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The history of my Dos collection is sketch. I started with that complete torrent of Dos that has Trojans injected into DOOM and MORTAL KOMAT (2 perfect titles to get people with) I never had much luck with this and had downloaded all the meta I could for it, at that time Moonstone was showing Mrs Pac pictures in BB but nothing in LB. I deleted that entire collection but kept the meta, imported the eXoDOS collection and it imported the old collection at the same time... So I deleted some data files did another wipe, imported eXoDOS fine this time then redownloaded meta without replacing fields and the rest is history.

Here's a .bat file you can put in the eXoDOS or Win3x0 root folder (same folder as MEAGRE.exe) that will change all fullscreen resolution to 1920x1080. This is useful for systems that have issues scaling or to reduce scale flicker when your monitor/tv is readjusting resolution. If 1920x1080 is not your desired resolution edit the .bat with notepad and change all instances of 1920x1080 to the resolution you want. I've added another.bat for those of us that just have to have everything preinstalled. Unzip every game and run fullscreen.bat to turn every game fullscreen. eXoDOS Res and Fullscreen bulk edit.zip Win3x0 Res and Fullscreen bulk edit.zip I use a keyboard encoder with my setup and needed a way to flash it everytime Dosbox or ScummVM starts and then flash back to LB/BB mode when Dosbox or ScummVM closes. This .bat if used as an additional app and with paths edited to suit will flash to Dosbox setup instantly to avoid a fullscreen minimise issue then search for ScummVM and flash to ScummVM setup if found. If either Dosbox or Scummvm are found it will monitor them until they close then flash to BB/LB setup and exit. DosBoxScummVMAutoFlasher.zip

That is odd. I had to force all in my Dos collection last night due to the something similar, although none of my files have been renamed. Moonstone was showing Mrs Pac pictures in Big box but had no pictures at all in launchbox. Doing a refresh of all images in Big box did not fix this. Same with force populates. Forcing all metadata to download for moonstone fixed the issue but then I tried the same on a few title that had no images and they all came up with pics. This is 1 hour after downloading all metadata available across LB and EM and wiki and choosing the Do not replace existing fields. What are we doing wrong? I have noticed after a large meta import of say 5000 games the image refresh that automatically happens will crash launchbox if I click on LB window. It's always been this way. I used to crash it and restart because it is quicker than waiting for the refresh. I have to leave it for 20 for fear of screwing with freshly downloaded metadata

Try force replace existing metadata. (Top option in the last screen of metadata import) Sometimes LB thinks the fields are full for some reason.

Note** The tutorial was originally written for only the eXoDOS collection but it will work all the same for win3xO. You will have to rename the ID4 game names in Launchbox, and there are around 5 random .bat files that will import as games but you can find and delete them easily as the pictures will not load for them. Here is a method to import the eXoDOS collection retaining Exos DosBox configs, install system and all images ect but using Launchbox images also. Makes for a very user friendly complete looking Dos collection that saves on space as you are only installing the games you play. Ex0s images had to be renamed to work with Launchbox 7. Download the renamed versions here https://archive.org/details/Win3xO1.0Launchbox7Images https://archive.org/details/eXoDOS_LB_Images Open launchbox and start a fresh rom import. Import files from the !dos folder, search for *.bat Wait a few minutes till the search completes as it takes awhile, scroll to the bottom of the list to be sure its not still updating. ctrl+a select all organize the game import list alphabetically and delete all instances of install.bat. Make a new platform and call it eXoDOS, and a new emulator(point it at any exe it doesn't matter, could use a current emulator I guess) Scrape as MS-DOS Do not connect to the LB database or download any metadata/images, untick all boxes but leave force import duplicates ticked. After the import is complete close Launchbox Put the renamed images you downloaded earlier in the Launchbox image folder. Open Launchbox Select all eXoDOS games and bulk edit choose emulator and leave it blank and save/exit backup your eXoDOS.xml in launchbox data. Best to make it a .zip right there as you will need to use it to replace your eXoDOS.xml after each metadata update. (Sometimes when you search the LB database for game information it renames the games to incorrect names. This means the entire collection will never be tied to a LB DB number but if you have the images/videos present it will all still work.) Ctrl-A eXoDOS collection Download metadata Choose what images/videos you want and on the last page uncheck all boxes. After downloads are finished refresh close open LB and replace your eXoDOS.xml with the backup one if names have changed back to dupes . With the renamed image download you will find there is are no images for 4-5 games,. 2-3 games have upsidedown ?'s in Launchbox that need to be renamed to the .bat file name (minus the year). Alice Through the Looking Glass and Leather Goddess have file names that are too long, you decide what to rename them, those 2 are the only images that require renaming. Everything else should work Enjoy Image links https://archive.org/details/Win3xO1.0Launchbox7Images https://archive.org/details/eXoDOS_LB_Images

