"Error Executing Command" when launching game, using rocket launcher

[ruthlessrabbid]

Hi all! I've been trying to do some googling on this issue and can't seem to find what I'm looking for. My issue is the same as the one described in this post here:
http://forum.attractmode.org/index.php?topic=2396.0

The problem is that the OP there did not post what their solution is so I'm hoping for some assistance here.

Right now, I have rocket launcher set up to open AttractMode as the front-end to be used. Within RocketLauncher I can successfully load Dreamcast games using Flycast; and within attract mode, I have the emulator config pointing to rocket launcher to do the heavy lifting. The problem that occurs, however, is that I get an error when trying to launch a game and nothing happens.

My folder structure is as follows:

Attract mode - C:\Attract Mode\attract.exe
Rocket Launcher - C:\RocketLauncher\RocketLauncher.exe
Flycast (named in Attract Mode as Sega Dreamcast) - C:\Attract Mode\emulators\Flycast
Flycast roms - C:\Attract Mode\emulators\Flycast\roms

I've spent way more time than I should have in trying to figure this out, but the pathing *seems* right to me. I've included my config files here as attachments for reference to see if someone can help out. I also wanted to leverage the attract mode portion of RocketLauncher documentation, but I feel that it is lacking a bit to explain some nuances.

Nonetheless, thank you all for your time!

[Mark Norville]

Hello,

Welcome to the forum. You are doing a hell of a lot just to get one simple emulator to load.

It is obviously up to you, but a two minute set up flycast core on RA and bang you are playing games, going through all of this to load a basic emulator that pretty much you can run on a calculator is a bit over kill really.

I mean unless you want something special out of rocket launcher such as the loading screen, too myself personally it is a waste of time, why go through all the extra hassle when something is a two minute job.

Regards

Mark

[ruthlessrabbid]

Hi Mark, and thank you for the welcome!

I'm not going to begin to disagree with you on your post, because you are absolutely correct - it IS a lot of work for something that can be done much simpler and get things good to go without much hassle.

The two main pulls I have to using Rocket Launcher are the bezel support (The Bezel Project also exists for Retroarch), and Rocket Pause so my friends that come over can look at how to play some games from my future cabinet.

I'm also being a bit stubborn here in trying to get this to work because I'm having a tough time identifying a solution that's out there for other people to see. So if there's another person who decides to use Attract Mode as their front-end in combination with Rocket Launcher for some reason, I hope that my public post comes up in their search for something to refer to. I did think about giving BigBox a go, too, since that seems to be the most popular FE of choice these days but I want to at least make sure my old laptop is up to the task of running games before investing more in a license.

Like I mentioned in my initial post, though, Rocket Launcher is loading the game correctly when using RocketUI and selecting a game from my short list of Dreamcast games. It's specifically with loading into a game I did, however, procure a Dreamcast database file that I found on the web to use as a game list. I did not use this same DB file for Attract Mode; I generated a game list from the roms I have on hand. I'm not sure if that would cause some issues either.

[Mark Norville]

I will try and help as much as I can but as I do not use RL to load anything nowadays especially for something such as this, you do have pause and stuff like that in RA

However, looking at your files I will point to potentially your dodgy areas

Sega Dreamcast.cfg

# Generated by Attract-Mode v2.6.2
#
executable           C:\RocketLauncher\RocketLauncher.exe
args                 -s "[emulator]" -r "[name]" -p AttractMode -f "C:\AttractMode\attract.exe"
rompath              C:\Attract Mode\emulators\Flycast\roms\
romext               .chd
system               Sega Dreamcast
info_source          listsoftware+thegamesdb.net 
artwork    flyer           $HOME/Sega Dreamcast/boxart
artwork    marquee         
artwork    snap            $HOME/Sega Dreamcast/videos;$HOME/Sega Dreamcast/snap
artwork    wheel           

I put the info source in red as I would use additional info source which would be xml file from hyperlist and I would not use listsoftware or gamesdb.

I Just checked the + is part of AM, but I would be tempted just to use one or the other and not both at once

This also seems very odd args                 -s "[emulator]" -r "[name]" -p AttractMode -f "C:\AttractMode\attract.exe"

You have a lot going on in your args

I will have a look at your other files

Regards

Mark

[ruthlessrabbid]

Omg I feel like a total moron for not trying my solution sooner; I'll address your response first then note what I had to do.

First off, thank you for taking a look at my files and looking things over - I didn't fully know what I was doing with the info source and thought that it would be good to grab something from that database as a baseline to start out. I've since cleared that field out in the Dreamcast config file, and will do some research into the options available to me.

For the arguments, these are actually documented for using Rocket Launcher from their wiki page below:
http://www.rlauncher.com/wiki/index.php/RocketLauncher_Command_Line_Parameters#Verifying_CLI_Was_Sent_Correctly

So on that front I appeared to be good. One of the things I did notice, however, was that my attract mode folder was named 'Attract Mode' and not 'AttractMode'. This one is an embarrassing mistake but I fixed it in the config files and verified they all pointed to the correct folder.

I tried to look at the log file to see what Rocket Launcher was getting from Attract Mode and couldn't find a thing; so I began to work my way back to attract mode to see if it didn't like the path that rocket launcher was in. So I removed the arguments and got the rocket launcher.exe file to load - cool! Adding the arguments back in blanks it out. I then decided to try and see if Attract Mode couldn't start flycast for some reason (which should be a non-factor considering rocket launcher is supposed to do the lifting). This was also fine and didn't have any issues.

Then, the actual solution hit me - in one of the guides for troubleshooting, Rocket Launcher mentions that you should try to run it as administrator, so I had done that from the beginning of configuration. I decided to remove that option, and like magic Flycast booted as expected. So now Attract Mode was looking at the RocketLauncher.exe file, and Rocket Launcher was then booting into the game.

I'm sorry to have wasted your time here Mark, but I appreciate you being patient with me and taking a look at my issue alongside me. You helped me to think harder and see more perspectives than I did before coming to this forum. Cheers!

[Mark Norville]

All in a days work,

Just talk enough crap and the smart people will sort their own problems out.

I need to sort out my rlauncher account out as not used that for years, I am not even sure what email account it uses nowadays.

However, glad you are all up and running now, happy gaming, however just to make you think, if you ever run out of room in the future.

What would you delete first? The games or the media? So you might like this HyperPause for now, but in the future when you run out of space, you might decide to start cutting that out so you save a few gigs for storage on things that you do actually need like wheels, snaps etc.

Regards

Mark

[ruthlessrabbid]

What would you delete first? The games or the media? So you might like this HyperPause for now, but in the future when you run out of space, you might decide to start cutting that out so you save a few gigs for storage on things that you do actually need like wheels, snaps etc.

For me it's gotta be the games - I think it's easier to procure a copy of something you may want to play again, but finding particular videos/art/other media that is the exact one you previously had is a whole lot tougher to come by. I also think that having to remove some games will make me evaluate what is being played vs what isn't, and if something has been on my machine and never played in months of having it around then it won't do much harm to have it be excluded.

Now that I have RocketLauncher running though I've just been configuring the emulators as needed! Flycast worked right away, and Dolphin works fine now after a clean install (I need Super Monkey Ball 1 and 2 on my machine, even if they're console games!). I'm now excited to begin acquiring themes and art to personalize the setup!