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sundogak

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Everything posted by sundogak

  1. I assume if you go to the "Edit Platform" and look at the "Scrape As" drop down box you have it selected as "Sinclair ZX Spectrum" ? Ultimately, LB will retitle whatever way is listed in LB Database. It will try to best guess title if not a direct match. So you may have a mis-match. https://gamesdb.launchbox-app.com/platforms/games/46 If you don't want it to match from the LB DB you can turn that off during importing and it will take whatever you have in the file name (or folder name if you check as option in import box). It won't import the other data though.
  2. @bran479 There is a plugin you can use that will generate random playlists. In the AO.Bigbox.Dropins.dll.config file you can turn off the other parts of the plugin you don't want and modify the playists for number of random games as well as rename the title, etc. They will show up in Bigbox and LB.
  3. See fix that worked with my Daphne setup
  4. LB doesn't have that feature yet. It was on the list to eventually get in, but LB doesn't have keyboard automation like BB. See Jason's comment here in beta thread:
  5. I have been messing with some of the scripts and what some of the emulators can and cannot do/use as far as reset and swapping disc scripts. So here is list as of Beta 17: Daphne: Pause Works but not through normal method if: Suspend Emulator Process While Paused = Off Forceful Pause = Off On Pause Tab ;Daphne pause is keyboard "p" #IfWinActive ahk_exe DAPHNE.exe ; note ahk_class SDL_APP used by Hatari and KAT5200 Send p 3. On Resume Tab ;Daphne toggle back to active #IfWinActive ahk_exe DAPHNE.exe ; note ahk_class SDL_APP used by Hatari and KAT5200 Send p 4. Reset Tab (it takes about 10 seconds to reset so initially seems like not working) ;Daphne emulator reset is F3 #IfWinActive ahk_exe DAPHNE.exe Send {f3} 5 . Save State, Load State, Swap Disc ; not used by Daphne If Suspend Emulator Process While Paused = On (normal) then loses focus during Pause (Menu comes up) and also doesn't pause game. ===================== Pinball Visual Pinball (with B2S running): Pause Works Normally: Forceful Off Reset, Save State, Load State, Swap Disc; Not Used by Emulator Pinball FX3: Pause doesn't work normally with or without forceful. Doesn't bring up menu at all. The Suspend Emulator Process While Paused = Off trick like for Daphne doesn't work (no menu). Doesn't seem to capture AHK entries. Reset, Save State, Load State, Swap Disc; Not Used by Emulator The Pinball Arcade (using TPAFreeCamMod.exe) and Future Pinball (with BAM) Pause doesn't work normally with or without forceful - loses focus, no pause. The Suspend Emulator Process While Paused = Off trick like for Daphne doesn't work, exits out of full screen and doesn't always pause with default ESC. Reset, Save State, Load State, Swap Disc; Not Used by Emulator. Still messing with them with combos but "pre-launcher" type programs don't play well.. ===================== AppleWin Pause Works Normally: Forceful Off 1. Reset Tab ; works ; AppleWin emulator reset is F2 #IfWinActive ahk_class APPLE2FRAME Send {f2} 2. Save State; works, but not too useful without getting fancy with AHK since need keyboard ; AppleWin save state is F11 but not too useful since brings up explorer window for selection and have to use keyboard #IfWinActive ahk_class APPLE2FRAME Send {f11} 3. Load State; works but need keyboard ; AppleWin load state is F12 but not too useful since brings up explorer window for selection and have to use keyboard #IfWinActive ahk_class APPLE2FRAME Send {f12} 4. Swap Disc; works ; AppleWin swap disc is F5 #IfWinActive ahk_class APPLE2FRAME Send {f5} ============== miniVMac Pause Works Normally: Forceful Off 1. Save State, Load State, Swap Disc Tabs ; not used by miniVMac 2. Reset