How do I tell LaunchBox to Run a Specific Clone inside a Rom?

[Skirmy]

So I've got Mame.

I've got "game.zip"

When I import "game.zip" into Launchbox, it shows up as 1 game.

When I look up that game directly inside of Mame, I see a couple.

1. Parent Game

2. Clone of Parent Game.

Launchbox starts the parent game when double clicked. I want to start the 2nd, cloned one only from Launchbox when it's double clicked.

Things to note:

Right clicking the game in LaunchBox and expanding it produced no other game
Additional Apps in editing the game shows nothing there.

But like I said, if you look at it in mame, there's more than 1 flavor there. And the clone runs fine via mame.

I assume there is a command parameter needed in the launching area but I don't know what that is, or if that is even how do you do that?

Edited September 14, 2023 by Skirmy

[C-Beats]

It may be related to how you imported your MAME set. I know there is an option to import only parents in that import. If you did so you wouldn't have any additional apps / clones imported.

[JoeViking245]

8 hours ago, Skirmy said:

if you look at it in mame, there's more than 1 flavor there. And the clone runs fine via mame.

I assume there is a command parameter needed in the launching area but I don't know what that is, or if that is even how do you do that?

From the sounds of things, your game.zip is from a merged set.  Meaning the zip file contains the parent game and its clones.  The file itself is named after the parent game and when you import that [single] game, that's what LaunchBox imports.  It doesn't look 'inside' to attempt to determine if the ROM is from a merged, non-merged or split set.

If it is indeed from a merged set, and you want to launch just one of the 'embedded' clones, you can change the launching path to the ROM to the name of the would-be clone.  Example: if the ROM is polepos.zip (World version of Pole Position) and you want to launch the Atari version-2 version of the game, change the application path of the game to point to poleposa2.zip (even though that file doesn't physically exist in that location).  When you launch the game from LaunchBox, MAME will know to look inside polepos.zip for the Atari version.

If you want the options to launch any of the other versions, you'd need to manually add them as additional apps and then mark the one you want as default.

 

That's if you're importing your [merged set] ROMs one-at-a-time.  aka: The hard way.

To get all the clones imported as Additional Apps (or separately, for that matter) from a Merged set, I believe your only option is to use the ever-so-intelligent MAME Arcade Full Set import Wizard.  This will account for clones that are in a merged set.  But you need the full-set (merged, non-merged or split) to use the wizard.

[Skirmy]

3 hours ago, C-Beats said:

It may be related to how you imported your MAME set. I know there is an option to import only parents in that import. If you did so you wouldn't have any additional apps / clones imported.

Right, but I don't want to run the parent, I want to run the clone lol.

[C-Beats]

2 minutes ago, Skirmy said:

Right, but I don't want to run the parent, I want to run the clone lol.

Right, which isn't an option if you told the importer to only bring in the parent. If you leave the import options as default you'd definitely have the clones listed.

[Skirmy]

2 hours ago, JoeViking245 said:

From the sounds of things, your game.zip is from a merged set.  Meaning the zip file contains the parent game and its clones.  The file itself is named after the parent game and when you import that [single] game, that's what LaunchBox imports.  It doesn't look 'inside' to attempt to determine if the ROM is from a merged, non-merged or split set.

If it is indeed from a merged set, and you want to launch just one of the 'embedded' clones, you can change the launching path to the ROM to the name of the would-be clone.  Example: if the ROM is polepos.zip (World version of Pole Position) and you want to launch the Atari version-2 version of the game, change the application path of the game to point to poleposa2.zip (even though that file doesn't physically exist in that location).  When you launch the game from LaunchBox, MAME will know to look inside polepos.zip for the Atari version.

If you want the options to launch any of the other versions, you'd need to manually add them as additional apps and then mark the one you want as default.

 

That's if you're importing your [merged set] ROMs one-at-a-time.  aka: The hard way.

To get all the clones imported as Additional Apps (or separately, for that matter) from a Merged set, I believe your only option is to use the ever-so-intelligent MAME Arcade Full Set import Wizard.  This will account for clones that are in a merged set.  But you need the full-set (merged, non-merged or split) to use the wizard.

Correct, it's a clone inside the zip. So it's merged. I think using the "name" of the clone as the file name may do the trick. Like I said it doesn't show up as additional apps.

Had not used the MAME Arcade Full Set Import Wizard yet, will check that out too!

Thanks for the help!

Edited September 14, 2023 by Skirmy

[Skirmy]

Just now, C-Beats said:

Right, which isn't an option if you told the importer to only bring in the parent. If you leave the import options as default you'd definitely have the clones listed.

That's the thing, I left the options default except I unchecked "Skip clones"... which by my understanding should import the clones separately. But, it didn't.

[Skirmy]

4 hours ago, JoeViking245 said:

From the sounds of things, your game.zip is from a merged set.  Meaning the zip file contains the parent game and its clones.  The file itself is named after the parent game and when you import that [single] game, that's what LaunchBox imports.  It doesn't look 'inside' to attempt to determine if the ROM is from a merged, non-merged or split set.

If it is indeed from a merged set, and you want to launch just one of the 'embedded' clones, you can change the launching path to the ROM to the name of the would-be clone.  Example: if the ROM is polepos.zip (World version of Pole Position) and you want to launch the Atari version-2 version of the game, change the application path of the game to point to poleposa2.zip (even though that file doesn't physically exist in that location).  When you launch the game from LaunchBox, MAME will know to look inside polepos.zip for the Atari version.

If you want the options to launch any of the other versions, you'd need to manually add them as additional apps and then mark the one you want as default.

 

That's if you're importing your [merged set] ROMs one-at-a-time.  aka: The hard way.

To get all the clones imported as Additional Apps (or separately, for that matter) from a Merged set, I believe your only option is to use the ever-so-intelligent MAME Arcade Full Set import Wizard.  This will account for clones that are in a merged set.  But you need the full-set (merged, non-merged or split) to use the wizard.

So I tried using the correct name for the clone in the rom path inside the edited game in LB and that didn't work.

I used CLRMamePro and the correct romset dat file and rebuilt the merged rom so it would separate the two out into a parent.zip and clone.zip.

I can run mame via command line and simply using mame clone.zip, it will launch the clone and play.

But LB will not import the clone.zip file.

I have tried leaving all options default, I have checked force dupes, use folder name instead of rom name, skip clones import clones import all clones unchecked all skip boxes rechecked all skip boxes every combination that I can think of...

But LB never wants to import it. The games to import just stays blank. Yet I can run this thing via mame, ui or cmd.

I'm going to try to manually add it and see what happens lol.

Edited September 14, 2023 by Skirmy

[Skirmy]

So, using CLRMamePro with the correct dat file to bring the clone out of the romset, then manually adding it into LB is what did the trick for anyone else wanting to know.

If you've never used CLRMamePro, here is a great tutorial video!

 

 

[Cazadores]

So i figure it out. Just creat a dummy zip folder with the name of the clone in the launchbox "Arcade" Games folder, just as you would in the MAME roms folder. Then right click the game in launch box and select "Edit", then Edit metadata and click on "Launching". Then on ROM FILE go to browse and select the dummy folder with the clones name. Next time you launch the game it will launch from the clone.