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Game Installer Creator v2.1.1 This is a tool I created to automate the process of creating compressed 7zip archives of PC Games to use with Launchbox or other front ends or by manually running the game launcher shortcut. The tool will work with any storage that can be mapped as a network drive or shows up in file manager as a letter. Once a simple configuration is complete you enter 2 pieces of information and it creates all the files required to easily add PC Games to your Launchbox setup and moves them to thier required locations in your setup. The tool requires that you already have the game you want to archive installed and working unless you have already compressed the game files to a .7z file and placed them on your external drive, network server, NAS or cloud drive. If you choose to have the tool compress and move your game files once it has finished the process you can uninstall or delete the game. The game files will now be a compressed .7z archive stored in the location you chose for your storage. If you decide to manually compress your files they must be in .7z format and the name must be the name of the game.7z. You must also create your .7z file from within the root of the game directory selecting all the files and folders for the game and compressing those. Do no create your .7z file by just compressing the game folder, it will not work with the tool. So basically the process goes like this: 1. You run the Game Installer Creator batch file and enter 2 pieces of information about your game and the Creator makes the required files and places them where needed. 2. Add your game to Launchbox or other front end or you can run the game launcher shortcuts by themselves. You can add your games to Launchbox by going to Tools\Import\Manually Add Game or you can drag and drop the created shortcut file located in your game install folder at Batch Files\Game Launcher\Games into Launchbox to import it. If you drag and dropped the file the Launching tab will be prefilled for you, otherwise click on the Launching tab on the left to add your launcher batch file. Browse to your game install folder and navigate to Batch Files\Game Launchers\Games and select the shortcut file for your game. Next to add the uninstaller go to Additional Apps and Add a New Application. I usually name the app Unistall "Name of Game", but you can name this whatever you would like. Browse to your game install folder and navigate to Batch Files\Game Launchers\Uninstallers and select the Delete "Name of Game" shortcut file for your game. Now you are all set! Double click your game in Launchbox or right click and select Play to run your game. The launcher will check to see if the game folder already exist on your computer and if it does it will run the game, otherwise it will extract the game to your computer and then run the game. If you would like to remove the game from your computer right click on the game in Launchbox and go to additional apps and select Uninstall "Name of Game" or whatever you called the uninstall app. Version 1.1 Update Change Log: Added the ability to have the tool compress your game files and move them to your storage location. Version 1.2 Update Change Log: Removed information regarding your .7z file as it is unnecessary with the tool handling the compression for you. I also formatted the text for better readability. Version 1.3 Update Change Log: Added a main menu. Added an option to remove all of the files created by the tool and gives you the choice to delete the compressed .7z file for the game. Version 1.3 Update 2 Change Log: I found and fixed an error when creating files for games where the .exe file that launches the game is not in the root folder. Version 2.0 Change Log: Drag and Drop has been added to make the process easier. In adding the drag and drop feature the entire code has been rewritten and optimized. The config process has been greatly simplified with drag and drop functionality and the need to only add 2 folder paths. I have removed the self extracting archive creation and am now using the tool and batch files to handle the compression and extraction. Switched to using 7zG.exe from 7z.exe to provide a progress gui. This version is no longer compatible with previous versions. The location of the batch files and the compressed files has changed. If you have used a previous version of the tool it is recommended that you remove the old files and recreate new ones using the tool. You can use the old version of the tool to remove the files from the old installation locations. You can then move your compressed files to the game install folder root, the tool no longer requires creating separate game folders for each game in the storage location. Version 2.1 Change Log: Made a change to the batch files to allow for portability of Launchbox. Previously the batch files included the complete paths to the folders and files, paths are now relative to the Launchbox folder. The Game Install folder is now required to be in your Launchbox folder and is created during the configuration process. Batch file shortcuts have also been moved to the same folder as their batch files due to the change in the batch files. You can delete the Game Launcher folder located in the Batch Files folder. You will need to convert any previously created batch files to the new Game Installer Creator system by adding the games again through the tool and changing your launcher path in Launchbox to the shortcut file in Launchbox\Batch Files\Games and the uninstaller path to Launchbox\Batch Files\Uninstallers. I apologize for the inconvienence of having to do this if you have used a previous version of the tool, but the tool is still in development and changes are going to happen along the way. Being that I intend to make this into a Launchbox Plugin having the game installs contained within the Launchbox folder makes sense. Version 2.1.1 Change Log: Removed the need to press Enter after inputting a selection in the Main Menu and all Y/N prompts making navigation quicker and cleaner. Changed the naming of the shortcut files to be only the name of the game, removing the .bat - Shortcut. This makes it easier to add the games to Launchbox as you no longer need to delete the .bat - Shortcut portion when importing games. Game Installer Creator v2.1.1.7z

Hi community, I'm looking for a best practice solution. I presently have a MAME cabinet with Launchbox and BigBox (best thing ever created since sliced bread btw) installed on a NAS and I run LB/BB directly from the NAS over the network. I connected the cabinet directly via Ethernet to get better speed. Some games take a little longer to load but overall the experience is great. I configured it this was knowing that I would like to either get more cabinets or devices to play my games in the future. I just purchased a new TV and plugged a PC directly to it. Now I have 2 Logitech Gamepads and would like to like to play my games through it as well. The issue I am having is that all the emulators in LB/BB have been configured to play with the controls on the MAME cabinet and because I'm sharing LB/BB on the network, the gamepads are not configured on the emulators. I'm looking for the best (and easiest) way to get this working properly. I'm also planning on connecting LB/BB to more devices Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated! Cheers, Lawrence

Hi, I have a WD PR2100 NAS and am considering using that for my roms and using a PC for Launchbox (SSD), images/snaps and emulators (on HDD). The NAS has two ethernet ports (one currently connected to modem) and I would use other port to connect to my PC. Has anyone had much luck doing it this way? I would be emulating N64 and PS1 as the most demanding systems. Thanks

Hi Guys, I have both LaunchBox and RetroArch installed to my NAS currently. When trying to play a game, it doesn't seem to launch RetroArch. There are no errors, it just comes right back to the LB interface. I'm thinking this might have something to do with DirectX, but not sure. I'm running Win 10 64-bit w/DirectX 12, so shouldn't have to installed 9.0c. When I do try to with the RetroArch installer, I do get an error. Is there anything inherently wrong with installing both to a NAS? Any other ideas? Thanks!!