Tab; works (CTRL R) but not useful since it is ejects disc with reset and reboots with no disc in drive (i.e., have to exit and restart) ;Reset causes disc to eject so comment out #IfWinActive ahk_class minivmac { Send {LCtrl Down}RY Send {LCtrl Up} } =================== Altirra Pause Works Normally: Forceful Off 1. Reset Tab ; works ;Altirra Hard Reset is SHIFT F5 - Keeps disc in system #IfWinActive ahk_class AltirraMainWindow Send +{f5} Save State, Load State, and Disc Rotate - No default keys assigned. Must use Shortcut feature to assign in Emulator to one of the functions: Assign these functions: Quick Save State, Quick Load Save State, Save State (brings up Menu-keyboard needed), Load Save (brings up Menu-keyboard needed) - None really useful since keyboard. Quicksave will over write last used of any game. Swap Disc Example ;Altirra assigned in Shortcuts menu CTRL SHIFT F10 for Rotate Down #IfWinActive ahk_class AltirraMainWindow Send ^+{f10} ====== Steem Pause Works Normally: Forceful Off (must be off) Similar to Altirra, no default keys for Swap Disc, Load State, or Save State. Must assign via the Configure Keyboard Shortcuts feature. Assign key for "Cold Reset and Run" = Reset Tab Assign "Swap Discs in Drives" = Swap Discs Tab Load and Save Memory Snapshot feature requires keyboard. Similar issues with quick save states as Altirra but haven't fully tested. ================= KAT5200 Pause Works Normally: Forceful Off 1. Swap Disc Tabs ; not used by kat5200 2. Reset - if controller assigned rather than keyboard the reset key command doesn't appear available. 3. Load State from 9 slots - ALT 1 to ALT 9 - Results seemed unreliable (emulator issue), games would work oddly after load. 4. Save State from 9 slots - SHIFT 1 to SHIFT 9 - Not using due to above. ============== WinVice Pause Works Normally - Forceful off 1. Reset (Hard) - CTRL ALT R - Not using since seems to fry emulator and not reboot disc. Similar with soft reset 2. ALT S and ALT L for Quick save and load state; haven't tested ============ ePSX Pause Works Normally: Forceful Off (must be off, doesn't work with on) 1. Save state; works ;ePSX save state F1; F2 is to increment up a slot #IfWinActive ahk_exe ePSXe.exe Send {f1} 2. Load State; works ;ePSX load state F3; F2 is to increment up a slot #IfWinActive ahk_exe ePSXe.exe Send {f3} 3. No reset or swap disc command that can be assigned to hotkey that I can find.
  6. @wallmachine Only did these since don't have full screen setup (Desktop view with second monitor backglass) and wanted to stick with X only: Visual Pinball [VPXx] Original Tables (picking and choosing, for most part not doing a lot of these unless they looked interesting) Visual Pinball [VPXx] PinMame Tables Visual Pinball [VPXx] Recreated Tables I have about 350 for VP that imported into LB but going to do serious pruning since has been taking a lot of time to get backglass running and doing media. There is limit to my OCD! Found I usually had to download from one of the VP sites for the backglass and in many cases found slightly newer versions. I had different "Hyperspin ready" set from 2016 since it was a "one table" set. I believe the set you are referring to had a lot of similar versions which I didn't want to wade through but in essence this is what I have: Future Pinball Original Tables (~290) Future Pinball Recreated Tables (~ 430) I wound up replacing quite a few of the Future Pinball tables from PinSimDB.org when started using BAM since they didn't have clear indicators in that set on what the Physics type was and/or included the XML files needed. @lou silver This thread is what got me going on VP but the issue found is they were setup for full single glass setups in many cases rather than desktop. Can change the setup, but requires fiddling with each table or in many cases the DMD shows up rotated 90 degrees so wound up going with the PD set I had instead.
