stigzler

I first started tinkering with Mame 20 years ago. Can't believe I'm stuck on this. Also, either google's punishing me for adblocking youtube, or my google-fu is presently offline. Even AI seems to have taken its ball home. How on earth do I force all vertical games into 7:8 rather than 3:4 resolution without changing each and ever game individually? For bonus points, how do I do similar for horizontal games (using 12:7 instead of 4:3)? My addled aged brain thinks it involves creating horizontal and vertical.ini in the ini folder, but as stated, goggle's causing more confusion than clarity. Wish they hadn't removed "Don't be evil" from their wall....

Nemind. Answered my own question. Not sure if it's the best but I think it's the trashy side of emulation this. I'm trying out Nox and works well and a lot less bloated than Bluestacks. However, there still needs to be some risks associated with it, but this is a helpful guide to de-bloat/de-mine: https://gist.github.com/Log1x/12d330ef7685d6fbc611d1d57efb5c29 Android emulation is the Skegness of this wonderful hobby.

Seriously - Bluestacks is like a grubby con man who steals your grandma's life savings whilst wearing cheap aftershave and hiding some unseemly sexual proclivities. [soz - just offloading!] Really: Adverts all over the place? Check Pop-up's galore? Check Make it really difficult to kill their app from front ends? Check (and bonus points for making it a "Boss Key") And worst of all: leaving an application running in the background once you've quite the emulator? Check That last one made me uninstall this right away. The people who make this and profit from it are NOT part of the emulation community,. They need to rot in hell. Anyways, rant over. Question being, of course: Are there any other alternatives to Bluestacks for android emulation on windows 11 machines? Maybe I should bill Bluestacks for the 2 hours of my life I wont get back.

0.9.8.0 Release: Significant improvements to UI. Now runs really well on a Windows Tablet/touch mode.

This'd be great if it worked. I'm getting an error with the zipped emu setup you included. Also, where are "geeko codes" you say you've attached? I get the attached error when I try to run any isos. Also what does "Archive "Triforce iso"" mean? Not a very good guide I'm afraid. Glad you got your setup working, but if you're going to post about it, make sure you do it in details and not lead people up a garden path. 1 hour of my life I won't get back. For anyone else, a guide that works here:

Whut, no Nabu? 🤣 https://www.nabu.ca/

0.9.5.0 Release Improvements: Installation database updates now done via plugin rather than update the xml files directly. Option remains to update via xml if plugin not running Auto install/update plugin Minor GUI changes

Guilty as charged. I've changed for the better, your honour, honest...

Thanks. I'm a sucker for qol improvements!

Unibox View File Intro Unibox allows you to add roms to any Launchbox installation you have running on your local network on the fly. It also automatically adds metadata and media. This can be done in real-time, making it useful for installations such as arcade machines or rigs dedicated to running BigBox. No manual adding of roms to folders required, or going into Launchbox to add more games. Video of it in action: Getting started guide: Presently in Beta, so maybe test on a test installation first. Hope helps! Submitter stigzler Submitted 08/13/2025 Category Third-party Apps and Plugins  

ReloadData Plugin View File A tiny plugin that allows you to refresh all games in Launchbox + Bigbox to show any changes made in the xml files outside of LB/BB. This adds System menu items to LB and/or BB which cause the refresh. You can also edit settings.ini in the plugin directory to customise its operation. Github repo: HERE Submitter stigzler Submitted 08/12/2025 Category Third-party Apps and Plugins  

