Creating Desktop Shortcut for specific game?

[bouchacha]

Is there a way to create a shortcut to a specific game to be launched through Launchbox? The idea is to double click it then it launches the game automatically. I tried to look for command line parameters for LB but was not successful.

[proghodet]

I see what you're trying to do, but I think it is just as easy creating a shortcut to the emulator on your desktop (assuming the game is run by an emulator), and then adding the parameters needed to run the rom. As far as I know, there is no such utility within LaunchBox as of now, which makes sense as LaunchBox is a software for having all the games located in one single space

[bouchacha]

4 minutes ago, proghodet said:

I see what you're trying to do, but I think it is just as easy creating a shortcut to the emulator on your desktop (assuming the game is run by an emulator), and then adding the parameters needed to run the rom. As far as I know, there is no such utility within LaunchBox as of now, which makes sense as LaunchBox is a software for having all the games located in one single space

That was my first instinct, except I'm using an LaunchBox plugin that automatically configures the PCSX emulator for each game. Thanks for the answer anyway, I'll have to figure out an alternative solution.

[CLB1966]

It may be "just as easy" but that's not "the same thing."  There are reasons people might want to run something set up to be run within Launchbox without needing Launchbox (or at least its UI) to be run first.  Why not have a desktop shortcut going directly to a game you're currently spending all your time running, without requiring additional time and additional mouse-clicks to get to?

 

This is especially significant when running something like the eXoDOS and related collections, which use Launchbox and typically have thousands of entries preconfigured within Launchbox.  It can take a bit to find what you're looking for.  Even using Search.

 

So, why NOT have a "create a desktop shortcut to this item" option built into the Launchbox UI?  It would harm nothing as far as I can see, and would give the end user a potentially valuable tool to make their life ever so slightly easier.

 

Most DOSBox specific launchers have that capability already.  In those cases, the shortcut created simply creates a shortcut to the version of DOSBox plus the DOSBox *.conf file associated with that game or application.  Most allow an icon to ve assugned, though a few just give you the DOSBox icon (you can manually reasign another if you like, outside of the launcher.)

 

Lainchbox is different.  I haven't yet figured out just how Launchbox does what it does.  I don't think it just has a database file if launch settings.  I suspect it creates those on-the-fly based upon data stored elsewhere...  meaning it has to be running in order to launch things set up within it.  At the very least, I have not found anything like "launch batch files" or even, so far, easily identifiable DOSBox "conf" files.

 

I, personally, want the ability to launch any of the thousands of entries currently living within Launchbox on my system, without needing to go through Launchbox's UI every single time I want to launch it.  I won't create tens of thousands of those...  but one or two (perhaps a game and its manual) I presently want frequent and unencumbered access to, and which I'd delete once I'm finished with that game.

 

Since, like almost all Windows software, at it's core all commands exist as text strings of some sort, there ought to be some "command line string" a shortcut could use to go directly to a single item without first having to load up and go through the whole Launchbox UI.

[superrob3000]

On 4/23/2024 at 7:35 AM, CLB1966 said:

It may be "just as easy" but that's not "the same thing."  There are reasons people might want to run something set up to be run within Launchbox without needing Launchbox (or at least its UI) to be run first.  Why not have a desktop shortcut going directly to a game you're currently spending all your time running, without requiring additional time and additional mouse-clicks to get to?

@CLB1966 You can do this with the "CLI Launcher" plugin. Just right-click the game in LaunchBox and select "Create Game Shortcut". For the shortcuts to work, either LaunchBox or BigBox need to already be running, but they can just be running in the background with the GUI minimized.