Then you have the ones with names that are small sentences like : The Adventures of Alice who Went Through the Looking-Glass and Came Back Though Not Much Changed.bat Just spent 2 hours trying to compile a.bat file into an exe that simply runs .bat files and was planning to replace dosbox in LB with that. Had no luck then found the DONT/USE DOSBOX OR SCUMMVm checkboxs in edit. Did a mass edit. Whole collection runs beautifully. ExoDOS functionality with Launchbox snaz! Enough Metadata to make it worth it too, and when MEAGRES data is finally added to the LB DB all ill have to do is update

Ended up using Launchbox tools to scrape the names back to what they should be. Ill write up a short tutorial on how to import the eXoDOS collection with its configs but using LB metadata if enough people are interested and can't wait.

My round about import method resulted in working games but all with short file names..:(

Please excuse my ignorance. After having a play importing in my round about way I've come to realize the LB DB is missing some of the MEAGRE data, I didn't think this was the case. I thought the LB DB was complete. Still very impressed we already have matched eXoDOS file names

Thanks I was actually surprised myself how nice the Wii-classic padhacks came up. Making the rotary switches as tight as I could was a bit of a mission. There's not much clearance for them in the machine as they were an afterthought. Still they seem to fit in nicely in the top corners as if I'd planned it

If I have to change any settings to get it to work ill let you know

OK so I did a thing. I took the entire !dos folder and copied it onto my desktop. I then went to the original !dos folder and searched for install.bat and deleted every instance. Then I loaded up launchbox and did a fresh MS-Dos import, looking in the !dos folder for *.bat I then chose to leave everything where it was, search for all metadata and turned off any options that may interfere with eXos batch files such as downloading game configs. At this point I expected everything to import but no metadata to transfer over as the eXo naming format is different. But I was greeted 30 minutes later by an import screen showing every game matched to the LB database! At this point I should add that id already tried to install a different Dos collection through LB and failed, but had a lot of metadata left over. Downloading and using eXoDOS is just so straight forward and easy I personally wouldn't play my Dos games any other way. So yeah I'm still waiting for all the missing metadata to download then after that I can see what I have to change in the LB dosbox start parameters to only open the .bat file when choosing a game but I'm hoping it will all work. After the metadata is completed I will replace the original !dos folder that I deleted all the install.bat files from with the untouched !dos copy on the desktop. All in all theres around 4GB of metadata in the original eXoDOS collections that can be deleted by searching for MEAGRE folders in !dos if you want to save space.

That tutorial is not really related to the eXoDOS collection. The beauty of eXoDOS is it installs the game the first time you choose it, second time it plays. Like many others I have had varied results with installing/importing MS-Dos games within LB, but some legend named @eXo setup a bunch of customized batch files that do all that hard work for you. All we need now is his game naming format added to Launchbox/MS-Dos Really I don't see all the fuss with transferring over the eXoDOS metadata tho. What is not already in the LB database should be imported, and anyone using the eXoDOS collection and LB should just download their metadata from LB Search the !dos folder for *.bat, remove all entries of install.bat. LB metadata scraper should be updated to include the eXoDOS naming format. I have attached a txt file containing all the .bat file names for each game in eXoDOS, shouldn't be too hard to match them with LB Dos DB right? eXoDOS Game Names.txt

So who here appreciates a massive amount of soldering?? Finished my center control panel today, which controls emulator functions such as exit reset save state turbo rewind ect. It also has 4 HDMI ports which are connected to a Bliss box 4-play. The reset buttons for the Bliss box are above each HDMI port. Player 1 and 2 are routed to a set of analog HDMI switches I made from old DB25 printer switches. These switch between using the arcade joystick and buttons or a compatible console controller. 88 solder points per switch end to end! Players 3 and 4 are directly connected to the Bliss box as I only have a 2 player arcade. Nice seamless switching between the arcade panel and console controls, with zero delay encoding. None of this joy2key/autohotkey/vjoy business. USB IDs never move also which makes hotswapping a breeze. Hardware all the way! ^ Wii-Classic (Ebay) controllers I padhacked to use with the blissbox, The female HDMI out is a fast way for me to switch between this emulator setup and a ps360+/Brooks for console gaming. This is not to be confused with the Blissbox HDMIs, I merely used HDMI because its a small factor reliable plug with more than enough pins for a standard common ground control panel. So my PS360+ also has a female HDMI and the control panel buttons and sticks are connected to a male one.

