Here is the Electron “Monitor” WIP.
I have no idea if anyone actually used the Sanyo DMC8500 with the Electron, but it was available at the time and had the needed inputs. 
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It doesn’t matter, at least to me, that people used the monitor with the Electron just if it was actually possible. The Sanyo does look really good with it, having a similar color style.
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I’m not sure it did. Every shot I can find, and there aren’t many, are damaged and yellow.
That’s one of the cool things about creating my own art… I can make it any color I want.
All of the BBC computers will use the same base color profile, which is in turn based on my Amiga 500 graphic.
This really makes my life easier. 
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Thanks for your elaborate answer. And it works!!! Only thing I need to figure out is how to get launchbox to handle the last part of the auto_command. Cause indeed for instance the… “run"galaxi”…it is different for each game Launching it with a different cmd file does not work sadly. Nonetheless…I can experiment now. Hopefully in the future, mame and retroarch will remove these kinds of barriers and make it more user friendly.
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I don’t know about that but Batocera has a powerful scripting backend that parses the commands from the hash.xml.
It might be possible for someone to write a Launchbox plugin that does the same.
Do you mean editing the command to reflect the other game info from the xml does not work?
The first thing to do is check the xml and make sure the game is in there and supported.
I’ll try a few more games and see what I can find. It might be that all three other commands aren’t needed all the time.
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I mean, within Launchbox you can provide a command line parameter.
The following works to start games (loader) when I test them individually as ‘Extra Command Line parameters’:
Galaxians () "atom -rp “H:\LaunchBox\Games\Acorn Atom” -flop1 “%romfile%” -autoboot_delay “2” -autoboot_command "dos\ndir\ncat\n*run"galaxi"\n""
Hardhat Harry (**) “atom -rp “H:\LaunchBox\Games\Acorn Atom” -flop1 “%romfile%” -autoboot_delay “2” -autoboot_command “dos\ndir\ncat\nrun"LOADER”\n”"
The following doesn’t work Chuckie Egg “atom -rp “H:\LaunchBox\Games\Acorn Atom” -flop1 “%romfile%” -autoboot_delay “2” -autoboot_command “dos\ndir\ncat\nrun"runme”\n”" (and all others with the runme don’t work)
However…the command line you provide applies to ALL games. So the last part of the autoboot command should be variable, whether it is a shortname of the game, loader or runme
I’ve tried adding it to the custom command line parameter per game
So Galaxians should pick up the custom command line settings which I tested as working. But it doesn’t. It just checks what is configured in the default command line and then still gives the loader command instead of galaxi.
Then I tried using cmd files, for instance H:\RetroArch\retroarch.exe -L “H:\RetroArch\cores\mame_libretro.dll” “atom -rompath “H:\LaunchBox\Games\Acorn Atom” -flop1 “H:\LaunchBox\Games\Acorn Atom\atom\galxians.zip” -autoboot_delay “2” -autoboot_command “dos\ndir\ncat\nrun"galaxi”\n”
But then it doesn’t find my files. Says required files are missing. Through command line it doesn’t seem to pick up the atom.opt file. When I check it seems to be reading from mame.opt
So, games run. But I want to find a way which makes all games run without having to change the command line every time. I’ll post this to the LB forum after I’ve done experimenting with it myself. You already helped a lot in getting me on the way. So again, thanks very much for that!!
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Inside Launchbox you may have to delete the extra quote before the driver name. (i.e. "atom).
I tried a few more games and the autoboot command is dropping characters for some reason.
The current mame core may be buggy. I have been having issues with other command lines in other cores not behaving consistently.
BTW you need an asterisk before the commands (i.e. *dos) I didn’t see them in your example.
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the asterisks were there when i posted. Must have been edited out? i agree, must be something off. guess i’m a perfectionist. want all games to run whenever you release a new bezel is when i convert my old settings from mame to retroarch:wink:
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The easiet way to get the games to run with Launchbox would be to strip the command line of the path to retroarch,exe and the core part.
e.g.
atom -rompath “H:\LaunchBox\Games\Acorn Atom” -flop1 “H:\LaunchBox\Games\Acorn Atom\atom\galxians.zip” -autoboot_delay “2” -autoboot_command “ *dos\n* dir\n *cat\n* run"galaxi”\n”
…put that in a galaxians.cmd and load it like a rom.
Like I said… I have gotten this to work on a couple of systems but it breaks weirdly
on others. I think it is worth a shot for you to try though.