  7. I am likely weird in where put, but like to keep separate and it fits with the theme using with the first three being sort of the "minimum" set: Clear logo - normal clear logo just like used for other games. Screenshot Gameplay - desktop view gameplay screenshot (like #3 above) Screenshot Title - I use the screenshot of the backglass with DMD, preferable the actual game (like #1 above) , not the "real life" back glass. Those I put in Marquee but don't really use. Screenshot Select- Didn't know where to put but wanted separate from Desktop screenshot so put the full table screenshots in this category (like #4 above). The advantage of separate can always move to another category if change mind. Docklet - I use this as the "front box" (like #2 above) Gameex.com has quite a lot of pinball media via their PinballX frontend (like Hyperspin, if want to use FTP have to pay nominal fee). Pinsimdb.org is also pretty good for media, particularly for Future Pinball. The problem with the Pinball media is that everyone does slightly different, particularly naming, then there are a zillion versions of tables (ultimate, ultimatum, slightly different version by other people). That is why I just went for one table, typically most recent. When started using BAM with FP, have to keep the chaos to minimum. Video wise still missing 200 out of the 700 total (~8 GIGs). Once I got done screen-shotting everything, decided to hold up on the videos since those take a lot of time and couldn't get the AHK automated script working quite right. Visual Pinball is in my mind a bigger pain than Future Pinball and BAM, at least for casual desktop setups. I am only sticking with Visual Pinball X games simply so don't have to deal with all the others versions. VP seems to cater a lot more to the folks with dedicated PB setups and has features that are useful for them. But simple things like changing the view are more complicated than FP (just a function key in FP). I have a two screen setup with the Backglass on the second monitor and works fine with FP and BAM since the backglass is intergral in a FP table. But most VP tables you have to use a separate backglass program and download BG file as well. They are cooler, since they allow flashing and animation but take more time to fiddle with. I have about 50 setup and working now but suspect I am going to cherry pick ones that are not in FP set and leave at that since no sure want to bother with the +300 have waiting to sort through. Still need to upload what I have here screenshot wise just didn't get to it this weekend.
  8. There are quite a few clear logos at the link below, which pretty closely matches to the 719 I have in my collection: https://forums.launchbox-app.com/files/category/9-game-clear-logos/ I only keep one version (with few exceptions) of tables but I have backglass and desktop view screenshots of all 719, that I did manually from my tables. So they all have same basic view and sizing. Slowly adding in full table screenshots (~300 now) as well as docklets (~450) but got side tracked on getting Visual Pinball running. I had intended to post the backglass and screen shots since don't plan on adding any more unique tables for FP. So will try to post them this weekend.
  9. FS-UAE Startup Screens: Work on my setup for both LB and BB (WHLoad games). Screen is relatively fast ~5 seconds before going to UAE control. Slider doesn't alter timing so suspect exclusive screen at that point. Pause: Broken. Mutes the game but doesn't pause and doesn't bring up menu for both force and non-forced.
  10. Sorry, was unclear. I was just referring to Pinball FX3 pause screens not working, shouldn't have used the keycombo wording. For testing I do initially in LB but haven't seen much difference (yet) in BB vs LB but I am testing with controller automation only at this point since common to both LB and BB. However, having the keyboard automation added to LB would be great because with @Omen's AHK script earlier in the thread, could use the Xbox controller Guide button for LB Pause since Guide button is not currently mappable directly from within BB/LB.
  11. For Beta 14 stills works for me and launches directly into table using below (looks same as your setup). Pause keycombo still doesn't work for me (but didn't work on prior beta's either).
  12. Messed with Future Pinball a bit and does work under certain cases: Future Pinball - No BAM. No AHK Compiled EXE Loaders. Pause Works. Forceful must be turned on. Forceful turned off doesn't bring up menu. Used this in default command line parameters to avoid using a loader: /open %romfile% /play /exit Future Pinball - No BAM. With AHK Loader (like below). Pause Broken. Doesn't bring up screen or pause game. I was using a modified version of the loader below when tested yesterday when thought it was broken without BAM. LB used to not be able to launch directly so folks may have the loader still if haven't modified setups. Future Pinball - With BAM (uses FPLoader.exe) Pause Broken. Doesn't bring up screen or pause game. I also found that any AHK script in LB wouldn't work once started using FPLoader. Hence, why I had been using a compiled AHK for XBOX Controller Guide Button mapping (exit game). It did mute the sound (on Beta 13) on occasion when hitting LB pause combo, so something was trying to work. BAM uses a different pause mechanism than vanilla FP, so may be part of issue. Future Pinball - With BAM and using AHK Loader. Pause Broken. So basically, anything that is a pre-loader to FP causes issues. Although the controller automation combo to exit back to LB always seems to work on the above scenarios so some things are getting passed even if pre-loader used.
  13. Some mystery person came in and assigned a MAME ctrl cfg file with a conflict....or could be that I didn't remember I assigned a pause combo. ? So indeed was conflict on my end and when returned to defaults no issues.
