderate irrelevant information). No, I am not volunteering.

I'm going through this learning curve myself as I haven't done a front end set-up for MAME (or anything) in a while and as you get older it gets harder to retain all the nuances. What I have found is that if Launchbox can find and launch MAME, but the screen changes but reverts right back to LB/BB, then one of a couple things are happening. Either 1) LaunchBox has the wrong path to the MAME executable, or 2) LB/BB launches MAME, but then MAME can't find the requested ROM (which means MAME's mamexx.ini file's paths aren't set correctly), or 3) MAME can find the ROM, but can't find other necessary game assets like a CHD or bios (which either means that asset is missing, or again, the path to those assets is set incorrectly in mamexx.ini What I am finding is that importing MAME Roms games into LaunchBox is not as straight-forward as it appears in Brad's tutorial as he demonstrates it from a previously set up system (instead of from scratch). For some reason when you import Games into Launch box it will scrape "most" of the info for a game (but not everything FROM the existing MAME set, like bezels, existing images) and IF you happen to let LaunchBox copy your game roms into LaunchBox itself, then it doesn't update MAME's mamexx.ini file to tell the emulator where to find the Roms or any other game assets that have been moved. At least that's what I am gathering so far. ----- Lack of a complete WIKI makes it a somewhat more complex for a noobie (and us short-term memory challenged folk) who are striving for a simple "out of the LaunchBox" setup experience. If you have a complete MAME set (i.e. A certain version of MAME with matched ROMs interest roms folder) that likely means someone has set up that set to work from that directory, and you shouldn't necessarily have LaunchBox move the games, but should play them from where they are. I ran into an issue where if you want to use an updated MAME version (but with an older MAME game set), and keep the separate, it can get very confusing for MAME to use and find all of the assets without truly understanding how the mamexx.ini file works. [It would be "really" great for MAME folks if when importing MAME Roms into LaunchBox, it also looks for all of the other assets / folders and then resets the MAME emulator's mamexx.ini automatically to the correct paths. Likewise it would be fantastic if LaunchBox could also see the set-up of control mappings 1) automatically, and then 2) be a GUI interface to further make changes on an emulator by emulator basis without having to rely on AHK.] Instead of Tutorial Videos alone (that age and are long)... LB/BB needs a thorough WIKI-based indexed tutorial that can be forked (and updated) for set-ups for each specific emulator and controller, etc. (And videos can be added to them and updated as needed.) We also need a screen by screen, option by option illustrated description of all that LB/BB can do (right now there seems to be an assumption that LB/BB users can start at the beginning and watch and learn all of the evolutions and feature additions that have been made sequentially in order to understand what each option does). Without such a resource, a Forum such as this becomes difficult to navigate / search for answers, and noob questions are repeated and repeated. (And as LB/BB gets more sophisticated and has more options, new users will get frustrated quickly and revert to simpler front ends - like what we experienced with HyperSpin.)

I don't have a coded answer, but AHK is relatively easy to program so that all or portions of its scripts are application and even game specific so it can even be used to create combo button sequences for some fight games.