Big Box MAME Hi Scores

[barfpony]

For whatever reason, Big Box has decided to stop updating hi scores in the cloud.  Desktop Launchbox works fine.  I've tried a couple of suggestions from here - whitelisting big box in the firewall rules, logging out of LBDB and back in, but I've had no luck.

I've attached the Big Box log.  In both Big Box and Launchbox, using three different games (Dragon's Blaze, Strikers 1945, and Strikers 1945 II) I set scores in MAME high enough to affect the recorded hi score list.

In Launchbox, the cloud scores (just weekly/monthly, nothing special) updated as expected.  In Big Box, they did not (I tried Big Box multiple times first, it's not an issue of the scores being superceded by the Launchbox ones, they just weren't posting at all in any of the three games).

Any ideas?  I wasn't sure if this should be in the big thread or not.

Debug 2025-12-16 11-11-31 AM.log

Edited Tuesday at 04:40 PM by barfpony

[barfpony]

Would it help if I added a log from Launchbox where the scores actually updated?  If necessary, I could even create a timeline of logs and high scores demonstrating when Big Box failed and Launchbox succeeded.

[JoeViking245]

There "should be" no difference in how LB vs. BB uploads scores.  Showing the ones (for the same ROMs/games) where LB uploaded the scores may be helpful.

May not be relevant, but one thing to note is that, even though your 'current score' made the MAME hiscore, only your highest score will prevail.

e.g. Playing in LB, you got 1st (as shown above), then playing via BB you made the board in 3rd, it's not "your" highest score. So doesn't 'report'. 

Another thing to note is only changes to the hi file (or nvram) are referenced.  LB/BB reads the respective file before you start playing "that game" and then again after exiting the game and notes any changes.  If there's no changes, there's no upload.  Even if e.g. 184,300 is higher that's what's shown on the LB Leaderboard, if you didn't "just get it", it won't upload.  I only mention this because in your log, all references to dragnblz showed the exact same scores.

 

For s1945, I can see score changes, but around the 4th and 5th place ranking. If (e.g.) the 4th place "new score" was higher than what's shown on the leaderboard, then that may be an issue.

[barfpony]

Hey, thanks for chiming in to help.

Here's a clearer demonstration of the issue.

1. I deleted the high score file for s1945 (Strikers 1945).

2. I did a run on Big Box and scored 319,400 (1st place in MAME).  The cloud scores did not update.

3. I did a run on Launchbox and scored 179,500 (2nd place in MAME).  The cloud scores updated.

4. I did a run on Big Box and scored 240,700 (2nd place in MAME).  The cloud scores did not update.

I've attached logs and screenshots for all three runs.

Something I noticed in the logs is that Big Box tries to read/write the high scores twice, whereas Launchbox only does so once.

Debug 2025-12-21 11-12-06 AM (Big Box Run 1).log Debug 2025-12-21 11-21-59 AM (Launchbox Run).log Debug 2025-12-21 11-44-05 AM (Big Box Run 2).log