Setting up a LaunchBox Demo Setup with Complete Systems and no/few Roms (with Emumovies)

[morlon]

Hey, I wondered if it would be possible to set up LaunchBox completely with all the media for all/most games of all/most systems with the help of emumovies, without any roms at all? Having a little Games museum at home

Of course this is the same question as: can I setup a complete system for any system for which I don`t have any roms yet,  with all the automation help from emumovies?

I currently don´t own many roms. But for me it`s more about the experience and the fun of watching cool artworks, boxarts and gamevideos then actually playing any games. In that way I could add any interesting games/roms later on. But I`m currently more interested in setting Launchbox up and having fun with the frontend side.

How does the communication with Emumovies work? Do the actual games/roms have to be in the folder? Or could I create just simple files with the correct rom names? The communication with Emumovies and the basic requirements to get it to work are still a little mysterious to me at the moment

Btw, I`m planning to buy both, Launchbox Premium and Emumovies lifelong subscription.

And, if anybody has the experience, would this be the same with Hyperspin + Emumovies? Or any other of the Frontends? I guess I`m a frontend guy. So many cool options out there at the moment

Many Thanks in advance!

[DOS76]

if you had a list of text files for each game and imported them as roms you could get the media without actually having the games.

[morlon]

Do I get this correctly? LaunchBox (and probably most other Fronetends) just read the filenames in the rom folders, map them to games in their own gamesdatabases and then go from there? So they eventually just send this generated lists to Emumovies?

At the end this does make sense, since a frontend doesn`t execute the games by itself but manages the media and arranges the communication between emulators and games/roms.

So to start I would simply need ONE text file with all the rom-names per system? Or do i need a separate (empty) text file per rom named accordingly in each rom folder?

[DOS76]

no you would need a text file for every game to fool LB into thinking they were the actual roms.

[morlon]

Ok, but that is quick to do with a little programming, to generate simple text files for every line in a text file. Rom lists per system should be quick to find, too. And even without programming knowledge there should be simple tools all over the place that do just that.

So a whole library with "all" games and systems could be set up in advance. And then later on each of these rom-stubs can be simply replaced with the actual roms or isos or exe-files etc. And if set up correctly with an emulator just begin to work? Do I get this correctly? Is it really that simple?

[DOS76]

It pretty much should be simple I don't know about the tools you would need to make the files from the list but if they are around it would be that simple. When you import it will ask for an emulator you can simple assign a text file for that too if you want instead of downloading real emulators.