bmonomad

Almost 4 TB even, excluding dos/pc and any games from modern systems: wiiu, 3ds, ps3 The media assets alone I think are around 100gb; pics, manuals, movies, themes+theme pics/vids

Although I don't disagree, there is something to be said to the bell curve extremes. I played a lot of games when younger in the 80's and 90's on nes/snes/gen, and there was a *lot* of bad games, subjective of course. If a game was very mediocre back then, I wouldn't want to presume it got better with age. Budgets and quality of games are on par with blockbuster movies now, whereas games in that generation were often pumped out cheaply to facilitate the marketing of external products like toys, soda, chips, etc. I found this as an efficient way to filter through a lot of that. The reason I took this approach is due to there being 1000's of games, and I'm not looking to discover that 1 game out of 500 mediocre ones that may be good and may slip through the cracks, nor be some sort of collection historian. I would rather fire up a random game solo or with my spouse, knowing that there is a much higher probability it will be enjoyable and we wont have to waste time finding one that is. Knowing the average quality of games is higher these days, I was much more lenient on newer systems like ps2 and wii, and modern pc games. I would often compare reviews on gamefaqs *and* meta to get a general consensus. I would read reviews rather than look solely at scores, and use some common sense based on what was said as well. I actually have all the games you listed above (available for ps2 and pc), so it must have been based on reviews or higher ratings on other systems as you chose xbox examples.

Yes. I manually organized my collection, removing games that were rated poorly; usually below 60% (or whatever equivalent) on sites like mobygames, gamefaqs, or metacritic. I also got rid of dupes, keeping what is typically seen as the best version of games. I did keep, and add to, completed hacks and translations of games that were highly rated, getting all available for every system. I did this as I preferred the aspect of scrolling through games knowing that whatever I picked would most likely be enjoyable in some way, and rationalized the effort knowing I wouldn't have to do it more than once. This was very time consuming but was able to do it over the course of this year. This was done from NES to ps2/wii era, as well as full mame set and Dos/PC games. Still comes to around 6700 games, not including recent PC and a few ps3/wiiu/3ds games.

@criticalcid , so i'm having a strange issue i've been unable to resolve. I was clearing out some themes today and noticed Criticalzone keeps reappearing on every launchbox open, after I've deleted it. I've checked my data files and there isn't any reference to it. Any idea why this could be happening?

i literally only had 1 plugin and it was addtogamesdb - removed it and lb didnt crash. definitely has to be the issue

also getting the same error on LB open. Currently cannot use LB. (made a ticket crash report)

bump. anyone have any ideas why dos xml config files keep being overridden? thanks

Thank you for your reply a while back. I've successfully changed folders for all platforms except 1: issue i've run into is I can't seem to figure out how to change the Dosbox application path for all my games. Edited all xml's with references to it, including ones in /data folder; all emulator/platform paths match in launchbox (it even shows the correct amount of associated games here). Seems no matter what I do, each game still lists the old drive location. Any suggestions? to elaborate more on the problem: I edit the DOS.xml file under data folder to change the drive location (it's already changed in other xml documents). I save it and close. As soon as i open launchbox, it seems the changes get overwritten by something and I can't quite figure it out. When I open the same file again, all the changes I previously made are reverted. This is the only document being changed.

nice writeup @fromlostdays never heard of that controller. looks nice, like the steam one that was just released. I'm surprised no one mentioned a trackball I bought 2 ds4's a year ago, and a $25 usb 3 bluetooth dongle. Unfortunately it's frustrating to play as there is constant latency timeouts on my couch which is just 7 feet away. If I stand 1 foot away and put my hand in front of it, it can spike to 10ms. I've also been using ds4windows, and I can't recommend it. It crashes/freezes 1/3rd of the time, leading me to have to alt tab and close it manually, etc. Need to look at alternatives for that. That keyboard tray looks nice, though I think my spouse would look at me in a funny way if I resorted to that. Probably wouldn't be the first. Has anyone done something like splashtop from the gaming computer to another computer? was wondering if there is significant delay or lag/fps issues?

for you couch pc gamers, how do you manage with games that really need a keyboard+mouse combo? what is your setup? Thinking about fast RTS's, FPS's, etc. currently splurged a ton of games off GoG without thinking about this beforehand

Wanted advice on this before I completely screw up my big launchbox database. I'm installing an additional hard drive for more storage, and moving half of my current games there. I will *not* be moving the original launchbox folder, so images/manual's etc will be in the original folder. I simply want to move a portion of games. What is the best way to change the path's seamlessly? and is it just the path of the game, or do other paths have to be altered as well? Thank you!

