Will games retain Command-Line Parameters when value is changed?

[flatuswalrus]

Hi, as you can see via the photo below I have the Commodore Plus 4 which also includes the C16 and C116 broken up into three separate platforms due to having three different ROM files which each require their own Command-Line Parameter.

My question is, if I go to the two platforms that have (PRG) and (TAP) at the end, highlight all the games, go to the bulk edit wizard and change their version value to just Commodore Plus 4 so they are all lumped together will all the games that were originally under (PRG) and (TAP) retain the Command-Line Parameter assigned to them in the Manage Emulators 'tool'?

It is my understanding that it does, though I just wanted to make sure before doing so. Thank you all in advance.

[DOS76]

if you have the command line for each individual rom it shouldn't be an issue if you set the command line up in the associated platform as your image is showing then if you move them to a platform that uses a different command line than no that should break their functionality.

[flatuswalrus]

32 minutes ago, DOS76 said:

if you have the command line for each individual rom it shouldn't be an issue if you set the command line up in the associated platform as your image is showing then if you move them to a platform that uses a different command line than no that should break their functionality.

Darn it, so you ultimately have to have them seperate in LB/BB? Is there no way to do what I want to do at all? Thanks for replying.

[DOS76]

Beside adding a custom command argument to each individual game no I don't think that there is. Hmm looking at the xml files for a platform you will see a line that says <CommandLine /> if you were to use Notepadd++ and do a find and replace you could probably search for CommandLine /> and then replace it with <CommandLine>platform -mediatype</CommandLine> and apply it to all the games that you wanted it for but you would have to do that 1st before combining them and like anything else I would make a backup of the xml file before editing it.

[flatuswalrus]

16 minutes ago, DOS76 said:

Beside adding a custom command argument to each individual game no I don't think that there is. Hmm looking at the xml files for a platform you will see a line that says <CommandLine /> if you were to use Notepadd++ and do a find and replace you could probably search for CommandLine /> and then replace it with <CommandLine>platform -mediatype</CommandLine> and apply it to all the games that you wanted it for but you would have to do that 1st before combining them and like anything else I would make a backup of the xml file before editing it.

I went to Launchbox > Data > Platforms > Commodore Plus 4 (PRG).xml and there is no <CommandLine /> in the document/file. I searched for "<CommandLine />", "<CommandLine>", "CommandLine" and "Command Line" but nothing. I also searched the "Platforms.xml" file in the Data folder and nothing.

Am I looking in the wrong place?

Edited May 6, 2018 by Dane

[DOS76]

Okay did a quick search and it seems like all my platform xmls include that line except for 3 that I made recently so I'm going to assume that it used to be in the xml file by default but since then @Jason Carrhas removed it for some reason or another. Don't have any ideas on how you could insert that line over and over again in the correct space but I'm including a screen shot to show how it looks on mine. It the line right after the application path.

[flatuswalrus]

18 hours ago, DOS76 said:

Beside adding a custom command argument to each individual game no I don't think that there is. Hmm looking at the xml files for a platform you will see a line that says <CommandLine /> if you were to use Notepadd++ and do a find and replace you could probably search for CommandLine /> and then replace it with <CommandLine>platform -mediatype</CommandLine> and apply it to all the games that you wanted it for but you would have to do that 1st before combining them and like anything else I would make a backup of the xml file before editing it.

I have two questions if I may:

1) So would I put it like this: <CommandLine>platform plus4 -quik</CommandLine>, I just put "platform" followed by the Command-Line Parameter?

2) To digress a bit but still in this area. I just added PopCap games to my LaunchBox. Instead of adding the games individually (because there were 71 of them) I added them through the Import ROM Riles 'wizard'. Of course doing that I had to pick an emulator then afterwards go through and uncheck Emulator so they just open like a normal Windows game. Instead though I thought I would try editing the .xml file. I opened it in Notepad++ and found the line <Emulator>11843480-3aee-4077-9e02-8453d00c270c</Emulator>. I replaced them all with just </Emulator> but when I went back there was still an emulator trying to open them. I guess I bring this up just to increase my .xml 'skills' before tackling the issue raised here. Was my train of thought correct in doing this and is there something else that would have been successful do you think?

[DOS76]

Not sure about the second item but the quickest way to remove an emulator is to click a game under that platform and then click ctrl+a to select them all then ctl+e to open the bulk edit wizard from the 1st drop down choose emulator and then leave the second drop down blank and all the games will be set to not use an emulator anymore very easy right from the UI and no need to edit any xml.

As for the 1st question I just ran a little test I went into LB and edited my MAME emulator and removed the command line for Atari 5200 then I exited out of LB. Then I went to my LB folder and went into Data\Platforms and choose my Atari 5200 platform and opened the xml and did the find and replace saved and closed NP++ then I opened LB again and even though I removed the command line from the emulator settings each game has its own custom commandline by adding that and they all launch fine. So yeah you will just add the platform MAME is looking for and the -media type after it and then save it close it. Then your next step would be to open LB back up go to that platform and change the platform using the bulk edit wizard. I can't stress enough to make sure you back up all the xml files that will be getting changed as I've only tested adding the command line not with then merging it to a new platform. I'm actually not sure if it will copy the commandline over to that this is all basically an unproven theory so as long as you make backups you can safely revert if it doesn't work as intended.

