Is there a way to make a custom "system"

[heelsinc]

So I have all my systems set up but lets say I'm really into wrestling games and I want a wheel on Big Box called "Wrestling" with all those games in it.  Is there a way to do that?

[SentaiBrad]

Yes, of course. You can add or create what ever you want. If you are creating a section that is systemless though (a compilation of games across multiple systems), then it would be a smarter idea to use Custom Filters instead. Otherwise, you can create a specially named system and scrape it as another one so that the media can get downloaded properly. If you have multiple games from multiple systems, not only will there be no metadata because your custom system has no home to scrape from, but it will be a mess to try and set them up for emulators.

[heelsinc]

It would be games from across all systems.  Have you done a tutorial on how to do something like tihs?  I'm basically lost with out your videos

[Lordmonkus]

You can import any game into your custom platform but you will be setting each games emulator manually.

[heelsinc]

oh ok thats easy.  So when it asks me what system I'm importing roms from there is a way to leave that blank and then go into each rom and edit it once it is in the folder and set it up?

[Lordmonkus]

It will be a lot of manual work depending on how many games you are planning on importing in to your custom platform but I believe if you do it one game or system specific games eg: nes you can choose the platform to be your custom one, then tell it to scrape the NES and choose the emulator as long as you didn't set a default emulator for the custom platform. You will probably have to have a line in the associated platforms window for each emulator to have your custom platform.

[SentaiBrad]

The best solution is Custom Filters. In LaunchBox, on the left, above all your platforms is a button, click it and then click on Custom Filters. From there, click the + in the left pane and set your settings. You can make a custom filter based on several factors and you can display these in Big Box as well.

[heelsinc]

ok I got up the custom filters but there doesn't appear to be a place for me to select what games I want to go into that filter myself.  It would just pull them from me selecting drop down buttons.

[SentaiBrad]

Well, I was gonna do some examples, but custom filters keeps crashing my LaunchBox install (I have a ton of games). You should be able to name it, select the bubble that isn't the exact value, but rather has this value, then set certain qualifiers up. So you can specify specifically what you want. So you can try WWF or WCW in the title for example. I would have a more exact answer, but it just crashed for a 3rd time. Honestly, the custom filters does need a bit of updating, but they should be able to do this job. I had a custom filter set up for my favorite JRPG's for example.

[heelsinc]

yea it crashed mine twice also.  Eh no big deal I can always just go into launch box and search wrestling to quickly find a title I want and launch the game from there.

 

Thanks again for the quick responses guys!

[ckp]

first, i would just edit one of the games, like one of your wrestling ones. right click it and choose edit. click the Custom Fields tab. Under name field enter something like Category, and next to that column under Value enter something like Wrestling. click ok. you just created a category for wrestling games.

then i do a bulk edit by selecting all the games i want, so maybe like the wrestling ones, once they are all selected, I right click and choose Edit.

That brings up the bulk edit wizard. click next, then in the drop down field choose custom field category and for the value type Wrestling. Finish through the wizard.

now if you click on the left (platform) side of LB, you can pick Category as the filter and it will show you the categories of which you will now have one for Wrestling. Click Wrestling and you will see all those games.

but the problem with this method is that Bigbox doesn't let you see this filter!! It only shows in regular Launchbox. so if you want to use it for regular LB you're all set.

this is a major bummer and i think i posted an issue or bug on this before

hopefully @Jason Carr will make these custom field filters show in bigbox like they do in regular LB.