Firebird2727 Posted November 18, 2016 Share Posted November 18, 2016 Hello All, I am new to Launchbox. I have went ahead and imported my mame collection, but I am not seeing them to play. I see that there is a Games DB, do I have to go through and click on each one of those and add to my collection, or is there an xml where this can be downloaded with all them in it. Thanks in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted November 19, 2016 Share Posted November 19, 2016 If you have imported them they should be in the platform you imported them to which by default is "Arcade". Then if you have Mame setup in Launchbox they should be playable just by double clicking the game in Launchbox. Since you are new to Launchbox I highly suggest checking out Brads tutorial videos starting with the systems you are interested in first. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSIht6UXIEXIgz4eXAEShxA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
websherpa Posted November 20, 2016 Share Posted November 20, 2016 I'm going through this learning curve myself as I haven't done a front end set-up for MAME (or anything) in a while and as you get older it gets harder to retain all the nuances. What I have found is that if Launchbox can find and launch MAME, but the screen changes but reverts right back to LB/BB, then one of a couple things are happening. Either 1) LaunchBox has the wrong path to the MAME executable, or 2) LB/BB launches MAME, but then MAME can't find the requested ROM (which means MAME's mamexx.ini file's paths aren't set correctly), or 3) MAME can find the ROM, but can't find other necessary game assets like a CHD or bios (which either means that asset is missing, or again, the path to those assets is set incorrectly in mamexx.ini What I am finding is that importing MAME Roms games into LaunchBox is not as straight-forward as it appears in Brad's tutorial as he demonstrates it from a previously set up system (instead of from scratch). For some reason when you import Games into Launch box it will scrape "most" of the info for a game (but not everything FROM the existing MAME set, like bezels, existing images) and IF you happen to let LaunchBox copy your game roms into LaunchBox itself, then it doesn't update MAME's mamexx.ini file to tell the emulator where to find the Roms or any other game assets that have been moved. At least that's what I am gathering so far. ----- Lack of a complete WIKI makes it a somewhat more complex for a noobie (and us short-term memory challenged folk) who are striving for a simple "out of the LaunchBox" setup experience. If you have a complete MAME set (i.e. A certain version of MAME with matched ROMs interest roms folder) that likely means someone has set up that set to work from that directory, and you shouldn't necessarily have LaunchBox move the games, but should play them from where they are. I ran into an issue where if you want to use an updated MAME version (but with an older MAME game set), and keep the separate, it can get very confusing for MAME to use and find all of the assets without truly understanding how the mamexx.ini file works. [It would be "really" great for MAME folks if when importing MAME Roms into LaunchBox, it also looks for all of the other assets / folders and then resets the MAME emulator's mamexx.ini automatically to the correct paths. Likewise it would be fantastic if LaunchBox could also see the set-up of control mappings 1) automatically, and then 2) be a GUI interface to further make changes on an emulator by emulator basis without having to rely on AHK.] Instead of Tutorial Videos alone (that age and are long)... LB/BB needs a thorough WIKI-based indexed tutorial that can be forked (and updated) for set-ups for each specific emulator and controller, etc. (And videos can be added to them and updated as needed.) We also need a screen by screen, option by option illustrated description of all that LB/BB can do (right now there seems to be an assumption that LB/BB users can start at the beginning and watch and learn all of the evolutions and feature additions that have been made sequentially in order to understand what each option does). Without such a resource, a Forum such as this becomes difficult to navigate / search for answers, and noob questions are repeated and repeated. (And as LB/BB gets more sophisticated and has more options, new users will get frustrated quickly and revert to simpler front ends - like what we experienced with HyperSpin.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOS76 Posted November 20, 2016 Share Posted November 20, 2016 A wiki sounds like a good idea the question is who is going to write it and maintain it as I'm sure with the development it will need constant revisions as changes are made weekly if not daily around here. If there was a wiki written a year ago it would basically be in such a need of revisions and additions and if it didn't receive constant attention it would quickly stop representing the full capabilities of the program. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
websherpa Posted November 20, 2016 Share Posted November 20, 2016 (edited) Basically Wiki's are "living" documents and best contributed to by an entire community. Although in a semi-commercial product such as this, Wiki leadership is sponsored by the product's internal team, it doesn't have to be that way - ESPECIALLY since we're all contributing to an informal Wiki by participating on a forum answering questions anyway. Usually one person near the top sets out what they think might be an "ideal" starting index (with little to no content - or maybe even just links to existing Video Tutorials, or the odd relevant Forum post). And then community members jump in to take on adding content to an "area of interest" that they have experience with based on their journey. As members see mistakes or areas in need of updates, they start by simply marking it as such (so new reader's are caveated) and then someone who has the time / inclination jumps in to make additions, corrections, etc. Members can then easily add on "branches" of information pertaining to very esoteric set-ups if they want to share set-up knowledge (and screenshots, etc.). In an even more "ideal" setup, there is a dedicated but very knowledgeable editor who, despite not having enough time to add "Everything" gets notified of member's flags on existing content, and new content, and can do a brief review to tweak or correct where necessary (and/or police / moderate irrelevant information). No, I am not volunteering. Edited November 20, 2016 by websherpa Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
websherpa Posted November 20, 2016 Share Posted November 20, 2016 Here's a rather good example of a community Wiki related to Emulation Gaming: http://strategywiki.org Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Firebird2727 Posted November 21, 2016 Author Share Posted November 21, 2016 Thanks to everyone, I was able to get mame into Launch Box. It seems when I imported it didn't import correctly. So I had to reimport the mame, then I needed to get the mame.ini in where mame was installed. Now I can see games and they launch as intended. I just need to configure the controls along with weeding out some of the mame games little further. Thanks again for the support. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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