[13.4 Beta Thread]

12 minutes ago, faeran said:

You can always check the changelog in the app or on the web to stave off confusion: https://www.launchbox-app.com/about/changelog

Ah, I see. I've gotten too used to seeing the updates in the forums

[13.4 Beta Thread]

I'm confused... Launchbox updated to 13.5 today but isn't it supposed to be 13.4?

[13.4 Beta Thread]

Not directly related to the beta but I noticed that the edit platform window, scrape as lists XaviXPORT twice.

 

[13.2 Beta Thread]

3 minutes ago, C-Beats said:

This was corrected in this release and they should now be created with Root assigned as their parent

Shame on me for not checking my version. I thought I had beta release son but I'm running 13.1 which would explain the issue. Thanks for the update!

[13.2 Beta Thread]

If you guys have a chance, for the last few updates the Launchbox behavior when creating a new platform changed wherein created a new platform didn't assign is a default parent of Root (there are no parents at all) meaning that for users like me who use Platform Category as our default view never see the new platform and have to change our views to platform to find the new platform we added, right click it and assign it a parent, even Root.

If that behavior could be corrected to default to root as a parent, that would be awesome to avoid requiring users to change their views to hunt for their missing platforms.

[Default Plus]

I've been trying to figure this out in Default and was hoping Default Plus made this easier but I haven't had much success... How do I set a fixed minimum height for each game in the view? Everything is variable depending on the height of the logo and that makes it very hard to select a title with the mouse. Ideally, I'd like for each game title to line up in each row like how Lambda does it... 

Default


Lambda beta 1.1


Is this something that requires a custom theme or am I overlooking something in the options?

[Lambda 2 functionality preview (video)]

On 9/12/2022 at 3:59 PM, shadowfire said:

Yeah it's almost there but unfortunately I don't have time to finalise things because of other priorities. I hope to pick this up again in November...

Very much looking forward to your progress, Lambda is the only theme that shows clear logos properly in grid view that I've found that I also like!

[12.16 Beta Thread]

Just throwing this out there in case others noticed it, but since 12.15 I noticed that pressing F5 doesn't always refresh the images (the game list icons refresh, but not when you magnify to full screen). The only way I can fix it is by closing and relaunching Launchbox. Specifically, I am replacing existing clear logo images with new ones. I haven't noticed issues when simply adding a new image that didn't previously exist.

[12.15 Beta Thread]

3 hours ago, Sath said:

yeah i see, but isn't efficient as a popup. with a popup, like for LB updates, i haven't post here my doubts about platform details. i'll submit the request in the proper forum section. bye 

It's not a forum section. Click the link at the top of the site.

[The LaunchBox 2022 Community Poll]

Personally, I'd love to be able to sort according to custom meta data in list view

[More traffic here or Discord?]

What does this have to do with Beta Testing?

[gamesdbase.com timeout issues]

All day today I've been getting timeout issues when downloading images from launchbox...

Failed to download file from http://api.gamesdbase.com/..... The operation has timed out.

[12.9 Beta Testing]

13 hours ago, The Papaw said:

Use too, if you had a video name with certain punctuation characters in it, it had to be replaced with an "_" (underscore), but in some like ":" (quotation) you could also use a "-" (minus). In the last release or two, this no longer works. Example:

Star Wars Jedi- Fallen Order-01.mp4 (was working fine)

Now I am having to go and change MANY videos named this way to use the underscore - Star Wars Jedi_ Fallen Order-01.mp4

Any chance this can be fixed in upcoming release?

I might be wrong but the underscore is always supposed to be the correct use. Just because the hyphen worked doesn't mean it was correct. If anything, THAT was the bug.

[iOS app please or beta to begin testing]

2 hours ago, BigReeRee said:

My questions being I’m an iOS User my self.  Is there anything being done for iOS currently? Is there already an On going beta to make this happen for us as well or is there already a place to download the app/resources so it can be played an enjoyed there as well?   I have no issues with helping out anywhere I able to 

First, you need emulators than can run on iOS. THEN you can ask about Launchbox AFTER said emulators work and are "popular". Then there's the question of whether or not this is even feasible and finally, there is no chance in hell Apple would ever allow Launchbox to exist on it's appstore at all. The whole thing would need to be side-loaded on jailbroken devices. There's a reason Launchbox is on Android and not iOS and I say that as an iOS user myself.

[How to get Launchbox to load second file within Mame zip?]

There it is! This should be more prominent in documentation somewhere... Thank you!

[How to get Launchbox to load second file within Mame zip?]

