[Big Box games won't play now. Only asking to add or remove from playlist on playlist screen]

when you go to you game and open the edit window. what does it say under launching?

[Jason's Arcade Cabinet Build]

Why is this pinnen?

[🕹️ARCADE GameThemes Central Hub — Find Everything Instantly 🎮]

5 hours ago, PadeMoNiuM Prods said:

t’s incredibly hard to find Castlevania game themes for the Japanese versions. They’re basically impossible to come across. That’s why I really think you’re being modest here.)😅

These games come in two categories:

1. the box art and theme is pretty much the same in japan as it is for the rest of the world. so all the needs is the japanese logo.. super easy right?
2. Or the regional differences are so big that due to censorship, upped or lowered difficulty that it deservers it's own theme. sometimes it just because the box covers are so vastly different per region that it just looks cool in BB

5 hours ago, PadeMoNiuM Prods said:

By the way, I actually made Legacy of Darkness and Bloodstained as well. If you want them, I can post the themes and you can include them, just add a link to them. It could be a nice bit of cooperation between us.

I know that kind of collaboration isn’t very common in this community, but personally I see things differently. For me, that’s what a community is supposed to be — sharing, but also working together.
Of course, if you prefer to make your own themes, no problem at all, I totally understand.

I know, I remember my hyperspin days. but you have to admit that your style is rather unique, you tend to use lots of effects in your themes. while alot of us here are happy with giving box art the HS treatment

 

5 hours ago, PadeMoNiuM Prods said:

And just to be clear, this isn’t a ranking or some kind of “best creators” list. It’s simply a centralization of links, something practical so everyone can find the themes more easily.

I'm all for it, it could do with a pin then.. for the event that this post also vanishes in the vast ocean of forum posts.

5 hours ago, PadeMoNiuM Prods said:

Right now, if someone wants to find your Castlevania themes, even I don’t know where to look. You go into Game Media, sure, but in which section?

there IS a search bar, but this is very convenient. 

[🕹️ARCADE GameThemes Central Hub — Find Everything Instantly 🎮]

2 hours ago, PadeMoNiuM Prods said:

because for example there’s @Klopjero who made every single Castlevania theme!

That's an exaggeration, Still havent done the Castlevania Collections releases, I'm still struggling with the Japanese Legacy of shadow... I still want to to finish the related themes for getsufumaden and the bloodstained themes. be sure to give @Suhrvivor a shout out, his themes are super awesome and an inspriration to me. without those i would have never started on the Castlevania themes. 

[[request] idGames Archive Public API]

Dude ,I came around testing it.
it work awesome sad that through the years the DB hasnt been enriched with images it works very wel

 

[[request] idGames Archive Public API]

On 11/13/2025 at 4:19 AM, Drodrik said:

not working with more recent LB updates,

 

Yes, I know sadly @Nielk1 hasn't been seen since 2019.

[Teknoparrot themes]

this man has found some nice stimulants. keep going mate

[colorful Playlist 'hardware set'images]

[Big Box Crashing in Version 13.23? Here’s What You Need to Know]

will this contribute to an eventual native linux version of LB ?

[new screensaver Crashes BigBox]

47 minutes ago, fredrikpj said:

@Klopjero also having the same issue, crashed first going into Big Box with latest update, after changing to FFmpeg it always crashes, regardless if I start Big Box or Launchbox. How did you edit the settings?

you have figured it out but i will reply so if people coming to this thread with the same question know ow to do it. 

open windows explorer and browse to your Launcbox folder and open the data folder located inside. using your plaintext editor like notepad open bigboxsettings.xml locate the <VideoPlaybackEngine>, and change it to <VideoPlaybackEngine>Windows Media Player</VideoPlaybackEngine>. then save and close the file. 

