Can't get MAME to work in LaunchBox

[neil9000]

5 minutes ago, retrogamer said:

When I looked in updates folder in Launchbox it says 9.9. I'm using mame0168b. This version of mame launches outside of Launchbox.

You need to go to tools/manage emulators/mame and remove the commandline that was added referring to "keyboard input". As you are using such a old version of mame that command is not compatible so is just seen as a unknown command and stops mame launching.

[Retro808]

8 minutes ago, retrogamer said:

When I looked in updates folder in Launchbox it says 9.9. I'm using mame0168b. This version of mame launches outside of Launchbox.

That would be the issue than. Since you are using a rather old version of Mame there was a LB update that added a new command line that is needed for Pause them options to work. In your Mame emulator settings in Launchbox edit it an delete the portion that shows -keyboardprovider dinput. 

Mame should work now, but you cannot use the new Pause features until you update to a more current version of Mame. 

[retrogamer]

Thanks man your idea worked !

[DOS76]

lol its not an idea so much as the tried and true method of correcting the issue.

[MrSco]

On 11/18/2019 at 8:59 AM, Retro808 said:

That would be the issue than. Since you are using a rather old version of Mame there was a LB update that added a new command line that is needed for Pause them options to work. In your Mame emulator settings in Launchbox edit it an delete the portion that shows -keyboardprovider dinput. 

Mame should work now, but you cannot use the new Pause features until you update to a more current version of Mame. 

I’m using mame 0.160 and also had to remove the -keyboardprovider dinput but my pause screen feature seems to work ok still...? 
 

I do have the issue of big box not being in focus when exiting a mame game though sometimes.

[BoneRoller]

On 11/18/2019 at 7:59 AM, Retro808 said:

That would be the issue than. Since you are using a rather old version of Mame there was a LB update that added a new command line that is needed for Pause them options to work. In your Mame emulator settings in Launchbox edit it an delete the portion that shows -keyboardprovider dinput. 

Mame should work now, but you cannot use the new Pause features until you update to a more current version of Mame. 

Ah, thanks. I’m in the process of setting LB up and was having this issue with starting the games within.

[fab1o]

I had a similar problem the first time I tried to open a mame game within Launchbox. It opened fine via mame64. So I thought it was my graphics card not being powerful enough. I turned my HLSL settings down in mame.ini, closed Launchbox and opened it again, I tried it again and it opened normally.

[Richieasc29]

On 11/20/2018 at 6:27 PM, Vandinroth said:

had the same problem.

 

Are your rom files by any chance unzipped?  if so, zip them up and try again.

 

Once mine were zipped, everything launched fine.

This is the problem i had thanks so much lol 3 years later but yeah once i zipped them up they work on launchbox now. :)

[artician]

Hello. I am now experiencing this issue on one of my machines.  The description of my problem is word-for-word what the original poster described, except I'm running MAME 0.238.

This is a MAME-only machine.
ROM directories, emulators and platforms are correctly configured. 
Launchbox can see the games.
The games run fine in MAME.
MAME can be launched from Launchbox by right clicking a game in the menu and selecting "Open MAME".
But trying to run a MAME game from Launchbox results in the screen going black for a moment, and then returning to the Launchbox UI.

Is there no log for Launchbox?  I could not find information on this.  There were no files in the LB /logs directory.  It also doesn't appear that MAME is crashing either.

Thank you for any help.

[Lordmonkus]

Check your Edit Emulator window for your Mame emulator in LB.

[artician]

@Lordmonkus Thanks for your reply. 

The emulator path is correctly configured.  I double checked it now by browsing to the executable and selecting it, and by typing the path in manually.  Same result. 
I can launch MAME by itself from Launchbox if I select "Open MAME..." from the right-click menu in the game list.  Also, LB was able to download all the image and wiki data on the games.  Since LB can see and access both the emulator and games, I thought the issue must be how it's launching the emu, or

I don't have any special flags in the commandline options for the emulator; it uses default settings.
I am running LB v10.1, and it's not easy for me to upgrade. 

Edit: I forgot the application was portable, so I tried reinstalling it in a different directory and reimporting the ROM set, and setting up the emulator again.  It still did not work.

Any other ideas?  Thank you!

 

Edited December 9, 2021 by artician

[neil9000]

10 hours ago, artician said:

@Lordmonkus Thanks for your reply. 

