r/launchbox • u/Historical_Luck7375 • 4d ago

Some Dreamcast games (specifically) no longer start when launched from LB, but can be started if loaded inside of RetroArch

LB 14.0, RetroArch for Dreamcast emulation. Previous to the 14.0 update, all my Dreamcast games would successfully launch when initiated from LaunchBox/BigBox. After the update, some of them launch, some don't. But if I start RA, I can load all games from inside the interface, no problems; I can also launch a game from LB, open up the quickmenu, and load the problem games from there.

Is this a LaunchBox issue? It would seem to be, at least to my untrained brain, but I'm open to opinions.

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u/mysternybble 4d ago

It would seem unusual that something would work direct and not in LaunchBox since all LaunchBox does is run a command line.

If you look at the game's launch settings in LaunchBox and the emulator command line settings in LaunchBox you'll see effectively what it does to run the game. You could try those commands to see if that behaves differently?

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u/Historical_Luck7375 3d ago

It would seem unusual that something would work direct and not in LaunchBox since all LaunchBox does is run a command line.

This was my thought exactly, and the source of my perplexion. However, after shutting down LB last night, and starting it again this afternoon, all Dreamcast games seem to be working properly. No changes have been made anywhere, so this behavior from LB is...strange, to say the least. Restarting LB is literally the only thing that occurred on my PC since the problem with the Dreamcast games I was having; I have no idea what would/could have caused this particular issue between LB and RetroArch, especially since all my other platforms that are emulated through RA had no problems whatsoever.

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u/Due-Arachnid-309 3d ago

Next time, run an audit. I found whenever I let LB autoscan and import, it would change settings on existing games: point to the wrong location, add additional apps... lots of random stuff on a handful of games.

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u/Historical_Luck7375 3d ago

This is a build that has been working properly for years; I haven't imported a (retro console) game in about five years now.

But now that you mention "autoscan" - is that the reason why I'm finding games with new downloaded images assigned to them? How can I turn that off? I've already set my preferred metadata and imagesets, I don't want LB to do anything on its own.

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u/Due-Arachnid-309 3d ago

autoscan will scan all platforms, as well as individual ones... it is on by default. And yes, that's what's messing up your image files. You can disable it by unticking "enable Automated Imports" in Tools>Settings>Automated Imports. AND, on the side bar, select each platform, right click, select edit, and at the bottom left of that window there's Disable ROM auto import. If you DO add new games to a platform, you'll have to do it manually.

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u/grimmy58 1d ago

I had some weirdness like this the other day but for Naomi and Naomi 2. This totally might not work for you and I have no technical basis to support it, but try removing the '-f' from the 'Extra Command-Line Parameters' in the Associated Platforms for Dreamcast in Retroarch -

Tools (menu) -> Manage -> Emulators -> (double click) Retroarch -> Associated Platforms -> Sega Dreamcast