HotMommasCowboy

I do understand and appreciate you taking the time to explain everything. Thank you!

Thanks Retro808. I do have a legit license. I bought the lifetime, somewhere around, 6-7 years ago. I can understand y'all's frustrations behind pre-bought and the potential beef with them. Due to traveling for work all of the time I just don't have the time to try and build a system. So I took, what I thought, was the easy route to go with the arcade pedestal I built. I did add my license in to make it legit (at least that was the thought in my head) since LB/BB is all I care to use. If that's not OK and I need to purchase another license, or pay a fee, please let me know and I will. You guys have always been great and I'd like to keep it that way if I can.

Thanks JoeViking245. Being a license holder, even though it's a pre-configured drive, it was a setting I did inside LB/BB and was hoping someone would point me in the right direction within so I could turn it off. I'll find it myself then at some point. Thanks again.

Need help! The other day I turned on a setting for MAME to call out the game name and the high score at the start of a game and now I can't find where I turned that on at so I can turn it off. I've searched LB/BB and MAME settings and I just can't seem to find it again. If anyone knows where it is, would you please remind me of it's location? Thanks! I'm thinking I was in LB when I turned that setting on, but I'm not sure. Not sure it's needed, but this is my setup: Hyper Arcade Systems 48tb drive setup. I do not use Hyperspin, I only use LB/BB in that setup.

@skizzosjt You are correct, it’s a different program, but it also works with AimTrak light guns. The main benefit I see to this program (unless Andy’s updated the AimTrak program) is that it will not lose its identifier (not sure of the correct wording here, but it’s not the ID# that is assigned) inside windows when/ if you turn your computer off or even do a restart. There is the video that was posted with Chuck with Maverick’s Arcade explaining how to stop that from happening. Which was a PITA for me to comprehend and understand not being a computer guy. There are features inside Arcade Guns that won’t work with Ultimarc’s light guns, but the guns are always “remembered” when you shut down your computer and turn it back on. Thats why I mentioned that program. I’ve had it installed for about a year now with no issues.

Mark, a donation is not necessary. That’s what this forum is for! It’s to help one another out. If it wasn’t for the LB community, I would’ve given up a long time ago!! Here’s a pic of the program I use now. It’s similar to AimTrak, but, unlike AimTrak, it keeps the light guns recognizable by MAME. This program automatically turns itself on when you start/ re-start your computer so the light guns don’t lose their configuration. You would only need to set them up one time in MAME. As far as working with other emulators, I’m not sure because I only use them in MAME. As far as setting them up in MAME, if you google “AimTrak MAME Config Light Guns” by Retro Lizard, he does a great job explaining how to set them up in MAME. I’m sure you’d probably need to do the same for other emulators. I’ve just never set mine up for other emulators.

@marcosgaming I apologize, but I'm not sure what you're asking. This is just my thought, but as long as everything is saved to your an external drive that you plan on making "portable", it should work when you take it with you. Although I've never used it, one of the features of LB was being able to make it portable. So as far as I know, you should be able too as long as everything is saved to your portable drive. One of the issues I had when I posted my question was that every time I turned off my computer, my light guns were given new address locations. A couple people posted on how to fix it along with several videos, which I eventually figured out. But then I also found out that downloading (I apologize if I'm not allowed to mention this...delete if I'm not allowed to state this) the program Arcade Gun Pros utility, solved my problem. So that's the program I use now to keep my ID's for my LG's.

For anyone trying to go by @Arcade Workshop post, some things have changed. If you follow Arcade Workshop's post, when you right click to go too "Bulk Run Before/After Main Application", that has been removed since his original post. But, @JoeViking245 had already accounted for this by creating a .dll file you can download to have it back. Here is the link to his forum post to download that link if you need it: Hopefully this'll help save some headaches for those that have the GRS 4-8 way auto-switcher and try to set it up.

That worked perfectly. Thanks again!

