Lordmonkus

Yeah, AAE. Just remember it's very particular about the rom set it uses.

Mame does enhance but AAE does something else, like I said I think it overlays the vector lines with .png files, it looks really clean and crisp.

Well to be fair to it, it does have the neat feature of enhancing the vector lines so they look really good. I think it overlays or replaces the vector lines with a picture format if I remember correctly. I only looked at it briefly since I really had no interest in it and it requires a specific rom set.

Nothing I am aware of.

Yeah my first reaction on loading this up was it was a bit blinding with all the small text. It took a me a few moments of looking at it to absorb it all but it's all there.

For people who have a difficult time with Retroarchs "ribbon" UI you may want to check out this alternative called SkeletonKey. Some screenshots on the website to get a look at it. I did test it out briefly and I will just say this about it, it's not better or worse, just different. Retroarch is still a complex program with many options and settings and can be overwhelming. Simply install the program wherever you want on your PC and point it to your Retroarch install if you have it installed already or you can have it download the necessary files for you. http://romjacket.mudlord.info/SKELETONKEY/

You can either copy your media over to the appropriate folders in Launchbox\Images and Launchbox\Videos or you can just direct Launchbox to your media folders in the Manage Platforms section of Launchbox.

Ahh, unfortunately I have no experience using the PS3 controller. I use an XBox 360 and a wireless Logitech controller. Yeah good old Notepad++ works great for changing rom paths in the xml files I recently moved my collection over to a different drive and used the copt / replace all function to make it nice and fast.

Yeah shady ass people trying to make money off shit they don't own, it's the internet afterall. lol

Are you having to repoint to every game "rom" file ? If you are depending on how many games you have you may be better off just re-importing your games and not have it scrape for metadata or artwork. Or if you are comfortable using the copy / replace all function in notepad you can edit the file locations in the platforms xml file, so in this case it would be the Sony Playstation 2.xml. Just out of curiosity, what are you using input mapper for ? Forgive me if I missed it somewhere earlier in the thread.

Yup, the first time is always the hardest. Once you do it a couple of times you will be able to do it in your sleep

Yeah N64 emulation is a mess, it seems to be good on first glance but it's really in an overall awful state and Retroarchs N64 core is even worse than the stand alone options.

Just open the Retroarch Quick Menu with your controller. By default the the F1 key on your keyboard will open it or if you are using an Xbox 360 controller the "Live" button (the one in the middle) will open it. Or if you are using an Playstation controller the "PS" button will work and even the Logitech controllers has a button as well. You can also set a button or combo in Retroarch in the bindings.

Retroarch needs to use the cue sheet, if they aren't loading you either have a bad bios file or bad disk image.

Stand alone emulators do work but depending on the emulator sometimes there can be some minor hitches to work out. Some are easier to sort out than others. The draw for Retroarch is the emulation quality in general is very good, some cores aren't so good but there aren't many. Retroarch also has great shaders, easy to manage save states and very low input and audio lag once certain settings are tweaked.

Then you really should check out Mame with either HLSL or BGFX shaders. The problem with Retroarchs shaders is that they look really awful on games with a vertical orientation, they are for horizontal 4:3. HLSL and BGFX shaders don't care if the game is vertical or horizontal, they just look right. Here's a tutorial I did on getting Mame setup using the command line version if you need it. Here is a tutorial I did on BGFX shaders. And if you prefer HLSL over BGFX here is a preset I have for it.

What exactly do you want to know about AAE ? It's just an emulator that's specifically for vector line games is it not ? It's not a platform or a system on it's own at all.

There are Retroarch tutorials. If you want a good stand alone emulator for the NES try out puNES, it's really nice.

Have you tried using the stand alone Mame with the new BGFX shaders ? They look really good and you don't have to worry about vertical oriented games looking like shit with a CRT shader. That is of course if you use CRT shaders at all. Maybe one solution would be to import your roms into one platform like Arcade and then you can reassign a game to another platform after. That would be very tedious though. Also with some of the new features coming in the next version of LB you can have customized categories so you could create sub platforms like Arcade > NeoGeo.

I think the difference in scraping is just the artwork it pulls, poster vs box. I guess im confused as to what you are really trying to accomplish with FBA and Mame. Just personal opinion here but I see no reason whatsoever to use FBA over Mame. There is no benefit since the emulation quality is equally good and Mame is easier to work with along with better shaders.

Pretty much.

Yes.

Just create a new platform with the name you want like Arcade FBA and scrape as Arcade so it gets all the meta data. This way you will have your separated platforms Yes do the same thing for NeoGeo, I have this done as well. AVS is the home version of the NeoGeo while MCS is the arcade version. They are essentially the same thing but the home version has some extra options suitable for a home console. With a NeoGeo Unibios you can toggle between the home and arcade version of the game, the toggle is in the core option for FBA in Retroarch.

They are essentially the same, though with the NeoGeo Unibios you can toggle between the home and arcade versions. Retroarch has the option to enable the Unibios in the core options menu and in Mame I believe you have to enable it in the mame.ini file. This of course is dependent upon your bios zip file having the Unibios file in it.

If you have imported them they should be in the platform you imported them to which by default is "Arcade". Then if you have Mame setup in Launchbox they should be playable just by double clicking the game in Launchbox. Since you are new to Launchbox I highly suggest checking out Brads tutorial videos starting with the systems you are interested in first. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSIht6UXIEXIgz4eXAEShxA