[new screensaver Crashes BigBox]

returning to WMP made BB stable again. if devs have suggestions on how to improve ffmpeg or how to better provide testing info please prove them

[new screensaver Crashes BigBox]

Manualy edited the bigboxsettings file and changed to video engine back to WMP, to see if this improves the situation

[new screensaver Crashes BigBox]

going to options now also crashes BB 

[new screensaver Crashes BigBox]

Hi, 

when BB is loading the screensaver big box crashes, no error messages on screen just hard crash. 

Changed to FFMPEG from WMP, will check if changing bck makes a difference

[13.22 Aetherial BB Theme, hangs BB]

It doesn't matter if I go to platform view/ platform category view, or open up a platform from the game discovery page. it hangs BB.

[13.22 Aetherial BB Theme, hangs BB]

It's weird but BB hangs when I load the platformview with the new Aetherial Theme, anyone else have this ? 

[COLORFUL resources]

9 minutes ago, gspawn said:

I converted it from png I think, is it yours? I thought Viking's. If yours is, I apologize for the misdirection 

yea I made that, and no need to apologise, I thought it was great seeing it come by.

Besides that I really do have to congratulate you with coming up with such a brilliant and effective way to solve the colorfull playlist problem.  

congratulations!

placing those mascottes in front of the screen or besides the keyboard or theming the console or PC to fit with that franchise is really elegant.

[COLORFUL resources]

that custom lightgun cabs look familiar  @gspawn

 

[Importing Teknoparrot games.]

so what I ended up doing is just import the whole library. close LB. 

wrote a different powershell that would add a custom field to each game that would contain the Arcade system metadata so I could build play lists that way.

 

# TeknoParrot add customField to database
# Author: klop
# Updated: Extended to export LaunchBox Playlist XMLs by platform (from JSON metadata) and enrich the Platform DB with Arcade Platform info using CustomField blocks

# ------------------
# Load TeknoParrot Platform XML
# ------------------
$platformPath = "[path to]/LaunchBox/Data/Platforms/Teknoparrot.xml"
[xml]$platformXml = Get-Content $platformPath
$gameIndex = @{}
foreach ($game in $platformXml.LaunchBox.Game) {
    $gameIndex[$game.Title] = $game
}

# Prepare for appending CustomFields after <Game> entries
$launchBoxNode = $platformXml.SelectSingleNode("/LaunchBox")

# ------------------
# Process each game and read associated JSON metadata
# ------------------
$metadataPath = "[path to tekno parrot]\Metadata" # Path to teknoparrot
$groupedGames = @{}

foreach ($game in $gameIndex.Values) {
    $applicationPath = $game.ApplicationPath
    if (-not $applicationPath) { continue }

    $profileName = [System.IO.Path]::GetFileNameWithoutExtension($applicationPath)
    $jsonFilePath = Join-Path $metadataPath "$profileName.json"

    if (Test-Path $jsonFilePath) {
        try {
            $json = Get-Content $jsonFilePath | ConvertFrom-Json
            $platformName = $json.platform

            # Add custom field as a sibling of <Game> under root
            $customFieldNode = $platformXml.CreateElement("CustomField")
            
            $gameIdNode = $platformXml.CreateElement("GameID")
            $gameIdNode.InnerText = $game.ID
            $customFieldNode.AppendChild($gameIdNode) | Out-Null

            $nameNode = $platformXml.CreateElement("Name")
            $nameNode.InnerText = "Arcade Platform"
            $customFieldNode.AppendChild($nameNode) | Out-Null

            $valueNode = $platformXml.CreateElement("Value")
            $valueNode.InnerText = $platformName
            $customFieldNode.AppendChild($valueNode) | Out-Null

            $launchBoxNode.AppendChild($customFieldNode) | Out-Null

            # Group by platform for playlist creation
            if (-not $groupedGames.ContainsKey($platformName)) {
                $groupedGames[$platformName] = @()
            }
            $groupedGames[$platformName] += $game
        }
        catch {
            Write-Warning "Failed to parse JSON: $jsonFilePath"
        }
    }
    else {
        Write-Warning "Missing JSON for: $profileName"
    }
}

# ------------------
# Save updated Platform DB with ArcadePlatform entries
# ------------------
$platformXml.Save($platformPath)
Write-Host "Updated Teknoparrot.xml with Arcade Platform custom fields."