[flatuswalrus]

1 minute ago, DOS76 said:

Not sure about the second item but the quickest way to remove an emulator is to click a game under that platform and then click ctrl+a to select them all then ctl+e to open the bulk edit wizard from the 1st drop down choose emulator and then leave the second drop down blank and all the games will be set to not use an emulator anymore very easy right from the UI and no need to edit any xml.

Oh man, I know about the bulk edit wizard as I have used it many times for different things but I did not think you could leave the second drop-down blank to achieve that. Doh! That is great to know.

As for the 1st question I just ran a little test I went into LB and edited my MAME emulator and removed the command line for Atari 5200 then I exited out of LB. Then I went to my LB folder and went into Data\Platforms and choose my Atari 5200 platform and opened the xml and did the find and replace saved and closed NP++ then I opened LB again and even though I removed the command line from the emulator settings each game has its own custom commandline by adding that and they all launch fine. So yeah you will just add the platform MAME is looking for and the -media type after it and then save it close it. Then your next step would be to open LB back up go to that platform and change the platform using the bulk edit wizard. I can't stress enough to make sure you back up all the xml files that will be getting changed as I've only tested adding the command line not with then merging it to a new platform. I'm actually not sure if it will copy the commandline over to that this is all basically an unproven theory so as long as you make backups you can safely revert if it doesn't work as intended.

I will definitely try this over the upcoming few days. I will report back to let you know how I went.

Thank you very much for your time.

[flatuswalrus]

On 5/7/2018 at 12:10 AM, DOS76 said:

Beside adding a custom command argument to each individual game no I don't think that there is. Hmm looking at the xml files for a platform you will see a line that says <CommandLine /> if you were to use Notepadd++ and do a find and replace you could probably search for CommandLine /> and then replace it with <CommandLine>platform -mediatype</CommandLine> and apply it to all the games that you wanted it for but you would have to do that 1st before combining them and like anything else I would make a backup of the xml file before editing it.

Before I do this I just wanted to ask a silly question. When I put <CommandLine>platform plus4 -quik</CommandLine> in the .xml for each game do I actually put it exactly as it is there or substitute the word "platform" for the name of the platform such as "Commodore Plus 4"?

[DOS76]

yeah you definitely want to use the name of the platform and not the generic word platform

[flatuswalrus]

18 hours ago, DOS76 said:

yeah you definitely want to use the name of the platform and not the generic word platform

I inserted <CommandLine>Commodore Plus 4 plus4 -quik</CommandLine> for each game into the Commodore Plus 4 (PRG).xml and saved it. Before I amalgamated it with the regular Commodore Plus 4 in LaunchBox I tried opening a game from Commodore Plus 4 (PRG). Then when I went back into the .xml it removed <CommandLine>Commodore Plus 4 plus4 -quik</CommandLine> and replaced it with just <CommandLine />. I reentered the line but each time after launching a games it replaces the line in the .xml.

[DOS76]

are you making your changes to the xml with LB closed if it is open the changes won't be saved

[flatuswalrus]

1 hour ago, DOS76 said:

are you making your changes to the xml with LB closed if it is open the changes won't be saved

Yes I did have LaunchBox open so I closed it and made the changes. When I opened LaunchBox after it displayed a message saying the .xml was corrupt and could not open LaunchBox.I changed it from <CommandLine>Commodore Plus 4 plus4 -quik</CommandLine> to just <CommandLine>plus4 -quik</CommandLine> but the result was unfortunately the same. After removing it and just changing it back to </CommandLine> LaunchBox was happy, but of course not doing what I wanted.

[DOS76]

Atari 5200.xml

there is my Atari 5200.xml which I did this to to test I see you are putting in the LB system name sorry about missing the but you only need the system name that MAME is looking so plus4 -quik would be what you would need not the whole thing. Don't know why it isn't working for you as you see I have it setup using that syntax with no issues no errors and everything launching fine.

[flatuswalrus]

9 hours ago, DOS76 said:

Atari 5200.xml

there is my Atari 5200.xml which I did this to to test I see you are putting in the LB system name sorry about missing the but you only need the system name that MAME is looking so plus4 -quik would be what you would need not the whole thing. Don't know why it isn't working for you as you see I have it setup using that syntax with no issues no errors and everything launching fine.

Thank you, weird how mine still displays that error message after changing it:
I have attached the .xml files in question:

Commodore Plus 4 (PRG).xml

[DOS76]

 I found your error if you look it filled in both <CommandLine> tag and the <ConfigurationCommandLine> but the end tag for the <ConfigurationCommandLine> is just </CommandLine and it should be </ConfigurationCommandLine> If you look at your error message it was telling what the issue was.
Try it now

Commodore Plus 4 (PRG).xml

[flatuswalrus]

9 hours ago, DOS76 said:

 I found your error if you look it filled in both <CommandLine> tag and the <ConfigurationCommandLine> but the end tag for the <ConfigurationCommandLine> is just </CommandLine and it should be </ConfigurationCommandLine> If you look at your error message it was telling what the issue was.
Try it now

Commodore Plus 4 (PRG).xml

That definitely was / is the case. Thank you very much for your help with this, it is greatly appreciated and will be applied to quite a few old computer systems in my setup thus assisting me well. It is frustrating when you figure something out or someone else does for you then it seems so obvious. Though I guess you could say that about anything.