Totally new at this but had a couple of questions.

[percivul]

First, thanks to everyone that supports Launch box.  We want to keep Jason interested and employed.  Second, I apologize in advance if anything I ask has been asked and answered.  I'll admit that I'm not great with forum searches, but yes, I did look.

Ok, so hopefully simple and straightforward questions with answers if you guys can lend a hand.

1.  I would like to put ALL of my arcade (Mame) types under a single forward for both Launch box and presumably Big Box.  As an example, I'd like to have a parent group (Arcade) and under it I'd have things like the Data East collection, the Taito collection, etc...  So, if that can be done and NOT interfere with finding metadata, images, videos, etc...  How would I go about accomplishing this?

2.  I would really like to filter and even delete things like the Japanese roms (various platforms like NES, Genesis, Atari, etc...) but keep the US, Europe and possibly World stuff.  I do have space but I'd like to keep it available for things like game videos, themes, music, art, etc...  14 TB seems like a large amount but it goes fast so I'm trying to conserve.  Anyway to do this without having to do them all by hand???

3.  For certain themes (Vikings in this instance), I noticed that the background video typically shows a console running games on a TV (I'll use NES in this example) and it looks wonderful.  The problem is that when I'm on the NES page in Big Box, the machine specs and whatnot are plopped right on top of the TV image running in the background.  Is there a simple or easy method to moving some of the screen elements around so I could get that video to show the TV and console without the specs being in the way?  I'd prefer to not remove them all together, but I will do that if that's the only choice.

Thanks in advance to anyone that contributes to my getting this box of mine up and running like a champ.

 

[neil9000]

Hi and welcome.

!.Yep just import as arcade, and you will have a choice at the end of the import process, do you want Launchbox to split them into "arcade playlists".

2. That is mostly handled on import, again you have some options there. However if you end up with a load of shit you don'y want there is various ways to deal with that, the best way is the audit option, you can sort by any field yo like.

3. That is a theme by theme thing, and you can of course download themes here on the site.

Any further or unanswered questions, feel free.

Oh and welcome to the community.  

[SentaiBrad]

Yea, when you import MAME games, it will give you the option to import only what you want, and it will import based on those filters. Don't delete the MAME files, those all need to be there for various reasons. I have an 8TB drive with plenty of space, and I have several dozen systems and almost 50k games in my LB library. The drive has LB, Roms and emulators, so you should be fine there.

We have a lot of tutorials showcasing how to deal with systems, so you might want to check those out:

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

 

[spectral]

Depending on your Mame romset be careful deleting things you dont want. They could be the parent rom to the version from another region that you do want.

[percivul]

I'm using the 186 non-merged set.  The problem I'm running into (overall) is that I'm having a really hard time figuring out which roms are from a US, World or European set (basically English speaking) with the different platforms.  I'm still learning though so it may be in the program itself or maybe there's something on the web that'll do it.  I don't know, but I'm willing to put in the work to find out.

 

[SentaiBrad]

It doesn't really matter which roms are what, you honestly don't need to know that. When you import in LaunchBox, it will give you various import options and only import what you want based on those check boxes. Region is included there. Once imported, you can edit a game and see what rom it picked and you'll know that it's a ______ Region rom, but there isn't too much reason to know whats what unless you're modifying your set (and you really shouldn't be).

[percivul]

Oh no no no.  I'm not saying I want to rip apart the primary 186 pack itself.  Let me explain it a different way.

I have 2 different drives.  Drive 1 holds the 186 sets for CHD's, non-merged and the software packs.  I don't change these at all and am leaving it as a curated set, for lack of better words.

I was wanting to take a copy of the SNES stuff from the 186 software pack and put it elsewhere on the drive, leaving the original untouched.

After I have it segregated, I was going to go through the SNES stuff and weed out the Japanese, Spanish, German, etc... roms as those aren't of value to me.  The results of that would be put on Drive 2, which is also where Launchbox is being stored.  The end result being that the console stuff would only have English, World or European roms.  As it is, I manually went through and got rid of everything that wasn't English language as either primary or optional.  Reduced the set from 1887 to 883, all unique and whatnot.  When I checked the Wiki, this meant that I had every official rom that was made for the SNES from around the world in my native language.

What I'm looking to find, hopefully, is either a program that would accomplish the same task (weed out duplicates, unlicensed, homebrews, pirated, etc.) and then I can have Launchbox grab images, videos, etc of what's left.

[SentaiBrad]

Oh, I think there is a program that does this, but I am unsure of it. The only program I know of, off the top of my head, is CLRMAMEPro, and I am not sure it deals with the software lists. Also, don't forget that you don't NEED the software lists to emulate these games, even if using MESS. I haven't taken a look at many software sets either, just CD-i, but if they have shorthand names they wont work at all unless you convert them all. If they're the regular long form names, then you're good to go. If the set has identification markers, like (W), (World), (EU), etc etc, in the title, then you can use Windows Search to filter out these games and delete to your hearts content. That's how I deal with sorting out my sets when I update or when I got them for the first time (No-Intro, TOSEC, Trurip, etc).

[neil9000]

You can also import the games to launchbox but don't scrape any media as of yet. Then use the audit feature in launchbox on the platform you imported and sort by region, that will group all the games by regions then you can just highlight say all the Japanese games right click and delete. When you have all the games you want removed, just go back to your platform in Launchbox and use ctrl a to highlight them all then search for metadata and images. Doing it this way you will only scrape data for the exact roms you want in launchbox, and wont have any foreign language games in there. 

Edit:

you can also "weed out duplicates, unlicensed, homebrews, pirated, etc." games in the audit form also, just by sorting by those categories.