The emulator path is correctly configured.  I double checked it now by browsing to the executable and selecting it, and by typing the path in manually.  Same result. 
I can launch MAME by itself from Launchbox if I select "Open MAME..." from the right-click menu in the game list.  Also, LB was able to download all the image and wiki data on the games.  Since LB can see and access both the emulator and games, I thought the issue must be how it's launching the emu, or

I don't have any special flags in the commandline options for the emulator; it uses default settings.
I am running LB v10.1, and it's not easy for me to upgrade. 

Edit: I forgot the application was portable, so I tried reinstalling it in a different directory and reimporting the ROM set, and setting up the emulator again.  It still did not work.

Any other ideas?  Thank you!

 

What romset version and MAME version are you using?

[artician]

0.238.

[Retro808]

Does the name of your platform match the name listed in the Associated Platforms tab?

If you called the platform "Arcade" the Associated Platform tab needs to show "Arcade". If you called it "Mame" then it needs to show "Mame". They have to match.

Perhaps post a few images for us.

1. Edit your Mame Emulator:

Post pic of Details page as well as Associated Platforms page.

2. Right click a Mame game and edit:

Post pic of Emulation Page and Launching Page.

[artician]

I will do that as soon as I'm able.  Thank you very much for your help. 

[artician]

Here are the images requested, along with the Platforms screen as well.

 

[neil9000]

8 hours ago, artician said:

Here are the images requested, along with the Platforms screen as well.

 

Looks like you have your roms in the Launchbox/Games folder, is that correct? Did you have Launchbox move those files when you imported them? If so that was a bad choice and i would delete and re-import. Also your game doesn't have a database ID, did you not scrape them, or are you assuming that should of scraped? The MAME emulator itself also needs to know your rom location for them to load from Launchbox. Even if that path is set and correct, if you then had Launchbox move your roms then it is now wrong. Also, if you have anything other than a Non - Merged MAME romset, just moving the imported files like that will break a lot of your games as other files the games need would of been left behind in the original folder.

[artician]

You found one thing that was off!  The Arcade/Games directory was incorrect. 
The structure of the machine is:
C:/Emulators/Mame (the mame.exe folder)
C:/Emulators/Launchbox (where launchbox lives)
C:/ROMs/ (all the .zips and CHD folders)

I changed Arcade/Games to C:/ROMs, but this did not fix the problem.  I was surprised, so I tried the following:
-I double checked that Mame could see and play the ROMs - it can
-I right-clicked a game in Launchbox and selected "Open Game Folder..." and it opened the correct folder.
-I right-clicked a game in Launchbox and selected "Open Mame...", and Mame launched.
-I've restarted Launchbox
-I've restarted the PC
-I've tried running the game from Launchbox with Mame already running, same result

Thank you again for helping me troubleshoot this.  Still not certain what to try, other than reinstalling the OS.  It would be very helpful if Launchbox had a debug output or log file! 

[Your Friendly A.I Overlord]

3 hours ago, artician said:

It would be very helpful if Launchbox had a debug output or log file!

LaunchBox does have a debug log. You can turn logging on in Tools > Options > Debugging. The log is written to LaunchBox\Logs.

But do you have multiple Mame installs or Mame rom folders? Because in that case I would triple check if LaunchBox points to the correct Mame install and mame.ini points to the correct rom folder. If you have multiple Mame rom folders or Mame installs it's easy to mix them up. Also, mame 0.238 is new. Did you have this problem before updating / upgrading?

*Edit*

To clarify why I ask about multiple Mame installs: you stated the location for mame.exe as C:\Emulators\Mame. But your screenshots show ..\mame_0.238. (Maybe just a typo but it can't hurt to check.)

Edited December 13, 2021 by Koroth

[artician]

13 hours ago, Koroth said:

LaunchBox does have a debug log. You can turn logging on in Tools > Options > Debugging. The log is written to LaunchBox\Logs.

...

Thank you for your reply Koroth. 
I had asked about logs before and no one pointed that out; thank you!
For the mame install - I was simplifying program paths when I typed them here.  My mistake.  Mame paths are consistent.
The entire machine is a Mame-only box.  It has nothing else installed on it at all.  There is one installation of Launchbox, one installation of Mame 0.238, and the ROMs folder, and that's it.  There were no prior installations.  It was Windows 7 (+necessary updates) -> Mame -> Launchbox -> Roms -> Failure

To go back and answer one of @neil9000's questions I missed-  I never, ever let Launchbox copy or move my ROMs.  I handle all the organization.  

I'll check out the log and report back, but if you've any other ideas in the meantime, thank you!