Launchbox Integration with SCUMMVM

[JoeViking245]

Did some hands-on testing and learned a few things...

Using -c (scummvm.ini):

• If you start ScummVM without "scummvm.ini" in the same folder as the exe, it will be created in %AppData%.  And save states etc. will be saved there as well.
• If you use the -c parameter (or --config= ), regardless of what you set it to, Saves will be saved into the %AppData% folder.  Unless you use the --savepath= parameter as well.  Same with --logfile= and anything else that gets saved to disc.
• If you start ScummVM with "scummvm.ini" in the same folder as the exe, and no -c parameter, everything gets saved in a "portable" fashion.

 

Using -p:

When launching a game with the -p parameter, ScummVM will see it as a "new game" but still identify it (monkey2) correctly.  But it will then suffix the "new games" id with -1.  And since the scummvm.ini file doesn't contain a specific section for "[monkey2-1]", no custom settings you originally made will load.  This 'suffix thing' is the same with save states.  

If you manually edit the scummvm.ini and copy/paste the [monkey2] section and rename it [monkey2-1], upon launching with -p, ScummVM will again, find a "new game". This time suffixing it with -2.  ...We call this an uphill battle.

 

The Fix:

I tried this, that and the other thing to be able to load the saved game-specific settings and nothing worked.  Except 1.

• Open ScummVM
• Select the game you made specific changes to (Monkey Island 2)
• Click Game Options
• Make note of the ID (monkey2)
• Close ScummVM
• In LaunchBox, edit the game
• In the Emulation section
  • check the box Use Custom Command-line Parameters
  • In the space below it, put
    • -f monkey2 %noromfile%
  • (if you prefer, you can change -f to --fullscreen.  Same thing.)
• Click OK to save and close
• Wash, rinse and repeat for other games you've made custom settings for
• Play games

 

Final Note:

With that, you can revert the emulators Default Command-Line Parameters to -p %romfile% --auto-detect --fullscreen.  (removing the -c config parameter)

[Tsik]

59 minutes ago, JoeViking245 said:

When launching a game with the -p parameter, ScummVM will see it as a "new game" but still identify it (monkey2) correctly.  But it will then suffix the "new games" id with -1.  And since the scummvm.ini file doesn't contain a specific section for "[monkey2-1]", no custom settings you originally made will load.  This 'suffix thing' is the same with save states.  

If you manually edit the scummvm.ini and copy/paste the [monkey2] section and rename it [monkey2-1], upon launching with -p, ScummVM will again, find a "new game". This time suffixing it with -2.  ...We call this an uphill battle.

 That's true, I fell a lot of times in that id-1 hole in the past. The other way for avoiding the "id-1" change and also to the save games I think is to 1st add the games to ScummVM as normal as you importing them (making sure you use the same scummvm.ini file of course) and in addition to that (as I do in my own setup) I use a [id_name].scummvm file (a txt file with the id text inside and changed the extension to .scummvm) "as the rom" files instead of just the game folder, but all that are a bit more... you know... later stuff.
First I'm trying to help setting-up the basis as LaunchBox is intended to do ( *in a portable fashion) and then "build" from there. 😉

Edited 6 hours ago by Tsik

[Ronen1984]

4 hours ago, Tsik said:

Its ok, just leave everything else for now and lets concentrate just to the steps I show you (I now they are baby steps but trust me on this).

Will wait for confirmation on the above steps and continue with more custom stuff.

Cheers 🙂

Thank you so much for your patience!

I did the steps above. baby steps indeed

You can write the rest of the process and i'll follow the instructions, I'm going AFK soon  

[Tsik]

4 hours ago, Ronen1984 said:

I did the steps above.

 

4 hours ago, Ronen1984 said:

You can write the rest of the process and i'll follow the instructions

That's perfect! So lets summarize:

• We have downloaded ScummVM from within LaunchBox
• We have imported the game into LaunchBox
• The game is playable through LaunchBox but the gui shows empty

Now check that there is indeed a scummvm.ini in LaunchBox\Emulators\ScummVM folder and no ScummVM folder at all in %Appdata%\Roaming because we are going to save some data on to it.
Attention there is no ini file either reinstall ScummVM from LaunchBox or just create an empty txt document call it scummvm and change the extension from .txt to .ini

Use the right-click 'Open ScummVM' option from the 'Monkey Island 2' game in LaunchBox 

and check the paths from the 'Global Options' the should point to LaunchBox\Emulators\ScummVM\scummvm.ini as below:

Now press the Apply and OK buttons without doing anything else and close scummVM gui.
If you did everything correctly there should be some options saved in that scummvm.ini file like below:

Next step is to import the game into scummVM itself because if you don't you might have issues with the games ID as @JoeViking245 already point out a few posts above. (scummVM adds a -1 if it restarts and uses the same game ID again using a suffix number e.g. monkey2-1

6 hours ago, JoeViking245 said:

When launching a game with the -p parameter, ScummVM will see it as a "new game" but still identify it (monkey2) correctly.  But it will then suffix the "new games" id with -1.  And since the scummvm.ini file doesn't contain a specific section for "[monkey2-1]", no custom settings you originally made will load.  This 'suffix thing' is the same with save states.  

If you manually edit the scummvm.ini and copy/paste the [monkey2] section and rename it [monkey2-1], upon launching with -p, ScummVM will again, find a "new game". This time suffixing it with -2.  ...We call this an uphill battle.

Lets 'Open ScummVM' from the games right-click menu and choose Add Game from the ScummVM gui, navigate to the game folder (as usual) and select the game folder as below:

ScummVM now opens the game options window:

In this window the most important part is the ID of the game, make sure that it has no number suffix (-1,-2 etc) after the name! (if it does you can always edit and correct it unless you need two instances of the same game).

Leave everything else as is and hit OK and QUIT

Back to our scummvm.ini file now looks like this:

Notice that there are two sectors now [scummvm] and [monkey2] which are the Global Options and the Game Options respectively. (You may want some time in the future when filling sure to edit those if needed)

Edited 45 minutes ago by Tsik

[Tsik]

For best practice about the ID suffix in my own setup I use a monkey2.summvm file in the game folder (which is actually a .txt file renamed [game_id].scummvm and edited it with notepad adding only the game ID e.g monkey2 inside it and save it). To this file I point LaunchBox to (as if it is a ROM):