I would but I'm not for 2 reasons. Your bitbucket issues requests state.is shit. I'd get no where. Second reason is it's not my problem. I now know how to force populate. It's a problem for devs and moderators who have to deal with displeased customers. If you really cared you'd do something. I don't anymore and have done more than should be expected of me to help educate others here on this issue.

Yep. I felt the same. The major issue here is big box is not creating a permanent cache from mere browsing. On each system restart any on-the-fly cache is wiped. Devs seem to think otherwise. Maybe in the next update we should have a periodic reminder setup for the cache based on uncached or some % variable. There is no other way for anyone to know to perform these actions and even their names are confusing. Jason, This needs to be addressed to make it more accessible and easier to understand to newcomers and such. I had the same issue earlier this year and needed your help and I am quite comfortable around computers. Smooth metadata is a must for everyone. Rename them to something that makes sense to the common man and make the option easily accessible in launchbox. A perfect example is Orac31 229 posts in AND STILL DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT FORCE POPULATE.

Yes. It's something everyone should do once they have their roms and images in order. Jason stated earlier that LB and BB cache as they go but I've always found this wipes on reset. Do the force populate. It takes a long time but it's a one off. Ensure your drive has sufficient space my cache is around 80gig.

I think with your I-pac you can set it to work as 2 controllers. Id just do that and map Retro arch to the buttons you want. Set the bindings for player 1 and 2 in the main part of retroarch, then if you need anything changed in each core press F1 while the core is active, edit and save.

Did you even force populate the cache for all images in BigBox yet? The bottom 2 options...

Make sure you Forced all images to CACHE in BigBox. I missed this step and was very impressed with the results. It will take a long time if you have a 30k+ library but after that buttery smooth. Be sure to have enough disk space for the cache as it exceeds the size of your image library

Where to add the autohotkey script. With the Ipac, you need to make .ipc config files for each setup using the Ipac utility. I tried using short file paths but that didn't work so I put my Ipac programming utility in its own folder , put all my .ipc configs in there and point each AHK script to the appropriate mapping, then on exit point it to a mapping that works well for BigBox. It all works so fast you'll never even notice it. Here is an example of one of my emulator AHK scripts. *** NOTE*** I think I'm using one of the earlier I-pacs, some things may of changed in the newer version but I doubt it. This is for Kega Fusion. ** Note the remapping of the keyboard key PAUSE. I-pac cannot emulate the PAUSE key present on some keyboards so remapping is required. Run C:\Program Files (x86)\WinIPAC\WinIPAC.exe C:\Program Files (x86)\WinIPAC\SEGA.ipc P::SendInput, {Pause} ; This section closes Kega when pressing Escape $Esc:: { Process, Close, {{{StartupEXE}}} Run C:\Program Files (x86)\WinIPAC\WinIPAC.exe C:\Program Files (x86)\WinIPAC\BigBox.ipc } My main use of the ipac is controlling all the emulator functions like turbo, rewind, save state, load state. Helps when one emulator asks for F1 save state and another asks for F8. Then you get the ones that ask for F1+(save state slot) like MAME. Heres how you tackle Mame to save and load with 1 button each Run C:\Program Files (x86)\WinIPAC\WinIPAC.exe C:\Program Files (x86)\WinIPAC\MAME.ipc ; This section closes MAME when pressing Escape $Esc:: { Process, Close, {{{StartupEXE}}} Run C:\Program Files (x86)\WinIPAC\WinIPAC.exe C:\Program Files (x86)\WinIPAC\BigBox.ipc } ; Load State x:: If GetKeyState("x") { SetKeyDelay, -1, 110 Send {F7 up}{Shift up} Sleep 100 Send {F7} Sleep 100 Send {s} } Return ; Save State c:: If GetKeyState("c") { SetKeyDelay, -1, 110 Send +{F7} Sleep 50 Send {s} } Return

Sweet, Ill add it to downloads. What should I call it? The person requesting was probably me lol

Thanks for the praise dude. Its just a modified version of a poorly made hold down script I found in the AHK archives. The thing is though I thought you would be one of the last people to thank me for uploading this. Forgive me if i'm wrong, maybe things have changed since I joined, but doesn't Launchbox/BigBox lock out free version users from using controllers to navigate? Although untested this script could probably easily bypass that. Add a remap to Enter and Esc and your done. If that is the case id much rather have this post deleted and the option to add HID input as navigation in BigBox. If its not the case ill upload it pronto.

You should learn how to remap your Ipac on-the-fly per emulator to make the most of it. This way when ever you choose an emulator it will If you need an example of something you can add to the autohotkey script for each emulator let me know.