New to Launchbox, converting from other FE

[Govinda]

Hello, I found my way here from a fluke viewing of a MetalJesusRocks youtube vid. I'm glad I caught it, because my arcade cabinet has been collecting dust for around 2 years, and Launchbox sounds like it may be just what I need to resurrect it.

I was using Hyperspin and Rocketlauncher until I ran into an issue where a 2-player game key-combo (using a Tankstick) was kicking us out of the game. It had been so long since I set it all up that I mis-remembered how everything works, and in trying to fix the problem I instead made Hyperspin completely unusable. After several attempts to fix it, I gave up in frustration. I would have to relearn everything and almost start from scratch. So... dust collector.

From what I've read and seen on youtube the last couple of days, Launchbox might be my savior. Since I already have all my emulators, roms, and game videos set up for HS & RL, I wanted to ask if it should be a simple, straightforward matter to set up from here? Anything I might want to watch out for? From some of the videos I've seen, I'm thinking i may want to update some emulators, too.

And before anyone suggests I keep Rocketlauncher, please don't, I want to leave that hair-pull-inducing monstrosity far behind me.

Thanks

[Rincewind]

Good to have you here @Govinda , If you've not updated your emulators for a couple of years then i would highly suggest using RetroArch as it now emulates a lot more systems very well. There are many users in the community that can help you out if you run into problems but once you've watched a few of the tutorials you're see how easy it. 

[Govinda]

Thanks, Rincewind! I've started reading/watching a little about Retroarch, and I was a little dubious, but that may just be my old-school mentality kicking in. Does it complicate things a bit more? Are there drawbacks to using RA instead of individual emulators? And, maybe more importantly, can you recommend a good RA intro video or utube channel that may help with my trepidations?

[Rincewind]

This is a little old now but a good video from @SentaiBrad that shows how easy it is to setup the SNES in LaunchBox using RetroArch

 

 

[Lordmonkus]

Shameless self post here, but you can also check out my Retroarch guide since you are new to it.

 

[Rincewind]

Sorry @lordmonkus I completely forgot about that awesome thread. It's sometimes better to read things so they stick in your mind too 

[Lordmonkus]

lol, no need for an apology.

[fromlostdays]

No RA doesn't complicate things. Very much simplifies them. You can drag and drop your roms into launchbox, and then drag your media into the right folder from hyperspin, or just point launchbox to that install. Mostly, it all just works. Recommend resubbing from emumovies to start fresh and have lb download the media it wants from their servers, but works either way.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

[fromlostdays]

Oh and there is a launchbox plugin for rocketlauncher, so that just works too. But it is currently a little behind in terms of some of the newest features launchbox has pit out, like playlists. They still work using RL but you can't audit them in RL.

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[fromlostdays]

If you want to use RL, just set it up as an emulator in launchbox. It's pretty self explanatory.

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[Govinda]

Wow, I get back from the gym and here I already find myself with a project for the evening.

Thanks, guys!

[Govinda]

Thanks bundangdon, but unfortunately, my Rocketlauncher isn't working right now. That's one reason I want to bypass it and just start over. I don't mind doing some tweaking here or there, but I'm looking for more simplicity in the setup right now.

Also, I've forgotten how to use RL, so there's that.

[Rincewind]

Yes you should leave it off the list then 

[snarfo67]

15 hours ago, Govinda said:

Thanks, Rincewind! I've started reading/watching a little about Retroarch, and I was a little dubious, but that may just be my old-school mentality kicking in. Does it complicate things a bit more? Are there drawbacks to using RA instead of individual emulators? And, maybe more importantly, can you recommend a good RA intro video or utube channel that may help with my trepidations?

I know Retroarch gets a LOT of love, but I'll cast the dissenting vote and be unpopular :-)

I tried for months to get RA to work well for me ---and honestly, it's a pretty amazing accomplishment in emulation with its various cores and configurability in general. However, there are a couple things that kill its usefulness for me. Mind you I should preface this with the caveats that I fully understand that one man's tea is another man's poison, but these are deal-breakers for me so you should be aware of them before you make the plunge in case you're of a similar mindset.

First, the UI/UX is abysmal. It follows no conventional interface standards that have been established in the last couple decades. If something is different and better for it, great! ---but this is different without any tangible benefits and just makes it more impenetrable to quickly grasp. Yes, I eventually wrapped my head around it but it never felt intuitive to use. I used to do some UI/UX design and this would never have passed.

Second (largely related to the first), much has been said about RA and its ability to configure controllers on the fly and how fabulous it is. It's not. Rather than trying to jam a square peg into a round hole and use controllers not even close to the original designs (some of Nintendo's controllers in particular come to mind), I use various adapters for console controllers that are beyond the standard gamepad layout. That would include of course the N64, Gamecube, Wii, Intellivision, Colecovision, etc. The controller setup in RA makes much of this impossible or at best a teeth-gnashing experience. RA has a good core for the N64. Great! Now try setting up a N64 controller with it. Try Colecovision. Try Intellivision. Try some of the Atari systems.