This is a problem unless you are OK with disabling software lists in the opt. (If you are never going to use the traditional method.
There are times when you actually need the traditional method (FM-Towns that need a boot disk.)
I have yet to find a way to use a boot disk and iso/chd in the command line.
i will try it tomorrow. Will let you know. thanks for taking the time!
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Still no luck. But I’m not one to give up quickly 
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Glad to hear it.
My policy is that I won’t release a graphic until I can get a game to run, but I only require one game.
Please keep me in the loop if you learn anything.
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Those that have following this thread for a while will know not to take statements like…
…too seriously.
The acorn data recorder!
The data recorder was very similar in design to the Electron… I took the liberty of making them even more alike.
The main reason I decided to tackle it now was the tinted cassette window.
My plan for the Amiga 4000 involves a case with a tinted window and I wanted to see what I could do.
I think it turned out pretty good. Here is a shot of the whole thing.
It is on a separate layer so the X position can be adjusted if needed.
It still needs a touch of work but I should be ready to build some presets very soon.
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Here’s a shot of the Electron, with the just finished data recorder, in night mode, 21:9 aspect, and some X position on the data recorder layer. (Decal Layer.)
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My issue with the autoboot dropping characters is actually a bug in the keyboard emulation. The keypress duration timing is flaky.
I hacked together a lua script that slows things down.
local frame_num = 0
local function process_frame()
frame_num = frame_num + 1
if frame_num == 1 then
emu.keypost("*dos\n")
elseif frame_num == 50 then
emu.keypost("*dir\n")
end
if frame_num == 150 then
emu.keypost("*cat\n\n\n")
elseif frame_num == 200 then
emu.keypost("*runF1")
end
if frame_num == 300 then
emu.keypost("4RUN\n")
elseif frame_num == 350 then
end
end
emu.register_frame_done(process_frame)
I saved this as f14_lua.txt and changed my command line to.
E:\RetroArch\retroarch.exe -L "E:\RetroArch\cores\mame_libretro.dll" "atom -rompath "E:\Temp\atom" -flop1 "E:\Temp\atom\f14.zip" -autoboot_delay "2" -autoboot_script "E:\Temp\atom\f14_lua.txt"`
It pauses for 100 frames between the two numbers of the command.
Even with no need to slow things down the script is easy to edit to use in place of other autoboot commands.
There is supposed to be a way to play tapes if I can figure it out, (And avoid having to press F2.)
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you’re not just a graphical wizard but also a technical wizard 
I’ll be sure to try it out in my trial and error session 
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Thanks. To be clear, I am just hacking lua scripts I found that themselves are only “just working”. (As stated by the author.)
This one will start the tape player in the alice32.
local frame_num = 0
local run_frame = 0
local function process_frame()
frame_num = frame_num + 1
if frame_num == 30 then
emu.keypost('\n')
elseif frame_num == 150 then
emu.keypost('CLOAD\n')
elseif frame_num == 300 then
manager.machine.cassettes[":cassette"]:play()
elseif frame_num > 500 then
if run_frame == 0 then
if manager.machine.cassettes[":cassette"].motor_state == false then
run_frame = frame_num + 60
end
elseif frame_num == run_frame then
emu.keypost('RUN\n')
end
end
if manager.machine.cassettes[":cassette"].is_stopped == false and manager.machine.cassettes[":cassette"].motor_state == true then
manager.machine.video.throttled = false
manager.machine.video.frameskip = 12
else
manager.machine.video.throttled = true
manager.machine.video.frameskip = 0
end
end
emu.register_frame_done(process_frame)
This loads a command line as a rom in a “galaxian.cmd” with these contents.
alice32 -rompath "E:\RetroArch\system\mame\roms" -cass "E:\Temp\alice32\roms\galaxion.zip" -autoboot_delay "2" -autoboot_script "E:\Temp\alice32\galaxian.lua" -ui_active`
I am naming my scripts *.lua now to keep things straight.
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I did some more work on the Electron Alternate with the Data Recorder. The new recorder layer looks like this.
By default it exactly covers up the keyboard keys, making it look intentional.
I looked funky before.
It will still look a bit funky as the X Position is adjusted…
…but you can cover up one set of keys at a time…
…until the whole recorder is visible.
Just in case an end user wants to do some extreme screen position/size changes.
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The Electron is in the repo!
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