Sort/organize or exclude MAME/arcade games by controller/input type in LaunchBox?

[djdaveoc22]

Hi all,

I used the full arcade set importer and left all the things checked to filter out games like mature, tile, dance, etc.  After doing the import I have over 2,800 arcade games in LaunchBox.  I was wondering if there is a way to filter/sort by input/controller type?  I'm using a wireless Xbox 360 controller with my LaunchBox setup and would love it if I can quickly find all the MAME games that were imported that I won't be able to play?  I'd like to get rid of games that work with a ball, light gun, etc. etc. so that only games which will easily work on my controller are left.  If LaunchBox/BigBox doesn't have a way to do this does anyone have an recommendations for me as to how I can get rid of games I can't play with my controller?  I'm hoping to NOT have to go find some list and manually remove games 1-by-1 when we're talking about thousands of games here.  I appreciate any help/guidance and thanks in advance.

Edited January 25, 2021 by djdaveoc22

[djdaveoc22]

So I guess no features to further sort/exclude games exist in the MAME importer or after you do the import.  So unless I hear otherwise I'll have to spend many hours manually doing this the hard way.  For the devs, if you could include a feature where people can further organize (or better yet not even import in the 1st place) MAME games by controller type (and maybe year of creation since a lot of people don't like the 70's and early 80's games that didn't have much to offer graphically) that would be a huge feature to add to your program and give people even more reason to buy.  Even if you wanted to include a feature like that behind a paywall it would be worth it for so many people.  I'm already a paying member but if I wasn't, I'd be much more likely to pay for something like BigBox access if I knew your product had features that would help me save lots of time in getting my retro arcade running vs. something like Hyperspin which is a huge pain in the butt.  I think that ultimately this product will be easier to setup overall but not by much and not having to spend hours manually curating a MAME collection would be HUGE.  I'm having to spend much more time setting up my LaunchBox/BigBox system than I thought I would and I have to admit I'm somewhat disappointed.

[JoeViking245]

7 hours ago, djdaveoc22 said:

I'm having to spend much more time setting up my LaunchBox/BigBox system than I thought I would

 

On 1/24/2021 at 5:56 PM, djdaveoc22 said:

I used the full arcade set importer and left all the things checked to filter out games like mature, tile, dance, etc.  After doing the import I have over 2,800 arcade games

That's some pretty good filtering that LaunchBox does for you already considering there are over 13,600 working Machines (games) in MAME to begin with. 

7 hours ago, djdaveoc22 said:

For the devs, if you could include a feature where people can further organize (or better yet not even import in the 1st place) MAME games by controller type

Talking about it here is a good start.  But also putting in a Feature Request will give it a little more weight.  At the top of this page, click Help & Support and then click Request a Feature.  I believe this has been talked about before and may already be a requested feature.  And if it is, definitely vote for it.

On occasion the Developers will put out a Features Poll to the LaunchBox/BigBox Community (you, me and everyone else here on the forums) asking us to vote on which features we would like to see added to LaunchBox/BigBox.  These 'features' are comprised primarily of the Feature Requests but may also include discussions from here the forums.  Once the poll is over, the Developers start adding the top voted features to LaunchBox/BigBox.  (Obviously there is some discretion on their part as to 'when' they get added)

LaunchBox/BigBox is always evolving and is always open to suggestions.  And that just one of the reasons that makes it so great.

7 hours ago, djdaveoc22 said:

and maybe year of creation since a lot of people don't like the 70's and early 80's games

Ya... probably not a good way to phase that. lol   

Regardless, if YOU wish to remove... say... all your Arcade Machines released prior to 1984,  in LaunchBox, go into Platform (not to be confused with Platform Category) and then select Arcade.  Now click Arrange By (something like that) and then click Release Date Year (or Release Date if you want to fine-tune it more).  Your Arcade Platform will now be sectioned and sorted by the year the games were released.   Scroll down to, and select the last game in "1983".  Now scroll back to the top, hold Shift and click the very 1st game.  Now press Delete and click Yes.

