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LaunchBox Launcher


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LaunchBox Launcher

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A launcher extension for LaunchBox, allowing easier autobooting / launching of individual roms for older 8 bit systems. It will also allow you to define different behaviour for a platform, based on the file extension, which is something LaunchBox is a bit lacking in.

The program file to run is defined using a custom field named "program" in Launchbox, this is stored against each individual rom. If a rom is not supplied then a default autoboot script may be run, for some systems this is all that is required, but some systems rely on the name of a program to run automatically (for example the Acorn Atom).

The launcher is currently set up for Mame, but it can be defined to run other emulators through the XML configuration.

Note this is currently very much beta software, I've coded it for my own use but realised it may actually be useful for someone else. This is my first real attempt at writing anything in PowerShell, so it may be a bit rough and ready. You'll probably need to change some XML files to make it work for your situation, it's probably worth looking at the Github Repository I've set up; this does have a basic readme explaining how it works.

 

Github Repository: https://github.com/jonesthesoftware/LaunchBoxLauncher

 

At the moment it defines boot sequences for Acorn Atom, Acorn Electron, BBC Micro, Amstrad CPC, and Dragon computers using Mame. I will be adding more options at a later date, more than happy for anyone else to add to the functionality / define boot sequences (it's distributed on a very unrestrictive MIT license).

 


 

Edited by ddraig
Adding a few screenshots
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Included lua scripts from RandoMame, note these are unmodified and are licensed under Apache 2.0; if you make modifications and distribute you must acknowledge any changes you make to those scripts. 

RandoMame is definitely worth looking at if you have any interest in automating emulation using Mame, whether or not you're interested in my humble application; credit to Bob-Z (on github) for these excellent lua scripts. At the moment I'm only using them for Amstrad CPC tapes, but they do an excellent job of loading & speeding up the emulator whilst the tape is loading - no need to hold down insert / press f10. Some of the other scripts appear to check the name of the files in the inserted media, I haven't had chance to test them yet, but will include at a later date when I have made sure they work.

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