krofftsuperstar

Thanks. Honestly, this helps a lot. It's best to know what my limitations -- potential or otherwise -- are and to temper my expectations/goals accordingly. Based on all my work, I think what others are saying is likely true. So, I'll make it work the best I can and accept that it ain't perfect. I'm fine with that. I will say that my horizontal games look much more like I want them to ("arcade-esque," shall we say) than the vertical games look. If I could get the vertical games on par with the horizontal, I would be happy. I've tried using the horizontal slot-mask pngs that work for the horizontal and flipping them around, but that's not working. Anyway, thank you, again, for your advice, Lordmonkus. I've used your information in the forums for several projects. It's been invaluable to me (and, I'm certain, to many others) and is much appreciated.

Thanks. It seems that I have more work to do. My 4K monitor is only 60hz and it's not OLED. The quest continues ... (SIGH)

My apologies now for dredging up this long-discussed/debated topic ... I've spent literally months through the years searching in vain for a MAME shader that best approximates the arcade experience of the late '70s through, say, 1984. At this point, I have a new overpowered PC with a 4K monitor that can easily handle any shader that I can throw at it, so antiquated/underpowered hardware is no longer an issue for me. My problem is that bgfx, hlsl, retroarch, megabezels, et al all simulate the "look" of a 1982 arcade monitor, but they don't "feel" like one. There's no "life" to the pixels; the games are just kinda flat and dull. To wit, think of someone painting their version of the Mona Lisa. It's a decent copy of the real thing that your mind and eyes will not accept as the real thing. I feel like Ahab with his White Whale, as this has become borderline obsessive, but in a good/wholesome kinda way. So, I'm sourcing the Launchbox forum to see if anyone out there has similar thoughts and, perhaps, some suggestions or even success(es) to share. I know, I know ... pixels are a personal taste. And, yes, maybe my taste is beyond what is possible. I'm just hoping that another arcade purist might have some ideas that I can pursue and, perhaps, slay the 8-bit whale. As an example of what I'm looking for, I've attached three photos I took of actual arcade monitors during a trip to Galloping Ghost. (I told you I was obsessed.) THANKS in advance.

Not sure if Marble Man: Marble Madness II was done, suggested or is even possible. If it hasn't been done and is possible, then I humbly request a Mr. RetroLust bezel treatment. THANKS!

I've set up my hierarchy of video preferences, but those preferences are general and not for everything in BigBox. I have different themes for different platforms and playlists in Big Box and I would like to have the themed videos with some of the "game screens," while others I would prefer have the video snaps. Is there a way to do that? Or, am I just stuck with, say, themed videos for ALL of the game screens? THANKS!

I recently changed in the in-game look of my MAME arcade games. It's a slight modification of the crt-geom-deluxe, which gives life/warmth to the otherwise dull pixels. I thought I was through, but as most of us know ... you're never really through with any of this. I discovered the noninteger setting and it was like seeing and playing Pac-Man and Donkey Kong all over again. Now that I have a fat DK -- which is how I remember the game from 1981 -- I don't want to go back to skinny DK. The same with Pac-Man. Unfortunately, the tradeoff, at least for some of these games, including Pac-Man, is that I can't have the standard MAME bezels surrounding the game in, say, 7/8 mode. It's all well beyond me and I'm hoping someone can help me figure it out. Can I change the lay file in, say, the pacman artwork, so that the bezels appear when I opt for the fatter screen (whether I select the noninteger as the default setting or I select the 7/8 -- or whatever the pixel size is -- as the default)? Basically, I would like to keep the fat-sized arcade screens AND have the bezels run with it and I want to know how I can do it. And also, what is the best way to do this? I realize TV sizes often matter; I have a generic 32-inch 720p, if that means anything. My apologies if this topic has been covered before. If so, please kindly point me to that discussion. ALSO: JUST CURIOUS IF THE FATTER SCREENS ARE INDEED MORE ACCURATE THAN THE SLIMMER VERSIONS? Thanks for any and all help!

Just wanted to report back that beta 11.7 has saved the day for me. No matter what I tried, Big Box and LaunchBox would not fully exit until task manager forcibly closed the program. With 11.7, that is no longer an issue. THANK YOU!

That's a great suggestion. Thank you. I'll do that and post the (hopefully positive) results.

Just an FYI ... I updated to 11.6 but am still having issues with BigBox not closing or exiting properly, which means I have to manually close the program through task manager. This problem began with 11.4, if I remember correctly. And, yes, I am using several themes for my platforms.

Just put the beta through its paces and had NO issues. Thank you!

That's GREAT NEWS! Thanks for the heads-up.

BigBox continually crashes on me, mostly after the first time I exit a game. I thought it was mostly a problem with Unified Redux, but it's also with Unified Refried, and Neon Deluxe Arcade. And it's not only launching, playing, and then exiting a game that causes the crash; BigBox has crashed on me while scanning through the various arcade playlists before I launched a game. The problem was consistent enough in the various latter betas of 11.3, that I stopped the beta updates and downgraded from beta 15 to beta 12. The issue was still there. I waited until the re-release of 11.3 earlier this week, downloaded and installed it, and the issue hasn't changed. I have NO issues with LaunchBox. I'm wondering if perhaps I shouldn't downgrade to 11.2, but I'm hopeful there'll be a solution. I'm running Windows 10 home edition. Thanks!

