MAME cfg controls don't save if launched with launchbox

[MrSco]

i'm using tab key while in mame to set the controls and after exiting mame, it doesn't save the mame/cfg/*.cfg file if the mame64.exe was launched with LaunchBox (either by launching game or using right click menu and choosing "open mame"). If i launch mame64.exe manually the cfg's save just fine. I've tried running launchbox as admin (and also tried mame64.exe as admin too) but it doesn't make a difference. I've tested with both mame 0.160 and mame 0.212 ... same results. Launchbox is locking the cfg files down somehow when launched via launchbox... any ideas?

 

thanks

[neil9000]

5 minutes ago, MrSco said:

i'm using tab key while in mame to set the controls and after exiting mame, it doesn't save the mame/cfg/*.cfg file if the mame64.exe was launched with LaunchBox (either by launching game or using right click menu and choosing "open mame"). If i launch mame64.exe manually the cfg's save just fine. I've tried running launchbox as admin (and also tried mame64.exe as admin too) but it doesn't make a difference. I've tested with both mame 0.160 and mame 0.212 ... same results. Launchbox is locking the cfg files down somehow when launched via launchbox... any ideas?

 

thanks

Launchbox has no control over files in the emulator folders at all, you have something else strange going on here. I just tested here by launching Mortal Kombat 3 in MAME, i set my controls via Tab menu/Input (this machine) then quit MAME and it saved the control config just fine.

[MrSco]

oh its very strange... but it is indeed happening... both bigbox and launchbox cause it... launching mame standalone saves cfgs fine.

[Charco]

Are you sure that you only have one instance of MAME? Could LB be pointing at another exe file?

[MrSco]

2 minutes ago, Charco said:

Are you sure that you only have one instance of MAME? Could LB be pointing at another exe file?

I’ve double checked that. Definitely the correct exe

[MrSco]

Also, the nvram (midway volume for example) settings don’t save either when launched with LaunchBox. It definitely seems like a permissions issue. But launching as admin has no effect... so weird. 

[DOS76]

How are you exiting MAME from with in BigBox?

[MrSco]

1 minute ago, DOS76 said:

How are you exiting MAME from with in BigBox?

With Mame’s built-in escape key exit 

[DOS76]

hmm in the MAME.ini do you have writeconfig set to 1 or 0?

[MrSco]

0 ...

 

but as I said before, if I launch MAME exe directly everything saves fine. Only when launched with launchbox or big box does it not save

Edited November 21, 2019 by MrSco

[DOS76]

Okay then. Hopefully you can find a solution

[MrSco]

2 hours ago, DOS76 said:

Okay then. Hopefully you can find a solution

Thanks. Me too. I’ll keep tinkering and post back my findings here no matter how stupid I end up looking ?

[MrSco]

I figured out what it was... me being dumb...

In my mame emulator setup in LB for autohotkey running script, I had...

$Esc::
{
     Process, Close, {{{StartupEXE}}}
}

I switched it to ... 

$Esc::
{
     WinClose, ahk_class MAME
}

and now the settings save when exiting mame via launchbox/bigbox.... the Process, Close method must not exit mame gracefully and therefor doesn't save anything. hope this saves someone else some time.

 

thanks everyone for the tips!

[DOS76]

If you are using the built in MAME UI cancel you can remove the script from that section completely but since you have it working I guess that isn't an issue.

[MrSco]

14 hours ago, DOS76 said:

If you are using the built in MAME UI cancel you can remove the script from that section completely but since you have it working I guess that isn't an issue.

yea, i am using built-in mame ui cancel, but i also have some xpadder stuff going on during launch/exit... i just didn't include in my examples for simplicity.

 

thanks for the help!

[duerra]

On 11/23/2019 at 5:35 PM, MrSco said:

I figured out what it was... me being dumb...

In my mame emulator setup in LB for autohotkey running script, I had...

$Esc::
{
     Process, Close, {{{StartupEXE}}}
}

I switched it to ... 

$Esc::
{
     WinClose, ahk_class MAME
}

and now the settings save when exiting mame via launchbox/bigbox.... the Process, Close method must not exit mame gracefully and therefor doesn't save anything. hope this saves someone else some time.

 

thanks everyone for the tips!

Thank you for this solution.  It also solved the problem for me.

[Curtistn73]

On 11/23/2019 at 8:35 PM, MrSco said:

$Esc::
{
     WinClose, ahk_class MAME
}

 

This worked for me, too! Thank you so much!!