Combining Arcade Platforms for Big Box?

[onebadveggie]

Hey guys, I was just curious about something.

So, I have my Arcade platforms split into the following:

Daphne, MAME, Atomiswave, Sega M2, Sega M3, and NAOMI.

I'm using a theme that sees MAME as the default "Arcade" platform and has a special theme for that, but uses a basic theme for all the others.

Is there any way for me to get Launchbox/Big Box to "see" the other Arcade platforms as the same as MAME or something so they can share similar themes?

[Kefka2b]

2 hours ago, onebadveggie said:

Hey guys, I was just curious about something.

So, I have my Arcade platforms split into the following:

Daphne, MAME, Atomiswave, Sega M2, Sega M3, and NAOMI.

I'm using a theme that sees MAME as the default "Arcade" platform and has a special theme for that, but uses a basic theme for all the others.

Is there any way for me to get Launchbox/Big Box to "see" the other Arcade platforms as the same as MAME or something so they can share similar themes?

You probably need to create a custom playlist which would have a custom field you created as condition, and then add that field to all the Arcade games. If you set Launchbox to display platform categories before platforms you can easily select all arcade games and add that custom field to them in bulk.

Once done, you would set the playlist with root level as parent (or arcade if you don't use platform categories) and hide all regular arcade platforms in Bigbox (Mame, NAOMI etc...), there is a check box that allows you to do that when you edit a platform. I'm saying all this from memory so hopefully it's understandable.

The easier thing would be if you could bypass sub platforms to display all games from the Arcade platform category but I don't think it's possible.

[Kefka2b]

Maybe I understood this completely wrong, you're saying your BB theme uses a default/generic for other arcade platforms? which theme is it? it probably doesn't have support for these platforms or maybe you're missing the necessary media?

[Retro808]

You would have to manually edit the theme since it is a custom theme. There is no BB setting to do this. 

Go into the theme's man folder and then go into the \Views folder. Within that you might see a set of subfolders named after views. If there are those folders then open the folder for the view you are using in BB and inside you should see a xaml file named "Arcade". You can copy that file and paste it then rename that new one exactly as your other arcade platforms are named. Example: Atomiswave.xaml. You may have to then open that file and see if any of the lines of code reference the "Arcade" platform name. If it does you would need to edit that to show the new platform name. This should give those platforms that same Arcade look in the theme.

Below are examples of a theme using custom views for platforms. You can see in the main \Views folders are the global view files and then the folders with the view names. Those folders contain custom platform files for the different views. Going into the WheelGamesView folder you see the theme maker made custom platform views for the platforms listed. 

[onebadveggie]

15 hours ago, Kefka2b said:

Maybe I understood this completely wrong, you're saying your BB theme uses a default/generic for other arcade platforms? which theme is it? it probably doesn't have support for these platforms or maybe you're missing the necessary media?

Yeah, exactly. But my thinking was, if it has an "arcade" platform that it uses for MAME, then perhaps there's a way to also point that towards the other arcade platforms as well. Basically telling Launchbox/Bigbox to "see" the other platforms besides MAME as a unified "Arcade" for the purpose of themes.

 

13 hours ago, Retro808 said:

You would have to manually edit the theme since it is a custom theme. There is no BB setting to do this. 

Go into the theme's man folder and then go into the \Views folder. Within that you might see a set of subfolders named after views. If there are those folders then open the folder for the view you are using in BB and inside you should see a xaml file named "Arcade". You can copy that file and paste it then rename that new one exactly as your other arcade platforms are named. Example: Atomiswave.xaml. You may have to then open that file and see if any of the lines of code reference the "Arcade" platform name. If it does you would need to edit that to show the new platform name. This should give those platforms that same Arcade look in the theme.

Below are examples of a theme using custom views for platforms. You can see in the main \Views folders are the global view files and then the folders with the view names. Those folders contain custom platform files for the different views. Going into the WheelGamesView folder you see the theme maker made custom platform views for the platforms listed. 

I figured this would be the solution, but I was hoping maybe there was a way to get Launchbox/Bigbox to see the other platforms under the big "Arcade" umbrella and just unify it for the purpose of themes or whatever. I hope what I'm saying makes sense.

 

Thanks for the responses!

Edited June 5 by onebadveggie

[Retro808]

5 minutes ago, onebadveggie said:

I figured this would be the solution, but I was hoping maybe there was a way to get Launchbox/Bigbox to see the other platforms under the big "Arcade" umbrella and just unify it for the purpose of themes or whatever. I hope what I'm saying makes sense.

 

Thanks for the responses!

Unfortunately no due to the custom use of views by the theme.  Custom themes can easily override BB settings so even if there was a setting, the theme if coded a certain way would make the setting useless.