Hi Brad, Just tried Inputmapper - unfortunately it worked the same, just testing with 1 controller. Would turn it on, disconnect it while dolphin is open, turn it on again and the xinput would be different. ds4windows does have a setting for choosing the xinput port, but for some reason has a minimum amount of 4 ports. 1 profile unfortunately does not control 2 controllers in dolphin. Yea I have individual game configs setup in dolphin so that it loads the correct controller profile for both controllers (i.e. sideways1 and sideways2), but each one is saved to a specific xinput...like say xinput0 and xinput 1. So if I start controller A one day, it might open up at xinput 2, and then no controls work ingame. I must be missing something, because I'm surprised no one has had this issue yet.

hi guys, posted this at dolphin forums. posting this here as it's a little more active here and more likely someone encountered the same problems. My google-fu failed me to find a solution for this Setup: I'm using Dolphin 5.0, with 2 ds4 controllers via ds4windows. I have 3 profiles setup, and each game with it's own profile. The problem: Every time I connect my ds4 controller, it seems to assign a new xinput (between 0 and 3). Because of this, I often have to re-open dolphin, and save the already-existing profile to the current xinput. Otherwise the profile won't read as the .ini is associated to 1 specific xinput. Is there anyway to save multiple xinputs to 1 profile, or other solution? Frustrating to launch a multiplayer wii game from bigbox, only to have to exit, open dolphin, and change both controller profiles. Thanks again

Made this as I'm actually surprised it's not in Bigbox: https://bitbucket.org/jasondavidcarr/launchbox/issues/1243/feature-request-big-box-personal-ratings

no one knows?

Perhaps I missed it, but is there a way to use the Launchbox Star Ratings to games inside of Bigbox? Can't seem to find it. Thanks!

rmilyard said How you get 3DO: Retroarch 4do working? When I run it I just get the CD Screen after system starts up. I found it to be one of the easier ones. I did nothing differently from other systems. Everything is unzipped, each game has it's own folder.

DOS76 said CDisplayEX is awesome never thought of using it in this way though. Careful on the install - they tried to be tricky with the adware. Thanks for the replies. Wasn't sure if anyone had a similar build. Glad to know I'm not the only one having random kodi crashes. For size comparison on the box, that laptop behind it is a '15, not a '17 Nice find on Controller Companion. Was looking for something like that recently. It was annoying to launch a browser (from kodi shortcut) and not be able to type or exit. Messing around with it now.

