Retrofrogg

I'm liking the momentum here eXo, keep it up my man!

Is there any list somewhere of all the platforms covered by these videos?

I've just put up my list in a separate post if that's any help!

I have finally completed the first stage of my spreadsheet of platforms - see attached (368 platform entries). The spreadsheet contains pictures of the platforms too as well as some information about them. My aim is to create and curate an "ultimate" list of platforms to be used in Launchbox. But the term "ultimate" is banded around a lot, so what do we mean here by it? One of the biggest issues that we come across when compiling such a list of platforms is the problem of what to include vs what to leave out. This could be seen as a problem of comprehensiveness vs usability - i.e. having every single system ever made vs being able to use and enjoy the collection as a gamer. There will be different opinions on this and everyone will of course have their own preferences. My aim however is to apply some kind of reason - or inclusion criteria - which would ideally help to create a list that is sensible and that many would agree on. For example, not many would disagree with having the Nintendo Entertainment System on such a list, and not many might argue with leaving out an old unpopular foreign computer which is difficult to emulate and only has 2 games. The question is therefore where do we draw the line? When making the spreadsheet, I first made up a list of all the platforms that one might consider to be included. I did this by using my already large list that I had made up for use with a previous frontend, and then going through a few of the other bigger lists out there and adding any systems I didn't have to mine. These lists included: The Launchbox Games Database Hyperlist (the official Hyperspin list of system statistics) The lists made by some of the sellers of large collections out there (e.g. Hyper Arcade Systems, Home Arcade Systems, Hyperspin Systems, etc) The lists of some of the users here with large collections (e.g. Romfrosk, Colpipes, etc) Wikipedia and other online sources The first thing I then did was to remove all platforms that were not game-related or that I felt did not belong in such a collection. These removed platforms included things like multimedia apps (Kodi, Plex, Netflix etc), fruit machine collections, karaoke, dance games etc. Then came the time-consuming task of paring down the collection. The criteria I used here are not "fixed" or definitive, but rather have some degree of flexibility and depend on a number of factors. The list below shows the factors that I considered when deciding whether to include a system or not; bear in mind that these are not yes/no factors but rather more/less likely: Factors making inclusion of a platform in the list more likely It is a well-known, popular or major platform The platform is primarily game-oriented The platform has some kind of significant historic or cultural value The platform has a good number of games released for it Associated media (box art, manuals, etc) is available for the platform I would be interested in using the platform Factors making inclusion of a platform in the list less likely The platform is effectively a clone of another platform The platform does not have acceptable emulation Games were never a main focus of the platform / the games available are very limited The games are in a non-English language and tend to rely on some understanding of the language The platform is aimed at very young children or is primarily focused on education or edu-tainment The platform is a very old machine with any available games being very limited I can't see myself ever wanting to use the platform Applying these factors then allows us to pare down the list to some extent. The concepts that I think draw things together a lot here are the ideas of quality, value and significance. If it is a quality platform, adds value to the experience or is otherwise of particular significance then it is included. Another issue I came across is the idea of using emulators to play games vs using them to emulate systems. This distinction might seem a bit academic, but look at it this way: a lot of the most popular games were available on a whole range of systems. Do we want that duplication in our collection? Do we want to play Space Invaders on a 1978 machine as well as on hundreds of other platforms that came after it? Are we interested in how the game played on a range of different systems, or do we just want to play the game? This issue is especially pertinent when looking at computer as opposed to console emulation; there is often not 1 version of a computer but instead a whole series of them with various upgrades and improvements made as time went on. The PC-compatibles is a prime example here. I think this question is more difficult to answer, but I think using the principles and factors listed above can help. Another thing that I have tended to avoid in the list is game "collections". Some people have a large number of game collections listed as platforms/entries in their frontend - for example a Mario collection, Zelda collection, etc. I don't think these belong in any list such as this, so I have left most of those out. What I have included, for convenience, as a few "company collections" for the arcade games, as this is pretty much standard practice here and does add some value to it. So now that I have finished (at least with phase 1!), I have ended up with 368 entries in the spreadsheet. A number of them have been scored off after I decided that they were not worth including. The breakdown of the numbers is now as follows: Number of entries for platform in the list Consoles: 80 Computers: 77 Handheld: 29 Arcade: 96 (split into boards) Arcade collections: 15 Non-arcade collections: 6 (e.g. Pop-Cap, Flash Games, etc) Emulators: 5 (e.g. MAME, AAE, Raine, etc) Other: 11 (various platforms that don't quite fit into the above) Scored-off entries: 48 So with the scored-off entries removed, this leaves us with a list of 319 platforms. My next plan is to go through the list and check the state of emulation for each platform, and remove any where emulation is an issue. I don't think that there will be many of these as most of these platforms have been emulated. There might be one or two current-gen platforms to remove. I will then look into the games themselves for each platform and start to import them all into Launchbox, source the media etc. I plan to focus on licensed games rather than hacks or clones. Sorry for the long post. It is an opportunity for me to put my thoughts together and will hopefully be of interest to other "completionists" in this area! Keen to hear of any errors in the spreadsheet or any comments in general! Emulator_System_List_3.pdf

I asked this elsewhere but given the chat, here seems to be a good place to ask - where can you find lists of the number of released games per system? So far I have looked at Wikipedia and Hyperlist as well as a few other sites. Thanks. PS I’m working on a spreadsheet too which includes a little info and a picture for each system. It’s been a few solid days work so far and am probably 75% through it.