  14. All launching in LB (will double check BB as well) - As of Beta 13 Daphne: Startup - Works (single screen). For single screen seems to work okay. On dual screen setup, kicks the loading screen to the second monitor when emulator changes resolution. Pause - Broken - With Forceful on: Loses focus, doesn't pause game (sound playing). Sometimes it drops back to desktop with emulator still running. Have to alt tab back. Forceful off: doesn't lose focus but doesn't pause. The Pinball Arcade (with TPAFreeCamMod launcher) Startup - Works. Pause - Broken. Doesn't pause with/without Forceful on. Loses focus. Interestingly, causes XBOX One Controller to vibrate while paused. ? Causes TPA to come out of fullscreen. Pinball FX3 (dual screen setup/cabinet code) Startup - Works Pause - Broken. Pauses game. But on resume loses focus on primary screen back to desktop (program still running). Second screen (backglass) remains. Have to Alt Tab to get back to primary (plus hit the resume within FX3 menu). Same with/without Forceful. Visual Pinball (X) (dual screen setup running B2S for backglass) Startup - Works Pause - Works Future Pinball (with BAM, Dual Screen) Startup - Works Pause - Broken. No pause. Brings up menu and focus remains but game continues to run in BG (with Forceful). Without forceful does nothing, no menu, no pause. Future Pinball (without BAM) Startup - Works Pause - Broken. No pause. No menu. Same with/without Forceful. Edit: Works as long as no AHK preloader and not using BAM. Forceful must be on. AppleWin Startup - Works Pause - Works (with and without Forceful) Tried +20 games and all worked (see bundangdon noted issues). Note also I have a AHK exit commmand of ESC remapped to Alt F4. I found that if you use ESC with AppleWin in fullscreen mode it doesn't reset screen resolution back to pre-launch. Sending Alt F4 fixes behaviour. My command line settings are: -fs-height=1080 -noreg -no-printscreen-dlg -r 32 -d1 Mini vMAC Startup - Works Pause - Works (with and without Forceful) Altirra Startup - Works Pause - Works (with and without Forceful) Kat5200 (8bit Atari) Startup - Works Pause - Works Steem (Atari ST) Startup - Works Pause - Works only with Forceful OFF. If Forceful ON causes various issues: Some games will pause but cause to lose focus and move from fullscreen to native resolution. Others will hang and crash LB/BB. If hit pause during loading crashes/hangs. Hatari (Atari ST) Startup - Works Pause - Works only with Forceful OFF. If Forceful ON causes menu to move around each time paused (two positions). Otherwise works (Pause, keeps focus). ScummVM (2.0) Startup - Works, use Aggressive OFF or drops momentarily to desktop view before VM launches Pause - Broken. No pause. No menu. Same with/without Forceful. ePSX Startup - Works Pause - Works only with Forceful OFF. If Forceful ON causes screen loss of focus on pause and difficult to get back even with ALT Tab. Had to hard terminate most times. MAME Startup - Works Pause - Works Odd Controller Issue: With an XBOX One Controller. If assign Automation buttons Left Shoulder (Button 5 HOLD) and Start (Button 7) brings up MAME menu (tab) along with pause. When hit resume in Pause menu returns but now MAME menu is up and have to tab out to exit MAME menu. If assign another button besides those two, no issues. No AHK or Steam running so weird. Oddly, with same assignments above if hit the LEFT and RIGHT Shoulder (5 and 6) it Pauses but no menu even though in Automation assignment Button 6 isn't even assigned. Edit: was issue on my end with Pause key and UI Menu Key bound to keys on controller causing conflict.
  15. There are lots in the Download section under platform videos. You can also download the typical ones within LB by going to the Tools and Download Platform/Playlist Theme Videos window.
  16. What about Launchbox is it working and only BB? Might check this setting under edit emulator in LB. I use both Retroarch and PCSX2 and don't have any issues. Might also check the AHK tab for script that might be causing issue or troubleshoot by toggling off the startup/shutdown screens (although works fine in my setup)
  17. What emulator are you trying to use? Once you are in an emulator that program controls if your mouse is visible, not BB or LB. The setting I referenced in BB is only to make it visible within BB interface, not once you launch the game. That is emulator specific.
  18. Go into Big Box, then Options. Then scroll down to "Mouse". You can toggle on /off the mouse along with the "hide/don't hide" option. Sounds like you have the hide mouse option turned on.
  19. Weird. You might check in the BB options under the Controller and Controller Automation that there are no conflicting buttons (i.e., two commands assigned to the same button). If you exit out of the games within BB using just the keyboard does this happen? You might also go into Options and Mouse and disable the mouse as test (it just disables in BB, not the emulator). Sounds like there is some conflict somewhere.