Normally, in launchbox you load a MAME rom with the following command line:

lynx96k -cass FILE

where FILE is replaced with the rom file path in launchbox. But I'm finding myself in a situation where the given rom zip contains 3 distinct files, each with it's own game:

gamepak3:cass1

gamepak3:cass2

gamepak3:cass3

in MAME, you can load directly into them with the following:

lynx96k -cass gamepak3:cass3

I want to list each of these files as separate games in Launchbox but the above command doesn't work in Launchbox because launchbox injects the FILE at the end so it ends up like this:

lynx96k -cass gamepak3:cass3 FILE

which MAME  interprets as 

lynx96k -cass FILE

Would anyone know the solution to this?

[Autoboot Command / Script for MAME SWL (Computer Systems)]

3 minutes ago, JoeViking245 said:

Since pcw8512 has 2 FDD's, could you do something like

pcw8512 -flop1 cpmplus -flop2

or

pcw8512 -flop1 %romfile% -flop2 cpmplus

or

pcw8512 -flop2 cpmplus -flop1

I honestly have no idea and have no intention/desire to test it.  But I do love what you're doing with Lua scripting.  👍

You could, and Launchbox does send the information to the 2nd drive but the 2nd drive doesn't work inside MAME (it freezes when you try to switch to it in CP/M, or alternatively, the disk image data isn't accessible for the 2nd drive - it returns nil).

[Autoboot Command / Script for MAME SWL (Computer Systems)]

I'm wracking my brain on this one...

I'm working on Amstrad PCW. The way most games work is that you need to first boot into CP/M in flop1 and once in the OS prompt, change the disk to the game you want. Here's a use case:

Command line for Launchbox:

pcw8512 -flop1 cpmplus

Now all the PCW machines only have one floppy drive, except pcw8512 which has two. The problem with this machine is that the 2nd drive doesn't work yet. So, the workaround is to do the same as you would for any other PCW machine... enter the MAME menu and change the flop1 disk to your game.

But I got to thinking... we could automate this with lua. By setting the following command line in launchbox:

pcw8512 -script pcw.lua -flop1

Launchbox will insert the game disk in drive 1. In Lua, we can read this value, unmount it immediately, mount the cpmplus disk, wait until the disk is loaded, then unmount it and reload the original disk.

Here's my code so far (paste in notepad, save as pcw.lua and save it in your root MAME install path):

local disk = manager.machine.images[":upd765:0:3ssdd"].filename

local game_disk

local mame_runtime = manager.machine.time.seconds

 

if (disk ~= "cpmplus") then

    game_disk = manager.machine.images[":upd765:0:3ssdd"].filename

    manager.machine.images[":upd765:0:3ssdd"]:load_software("cpmplus")

    manager.machine:soft_reset()

end

 

function checktime()

    --if (This is where we need to check whether the CP/M has reached command prompt and if so, swap the disk. Alternatively, we can set a timer that once elapsed would allow the disk swap to happen) then

        manager.machine.images[":upd765:0:3ssdd"]:unload()

        manager.machine.images[":upd765:0:3ssdd"]:load_software(game_disk)

    -- end

end

 

checktime()

Everything works as it should.... In removing the last line of the code above (leaving it there will cause lua to switch the disk back to the original game disk before CP/M has a chance to load), Launchbox runs MAME with the game disk in flop1 however, as expected, the lua script switches it with the CP/M disk and resets MAME in order to boot into CP/M... But as you can see, my problem is in being able to either detect when the CP/M is ready for a command prompt OR in establishing a timer.

I haven't been able to figure out how to detect when CP/M is ready for a command prompt so I've tried the timer approach. The problem though is that any loop I create interrupts MAME entirely so it just hangs while the loop runs which means MAME can't load CP/M at all until the timer runs out. We need CP/M to load WHILE the timer runs.

If someone can help me figure out how to get this aspect working without interrupting MAME, then this system, which seems to run all it's games just fine, will finally be accessible within MAME.

For testing, I've been using the game disk brick. Once you load into CP/M and swap the disk, just type brick and return and the game will run.

For lau documentation, you can refer to https://www.lua.org/pil/contents.html and https://docs.mamedev.org/techspecs/luareference.html

[MAME Software Lists Import Tool - plugin]

5 hours ago, JoeViking245 said:

Check the box "Ignore games that only have a Title change (when updating)"  

 

V4.04 (Jan. 18, 2022)

• New feature: Added a checkbox for when updating an existing Platform, if the game Title in your Platform doesn't match MAME's game Title (either MAME updated the Title or you modified yours), it will skip that game.
• Removed: Copy to Clipboard Feature introduced in v3.11.3-beta-17 due to conflicts when using the plugin remotely
• Fixed: Accidental 2nd click while Importing is already in progress

It works!! If I could give you a million coins, I would. Thank you good sir!

