Is LaunchBox Right For Me?

[HTPCUser]

OK, so I think Launchbox is exactly what I am looking for, but before I purchase Big Box for Windows, I thought I would post what I was looking to accomplish here to make sure I was on the right path. There are two different setups I want set up:

1) I have an an arcade cabinet that uses an X Arcade joystick, running Windows 10 with Maximus Arcade as the front end. I have numerous issues with Maximus Arcade (along with the fact that I believe it is no longer being developed), so I was looking for  another front end to replace that works with the X Arcade joystick

2) I have an AYANeo handheld running Windows 11. I find the combination of Windows 11 and the AYASpace front end not very user friendly or intuitive. 

What I am looking for is a front end that works for both of these devices that will handle all my emulators (right now mainly all the Nintendo emulators sans the Switch, MAME, PSP, PS1, PS2). Would be a plus as well if it could integrate in some fashion my Steam library (even just giving me one UI where I can launch everything from). Something that is fairly intuitive to set up (especially having to integrate the X Arcade joystick into) I am comfortable digging through the various setups, etc... as needed, but given my time is somewhat limited with work, it would make my life easier going with a user friendly option. 

[Knowcontrol]

I've been using LaunchBox/BigBox since July, 2021 and I have absolutely no regrets in purchasing the lifetime license. The continuous, ongoing development and improvements are worth every single penny. It's the perfect frontend for me for both on a laptop as well as running it through my TV for that 10-foot UI experience with BigBox.

As you are aware, LB/BB are just frontends and the emulators are up to you to setup. With that said, yes, LB handles the emulators just fine - it's doing nothing more than running the executable software of the emulator. I personally use the following emulators:

Wii U: Cemu
GameCube: Dolphin
Playstation 2: PCSX2
Playstation Portable: PPSSPP
Sega Dreamcast: Redream (purchased)
Playstation 3: RPCS3
Xbox: XEMU
Switch: Yuzu
Retro arcade games: MAME 0.241
Modern arcade games: Teknoparrot
...and finally....
Retroarch runs the cores for: Atari 2600 (stella), Nintendo 64 (mupen64plus_next), NES (nestopia - aka mesen), Game Boy Advance (mgba), Sega 32X (picodrive), Genesis (genesis_plus_gx), Saturn (mednafen_saturn), Playstation 1 (mednafen_psx_hw), SNES (mesen-s)

 

There is no harm in trying out LB, it's free with some features disabled. Give it a go, get your emulators setup. Take it for a test drive. Watch the Unbroken Software YouTube channel as well as the ETA Prime YT channel for setup videos. If you like then make the purchase to help the developers continue the hard work. Most of all... have fun curating your retro gaming library!

[HTPCUser]

9 hours ago, Knowcontrol said:

I've been using LaunchBox/BigBox since July, 2021 and I have absolutely no regrets in purchasing the lifetime license. The continuous, ongoing development and improvements are worth every single penny. It's the perfect frontend for me for both on a laptop as well as running it through my TV for that 10-foot UI experience with BigBox.

As you are aware, LB/BB are just frontends and the emulators are up to you to setup. With that said, yes, LB handles the emulators just fine - it's doing nothing more than running the executable software of the emulator. I personally use the following emulators:

Wii U: Cemu
GameCube: Dolphin
Playstation 2: PCSX2
Playstation Portable: PPSSPP
Sega Dreamcast: Redream (purchased)
Playstation 3: RPCS3
Xbox: XEMU
Switch: Yuzu
Retro arcade games: MAME 0.241
Modern arcade games: Teknoparrot
...and finally....
Retroarch runs the cores for: Atari 2600 (stella), Nintendo 64 (mupen64plus_next), NES (nestopia - aka mesen), Game Boy Advance (mgba), Sega 32X (picodrive), Genesis (genesis_plus_gx), Saturn (mednafen_saturn), Playstation 1 (mednafen_psx_hw), SNES (mesen-s)

 

There is no harm in trying out LB, it's free with some features disabled. Give it a go, get your emulators setup. Take it for a test drive. Watch the Unbroken Software YouTube channel as well as the ETA Prime YT channel for setup videos. If you like then make the purchase to help the developers continue the hard work. Most of all... have fun curating your retro gaming library!