  20. Zen Pinball FX3 Gameplay Video Snaps - Updated to Volume 7 (March 2022) View File **Updated with Indiana Jones - The Pinball Adventure table released March 2022*** **6.0 Version - Updated to Volume 6 Pack** Here is a set of 1920 x 1080 game play video snaps (~30 seconds each) for Pinball FX3 that I created. Note the pinball table logos that fade in at end; credit to others on those. The files have been compressed by about 50% since in most cases the window used to view these in a theme will be much smaller. If someone wants the native 1920x1080 files, let me know (~65 MB each). Here is what is included: Pinball FX3 Video Snaps - Volume 6 Update.zip Pinball FX 3 Video Snaps - Volume 5 Update.zip Pinball FX 3 Video Snaps - Universal's Monster Pack.zip Pinball FX 3 Video Snaps - Pinball FX 3 Video Snaps 3.zip Pinball FX 3 Video Snaps 1.zip Pinball FX 3 Video Snaps 2.zip Pinball FX 3 Video Snaps - Marvel Tables Pack #2.zip Pinball FX 3 Video Snaps - Star Wars Tables Pack #2.zip Pinball FX 3 Video Snaps - Universal and Other Tables.zip Pinball FX 3 Video Snaps - Zen Tables #1.zip Pinball FX 3 Video Snaps - Zen Tables #2.zip A image media pack is located here: Submitter sundogak Submitted 04/24/2019 Category Game Media Packs
  21. Version 7.0

    13,669 downloads

    **Updated with Indiana Jones - The Pinball Adventure table released March 2022*** **6.0 Version - Updated to Volume 6 Pack** Here is a set of 1920 x 1080 game play video snaps (~30 seconds each) for Pinball FX3 that I created. Note the pinball table logos that fade in at end; credit to others on those. The files have been compressed by about 50% since in most cases the window used to view these in a theme will be much smaller. If someone wants the native 1920x1080 files, let me know (~65 MB each). Here is what is included: Pinball FX3 Video Snaps - Volume 6 Update.zip Pinball FX 3 Video Snaps - Volume 5 Update.zip Pinball FX 3 Video Snaps - Universal's Monster Pack.zip Pinball FX 3 Video Snaps - Pinball FX 3 Video Snaps 3.zip Pinball FX 3 Video Snaps 1.zip Pinball FX 3 Video Snaps 2.zip Pinball FX 3 Video Snaps - Marvel Tables Pack #2.zip Pinball FX 3 Video Snaps - Star Wars Tables Pack #2.zip Pinball FX 3 Video Snaps - Universal and Other Tables.zip Pinball FX 3 Video Snaps - Zen Tables #1.zip Pinball FX 3 Video Snaps - Zen Tables #2.zip A image media pack is located here:
  22. Haha....thanks all. I was procrastinating on something else, so likely contributed to the length. ? @dragon57 When younger, family had an Apple IIc and Atari 400 (with horrid overlay keys and cassette program loader that took forever to load) and later a Mac SE. So those had some nostalgia factor to try and get setup. MAME has improved recently on the Apple IIe front but AppleWin is pretty handy as a Apple II emulator and have that setup for the II series (sadly doesn't work with IIGS). MAME wise the Apple IIe emulation uses same logic as above, just substitute apple2ee -flop1 vs apple2gs -flop4 and this site has a good overview of the switches you can use to emulate Apple IIe slots (SCSI, mouse, etc). To get the "point and click" running in LB is a struggle for both systems since you run into all the varied keyboard/joystick combos, hardware setup issues, and multiple disk swapping. In most cases, not easy to get away from needing keyboard around. The pause/overlay feature that will be in LB at some point will be useful on that front, since can make some cheat sheets for the user on keyboard use (use num keypad, or WASD, etc). What I would really like is to have LB add in a variable for the additional apps list so can call the full path without hard coding (i.e., like the %romfile% variable but for each additional app %romefile2%, etc), that would take some of the work out of setting up multi-disk /player disks and make a generic command string. Put in a ticket awhile ago, but likely an edge case most don't care about where Jason has other items to tackle. Anyway, if nothing else, it is all a good reminder of how far PCs have come on usability. If any questions as go along, let me know.