Sorry, mistake from being in the rabbit hole all last night. I would go into my newly created platform category "Joystick 4-Way", highlight one of the games and then use ctrl+a to highlight all my games in there and then I would right click on my mouse (not go to tools - major face palm on that one!! 😒) and Add is at the bottom of that popup window. But, from your posts I've seen, you appear to be a seasoned Vet at this, so I'm sure you probably had my SNAFU figured out! 🤣 All of my glorious searching last night, I never once came across that post!! I apologize for posting this. Had I come across your post in that link, it would have saved me hours of headaches last night trying to figure this out! Thanks for being patient with a rookie JoeViking245! 👍👍

Arcade Workshop did a great how to for the GRS 4-8 way auto switcher back in June last year that would allow for a bulk edit to switch your joystick to 4 way and back automatically. Since then, I see that the "Bulk Run Before/After Main Application" has been removed and "Add" replaced it. Is there another way to get to a Bulk Run... to make the necessary changes without having to do the all my games manually? I've tried going into Tools, Add, under Metadata...Additional Apps...Add apps. Once I'm done adding in the .exe for the GRS auto switcher, clicking run before, I hit OK, then when I hit the final OK, I get a screen pop up telling me to add the Game Title. I went down a serious rabbit hole trying to figure out how to bulk add the info, but I just can't seem to figure it out. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Well, they've changed this up since you wrote about this in the forum. The bulk run... has been removed and now it's "Add". All the steps work until you get to the very end and click the final "OK". Then it gives you a pop up wanting to know the name of the game! Whelp, guess I'll have to add all my games manually (twice to have them switch back to 8 way after I exit a game) unless someone chimes in with a way that'll let me do them all at once like in your video. On a side note, I had your pieces 3D printed and received them today. They look great, except for the fact that I had them do 2 tops and not a top and bottom!! Major head slap over that one! Whelp, if all goes well, I'll have 2 bottoms in a few days! Thanks again for sharing that info with me. These are going to be awesome once I get them into place.

I appreciate that. I'll keep you posted. I'm sure we'll get it. I actually rewatched that video again yesterday and some things finally started to click in my thick head! I might go at it again tomorrow. If it's any consolation, I did get American Laser Games up and running!!

Actually had to go to a French site to download it. 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

He didn’t make it this past weekend. He was traveling and decided to stay home. Hopefully he’ll stop by this weekend. I thought about trying to set up my LG’s for T2, but I was a little gun shy because of having to delete mame and then reinstall it to get things working right again! 😂😂 But for now, I’ve moved on to trying to get some American Laser Disc games working! 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️😂😂 Took me most of last night and this morning to find and download the emulator Singe 2. Hopefully I’ll be able to get them installed into LB fairly easily. We’ll see! Once my buddy makes it, I’ll let ya know.

Sorry, got a bit wordy!! 😂😂 So, Arcade Guns uses the guns unique identification #, so it doesn’t matter what you call it. It’s kinda like the old school program. When windows changes the identification, after a power cycle, the program still uses its unique id to know which one it is. Honestly, I got lucky with GA’s utility. Technology is changing so fast now a days, the older I get, I no longer have the patience to try and keep up with it and the more my - I don’t give a S*** kicks in. I’m understanding the videos, but for some reason comprehension is eluding me. So I’ve got an IT buddy of mine coming over this weekend to help me get the old school program going in case AG stops working for whatever reason. Once I get my system fine tuned, I’ll disconnect it from any form of internet, so no updates accidentally screw it up, and call it quits and fully enjoy the fruits of my labor (and others hard work)! Now, if you have any tips on setting up ad stick in MAME (for games like T2), that would be great. The “X” & “Y” are throwing me off. The literature here in the forums is coming across as Greek to me and I can’t find any videos specific to that setup. I have a dual tank stick with the trackball, but I think it’s a digital stick and not an analog stick. Which means I’d probably need to get a separate analog stick, correct?

