fromlostdays

Just remember that you can name your systems whatever you want and just "scrape as" the Launchbox database name for the system. I'm not saying consistency shouldn't be an aim but it isn't as if you're locked in to the database names. It doesn't have to look "inconsistent" to you, whatever your preferences are, which is the most important thing.

I can't say I've tested 100s of CHDs to validate this or deny it but, it should be clarified that CHD compression is lossless. PBP is not lossless and I don't think theres any way to convert PBP files back to ISO. I would not use PBP. If you ever run into a CHD game that won't load let me know. I'll certainly test to confirm.

Its also worth noting that Ishiiruka Dolphin doens't support .rvz yet if you use the fork for anything. However, with those compression numbers Im sure they are going to invest time in making it work. The Dolphin core MAY be a different story though, as I read they removed it from Retorarch? I'm not sure but they may have stopped working on it.

This is most certainly widely known but I just finally got around to converting to CHD for disk based collections (saturn, dreamcast, ps1) and though its a bit of work (there is a bat that works for bin/cue and gdi that will do your whole set but it does take a while) and I personally have a lot of space anyway the compression is strikingly good with no affect on gameplay. I recommend this. Also dolphin now supports a compression method called RVZ that's pretty much the same story as above. And if you're a retroarch fan, the flycast core, mednafen saturn and psx HW core all support CHD. (Probably more do those are just the ones I use)

Great hack for Super Mario Bros. Wii. Box and Disc art exist but no logo.

Yeah this isn't the best thread for this question, plus there are a lot of other threads that address it, but basically, putting it all on an SSD wouldn't hurt, but since this hobby often comes with ... HD space issues order of importance on an SSD = Launchbox and all its media (this is where you may actually see a noticeable difference) > Emulators (Jury is still out. I've personally seen no difference on an SSD or just regular external, but they are usually small enough to just throw on the SSD anyway) > games (no real reason for these to be on an SSD, no speedup and you won't see any difference.)

I update pretty much as soon as its available (stable, no beta) give or take a day or two, so the last update. When I said "it just started happening yesterday after the update" I should have been more clear. I just started NOTICING it that evening after updating because I finally had time to start tinkering with the new features (Tinkering meaning setting up controller buttons for screenshots and testing that out, that's all). It is possible it was happening before the 11.2 update and I just didn't notice. For a couple of weeks I've been playing nothing but Chrono Cross so I wasn't really scrolling around BigBox all that much. It's definitely a somewhat recent development though. I've seen this behavior before but I think last time switching to VLC fixed it, and I've never seen it only happening on one theme like this. Edit: Sorry I know that's not a great timeframe to work with for troubleshooting.

@CriticalCid I absolutely love this theme. Been using it for a long time. However, after I downloaded the Launchbox 11.2 update yesterday, I noticed that the videos (particularly one in the game list view) won't close and continue running. More specifically (just an example, can happen with any game/system), I open bigbox, navigate to N64, navigate to Smash Bros., open the game details, back out, back out again to the Platform list and the Smash Bros. video is still playing, indefinitely. I tested 2 or 3 other themes including the Default theme and your own BlueBox and I can't replicate the issue. It *seems* to only happen with Aeon MQ7. Like I said, I've been using the theme for a while and this just started happening yesterday after the update. I also tried switching from VLC to WMP in the launchbox legacy video options but to no effect.

65 inch 4k tv basically only controller here. I feel your pain haha. I can't recommend this enough: if like me you take a gotta have it all approach to retrogaming, I recommend having 2 Launchbox/Bigbox setups. The first is for everything (and with the expectation that not everything is going to look good, be smooth or even work). The second is a much smaller handpicked assortment of systems and games where you can control and really put time into the details and creating a flawless experience. Use the second one for common use and work on both at your leisure.

MAME is a popular system. I admit I haven't really checked as I've been handpicking games, but there should be plenty of logos. But lets talk about some other things you can do: Select all your Mame games, and Go to Tools/Download Media and Metadata. Tell it not to override existing Metadata. Wait. (New things get added to the LB database all the time, you may be able to pickup some missing artwork this way. Hit the web and look for MAME logo packs. Just in case some of the logos exist but aren't in the LB database yet. Use something like Flamingtext (website) to pump out logos that are missing. Won't be true game logos but you can control the size etc. Use the Audit feature to hide games with missing logos. *Recommended: if I have a system with too many missing logos, I'll use a Bigbox theme that supports a text view. I think many/most do, but I am partial to the Switch theme. This view doesn't use logos at all and standardizes (is that a word!?) the game names into a text list that looks even and is sized correctly. Find a theme/change view that displays not logos but boxes or something else which you might potentially have more of. Thats about the sum of your options. If its a particular game that is really good and you just really want the logo and to have it in your collection, user seaview has a thread on this forum where if you provide him with a good picture of the logo, he'll cut it out and make it transparent for you. Goodluck! EDIT: When you say logo, we think of clear logo which would have to be game specific. I think what you're really asking is: is there any way to change the TEXT display for games without logos font size etc. I'm actually not sure, but I'd bet you'd have to edit the theme. OR, see recommended on the list above.

... in a way there is. You obviously can't have a single default logo that would cover all games in the system as the games have different names but you can always find/download/create a logo for each game, name them after the game and put them in images/[system]/clear logos folder.