  23. I assume you are trying to setup via MAME (formerly MESS for IIGS emulation) since that is what the LB video was presenting. So will go over that as initial setup. There are other emulators such as GSPlus, KEGS32, and GSPort. MAME in theory is the easiest to initially get rolling, particularly if you are familiar with the inner workings of MAME for arcade setups. The advantage of the others is you can typically run as a true "computer" a bit easier than in MAME but they come with a big learning curve of understanding the era's disk formats and guts of IIGS. All three also require you to track down the IIGS ROMs and are on a whole not user friendly but more powerful with some feature sets than MAME IIGS emulator (also typically faster emulation). First thing, set your expectations for MAME for the IIGS because it isn't straightforward: Setting up computer emulator, particularly the Apple II, MSDOS generations, is not near as simple as consoles/arcade some of which is due to the very computers they are emulating. They also emulate that complexity. Don't expect within LB to import a whole slug of 1,000s of pieces of software and expect to work out of the box. You will want to be choosy. I assume you have access to MAME software for the IIGS, ideally the Software List MAME dump. Zip files are great and for most emulators you can leave them as is. Even for MAME and IIGS emulation you can leave as ZIP for simple one disk software but when you get into multiple floppy disks or "A and B" side floppies, unzipping is easiest and the least confusing (to me). This will also let you see what the image type of the software (e.g., 2mg, dsk, po) There are a variety of different disc formats for the software; it is confusing because you dealing with 35 year old tech. Additionally, just as a native IIGS there were 5.25 inch floppies (single and double sided), 3.5 inch disks (various sizes), and the IIGS MAME emulator can also run a "hard drive" emulation. Many games require a "user disc" or a "player disc" (e.g., Bards Tale series) where you save your progress, and those are MOST times not included in any software sets you acquire. So you will need a blank "floppy" image (attached). You will run into software that has been "cracked" to remove the era's disk copy protection schemes (which were numerous). MAME software lists usually will indicate if it is a cracked software file in the title (if you unzip to look). There is nothing in particular you have to do in these cases but can cause some weirdness in emulators. One thing you will likely run into is copy protection related to having access to the game manual. Many games required you to look up something in a manual or card they included with the store bought copy. Battle Chess is good example for IIGS. At the start of the game, it will ask you for a move from a famous chess game and that code sheet is in Appendix I of the manual. So you can get it easily to launch in MAME via LB but if you don't have that you will not be able to play. Although most games have the system files need to boot automatically, not all games do, particularly Shareware/Homebrew type games. That means you will have to boot from a IIGS system disk and then run the game. I am not going to get into system disks and such but the process is similar once you get properly PRODOS system disk. For the IIGS, I have found MAME can be a bit laggy at times and in most cases there are no disk "speed up" hacks. So that means you have to be patient when booting a disk. In many cases it takes as long as "it really did". So when you launch a game, if it appears it is hanging, let it run a bit longer. Most likely it will work. Okay, with all that here is how you get things working for IIGS: Step 1: Make sure you have your MAME setup correctly. Validate that MAME is pointing to your software location for the IIGS. The folder that MAME looks for software (by default) and ROMs is called "apple2gs". Make sure you MAME.INI points correctly to the applicable software path and rom path. Figure 1: MAME Software List for Apple IIGS. Note it must be in the "software" folder (first screen snap) if you use the default MAME settings in the MAME.INI file (second screen snap). Step 2: Setup a folder test folder somewhere on your drive. You will use this to unzip test software outside the MAME software location. The reason to do this is when we get into multiple discs it is easier to work with the original image than in the ZIP. MAME can "look" into ZIP files for multiple discs or A and B side discs but personally, find it easier to just unzip and work with the images directly outside ZIP file. Figure 2: My unzipped file location. Example only (I call "roms" but that is not to be confused with an actual Apple IIGS rom but is software). Step 3: How MAME references drives for the IIGS - This is key table since it is what tells MAME how to launch your image From the MAME documentation the emulator that MAME uses is referenced by the "apple2gs" switch. When you use that it tells MAME