The Ultimate Arcade Upgrade: Wide Front Panels

If you’re a gamer of a certain age, you likely have fond memories of your local arcade. Clutching your coins, challenging locals, and the rush of a crowd watching you succeed: the arcade delivered an experience unlike any other.

The good news is modern technology makes it possible to not only replicate those golden years, but make the experience of playing via an arcade even better than you remember. The secret to that sauce is a frontend designed with arcade play in mind, and it’s hard to beat Big Box, courtesy of LaunchBox—here’s why.

What Is Frontend Software for Arcade Cabinets?

Think about the components needed to operate an arcade cabinet. You at least need a joystick with a set of buttons, speakers, a monitor, a cabinet, and a device to run the whole thing, like a desktop. But how do you navigate the system once it’s set up? That’s where frontend software comes in.

Frontend software finds the games installed on your device, displays them in an easy-to-navigate library, and lets you select each game via your arcade cabinet’s controls alone. It’s the same principle behind the software that allows you to explore your library on a PS5 or via the Steam client on your desktop using a gaming controller.

A frontend also adds order to the chaos that is your ROM collection. You want to know what you’re going to be playing before you select it. So you need to add key metadata for each game, like the title, platform, thumbnail art, etc., to make everything look nice and tidy.

This can take days of work alone. But not with Big Box. Let’s dig a bit deeper and learn why a premium subscription to LaunchBox is worth the cost of admission alone for Big Box if you’re setting up your own arcade cabinet.

1. Big Box Automatically Imports Metadata

Whether you’ve tackled big projects, like building a portable retro gaming console using a Raspberry Pi , or added a few classic arcade games to your work desktop, you know how painful it is to organize your collection. You are forced to add in every bit of metadata manually in most cases, including hunting down individual bits of media for each game, like a bezel, screenshot, video, and so on.

It’s painful work, and for those with massive collections, you’ll be more prone to not organize anything. Don’t do that! Organize now to make it easier to find precisely what you want to play, and you’ll use it more frequently than not, guaranteed.

Leveraging the power of Big Box via EmuMovies automatically finds all of the metadata for each game automatically, allows you to essentially set it and forget it! But you’ll need to be a premium member of both, then link your EmuMovies account to LaunchBox.

Once linked, everything from bezels and marquees to videos, screenshots, and even descriptions about each game will populate each game’s entry. So when you’re searching through your library in Big Box, you get a vibrant, informative listing about each game so you know what you’re about to play.

This saves days’ worth of work alone, and means LaunchBox Premium is worth the cost of admission highly recommend getting a lifetime subscription to both LaunchBox and EmuMovies. You’re looking at $135 for both licenses as of July 2023.

But in terms of ease-of-use and the time saved alone, it’s going to be money well spent. Especially if you want your arcade cabinet to grow with you as you keep adding games via Steam or another source.

2. Big Box Adds Context to Your Library

Want to know the importance of context? Look at this listing below as an example. If I had not used EmuMovies as I discussed a moment ago, this cabinet would be nothing but a list of games.

But because I imported the metadata a moment ago, now this listing has a description, trailer, a banner image, and even music from the game. It’s as informative as a listing of an episode or film on your favorite streaming service, making it easy to choose the game you want to play.

If you’re already familiar with LaunchBox and how it works , you already know that you can add custom filters for your games, like the number of players per game or by genre. The filters you create in LaunchBox also appear in Big Box, making it easy to find the right game for the occasion.

3. Big Box Gives You Hotkeys and Customizable Menu Controls

If you’re building your arcade cabinet for the first time, you’re probably wondering how the heck you’re going to be able to exit a game or adjust the volume. You may think you need dedicated buttons, and while that’s one route, Big Box solves this problem by allowing you to hotkey certain tasks.

For example, when I want to exit a game, I tap myPlayer 1 Start button andA button simultaneously twice to activate theClose the Active Window value, which exits my game. I can also do a different button combination for the volume control, among other functions.

4. Big Box Adds Second Screen Support for Digital Marquees

When you populate your library with metadata via EmuMovies, you probably notice that a marquee file is always downloaded. These files are used with a second screen, displayed as a marquee like a traditional arcade cabinet.

Once you have set up dual monitors for your arcade system, go into Big Box then selectOptions > General > Marquee Screen > Screen 2 . Now, whenever you highlight a game in Big Box, your second screen will display the marquee for that particular game, usually reflective of the cabinet it was in during its heyday. It’s a nice touch that goes a long way toward making your cabinet feel authentic yet new.

Image Credit: Unbroken Software LLC/YouTube

5. Use Big Box In-Place of Your Windows Shell

You don’t want to have to use a mouse to open Big Box every time your start the device running your cabinet. It’s preferable if you can dive right into your arcade cabinet’s frontend with as few steps as possible. Fortunately, Big Box makes it happen if your arcade cabinet is powered by Windows.

First, be sure that the device powering your arcade cabinet automatically logs into your account. For example, there are a few ways to automatically sign into your account in Windows 10 . Whatever operating system you are using, be sure it automatically logs in every time the device starts.

Next, start Big Box from LaunchBox. Then, go to System > Options > General > Enable Using Big Box as the Windows Shell > Yes. The next time you reboot your device, Big Box will replace the Windows shell. If you need to get into Windows, you can still close Big Box via the Task Manager to gain access to Windows again.

Big Box Takes the Headache Out of Arcade Frontends

The amount of time and frustration saved alone is worth the cost of admission for LaunchBox and EmuMovies. It’s layered tidily in Big Box, making navigating your library of games via arcade controls so easy, you’ll wonder why other frontends are so complicated. Give it a shot, and you’ll become one of the converted.