Any Big Box/Launch Box Power Users?

[BlueGhost]

Does anyone know if you can launch different versions of a rom from within two different playlist?

I building two 2 player cabinets that I'm going to connect with a KVM.  The two will work independently when the KVM in the 2nd cabinet is set to use the computer inside that cabinet.  Then it will mirror the screen of the 1st cabinet and the controls will become player 3 and player 4 for the 1st cabinet when the KVM is switched.

I'd like to have both cabinets play 2 player version roms on their normal play list.  Then have a list of 4 player games that launches the 4 player rom on the master cabinet when they are connected. 

As an example, I would like all killer beat 'em up playlist to launch the 2 player TMNT rom, but the 4 player playlist would launch the 4 player version.

[Fursphere]

Hey there.   I can probably help here.

So what you've got is two two-player cabinets, and you want the ability to link them up for three and four player action, correct?   This is what I have. 

Instead of a KVM, if you network them (even with a cross over cable) you can use RetroArch Netplay to do this instead.   And BigBox has a RetroArch Netplay browser built into the front end to launch the games.  I use the Final Burn Neo (FBNEO) core to to do this with MAME Arcade Games.  (and other console platforms). 

If you want the 2nd cab to automatically launch into the game when the 1st cab launches the game, this can be done with some simple AHK automation.  I can provide the details if you want. 

The reason I did NOT use a KVM, was that the keyboard encoder (Ultimarc IPac Ultimate in my cabinets) have the same keyboard bindings - so this would never work unless you remap everything on the 2nd cab, including the emulators.  In order to align to "default" mame keyboard mappings (just to keep it simple), RetroArch will auto-map Player 1/2/3/4 over Netplay to avoid this conflict. 

[Fursphere]

Little more information here https://forums.launchbox-app.com/topic/64474-linking-two-pcs-with-big-box-four-player/ where I was talking about doing this over on the launchbox forums. 

[BlueGhost]

I'll have to look into net play options. 

I was originally planning on using 4 ultrastiks.  I tested this with the KVM and it worked, but have decided to go with JLFs + ipac in one cabinet and ultrasicks in the other.  I think the 4 ultrastiks would have been a little easier, but neither is all that hard.

I would still need a way to launch 4 play and 2 player roms from separate playlist.

[Fursphere]

To address 2 player and 4 player roms, I did this what I did is imported MAME twice, once for ARCADE platform w/ 2 player roms selected, then again for FBNEO platform (scrape as Arcade), and selected 4 player roms. 

You can also uncheck "combine multiple roms into a single game" and then sort by number of players in Launchbox and just delete all the rom entries.   

I used separate platforms - one for MAME (emulator), and the other for FBNEO (Retroarch)