Thanks for the reply, Beats and great to hear. 👍

Hi folks, Developing a super simple plugin to force BB reload of all Platform xmls. Achieve this via: internal class SystemMenuHook : ISystemMenuItemPlugin { public string Caption => "Update Games"; public System.Drawing.Image IconImage => Properties.Resources.GamesUpdate; public bool ShowInLaunchBox => true; public bool ShowInBigBox => true; public bool AllowInBigBoxWhenLocked => true; public void OnSelected() { PluginHelper.DataManager.ForceReload(); } } Using the BB default Theme. If I run the ForceReload() command via the plugin and then enter into the PlatformCategories view, and navigate to a Category which triggers a video playing, I get the following unhandled exception: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. App: Big Box Version: 13.22 Theme: Default Type: System.NullReferenceException Site: Void ReflectPublisherCreator() Source: Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows at Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Views.ImageVideoView.<>c__DisplayClass25_0.ReflectPublisherCreator() at System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherOperation.InvokeImpl() --- End of stack trace from previous location --- at System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherOperation.Wait(TimeSpan timeout) at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.InvokeImpl(DispatcherOperation operation, CancellationToken cancellationToken, TimeSpan timeout) at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.Invoke(Action callback, DispatcherPriority priority, CancellationToken cancellationToken, TimeSpan timeout) at Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Threading.Invoke(Action callback, DispatcherPriority priority) at Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Views.ImageVideoView.PlayVlcVideo(String filePath, Int32 tries) at FactoryRecommenderVerifier.GenerateSetChooserTransmitter(Object, String filePath, Int32 tries, FactoryRecommenderVerifier) at Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.ViewModels.ImageVideoViewModel.set_VideoPath(Object value) at AutomatedEngineFactory.GenerateSetChooserTransmitter(Object, Object value, AutomatedEngineFactory) at Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.ViewModels.ImageVideoViewModel.Init(ImageSource source, String video) at Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.BigBox.ViewModels.FiltersViewModelBase.TestOrder(ImageSource v) at Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.ImageLoader.HandleCalcDic(Object i) at DetailedElementFactory.GenerateSetChooserTransmitter(ImageLoaderQueueItem i, DetailedElementFactory) at Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.ImageLoader.Enqueue(String imagePath, Action`1 onLoadedAction) at Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.BigBox.ViewModels.FiltersViewModelBase.LoadDetails(Guid instance) at FactoryPolicyEditor.SortTransformer(Object, Guid instance, FactoryPolicyEditor) at Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.BigBox.ViewModels.FiltersViewModelBase.<>c__DisplayClass223_0.PeekSynchronizer() at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.RunInternal(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state) --- End of stack trace from previous location --- at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.RunInternal(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state) Recent Log: 11:09:25 Exception It does not happen in other Views (well as many as I could test in anyway). If I run BB again and go to a PlatformCategories view, I do not get the error until I run the plugin again. Have ensured plugin running in vanilla LB environment (making sure it's not due to any changes I've made to xmls). I'm assuming this is a bug in the View or ViewModel? I would sign it off as trivial, but requiring Users not to use the PlatformCategories view feels very poor. This is part of a wider project to allow users to add games to BigBox remotely from another PC whilst bigbox is running, thus the ability to Update the games lists post-adding from within BB options is kinda crucial (stop users having to restart BigBox each time). Shame it's being stimied by this one bug - is it easily fixable? Happy to do anything I can to help (is the default them on a repo somewhere?). Had a quick look at Themes\Default\BigBoxTheme.sln, but couldn't event find ImageVideoView - so not sure where to start. Hope someone can help! Progress: I noted a reference to `Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Views.ImageVideoView.PlayVlcVideo` in the exception, and changed the default player to VLC. This stopped the bug. However, I also see you're depreciating VLC media player so is this a backlog item (i.e. to refactor the relevant code to use media player rather than VLC??). If so - any scheduling of this for a future release yet, as you also warn us NOT to use VLC media player at risk of freezes and crashes. I know reliance on 3rd party apps can be a pain as can be retiring their implementations!

Can you move this over to my topic as originally requested so as not to take the OP off topic? Also, struggling to understand what you're saying here. A quick vid via OBS is your best option alongside showing your directory structures.

If you post details of the errors or reproduction steps in the linked post, happy to take a look. A video of the error via OBS and YouTube would also be helpful

Thanks for the thanks!

Nope - I did IM him out of courtesy, just didn't hear back from him. Sure he's super-duper busy.

EDIT: Further investigation seems to imply it's Launchbox dlls that are the issue. Firstly, 3rd party dlls are loaded fine. The refer in .csproj: <ItemGroup> <Reference Include="Caliburn.Micro"> <HintPath>..\..\Core\Caliburn.Micro.dll</HintPath> </Reference> <Reference Include="Caliburn.Micro.Platform"> <HintPath>..\..\Core\Caliburn.Micro.Platform.dll</HintPath> </Reference> <Reference Include="LaunchBox"> <HintPath>..\..\Core\LaunchBox.dll</HintPath> </Reference> <Reference Include="System.Windows.Interactivity"> <HintPath>..\..\Core\System.Windows.Interactivity.dll</HintPath> </Reference> <Reference Include="Unbroken"> <HintPath>..\..\Core\Unbroken.dll</HintPath> </Reference> <Reference Include="Unbroken.LaunchBox"> <HintPath>..\..\Core\Unbroken.LaunchBox.dll</HintPath> </Reference> <Reference Include="Unbroken.LaunchBox.Plugins"> <HintPath>..\..\Core\Unbroken.LaunchBox.Plugins.dll</HintPath> </Reference> <Reference Include="Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows"> <HintPath>..\..\Core\Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.dll</HintPath> </Reference> </ItemGroup> Caliburn, System dlls are all loaded fine. Seocndly, I deleted and re-added caliburn (via `Add Project Reference`) from the Core folder without any issues. However, when I tried doing this with LB dlls, I get the above error. It feels like unless you're willing to pay a monthly subscription for the Theme Creator app, theming is broken in launchbox?

Hi. Having difficulty getting started with this. Not wanting to use the monthly subscription (!!) Community Theme Creator. Know Xaml + WPF so would prefer that. Have created a copy of Default, but all the assemblies are missing and as a result, no design view: I moved over to CriticalZoneV2 that I found in my themes folder as this has a 'References" folder. I tried copying over the missing dlls from launchbox/core but this didn't resolve the missing dependencies: Tried importing it manually, only to be greeted with: I hate to say it, but it's all a bit jank, really. How do I get up and running editing themes in Visual Studio. I've seen Jason's videos from 8 years ago, but these are super outdated now and seemingly irrelevant.

Did you get anywhere with this? In the same boat and banging my head against a brick wall here. Not the smoothest of software design, really...

I updated and expanded my C64Dreams sister App. It adds the following features: Makes installation into existing (or indeed vanilla) Launchbox installations a lot easier (fully automated). Automates adding other C64 games to the C64Dreams collection without having to mess about with .bat, .vbs, .ahk files. Also automates adding to the Launchbox database (not having to add it manually). Lets you search the C64Dreams collection for specific games in-app rather than having to launch Launchbox each time. Fixes broken Images for Platforms, Platform Categories and Playlists. Also lets you use your own images and automates the installation to launchbox process. Details here: