Retro_Rage

So I posted a while back about a very easy way to instantly launch VirtualBox machines from Launchbox. Well, I just switched to VMware workstation 17 player, and it ended up being much more extremely flawless, better performing and seamless so I figured I would share with the community a quick guide on how I have this setup. Ill kind of put this as a little guide so noobs can understand this to, its really easy. 1) install vmplayer (obviously) its free for commercial use. Then setup your systems. Obviously, I'm not going into detail where to get these or even how to setup systems (that's really out of the scope of the guide) but vmdk files are your friend. If using a vmdk file you can just setup a blank system and replace the one in the system directory. While setting up, keep in mind the "Location". I personally always change the location to a specific directory on a never hard drive alongside my other roms. 2) After the system is imported click on the system in the launcher and click on edit virtual machine settings. As a side note, the launcher really fails in comparison to Virtualbox, of course we won't be using it to launch the machines anyway so for our purpose it doesn't matter. From here I always first change the memory to as much as you can afford, I usually use 4 GB for nearly everything. Anything pre–Windows XP error will not boot if using that amount, so I just leave at whatever it recommends. I also go to processors and use as many as you have. Again, it won't boot if using more than the system supports. Now the most important, click on the options tab at the top and click power, then check "Enter full screen mode after powering on". Then you can test the system from the launcher and it should boot up in full screen mode. Make sure you install vmtools using the "manage" button in the top to enable things like svga display driver which will make the display switch to the full screen with among many other improvements. 3) now to Launchbox, go back to the install directory and search for vmx files. These files are launchable directly into the virtual machine through windows. So all we need to do is install these just as you would a directory of Windows games. So just drag and drop them on LB or use the import menu, For type its none of the above and obviously don't search for media as nothing will come up. Once imported just click on the file and it will open up vmware nearly instantly. Whats awesome is if you use the suspend button in the toolbar on top it will instantly switch back to Launchbox since Vmware minimizes it to the taskbar as it saves it state. Next time you open it it will nearly instantly load and will be exactly how you left it. I think I covered everything, but I have this running perfectly and flawlessly on my system so If I missed anything then I would be happy to answer any questions. I can easily just switch between any operating system I want instantly with a click of a button. Couldn't be happy using this method.

Well the bezel project is actually included by default in Launchbox. It's the pretty borders that can cover the black bars on the sides when you play a game. When your importing games in Launchbox, one of the last screens ask you if you want to download bezels. What he was refering to here is if you manually install bezel project, you can download the windows installer from https://github.com/thebezelproject/ and follow directions in the app. Like I said above though it might disable system wide bezels so you would just have to re-enable them.

You can't really add a storefront with auto import like EA, Steam etc. but you can easily download whatever you want from any of the sites and then just import them into launchbox. Just drag and drop the exe or import/manually add game. You can then organize them into whatever platform or platform categories you want. For example, you can create a platform named itch.io with those games in it and then manually google search for a logo and other media for it.

If you want to delete the actual files, I would just delete them from windows first. Just go to the rom folder and search for say (Japan) or some use (jp) and delete everything that comes up. Then you can just use the launch box function in the menu scan/delete no found roms (or whatever it says, don't have LB started right now lol) It will then prompt you to delete from LB any game where the rom isn't found. You can also just search for mahjong if you just want all mahjong games removed.

I realized that this thread is a bit old but if anyone is curious, I got this working with kind of a workaround. Since the simulator is looking for folders, there really isnt anything to import directly into LaunchBox. What I did was to simply create batch files for each game. just create a new file with the game name (what you want it to say in LB) and change the extension to .bat. I made all of these folders in the same folder as Playdatesimulator.exe just to make it easier and cleaner. Edit the bat file and put this inside. PlaydateSimulator.exe "R:\arcade\Playdate\5 more minutes.pdx" Obviously change path in quotes to your game directory. the .pdx at the end is actually the folder, not a file. You can test this after by clicking on the bat file, it should open and play perfectly. Now you can just import all the bat files into LB like normal windows games, just make sure its not set to use an emulator but launch the file directly. Creating the bat files is a little time consuming but it does work. Quick edit: Make sure you don't scrape media, or you will come up with a whole bunch of weird things, The system is a mystery to LB and there really any media available at all for any game. If you want media, then you can just setup a default box etc. Also there is a Fullscreen mode in the emu but can't seem to find a switch or anything to put in the command line. I think the normal running ahk quit script should work to exit it though. If I find anything further to make this launch a bit cleaner then I will update the thread.

Just figured that I would add onto what CBeats said... eXo has a section in the FAQ on his website about integrating his collections into an existing LB Build. Ill just quote the section below... Edit: just wanted to point out that if you have a large collection, I WOULD NOT over ride step 3, just copy whats in parents.xml into your existing Parents.xml. Everything except for the beginning and ending Launchbox tags.

Just figured that I would mention this specifically if you are using the stand alone Bezel Project as I ran into this a lot... When you download and "install" the bezel packs, It does properly assign the bezels and sets them up properly but most of the time it disables the overlays system wide. To fix it just open RetroArch by itself (with no rom loaded) and go to settings/display/overlay and just enable overlays again and then just save the default configuration. All the paths to the bezels that Bezel Project downloaded are still set up and work fine.

I'm not sure about the button but there is now an option in BigBox settings to replace the windows shell entirely. This will cause Windows to login to start directly into BigBox when you login. Alternatively, you can also just create a shortcut in C:/Program Files/Startup and it will load whatever program it is with Windows. For an arcade cabinet setup, the first method is much cleaner and provides a speed boost since explorer.exe is not loaded. I dont personally use a on off switch but it seems to me like you are going to need something that will trigger the power of the laptop, either directly wired to the motherboard or to simply hit the power button of the laptop, maybe someone has more ideas on that one.

You are just looking at the games database, thats just kind of like an online community / kind of backup of your game collection. To play the games you need to install and use the Launchbox or BigBox program.

You can add select zips from you MAME set and just import as normal roms however make sure you have a non-merged Mame set before splitting off any zips. The reason is because on merged sets the child roms depend on the parent roms. so if you split up the set you will probably break quite a few. Also, you would still need the bios and supporting files. Just as an FYI, in the full MAME importer, there is options to skip importing certain game types that you wouldn't want. I probably wouldn't try splitting up the full set though unless it's a non-merged set.

When you add the games, you can add multiple folders to Launchbox and it will import them as one platform. Then if you manually add a playlist, under auto populate there is a source option. If you select that and enter the (custom) name of the folder that the games are in, it will automatically populate with only games from that folder.

My Opinion is that there is never really a "safe" way to download anything online, however I have never had any issue with archive.org. I could be wrong, but I believe that they pre scan any file that is uploaded. It's probably against the rules to provide any other links or elaborate where to get roms from so I'm not getting into that, but Google is your friend. I know it mentioned elsewhere on here so I'm just going to mention to google MAME Pleasuredome for the MAME arcade set, same for HBMAME. Neo Geo roms are in the full MAME set.

It is In the menu on the top, sorry its actually the tools menu (its between menu and view on the top of Luanchbox) then click manage and then click emulators. That will open a list of the installed emulators that you set up. Just click on duckstation. Then you just need to put -batch in the default command line parameter box (it's the 3rd box down). Then you should be good to go.

He means that in the emulator settings in launchbox (tools/emulators) there is a box that says default command line parameters. In that box type -batch. Done mean to jump on bundangdon but I hope that clarifies a bit.