1st time using launchBox, MAME will not run, only show contents of zip files.

[tk007b]

Hi 

Hopefully, this is something obvious that I have missed!

I've loaded the latest version of LaunchBox on my Win 11 PC.  I have copied some MAME roms into the  ... LaunchBox, Games, MAME folder. The games are recognised inside LB but no pictures etc. However, when I try to run them, it just opens the zip file in question and shows me the contents. I have manually downloaded MAME and put it in the c: Emulator/mame folder and then pointed LB via Manage, Emulator from TOOLS menu. 

However, I just cannot get it to run. 

What am I doing wrong, and where should I be looking for instuctions ??? 

 

Many thanks 

[launchretrogirl2562]

Maybe by watching these video's first 

 

 

Edited July 30 by launchretrogirl2562

[tk007b]

Thanks - I'll watch and try again tomorrow 

:-) 

[tk007b]

ok, I listened. I downloaded an enormous ROMSET (0.279) and imported them all into LB. All went well, in the main.  (FYI - I was trying to manually install a few arcade games which was initially challenging, even though i overcame that by installing MAME and putting the the games in the ROM directory) 

I now have nearly 3K of games, with limited game covers. Most of which I will never use. So my next trance of questions are:

1. How can I / what's the best way to bulk delete all the stuff i don't want. 

2. How can I get covers for the games to make it look nice without subscribing to EMUwhatever it is .. $70 for life membership is a LOT !!! as I'm bound to need it for longer than 1 year. plus i need to save up for BigBox possibly!

3. I have a Sinden light gun without any clue how to get it working on LB. I have calibrated it with the Sinden software but just cannot seem to get the white borders working on the game, and therefore nor the light guns. 

My 'aim' is to have a bunch of games that I use to play from my youth including arcade, console, driving (spinners/steering wheels), trackballs and light guns .. I don't want to end up with 150 million TB of stuff i will mainly not use ;-)   

Thanks, appreciate it's a lot of questions but wonder if there's some documentation for this type of set up, if not, I might write one up when I get it resolved, for others) 

:-) 

[launchretrogirl2562]

1. How can I / what's the best way to bulk delete all the stuff i don't want. 

That will be manual labor. Nobody else can do that for you, because only u know which games u want and which u don't. 
So you will either have to automatically filter out the bulk of them through the full mame import filters...or you will have to delete them manually in Launchbox.

2.Also, unless you are willing to pay for a subscription, you will have to look for the artwork in other places and manually add it yourself for all games u decide to keep.
Things which are nice usually come at a price...and having decent artwork and not wanting to do everything manually will (if u want the convenient way) require a subscription.

3. No experience with Light gun games. Cannot advice on this.

[tk007b]

Thanks :-)

Wasn't expecting anyone to magically delete all the games I don't want  .. just wanted to know if there were mass delete options that I wasn't aware of. Sounds like, I might have to keep the roms I like and delete the rest but because it's a merged romset, I hope it doesn't get messy. Time will tell. 

Point noted regarding artwork .. thanks :-) 

Will ask separately regarding light-gun .. baby steps! 

Cheers

T :-) 

[launchretrogirl2562]

with merged...best to watch what u delete cause u might/will break things.
If u want easier way of deleting stuff, then non-merged set would be the way to go.
(Non-Merged is mostly used by people that want to delete games out of the MAME set and only use specific games.)

 

[tk007b]

Thank you :-) 

 

I think I have the answer, I did some hocus-pocus on the PC yesterday and I think I have magically turned my merged set into a non merged set. Will do some testing now to see if it works but "eye of toad and leg of newt", in a cauldron, seems to have worked ;-) 

Cheers 

:-) 

[launchretrogirl2562]

some CLRMAMEPro hocus-pocus it seems.

But, good job!

[tk007b]

You mean the amphibian parts were for nothing ?!?!?!?!  ;-) 

Yes, CLRMAMEPRO did the trick .. still not quite sure how I did it! 

.. but thanks :-) 

[tk007b]

Looks like my original question is still unanswered but by pulling in a whole romset, LaunchBox seems to have installed the right version of MAME and got them working, as a workaround.  I will post up the solution if I ever find out, how to just get a few roms working without the massive import. 

[JoeViking245]

3 hours ago, tk007b said:

Looks like my original question is still unanswered but by pulling in a whole romset, LaunchBox seems to have installed the right version of MAME and got them working, as a workaround.  I will post up the solution if I ever find out, how to just get a few roms working without the massive import. 

You could try this and see if it sheds any light...