Importing ScummVM for use in Launchbox via Rocketlauncher - A Tutorial

[angelobodetti]

Thank you. I just don't know which file I would import into launchbox if I do it that way. The 7zip way is great but it definitely seems like it needed to load the game once before it will work. 

[RetroHumanoid]

well...i'm sure there are better ways...but try this out...

when the game is loaded,it places the contents of the zip into a temp folder.

unzip all of your scummvm roms into that temp folder,assuming they are in folders inside the zips...which would give you a folder for each game which contain the files necessary for that game,and named according to your database.

start up scummvm and populate the list with the unzipped games in your temp folder.

close scummvm and delete the games from the temp.

now try starting a game through launchbox with the zip file.

hope that works out.I would try with one game first to see if it does.

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[JaysArcade]

OK, not really understanding what all the fuss is about, I looked into trying to find how exactly my setup works and I found a huge mistake I made in my tutorial. It's kinda complicated but I'll try to explain.

I guess at some point originally, I set up ScummVM similar to how Retrohumanoid is describing, but later when I created my tutorial - not realizing exactly what was going on, I incorrectly assumed that Rockelauncher was opening my roms from 7zs. In reality, ScummVM's roms path is defined in ScummVM.ini. I had to run the troubleshooting log of Rocketlauncher in order to trace what was going on. The ScummVM.ini I thought ScummVM was using didn't really have anything in it. When I ran the troubleshooting log, I discovered that Rocketlauncher was pulling an old ScummVM.ini from my ..users\jay\appdata\roaming\ScummVM folder. In that ini file, there were entries pointed to another folder full of the same roms only unzipped and in their own folders. I didn't even remember I had this folder set up this way. So even though when I created my tutorial, I started from complete scratch, Rocketlauncher fouled me up by looking for an instance of the ini in my appdata/roaming folder, and found one! OOPS. I guess I need to re-do my tutorial. I'll include my ScummVM.ini here for you to look at. You could probably use it if the paths are the same or you could do a mass find and replace of the locations and change them to your roms location. Man, sorry to everyone for the confusion. @angelobodetti, thanks for pointing this out and making me look into this more deeply to understand it better. I might try to re-do my tutorial soon to show the correct way to set it up.

TL:DR: I messed up the tutorial. You can still point your Launchbox to the 7s to import the roms, but the Roms themselves need to each be extracted to their own respective folders and be pointed to from ScummVM and you'll need a working ScummVM.ini for it to work. Sorry for the hassle.

scummvm.zip

[angelobodetti]

Thanks for looking into it!

instead of essentially having all of the games loaded twice, if I just wanted to use the unzipped ones, what is the file for each game that I would load into LaunchBox?

[angelobodetti]

Thank you @RetroHumanoid, I'll try your trick as well which hopefully works since it is the easiest solution. The only reason I'm trying to get Scumm working is because if your new pause menu media. So thanks again!

[JaysArcade]

I would still scan the zipped ones to create the xml in Launchbox for Rocketlauncher to use. The ScummVM exe will need to be able to see the folders to create its ini file. I'll try to do an updated video with the corrected method soon.

[angelobodetti]

3 hours ago, JaysArcade said:

I would still scan the zipped ones to create the xml in Launchbox for Rocketlauncher to use. The ScummVM exe will need to be able to see the folders to create its ini file. I'll try to do an updated video with the corrected method soon.

In that method would I have the full scummvmromset twice? One zipped and one not?

[JaysArcade]

I think you might be able to delete the 7s after you import them into Launchbox. Treat them like dummy files. Just to be safe though, just try moving them so Launchbox can't see them. Make sure the games will still launch without them being there. If it doesn't work, Launchbox might need something to be their as a placeholder in which case we'll need to figure something out something else.

[RetroHumanoid]

i'm not sure how they work in Launchbox yet,but with Hyperspin I just have a folder with .txt files named after the rom folders ,and i set the extension to txt. It scans them all in. Then in rocketlauncher i have my games in seperate folders,with the parent folder set as the rom directory. No zips at all...just folders.