to use the IIGS emulation. When you do, there are a variety of options that can be called after that to tell the emulator how to run. The main one we need to know/use is how to call the correct floppy drive. Sadly, because of all the formats it isn't straightforward. But MOST times the "flop3" (or Floppy Disc 3) is the one we use to start the emulator. Note that the types of discs can only be run by certain floppy drives so this is why unzipping files is useful to see what is going on. Like said, most times can use Floppy Disk 3 and 4. What each "floppy" drive will run as far as image types. For example, floppy disk 1 will not run a 2.img file whereas floppy disk 3 will. apple2gs floppydisk1 -flop1 .do .dsk .bin .po .nib .fdi .td0 .imd .cqm .d77 .d88 .1dd <<< 5.25 inch drive 1 floppydisk2 -flop2 .do .dsk .bin .po .nib .fdi .td0 .imd .cqm .d77 .d88 .1dd <<< 5.25 inch drive 2 floppydisk3 -flop3 .dsk .img .image .po .dc .2img .2mg .fdi .td0 .imd .cqm .d77 .d88 .1dd <<< 3.5 inch drive 1. Typical drive for IIGS floppydisk4 -flop4 .dsk .img .image .po .dc .2img .2mg .fdi .td0 .imd .cqm .d77 .d88 .1dd <<< 3.5 inch drive 2 Floppy 3 and 4 are 3.5 inch disk drives. Floppy 1 and 2 are 5 inch disk drives. Most IIGS software was in 3.5 inch 800kb size. Some of the above will not make sense until we see examples below. Step 4: Putting it all together for test run. If want to skip right to LB, go to Step 5 but if have issues at 5 come back to 4. For computer setups I always make sure things are running first OUTSIDE of Launchbox via command line. This will help keep you sane since many times you need to see what is going on if there are errors. Once you get the hang of it, you can work in LB directly but it helps initially to make sure you have all things working first before going into LB. Pick a game such as Battle Chess (called btlchess.zip if using MAME software set). If zipped, open it up and copy the file into you test folder. If using the MAME file inside the zip is called: "battle chess (1988-89)(interplay)(trex crack).2mg" [note may be different name, but paste in what you have). If need manual for codes it is here: http://apple2online.com/web_documents/battle_chess.pdf NOTE: Can use another game as test, but make sure only ONE floppy file and it has an extension in the list above under flop3. In the text editor, type in command below but change the path to your MAME directory (red) and to your test directory location of you test file (orange). The bold items must be in your command. I do things in text editor since easier to see/fix then paste into CMD window. Then in DOS CMD window, change directory to your MAME folder. If you are not in the MAME directory "G:\Emulators\MAME\mame64.exe" apple2gs -flop3 "G:\Emulators\Apple IIGS\roms\battle chess (1988-89)(interplay)(trex crack).2mg" In MAME Directory: Error if not in MAME directory (for others, yes I know that can reference path to MAME.INI but want to keep command line simple like will be in LB). If all is well then program will launch. Hit escape to exit. If doesn't work, then double check your paths and names. Step 5: Setup Launchbox This assumes you have MAME emulator installed and working in LB already and that MAME has the proper files to work with the IIGS (see above). Now may seem like the roundabout way to get here but it is key to understanding what LB is doing by all the above. Add the Apple IIGS Platform. Add the MAME settings for the IIGS in the Emulator window: Go into Tools, Manage Emulators, MAME, and click on Associated Platforms. Type in Apple IIGS. Add in the command line section the following. This tells to run by default the software on 3.5 inch floppy drive: apple2gs -flop3 Now drag and drop from whatever you consider to be your main IIGS software directory the test file we had above (you can use a zip file if want now if only one disk image in the zip) or if using file outside the zip file (MAME works either way) For any game that is ONE disk, the image file uses any of the flop3 extensions, and the game doesn't need to save file to disk, then that is all you have to do in LB. Just drag and drop/import those zip or image files. If you run into issues, likely the zip and/or software image uses a different extension than Floppy 3 allows. Go back to the chart of extensions and floppy references. If for example your software image has a ".do" extension then -flop 3 gets changed to -flop 1 Multi-Disc games: It gets more sticky though if you have multi disks or if A/B disks or need a player save disk. You can open the multi-disks a variety of ways (within MAME via File Manager, setup Batch file, etc). For two disk games, I chose to do this way so already loaded in MAME (many times the game will recognize without going outside into MAME interface). For two disc games such as Bard's Tale here is screenshots of setup: First tab is same, but here I almost always use an unzipped file. Under the emulation tab, you need to setup a special command to automatically load the second disc (Or Side B) Here is