DarkMain

Ah, Of course... I forgot about the "Auto Populate" function. Cheers.

Just wondering if there is a way to have BigBox display multiple platforms as a single one? The reason I'm asking is I'm currently using FBA as my arcade emulator but there are a handful of games I would like that it doesn't play so I have put MAME on my system as well. The problem is I then get two "Arcade" platforms in Big Box (Or a Final Burn Alpha and a MAME). I would like to have them "merged" in BigBox for display and usability reasons, but keep them separate in LaunchBox for organizational and auditing reasons. I know I could probably add the MAME games into the Final Burn Alpha platform and then change the emulator it uses, or have an "Arcade" platform and manually select the correct emulator for the different roms, but as more games get added its going to start to get tricky keeping track of what rom goes with each emulator.

Thanks for the offer. I'm in NZ though so any shipping is likely to be a little expensive. A mate hooked me up with a 600x700 sheet from his glazing company today so I should be sorted now.

Have you had a look in "Event Viewer" just after the crash happens? It will often give you an indication as to whats causing the crash.

USB LED strip turned up today. Printed off a temp marquee image on 2 bits of A4 and stuck them together to test it out. Really helps bring it all together. Should do until I can find some Acrylic/Perspex for a decent price.

Saving "Alternate Name" name in a games meta date and the ability to use it to search. While I have been throwing together my library I have noticed that there a quite a few games that are named differently depending on the region... It would be nice to be able to search for say... "SWIV" in the SNES and have the results show "Firepower 2000". Maybe the ability to chose what name was displayed as well.

Its been way more fun than expected. I'm probably going to invest in a table saw (just a small cheap one) if I ever attempt anything like this again though.

I have just set up volume control in the controller automation and for some reason when I'm playing Metal Slug I press the two buttons to turn the volume up or down and it activates the second player and then stops the second controller from working at all as well as effecting the controls for player 1 (They still work but seem to be getting interrupted). The automation for "Show Launchbox" doesn't do this and I don't believe the "Exit" one does either (but its hard to tell as its quitting the game). This happen in both Launch Box and Big Box. If I load RetroArch on its own without Launch Box loaded and press the key combination nothing happens so I don't believe its a key mapping issue in the emulator. I also tried the media keys on my keyboard and they function correctly without causing the controllers to act up. I'm running the latest beta (16). The Emulator is Retroarch with the Final Burn Alpha core and the controllers are generic USB ones I got from Aliexpress (https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/Arcade-Joystick-DIY-Kit-Zero-Delay-Arcade-DIY-Kit-USB-Encoder-To-PC-Arcade-Sanwa-Joystick/2813007_32789820812.html?spm=2114.12010608.0.0.2995e5c0hf5yCd)

Lol, yea. I'm trying to keep the costs of the build down so went for the monitor speakers over an extra $20 for something else. It seems to be doing OK for now, but the option to upgrade in the future is always there. I haven't looked at getting adhesive vinyl prints for the rest of the cab. Maybe in the future, but for now it's not on the cards.

Just a few more bits to finish now, like screw the back on, print off a marquee, tidy up the internal wiring... but its up and running and I'm pretty pleased with the results.

Touch of paint. Primer and 1st coat. Will see what its like tomorrow and most likely do a second coat in the morning.

Kinda already made the front door now but I'll keep it in mind if I ever do another. Got the monitor mounted today. Ready for painting tomorrow and then I can throw the buttons in. Getting close now.

Not a lot to report today. Decided to remove the front panel (it was screwed on) and attach it with hinges and a magnetic catch instead. This will give me easy access to the front of the computer for the power and USB ports (if I ever want to use a controller) as well as adding a small gap that should help with airflow.

Another progress update... Got the control panel cut out and most of the cabinet screwed together. added some holes to the side for pinball (in hindsight they might be a little low but it should still be all good). Just need to cut out the hole for the monitor and build a bracket for it, sand it up, give it a coat of paint and then throw in the joysticks and buttons and I should be done.

Its still extra steps. May as well spend the time to write a batch file to automate the tasks. Using Windows search also wouldn't work with something like the "FB_Alpha_2016_Reference_Set_-_FBA_v0.2.97.39_ROMs" for example.

Went out and got the 19x19 pine, 25mm screws and glue today. Measured up and cut the pine but when I tired to screw 2 bits of scrap together it didn't work. The screws didn't go through far enough and it just pulled apart. Turns out the 19x19 was actually about 22x22 (even though its advertised and sold as 19x19). Dad seemed to think it was sold as 'Rough Cut' or something so its actually 19ish (on the bigger side to be safe). No big deal, just had to head back to the hardware store and grab some 30mm screws instead. Progress is a little slow (probably cause I'm triple checking everything and question to make sure I'm getting things right) but its getting there. Probably another day or two and it will be put together depending on how much time I give it.

I'm in the same camp. Like I said, its a habit from 10+ years ago back when software wasn't that reliable when it came to managing files (well, music library software at least, but that's probably a completely different ballpark). The problem with that is when you're deleting a lot of roms at a time. For example, the No-Intro SNES set has 3,300+ .zip files... Adding in just the English roms manually would be a pain, and adding them all and then removing the non-English ones manually would be a pain. The only real options are a) copy them all and allow Launchbox to delete them or b) add them all in their original location, edit the LB Database and then have LB copy what you want after the fact (which is something LB doesn't do).