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[angelobodetti]

Ok so the ini file is shareable - I spent a bunch of time poking around and there was a readme file with the romset - here is the note:

"If you do not already have it, the official ScummVM XML needs to be placed in the HyperSpin databases folder.
The included ScummVM.ini can be placed in <User>\AppData\Roaming\ScummVM directory.
The ScummVM.ini will enable loading the games directly from their 7zip archives in HyperLaunch.
It does not matter that the paths in the ini file are incorrect. The games simply need a listing."

The ini was also included.

I have done this and now I consistantly get the "path not a directory" error. Which makes me think I am closer to getting this to work. 

I will try extracting sets and other methods shortly - Who knew LaunchBox, RocketLauncher and ScummVM would be so tricky...

Edited May 15, 2017 by angelobodetti

[angelobodetti]

Ok I finally got it...

@RetroHumanoid was right. You can do it a few different ways:

1. Unzip all of the files into the RocketLauncher unzip folder (with each game in its own folder) then add them ScummVM. Once added you can delete the folders. Basically all this did was all the games to the ini file and define the path.

2, You can manually update the path within the ScummVM.ini file. Make sure the folder name at the end of the path is the name of the game. 

So basically when RocketLauncher unzips a game it puts it in the folder and ScummVM uses it as if it is there permanently.

 

I would actually just unzip and use them in the folders anyway, but in that case I have no idea what single file I would load into LaunchBox.

[JaysArcade]

Good to know. Thanks @angelobodetti. I'll probably mess around and see if I can reproduce the results so I can create a new tutorial. It might be a few weeks away however unless I can find some free time during the week this week as I am going on an extended backpacking trip next week and will be off the grid for a bit. Thanks for persisting and letting us know what you did to get this going. I had no idea my instructions were off as no one told me until now. I'll update the original post to reflect the problems with the tutorial.

[JaysArcade]

Hopefully I will be able to create a new video tutorial emphasizing the correct way to set this up, maybe this weekend. In the mean time I am working on a written tutorial for setting up ScummVM and Rocketlauncher via various methods. Here is the link to the document so far. If anyone knowledgeable about the process could take a look and provide feedback, I would appreciate it. There are no pictures just yet but I have gone into great detail on how to set it up. Be gentle as I am strictly going from memory as I write this from work and have no real way to test as I write it. I intend to add a lot more details as I continue to refine this document to make it about as accurate as I am able.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rNSJy-l-obKDwKF--mhaQKWrvLZs_XHS5YQxKYYRMbs/edit?usp=sharing

[JaysArcade]

I've updated and replaced the video in the first post. Apparently I had a few things wrong in the video and I wanted to make it right. I took a large chunk of my day to work on this so if you have been helped by me in the past or you're checking this out for the first time, please let me know if this has been helpful or if you have questions on implementing ScummVM with RocketLauncher. Thanks.

[Owls21]

Hi Jay. Saw your video. Do you have any idea how to run via RL for the new 2.0 set? 

I have extracted all zips into my 7z extraction folder set in RL. I then added all unzipped folders to ScummVM which created the right ini. 

I'm getting an error when launching in RL and I think it has to do with long file names. I had 1.7 running fine, but that set used short names. 

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance

[JaysArcade]

I haven't tried the new 2.0 set myself so I'm not sure. What is the error you're getting?

[Owls21]

ScriptError - There was an error waiting for the window "ahk_class SDL_app". 

I think it has to do with the naming of the newer set which uses long names instead of the short ones but not sure. 

[JaysArcade]

I wish I was more knowledgable and could help but since I haven't upgraded, I'm not sure where the problem is coming from. I see your thread on the other forum with agent47. Hopefully he can get you on the right track. Good luck.

[Owls21]

Jay, thanks for the help anyway. Agent47 did provide a solution which was to change the Target Name for each rom in the Rom Settings of the module.

[Myst (CD Windows)]
TargetName=myst-win

I'm now trying to figure out a way to generate a target name for each of the roms in the set. Doing it manually would be too tedious.

[JaysArcade]

Man, what a pain. Probably easier to go back to the old set if you still have it and wait for the module to be updated to work with the new set.