I still hate Lunchbox lol

[Mark Norville]

Only joking, I might actually be in love, but I will always call it Lunchbox though lol

I have tried the software before, but I have to say that I hated it, but seeing a video from ETA Prime today, as it is nearly Christmas and I wanted something for my cinema PC, I thought sod it why not, as it was discounted prices.

As an old skool gamer, even though I don't really play games any more, but I still love the experience of if I want to play something, then I can. When I first saw MAME running on a 486 DX PC, or possibly even before that, I was choking back tears seeing these massive arcade cabinets, in a massive PC.

I started off my retro journey, basic MAME, then frontends Hyperspin, I loved it when I did not have it, but hated it when I did have it. I then moved onto Coinops, loved that, especially the wall theme, but having new releases every two minutes really annoyed the hell out of me, you spend months getting half done and he changes it again. I then moved onto AttractMode, which I had tried before and hated, but tried it years later and started to love it when I got to learn how to use it properly. However, you need a lot of work with AM to get the best out of it, and I was starting again with it, but I stopped as really this is not a main priority for me, it is just something to do as a hobby, but often feels more like a full time job.

The reason why I decided to buy today, was seeing some of the skins on the ETA video, which was what I was looking for really, something for a large screen TV and not much work to do. I just wanted to set it up and play, rather than always doing graphics for every single cabinet and every single game, as it is a never ending job, and even if you started as a baby, you could never complete it in two life times.

The fact of no DRM is also very massive, just a shame that some people abuse that, I could have just downloaded a free and full version, but I like to reward hard work and really a job well done. It has a learning curve with it, but enough videos on how to use it. However, to have things automate so you do not have to spend all your time collecting data etc is truly remarkable. 

So well done Jason and whoever works with you, well done to the skinners who can learn how to make skins, which from when I looked is almost impossible, it is like a programming language, and I am too stupid and old to learn new things.

I shall end here, as I do tend to waffle on.

Regards

Mark

[Jabb3rJaw]

20 minutes ago, Mark Norville said:

Only joking, I might actually be in love, but I will always call it Lunchbox though lol

I have tried the software before, but I have to say that I hated it, but seeing a video from ETA Prime today, as it is nearly Christmas and I wanted something for my cinema PC, I thought sod it why not, as it was discounted prices.

As an old skool gamer, even though I don't really play games any more, but I still love the experience of if I want to play something, then I can. When I first saw MAME running on a 486 DX PC, or possibly even before that, I was choking back tears seeing these massive arcade cabinets, in a massive PC.

I started off my retro journey, basic MAME, then frontends Hyperspin, I loved it when I did not have it, but hated it when I did have it. I then moved onto Coinops, loved that, especially the wall theme, but having new releases every two minutes really annoyed the hell out of me, you spend months getting half done and he changes it again. I then moved onto AttractMode, which I had tried before and hated, but tried it years later and started to love it when I got to learn how to use it properly. However, you need a lot of work with AM to get the best out of it, and I was starting again with it, but I stopped as really this is not a main priority for me, it is just something to do as a hobby, but often feels more like a full time job.

The reason why I decided to buy today, was seeing some of the skins on the ETA video, which was what I was looking for really, something for a large screen TV and not much work to do. I just wanted to set it up and play, rather than always doing graphics for every single cabinet and every single game, as it is a never ending job, and even if you started as a baby, you could never complete it in two life times.

The fact of no DRM is also very massive, just a shame that some people abuse that, I could have just downloaded a free and full version, but I like to reward hard work and really a job well done. It has a learning curve with it, but enough videos on how to use it. However, to have things automate so you do not have to spend all your time collecting data etc is truly remarkable. 

So well done Jason and whoever works with you, well done to the skinners who can learn how to make skins, which from when I looked is almost impossible, it is like a programming language, and I am too stupid and old to learn new things.

I shall end here, as I do tend to waffle on.

Regards

Mark

I have Hyperspin and Launchbox/Bigbox on my cab. I slowly built up Launchbox while using Hyperspin because I wasn’t sold on Bigbox. It was laggy on the wheel which was my main concern. Now it’s gotten a lot better and I rarely use Hyperspin if at all. Hyperspin does however have more artwork available so it looks a little nicer sometimes but Bigbox will get there I’m sure. The ease of setting up Launchbox makes it worth it. All the media downloaded for you automatically and importing games is super easy. I don’t need third party programs like I did in Hyperspin for stuff like controllers and to just turn the volume up and down. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do! Good luck!

[Mark Norville]

Thankfully everyone is different, and have different views and likes.

I used to love the HS look when I first saw it, but what I ended up hating was the ever changing graphics, so I did actually start creating skins or trying to get it to look something different.

One HS demo I  done, a Space Invaders theme 

Another demo of something I was working on 

 

And just to leave you with one more lol 

Oh go on, I will throw Attract Mode in as well

 

[damageinc86]

12 hours ago, Jabb3rJaw said:

I have Hyperspin and Launchbox/Bigbox on my cab. I slowly built up Launchbox while using Hyperspin because I wasn’t sold on Bigbox. It was laggy on the wheel which was my main concern. Now it’s gotten a lot better and I rarely use Hyperspin if at all. Hyperspin does however have more artwork available so it looks a little nicer sometimes but Bigbox will get there I’m sure. The ease of setting up Launchbox makes it worth it. All the media downloaded for you automatically and importing games is super easy. I don’t need third party programs like I did in Hyperspin for stuff like controllers and to just turn the volume up and down. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do! Good luck!

It took me a long time to finally hit the delete button on my hyperspin folder.  But eventually, I just never ended up using it anymore.  Launchbox is just so much better all around.  Especially the metadata and database stuff.  Having to edit the Hyperspin xml files was a PAIN.  With the Bannerbox theme, I haven't ever seen my collection look so good before.  Love it!  Launchbox rules.

[Jabb3rJaw]

1 hour ago, damageinc86 said:

It took me a long time to finally hit the delete button on my hyperspin folder.  But eventually, I just never ended up using it anymore.  Launchbox is just so much better all around.  Especially the metadata and database stuff.  Having to edit the Hyperspin xml files was a PAIN.  With the Bannerbox theme, I haven't ever seen my collection look so good before.  Love it!  Launchbox rules.

Are you using this theme in a cabinet? I’m using the refried theme for Bigbox in a cabinet and it feels like hyperspin. For me it was all the time spent on renaming files or like you said creating or editing xml files. 

[damageinc86]

On 11/24/2023 at 11:53 PM, Jabb3rJaw said:

Are you using this theme in a cabinet? I’m using the refried theme for Bigbox in a cabinet and it feels like hyperspin. For me it was all the time spent on renaming files or like you said creating or editing xml files. 

No don't have a cabinet yet.  I really want to get a recroommasters cab.  Someday.  For now it's just on an older 55" TV.  And yeah, the database/metadata/artwork retrieval system is phenomenal.