Been working on this for quite some time now (months?). To build the computer: 1 day To setup launchbox/big box config: 1 day To setup emulators to work with wireless controllers/config: many days To organize game library: 999999999^9999 days (may not be accurate) What's inside the little sleeper: Coolermaster 110 Case Intel i5 6600k (not overclocked) 8 Gigs corsair ram Geforce GTX 960 Asus H110i-Plus Mobo 1 3tb Hard drive, 1 (2.5'') 500gb hard drive - Room for 1 more full-size drive and 2 DS4 Controllers. I bought these thinking they could replace the wii stuff. And it does have working tilt, but everything is not accurate enough for wii games. However, you can use mouse on the controller which can be handy. Review of the build: Box runs at good, stable temps - not cool, but not hot either - around 37c in summer room with no a/c; ingame or idle. It's very quiet. Can't hear fans at all. Only con has been the front 'on' light, if that's not your thing. It's a relatively bright blue LED on the front 'cooler master' button, which can be annoying in dark settings. You can unplug it, but then it's hard to tell when the thing is off/on ;) What it runs: Just setup kodi to run as a front-end. Kodi is great, in theory, but it seems way too crash prone. And I'm barely using any plugins. Might get rid of it. Big box: standard theme - I find it looks great, though may try to figure out how to add favorites to the platform selection. Game Library: Around 8250 Games, not including multiple cd's. Only partial for Wii and PS2 due to space This took a long time. Why? 5 things. 1: Went through every console and got rid of games that had ratings below average, user and/or critic average. Essentially just purged the guaranteed garbage games. 2: I went through every system and determined what games had fan translations and/or hacks, and which ones are worth keeping. Usually determined the 'worth keeping' part by if the translation is complete, or if the game hack is a complete game overhaul with positive user ratings. 3: I tried to get rid of non-interest games, such as boardgames like mahjong, backgammon, etc, and (very) childish things like Barbie. 4: Went through the task of not only getting rid of duplicate games, but quickly determining the best option for that game, for a specific console. With this, I tended to favor the emulator ease-of-use more than the actuality. For example, Civilization might have been better on dos than snes back in 1995. However, dosbox with a controller vs retroarch snes with a controller is a no brainer. 5: getting cover art (quickly) for the list of games that couldnt be found in gamesdb. Emulators run: I changed a lot of these to Retroarch due to advice of this forum. And it was a good switch. Controllers/saves are so much more consistent now. Also all retroarch emulators are setup with retroachievements. 3DO: Retroarch 4do Arcade (mame): Retroarch Mame Commodore 64: winVice Dos: dosbox Neo Geo Pocket+Color: Retroarch mednafen_ngp Nintendo 64: Retroarch mupen64plus (or project64 if compatibility issue) Nintendo DS: Retroarch Desmume Nintendo Game Boy: Retroarch Gambatte Nintendo Game Boy Color: Retroarch Gambatte Nintendo Game Boy Advance: Retroarch vba_next Nintendo GameCube: Dolphin (or Ishiiruka fork if things not working/performance) Nintendo NES: Retroarch Nestopia Nintendo SNES: Retroarch bsnes_mercury_accuracy Nintendo Wii: Dolphin (or Ishiiruka fork if things not working/performance) PC (steam): steam Sega 32x: Retroarch picodrive Sega CD: Retroarch Genesis plus gx Sega Dreamcast: Demul (or nullDC if any issues) Sega Game Gear: Retroarch Genesis plus gx Sega Genesis: Retroarch Genesis plus gx Sega Master System: Retroarch Genesis plus gx Sega Saturn: SSF with daemon tools launcher script from forums (or yabause if issues) Sony Playstation: Retroarch mednafen psx Sony Playstaion 2: PCSX2 Sony PSP: PPSSPP TurboGrafx-16: Retroarch mednafen pce fast TurboGrafx-CD: Retroarch mednafen pce fast Wonderswan Color: Retroarch wswan Conclusion: Just a little write-up to show the work that possibly can go into this type of thing. Ironically I probably spent more time doing this than I ever will on playing the games :) Hope some of the notes helps. A launchbox idea possibility is (somehow) importing aggregate game ratings off a site that offers support. Not really sure which ones would. I used gamefaqs/metacritic manually. Software issues/questions: Backup: A hard drive failure scares me after all this setup. What's the best way to go around this? Just backup the file structure/tree?? Retroarch analog sensitivity: Trying to reduce this (with ds4) if anyone knows. Noticed it was better in project64 vs retroarch emulator - it was sensitive to the point I couldn't play many games accurately. Steam hotkeys: can't figure out how to hotkey the controller to exit steam back into bigbox. nothing seems to work. Feel free to add my on retro achievements: http://retroachievements.org/User/bmonomad

thanks for your assistance @criticalcid i wasn't aware the 'export to launchbox' was for the whole list! my bad

Thanks for the reply. I guess the only challenge is getting the game art from exodos to launchbox directories in the fewest steps possible. I'll have a look - thanks.

Just starting this process myself. 1 question for those who've done it: In Meagre, is there a way to mass 'export to launchbox'? Can't seem to select more than 1 game...and well this is going to take a while :) And would anyone happen to have the actual file from post #23? Seems to be a .mp3 now. Thanks!

Re-doing step 8 and clicking 'no' solved the issue :) Appreciate the help!

thank you @criticalcid for your in-depth tutorial. Haven't seen a better one around google. Question: One step of your guide never seems to work for me. After following your instructions and when attempting to perform a simple scan, I'm always hit with an error about the system paths, not allowing me to complete the scan: "you're using sysdefpath options and at least one software list path is not unique. Software paths have to be unique and cannot be shared with others." I noticed others apparently don't have this issue, as google showed nothing for the error. Does this software literally require you to setup folder paths for 1000 different systems? Maybe someone else can chime in? Thanks!