Troubleshooting Wangan Midnight 2 with Launchbox

[JustinF]

Hi all,

I have a simple aim, to get Wangan Midnight 2 up and running on Launchbox.

I have a Dell Inspiron 15 5000 Series laptop with the specs below:

Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-7200U CPU @ 2.50GHz   2.70 GHz

8Gb RAM

Running WIndows 10 Home.

 

I have download MAME merged ROM set 0.251 showing 14,089 files totalling 72.0Gb

 

It also shows the ROMS for Wangan Midnight in folders

I also downloaded Wangan Midnight 2 as a separate ROM and added it into the merged set folders.

 

 

I have followed ETA Prime's YouTube clip to set up Launchbox for MAME games:

 

Launchbox WORKS, but shows 3039 games only?

It does not show Wangan Midnight or Wangan Midnight 2!

Am I missing something or doing something wrong?

I appreciate any help to get Wangan Midnight / 2 up and running.

 

Many thanks in advance.

Justin

 

 

[GIKAS1]

Keeping in mind that im not an expert in LB or MAME Id say that since these games aren't considered playable in MAME right now launchbox automatically doesn't import them.

[JoeViking245]

On 1/15/2023 at 12:55 AM, JustinF said:

It does not show Wangan Midnight or Wangan Midnight 2!

Am I missing something or doing something wrong?

I appreciate any help to get Wangan Midnight / 2 up and running.

LaunchBox can import them, but you need to un-check the box Skip games unplayable in MAME.  But then you'd get a bunch of other stuff that you most likely don't want. 

Instead, you can run the ROMs Import Wizard (Tools, Import, ROM Files...).  Select Add Files and choose those ROMs you want.  When you get to the How would you like to import your MAME Games? screen, you will need to click Import all clones and also un-check Skip games unplayable in MAME.

 

On 1/15/2023 at 12:55 AM, JustinF said:

I have a simple aim, to get Wangan Midnight 2 up and running on Launchbox.

To get WM2 running, there are several other files required.  Most are already in your MAME fullset.  But the one that won't be in there is the chd file.

(the section in the red box is showing the folder_name / file_name.chd)

The other versions of Wangan Midnight will also require their own CHD files.

 

Oh, and once you have everything, make sure you can run them in standalone MAME FIRST before attempting to get them to launch from LaunchBox.  As in, if you can't get them to work directly in MAME itself, they won't work when attempting to launch them via LaunchBox.  

 

I've never tested this game, but it may actually sorta work.  Or it may run like crap.  Or may just show the initial screen and then do nothing.  Don't know.  Just sayin', it may not be worth the effort to find the 1.25GB CHD file.

 

[JustinF]

12 hours ago, JoeViking245 said:

LaunchBox can import them, but you need to un-check the box Skip games unplayable in MAME.  But then you'd get a bunch of other stuff that you most likely don't want. 

Instead, you can run the ROMs Import Wizard (Tools, Import, ROM Files...).  Select Add Files and choose those ROMs you want.  When you get to the How would you like to import your MAME Games? screen, you will need to click Import all clones and also un-check Skip games unplayable in MAME.

 

To get WM2 running, there are several other files required.  Most are already in your MAME fullset.  But the one that won't be in there is the chd file.

(the section in the red box is showing the folder_name / file_name.chd)

The other versions of Wangan Midnight will also require their own CHD files.

 

Oh, and once you have everything, make sure you can run them in standalone MAME FIRST before attempting to get them to launch from LaunchBox.  As in, if you can't get them to work directly in MAME itself, they won't work when attempting to launch them via LaunchBox.  

 

I've never tested this game, but it may actually sorta work.  Or it may run like crap.  Or may just show the initial screen and then do nothing.  Don't know.  Just sayin', it may not be worth the effort to find the 1.25GB CHD file.

 

Hi JoeViking, 

Thanks for the advice.

I have the CHD file. 

Is there a specific folder or method I need to import the CHD file into Launchbox? Or some method I need to integrate it with the other ROM files?

Much appreciated if I could lean on you for more advice.

Cheers,

Justin

[JoeViking245]

16 minutes ago, JustinF said:

Is there a specific folder or method I need to import the CHD file into Launchbox? Or some method I need to integrate it with the other ROM files?

You'll import the main ROM (wangmid2.zip) from your ROM folder as described above.  In your ROMs folder, create a subfolder called wangmid2 and in it, place "gdx-0016a.chd".

(when you tell MAME to launch the main ROM, it knows to look for a subfolder by the same name and associate the proper CHD file inside it)

Open MAME and start typing Wangan Midnight 2 to search for the game.

Double click it to see if it runs.