Is it best to add a duplicate platform or add favourites within an existing platform?

[Johnny T]

Hi all,

I'm just starting out with launchbox and I'm loving it so far.

I've imported MAME into the system and it has set up the roms and also automatically added a load of Playlists such as 2-Player games / Lightgun games / Capcom games etc.

I have a few questions about the subject of categorisation that I wondered if you would know the answer to....

1) I have about 20 "favourite" games that I like to play in MAME. Is it better to add these as "Favourites" (I can see there is an option to 'favourite' a game) or create a second Platform called "Arcade Classics" or "Arcade Faves" or whatever and add them into that? I would quite like them in their own Platform if it's possible / recommended?

2) If I do add another Platform - do I have to import the roms again into that platform or can I associated the existing MAME roms with the new platform as well so they show under both?

3) If I just use the existing 'favourite' functionality - where do the favourites go? Is there a shortcut key to access them? (I've not experimented with favourites yet so the answer to this might be obvious but thought I'd just ask the question whilst I was here just in case it isn't).

4) Where I have playlists that have automatically been generated when I imported MAME - such as 2 Player / Lightgun games etc. Is it possible to add games from other platforms into these? I have a system called American Laser Games that I use with my AimTrak guns. I've not set it up yet on Launchbox yet (was previously using it on Hyperspin) but, when I do, can I associate these games to the playlist Lightgun games too? And add the Spectrum game Matchplay to the playlist 2 Player games etc.... so that those playlist titles cover ALL platforms/systems?? Is that possible? And, if so, is that how most people do it? Or is it not recommended for some reason?

5) I'm using an emulator called kat5200 to emulate the Atari 5200. I've got it all working fine except when I press "Escape" key to exit the game I just end up back at the emulator screen rather than back in launchbox? Any ideas?

6) Lastly - anyone know how people create these amazing start up videos that I've been seeing - what software is used?

Thanks for any answers to these questions you can provide.

Cheers

John

[neil9000]

For all the favorite and playlist questions,

You can as you say mark games as favorites, and in bigbox there is a option to show the favorited games first in a wheel if you want, same in Launchbox, you can use the "arrange by" dropdown to sort by favorites like i have here.

As for adding them as a platform that would be complicated, which is why we have playlists, so you could create a playlist that auto populates with games marked as favourites. This is easy to do, just right click a game you have favorited and choose the add to playlist option, then new playlist. Add in a name and such on the first tab then go to the auto populate tab and make like this below image, this will be updated on the fly as you make new fovourites.

As for adding other platform games to those playlist you have then na, those are strictly for arcade games and are part of the program (allthough they can of course be deleted if you dont want them). But you can create playlist like i said above by just right clicking a game and choosing the playlist option.

For your exit issue try copy and pasting this into the auto hotkey tab of the manage emulator screen for that emulator.

; This section closes Demul when pressing Escape
$Esc::
{
    Process, Close, {{{StartupEXE}}}
}
 

So it should look like this.

As for the startup videos i think they use things like adobe premier and the like. You can grab stsrtup videos from here,

https://forums.launchbox-app.com/files/category/7-big-box-startup-videos/

Hope that helps.

[Johnny T]

Hi Neil

A big thank you for the help (as always!).

I'll just stick with Playlists then as they are clearly designed to have the functionality that I'm looking for.

So, reading your reply then, is it not possible to have a Platform populated with games but have those games launch into different emulators?

I'm really wanting to create a "Lightgun" section/platform/playlist (whichever is best) and have in there every game that uses the lightguns. Some of the lightgun games use Daphne (American Laser Games) and some use MAME (Operation Wolf etc). Is this possible ?

Thanks again for all your help.

[neil9000]

1 minute ago, Johnny T said:

Hi Neil

A big thank you for the help (as always!).

I'll just stick with Playlists then as they are clearly designed to have the functionality that I'm looking for.

So, reading your reply then, is it not possible to have a Platform populated with games but have those games launch into different emulators?

I'm really wanting to create a "Lightgun" section/platform/playlist (whichever is best) and have in there every game that uses the lightguns. Some of the lightgun games use Daphne (American Laser Games) and some use MAME (Operation Wolf etc). Is this possible ?

Thanks again for all your help.

You can change what a emulator a game uses on a per game basis if you want, just right click it and go to edit, then the emulation tab and use the dropdown to change the emulator.

You can also do it in bulk by holding ctrl and clicking on multiple games, then right click one and go toedit again, this will now open the bulk edit wizard, click next then in the dropdown choose emulator, which will spawn a second dropdown in which you choose the emulator.

[Johnny T]

That's brilliant!! Thanks for the info.

Really enjoying setting up Launchbox at the moment. I'm glad you talked me into it!!!