Just an fyi, there's a visual bug:

[MAME Software Lists Import Tool - plugin]

1 hour ago, JoeViking245 said:

 I can't seem to reproduce this.  That is, with this checked  it did rename the Titles that I had manually changed and the rom was in my selected Source Folder.  But it didn't rename any of the ones I changed where the roms were not in my selected Source Folder.  Not sure what to tell ya.

I'm not sure it this makes any difference, but what has changed on my end is that I am now running Windows 11.

Everything you described about the logic is what I recall... but it's happening in all my platforms I am testing. I did check that box you pointed out and despite the source folder having only 2 games in it, the plugin is renaming everything. All I can do is go back to testing it out again later and see if I have any new observations.

[How do you create a plugin?]

Sorry for reviving a dead thread but the link above states:

"To get started, simply create a new Class Library project in Visual Studio, and then add a reference to Unbroken.LaunchBox.Plugins.dll which is located in the LaunchBox\Metadata folder."

But I have no such DLL at that location. Shouldn't that be corrected to say Launchbox\Core?

[MAME Software Lists Import Tool - plugin]

Hello!

I'll preface this by stating I know this plugin's original intent isn't for updating software lists.... BUT you had previously stated it's a natural evolution for an eventual version 4 so....

I'm using the latest version of the plugin (posted above) to update my Apple II platform. My platform currently is at version 0.237 and I'm trying to import version 0.238. On importing, the plugin is renaming everything to the current 0.238 names for ALL games. With 2800+ games in the list, all of which I renamed to remove everything in parenthesis, this is causing a massive setback for my list since none of the media gets renamed accordingly (not that I want them to get renamed at all).

Example:  From list apple2_flop_clcracked, the game addfrccd is called "Addition of Fractions: Common Denominators (cleanly cracked)" but I had named it "Mathematics: Skill 4.21: Addition of Fractions: Common Denominators". When i use the plugin, the game gets renamed per the software list.

This behavior occurs regardless of whether I select to import clones separately, add clones to parents or exclude clones. 

This is happening even if I tell it to import only games in my source folder (my source folder only has 2 games: wntgames and tgwinter).

This is before importing with the plugin on the apple2_flop_clcracked:

and my list after import:

Is there a way to avoid having the plugin rename everything?

Just in case there isn't, I suggest the following:

Per MAME, a proper MAME setup should consist of "your file path"\software\softwarelistname\filename.zip

We also know that Launchbox platforms can contain games from more than one software list so...

1) scan the Platform.XML for all the ApplicationPaths
2) Get a list of filenames where it's parent directory matches the software list being imported.
3) Use this list to ignore importing those games from the software list. This will avoid renaming the games already in the platform. I assume the plugin already does some version of this but something is allowing it to rename the game in the platform even if it isn't importing the game.
4) Then import the remainder. This way only the new games carry the names from the software list.
5) Possible toggle option in the wizard so users can decide whether they want to allow renaming or not.

In the case of clones, extra steps need to be incorporated to scan for additionalapps to avoid importing clones that are parented where appropriate depending on import options selected by the user.

Just throwing the idea out there just in case to avoid too much back and forth.

[…]

point taken.

[11.15 Launchbox restore icon stops working after a game changes resolution]

I noticed this since the release of 11.15 but since that thread is now locked, I'll bring it up here:

When I have Launchbox open (not Big Box) with the window maximized and then I play a game like Sonic All Stars Racing Transformed (which changes the resolution) and then exit the game, the restore icon in Launchbox refuses to work (Launchbox remains maximized over the taskbar at all times). I can minimize Launchbox, which shrinks it completely and I can show Launchbox from the icon in the taskbar but it returns in full maximized mode, over the taskbar again.

Normally, when maximized, Launchbox does not hide the taskbar at all. The only fix is to close Launchbox and re-open it again or press the windows key to show the taskbar, which overlays the taskbar on top of the bottom of the Launchbox window. 

This is while using the lambda theme. It happens regardless of how the game is launched: via Launchbox or directly through Steam.

It does not happen when launching any retro game using an emulator.

Am I alone in seeing this happen?

[Launchbox on Steam Deck]

On 7/16/2021 at 10:01 AM, Cauptain said:

Hi @Jason Carr,

With the release for the end of the year of the Steam Deck (VALVE) will we have a launchbox version on STEAM?

It would be the perfect wedding for anyone who enjoys online gambling.

 

Claudio

You never, ever would need a steam "version". Steam lets you add any external program you want to your library. Just add Launchbox and you're set.

Install Windows, run Steam in Big Picture and you have a seamless integration.