LaunchBox for Android 0.6 Beta Released!

[Mu144]

Thanks for all the working your putting in Jason. 

New backgrounds on box art lots great. 

Anything else you added in the last update? 

[Jason Carr]

11 hours ago, bundangdon said:

@Jason Carr great work once again! Just wondering if we'll be able to use "default" images for the backgrounds (like the windows app) as it's nice to have one image per platform, for example a wallpaper of the Nintendo NES

We'll get that in there eventually, yes. Probably not before the 1.0 release though, honestly.

10 hours ago, xman said:

Test Unit

Nexus 7 2013 - Android Pie 9.0 Pixel Experience Custom Rom
Android LB 0.18
USB-to-Go Xbox360 Controller (Roms display fine, loads fine, and plays fine with Xbox360 Controller)
Using LB 10beta4 (Images and Backgrounds)
Atari 2600, Atari 7800, NES, SNES, Genesis

Issue

After exiting any rom in any emulator (I set up right analog controller button as exit), the controller d-pad, left analog , A or B doesn't respond. I have to change my view from list to box or vice versa (using Y or touch screen) or exit emulator menu until controller responds.  Worked fine in Android LB 0.17.

Bah, sorry for this regression. I'll get it fixed and get a new beta out today.

3 hours ago, deliyuerek85 said:

@Jason Carr

If you are in the boxes view, the last games are shown very big if there are no other games to fill the row. Is it possible to fix that? I know the app ist still in beta phase. I just wanted to mention it.

Yeah, I'm sure I can fix that here soon. It's not exactly a priority, but it does bug me too.

[Jason Carr]

3 hours ago, Kmetz7547 said:

Fmsx is an android emulator that runs microsoft msx and microsoft msx2 systems

 

2 hours ago, Kmetz7547 said:

Damon is an android emulator working for Sony Playstation 2 (roms have to be extracted though in iso format).. but it works

 

2 hours ago, mosestyle said:

Jason, is it possible to add Redream emulator for SEGA Dreamcast on the next update?

So far we have Retroarch and Reicast.

 

Thanks for these requests; I'll do my best to get them added in today.

1 hour ago, Mu144 said:

Thanks for all the working your putting in Jason. 

New backgrounds on box art lots great. 

Anything else you added in the last update? 

Nope, just what I noted above.

47 minutes ago, Pixel said:

Wanted to ask if there is a list of some planned features for the app?

Unfortunately no. I do need to make it a priority to allow editing and importing games directly on the device though, because that has been a very common request and it will open it up to a lot more people.

[Jason Carr]

I just submitted version 0.19 with the following:

• Fixed a regression where controllers were again not working properly in all cases after returning from games
• Added support for Dolphin emulator
• Added support for DamonPS2 and DamonPS2 Pro emulators
• Added support for fMSX and fMSX Deluxe emulators
• Added support for Redream emulator

Unfortunately I have not tested DamonPS2, DamonPS2 Pro, fMSX, fMSX Deluxe, or Redream, as I do not have readily available ROMs currently for those platforms. I would very much appreciate if someone could test launching those emulators once version 0.19 goes live.

[Jason Carr]

There are actually a number of emulators that I haven't fully tested. Here's the list:

• C64.emu - Commodore 64
• DamonPS2 - Sony Playstation 2
• DamonPS2 Pro - Sony Playstation 2
• fMSX - Microsoft MSX, Microsoft MSX2, Microsoft MSX2+
• fMX Deluxe - Microsoft MSX, Microsoft MSX2, Microsoft MSX2+
• MSX.emu - Microsoft MSX, Microsoft MSX2, Microsoft MSX2+, ColecoVision, Sega SG-1000
• NEO.emu - SNK Neo Geo AES, SNK Neo Geo MVS
• NGP.emu - SNK Neo Geo Pocket, SNK Neo Geo Pocket Color
• PCE.emu - TurboGrafx-16, TurboGrafx-CD
• Redream - Sega Dreamcast
• Reicast - Sega Dreamcast

If anyone can test and confirm working or non working for any of these, I would appreciate it.

[DrMechxico]

Awesome, just got the beta. It works well! Now just waiting for the day where we get big box native on Android.

Personally what I would look forward to is just pointing the games and media folders to a network share. Since I have my desktop setup with launchbox running off a share in unraid it would be good to just point that same folder structure to android.

