New to Launchbox - questions

[jallen99]

So I'm totally new to this UI and I'm trying to put together a database of emulated games. Launchbox Questions: - What are the differences between the free and premium versions? It looks like there's a lot of visual modifications you can make. Are there any functional (really cool, gotta have) differences between the two versions? - From what I've read, it looks like a license will allow you to put the program on more than one machine owned by you, correct? If you buy the $20 version and have to clean up your hard drive in a year or two, can you go back and download the version your purchased? Or is it just better to go the $50 route so you won't have to worry about it (I assume Launchbox will be around for a while and will just get better and better)? - How big are the sample gameplay videos and other metadata that shows up on the launch screen for each game? If you have 100 games, will this be a ton of metadata clogging your hard drive? - Can someone tell me how to handle "save game" states, such as high score tables on MAME arcade games, saved games on titles that had onboard memory (such as "Zelda: Link to the Past", SNES), and save games for later titles? This may be more of an emulator question than Launchbox, but I thought I would ask is anyone knows the answer. Thanks for all your help.

[DOS76]

I'll let someone who officially represents the company answer your questions about the licensing but the $50 gets you lifetime updates which are worth having because I haven't even been using the program for a year yet it has been update numerous times in that period. You can however upgrade to that for less money after you purchase the $20 license I believe to switch to lifetime it is $30 so still $50 in total but then you get to see if you think it is worth it to continue to get updates (it will be but you can decide on your own). As for MAME saves, it is more of an emulator side of things. I've never actually saved any of the games I either keep throwing imaginary quarters in until I've finished the game or just start over again at another time but there are some hardcore MAME people here who can probably help you out.

[SentaiBrad]

So the license allows you to put LaunchBox on your machines if you would like to. The $20 option covers you for a year from your purchase date, and you will have premium for up the that year and as long as you stay on that last version you'll have Premium. You can opt for the Lifetime License if you'd rather instead of having to continually pay per year or pay then upgrade. The huge difference right now is BigBox. It is designed as a couch styled front end that is controlled more elegantly with a controller. Otherwise there is a lot of tweaks you can make to the UI and some metadata downloading is behind premium for EmuMovies. Specifically Video, and you need an EmuMovies premium account for their video. We are always adding features to Premium as well. Take a look at the Patch Notes in LaunchBox under the About menu. The size depends on your library. I have about 14k games and my Images folder is over 15GB. That's just raw images. We download the best quality offered to us by our scrapers, and our own scraper (The LaunchBox Games DB) has artwork that was from TheGamesDB, which was also high quality 95% of the time. We will be allowing users in the future to also upload their own metadata and images to our Database as well. As far as Emulators go, there is nothing special you really need to do when it comes to save states. You don't even need to move your games or emulators at all. So if you already have... say, PPSSPP already set up, then just point LaunchBox to that emulator, import all your games and you're good to go. If there were saves already set up then just load the game and your save state like usual. Some emulators need specific command line parameters to work, but if you need more help our YouTube channel as tutorials created by me. You can get there by going to the link in my signature. If you have any bugs or any feature requests, click "Send Feedback" at the top of any LaunchBox page. Search to see that the bug or feature you have is already submitted. If it is an it is open you are more then welcome to vote on it. If it doesn't exist, you are also more then welcome to create a ticket. If you have any more questions feel free to ask.

[jallen99]

Awesome! Thanks for the answers and then some! I definitely want the BigBox experience since my setup is exactly what you're describing. I also like that you take feature requests. Once I dig further down into the program, I'll be sure to send feedback if there's anything specific I'm looking for. Thanks again for your help!

[SentaiBrad]

jallen99 said Awesome! Thanks for the answers and then some! I definitely want the BigBox experience since my setup is exactly what you're describing. I also like that you take feature requests. Once I dig further down into the program, I'll be sure to send feedback if there's anything specific I'm looking for. Thanks again for your help!

No problem, enjoy!

[CadetStimpy]

SentaiBrad said I have about 14k games and my Images folder is over 15GB.

Are you serious? That's awesomely insane! It would take years just to play each one for 30 minutes! Any idea at all how much total time you spent just getting them all into LaunchBox?

[fromlostdays]

Not to brag, but in my HyperSpin install I have 125 gigs worth of media. (videos, artwork, and themes) In my Rocketlauncher install I have 192 systems (not all running mind you, but easily over 100 do) and that total does include some dupes like "Atari Classics" which is just an Atari Manufacturer XML separated from MAME, for a total of 44128 games, which is half of what's in my xmls which total 84038. I have about 25 gigs of RL media. (game guides and manuals, fade in, fade out, bezels, game music, etc) Ok, I am bragging. :D This has been my main hobby for half a decade. When I started, I barely knew how to change the display resolution on windows.

[CadetStimpy]

fromlostdays said for a total of 44128 games...

