Zinc Emulator in Launchbox: Looking to create a single bat file with multiple roms to launch from?

[Bucky_OHare]

Greetings,

 

I have developed affinity for my Zinc emulator. I am aware that MAME also supports Zinc roms with superior compatibility, through troubleshooting I hypoth that Zinc exclusively accepts controllers without dual-thumbsticks, so no Xbox or PlayStation. It gets picky if a 2nd analog thumbstick is introduced. Can anyone confirm this? Anyway, I enjoy the emulator for it's graphics plugins and nostalgia (let me know if there's a version of Mame with better graphical plugins though? I'm open to it!). Alright onto the primary inquiry at hand!

 

I learned a ton about Launchbox these past few days, for example I learned how to launch a single Zinc game from a single bat file. But having loads of bat files in the root of my Zinc folder or elsewhere looks kind of tacky (making bat files for each rom). Using a fresh bat file is there a command line argument I can use that will launch each game that I click-on and then when I'm done playing shutdown the emulator? The closest I came to this is one of the commands I gleaned off of google, even then the closest I got is to launch a set of games in a strict queue list. No matter what rom I clicked on the first in the command was SFEX, Rival Schools after and so fourth and so on. I'd like to have a properly curated bat file that takes care of game launching to avoid having to create multiple ones, as that is rather be tedious. How to accomplish such a task? If someone could hook me up with a command that gets this done, I will be eternally grateful. Keep in mind this question is for Launchbox only as I have zero issues finding a game list in the Zinc frontend. However I want LB it looks more organized plus I got the other emus in there.

Edited yesterday at 01:38 PM by Bucky_OHare

[C-Beats]

Would help others to answer your question if you showed the syntax the BAT files are using to launch the emulator/rom

[Bucky_OHare]

Np! The syntax I used is as follows:

 

@echo off
cd /d "C:\Users\rando\Documents\Zinc"  (Replace with your actual path)
zinc.exe 2

 

As you may know Zinc launches roms based off the number, the number two signifies the Street Fighter EX rom. I put the rom name after the executable.

Edited yesterday at 02:42 PM by Bucky_OHare

[JoeViking245]

Assuming you have the games imported into LaunchBox (so they have proper titles, metadata and media), you might be able to:

• Add a new emulator to LaunchBox
  • Point the app path to your zinc.exe
  • Check the boxes:
    • Remove Quotes
    • Remove File Extension...
  • Set the Associated Platforms to include your Zinc platform(s) (whatever you've named them)
  • Save
• Edit your Street Fighter EX game
  • In the Emulation section
    • Use an Emulator... should be checked
      • if not, check it and select your new Zinc emulator
  • In the Launching section
    • Set the ROM File to "2" (without quotes)
    • 
  • Click OK to save and close

If not already, set your Zinc platform (whatever you've called it) to Scrape-As "Arcade".  Otherwise, when you go to launch a game, it'll tell you something like "Gane ROM not Found".

 

Wash, rinse and repeat for the other games, changing "2" to the appropriate number.

Delete (or move for backup) all 'those' batch files.

[Bucky_OHare]

Feels like I'm missing something, I removed the bat file and went with your method. When I boot the game I get a command line start as per usual however the game failed to start. Where did I go wrong?

Edited yesterday at 07:11 PM by Bucky_OHare

[JoeViking245]

1 hour ago, Bucky_OHare said:

 I removed the bat file and went with your method. 

Prove it.

Edit the new emulator you created and share a screenshot of:

• The main Details section
• The Associated Platforms section

Edit your Street Fighter EX game and share a screenshot of:

• The main section
• The Launching section
• The Emulation section

1 hour ago, Bucky_OHare said:

Where did I go wrong?

Requested screenshots may help determine that.  

[Bucky_OHare]

The sfex section is barebones because after it failed I reinstalled the rom. Once everything is working again I'll re-add the meta data. Here are the screen grabs!

[JoeViking245]

15 minutes ago, Bucky_OHare said:

The sfex section is barebones because after it failed I reinstalled the rom. Once everything is working again I'll re-add the meta data. Here are the screen grabs

• Edit the game
• In the Emulation section, un-check Use Custom Command-line Parameters.
• In the Launching section, change ROM File to "2" (without quotes)
• Click OK to save and close

[JoeViking245]

16 minutes ago, JoeViking245 said:

• Edit the game
• In the Emulation section, un-check Use Custom Command-line Parameters.
• In the Launching section, change ROM File to "2" (without quotes)
• Click OK to save and close

OPTIONALLY

• Edit the game
• In the Emulation section
  • Leave Use Custom Command-line Parameters checked
  • add a {space} and %noromfile% after the 2 you have in there.
    • 2 %noromfile% 
• You can leave the Launching section as is
• Click OK to save and close

[Bucky_OHare]

Figured it out! Launchbox kept spitting out the old plugin renderer!!!!!

 

What kept throwing me off was the ZiNc emulator launched games just fine on it's own. My old Zinc install worked but that's because it used the new renderer. I replaced the old install with the new one because it offered a full rom set! In so doing it eliminated the old renderer. I'm sorry I didn't see this sooner.

 

Thanks for all your help. LB can be a picky s.o.b.

Edited 22 hours ago by Bucky_OHare

[C-Beats]

13 hours ago, Bucky_OHare said:

LB can be a picky s.o.b.

Hey now! We just do what you tell us!