7 hours ago, djdaveoc22 said:

not having to spend hours manually curating a MAME collection would be HUGE. 

Umm... 2800 vs 13,600. 

8 hours ago, djdaveoc22 said:

I'm having to spend much more time setting up my LaunchBox/BigBox system than I thought I would

As with any program, there are idiosyncrasies and a learning curve. But let's be honest with ourselves... 'spending more time than you thought'?  Yes, there's is time involved with fine tuning everything.  I've had LB/BB for about 2.5 years now and I'm still finding things to 'fine-tune'.  Not because it's a huge pain the butt to set up. But because new features are constantly being added not only by the Developers but by the Community as well with plugins, addons and third party applications.  

Like many others out here (I'm sure), when I first installed LaunchBox it was up and running with [some...] games, images and videos within about 45 minutes.  It looked awesome AND I was able to play these said games too.  But of course here I am two and a half years later finding/seeing/learning new ways to "Make it Better".  

....So,  long reply, short....

• If you request it, they will listen.
• Try the sort by date, then delete thing and see if that works for you.

[djdaveoc22]

Thanks I already did the sort by year and spent hours checking each game to see if I liked it and then deleting them 1-by-1.  I guess there really isn't an alternative for people who want to filter out the things they would never consider playing.  I'll go request the features that I'd like to see in the program.  Most of them have to do with more filtering options when importing everything and others have to do with the fact that much of the media doesn't seem to line up name-wise with the roms or games so I had to spend probably at least 20-hours manually renaming picture files mostly and moving them around between directories to get themes to display everything that they are supposed to (pictures and videos).  I was surprised to see that even with a paid emumovies account that a lot of media never synced over.  The only way I think that could be fixed is if both parties compared file by file and got  the names to match up (or at least match more closely) and then tested the download of media into LaunchBox from emumovies until they get it to the point where everything matches and syncs over.  Definitely a time-consuming process.  1-thing I do remember is that 2D boxes didn't really sync at all.  I had to copy all the 3D boxes into the box - front folder and then rename a lot of the files before they would display in BigBox.  So who knows, maybe it will take 100-hours to setup the machine the way I like instead of a few hundred hours with Hyperspin.  At least it's an improvement right?  I realize for legal reasons people can't put together an all inclusive product that contains the games, media, emulators, etc. etc. and have it be basically ready to play and sell it commercially.  People who want a retro arcade have to be willing to have a big time suck to get the machine they imagine.  That's just the way it is unless they want to buy a pre-built machine for $1,500-$5,000.  After dealing with the nightmare that was/is Hyperspin on my fist cab I built I'm just burnt out, even though it was years ago.  So doing this all again is bringing back bad memories and making me realize that this will be the last time I ever do something like this.  I just want to play games, not spend hundreds of hours I don't have tinkering with things.  To each their own.  I know there are plenty of people who enjoy the tinkering and never stop.

Edited January 28, 2021 by djdaveoc22

[JoeViking245]

Ahh.... the caveats of 'converting' one program to another.  That (unfortunately) make sense.  LB has done pretty well with importing games (unless you're using some obscure curated set(s)), matching the names to the LB database ID then downloading media from both LaunchBox and EmuMovies, with little to no "...Hey!! That image [or video] doesn't go with that game!".  Ya, some slip though, but it's gotten way better. 

13 hours ago, djdaveoc22 said:

if both parties compared file by file and got  the names to match up

I don't know for sure, but I think to a degree they do.  I have found that if I had an imported game that I didn't 'link' with a LaunchBox ID, that it [sometimes] could find images from LB, yet find nothing from EmuMovies.  Then if I went back and clicked "Search For Metadata" to get an ID it would then find stuff from EmuMovies.  This could also be caused by [off-the-wall example] if the game's title is "Donkey_Kong" and (of course) via metadata search it's "Donkey Kong".  But a Search For Metadata would remedy that.

But I also found (on rare occasion) that the built in media import finds nothing from EmuMovies, regardless of having an 'ID', but going to their FTP site, vids to exist.  