This is probably way out of left field but what are you using for controllers? I had a similar issue a while back and I was pulling my hair out. It turned out that having Steam open was hooking into my xbox controller and the Desktop theme had a button combo on it (I don't remember ever messing with it at all) that was pulling me out of games by pulling the emulator out of fullscreen (lovely coincidence). I'm not saying its Steam but if you're using any keybinding software you could check there. I'd go through the MAME keybindings as well to make sure everything is in order just to be safe. I don't think MAME allows you to bind combos but it might allow you to bind the same button or key for multiple things which might be a problem. Then again, that you hear the game but can't Alt Tab back to it (if I'm understanding the emulator is blackscreening?) it might be something with MAME itself? Have you tried to see if the same behavior happens with MAME outside of the LB/BB environment? I personally would definitely uncheck all of the options in that screenshot. That's all cool stuff but when you're testing its all also EXTRA stuff. Rule it out. If it isn't the emulator, something about your setup is making the emulator lose focus. I wonder if those annoying Windows 10 notifications could do it? Or some other program trying to notify you of something? More information would help. Controller or keyboard setup (one or two controllers, what kind, any mappers), MAME emulator version, have you tested in both LB and BB, windows version, how many monitors etc. Its not normal behavior and I'm just spitballing but I don't think LB/BB ever tries to take control of your screen except maybe with that Hide All Windows thing you have checked and maybe the pause menu. So I personally can't imagine how launchbox itself would be pulling you out of games.

Just getting to this emulator. I have it running. NPS file. Works in Yuzu. My problem is I can't find the Yuzu executable haha. I'm all up in the app data folders... it installed as a .lnk file in windows startup by that doesn't seem to be working when set as the emulator in launchbox. Anyone know where the actual exe is? I found it. It was in Local not Roaming.

For some reason I had "Don't use Quotes" checked. I think I was reading the other thread about Archimedes where that's recommend. Either way, thanks a bunch for the screenshot! Its working perfectly now. Cheers

Hey all. Trying to use ElectrEm for this... but when launched through LB it doens't load the game. The emulator comes up with a Basic prompt. Is there a setting or something in the emulator to get it to launch directly into the game? Thanks!

Here's one for Microsoft MS- DOS. Thanks!

So we're talking about MAME games? You're saying your MAME zips aren't working in any version of the MAME standalone emulator?

I'm wondering: how is information under Associated Platforms stored in Launchbox? Is there an editable text file, like a cfg or something? I ask because for both MAME and Retroarch, my Associated Platforms are numerous and wild haha. I added as I went along, but I'd definitely like to have the information sorted alphabetically now as the lists are growing. It would be easier to just cut and paste entries if there was an editable text file. Thank!

We tried it at the same time haha. Yeah, no joy. Follow Up to Retro808s suggestions: Neither suggestion is working. Command Line Results: So the first thing I noticed is that the option atari800_system = "5200" is not saved in the .cfg file but the .opt file. I tried every variation of the command line using absolute paths, relative paths and tried injecting atari800_system = "5200" into both configs and option files and unless I missed something it doesn't work (maybe anymore, maybe something is changed in RA). Save Per Directory Results: I also went ahead and tested how Retroarch is handling the save per directory - it saves a file in config/atari800 named after the rom folder which is named after the game in my case. So if I launch Astro Chase (USA).a52 and save any options per directory I get a .cfg file in there named "Astro Chase.cfg" (which is the name of the folder its in, game name minus region). I tried renaming this .cfg to "Atari 5200" which is the parent directory for all my game folders and no joy. This isn't a super pressing issue, as I know as a last resort I can just do another version of retroarch with a different config, but I would like to explore alternatives further.

Thanks! There's a problem with this method for me though, I think. I keep every one of my roms in a separate folder... or rather I group versions of the each game into their own folder. I think this messes with retroarch's Save Per Directory option unless I could somehow save set the config to save options one directory up... I appreciate the heads up though! I'm about to test the command line you recommended.

Heya, So I'm wanting to use the Atari800 core in Retroarch for both Atari 5200 and Atari 8-Bit. In order to do that I need each system to launch a different core option - the Atari System option can either be set to 800 or 5200. So, I know I could just create another instance of retroarch and save myself the trouble. I could also make game option files for each game in 5200 (it being the smaller of the list) but I'm wondering if I can do this via custom command line? If so I could just use this: to set every Atari 5200 game with a custom command line telling it to launch a different Core config. So, if its possible, does anyone know what the command line would look like? I remember this used to tell launchbox what core to launch -L "cores\[core name]_libretro.dll" Is there a variation of this command that I could use to define a different core config, rather than a different core? Thanks!

Also make sure you're importing the cue files, not the Bin/Iso files.

Was this your problem @itsturningred?

You don't have to point Launchbox to both places. You don't import CHDs into launchbox, just the zips. I didn't know MAME could handle what you just described (I thought the CHDs had to be in the rom folder) but if you're right about that, just import the zips and play. Launchbox only sends the game to the emulator (in this case, the zip file to the mame.exe), if the emulator is handling it outside of launchbox, it will work the same if you're launching from within launchbox. In other words, mame handles CHDs internally. LB doesn't have anything to do with it. To answer your question though, about how to point it two folders, you could just import one folder and then the other to the same system. (Again, you don't need to do this for Arcade as CHDs are extra info tied to a parent rom/zip/game, they are not actual games themselves. Think of them as something that MAME needs to run certain games better.)

I'm not completely sure but you may be able to use the Audit feature for this. Import and download only 3D boxes. Audit the system. Sort by 3D boxes (This is the part I'm not sure about, I know you can sort by video etc.) If it sorts, highlight the games without 3D boxes and bulk update the media to download 2D boxes. Again, not sure but its worth a try.