So what would I suggest? After a year of dabbling I've largely stuck with dedicated emulators for various consoles and MAME for the rest. Need to change inputs for your Colecovision? No sweat. Open a game in MAME, press TAB, go to the machine controls, and enter the buttons, axes, and keypad inputs on the controller for each player. Dead simple.

RA has a lot of cool stuff that's of minimal or no interest to me (achievements and shaders seem to be popular items for other people) but if that's important to you, go for it. I tend to prefer usability and flexibility over fluff and that's where RA falls down for me. I hope the interface and control setup gets to the point where I can use RA, because it has a lot of positives going for it and I wish I could love it.

Anyway, I hope that was useful for you. I don't want to take anything away from how impressive RA is (because it really is!), just offering my cautionary tale :-)

[DOS76]

1st off the UI is abysmal but it has been improved to at least use enter and backspace which is nice but really once you get it tweaked once with the settings and you add your games to LB you really shouldn't need to use the interface for that many things.

2nd the controller issues you had sound like a real PITA but truthfully that is a pretty user specific use case as I know I don't have all those special controllers and I think its safe to say that most users don't either they just want everything to work with their arcade cab or an XBox/PS4 controller or some generic version of these. Plus I do have a retrolink N64 controller and mapping it in RA was pretty easy to do. I'm also pretty sure you can use overrides to tell specific games and cores to use specific controllers. I'd also like to note that out of all the special controllers you listed I would only suggest using N64 through RA as GC and Wii aren't in RA yet (it is coming but who knows how long it will be) and Intellivision and Coleco are both much better handled through the stand alone MAME/MESS emulator.

[Lordmonkus]

Retroarchs UI is far from "abysmal", sure it's not the mouse driven Windows UI that everyone is used to (you can use a mouse if you like though) but that is because it's meant to be used by a controller. It is meant to mimic the PS3 UI and I have yet to see anyone calling that UI bad.

Mame is a good overall emulator but what it does outside of Arcade is extremely hit and miss in terms of its quality. It does things like the NES and Genesis quite well but its SNES, PS1 and Saturn emulation is down right awful. I would never recommend Mame as an all in one or using it for the mainstream consoles once you get outside of the scope of arcade emulation.

Achievements and shaders may be considered fluff but there are other things that Retroarch does on a technical level that make it the superior choice is most (not all) cases. For starters RA has the best audio syncing of just about any emulator out there and is fully tweak-able by the user. It also has the lowest input latency which is a huge deal and again is fully tweak-able by the user for their personal setup.

Can certain very specific emulators match up to RA in these areas ? Yes, of course "some" can but not all and Retroarch gives you a uniform experience across all systems. I can go from Atari 2600 to TG16 to Genesis to SNES to NES and have it all look and feel extremely similar with the same audio sync / latency, shaders and input lag. On top of that I can easily manage my save states with the controller and no outside software like Xpadder or RocketLauncher and if I run into a specific game that needs a special setting that is easily done with RA.

Yes RA has a small learning curve but I firmly believe the little bit of effort to learn it is worth the extra benefit you gain from using it. At the end of the day all emulators have their pros and cons and it's up to the individual user which is best for their situation.

[Govinda]

I think I'll be giving RA a try... for several systems, anyway. I watched a few videos, and it doesn't seem too terribly complex. As for the UI, it's not great, but not garbage either. However, while I won't say the PS3 UI is "bad" (lordmonkus), it's far from my favorite, and does sometimes border on irritating to me. But it's not like I should be spending too much time in it, right?

As to your warnings, snarfo67, points taken, thanks, but they don't really apply to me, especially the controller stuff. I'm just setting up an arcade cabinet with a tankstick, and the only console games I'll have on it will be appropriate to those controls, or easily adaptable. If I want to play something odd, I'll just go pop a cartridge or disc into the actual console. 

Now I suppose i need to decide which systems to use RA for. I think Atari 2600, NES, SNES, N64, SMS, Genesis, Saturn, and PSX. Then use MAME, Daphne, and NullDC or Demul, Does RA have a good Atari 400/800 core?

Edited April 19, 2017 by Govinda

[Lordmonkus]

Right you won't be using the UI beyond setting it all up initially.

RA does not have an Atari 400/800 core.

[Govinda]

Just starting to set up arcade and already frustrated with Retroarch GUI. They changed it apparently? Arrow keys are working instead of z & x, but interface now has multiple categories across the top like the PS3 GUI, and I can't figure out how to move across those. Only instructions I see online are for old GUI.

EDIT: Nevermind, after starting RA up for a 4th or 5th time, the arrow keys suddenly started working to move main selections left/right.  ...weird.

Edited April 22, 2017 by Govinda

[DOS76]

Glad its working for you now the UI is actually improved from before and using the enter and backspace key instead of z and x goes along way to helping new users feel that it is more intuitive