Can't get MAME to work in LaunchBox

[neil9000]

41 minutes ago, artician said:

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.  

Then I am at a loss as to why you originally had the rom folder as Launchbox/Games, that is something Launchbox would do if you told it to move or copy your games during the import. Also in the pictures you provided, and i did comment on this, you have no database ID for Altered Beast. You say that Launchbox imported all your games and got media for everything just fine, but if this was the case then I see no media associated with Altered Beast in your image, nor does Altered Beast have a database ID, like so.

 

So something doesn't add up here, you say everything imported fine, but i see no database ID's, i see no media, and your games don't actually launch. Can you walk me through the steps you actually took to import your MAME romset?

Also now looking at your pictures it looks like you are using a old version of Launchbox also, what version are you on?

[artician]

I am running LB 10.1, because it's not easy for me to update, and that's what I have the license for.  It's also the version running on my primary media center, but I don't run Mame there so it wasn't useful for troubleshooting.

Judging by the number of things you've called out that Launchbox should have done differently, I'm going to assume I'm still making a mistake, wipe it, and try again from scratch.  I don't think things like the incorrectly configured game path and missing gameIDs are issues with the version, but rather that I still did something wrong.

Thank you again for your help.  I'll do a fresh installation and report back if it ends up working this time.

[C-Beats]

I'm coming in pretty late to this conversation so this may have already been done. I noticed you mentioned that the paths weren't correct at one point inside of LaunchBox and was curious if you opened your mame.ini file and made sure MAME's rompath is correctly pointing to the same folder you have the roms in LaunchBox now that you've made the change?

[artician]

8 hours ago, C-Beats said:

I'm coming in pretty late to this conversation so this may have already been done...

Yeah, everything launches from everywhere but Launchbox.

FWIW, I did look into the debug log, and here were my findings:
```

Quote

2021-12-13 07:14:03 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Activated Start
2021-12-13 07:14:03 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Activated Before JoystickTimer Enabled Set
2021-12-13 07:14:03 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Activated Before Resume Video
2021-12-13 07:14:03 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Activated Before Check Already Focused
2021-12-13 07:14:05 PM Music.Prepare Start
2021-12-13 07:14:05 PM Music.Kill Start
2021-12-13 07:14:05 PM Music.Kill Finished
2021-12-13 07:14:05 PM Music.NotifyTrackList Start
2021-12-13 07:14:05 PM Music.NotifyTrackList Invoke WPF
2021-12-13 07:14:05 PM FIRST CHANCE EXCEPTION: The given path's format is not supported.
   at System.Security.Permissions.FileIOPermission.EmulateFileIOPermissionChecks(String fullPath)
2021-12-13 07:14:06 PM Music.Pause Start
2021-12-13 07:14:06 PM Music.Pause Start
2021-12-13 07:14:09 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Deactivated Start
2021-12-13 07:14:09 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Deactivated Before Pause Video
2021-12-13 07:14:09 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Deactivated Completed
2021-12-13 07:14:10 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Activated Start
2021-12-13 07:14:10 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Activated Before JoystickTimer Enabled Set
2021-12-13 07:14:10 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Activated Before Resume Video
2021-12-13 07:14:10 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Activated Before Check Already Focused
2021-12-13 07:14:14 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Deactivated Start
2021-12-13 07:14:14 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Deactivated Before Pause Video
2021-12-13 07:14:14 PM Unbroken.LaunchBox.Windows.Desktop.ViewModels.MainViewModel.window.Deactivated Completed

I tried to install the latest version of Launchbox.  The machine is entirely offline and a bit of a pain to connect to the net.  The installer for Launchbox 12.5 requires the 2015 Visual C redistributable, and .NET 3.1.6.  I manually installed both of these, but the Launchbox installer does not see the VisualC installation.  I grabbed the latest VisualC Redist. from the Microsoft site, installed it, and Launchbox still doesn't see it, and won't install without it.   This part may be better in a separate thread...

Thanks again for your help.

[C-Beats]

Hmm not being able to find dependencies as well as having permission issues COULD potentially cause an issue. Though the version you mentioned you are on currently is on .NET Framework 4.8 (you are correct current uses .NET Core though) and so the dependencies are different between versions. Could you run command prompt as administrator and run the command "sfc /scannow" and then restart your computer when it's done and see if it helps. Also can you make sure none of your files or folders in either the LaunchBox directory or the MAME directory are marked as read-only and that the current user has write permissions to both directories and their sub-folders?

[Neosoul]

Hey FYI, I fixed my issue by setting the ROM path manually inside Mame and then removing "-rompath %romlocation%" from the default command line parameters. (Tools > Manage > Emulators > Arcade > Mame). It now reads this :

 

-artwork_crop -skip_gameinfo -waitvsync -nofilter -keyboardprovider dinput

 

Launch Mame (I'm using 2.39) and add the Rom paths manually.

My Rom path had spaces which I'm not sure if it's part of the issue but that's what led me down this path.. (lol)