Beatlemaniac19

I think this is a great idea! For those looking for a nostalgic desktop experience this would be perfect with Big Box.

Thanks @lordmonkus I'll definitely give that a try

I have a unique tutorial request @SentaiBrad. Can you do a tutorial on how to make Big Box automatically start up on your gaming computer when powering on your PC? I don't want anyone, including myself, to ever see the operating system and it'd be really cool to be able to have Big Box automatically start up immediately once you launch your PC. If we can get this working then Big Box will truly be a plug and play system.

Is there a tutorial on how to convert PS1 games into PBP format? I'd like to see that. Also, I've heard that not all PS1 games are compatible with this format. Is there an official compatibility list for PS1 games that are supported in PBP format?

Fair Use gets shoved aside from a few abusive big corporations. I agree that DRM is not bad in all cases, but there needs to be more rights for the consumers. YouTube is the worst offender. The fact that you can't play a song on a commercial channel or give a negative movie review without your video being flagged is ridiculous.

Alright. If you do plan that tutorial then I'm definitely looking toward it :) Btw what external hard drive do you recommend? I've had external hard drives crash in the past (probably because I got cheap ones). Ideally, I want to get an external hard drive that has a huge terabyte size (6 TB + minimally) and has a low probably of failing. Also, if the external hard drive is recoverable if it fails, then that's the cherry on top. What do you recommend? Whatever is the best external hard drive, I'd like to buy two so one can be used for gaming and the other can be used as a safety backup.

That makes sense lol. Pretty easy solution I might add. If you do a tutorial on this can you do a two step process then? You could show how you set up backing up and syncing our LaunchBox folders in Dropbox and/or Google Drive and then also how to backup your games and emulators from PC to PC? Maybe if there is a sync button you can click in LaunchBox/Big Box to make this automatically pull the data from the cloud after you set up the process, it could make it a one click process. I recommend Google Drive, if possible. It's free for up to 15 gigabytes of storage. All you need to do is get a Gmail, if you don't have one.

I'm all for backing up our data via the cloud and making sure that we never lose all of the work that goes into making our collection beautiful. However, we need to be cautious. I've heard stories about the "security" of backing up our stuff on the cloud. I just did a quick Google search and came up with this article about Dropbox's surveillance of copyrighted material on their cloud service: http://www.lifehack.org/articles/technology/how-dropbox-sort-spies-your-files-for-dmca-infringement.html There may be other cloud services that do this as well, but I just wanted to bring this potential risk into the forefront. I can't speak for everyone, but most of us only get games we own and want to back them up digitally to preserve gaming culture. However, unfortunately, the emulation scene has a bad wrap (unfairly). I just don't want anyone to get in trouble. I don't want to sound paranoid, but I don't want to put anyone at risk. This is why I didn't back any of my games up, because of this grey area. I know all the games I have I own, I just don't want the headache. What are your thoughts on this issue? Do you know any other way to back up our stuff without the risk of other entities watching us, even though we're not doing anything wrong? Another thing to consider is that a lot of people have terabytes of info and that's not exactly easy to back up on the cloud. Is there any offline solution you guys know of?

Here's another tutorial idea: how to backup and sync your LaunchBox folder. My computer just recently crashed and I lost a lot of data that I didn't have in the cloud (i.e. all of my roms, media etc.) Can you do a tutorial on how to backup your LB folder? I sort everything emulation related in the LB folder, but I don't know the best way to back it up. Also, if you could show how to sync it so that your LaunchBox can be synced in real time, it would be the icing on the cake. What I mean is since I have a Big Box setup on my TV (I use a gaming PC to hook it up to my TV), I don't want to have to unplug my external hard drive and sync the changes from PC to PC. If there's a way to be able to sync all of the changes I make on my desktop to my PC through the cloud so I can immediately have my up to date stuff on my home theater setup, it'd be ideal.

Just voted for the ticket. Anyone else who's interested do the same please

I totally see your point. I just wanted to get you guys aware of IGDB because they could become very big in the future.

Metacritic ratings would be nice. However, they only have ratings for 5th gen to current gen consoles to my knowledge. I think a much better option would be the Internet Game Database. They're trying to become the IMDB of video games. It's pretty sweet. Here's their site: https://www.igdb.com Also, they have a top 100 list sort of like the IMDB top 250 list: https://www.igdb.com/top-100/games They have a long way to go to become on par with IMDB for the video game industry. However, they have thousands of users and overall will outgrow Metacritic or any other rating website soon I think

To my knowledge there isn't. However, I'd prefer a 100 point scale as opposed to a five star scale. It allows a deeper look at ratings.