If your coming across that a lot (especially with more-so common games and systems) then there's probably an issue that need to be brought up and addressed.  (as opposed to a 'feature request' [in this case])

Sincerely sorry hearing about the 'bringing back bad memories'.  

[djdaveoc22]

I'm not converting. I started fresh with LaunchBox on a new cab.  Luckily moving over all the 3D boxes into the "box - front" folder worked for the theme I'm using.  I just had to rename some image files to get rid of the "-01" at the end of the file name before it was recognized as belonging to the game in LaunchBox and/or BigBox properly and would display in the BigBox theme.  Anything the devs can do to reduce the amount of time it takes someone to setup their cab would IMO, be the most desired features and would give people much more reason to use the product.  The 2-things that would save time the most are robust importers and making sure media will sync, and into the proper folders with the proper file names from emumovies.

[JoeViking245]

I apologize.  I assumed you were sort-of combining the 2.  

Sometimes after importing images, they won't show (regardless of the "-01" suffix).  If that does happen, you can select all games in that Platform, then press F5 to refresh images.  (Or for just one game, select it and press F5)  But the "-01" shouldn't be a factor as it's there by design.

Regarding the 3D-Boxes, that's sounds like a Theme specific issue.  Which Theme design is a whole 'nother can-of-worms beyond me.  xaml (and WPF) and I don't get along. lol

[djdaveoc22]

Yeah it may have been the theme.  I was just surprised to see that it didn't look like 2D boxes were really imported into LB/BB for arcade/MAME, even from emumovies.  I did uncheck a few things when importing the media but it was just things like Fanart.  The "box - front" folder seems to include 2D boxes for console systems but I guess just not for MAME.  Maybe that media just doesn't exist for MAME at emumovies or wherever else LB/BB gets media from?  I'm working right now and don't have time to check.  I copied over all the 3D boxes into the "box - front" folder since I discovered that is where the theme was pulling the pictures from and they were pretty much all not there.  It didn't detect some of them without me having to go manually rename the files.  Then everything was fine.  It just took a lot of time to do.  This isn't really a program issue in that case.  It's the theme looking for files that LB/BB may not be able to get so I had to improvise.  A lot of the themes I just don't like the layout of so I was set on getting a specific theme to work.

I just thought of another feature that would be awesome.  If LB could detect which games are in MAME/Arcade in the system and then go delete (or at least move out of their original folders) all the unused pictures and videos it would help people free up a lot of hard drive space and clutter.  It could be done for any system really.  I just imagine it would be difficult to program because it would have to link each and every picture and video file with a specific game and then determine if that game is in the games list for that system in LB.  Possibly really hard to do.  I'm no programmer.

[neil9000]

1 minute ago, djdaveoc22 said:

Yeah it may have been the theme.  I was just surprised to see that it didn't look like 2D boxes were really imported into LB/BB for arcade/MAME, even from emumovies

Arcade machines didnt have box's like console and computer games do, so they usually use Advertisement - Front as there main image, and not Box - Front, easiest way to get them to show is put them at the top of your preferences list for Box - Front.

 

3 minutes ago, djdaveoc22 said:

I just thought of another feature that would be awesome.  If LB could detect which games are in MAME/Arcade in the system and then go delete (or at least move out of their original folders) all the unused pictures and videos it would help people free up a lot of hard drive space and clutter.

We already have a clean up media tool.

[JoeViking245]

Ahh yes... Arcade.  There are 'boxes' you can find (this forums Downloads section??) but they can be kinda ehh.  I try to use Arcade -Cabinet (my attempt to keep the nostalgia thing going), then Advertisement Flyer - Front then Screenshot - Game Title.  Go into Tools, Options, Box Front Priorities and then push Arcade - Cabinet all the way to the top.  This won't interfere with the other Platforms as they don't have those images and will jump to the next priority.  (my method's a little convoluted, but you get the idea of how you can switch it up.)

And like Neil said, Tools, Clean Up Media is definitely your friend after a long-time 'scraping'.  Save it for the end of the day and let it do its' thing as it may take a while.

Edited January 28, 2021 by JoeViking245