ItchyRobot

After a little bit of more trial and error I figured it out. To get games like Black Widow and Robotron to work currently in Android Retroarch, I had to download the MAME 2003 Plus core. Now my right stick will shoot in all eight directions.

I too get this with my MAME collection, even though it is a non-merged set. I think I remember it being a limitation last time Android development was going on. I would guess it is due to a lot of MAME rom sets being merged. Just a guess until Jason answers your question. All my consoles work fine though, as expected - since the roms are much simpler when compared to the MAME rom architecture.

I am bumping my old post about Retroarch and right analog stick only shooting at diagonals... for games like Robotron... see above. Now that Android development is up and going again, I am trying to get these two games working properly in Android/Retroarch. Any suggestions/tips? Again, I am trying to get this to work on Android. It works fine in my Arcade build. My guess is that I will need to start trying out different MAME cores for Retroarch. I am using 0.198 MAME roms with the most current Retroarch MAME core. It seems to be a common question when I do a Google search.

I can't seem to find the Export to Android function in Launchbox. Is that going to be brought back into Launchbox soon? Or, am I overlooking it?

I have not built a 4-player setup before. But I do remember seeing that Correct/Fail image before; and hearing there is a right/wrong way to do it. I think you are on the right track with the "Correct" layout, but maybe verify from a few more sources to be sure. Good luck!

Looks great; you must have some sort of motor to rotate the monitor for vertical games? If so, give some specs/tips. I notice your buttons have the L1/L2 on the right, with the R1/R2 on the left. I have seen other builds doing this too.... what is the logic with that layout, seems like it could be counter intuitive to me. Though I am sure there is a reason I am not thinking of.