That's even more mind-boggling than Brad's collection! I'm pretty much a Gaming Featherweight compared to you folks. I didn't even realize that many games existed - and since I'm gonna assume you don't have every game you possibly could - there could be 50,000+ games! I seriously had no idea there were that many different PC/Console games available. I can clearly see why LaunchBox is a 'Godsend' to so many of you! Perhaps you could launch a Website, such as, Ihavemoregamesthanyoulleverhave.com Hmmm...? How many pages would it take just to list them all?!?! P.S. Kudos to you, fromlostdays, for such an incredible amount of progress (Newbie to Emulator Extraordinaire) in just 5 years! I say you've earned those braggin' rights!

[Lordmonkus]

It's really easy to inflate the numbers when you start emulating all the older computer stuff like the Atari, Amiga and Spectrum. Mame alone has something in the neighborhood of 12,000 or so when you include all the mahjong, video poker and clones. By the time you are hitting the 10,000 games total you really are duplicating a lot of games across all the platforms and so many of them are just plain terrible. For me personally I avoid all the old computer stuff and duplicating garbage. Lately I have been focusing on getting the good rom hacks and fan translations of Japanese only games that are actually worth playing. My Launchbox game total is just over 4300 games but that is not a full Mame set (only the games I would actually ever play). My CD based system collection is kept fairly small as well to only games I really want to play. I need better internet without usage caps before I start getting into that stuff heavily.

[CadetStimpy]

Ah, crap! Now my "Confessions of an Emulator Newbie" are going to be 'extended'. But, I like your approach, lordmonkus - just collect things you're actually goin' use. However, many 'collections' aren't actually 'used', but just admired, appreciated, and/or generate a little piece of happiness. But still, as it relates to my feeble efforts to 'downsize' my stuff, your method is what I wanna go for. In all actuality, 500 games would probably be more than enough to satisfy my Gaming needs, until death do us part. But, hey, the collecting and organizing is fun in it's way, and thanks to LaunchBox, it's a crap-load easier!

[DOS76]

Yeah my collection is huge and i don't have any computer stuff in LaunchBox don't get it wrong II have all the roms I just don't have them in LaunchBox and to be truthfully I don't care for many of the emulators because you actually have to know how to run some ancient ass computer with out any instructions. I don't know if adding it to LaunchBox eliminates the need to use the computers interface but for the few I tried it was a little challenging since back when they were on the market I didn't have a computer and they were much less intuitive at that time. For the most part any of the earliest systems aren't a big deal to keep even if you will never use the games the file sizes are minuscule even my 400+ N64 collection is only around 7GBs which isn't anything really but as you start getting into Dreamcast PS1 and up you are starting to talk hundreds of GBs and PS2 is ridiculous when the next generations of emulator are finally viable to play you will need massive amounts of storage if you plan on collecting them.

[Lordmonkus]

Oh don't get me wrong, I sure as hell got my share of unplayable junk. Sometimes it's just easier to grab an entire collection and go through it and sort out the good and bad. It's just no point in having like 10 version of Ghosts N Goblins across all the platforms like the ZX Spectrum and all those other old computer systems. Systems like the Atari 2600, 7800 and Sega Master System while it's easy to have the entire collection those games really don't hold up well and are really tough to go back and play for more than a minute out of nostalgia. Same with the Playstation and Saturn systems, to me the early 32 bit era 3D games are just too archaic for me to back and play. The sprite based stuff from the 16 and 32 bit era however aged very well and with a good shader are very playable even by todays standards. Once you get into the 64 bit and up 3D stuff started to get good with emulator upscaling. Then of course you have the really bad systems like the Jaguar, Lynx and 3DO which maybe has a couple of decent games for the most part they are ported to other systems. Another good example of easier to grab an entire collection bit overall quality of game is questionable is the PC Engine / TurboGrafx. It's much easier to get the entire set and sort it out but the reality is most of the games are horrible, there are some very good games hidden in there though. The CD games on those systems don't have much good as far as English North American releases goes but there are a handful of really good Japanese region games worth having. It seems the bulk of those Japanese games are digital comic type games or RPGs without translations. There are a couple of good shooters and of course Dracula X / Rondo of Blood. Launchbox does indeed make collecting and organizing easier. A buddy of mine is really into his Hyperspin and I tried to get into using that frontend but I just didn't like it, way too much work and messiness in setting it all up. Collecting is indeed fun and collect whatever is fun, I just draw the line at the obvious crap that I know is crap. I know the Jaguar, 3DO and Lynx are crap because I grew up with them and I even owned them when I was a teen and just after high school.

[DOS76]

I don't know there are some old school gems on Master System that I like to rock out on Black Belt, Fantasy Zone, Phantasy Star, Alex Kidd in Miracle World but they are all games I had when I was a kid and they do hold a nostalgic value for me. Also I play 7800 Centipede and Asteroids pretty frequently.

