Hello, New here and have a few questions please.

[Laby]

Hello everyone,

Im a noob to the launchbox scene. Hope you guys can answer my questions since I dont know the vernacular to use in order to explain what im needing answers to lol.  WOW i almost choked on that word lmao.

My question,

1. Why does launchbox import doubles of my roms? I dont have doubles in the folder they are imported from. *Could it be that i copied them to a folder I created in launchbox then imported them from the same folder to that very same folder?

2. Im gearing to build a full size arcade 2 player cabinet. My question about the number of buttons. I see images of them with 20 buttons. Looks like 8 player button and 2 buttons up top. Also seen some with 6 player buttons and 4 up top.  i think i know 4 of them are  1 and 2 player coins and 1 and 2 player start. Thats the 4.  But what are the spares for?

My cabinet I want to run Arcade, CPS1,2,3, Nes, Snes, N64 Sega Gen, Game Cube. Possibly PSX. That should be about it really. Whats that 9k of games im guessing if you get them all. Which im not, I will be doing the old pain staking weeding through and getting ones im familiar with to put on it. So its not going to be a massive collection. Just a nice one.

So far with the free version of launchbox I have a few of these systems running. i will be buying the lifetime launchbox after i have a decent working system. And a membership to emumovies as well.

3. So can retroarch be used as the emulator for all of the platforms? And just configure one app?

4. Got some issues with PSX games not wanting to run. First it was saying a bin file was missing. Once i got that in I get retroarch to run but only black screen. Also use 190 and 201 psx emulator and those fail to run also. Using "Windows 10" and im sure I have something not setup right. But from what I been reading is people do use retroarch as the emulator. 

5. What emu do I need to run CPS1,2,3?  Retroarch or something else? I am lost on these roms. I think I may of ran 1 with Mame. If thats the case then Im good. (Need to slow down and do one thing at a time I guess)

 

Now for some crazyness. I need all this help on launchbox/retroarch setup.  But I have a raspberrypi 3 B fully setup by me running Mame, Nes, Snes, Sega Gen, 9001 Games total. i can use this in a cabinet and be done. However, It isnt good enough to run N64, Gamecube, PSX. The last 3 systems I care about getting up and going. I could be ok doing it with the pie. But the front end isnt that great. Nothing like hyperspin or launchbox.

So im going to build a PC to run this launchbox system. I have a system now im testing on thats overkill for something like this. And could use it. But then im out of desktop PC kind of lol.

 

Sorry for such a long winded post guys. Im excited to be here. I have been out of the pc programming/gaming scene for a few years just playing on xbox. I would not be surprised if someone here knows of me from the past lol.   

Edited September 19, 2018 by Laby

[Lordmonkus]

1. It shouldn't do that unless you messed something up, have you watched the video YouTube guides ?

2. People build cabinets for their own personal needs and setups depending on the games they wanna play. It can have as many or as few buttons as you want / need.

3. Yes, as long as there is a core (emulator) for the system you want to emulate with it. It doesn't emulate everything.

4. Check out the PS1 guide on the YouTube channel.

5. YOu can use Retroarch with the FBA or Mame cores for those games, I use Mame myself.

[Laby]

Hey thanks for a reply man.

What are the extra buttons needed for? Are they used to access config menus from emulators or something? Need to know this before making a order for the kit. There has to be something behind why they have 20 buttons. I know they are not used during game play because i see them either across the top or on the sides of machines. Well the ones on sides could be for a pinball setup. But other than that. I think they are used to access configs or something to quickly setup controlls or what have you.

What is FBA?

And is CPS1,2,3 mame core?

[Lordmonkus]

FBA is Final Burn Alpha which is another arcade emulator similar to Mame only it doesn't emulate as much stuff but it does run better on lower end hardware.

Yeah you could use the FBA or Mame cores in Retroarch or the stand alone Mame. You could even use the stand alone FBA but it's not quite so frontend friendly, it will work but it's more effort for no real gain.

Yeah the extra buttons would be used for different functions but many pictures out there of peoples custom control panels are way overdone and unnecessary. Generally speaking the majority of people will want a 2 player layout with 8 buttons each for gameplay. Then you have the player 1 and 2 start buttons plus insert coin buttons. You can use combo presses to deal with menus and exiting emulators.

[Laby]

Agh ok, roger all that.

[bradical]

Laby,

I just started using Launchbox as well, but I think I can answer some of your questions because I have ran into some of the same stuff.

1. Did you copy the files over from a Mac at any point? Because I ran into the same problem and I think it's because Mac's spotlight indexes every file and basically duplicates it as a new hidden file starting with an underscore. I had to show hidden files within Windows as I copied all my roms over and just manually deleted all the hidden stuff and then I was good to go.