I have been messing around with Visual Pinball X on Bigbox for a few years now. Being an overlooked emulator on Bigbox, I had to create all my videos and download all the individual clear logos, rule cards and flyers from other websites. It was a pain in the ass, but well worth the effort. As you can see in the below video, I have an arcade/console/pinball setup. You may notice as I pause the game, a pause window pops up showing the layout of my arcade style controls. I have flipper and nudge buttons on the side of my controller - a must in my opinion. My monitor is in the desktop view, which is best for my other platforms (consoles and arcade-MAME); so, I have opted for this general layout for my pinball tables too. It just goes to show you how immersive pinball can be even in this viewpoint. Since I know a lot of people that have MAME and Retroarch builds, and view their games in desktop/landscape view, I hope this can be an inspiration for people out there maybe wanting to add pinball to their builds. It is a bit of a learning curve due to all the different parts and settings, but well worth it in the end. - As with all emulators, first get Visual Pinball X running outside of Bigbox. Download the latest 10.6.2 build here ... https://www.vpforums.org/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=11572 The devs are in the final stages of squashing bugs for the 10.7 release, but ignore that for now. Most tables are still being released as 10.6 tables. But be aware there are a few starting to require 10.7. Stay away from those until you learn how this all works. - Once you get VPX installed, you will need a few more pieces, Tables and Roms. Both can be found at a couple websites; I tend to stick with these two sites ... (note that some Roms are becoming harder to find, so you may need to try other sources if you run into Tables using Roms that you can not find on these sites) VPfuroms: https://www.vpforums.org VPuniverse: https://vpuniverse.com Roms are the code stripped from the chips of the original pinball tables. They go here ... \Visual Pinball\VPinMAME\roms. This Rom will work in coordination with the Table - Tables go here ... \Visual Pinball\Tables. A bunch of coders/artists/wizards work together to meticulously recreate the pinball Table in the VPX editor. The Table will be scripted in a way to tell the Table to look for a certain Rom, so that is important. To figure out which Rom the Table is using, open the Table, then go into the script of VPX and search for "Gamename". That will show the name of the Rom that the Table is trying to use. Download that Rom in order to get the Table that you are interested in to play. - The above steps will be a good start. Try them and see if you can get one Table that uses a Rom to run (note that some original Tables that the community have created don't require a Rom, just in case you run across that situation). I have not detailed a lot of the other steps and settings, but I am not here to show a step by step process. I will leave it up to you to dig in a bit more and troubleshoot yourself the best you can. If you have done that with other stand alone emulators, I am pretty sure you will be able to stumble your way through this too. I will answer questions as I can, but please try your best alone first. Also, stay away from any tables that require Pup Packs. That is a whole other chapter that you dive into one day after you learn how the basics work. I personally stay away from them, as I find all the videos and stuff distracting during gameplay. I would also stay away from any pre-built downloads that have the entire build already done for you. These generally cause more problems and questions than it is worth. Learning how all the pieces work together will ensure you know how to troubleshoot your build later on. Also, for now, stay away from any Tables that require UltraDMD or FlexDMD - you first want to learn how to run the tables that use the basic built in DMD (scores window). If you get the table/rom running, come back in here and I can give you more tips. Getting the DMD setup can be confusing for some people, as also can getting the Table's view set to how you want. I am sure I left out a bunch, but hopefully this will get some of the brave people out there pointed in the right direction. Even though it was a big learning curve for me to get this all set up in my arcade build, it was well worth it. VPX/pinball is now my most played emulator in my Bigbox build.\ Some other resources for media... The videos I made of my own gameplay. The clear logos I get from https://www.vpforums.org along with most of the tables and roms. https://vpuniverse.com has a bunch of tables, roms and artwork too.The flyers I get from https://flyers.arcade-museum.com and https://www.ipdb.org/. And the rule sheets I get from http://www.pinballcards.com/ and http://www.pinballrebel.com/pinball/cards/. I convert the pinball cards (rules) to a PNG image, and place them in the LaunchBox\Manuals\Visual Pinball X folder. I have found the image format loads much faster and more smoothly than Launchbox's built in PDF reader. Here is a showcase of my current VPX build... ============================================================================= And if you master getting Visual Pinball X (VPX) installed and working, you can start making some DMD upgrades if you wish. There is an Add-on that a fellow from the Vpin community made that basically allows you to skin the DMD, taking from a lower resolution to a very high resolution and also gives you the ability to add borders and affects to the DMD to simulate glare and such; not only for the dot matrix DMD's, but also for the alphanumeric ones. Hopefully this helps some others out there that may be too scared to try, or are having issues setting up Freezy's DMDext 1.9.0. FYI - I am using a single landscape monitor with the DMD on the same monitor (desktop view). So, if you have a portrait monitor, mimicking a real table layout and backglass/DMD on a second monitor, this video may not be the best tutorial for you. Though, it will at least familiarize you with the settings. Info and download links to DMDext v1.9.0: https://www.vpforums.org/index.php?sh... And if you are brave enough to start trying to colorize Freezy's DMD, see this forum thread (it is easy, so go for it!) : https://vpuniverse.com/forums/topic/5...

This is a guide for getting Freezy's DMD extension working for Visual Pinball X. It basically skins the out-of-the-box default low res DMD that comes with VPX/VPinMAME, making it it scalable, high resolution, and editable... also allowing you to create your own DMD themes/skin if you are up to it... I am not an expert on this stuff, but information is hard to find. So, I decided to make a video showing what I have learned. Hopefully this helps some others out there that may be too scared to try, or are having issues setting up Freezy's DMDext 1.9.0. FYI - I am using a single landscape monitor with the DMD on the same monitor (desktop view). So, if you have a portrait monitor, mimicking a real table layout and backglass/DMD on a second monitor, this video may not be the best tutorial for you. Though, it will at least familiarize you with the settings. My Freezy DMDext 1.9.0 tutorial: Info and download links to DMDext v1.9.0: https://www.vpforums.org/index.php?showtopic=47282#entry483194 And if you are brave enough to start trying to colorize Freezy's DMD, see this forum thread (it is easy, so go for it!) - also shown how-to in video above: https://vpuniverse.com/forums/topic/5391-complete-pin2dmd-colour-file-list-for-virtual-real-pins/ Hopefully this helps some of you other new people that may be struggling understanding how all these pieces fit together. As for how to get Visual Pinball X (VPX) installed and working; well, that is another long story... for you to find out on your own =P