Awesome, thanks so much for the detailed response. It does seem like LaunchBox/BigBox is what I am looking for. I did mess around with the free version, but am comfortable now gettiing BogBox

[Trevador]

Hi - I am just starting to think of a setup for mainly retro PC gaming (tie fighter / wing commander type era ) and 16 bit consoles. The trickiest bit seems to be finding a modern monitor that makes the graphics look as I remember them. Any suggestions on a good choice / best emulators to help adjust display to modern monitor or TV (whatever is best). I am told an OLED display might be my best option but I can’t find solid recommendations of model /type anywhere. Thanks. 

[C-Beats]

On 11/18/2023 at 5:52 AM, Trevador said:

Hi - I am just starting to think of a setup for mainly retro PC gaming (tie fighter / wing commander type era ) and 16 bit consoles. The trickiest bit seems to be finding a modern monitor that makes the graphics look as I remember them. Any suggestions on a good choice / best emulators to help adjust display to modern monitor or TV (whatever is best). I am told an OLED display might be my best option but I can’t find solid recommendations of model /type anywhere. Thanks. 

TV technology has more to do with potential color ranges, brightness, and refresh rates. You can use shaders within RetroArch to help emulate the CRT look of TVs of that era, but that can be done on any machine.

[Kefka2b]

1 hour ago, C-Beats said:

TV technology has more to do with potential color ranges, brightness, and refresh rates. You can use shaders within RetroArch to help emulate the CRT look of TVs of that era, but that can be done on any machine.

I have an LG CX 48, and it looks awesome, for retro games I use Retroarch with the HSM Megabezels with Reflections shaders (I customised it a bit for a bit less reflections as I found them distracting, a bigger screen area by zooming in a bit, slightly increased brightness, with also custom TV bezels to make it look nicer):

https://forums.libretro.com/t/mega-bezel-reflection-shader-feedback-and-updates/25512

Edited November 20, 2023 by Kefka2b

[Trevador]

On 11/20/2023 at 3:30 PM, Kefka2b said:

I have an LG CX 48, and it looks awesome, for retro games I use Retroarch with the HSM Megabezels with Reflections shaders (I customised it a bit for a bit less reflections as I found them distracting, a bigger screen area by zooming in a bit, slightly increased brightness, with also custom TV bezels to make it look nicer):

https://forums.libretro.com/t/mega-bezel-reflection-shader-feedback-and-updates/25512

Thankyou for the advice ! 

[Trevador]

On 11/20/2023 at 2:27 PM, C-Beats said:

TV technology has more to do with potential color ranges, brightness, and refresh rates. You can use shaders within RetroArch to help emulate the CRT look of TVs of that era, but that can be done on any machine.

Thanks - are the shaders any good / easy to use? 

[Ricksticks]

I downloaded it to try. Retroarch emulator wouldn't launch any of my gamecube games, and it was a bit buggy with my N64 games.

I had to right click and open with Dolphin / Simple64 which worked great but opened them emulators up in another window which for me defeats the purpose of having this frontend launcher (which is so my nieces/nephew can enjoy retro titles hassle free)

Hopefully someday it's a smoother program and process that I would support. Good luck!

Edited September 11, 2024 by Ricksticks

[C-Beats]

2 hours ago, Ricksticks said:

I downloaded it to try. Retroarch emulator wouldn't launch any of my gamecube games, and it was a bit buggy with my N64 games.

I had to right click and open with Dolphin / Simple64 which worked great but opened them emulators up in another window which for me defeats the purpose of having this frontend launcher (which is so my nieces/nephew can enjoy retro titles hassle free)

Hopefully someday it's a smoother program and process that I would support. Good luck!

Dolphin standalone should be used for GameCube which LaunchBox should be recommending for you already. If you set that emulator up as default for that platform and let it reassign it for the games you wouldn't need to use the "Open With..." it'd just play with that emulator. Same with using Simple64 for N64.