Yeah, it's fine in Hyperpause, but it would be nice to have such functionality in LB/BB!

Where is the best place to find lists of the number of games released per system? The Launchbox Database lists games for some systems though does not give a total, and I don't know how accurate it is. Hyperspin's Hyperlist looks pretty good though I don't know how accurate that is either. Any help appreciated!

Maybe a bit late to the party with this request - but it would be great if the widescreen videos could include the original system box as well!

Yes, I see your preferred method. But you won't have many platforms under the "arcade" platform category. But then again, maybe you don't organise via platform category!

I am thinking of splitting up my MAME (arcade) ROMS in LB, and was wondering what other people are doing here. Do you split this set into arcade boards, or just leave it as one big MAME set? Previously I had used a big MAME set as well as a few collections (playlists) like "Capcom Classics, Konami Classics, Irem Classics" etc. I am working on a new setup and have seen a few other builds where the arcade section is split into different arcade boards. I was going to do this also, though the more work I am putting into it, the more arcade boards I am coming across. I now realise that there is a very large number of arcade boards (100+) and am wondering if I should split them at all. I'd rather take an all-or-nothing approach rather than pick out a few arcade boards and leave out others.

But not if you install exoDOS/LB into a different folder and transfer the files over manually, right harry?

Understandable! Which is the XML that must be copied across? That is what confused me last time as there were a whole bunch of XMLs in the exoDOS folder.

+1 on setting it as free for the first week! What I did last time was run the setup file in the exoDOS pack and install to a new instance of Launchbox, then manually copy across what I think are the relevant files and folders. Is this still the best way to do it?

ExoDOS, you’re a hero! Tempted to wait until the full pack comes out - any (very rough) eta?

Yes, in some ways just MAME is enough, as the arade was ahead of everything with all consoles & computers just representing inferior ports - at least up until the arcade industry started going downhill with the advent of cheaper and more powerful home consoles, probably starting around the Playstation/Playstation 2 era. Certain types of games (e.g. PC games) would be an exception of course as they were not available in arcades. I just made up my own spreadsheet of my systems (imported and planned) - excluding any game "collections" (like you see on many Hyperspin wheels), video related entries (such as Netflix etc), magazines, etc. Currently it is at 393 systems. I don't know if I will ever find the time to complete this

Yeah, it's monolithic collection vs playability I think. I think it's the difference between having friends go through your collection going "oh yeah I remember that console!", "oh wow I'd forgotten about that one!" etc etc versus wading through unknown machine after foreign machine after unknown machine, many of which have similar games which are probably pretty crappy anyway! It's actually making me question whether it's worth building up a collection at all, or instead just enjoying a few systems and getting out in the sun lol. In fact now that I think about it, the story of my life is spending time working on bigger and better collections (games, music etc), at the expense of actually enjoying it!

This thread is making me think more and more about which systems to inlcude. Looking at Romfrosk's list, take the following as an example: I am wondering if it is really worth including so many variations on a theme? Many of the systems in the list (not just the NEC ones - take the range of calculators as another example) are simply slight upgrades or newer versions of other systems. The games themselves are often the same across such systems anyway. If we take this route, then theoretically we could up end with thousands of systems. Great if you're building a computer/platform history database, perhaps not so great if you want a good Launchbox/collection to play games. Keen to hear your thoughts.

I would like to see some more focus within LB/BB on the systems/platforms themselves, rather than just the games. Currently in LB you can get some information about the system by going to "edit", though this obviously isn't very visually appealing. Also, the image types available for a system are very limited. Currently the options are: banner, clear logo, device and fanart. I would like to see more image options such as device box/packaging, adverts, manuals, peripherals, controllers, videos, etc. Similarly in BB - some way to integrate this in a visually appealing way which will enrich the experience; perhaps the user could press "I" on a system to bring up the media/images for that system with the ability to browse through - just like you can do for a game!

Also - you seem to have split MAME into a few different arcade boards but if you're doing that then there are many more arcade boards you could split by.

Aren't the no-intro packs better, in that they are just the games without all the other applications and extras?

Lol - after my last message about some systems maybe not being worth included, you've just removed loads of entries from one of my favourite systems (I had a CPC464 as a kid)! How come you removed so many items from the CPC?

Having a look at the list again. Very interesting to see which systems are on there. I wonder however regarding the balance of inclusivity vs usability. I suppose this depends on the purpose of a collection such as this. For example, I don't know about having Texas Instruments calculators on there - let alone 7 of them! Of course it's great to increase the number of emulated systems and to pad this out a bit - but at what point does it become addition of systems just to increase the numbers? Where does it stop? Do we include the software associated with, for example, home appliances, PDAs or mobile phones (because MAME can emulate all of these)?

That pic is what mine looks like. Can I see your "emulator details" tab for that? EDIT: I changed MAME64.exe to MAMEUI64.exe, and that seems to work!

I have a full MAME ROMs pack (with an apple2GS.zip file in it), but it is in a separate MAME ROMs folder, separate to the Apple IIGS folder. Do I need to copy something across? EDIT: My MAME folder has the same apple2GS.zip file in the "roms" subfolder - so if that is in the right place then it looks like I have it.

What do you mean?