JaysArcade

Thanks @cammelspit I'll check it out when I get home.

I believe Emumovies has some of the vids. I think I got them from the FTP. I couldn't find vids for everything however.

Here and there. I think from Hyperspin FTP and/or Emumovies FTP. Some of the tables came with logos as well. I'm not currently able to update the Launchbox Database with my stuff because some of it was taken from HS. I'm also waiting for more fields in Launchbox and the database in order to add Table Author info and some other fields like backglass and playfield images that are needed for inclusion of pinball tables. I talk about it a bit in the link below. It's possible that I could share with you guys via other means if you are really champing at the bit for this stuff, I just don't want to muddy the waters between Launchbox and Hyperspin by trying to put stuff on the Launchbox database that shouldn't be there. Of course all of it might not be named how your stuff is named so you would have to deal with all that. Future Pinball was a lot of work. I've yet to dip my toes in the Visual Pinball waters. Maybe I should put in a ticket on Bitbucket for the extra fields needed, or maybe I feel lucky enough that @Jason Carr will read this and just add a few fields for Pinball....

That is correct in how it works. Its kind of confusing but if you think about it this way it kind of makes sense - How would Rocketlauncher know what emulator to use if Launchbox is pointing to it instead of an actual emulator for any particular system? That's how I wrapped my head around it. I think it also helps switching between frontends easier in Rocketlauncher.

Yeah I like to split mine up by platform so I can have a clear logo and custom platform media related to it. If I could have the option to have genre related clear logos and media with the nested filters (when we get them), I would be happy.

Yep. Lots to sort out. That's why I was hesitant. Not sure where I picked up a lot of the clear logos. I know some of the tables come with the logos but I got the rest of them from elsewhere. I'll hold off until we get some clearer idea about the possible inclusion of additional pinball related fields in the future.

I have a platform for my lightguns. I just called it shooting games. Not sure there is any other way currently.

Thanks for the explanation Brad. I do think for tables there should be some kind of way to tell if its a re-creation of a physical table or an original. Also a place to name the author since someone put a lot of work into each individual table. Should the developer fields be filled with the author name or would the developer be the physical table developer like Bally? But if the table is an original (homebrew), who would be the developer then? What about genres? Should pinball be it's own genre in the grand scheme of things? I'm still a little bit hung up on the source for these. There is a thing called the Internet Pinball Database that is great for physical hardware but probably won't be much help for original tables. SIgh.... I guess I'l just need to play around with it some and start adding some stuff. See what happens. As for images, The way I have them set up in my Launchbox is the playfield is screenshot gameplay. The backglass is the marquee. Flyer is flyer front and flyer back. If I have an image of the table I add that as the cabinet image. There is also logos for a lot of them. Some of tables came packaged with logos and some I think I got from Hyperspin or emumovies. Not real sure what the protocol is for sharing those...

I'm seeking guidance on how to begin, or to see whether its even worth my time. I have set up about 450 Future Pinball tables and have screenshots of gameplay for all of them, screenshots of the backglass (marquee) for most, as well as screenshots of the whole table (cabinet) for a lot of them. I also have front and back flyers for several tables. EmuMovies provided movies for about half of the tables I have set up so we know other players in the greater emulation community have an interest in this stuff. The problem I foresee after reading the Database Guidelines, is that art for re-created and original pinball tables in Future Pinball and Visual Pinball will have a hard time being excepted for inclusion in the database. Reasons I believe this include - Guideline #2. Only officially licensed games should currently be added to the database. These tables are far from official. Are tables even being considered for inclusion at this point? I only see one entry between FP and VP currently. A lot of tables are originals. Would these be considered "Homebrew" and not considered for inclusion? This would also make me question guideline #1 about checking sources. What would be appropriate websites for checking sources on tables? Guideline #3. Game names should reflect the box of the game. Tables have no box or box art. Guideline #11 No Watermarks. Future Pinball has a watermark embedded as you play. Will screengrabs of this preclude them from being allowed on the database? Would this stuff need to be cropped out for gameplay images since it is actually part of the gameplay? (See image below) Am I overthinking this or should I just test the waters by submitting some stuff and see what happens? I have had some others express interest to me in having pinball art available and hoped I could add to the database.

I think this is your bitbucket ticket @lordmonkus. I just voted for it. https://bitbucket.org/jasondavidcarr/launchbox/issues/1495/parental-controls-and-profiles

This would be a great feature. Two profiles. One as a live, ready for the public to see profile and another as a working profile to tinker with but both sharing the same assets. Do we know if there is a ticket open for this that can be voted on?

I thought about making one styled after the Nintendo Power logo but couldn't find a suitable font that was free. I'll keep looking for one. If I can think of any more styles like that, I'll try to add to the collection.