2. I've already built a small 2 player bartop based with a Raspberry Pi, so this is more just opinion, but it depends on how big you want it to be and exactly what games you want to play. I originally planned to have 6 buttons per player plus a start and select(coin) for each. I couldn't fit it all onto the control board and ended up just using 4 for the second player and in the end it's all still a little too close together for 2 actual adults to play. I'm just going with 4 for each on my current build, and that's because the extra 2 just never got used on the last cabinet I built. If you are into arcade fighting games then I would consider it, but if your just adding them to try to convert the shoulder buttons or triggers from N64 or Playstation into an arcade setup your wasting the buttons, because those games aren't meant to be played that way. That's not to mention the lack of analog joystick. Just use a controller for those systems.

3. Sort of.  I use Retroarch for the basics like NES, SNES, Genesis and so on, and in a Raspberry Pi setup I use it for MAME using some really old roms. That said, once I discovered Launchbox and decided to use a PC for an cabinet build I started using the current version of MAME with the standalone emulator, you might see a lot more games that work, and also a lot more support from that particular community. Also, I find Dolphin to run a lot better standalone, but that could be the age of the PC I am using for this. N64, I still haven't decided on yet. I am running Project64 because I remember it working way better around 10 years ago than what you can get out of a Raspberry Pi now, and I can still on a PC. But I hear better things about Mupen I just haven't experimented around with it enough yet.

5. Try the newest version of MAME maybe if you aren't already. I'm still learning that myself though and I don't really know what games are specifically meant to run on that hardware.

A little more background on my build: I found a 4 year old laptop in the trash that somebody must have gave up on (I'm in the Navy, sorting trash is basically an everyday thing out to sea) and I grabbed it thinking it would be a lot more powerful than a RPi for a cabinet. Turns out the thing works perfect after a hard drive wipe and I've been messing around with doing a PC based cab ever since. I can run Gamecube games full speed, arcade classics with the latest MAME and BigBox. I've spent nothing so far and it's working out well, but play around with an older PC before you drop a bunch of money on building one.

[Laby]

Hey thanks for the info. No im not using a Mac.

My version of Mame is 0.78   That is the only one that runs for some reason. The others all flash and close. Plus you need the roms for the version of mame also. Unless something has changed.

My raspberrypie box is fully working. So im all good there. Arcade,Nes,Snes,Sega Gen.

The launchbox setup right now is on my pc. Im working through and getting stuff running. Then i will build a cabinet and a second pc for a cleaner setup. 

I have those double imports of games in it right now. Im suspect of if you copy the rom over manually. Then import it with launchbox from and to the same folder it is already in. Somehow it creates a double import. I will test this out in the next day or 2 and confirm my theory or not. I just dont trust software to move files around for me.

Dolphin, project64,snes,nes,sega and mame are all working on the pc. Using other emulators outside of retroarch. You set them up to run full screen and they do like retroarch when a game is ran.

CpS123 going to try mame and see if those work. Dont know what emu is needed for those. So whats left is PSX and Those Capcom ones And i will be done.

Yes there will be some fighter games. I understand the analog game stuff wont play corretIy. Because movement will be full speed or complete stop. Nothing in between. Which may be a small problem.

I may have the buttons needed worked out. I think 16 or 20 buttons will be good. I will start with 16. And be sure to have enough room for the other 4 if needed. If im feeling frisky. I will attemp a turbo button for each player. Once I got the rest acting right. Fixing to order these today.

Thanks for all the input guys. Any is welcome.

Edited September 20, 2018 by Laby

[Lordmonkus]

15 minutes ago, Laby said:

I have those double imports of games in it right now. Im suspect of if you copy the rom over manually. Then import it with launchbox from and to the same folder it is already in. Somehow it creates a double import. I will test this out in the next day or 2 and confirm my theory or not. I just dont trust software to move files around for me.

It's best for Mame to just put your roms where you want them and when you import tell LB to leave them where they are instead of copying or moving. Copying or moving will only do that for the games you imported and won't transfer other files such as bios files.

Personally I have all my games setup this way, I have an organized folder to store my roms and tell the importer to leave them.

17 minutes ago, Laby said:

CpS123 going to try mame and see if those work. Dont know what emu is needed for those.

I told you already, FBA and Mame will emulate these games. Both do the job as best as possible currently and doubtful to ever get much better in the future although having said that the latest release of Mame did improve the Qsound effects for the games that used it.

[Laby]

Yes im telling LB to leave them in the folder. But I moved them to that folder myself. It is just a theory of whats going on. However, im just getting a feel for it on my machine. The dedicated box is going to be the clean one.

