My LaunchBox build with a few extra things!

[AHmedia]

First, let me say that LaunchBox is IMO the best thing to happen to the gaming/emulation scene in years! Everything just works. No hassle, no complicated setups (given that your emulators/helpers are properly set up outside of LaunchBox), and a nice and clean interface. Ok, so I've configured mine pretty much like everyone else, but I've also done a few things that I personally haven't seen anywhere else. For example, I added a "dummy" as the first entry for every emulator to remind me of the shortcut keys (mainly to exit). It's just an Image with only the platform associated with it (no program). I know that other methods exist, but it's nice to have a visual reminder when starting an emulated game. How many times have you launched an emulator game and asked yourself "what was that exit key again?" Aside from that I also make custom mappings (mainly to the Guide button) in Pinnacle game profiler for quick game/emulator shutdown. I also have a custom section, which is used for Tools and Utilities. This is just a simple "Platform" used to launch apps like Game Profilers, Mod Managers and other gaming Clients like Steam, Origin and uPlay. Again, I realize that all this can be accomplished otherwise (especially the gaming clients as they launch with a game usually), but I really like this custom section I set up, as once again, it's more visual. Best of all, it all works Flawlessly!!!

[Jason Carr]

Wow! Very cool @AHmedia, you've got some great ideas there. Very pretty too. :)

[CADScott]

Cool ideas, I have used the custom platform idea for Kodi and Steam big picture launching, but I love the idea of the dummy game for hot key reminders.

[anyany]

Very good , I'll do something like that! This is my collection of books

[DOS76]

Your book collection looks great LB has unlimited potential as a launcher. Your books look far superior to my Calibre library I just don't have the dedication to add all the metadata to LB.

[AHmedia]

Cool idea with the books. Now I'm wondering if that method could be useful for retro computer magazines. Now that would be cool!! I know it can be done, but LB would need some kind of internal pdf viewer for proper BigBox support. I think the GameEx frontend had something like that for internal viewing. I'm just not sure if it was built-in or a seperate reader. If the latter, then it would make it very easy to use in BigBox. PDF support would also open up a new avenue for game support documents like instructions, strategy guides etc.. Looking into methods for this. I really like that idea

[DOS76]

That's the beauty of LB you don't need to buildin the reader support you just need to point your favorite reading program to LaunchBox I use LaunchBox to launch Plex, (movies, music, audio books and TV) SlingPlayer (live TV) Freda (eBooks) and CDisplayEX (comics). What you use it to launch is entirely up to you its extremely versatile except for the limited scope of the data scraping which is currently constrained to only one type of media.

[AHmedia]

Yeah, I just realized that you can launch additional PDFs via the additional applications launcher and just disable the "launch before or after" options. So, let's say my manual is set up at the Game Manual Path in the "Other" tab, my additional pdfs will be launched via the additional applications section. Some games have reference cards, strategy guides, etc. I'm using Sumatra PDF as my default viewer since it also supports the Comic book format (and other formats that usually require a dedicated viewer). Sumatra is very light weight and has great customization options. It's also possible to start it fullscreen (see my comment above for BigBox), so overall this is a perfect solution. One could of course set up Sections for magazines, comics and e-books using this method. Very cool.