LaunchBox 13.27 Beta Thread

[faeran]

Hi everyone,

Welcome to a new beta round. Beta 1 starts with a bunch of under-the-hood improvements to the app, and we would love any help you can give to make the app the best it can be. We are looking at roughly 3-4 betas this round with larger features coming with Beta 2.

 

Things we need help testing

• Added RetroAchievements support for WiiWare titles when using Dolphin - While signed into RetroAchievements, import your Nintendo WiiWare titles, then run Tools > Achievements > Scan and confirm achievement badges are assigned. Verify achievements load and function as expected in the Game Details pane (beta 1)
• Updated Dolphin integration to better support newer versions - Using the Dolphin plugin, attempt to download or update to the latest available version of Dolphin such as version 2603a or newer and confirm everything installs correctly and games still launch without issues (beta 1)
• Improved ROM prioritization when combining multiple versions of the same game during import - Run a ROM import that includes multiple versions of the same game such as betas, demos, or different regions and confirm the final imported game selects a proper retail release as the primary version and respects your Region Priority settings (beta 1)
• LaunchBox system tray support is now free for all users - As a free user, enable system tray options such as minimize to tray and close to tray then confirm LaunchBox minimizes and closes to the tray correctly and that the tray icon right click menu is fully functional and responsive (beta 1)
• Improved Big Box video playback stability with FFMPEG and Windows Media Player - In Big Box, browse platforms and games that include videos using both video engines optionally enable attract mode and confirm the application remains stable over extended use without crashes or video related issues (beta 1)

 

Full Changelog

You can view the complete changelog here (it gets updated first):
https://www.launchbox-app.com/about/changelog

Beta 1

• New Feature: Added RetroAchievements support for WiiWare titles when using Dolphin
• Improvement: Updated Dolphin integration to better support newer versions
• Improvement: Improved ROM prioritization when combining multiple versions of the same game during import, using a smarter ranking pipeline to better select the ideal default ROM
• Improvement: Extract ROMs now preserves the original archive folder name inside the temp directory, improving save path consistency in emulators such as RetroArch
• Improvement: FinalBurn Neo importer now automatically unchecks Extract ROMs for the emulator associated platform to prevent unnecessary extraction
• Improvement: LaunchBox system tray support is now free for all users, with options to always show the tray icon, minimize to tray, and close to tray
• Fixed: Improved Big Box video playback stability when using FFMPEG, resolving rare crashes related to video disposal and media cleanup
• Fixed: Crashes in Big Box when navigating between views with Windows Media Player video playback enabled
• Fixed: Issue where auto play music could cause the UI to lock up after Big Box opened
• Fixed: Bulk Edit Wizard issue that could trigger a crash style error while applying or finishing changes
• Fixed: Potential null reference issue when saving a new emulator
• Fixed: Operation Wolf now correctly shows MAME High Score support

 

Thanks as always to everyone helping test this out, your feedback makes a huge difference.

[xokia]

Any news on if/when the fix to retroarch will make it in? This is the issue I pointed out a while back if your rom is zipped launchbox unzips to a /tmp directory. This breaks retroarchs ability to create console level overrides. Retroarch use the directory preceding the rom file as the console name. i.e. the console would be tmp and every console system that had zipped file would try to use the tmp overide file.

Edited Friday at 02:20 AM by xokia

[faeran]

11 hours ago, xokia said:

Any news on if/when the fix to retroarch will make it in? This is the issue I pointed out a while back if your rom is zipped launchbox unzips to a /tmp directory. This breaks retroarchs ability to create console level overrides. Retroarch use the directory preceding the rom file as the console name. i.e. the console would be tmp and every console system that had zipped file would try to use the tmp overide file.

There's a potential fix in this beta for that. Let us know if that solves that particular issue. With this change, any ROM that is extracted by LaunchBox will be placed into a folder named after the original file’s parent folder
RetroArch also has its own ability to extract ROM files and play them by default, so another user option could be to simply disable LaunchBox's extraction process within the emulator options page.

[JaredN]

Unfortunately, I haven't seen any improvement with FFmpeg. It still crashes and returns to the desktop on BB and LB, in an apparently random manner, with no error message. I'm switching back to WMP...

260403_BB_1.evtx 260403_BB_2.evtx 260403_LB_1.evtx

Edited yesterday at 08:06 AM by JaredN

[xokia]

On 4/3/2026 at 7:07 AM, faeran said:

There's a potential fix in this beta for that. Let us know if that solves that particular issue. With this change, any ROM that is extracted by LaunchBox will be placed into a folder named after the original file’s parent folder
RetroArch also has its own ability to extract ROM files and play them by default, so another user option could be to simply disable LaunchBox's extraction process within the emulator options page.

Some of retroarch's cores do not reliably work with zipped files. FB Neo, MAME, sega saturn, dreamcast, psx beetle to name a few. You will get mixed results.
I'll try it out this weekend. Thanks for the update

*edit*

Launchbox unzipping the folder for retroarch appears to work correct now. They get mapped to the correct system when using the tmp directory.

Edited yesterday at 05:35 PM by xokia

[Jabb3rJaw]

It’s still early but so far I haven’t had any crashes using WMP. Already a big improvement. I also noticed LED Blinky starts up quicker when my system starts. There used to be a few second delay.  Also scrolling through letters seems smoother and faster.  So far so good!! 🤞

[fianovale@hotmail.com]

On the latest beta ( 13.27 beta 1) the achievements doesnt appear for the Nintendo Wii console. Have only two games right now; The House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return and Retro City Rampage DX.

[Jabb3rJaw]

After more testing and  someone who posted multiple times about Bigbox crashing I can say I am happy that I have not had one crash with this beta using WMP. I’ve restarted the system multiple times and not one crash. Whatever was causing it you’re on the right track. I haven’t tried FFmeg though so can’t comment on that. Thank you!!! 

[JoeViking245]

1 hour ago, fianovale@hotmail.com said:

On the latest beta ( 13.27 beta 1) the achievements doesnt appear for the Nintendo Wii console. Have only two games right now; The House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return and Retro City Rampage DX.

Give this a read and see if it helps any.

RetroAchievements Support for Nintendo Wii - LaunchBox

[Jabb3rJaw]

Day 2 no crashes!!! Can’t tell you how happy I am lol. It was so frustrating but everything seems to be back to normal. Thanks to the Launchbox team!!!!!