Baby steps tho.

[Kmetz7547]

ColEm works for colecovision

[Jason Carr]

Looks like the 0.19 update just went live.

[Kmetz7547]

NEC Turbo Graphx 16 works with PCE emu... but NEC Turbo Graphx CD wont show me any available emulator to choose

[nearvanaman]

On 9/3/2019 at 5:01 PM, Jason Carr said:

Thanks for this; sorry, I hadn't yet seen it before my previous reply.

The next question is whether these systems are working without LaunchBox, but looking above it looks like the answer is no. In some cases, it could be because of missing BIOS files, or incompatible ROMs, or something of that nature (even could be a glitch with Retroarch on Android for that core).

If anyone knows of good, working emulators for these platforms on Android, please let me know, and I can add them in.

I tried some of the emulators that @Kmetz7547 was having issues with. Not sure if there was any further progress on this thread but I do have some working.

 

Quote

MATTEL INTELLIVISION - Black Screen   (Retroarch - freeintv_libretro_android.so)

I added the two bios files (exec.bin and grom.bin) to the Retroarch system folder and I was able to launch a game. 

Quote

GCE VECTREX - Black Screen   (Retroarch - vecx_libretro_android.so)

This one was more complicated. The setup in my Launchbox (and I'm sure I followed a YouTube tutorial) links empty files that point to the zip files that contain the game. So understandably that's what the Launchbox export copies over. 

What I did was

- manually copy over the zip files to the Launchbox\Games\GCE Vectrex directory on Android (removing the empty files)

- edit the Platform xml created by the export (locally on your computer) to replace the name of the empty file with the name of the zipped file (e.g. <ApplicationPath>Games/GCE Vectrex/POLEPOSITION</ApplicationPath> to <ApplicationPath>Games/GCE Vectrex/Pole Position (USA) (A00ED3D6).zip</ApplicationPath>) - and then copy over to the Launchbox\Data\Platforms directory (overwrite the original if it's already uploaded). 

- Disable "Extract ROM Archives (zip or .7z) option in the emulator settings (not sure if this is required but it did not work before I did this). 

I was then able to launch multiple Vectrex games.

Quote

MICROSOFT MSX - Retroarch Crash   (Retroarch - bluemsx_libretro_android.so)          Black Screen   (Retroarch - fmsx_libretro_android.so)

MICROSOFT MSX 2 - Retroarch Crash   (Retroarch - bluemsx_libretro_android.so)          Black Screen   (Retroarch - fmsx_libretro_android.so)

Both of these are working for me once I copy over the "Databases" and "Machines" folders from my PC Retorarch system folder to my Android Retorarch system folder. 

Quote

ATARI 5200 - Emulation Halted Error  (In Emulator)   (Retroarch - atari800_libretro_android.so)

BALLY ASTROCADE - Black Screen   (Retroarch - mess2015_libretro_android.so)

COMODORE AMIGA - Black Screen   (Retroarch - puae_libretro_android.so)

EMERSON ARCADIA 2001 - Black Screen  (Retroarch - mess2015_libretro_android.so)

MAGNAVOX ODYSSEY 2 - Black Screen   (Retroarch - o2em_libretro_android.so)

NINTENDO GAMECUBE - No Available Emulator   

NINTENDO SUPER FAMICOM - No Available Emulator

NINTENDO VIRTUAL BOY - Error Occured (booting)   (Retroarch - mednafen_vb_libretro_android.so)

SEGA SATURN - Loads with Visual Glitches   (Retroarch - yabause_libretro_android.so)

SONY PLAYSTATION 2 - Wont Load   (Retroarch - play_libretro_android.so) 

I either haven't tried the other ones yet or I don't have the platforms on my local Retroarch. 

As much as I adore the Amiga I'm not looking forward to trying to get that to work given the specificity of kickstarts and the fact all my games are in WHDLoad format. 

I don't think anyone has the Retroarch core working for Atari 5200 and the kat5200 app "Early Access" on Play Store is full. 

I think there's been additional emulators added for Saturn (Yaba Sanshiro standalone app works well in my experience), PS2 and Gamecube since you posted this. 

Hope the above helps anyone who was having issues.