# ------------------
# Create a LaunchBox Playlist XML for each platform group
# ------------------
foreach ($platformName in $groupedGames.Keys) {
    $playlistGames = $groupedGames[$platformName]
    $playlistId = [guid]::NewGuid().ToString()
    $playlistXml = New-Object xml
    $root = $playlistXml.CreateElement("LaunchBox")
    $playlistXml.AppendChild($root) | Out-Null

    # Playlist metadata
    $playlist = $playlistXml.CreateElement("Playlist")
    $root.AppendChild($playlist) | Out-Null
    $playlist.AppendChild($playlistXml.CreateElement("PlaylistId")).InnerText = $playlistId
    $playlist.AppendChild($playlistXml.CreateElement("Name")).InnerText = $platformName
    $playlist.AppendChild($playlistXml.CreateElement("NestedName")).InnerText = $platformName
    $playlist.AppendChild($playlistXml.CreateElement("IncludeWithPlatforms")).InnerText = "false"
    $playlist.AppendChild($playlistXml.CreateElement("IsAutogenerated")).InnerText = "false"

    # Add games to playlist
    $i = 0
    foreach ($game in $playlistGames) {
        $pg = $playlistXml.CreateElement("PlaylistGame")
        $root.AppendChild($pg) | Out-Null
        $pg.AppendChild($playlistXml.CreateElement("GameId")).InnerText = $game.ID
        $pg.AppendChild($playlistXml.CreateElement("GameTitle")).InnerText = $game.Title
        $pg.AppendChild($playlistXml.CreateElement("GameFileName")).InnerText = [System.IO.Path]::GetFileName($game.ApplicationPath)
        $pg.AppendChild($playlistXml.CreateElement("GamePlatform")).InnerText = "Teknoparrot"
        $pg.AppendChild($playlistXml.CreateElement("ManualOrder")).InnerText = "$i"
        $i++
    }

    # Save
    $safeName = ($platformName -replace '[^a-zA-Z0-9_\- ]', '_')
    $playlistOutputPath = "[path to launchbox]/Playlists/$safeName.xml" #it also generates extra playlistst
    $playlistXml.Save($playlistOutputPath)

    Write-Host "Playlist '$platformName' created at $playlistOutputPath"
}

this is isnt the solution for the helpful unhelpful behavior when your importing Teknoparrot though

[Importing Teknoparrot games.]

I thought I found the issue...  I had declared the TP\userprofiles folder as the games folder for the system. but that wasn't it either

 

[Importing Teknoparrot games.]

I'm having a difficult time importing my setup teknoparrot games. 

I use my sorting script that sorts the games into folders named after PC Arcade system, so i can add the games to LB by selecting the XML's and dropping them into LB and have it do it's thing. 
This would work for most of my systems, but for some reason LB decides that it will import all the setup games from the [TP folder]\userprofiles folder instead.

which is neat, but not what i want. 

I'm assuming that it has to do with build in logic,
I also assume that the XML files have been parsed by the import as it reads the game name and not the file name.

somehow even if I'm not telling LB what I'm importing by not telling what type of game files I want it to import, or declare a default emulator for it, it will read the XML's and return to the TP\USERPROFILES folder. 

This would be so awesome if it would also give me the option to sort the games into seperate platforms or generate the playlists for those platforms, but right now It frustrates me.

any suggestions ? 
 

[Clear Logo Requests]

would you kindly ?

[colorful Playlist 'hardware set'images]

4 hours ago, lopol098 said:

POPEY!!!!  PLEASE

 

 

[colorful Playlist 'hardware set'images]

a small update.

[Hyperspin to Launchbox/Big Box turbulence and rants]

On 1/19/2025 at 8:54 AM, Pademonium bac said:

@KlopjeroI gave you 2 examples just so you can see

 

 

you have to admit that it was smoother in hyperspin