Magazines/Comics Platform Stylized Clear Logos View File I was trying to find a clear logo (wheel image) for a magazines platform I built but I realized there is not much to choose from out there. Not one to wait around for something that will likely never come, I went ahead and built a few images from scratch. Hopefully I made enough that anyone can download the zip and find one that works for them. These logos are a little different than the stuff most people are looking for so if you have found your way here, hopefully something here will work for you. I created several in an attempt to give you guys some choices. Open the zip and find the image you want to use for your comics, e-reader or magazines platform and rename the image to match the name of your platform. The image needs to go in Launchbox -> Images -> Platforms -> [platform name] -> Clear Logo. Delete the old logo (if present) and refresh your image cache in Big Box. File contents: Book Kart.png - A Mario Kart Stylized Clear Logo Bookshelf.png - A Mario Kart Stylized Clear Logo Comics.png - A Mario Kart Stylized Clear Logo Magazines.png - A Mario Kart Stylized Clear Logo Media Kart.png - A Mario Kart Stylized Clear Logo Luigi Bros Bookshelf.png - A Mario World Stylized Clear Logo Luigi Bros Comics.png - A Mario World Stylized Clear Logo Luigi Bros Magazines.png - A Mario World Stylized Clear Logo SEGA Bookshelf.png - A SEGA Stylized Clear Logo SEGA Comics.png - A SEGA Stylized Clear Logo SEGA Magazines.png - A SEGA Stylized Clear Logo Sonic Comics.png A Sonic the Hedgehog Stylized Clear Logo New Super Luigi Comic Logo - A New Super Mario Bros Stylized Logo Submitter jaythompson Submitted 01/02/2017 Category Platform Clear Logos

This is what I use as well. Works great on my cabinet with arcade controls. Can use the trackball if I need it to do anything special - zoom in/out, etc but joystick navigation seems to be OK on my end with I-pac controller. I don't use gamepads for this function. I'm currently creating a magazines platform using CDisplayEX as the emulator. Already spliced together a video from some Metal Jesus Rocks videos I downloaded and worked them into a platform video. Vids of him flipping through various retro gaming mags with some OCremix background music I added. I would share, but without his Holiness's permission probably best I keep to myself, LOL.

I'd say those, along with the Pause screen are the biggest benefits. You can totally get by just fine without them, but if you love to endlessly tinker with your setups like I do, you'll enjoy messing around with Rocketlauncher. I used to really hate Rocketlauncher/Hyperlaunch, but the more I mess with it, the more I appreciate it.

Thanks @Styphelus for the tips. I recorded another short demo - this time externally to avoid the capture software limitations. I removed the redundant Loading Game box and set Retroarch to fullscreen windowed mode. Much cleaner transitions now. I have to admit, I didn't care for the unsolicited advice but I'm glad I listened to you. This video is a much better representation of what to expect with a properly set up Bigbox/Rocketlauncher install.

There are lots of ways to set up Rocketlauncher. I do have the game details stuff turned off because I don't really care about any of that. The flashing back and forth is more due to the recording software than anything else but I will look into the suggestions you make. I'm all for making my system better so thanks for the suggestions. I didn't realize you could turn off the now loading box in Bigbox either. I know it looks a little messy but I was really trying to show what RL is capable of not to impress anybody.

Can't forget The Lawnmower Man!

OK man. So I'm going to eat some crow here. I've figured some stuff out since I wrote this. I incorrectly assumed that Rocketlauncher was pulling the emulator name to launch games but you guys are right. It actually pulls the system name. However..... For MAME, you can use Arcade or Arcade Classics as the name and it won't throw an error. The same with AAE - Another Arcade Emulator. And just when I thought I had a good handle on how Rocketlauncher works too... It appears that unchecking the Valid Emulators/Modules Only checkbox doesn't do what I thought it did. Apologies if I caused anyone any grief. Like I said in my first tutorial. If you need help with Rocketlauncher, it is probably best to ask on their forum, although I will still try to help if asked.

Maybe you should submit a question about this in the troubleshooting section of the Launchbox Games Database section of the forum. I bet this issue is unknown and could be addressed on the database side. Someone might already have a solution set up for this we don't know about. http://forums.launchbox-app.com/forum/72-troubleshooting/

So Launchbox doesn't scrape the names properly even though they are using the full game name? I'm not sure about that. Sounds like a games database scraping issue. Not something I am very familiar with unfortunately.

Glad you got it working somewhat. If it was me, I would turn off Fade, Pause, Bezels and anything else that is "extra" in Rocketlauncher until you get the games launching properly and you are satisfied with how that part is working. When you are confident the game launching is working good, then try messing with those features individually, one at a time.

I just use the default settings that are applied in Launchbox when you set up Rocketlauncher as an emulator. I couldn't even tell you what those settings are because I haven't touched them since I set up Rocketlauncher. I'm not in a place for me to check those settings right at the moment. You set up the emulator in the global settings in Rocketlauncher, then you click a platform in Rocketlauncher, even if it is named different and you set the rom path for that platform and set the emulator (which you just set up globally). If you uncheck that Valid Emulators/Modules check box, your games should launch just fine. Inflexible, but not impossible. Try it and see for yourself.

You don't have to have your systems named the same between Launchbox and Rocketlauncher. I explain that in this post.