How to get LB to import TOSEC Commodore TAP files?

[RetroGuy1970]

Probably a really silly, obvious question (I feel embarrassed to ask), but...

I'm a new LB user, paid for the $75 lifetime subscription based on glowing reviews. I've successfully installed LB, and imported a full set of MAME roms using the automatic wizard (although I'm unsure if it's picked up all the directories and CHDs).

I'm now attempting to import my Commodore VIC-20 roms in TOSEC, and (apart from being disappointed that LB cannot tell the difference between C64 and VIC-20  folders despite being labelled clearly, so assigning them all C64 and needing me to manually change them to VIC-20!), it only seems to import .D64 files, and not .TAP files.

I did take a look at the XML files post-scanning, and the filenames are inddeed present, so LB *should* be displaying them, but it isn't. (I've unhidden everything and made sure that even anything hidden should be visible, too.)

Any suggestions, please?

 

[faeran]

On 8/20/2025 at 5:02 AM, RetroGuy1970 said:

Probably a really silly, obvious question (I feel embarrassed to ask), but...

I'm a new LB user, paid for the $75 lifetime subscription based on glowing reviews. I've successfully installed LB, and imported a full set of MAME roms using the automatic wizard (although I'm unsure if it's picked up all the directories and CHDs).

I'm now attempting to import my Commodore VIC-20 roms in TOSEC, and (apart from being disappointed that LB cannot tell the difference between C64 and VIC-20  folders despite being labelled clearly, so assigning them all C64 and needing me to manually change them to VIC-20!), it only seems to import .D64 files, and not .TAP files.

I did take a look at the XML files post-scanning, and the filenames are inddeed present, so LB *should* be displaying them, but it isn't. (I've unhidden everything and made sure that even anything hidden should be visible, too.)

Any suggestions, please?

 

Welcome in.

There are a lot of different ways you can import games into LaunchBox, and you'll find that most of them are open-ended. While the program tries to guide you through some known best practices, importers tend to be generalized. What would help in identifying what happened is if you could guide us through the exact way you imported, also the names of your game folders and the folder structure would help determine what's going on as well.

If games have been imported properly but you are not seeing them, it would mean either you are hiding them with one of the options under View > Hide Games, they were imported into a section you are not looking, or it's possible that you've imported multiple games that have the same name as another game and LaunchBox has combined them into one game entry. As far as extension types go, LaunchBox is file type agnostic and will import the files you tell it to.

[RetroGuy1970]

Thanks for the reply, my friend, but I've walked away from this product, now - so many bugs with it that I've had to spray my computer with RAID.

Going by the name, and the cost, I think it's perfectly reasonable to expect LB to be able to be simply pointed at a tree of subfolders containing game files, and have it select the right emulator and parameters, and then go and run it. It's not that difficult. 

Instead, I now get a load of hokum about missing dependency files - looks like BIOS roms. C'mon, LB, if you say you support a system in a drop-down box, I don't expect to see complaints about missing firmware roms afterwards. Not even a hint as to where to get these roms, either.

"Launchbox" - it's in the name, right?

Anyhow, I've requested a chargeback on my credit-card, and warned a few forums not to touch this garbage with a cattle-prod.

Happy gaming!

 

Edited September 1 by RetroGuy1970

[launchretrogirl2562]

I once bought a washing machine from a big retail store which advertised as selling them.

I was immediately hooked on that idea so I went to the bank and drew out 649$ and went to buy one.
The store even had a delivery service, free of charge.
I was over the moon.

My excitement after that initial high started to slowly diminish.
Reality kicked in hard.

Turns out, not much washing was being done.
I by then had decided to wait a few days and see if matters would improve.

After a week passed that turned out not to be the case.🙁

The machine I bought still hadn't done any washing. Every time I went and checked on it, it just stood there. Not doing any washing.
I swear there were even times I thought it was just taunting me.

That was 5 years ago, and the list of things I will never-ever buy anymore have become legion.

 

[RetroGuy1970]

On 9/2/2025 at 3:12 AM, launchretrogirl2562 said:

I once bought a washing machine from a big retail store which advertised as selling them.

The machine I bought still hadn't done any washing. Every time I went and checked on it, it just stood there. Not doing any washing.
I swear there were even times I thought it was just taunting me.

That was 5 years ago, and the list of things I will never-ever buy anymore have become legion.

 

Lovely story, my friend, and I take your well-made point. However, this "washing machine" specifically advertised itself as being able to wash clothes once correctly presented to it - when in truth, it didn't know how to handle my clothes at all.

Stay safe.

[launchretrogirl2562]

@RetroGuy1970
maybe also look for 1G1R romsets. Those are more easily managed.
1 game 1 rom, and all of them are split in separate platforms and don't have duplicates.