Stand alone emulators not launching

[chrisg229]

Hi, I can't seem to launch several standalone emulators from launchbox. These include blueMSX.exe and Colem.exe, when I select a game I get an hourglass for a second and then nothing else happens. I have confirmed that both executables work directly so I'm not sure what the issue is. I've also tried running lb as an admin to no avail.

I have been able to get dolphin.exe and retroarch.exe to launch via launchbox without issue.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[SentaiBrad]

You're most likely missing command lines that they require. The emulators don't support loading roms directly, some require there to be some default command line parameters.

For the two you mentioned, there is an MSX Tutorial on the channel, and ironically the Colecovision tutorial goes up tomorrow (Friday, the 12th, 2017) at 10AM.

The MSX tutorial is a bit older, but it still totally works:

 

[chrisg229]

Thanks for the quick reply. I have not been able to get msx(colecovision) in retroarch working and I certainly wont ask for help on that front in this forum. I am looking forward to the Colecovision tutorial as that is exactly what I have been trying to setup.

Thanks again. I am very happy I decided to go with your premium offerings. Keep up the great work!

[chrisg229]

Based on you suggestions about the proper commands I did test the following command which works outside of LaunchBox:

bluemsx.exe /machine "COL - ColecoVision" /rom1 "G:\Emulation\Roms\ColecoVision\Q-bert (USA).col"

Once I confirmed this works I added the following to LaunchBox's "Default Command-Line Parameters":

/machine "COL - ColecoVision" /rom1

Which displayed the following under "Sample Command"

blueMSX.exe /machine "COL - ColecoVision" /rom1 "FULL\PATH\TO\ROM\FILE"

It looked perfect compared to the command prompt but when I selected a game in LB, I got the same second long hourglass then nothing.

[SentaiBrad]

So for MSX I used RetroArch and Colecovision is using MAME.

[chrisg229]

That would be Mame stand alone as opposed to a RetroArch core? Forgive my ignorance as I'm still trying to get my head around an all-in-one retroarch which supports all-in-one cores!!!

[SentaiBrad]

Yes, MAME standalone which has MESS integrated. I used to use MESS standalone, even after they merged, but it's having some issues and using just MAME it saves a few steps now. There are a few RetroArch cores to avoid as they're not as good as the standalones, or there are better versions. MAME is one of them (especially MESS, it's actually really stupid confusing, more so than regular RA or MESS). DS, PSP and DOS are three others to avoid. There are tons more tutorials on our channel if you need them.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6pTDaHeAz-WMcNURVPU-1xLN_TVpT3FB

 

[chrisg229]

Funny, almost all cores you mentioned have been flaky for me in RA, guess i need to branch out more. Next stop MAME!

Thanks again Brad

[spycat]

Hi @chrisg229.

 

I can use blueMSX to launch both my MSX2 and ColecoVision game roms via LaunchBox. For an example, See my emulator setup images below.

But I do prefer to use MAME with MESS.

[chrisg229]

Hi Spycat,

I just tried and triple checked your settings and I still cannot get past second long hourglass then nothing within LB. I can get the blueMSX.exe to run within a command prompt without issue. Perhaps I am using the wrong version of blueMSX?

http://bluemsx.msxblue.com/download.html  and selected "blueMSX 2.8.2 Full"

Chris

[chrisg229]

Hi Brad,

I just followed the tutorial on setting up PPSSPP.exe on LB and once I was done I had the same issue as with MSXblue and Colem. I did notice, in the video, that its possible to right click a rom and select "Open PPSSPP", I do not have that option only "Open Retroarch" even though I previously removed the PPSSPP core from within "Manage Emulators..". Perhaps there is something else I need set?

I can say for both colecovision and ppsspp I did initially set these up using Retroarch within LB. I assumed if I edit the emulator pointing to these LB would pick it up. Do I need to delete this entirely and start from scratch to choose a different emulator?

Thanks,

Chris

[chrisg229]

I just followed the Cemu LB tutorial and I can open it just fine. Perhaps it is based on the initial setup? I'm not even sure how to "delete" PSP and Colecovision to start again or even if I should. I have to imagine theres something simple I'm missing here.

[DOS76]

If you right click a game and it say open RetroArch but you want PPSSPP to be your emulator you will need to either edit the game and change it by going to the emulator tab or you can us ctrl+a to highlight all the games for that platform and bulk edit them all to your new emulator

[chrisg229]

Ahhh! That makes sense. So it's like a cherry picking for which emulator starts which rom (even within the same system). Excellent feature, I suppose, once I understand the idea.

Thanks DOS76

[chrisg229]

That totally 'fixed' the 'issue'.

I ASSumed that by changing Colecovision's default emulator that if would automatically switch for all Colecovision games. Very clever approach in flexibility but maybe not super intuitive for new users.

Anyway many thanks again! 

[DOS76]

That will only effect future imports for that platform games imported under the old emulator must be changed manually. Glad that I could help you get it situated.

[SentaiBrad]

AH, yea, that's usually a missed aspect, but you're right, it is super flexible. I don't know how to rename things to make it more obvious. It's confusing, but I don't have any ideas for Jason on how to make it less so.

[chrisg229]

Well hopefully next time someone Googles a similar 'issue' this thread will pop right up. Thanks again and I am liking your app more and more as I use and discover.

[SentaiBrad]

I appreciate it, but it is all @Jason Carr, I didn't code LB.