I am aware that most people use PDF's for their Launchbox/BigBox "Manuals" folder. As do I for most of my platforms. Though, for pinball, I like to use images (PNG/JPEG). I use the Manuals folder (Z:\LaunchBox\Manuals\Visual Pinball X) to store my instruction cards for quick access using the Pause screen/menu. Image formats like JPEG/PNG pop up MUCH quicker than PDFs; and looks nicer than the PDF renderer. This brings me to my question... I do not have an entire collection of "Advertisement Flyer - Front" images yet, which I use in place of box art. This leaves an ugly blank area in the theme I am using. I was looking at the "Box Front Priorities" selections under the Media Options and noticed that Manuals was not an option. I suppose this is because most people use PDFs, which would not work in place of box art. I was wondering if the developers could bake in some code that would allow the Manuals folder to be an option in Box Front Priorities. I suppose they could write some logic that said "look for the Manuals folder, only use if image is found, do not use if only PDF". Any suggestions to make this work on my end would be appreciated. Or, best case scenario, please pass this idea on to the developers. I would think this could be useful to many people.

Wow, great work! Hopefully these somehow make back into the Launchbox database so they become the default downloaded images for new Launchbox users.

I want it just for Astrosmash ? Perfect system for a young family, looking for alternatives from the more 'adult' systems.

I use a Pause Theme to get to my manual. it's been a while since I set it up. If I rmemeber right, in launchbox and Bigbox you will need to setup a key, or combo for Pause theme.

FYI - I had to reset my password at their site. They must have done something in the background to reset them.

Im not sure when mine stopped working, but I am on latest LaunchBox/Bigbox build (not beta) and can no longer log into Emumovies through LB. I also tried logging into their webpage and can not. Any update on this?

I may be the VPX person you are talking about. See the below link to follow to the YouTube video where I show how I have it setup. It should be the same for Future Pinball, I'm guessing. I am taking advantage of the "Manuals" folder. Most themes have a "View Manual" selection for this before starting the game (see in video at 0:10). And, with the right pause theme, you can again access "View Manual" during the pause screen (see video at 0:46). See the description in the Youtube video for the link to the pause theme I am using. In short ... - download the pdf pinball instruction cards. - convert them to an image (optional - I did this to allow for a quicker popup that fills the screen, instead of the way BigBox handles pdf's - slower, sometimes doesn't work, smaller screen). - name the cards the exact names you have them in Launchbox, place them in the "Launchbox>Manuals>Future Pinball" folder. - install the Pause theme. - try it out

Thanks neil. For anyone wondering, it was the Bigbox ... "Options > Sound > Enable Music On Screen Display" setting. I unchecked the box.

First and only bump to hopefully get a reply. See image above ... I would like to turn this popup off if able.

So, either I have totally missed this in the past, or its a new BigBox feature. When I scroll through my games I am noticing some games cause a EmuMovies popup showing the music track, from EmuMovies. See attached for an example, SuperMario Brothers on NES. Can I turn this off, so it will not popup? Also, what exactly is the purpose of this popup? Thanks

My brother has the one with the 4-way stick and spinner. Well worth it for the 4-way stick. Like you kids, I get so frustrated playing games like Frogger and DK with my 8-way setup. Im glad he went with that one since 4 player games are hardly ever used.

Nice! My brother just picked up one of these. That cup holder would be a nice addition

Check EAPrime's youtube channel. He is always putting up reviews on small PC's for emulation

Thanks! I was going to suggest this but you beat me to it.

pleasuredome

I would love to have a 'save settings' for each theme. That's assuming I am understanding you guys correctly. Like y'all mentioned, I too rarely change themes due to each theme looking best with different views. So i just get one theme set up and leave it since I hate going through and figuring out the views each time I change. But, just to throw a curve ball out there... I have heard some Hyperspin vets say they don't switch to BigBox because it does not let you have a different theme for different platforms. I am not sure if that would play into your design/implementation; or if I really even understand them correctly since I don't mess with Hyperspin. I could care less about that though, but thought I would bring it up just in case it was something that others have on their wish list.