Multi-Disc games

[imdavid555]

Added GameCube games to my LaunchBox today and games with multiple discs have the same name. For example, I added Resident Evil for gamecube which has 2 discs. On launchbox it says "Resident Evil" for disc 1 and "Resident Evil" for disc 2 which is very confusing. How do I fix this? Do I have to make the changes manually? Is there a way I can have this import properly during the setup process? Any help is much appreciated

[DOS76]

I usually delete the second disc and then add them as an additional app for the 1st game. This way you can right click on the game and the second disk will be an option in the context menu.

[SentaiBrad]

There is no multi-disc support in LaunchBox specifically for automatic importing. This has been talked about at length on the forums and has BitBucket tickets associated with it. A good solution for something like the PS1 is the PBP format for games. It was primarily used for PS1 classics on the PSP, but Mednafen in RetroArch reads the PBP files just fine, though I haven't tested switching discs, it should happen automatically. What Derek said is a great work around though. Personally I mark my games Disc 1 and Disc 2 and just live with it to be honest. It's nothing that really breaks LaunchBox, and it doesn't bother me personally. The additional apps feature might be the easiest way to achieve this for you though. If you load the new disc while in the emulator then this wont apply, but if you need to quit out to load the second disc then generally save stating and loading the state on the new disc works too if you didn't know.

[imdavid555]

Thanks for the help DOS76 and SentaiBrad! Went with DOS76 recommendation of adding the second disc as an additional app which is working really well!

[Zombeaver]

I also use the additional app method when it's the only option available (based on the emulator), but I think it should be noted that for PSX emulation, Mednafen and the Mednafen core of Retroarch have m3u support which is actually a much better option because it lets you swap discs within the emulator itself, with only a couple keyboard presses, rather than having to exit out or do anything via Launchbox itself. Basically you just create a text document, add the names of each .cue file on separate lines (in disc order), save it, and rename the file extension to .m3u and then choose that as your "rom" in Launchbox. I have Retroarch setup so that I press number 0 to "open/close the disc tray", + to go to the next disc, and - to go to the previous disc so when prompted to "switch to disc 2" I would hit 0 -> + -> 0 on the keyboard and then I can keep on truckin'. A good game to test this with to make sure you've got it working correctly is Riven - it's a 5-disc game and you can get to the second disc in just a couple minutes (each island is its own separate disc).

[imdavid555]

Great advice Zombeaver! Especially since Mednafen now has PBP support. I'm seriously considering moving over to it. Currently using Xebra, but would love not having to wait for my games to decompress every time I would like to play.

[Zombeaver]

I'm a really big fan of Retroarch Mednafen. I haven't messed with PBPs at all since m3u's have covered my multi-disc needs, but it sounds interesting. I've never played around with Xebra but I've heard good things about it too, but Mednafen's integration with RA (and the many benefits that brings) is a big selling point for me. I came from using ePSXe which is kinda garbage to be honest, at least by comparison. The only real benefit to ePSXe is that you can throw just about anything at it, including erroneous .cue sheets and bad rips and it'll probably still work...if you want to consider that a benefit; Mednafen is pickier, but accuracy is leagues beyond ePSXe.

[SentaiBrad]

I haven't had a RetroArch save to test multi-disc switching, however every game I've put in the PBP container has been fantasitc in space saving and the loading doesn't seem to be any different.

[The Psychologist]

Hi

This program is driving me a bit insane. I have the nice shiny new Sega CD/Mega CD set and I'm trying to add multi-game titles to LB. With previous platforms, LB let me add each disc separately and each has a thumbnail in the UI. Then I went in and added "(1)" etc. to the disc names in LB. No problem, each game was pointing to a different cuesheet, so it makes sense I could add them separately for multi-disc titles.

But now I'm on LB 6.11 and it throws a "null" path error for the additional discs. No problems importing the cuesheet for disc 1, but all other discs fail in multi-disc sets.

I thought a unique ROM path and a unique LB title was more than enough to to generate a unique entry in the LB XML? Why is it now rage-quitting when I try to add the 2nd disc, 3rd disc, etc?

Disc swapping is a huge hole in LB's capabilities right now, hope the devs figure out a way to simplify this as there are MANY multi-disc titles. (The Saturn japan set all imported fine and showed multiple thumbnails per each disc #.)

I see in "additional apps" that the first disc is added automatically, while you would need to manually add every additional disc to that title. That is a nightmare for large collections.

BTW the additional discs are not always the game proper, sometimes they are independent discs of bonus material, etc.. It doesn't work to think of them as all being the main game.

Thanks

[SentaiBrad]

It's supposed to add multi discs to the right click dialogue now. Where you see Disc 1, the rest of the discs should follow. I was getting that null error too, and told Jason about it, but I didn't know where it was coming from. Multi-disc games are handled now in LaunchBox, but this is an odd bug.

[Drakkorcia]

I imported some PS1 multiple disk games and they are still showing as separate disks. I thought Launchbox was supposed to automatically take care of these now so maybe the titling is wrong. What is the correct way to title multiple disk games so Launchbox knows what to do with them? Some games have the Disk 1, 2, etc. under version so maybe it must be in the actual title like "Final Fantasy VII (Disk 1)" in order for it to import properly.

Edited April 1, 2019 by Drakkorcia

[neil9000]

3 minutes ago, Drakkorcia said:

I imported some PS1 multiple disk games and they are still showing as separate disks. I thought Launchbox was supposed to automatically take care of these now so maybe the titling is wrong. What is the correct way to title multiple disk games so Launchbox knows what to do with them? Some games have the Disk 1, 2, etc. under version so maybe it must be in the actual title like "Final Fantasy VII (Disk 1)" in order for it to import properly.

They should be named like this.

[Drakkorcia]

I just tried importing Chrono Cross (Disk1) and (Disk 2) and it created two separate entries. Mine are bin/cue instead of chd's but I wouldn't think that would make any difference. Any other import options I might be missing?

[neil9000]

10 minutes ago, Drakkorcia said:

I just tried importing Chrono Cross (Disk1) and (Disk 2) and it created two separate entries. Mine are bin/cue instead of chd's but I wouldn't think that would make any difference. Any other import options I might be missing?

Make sure this box is checked.

Also i dont know if this is a typo or not, but you said above 

11 minutes ago, Drakkorcia said:

Chrono Cross (Disk1) and (Disk 2) and it created two separate entries

those are named differently, there is a space between Disk and 2, but there isnt in Disk and 1.

[neil9000]

Also i assume you are only importing the .cue file?

[Drakkorcia]

Thanks. I checked the combine games checkbox and it created one game. If I right click the game it says Disk 1 version and Disk 2 version. I tried starting the game from Disk 2 as a test and it asked for the first disk so all seems to be well. My remaining question is how do you switch disks when you get to that point in the game?