Rekster Posted March 6, 2016 Author Share Posted March 6, 2016 I've been having a lot of success, loving Launchbox/Big Box. It has brought a new passion into my life and is keeping me out of trouble so thanks! So for some old consoles, simple as updating cores in retroarch and launchbox does it's magic. Others more involved and required external emulators and system roms but I was able to figure them out. Here's where I'm stuck. I want to get Atari 7800, Colecovision, Intellivision and also Apple II working. Apple II was more of a computer but I grew up on it so I'd love to get some of the games working fullscreen via Launchbox. From what I can read Coleco, Intelli and Apple II are all best suited for MESS via LB. Correct me if I'm wrong. I have no experience at all with MESS so I'm kind of lost here. First I tried using retroarch, used the updater but I noticed when I told retroarch to load core and selected MULTI (MESS 2014) it does nothing, does not show that core as being loaded. OK... so I must be missing something. My next thought was to just download the latest version of MESS and set that up. Well... looks like they've incorporated it into newer versions of MAME. Ok... so I get the latest (0171). Then realize my MAME roms need to be updated for this version of MAME, more work but ok no problem. Yet still, if I tell LB to use MAME to launch my Atari 2600, Coleco, Intelli roms nothing happens. I launch a rom and nothing happens at all. Does anyone have any advice on how I should be handling these consoles? I don't know if I should be using retroarch or mame and I don't know if I simply need to put some system bios files somewhere to fix this. Any help clearing my head and putting me on the right path here would be greatly appreciated! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOS76 Posted March 6, 2016 Share Posted March 6, 2016 Atari7800 I thought there was a ProSystem core in RetroArch but if not ProSystem is an excellent 7800 emulator. ColecoVision I you use ColEm it is still being developed with the latest update coming in February 2016. You do need the BIOS file in order to make it work. Intelivision I have played around with Bliss which launches most games its controller config isn't great and you will need multiple BIOS files to get it to work. That being said I avoid MESS like the plague so if you want to try these other emulators I highly recommend ProSystem and ColEm. Bliss just seems to be the alternative to not many other opitons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rekster Posted March 6, 2016 Author Share Posted March 6, 2016 Thanks DOS76, I'll try to avoid MESS if I can as long as I can get everything working. Is it just a pain to work with? And you were correct about a core for the 7800 in Retroarch, but I made a mistake. I actually meant to say the Atari 5200. Any recommendations for the 5200? Does anyone else have any ideas to get Apple II games launching full screen via Launchbox or should I try messing around with parameters in AppleWin? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOS76 Posted March 6, 2016 Share Posted March 6, 2016 5200 I use KAT5200 which is pretty good once you have it set up you will need 4 or 5 BIOS files in order to get this one going but as far as I know you will need them to get any 5200 emulator to work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOS76 Posted March 6, 2016 Share Posted March 6, 2016 KAT5200 ColEm The Link I found for Bliss takes you to a Cosmetic company that must have bought the domain but it can most likely be found here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rekster Posted March 6, 2016 Author Share Posted March 6, 2016 Ok great I'll check them out. Would be nice if at some point retroarch could incorporate some of these systems as cores. I just hate having to reconfigure controllers on a per emulator basis. But perhaps shortcuts aren't always for the best. :) Cheers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rekster Posted March 6, 2016 Author Share Posted March 6, 2016 Great, had to fiddle for a bit but got Kat5200 working! One more quick slightly off topic question. What would you recommend for closing emulators to get back to the LB/BB interface once the game exits? I have the ESC key mapped to a joystick button and that works for many systems but in the case of Kat5200 it goes right back to the main screen of Kat5200 instead of back to LB/BB. I'm sure other systems would be similar. Would mapping Alt-F4 be a viable option? Only concern is accidentally clicking it twice and closing Big Box as well. What would you recommend? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted March 6, 2016 Share Posted March 6, 2016 Alt + F4 is the only other option really. You just gotta be careful. Unless the emulator has some commands you can give it through a macro key, then you could use that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOS76 Posted March 6, 2016 Share Posted March 6, 2016 In Manage Emulators there is an AutoHotKey tab add this and it should work ; This section closes Snes9x when pressing Escape $Esc:: { Process, Close, {{{StartupEXE}}} } Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rekster Posted March 6, 2016 Author Share Posted March 6, 2016 That did it! Next I'm going to have to see if there's a way to map joystick button combinations to exit instead of clicking a single button. My son already found out the hard way by clicking R3 by accident on the PS3 controller in the middle of a game. He was pretty pissed haha. Love fiddling with this stuff, and again I appreciate so much having everyone to roll ideas off. That's why I didn't hesitate to buy the lifetime license for LB. I had a sense there was a great community presence here on top of a great product. DOS76 said In Manage Emulators there is an AutoHotKey tab add this and it should work ; This section closes Snes9x when pressing Escape $Esc:: { Process, Close, {{{StartupEXE}}} } Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOS76 Posted March 6, 2016 Share Posted March 6, 2016 LaunchBox has the option under Tools options input AutoHotKey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOS76 Posted March 6, 2016 Share Posted March 6, 2016 The only issue with using ESC to close the process is that now if you want to go into the menu and change the settings you will have to open KAT5200 from outside of LaunchBox I don't use my controller to close the games but when I know that an emulators menu is the ESC key I use that same code but make it F1 instead of ESC so I can still access the menu but if you are going without a keyboard then it isn't really that much of a hassle to use ESC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rekster Posted March 6, 2016 Author Share Posted March 6, 2016 DOS76 said LaunchBox has the option under Tools options input AutoHotKey Didn't realize! Been using third party apps to map my escape key. Just tried this input autohotkey for closing active window. It works for some systems like retroarch but it breaks the exit autohotkey script in Kat5200 that you just provided (it goes back to emulator screen instead of closing now) and Dolphin crashes instead of closing cleanly. Dolphin might not like the window being forced closed. Would be nice if that input AutoHotkey had an option to simulate the ESC key instead of closing the window. That might fix it in this case. Or maybe there is somewhere else and I'm missing it. I'll keep fiddling here and test with other systems as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rekster Posted March 6, 2016 Author Share Posted March 6, 2016 Would adding an option to map the ESC key to a joystick button combination in the input autohotkey be a reasonable feature request? As I said forcing windows closed causes erratic behavior with some emulators. ESC would be much cleaner, and convenient for those trying to restrict input to a joystick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOS76 Posted March 6, 2016 Share Posted March 6, 2016 If you formally want to make a feature request you should click Send Feedback at the top of the page this will take you to Jason's BitBucket repository where bugs and feature request can be submitted tracked and voted upon by other users more votes means higher priority. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spycat Posted March 6, 2016 Share Posted March 6, 2016 For the Intellivision you can also try out the Nostalgia emulator. http://www.intellivision.us/intvgames/nostalgia/nostalgia.php For Apple II see here https://github.com/AppleWin/AppleWin/releases/ As regards MESS, I'm inclined to agree with Derek. MESS is a mess, but it's an organised mess which will work if you stick with it. I use MESS as a last resort. Currently I use it for two platforms because I can't find a standalone emulator for one, and the other lacks game saving which MESS supports. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retrofrogg Posted April 26, 2018 Share Posted April 26, 2018 For Apple II in Windows, AppleWin works well and can do fullscreen with an extra updated version. It doesn't seem to do Apple II GS though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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