Passwords for Games

[The Papaw]

Is there a way to create a password for launching games from BB, I.E. if they have a rating of AO or Mature, when someone clicks the game it will request a password before launching?

[Retro808]

Not from within the UI directly. Could possibly be something someone can code a plugin to do. 

[Sbaby]

13 hours ago, The Papaw said:

Is there a way to create a password for launching games from BB, I.E. if they have a rating of AO or Mature, when someone clicks the game it will request a password before launching?

 

13 hours ago, Retro808 said:

Not from within the UI directly. Could possibly be something someone can code a plugin to do. 

Hi,

Your post regarding the password reminded me that I too would need a similar feature. Unfortunately, I have no skills in creating plugins, but I recently discovered the 30-second timeout of “Additional Apps” set to “Wait For Exit”. Because of this, I created a script, still rather crude, for password entry.

I will preface this by saying that I developed it in one evening, so I did not take care of the graphical aspect and there may be typos. The script starts a GUI in which you can enter the password. If the password is wrong, you can keep trying again within the 30-second timeout managed by LaunchBox. If you enter the correct password, the script closes and the game starts. If, on the other hand, the 30 seconds elapse without entering the correct password, the game (in this case MAME) starts for two seconds and then closes immediately without displaying anything as we directly interrupt the loading of MAME. If you need to calibrate the situation try configuring the script to 27 or 28 seconds

I would appreciate your advice on output variables, because it would be ideal for MAME not to start at all if the time expires. I also tried to implement a graphical timeout, but unfortunately I could not get it to work as I wanted. For the time being, there is a tooltip that shows the countdown positioned where you have your mouse; it is not very pretty, but whatever.

These may seem like my current knowledge, but ChatGPT has helped me so much and I am aware that there is room for improvement. For example I would like to implement that the script automatically detect your monitor resolution and adapt the lettering and password box to your screen, I haven't tried with other resolutions other than 1920x1080 but I really think you will see some unordered objects, so at the moment I recommend full hd . I know you could make a fake emulator to handle this, but it seems like overkill considering I only have three adult games.

To use the script, enter in “Target” mame.exe or the executable of the emulator or game you want to protect, and set your password. Next, save the script and add it as the game's “Additional App.” For example, I used it on Poker Ladies. Remember to configure the app so that it starts before the game and waits for it to close. if you have a lot of mature games you have to filter them in launchbox and use "Bulk/Remove Additional Apps"

The script is entirely in Italian, and can be edited with any text editor. I would love for someone to take a cue from this to improve it, perhaps turning it into a plugin and adding the ability to enter the password with the joypad through a virtual keyboard. Try it out and let me know what you think. I attach a video of how it runs for me: in the first part I always get the passwords wrong until the script automatically closes and returns to BigBox, instead from minute 0.42 I try it again and type it correct immediately, no need to wait for more seconds, the game executes right away

 

Script (Beta01) 

 

PasswordTimerAddApps-MAME.ahk

 

 

 

Off Topic : I think it is the only my mame game that does not have a dedicated bezel, do you have one to give me ? 🙉

Edited August 27 by Sbaby