 

[The Papaw]

I love LB/BB! And when the android app thing  was talked about, I voted for it to happen, then I voted again a year later, etc., Got excited when it finally did. So I was there (donated) the 1st day it was there on android. I have it installed on a few devices (tablets, shields, etc), But for me, it has been pretty much USELESS. Doesn't mean it is for everyone.

I have a VERY large collection, (7+ TB, as I already posted to Jason about NAS and he said:

"The issue with using a NAS is that you'd have to be local to the NAS, or have some kind of a public-facing web server hosting all the stuff. Plex does it well but it's very complicated. It's possible that we might support something like this eventually, but it's a fairly long ways off. The initial goal for the app is just to make everything work locally, and with the size and cost of SD cards these days, I don't see that as too much of a hindrance." ).

I reckon this scares me a bit, as "but it's a fairly long ways off", this usually means it sure ain't gonna happen any time soon or ever.

The export feature is truly genius, saves so much time as far as artwork, (scraping, downloading) especially if you have spent days working on artwork, to simply move it to a android front-end.

But if I am going to take up my storage space for Duplicate files that I already have on my network (roms) on a android device, might as well stick with ARC and Moonlight, ya know????

Don't get me wrong, If I want to add a few 100 VERY old games to a cell phone or tablet, this is a perfect way to do it. Not gonna happen when you get into 1-2gb PS1 games though. There needs to be a LAN option or something as far as where the roms are stored. JMO...

Edited September 7, 2019 by Wanderer189

[nearvanaman]

On 9/5/2019 at 3:45 PM, Jason Carr said:

I just submitted version 0.18 to the Play Store with the following:

• New boxes view overhaul with support for background fanart images
• New launching view overhaul, also with support for background fanart images
• Added Yaba Sanshiro and Yaba Sanshiro Pro emulators for Sega Saturn

 

Has anyone got the secret to using Yaba Sanshiro (Free)? I can launch games fine within Yaba Sanshiro, but when I try to launch from Launchbox, it starts the emulator but throws up "cannot initialize game". The files are bin/cue (which seem to have been exported correctly). 

 

[Kmetz7547]

@Jason Carr

Issue with PS2 Damon.. both emus available are the same free version.. the pro version isnt there

[Kmetz7547]

Also, Neo Geo Aes just opens the emu.. doesnt load game

[Lamaman1971]

9 minutes ago, Kmetz7547 said:

Also, Neo Geo Aes just opens the emu.. doesnt load game

Yeah, I get this with the Neogeo Emu and PPSSPP Gold. Works ok if you pre-load the EMU and THEN launch the game from Launchbox though.

[bundangdon]

21 hours ago, Jason Carr said:

We'll get that in there eventually, yes. Probably not before the 1.0 release though, honestly.

Bah, sorry for this regression. I'll get it fixed and get a new beta out today.

Yeah, I'm sure I can fix that here soon. It's not exactly a priority, but it does bug me too.

Great to hear that. Unfortunately I'll probably never have fanart-backgrounds for all those games and just one default image per platform would be a whole lot easier and convenient?

[Pholco]

Will LB Android also work on Prime OS?

[Jason Carr]

2 hours ago, Kmetz7547 said:

@Jason Carr

Issue with PS2 Damon.. both emus available are the same free version.. the pro version isnt there

Whoops, thanks. One of them is Pro, but I forgot to change the name on it. I've fixed that for the next beta.

2 hours ago, Kmetz7547 said:

Also, Neo Geo Aes just opens the emu.. doesnt load game

What emulator? NEO.emu?

2 hours ago, Lamaman1971 said:

Yeah, I get this with the Neogeo Emu and PPSSPP Gold. Works ok if you pre-load the EMU and THEN launch the game from Launchbox though.

I'm not sure about NEO.emu yet, but PPSSPP Gold is known working at this point, by quite a few users. Make sure you're on the latest version.

[Jason Carr]

26 minutes ago, Pholco said:

Will LB Android also work on Prime OS?

I haven't tested it (I didn't even know it existed honestly). It looks like it runs x86, which means it won't work with the current version, but I do plan to add support for that, so most likely we can get it working.

[Kmetz7547]

8 minutes ago, Jason Carr said:

Whoops, thanks. One of them is Pro, but I forgot to change the name on it. I've fixed that for the next .

I'm not sure either are pro, both bring me to the play stores free version. I own the pro version.