Not sure if this is the right place to post this issue, but ... LaunchBox's ROM import through TOOLs has failed to import two MAME roms. They're older games (1979's Sky Love being one, don't remember the other) but both work in MAME and have the media files as well. Yet, I just MANUALLY added Sky Love to LaunchBox via drag-'n'-drop with no issue. Also worth noting: I used the MAME Arcade Full Set import in early 2019 after my LB/BB install, and from nosing around the entire library of MAME theme videos, it looks like several older MAME games like Sky Love were not imported. Is there a way I can scan my MAME ROMS folder again for the missing games and JUST the missing games? FYI: I keep my MAME app, ROMS, and files in a MAME folder inside of LaunchBox. Not sure if that has anything to do with it. Also, and this WAY, WAY, WAY off-topic -- please forgive/excuse my posting about it here -- but for the life of me I cannot find the Hyperspin Video of S.T.U.N. Runner. I know it was created a decade ago or so, but the video film to download has since simply vanished; it's nowhere to be found at EmuMovies -- only the gameplay/SNAP vid. Anyone have the THEME vid and know where I can find it? S.T.U.N. Runner is such a cool, prominent, and important game -- one of Atari's great latter achievements in the arcade -- and it bugs me not to have its themed video. Jason: I should mention that I was able to successfully reinstall a prior version of LB and, once it was running, jump forward to the latest beta. THANK YOU, again, for your help.

OK, that's what I'll do. I go to 11.2. THANKS AGAIN for your help!

Thanks. Now I'm thinking about simply rolling back LB/BB to 11.0. But, I'm paranoid that somehow, someway all the customizations, images, games, etc. will be erased. I can't back up everything because I don't have space on either of my HDs. I know others have said reverting to an older LB through updates is safe, but I just want to make sure one final time before I pull that trigger.

Still doesn't work. I installed .Net Core 3.1.6 x64 and I was told I could either "repair" the version I had or uninstall it. I did the latter and ran the installer again but it didn't matter: "To run this application, you must install .NET Core." So I downloaded it again and this time, when I was prompted to repair or uninstall .Net Core, I ran the repair. Still didn't work: : "To run this application, you must install .NET Core." Nothing seems to work. Can I just migrate the same folders and such from my test beta LaunchBox (Perhaps the core folder?) into my regular LaunchBox, making sure that I don't overwrite and erase anything that I've added or customized? Or, perhaps I could do the same in reverse -- migrate from my original LaunchBox to the beta 4 test.

64 bit.

Running Windows 10 home edition. I should mention that when I was downloading beta 3 there was a glitch of some kind but the process was completed. When I launched the app I was told I was missing .Net Core and that I needed to install it and it hasn't worked yet.

Ugh. Sorry, I wasn't thinking. Here ya go. Thanks!

I think this is what you wanted ...

SO I was able to download and run beta 4 in a separate folder, but when I still cannot launch beta 3 from my main LaunchBox folder. Can I merge some of beta 4 with the main folder to get beta 3 to run? And then have LB upgrade itself to beta 4 (rather than a manual download)? Or is there an even easier way to do this? Clearly, something is rotten in the state of my main LB.

That's exactly it for me! It was working fine through Betas 1 and 2, and then it stopped. Now Im wondering if I installed the wrong core.

I'm running a strange hybrid: Neon Deluxe Arcade Final 12hr as my "main theme," and also for arcade and its many subcategories (Daphne, trackball, etc.). I'm using Unified Redux as the theme for most platforms (consoles, computers, handhelds). And Unified Refried for pinball. I've modified most of the themes for my arcade cabinet (images, mainly). But I'm running all of these themes as each theme; in other words, I don't have everything bundled in a custom folder. And while I'm on the topic of themes, I have a small-ish collection of BigBox themes I can directly import to BigBox through BigBox and NOT through a manual download from the forum. Those themes I do import (download and install) from the forum, like Neon Deluxe Arcade, don't have a view option and, therefore, I can't use them on a per-platform basis. So Neon Deluxe HAS to be my main theme (not that I don't want it to be) because I cannot set it to a single platform, say, arcade. Is this the way it's supposed to be, or I am not doing something the way it needs to be done. Just wonderin'. THANKS.

I have not but will give it a go. It'll have to be this evening but I'll let you know how it goes. THANKS!

Having the "to run this application, you must install .Net Core." problem. I've tried several times to download the x86, x64 versions of .NET Core 3.1 and a few other variations (SDK, etc.) with no success: Whether I'm trying to launch LaunchBox or BigBox, I always get the same message that I must install .Net Core." Should I downgrade to the 11.2 beta, which ran great? Or hold out for a fix? Thanks!