How to hide a platform in Bigbox or games within a platform (but not within its auto-generated playlists)

[Kefka2b]

Hey there, so I am almost done building my Bigbox collection and basically I have it setup this way:

• Default landing view is "Platform categories" (Arcade, Computers, Handhelds, Consoles and added Favourites as a Category also, and I may add more stuff along the way like never-played, completed for example)
• I only auto-generated playlists for MAME to have Sega Classics, Sega St-V, Capcom CPS1 2 3, SNK Aes etc, basically dividing my arcade category by Arcade platforms/brands (same as Consoles for example) and also leveraging @viking 's amazing device images and videos (I deleted all the playlists that are genre or play mode based).
• I moved those playlists 1 level higher in the hierarchy so that they are considered as platforms (basically now they show under the Arcade Category along with other non MAME arcade platforms like Naomi for example, and it looks amazing in the Colorful 4k theme and artworks/videos).
• I did that because otherwise they would show as subcategories of MAME when all other platforms show games directly so it felt wrong to me .

Now here is the problem (very minor I admit), MAME still shows as a platform and of course all the games inside the auto-generated playlists will also show under MAME. (After a bit of simple math I have about 1400 games in the Playlists and about 2000 in total under MAME).

So question is:

• Can I hide games under MAME without affecting them under the playlists?
  • If not can I hide MAME entirely in my platform selection and only show the playlists?

 

Hope that makes sense, and I am not doing something considered super weird.

Edited November 4, 2022 by Kefka2b

[C-Beats]

There is no current way to hide a game from a platform but not playlists. You can remove a platform from the platform category view though. To do so edit the platform, go to the Parent tab and uncheck all the boxes.

[Kefka2b]

2 hours ago, C-Beats said:

There is no current way to hide a game from a platform but not playlists. You can remove a platform from the platform category view though. To do so edit the platform, go to the Parent tab and uncheck all the boxes.

Thanks for the answer, probably the way to go for me then I guess, I could create a duplicate MAME playlist (and rename the media to that playlist name, or rename the default MAME platform), where I would add all the games that are not added to any autogenerated playlists.

That sounds like a painful process, unless I can basically use the criteria from all the other playlists but reversed (like brand != Atari or something like that).

Or check if those are really games I am interested in and if not just simple hide it.

Edited November 4, 2022 by Kefka2b

[Kefka2b]

@C-Beats So indeed unchecking MAME does the job, but I went one step ahead and tried to create that new MAME playlist and tried to list out all the publishers from the other playlist like Atari, Nintendo, Capcom etc... to only show the games that are not inside an auto-generated playlist.

I don't know if I am doing it wrong or there's a limitation with the "Doesn't contain" option.

Basically 1st option is "Platform" "is equal to" "MAME

then:

"Publisher" "doesn't contain" "Atari"

"Publisher" "doesn't contain" "Capcom"

etc...

But it seems to work only with 1 condition regarding Publisher, adding extra ones negates the effect.

I tried to use "Publisher" "has none of the values" "Atari; Capcom; etc" but also doesn't work

 

Edit:

 

To use "has none of the values", I Guess I'll have to get the list of all exact values of all possible publishers for example, Atari, Atari corp, Atari ltd etc.. I'll give it a go once I have the time.

Edited November 4, 2022 by Kefka2b

[C-Beats]

Multiple comparisons of the same field are joined by an OR comparison. So you're saying Publisher is not Atari OR is not Capcom, which means you'll get all items.

If you have a premium license you could just add a custom field to items in a playlist (or not in one) and then auto-pop a playlist based on that field.

[Kefka2b]

11 hours ago, C-Beats said:

Multiple comparisons of the same field are joined by an OR comparison. So you're saying Publisher is not Atari OR is not Capcom, which means you'll get all items.

If you have a premium license you could just add a custom field to items in a playlist (or not in one) and then auto-pop a playlist based on that field.

Ok thanks for the explanation on the "OR" thing.

I have a premium licence and it actually makes sense I could just go through each playlist and add the same custom field to all the games so then I can filter them out in the new playlist. I'll check how it's done.

Thanks for all the tips!

[Kefka2b]

@C-Beats In the end the best I managed to do is to list out all publishers from the auto-generated playlists only reducing my new MAME playlist from about 2000 to 900, as there is no "AND" operation possible, I cannot also remove the games from playlists based on "source" and not publisher like Sega ST-V.

I tried to use a custom field but I didn't manage to find a way to apply it in the Bulk edit wizard (as it doesn't appear) it looks like you can only apply a custom field on a per-game basis which makes it impossible to use in my use case, maybe I am wrong and there's an easier way?

[JoeViking245]

3 hours ago, Kefka2b said:

I tried to use a custom field but I didn't manage to find a way to apply it in the Bulk edit wizard (as it doesn't appear)

To do this, add a Custom Field ("My Custom Field" or whatever) to one of your games.  You'll need to enter a Value ("True" or whatever) also.  Otherwise, it won't save. Then save your changes.

Now select all the games you want to add this to and click Edit.  Choose the Custom Field: you added and enter a value. etc.

 

[Kefka2b]

Thanks a lot actually your screenshot helped me as I wasn't looking for "custom field: name" but directly the name of my custom field in the bulk edit wizard, hence why I hadn't found it previously 😅... All sorted now! Thanks @C-Beats and @JoeViking245 for the guidance!

Edited November 5, 2022 by Kefka2b