the command I use: apple2gs -ui_active -flop4 "G:\Emulators\Apple IIGS\roms\Bard's Tale, The (1987)(Interplay)(Disk 2 of 2)[Character].2mg" -flop3 the -flop4 command tells MAME to load the 2nd disc in the second 3.5 inch floppy drive (floppy 4). You will need the FULL path to this location (I wish this feature would be added to LB, that can take from additional APPs....someday). You need to add the -flop3 again since that is where disc one will go. You do not need the path for the primary disk 1 since LB will put in whatever you have listed in the first tab. You can use this command for any disc with two disks or two sides so it is already loaded in MAME. I have also attached a "blank" 800kb 3.5 inch image (blank.po) that you can use for any game that needs a blank disk to be loaded. Copy, rename and then reference that image as the "flop4" reference in the commands described below for a game that needs to save. An example for that is Beyond Zork using my blank disk for the save file disk (I called my blank disk "byzork.po") : apple2gs -ui_active -flop4 "G:\Emulators\Apple IIGS\roms\Player Discs\byzork.po" -flop3 Same here as other example, can use a zip of the actual disk 1 image. I would stick to one or the other (even though I haven't!) In Mame, when need to load the "blank" or save file disk click the "disk" button. The blank disc I attached is noted as "new.disk" and here you can save and/or restore you file. Now when you launch with LB you have Zork with the save file attached so user doesn't have to toggle into MAME interface. In theory you could use 4 disks using this method (or more if get into adding things via slots. See this website for the various switches...gets complicated!) As said, there are many ways to go about this such as batch files or just launch the zip with all the disk images and then toggle into MAME File Manager to open, just depends on what you want to do. ==================Other Items that may be of interest The -ui_active command is to tell MAME not to fully emulate IIGS keyboard (i.e., tab works to open MAME). This is normally on by default in MAME. You can use the scroll lock to toggle ui active or not. That setting is the MAME.INI file under uimodekey. ============= Extra: Apple II software You can in theory run Apple II software in the Apple IIGS emulator. Note that Apple II uses 5.25 inch disks almost exclusively. Thus, to use these images have to use -flop1 and -flop2. In the example below, use -flop1 command as noted below. Note that MAME can have some issues with speed /timing of these games since the IIGS used a faster CPU than the IIe model. Some copy protected games/cracks will also gag. Use the Apple IIE MAME emulated instead as primary. ============== Extra: Hard Drives: If you see "HDV" extensions on a file then it is a "hard drive" image. Note that MAME cannot use HDV directly. They must be converted to MAME CHD format first. Update: Versions of MAME 214 and higher can run hard drive images in CHD, HDV, or 2MG format. This is the command I use for the HD of games I made for HDVs I converted to CHD. Note that due to all the copy protection the games used at the time, it isn't as simple as copying all the games to a HDV and running from there (sadly!). In most cases, the code of the game has to be modified to do that (plus most games were not designed to see/work on a HD). apple2gs -sl7 scsi -noautosave -hard1 More Memory: Some games may need more than the 2 MEG of RAM that IIGS had. You can use up to 8 MEG. Use the following switch in the command before the "flop" command. You can also include this into an apple2gs.ini specific file in your ..\MAME\ini\ folder: -ramsize 8M Save States: Typically, I do not use save states for the computer based emulators in MAME. However, for some games where no good save points, it can be useful. The main issue is that the save states do not always work correctly with multi disc games. The following command is what I use to toggle /try. If I add then the game state will be saved under the MAME folder ..\Sta\apple2gs\name of the game (flop 3). The -noautosave switch stops saving if that is your default for MAME. -autosave -statename %g/%d_flop3 Final: There are a ton of options within MAME that haven't shown but this should get you going. Some of these options you can include in a apple2gs.ini file located in the ..\Mame\ini folder so don't have to include in LB (such as the RAM and statename switches), but that varies on your setup. The other emulators listed at the beginning are a bit better if getting into more complicated setups and act more "like a IIGS". Those I typically do not run within LB simply since it doesn't make as much sense. My intent with LB is always as close to "one click" and all the background stuff is taken care of, where possible. blank.po
  24. Have you tried going (from within BB) to Options, Controller, and clicking the "Use all controllers" box? Assuming both controllers have same buttons might try that.
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