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Setting up HBMAME with LaunchBox?


Tom Drake

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I've searched everywhere and have tried all sorts of various rom import options to make it work, but I can't figure out how to make HBMAME display it's games in LanuchBox. I think the issue is if I use MAME metadata, it will only see the parent game because it doesn't know about  the clones (even with skip unplayable/hacked/prototype/bootleg unchecked) as they're not in MAME. And if I don't use MAME metadata, I'll get a list of awkward rom filenames.

I guess if I had things my way, I'd love to have an Arcade Hacks platform that shows the parents (with images from MAME) and I could get to properly named clones within those? Is there a way to pull those names from HBMAME?

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  • 2 months later...
  • 6 months later...

I know this is an old thread, I used clmrompro to create a split set, picked out the games I wanted and used a bat file to move them into their own folder and imported from that folder into Launchbox. just set your emulator to HBMame. You have to use the entire split set in HBmame rom directory for the games to launch correctly.

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On 4/28/2021 at 9:32 PM, wemr97dl said:

I know this is an old thread, I used clmrompro to create a split set, picked out the games I wanted and used a bat file to move them into their own folder and imported from that folder into Launchbox. just set your emulator to HBMame. You have to use the entire split set in HBmame rom directory for the games to launch correctly.

Ah, so the main thing is to use split sets, and not merged?

I'll give that a try. I'm really glad you answered, regardless of the date. I never got this resolved. 

Thanks!!

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I just wanted to inform you guys that you can use the MAME full-set importer to also import a full HBMAME set since LaunchBox 11.9.

Here's what I wrote about in the beta thread:

On 1/25/2021 at 12:57 AM, CriticalCid said:

Also here's a little tip for anybody using HBMAME. You can use the overhauled MAME full-set importer for HBMAME sets now as well. I just tried it out and it worked like a charm.

It even merges nicely with your already imported MAME games. Just add HBMAME as an emulator and select it in the full-set importer and you're good to go. But be aware that some games have A LOT of hacks which will clutter up the additional apps entries of a single game very quickly. So it might be a better idea to import your HBMAME set as a separate platform. For example, here's a screenshot of King of Fighters '98 to show you what I mean (notice how you can only see the hacks up to the letter C? You have to scroll down the list for quite a while until you reach the end of it and see the other options of the context menu):

grafik.thumb.png.d28c081ed0cf629abf7f9b44cafd13dc.png

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  • 1 year later...

Guys, sorry for resurrecting an old thread, but could someone guide me step by step how to import HBMAME correctly? I tried to import it as MAME, I pointed it to the HBMAME roms directory and LB said that it doesn't contain a MAME full set. Then I imported it as a generic platform and, while it imported everything ok, I don't get a choice to run different versions of the games when I right-click on them like I have for some MAME games. Thx in advance! 

Edited by vulture
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  • 2 months later...

I managed to get the HBmame versions to show by downgrading launchbox to version "12.4" as this is before the mame fullset importer was updated and uses a sligthly diffrent way off importing mame roms. I then updated back to the current version iam on (13.0). The only issue was i had to delete the "InputBindings.xml" in the Data file within launchbox.

 

Edited by asmeghead
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  • 2 years later...
2 hours ago, RpT said:

Hack around type solution here ^_^

First transforming a merged set into split, then fudging launchbox's mame.xml file to have the correct data be imported...

Enjoy!
 

 

No work arounds really needed. LB had an update in 13.12 to accommodate HBMame imports using the Full Set import option. I will admit I am not 100% sure on how accurate the import is, but using it to import the last set I used it worked without issue an any game I expected to be there is. 

Version 13.12 - Released March 11, 2024

  • Improvement: The MAME Arcade Full Set Wizard file requirement has been reduced to accommodate HBMAME full sets
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1 hour ago, Retro808 said:

No work arounds really needed. LB had an update in 13.12 to accommodate HBMame imports using the Full Set import option. I will admit I am not 100% sure on how accurate the import is, but using it to import the last set I used it worked without issue an any game I expected to be there is. 

Version 13.12 - Released March 11, 2024

  • Improvement: The MAME Arcade Full Set Wizard file requirement has been reduced to accommodate HBMAME full sets

I tried the import normally with the first few letters of the alphabet, it recognized maybe 10% of them even after I converted from merged to split set and all regular Mame parents. The point of this is to have all the HBMAME hacked version displayed with the correct name of the mod, discretely! Even with regular Mame a good number of files are missed even if you set the filters all the way off.

Pulling one at random, point me to "19xx: The War Against Destiny (951207U, Ex Super Version)" = matching file 19xxs01.zip anywhere in the metadata.

How about "Mortal Kombat (Projectile Insanity)" matching file mk06.zip?

I could go on forever with these! I'm not sure why you think it's a fixed problem when basically none of them are in the data!!

Not only is this going to be useful for the HBMame set but other things like Final Burn Neo as well since these romhacks are greatly under-represented in Launch box.

Edited by RpT
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PS please just use the HBMAME.XML file that I created and add these lookups to an HBMAME specific option (I've done the hard work on it now). No credit needed! Users will still need to convert the MERGED set to SPLIT ones as per regular MAME, LB won't show child roms fully unless a split set is imported (and even then based purely on the number of files, a whole bunch is missed)...

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EDIT - restarted LB and it got further for some reason... trying the full set (merged per PD) at first glance on the pre-import there are duplicates with no distinction between version using 19xx as the example.  It treats it all as "MAME" during the wizard (unless I missed where the distinction was for HBMAME vs vanilla) so using 0.245 which is the HBMame version (afaik that's also the equivalent MAME set it's based on).  We shall see...

 

19xx.PNG

Edited by RpT
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OK yh so, unless I did something wrong, it's imported a bunch of nonsense. Here's what I got for Mortal Kombat. Most if not all of these do not launch and are not in line with the true descriptions (our example from earlier "Projectile Insanity" - mk06.zip is not on the list)...  - MKLB.png

Daddy where's my video game? 

Here's the split set I imported later showing ALL the version that HBMAME might call (without the ones that won't launch):   - MKtrue.png

I like to be accurate so I'm going to do one more test with this time choosing custom emulator and importing the split set I made as part of the tutorial video (even though that's not how it's distributed), just to give LB the best possible chance... will keep you posted!


 

MKLB.PNG

MKtrue.PNG

Edited by RpT
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OK so this has worked (at least with a split set) good update! 

I wish this was clearer in the frontend, for example noting that the wizard alternative would actually query the specified EXE rather than the metadata if you drag-and-drop an arcade folder to start with...  As a very long term user I have been burned by the wizards / consolidation on import in the past and had gotten used to avoiding them. 

I'll probably do a similar video soon mentioning this method VS the traditional way, since it's still worth going over the setup of supporting files. Glad to be wrong this time! 

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