Yes you did say Mame would run CPS 123. Thats what im meaning by going to try it and see. The Mame im running is 0.78. I cannot get any other version of it to run.  My current machine is win 10 and way over qualified in the hardware. Not sure if it needs some dependancy files for the newer versions of mame or not. I would rather use mame as the emulator since im farmiliar with the interface of it.

Just placed my order, went for 18 buttons.

 

[Laby]

Well, I figured out my double imports. Best to let LB do it like you said. If you do it how I was doing it. It imports them twice.

None of the Mame applications I have will run the CPS roms. Also retroarch will not run them either and I have swapped through every one of the cores through it. All they do it flash open and close right back. I know it is not the roms. I have the same ones on my raspberry working with 0.78.

Next issue is, I'm trying to use retroarch to run GameCube. I can run them with Dolphin. But even after installing the core of it to retroarch. It still shows the plugin missing for gamecube. Going to have to look into that more if I want to use retroarch for these instead of Dolphin.

A still fighting psx as well. Have not tried very hard on it yet. Just figured I would say something on it to see what you guys are using.

I did work up a prototype for adjustable rapid fire mod. If I decide to use it. I guess im going to use this single thread as a noobs progress thread lol. Seems to make sense instead of spreading all the noob slime all over the forums. Here is a image of the diagram if anyone is interested in trying it. 

Parts list: SPDT Switch, Led, 1K ohm resistor, 1 ohm resistor, 50 ohm resistor, Potentiometer, 4uF capacitor, 555 Timer.  Note: You can change some of the parts up a bit and get similar results. Such  as the capacitor, resistors & the pot.

Edited September 21, 2018 by Laby

[Retro808]

I noticed earlier you said your Mame is 0.78 and that is the only one that runs for you. If your mame is that old and your roms are as well that may be the issue why other versions of Mame will not run those roms. Mame is currently up to .201 and there have been quite a few changes to mame and roms since that set from 2003 you have. Most notably updated bios files and qsound file needed for some games. If you plan on running updated mame you will need a far newer set of roms. 

[Laby]

That is correct,

I already know the rom set has to go with the version of Mame. However, If none of the newer versions of Mame will not even run at all. There is no point in me wasting time getting the correct rom set for them.

Im running windows 10, DirexcX12

Edited September 21, 2018 by Laby

[neil9000]

Was about to say the same, if your roms are 0.078 then your best bet is to grab the 0.078 version of MAME as thats designed to work with that romset. MAME works perfectly through Launchbox, you either have a mismatch in romset and version of the emulator, or your settings are wrong in the manage emulator section of Launchbox.

[Laby]

2 minutes ago, neil9000 said:

Was about to say the same, if your roms are 0.078 then your best bet is to grab the 0.078 version of MAME as thats designed to work with that romset. MAME works perfectly through Launchbox, you either have a mismatch in romset and version of the emulator, or your settings are wrong in the manage emulator section of Launchbox.

I have no doubt that is correct. This Mame and roms work fine on my raspberrypie.

Messing with GameCube right now and finally got Retroarch to show the dolphin_libtretro.dll is in there. And it still doesn't run

Edited September 21, 2018 by Laby

[neil9000]

The thing is though the Raspberry pi is only compatible with that old romset because of the lack of power the Pi has, on PC you really shouldnt be using a set that old, the emulation of a lot of games has come a long long way in 15 years. Its also possible that the version of retroarch on Pi is using a core that is no longer available in the current versions of Retroarch, that could be why its working there. Nothing special is needed to load MAE through Launchbox.

Also you say you have tried both standalone MAME and Retroarch, did you bulk edit your roms to use a different emulator when you changed it? Because you need to, otherwise it will carry on using the emulator you chose when you imported your roms.

[Laby]

My 0.78 roms work.

It is the CPS1,2,3 roms that dont with what I have right now. I may uninstall the whole thing and start over.

[neil9000]

Just now, Laby said:

My 0.78 roms work.

It is the CPS1,2,3 roms that dont with what I have right now. I may uninstall the whole thing and start over.

Are they from the same romset?

[Retro808]

55 minutes ago, Laby said:

However, If none of the newer versions of Mame will not even run at all. There is no point in me wasting time getting the correct rom set for them.

So you cannot even just open the mame.exe and get to the interface? It just crashes? Or if you try to run one for your roms in a newer version of mame it crashes? 

[Laby]

That is correct, ALL mame crash but 0.78 without loading at rom.

The CPS rom set works with WinKawaks 1.65 Emulator. But only 63 of them.  Sorry for such late response. I just got off working nights and went to bed.

 

Edited September 21, 2018 by Laby