Bulk edit feature to add 2 emulators per game for the entire platform

[kritvichu]

Hi LaunchBox developers and experienced advanced users,

I've been searching for a solution that I'm not sure it’s possible to do an easy way or not. What I want to accomplish is I want to add 2 choices of emulators to run any individual game for the whole platform. Again!! I really mean the choices for the whole entire platform. Why?  

Here is a scenario. Many console games like Shinobi series, Street of Rage, Golden Axes, Gradius, R-Type, Mario, Kirby,...etc (far too many to list). They were designed to play with a gamepad in mind, right? But, I find out that they are super fun to play using an arcade stick as well. Using a stick feels like they are brand new and very much more enjoyable than playing an old style. So, I need choices to select either a gamepad or an arcade stick I want to launch the game with. 

The method I've been using so far is that I use 2 sets of Retroarch named according to each controller type, Then, set LaunchBox to associate them both with one game, and At last, set to load one emulator as a default or just right click to load another. Yep, it is time consuming. If they are just a few 20-30 games on the list, it is okay to manually do these tedious steps on each game. However, the thing is I want to accomplish is for the entire platform, and I not mean just one platform in this case, but I talk about many platforms, like MegaDrive, PC engine, Master System, Saturn, Dreamcast, NES, SNES,...etc.  We talk about hundreds or thousands of games on those platforms. If I do the old fashion way by adding 2 emulators on each game manually one-by-one, Gosh!!!! it would take years to complete. Lot of time consuming, tedious, and impossible to spend that much time. That is the problem.

A bulk group edit feature on LaunchBox not allow me to add more than one emulator for the whole group. It always ends up overwrite the current emulator with a new one instead. It not allowed me to add them both for the whole group. The most undesirable workaround I can think of is to create 2 platforms for each console. For instance, 'MegaDrive Gamepad' platform is associated with 'Retroarch-Gamepad' emulator, and 'MegaDrive ArcadeStick' platform associated with 'Retroarch-ArcadeStick' emulator. I really not want to go this route. I very much prefer having just only one platform to get options to choose either emulators to launch the game. The problem is how.

I already asked in LaunchBox FaceBook page but not get answer or they not get the clear picture on the problem I have. So, I tried to write what I want to accomplish here as clearly as possible. Sorry if I use too much redundant words. I'm not sure if LaunchBox or BigBox, at the current stage, has a limitation on this feature, or they actually have this support functionality but I don't know how to do it. If so, please advice how I can accomplish this long-pain-in-the-bud task in a short time?

Thanks.

[Retro808]

You should not need to bulk edit anything to do this. All you need to do is add the new emulator in LaunchBox under >Tools>Manage Emulators. Set up the emulator, call it what you want and make sure the platform name is listed in the Associated Platforms tab and once you save it the emulator is available to all games in the platform. When you right click any game in that platform and choose "Launch With" you now see the other emulator as an option. There was never a need to do anything per game. That is also why LB has a button in the Associated Platforms tab to set an emulator as "Default" because it was designed to allow more than one emulator to work with a platform.

[kritvichu]

10 hours ago, Retro808 said:

You should not need to bulk edit anything to do this. All you need to do is add the new emulator in LaunchBox under >Tools>Manage Emulators. Set up the emulator, call it what you want and make sure the platform name is listed in the Associated Platforms tab and once you save it the emulator is available to all games in the platform. When you right click any game in that platform and choose "Launch With" you now see the other emulator as an option. There was never a need to do anything per game. That is also why LB has a button in the Associated Platforms tab to set an emulator as "Default" because it was designed to allow more than one emulator to work with a platform.

Thank you, Retro808.

OH!!! I can't believe the feature is already in there but I totally overlooked. Now, I can launch either gamepad or arcade stick controller as desired. This helps me save tons of time.    YAY!!!

Btw, when I go 'Launch With...' and choose an emulator from the list (as shown in the pic), it requires me to click what core to run.  In my case, 'GenesisPlus_GX_Libreto...' is only one core available to choose.  It seems a bit redundancy for the need to require more one click.  In general usage, we just associate one emulator with one platform and one core.  I understand that one emulator in LaunchBox can be edited to associate multiple cores with the same platform.  If I can omit the required redundancy step on another mouse click to choose the core, that would be perfect. But what the cool feature LaunchBox has right now, it is already awesome !!!