Those are good points. I'm using a Final Burn Alpha ROM set with all the .zip files having no dependencies (not sure what that called) and all my other platforms are single files so I didnt think about .cue and .iso files. However, wouldn't you have the same issue when you are using Launchbox to manage the ROMs? (Allow deleting of ROMs when deleting games). That would just delete the .cue and leave the .iso or .bin in the launchbox directory, yet its still an option.

I first got into emulation AGES ago with the Amiga and Win-UAE. I grew up with the Amiga 500 and I think I still have 2 in the roof of the garage (still working last time I checked). Haven't really touched it in a while though. Recently, Having missed out on the NES Classic, I kinda started looking into it again, had a play and thought it might be interesting to build an actual 'Arcade' machine. I had an old Dell E8400 sitting around not really doing much so after some quick googling and searching on YouTube I decided it didn't look that hard and may as well take the plunge. I haven't done any woodwork since I was in school (15 years ago?) so you could say I'm going in blind. I ordered some buttons and joysticks from AliExpress and after about a month they showed up. Pretty stoked I grabbed some scrap wood and a panel layout from slagcoin.com and got to testing out my new purchase. The next step was to draw up some plans for a cabinet that will fit the computer, monitor and 2 player panel. I did a lot of searching and used images and other plans as a guide but eventually came up with something of my own (in hindsight, it might be a little big, but its all a learning experience). Once that was done I had to wait a little while until my Dad was able to lend me a hand. All the tools are his and even though he doesn't do a lot of woodwork now days he did quite a bit when he was younger and has the knowledge I don't. I went out and got the MDF, wrote down the measurements and got as much done as I could on my own, then last weekend Dad was able to help so we set about doing some cutting. The weather wasn't the best (garage is a mess so all the work is done outdoors) so we had limited time and only got the side panels done one day and the bottom and top cut the next. The side panels were done with a jigsaw and the straight cuts were being done with a circular saw so most of the time was measuring and clamping rather than cutting. Next few days was heavy rain so no work, but today was really nice. I decided to see if I could finish the cuts on my own and for the most part got the rest of the panels done without any issues (one little mishap but it should be easily fixed). So now all the panels are done. I just need to go out and get some thicker wood for the inside supports. Most likely 19x19 pine. At the moment I'm just using off cuts and scrap but its only 12mm MDF and I don't think it will be good enough structurally (+ its just stuck on with double sided tape so I can get an idea of the final product). I also need to pick up some screws and then I can begin putting it together. Then its finish off the control panel (drill holes and attach the buttons and joystick) and fix the monitor to the display panel and its off to the races. Hopefully if all goes well I'll have it finished and running by the weekend. Maybe even painted. Can't wait to get it finished. My boss has already suggested I bring it into work one night when its all done.

I have bunch of ROM sets that I have on a separate hard drive. I have imported the games into Launchbox using the "Use the files in their current location" option. The ROM sets are pretty much full sets including different regions/languages/betas/prototypes ect... but I only want English games and none of the unfinished prototypes. Instead of manually importing the games I want one by one, I imported the lot and used the auditing tool to remove the games I don't want (I'm still going through this process). Once I have done this I would like to be able to have Lunchbox copy all the ROMs that I have included in the database to its own folder so it becomes portable while ignoring the ROMs from the set I didn't include. The final result would be my ROM sets on the second hard drive untouched and a new "set" created in the Launchbox directory that only includes the games I have in my library. I know I could have used the "copy files" option from the start and allowed Lunchbox to delete any ROMs that I removed from the database, but I didn't (Its a habit from 10+ years of DJing and having to maintain a song library of 50,000+ songs).

Is there an option to "Clean up videos"? I see there is one for images and I'm assuming that if I delete a game from my library and then use that function it will remove the images that were associated with the removed game. Is there a similar function for videos? and if not are there plans to add it in the future? Consolidate ROMs. I get that this consolidates the games in the library but is there an option to consolidate the games into the lunchbox folder? Kind of like a "Make Library Portable" option? I have been adding games from a second HDD and then removing the games from the library I don't want until I get it how I like it. I have done it this way so my collection isn't altered by Launchbox at all, and if I accidentally remove a game I still have the ROM files so I can add it back later, and also, so I don't have a bunch of unused ROMs sitting in my Launchbox folder. It would be nice to copy the ROMs that are in the library into the Launchbox folder in the future once I'm done though so it becomes portable.

I thought I had tried that but I just checked my options and it was still selected. Guess it didn't save... Cheers.

Is there a way to set a custom image as background for ALL games in a specific platform? Or turn background images off completely? At the moment I only have box art and clear logos downloaded, but BigBox is using the clear logo as the background. I would rather have a flat colour or use the same background as I have for the platform (CleanBG images). I can't seem to find an option that will let me do this.

Just adding these to my machine. Any chance of getting a "Pinball" one?

I know its a bit off topic, and I'm quoting an old post but... The AMD Drivers can "Scan" for installed games and will pick up any steam games using the SteamID rather than the .exe so its possible. Now I'm not a programmer, but couldn't you at the very least tell Launchbox where steam is installed (I'm sure it can do that on its own as well) and then have the software look at "libraryfolders.vdf" to see where all the "Steam Libraries" are and then scan for any "appmanifest_***.ACF" files? The .ACF files contain the steam ID and the game name (The file name also contains the Steam ID). Launchbox could then just import the games you have installed using the ID and once they are imported you can then grab the metadata.