[SentaiBrad]

I just added back in a new DOS set (4,815) and I have 19,615 games total now. For me, I went with consoles I'd like to play instead of games. xD With the random function in LB you can get a lot of mileage out of a huge library. I also have very few duplicates, I am very stringent on that. NTSC preferred for everything, then PAL so it's in English. Then Japanese is left unless it's English translated which takes precedent in the English category. If there is a re-translation of a Japanese game (Final Fantasy on SNES) then the re-translation is preferable to the NTSC or PAL versions of the games. I also have very little to no Sports games. Racing doesn't count and I like some golf or sim sports games.

[Lordmonkus]

Yeah everyone is different along with their personal tastes. I loved my Atari 2600 when I was a kid and I got it back in 82 for my 8th birthday but I played the shit out Asteroids but I cannot go back and play the 2600 version now. That might be because I have an actual Asteroids Deluxe standup arcade cabinet though lol. Check out Space Rocks on the 2600, it's a fan made version but with a chip in it like the FX chip and it has pseudo vector graphics, kinda neat. For the original Phantasy Star there is an updated graphically port for the PS2 in the Sega Ages 2500 series. It was originally in Japanese but there was a fan translation for it, it's on my back log list of games I need to get around to playing since I played 2,3 and 4. Phantasy Star 2 was my first jrpg. There are some 8-bit era games on the NES I can go back and play though but the list is fairly short. The Mega Man series is still great and holds up extremely well. Mighty Final Fight is amazing. There is also some cool stuff being done with the NES in the rom hack scene. People have figured out a way to actually upgrade the graphics a bit by mapping stuff to the MMC5 chip (don't ask me to explain it lol). I just got a rom hack for Metroid called mOther which adds a mini map and updates the graphics a bit.

[SentaiBrad]

If you care about achievements then The Mega Man Legacy Collection is awesome. First 6 games $15 on every modern system including PC. The emulation is great, the art work is great and plus achievements. And yea, everyone has their own tastes, but I do like to share my setup. The first console I played was an NES and Genesis when I was like 3 or 4, and my dad had an SNES when I was younger than that that I vaguely remember. I have an odd memory, my first one I think. I was super super super young, sitting on their bed when he was laid up with a cast on after he just got his screws in his ankle. The Genesis my cousins had and played Sonic when ever I could. We had one for a while when I was like 4-6 (can't remember exactly) and had the Sega Channel, a monthly subscription that gave us digital games over the cable or phone line. Then in I think 1997 I got an N64 that was all mine. I remember that well, then a year or two later, we got a PS1? Something like that.

[Lordmonkus]

If there was a Mega Man Legacy on the PS3 I would grab it but I just checked the store and it isn't there. I thought about grabbing the Gamecube version of it since that emulator is so good but I have all of the games in some form or another. I got the 6 NES ones, I got the NTSC patched PAL Mega Man Wily Wars for the Genesis, I got the X series on the SNES with MSU-1 music, I got the X series on PS1 plus 8 and I got 9 and 10 on the PS3. So I kinda got the Mega Mans covered lol. My earliest video game memory is of an old Coleco Telstar Pong clone when I was like 3 or 4 years old. I have an old Space Invaders handheld from my 5th birthday and I used to go to the arcade when I was like 4 or 5 years old when I was lucky enough to go the mall that was 2 hours drive. Growing up in a small town in the middle of no where had its disadvantages when it came to new tech lol.

[CadetStimpy]

I never got to be weaned on any Consoles as a tyke, since I had already completed a 6-year stint with Uncle Sam roughly when the Atari 2600 was released. I immediately started to work at DEC (Digital Equipment Corp). Low & behold, there was Lunar Lander running on a PDP 11/?? Mainframe (that was runnin' VAX/VMS). DEC commissioned the game to be written in 1973 to showcase it's GT40 Monitor (just under $11K in '72 ), according to Wikipedia. I got to play it a little bit, and it was just sooo cool! I played it in white instead of green, though. I have no idea how'd you'd run it, but for someone who likes 'Emulator Challenges' (well, it would probably be insurmountable for me, anyway), I think the game is here (with some others, such as Doom).

[DOS76]

You can play Lunar Lander on MAME no problem

[fromlostdays]

just draw the line at the obvious crap that I know is crap.

Definitely personal preference. I have a shameful amount of stuff I'll never play, and never want to. I think of it more like a showcase of things worth preserving. I absolutely cannot break up a rom set, haha. That's actually what got me here. I'd filled my other front end to the point where its, frankly, undesirable to scroll through haha, unless a friend or someone wants a history lesson. I do make sure that every system is set up for at least passable emulation, or in some cases as good as humanly possible. LaunchBox on the other hand, with it's ease of adding and subtracting from game lists, I only put in games I want to play, and it stays open on my computer. I also really enjoy opening up games from ancient consoles and computers. The thrill of seeing something I'd never see/hear otherwise overrides the fundamental suck of the old games, at least for a while.