Correct, I went into arcade gun and reassigned what gun number they were (like you said above) and mame still recognized the guns thanks to their “utilities” tab having the I’d numbers for the guns. In that tab, the id’s stayed the same but the 16xx would change to whatever number I assigned the gun. when I tested the extreme or regular setting on the sensor bar, I was within about 5’ from my TV. When I go back down to my basement, I’ll have to see how it does from further away to see how much it’s affected by distance. But you were correct in assuming it “turns off” some of the LED’s on it. As you can see (hopefully) in the photo from the “RTFM”. 😂😂👍👍

My TV’s an old Samsung 40” 1080p. When I read the instructions (ya, I know, I just lost my man card!! 😂😂) yesterday it mentioned the switch in back was for 32” and bigger on extreme, so that’s what I set it too. After reading your post, I switched it and honestly, I really didn’t see any difference after a few games of duck hunt. Its “weaker” setting is still a million times better than the sensor bar that came with my AimTraks! One of these days I’ll have to hook it up to my 65” in my basement and see how it does on that In case you hadn’t noticed, Arcade Guns Utility actually comes with the program that keeps your light guns set inside windows so every time you turn the system off and back on, they’re set. I thought that was pretty neat. I even changed up their numbering for each gun in the utility and they still ran without any issues.

My light guns were not working in Mame, so I deleted it and reinstalled Mame (0.251). Guns work great now, but for some reason Arcade wasn’t created with its genre’s. But I see a genre section was. In edit Platform Category, if I changed nested name to Arcade and then on the Parents tab, would I need to check the Arcade (Category) to have them show up as Arcade in LB with the genres listed also as sub categories under arcade? Thanks for any help/suggestions.

Skizzosjt, thanks for not reaching through the screen and strangling me!! 😂😂👍👍 But I finally got it! Not sure what I did in Mame, but I completely removed it out of LB and reinstalled it. I could finally calibrate the guns and the triggers worked without any issues. That extreme sensor bar is a million times better than the original!! Thanks again for the help.

Thanks. Sorry if I frustrated you. That wasn’t my intentions at all. For some reason I’m stuck on stupid…maybe I should step away for a few days. I did have all of the setups in place. Once I got my extreme sensor today, I actually downloaded that exact arcades gun utility. And everything works in there. Just not mame. You’re probably right, I’m sure I did something stupid inside the program that’s goofed up mame and that’s probably why it won’t register a trigger pull when I try to set it up and same for my X and Y axis for the gun. Thanks again.

Skizzosjt, extreme sensor bar is definitely better. Question if you don’t mind. MAME for some reason will no longer “see” my light guns. The mouse will move, but nothing. Same with when I try to set the trigger. I deleted Area 51 .cfg along with default.cfg for MAME, but nothing. Within arcade guns utility, both guns triggers are set to left mouse (right mouse when off screen) and the two buttons on the barrels will register, but as joysticks. They’re setup as joystick buttons. Do you have any idea why MAME no longer sees the gun as a mouse or won’t register a trigger pull to set it up? Thanks for any help you can give me. IMG_9414.MOV IMG_9415.MOV

Skizzosjt, thank you!! I will go through this. Now, to get my extreme sensor bar tomorrow and hopefully that’ll help me with why Duck Hunt and Hogan’s Alley don’t see my guns at all, yet other games kinda do. Thanks again.

twobucks, thanks. I actually did watch that video. The older I get, the faster technology is blowing by me and I don’t have the time or patience to try and keep up anymore. Im having a hard time understanding where that file is or how to get it. Is it something that’s created by windows, or something I have to type up myself? If I type, then I know not having the proper spacing can cause issues. How do I get that file? I know I’d need to make changes specific to my setup, which that I can do. Im just confused and can’t figure out where or how to get that file. If I’m missing something in that video about the production of that file, let me know and I’ll watch it over again and again to try and understand. Thanks for your reply and assistance.