Rejoice! RetroArch is finally going to make YouTube tutorials! This makes your life a lot easier now Brad. By the way @Jason and @SentaiBrad, that blog post says that RetroArch only has five developers and they'd love to get more developers on the project. If you know anyone who has an interest, they're hiring, but no paying lol. They're looking for C/C++ developers if you know any.

Haha Zombeaver. I hear you. I'm transitioning between jobs right now so I have TOO MUCH free time now. Speaking of RetroArch, they barely even mentioned 1.3.5 in their last newsfeed on Libretro. It's the most passive release of all time.

Nice jive talking. Glad it works for you

SentaiBrad let us know how the emulator runs once you get it going. I can't wait to see what the improvements are

Zombeaver I agree. Video games are way too safe now. I also respect games that take risk. Either take risk or add your own spin to a popular genre that makes your game standout. I haven't bought a console since Xbox 360. Don't get me wrong, there's great games out there, but the video game industry has gotten too mainstream for its own good now. Maybe you can blame the Nintendo Wii for that. I don't want to sound like an old man complaining though (I'm 24 so not really old). The main reason I'm a big fan of retro games was because people took risks and games were made for gamers, not families. I'm a huge fan of the first person shooter genre, but all of the Call of Duty games and clones ruined that genre for me. Every single FPS has the same engine as Call of Duty. The same concept goes with sports games now and so on. Lastly, I love the N64 because I'm a social gamer. I have parties all the time and invite my friends over to play Super Smash Bros, Mario Kart, Perfect Dark, GoldenEye, Mario Party etc., but now Xbox One doesn't even have local multiplayer. You need to two Xbox Ones, two copies of Halo 5, and two Xbox Live accounts in order to play co-op. That's over $700 to play one game.

I can see why some people think really old games are unplayable when compared to more modern games. For example, it's easy to say Atari 2600 or NES games play like crap now. What I like to do is look at the release year and pretend I traveled back in time. If I play Pong, I pretend it's 1972 and that this is the first video game I've ever played. I have the same mentality for N64, PS1 or any old 3D games. I view Super Mario 64 as the first successful 3D platformer ever, but we all know about the camera issues. However, I ignore that and focus on the game. With a less cynical eye the games are more enjoyable to me.

Wow. I didn't realize that the Roman numerals created such a sorting issue. Good to know.

I agree with both of you guys. I never owned a PS1, but have played it in the last year or so and realize that it's an amazing console. As much as I love the N64, I've got to admit, I can't defend the controller. It's terrible lol

I can respect that. It's all about personal preference. Many people don't like the fact that the N64 has very little RPGs or fighting games. I'm not a huge fan of those genres though. The PS1 is a vastly superior console in terms of its library, but if you gave me the choice, I'd choose N64 every day of the week because the games have more appeal to me... plus it's my first console so I'm incredibly biased :)

@shadowfire36 I don't understand why the Ultima example is appearing that way. However, Wizards & Warriors II looks like it has a space between the "II" and the colon. When looking at the image, the distance between the roman numeral and the colon appear to be bigger on the second game in the series, not the third. With Ultima, my best guess is to try copying and pasting just "Ultima:" from the other two games, to the affected game's title. Maybe that'll work. This game might have another issue with the colon.

I have an idea. Why don't we add Roman numerals as its own rule for sorting alphabetically. Similar, to how the articles "the", "a", and "and" have been ignored in their alphabetized categorization in the recent 6.0 release, LaunchBox should be able to recognize Roman Numerals and prioritize them like this: -I -II -III -IV -V -VI -VII -VIII -IX -X (etc.) Now, a problem you'll notice is that the number IX would appear before the Roman numeral V. That's just one example of an issue that could happen. Jason should add Roman numeral rules in the code for alphabetizing games to make sure they aren't misplaced when alphabetized. LaunchBox should also be able to treat Roman numerals as equivalent to numbers in terms of their alphabetization. The reason is that some game series switch between standard numbering and Roman numeral numbering. For example, Mortal Kombat's first four games in the series are as follows: "Mortal Kombat", "Mortal Kombat II", "Mortal Kombat 3", and "Mortal Kombat 4". When looking at these games on the arcade platform they'd appear as "Mortal Kombat", "Mortal Kombat 3", Mortal Kombat 4", and then "Mortal Kombat II". As you can see, this is really out of order.