Support Launching Emulator-Generated Game Shortcuts from Within LaunchBox
Summary:
Enable LaunchBox for Android to recognize and launch emulator-generated home screen shortcuts (e.g., from Citra MMJ, Lemuroid, Winlator) from within the app—offering a workaround for emulators that don’t launch games properly via standard LaunchBox commands 📲🎮.
Problem:
Certain Android emulators, like Citra MMJ and Lemuroid, struggle to launch specific games directly from LaunchBox. Instead, they open to the emulator’s main menu, requiring the user to manually select the game again. However, these same emulators offer reliable home screen shortcuts that launch games directly.
Currently, there’s no way to use these working shortcuts inside LaunchBox, which limits compatibility and user convenience.
Proposal:
Allow users to create or import these emulator-generated shortcuts into LaunchBox as launchable entries—similar to how apps like idtech4a++ support game-specific shortcuts. This would give users a clean, centralized way to launch games that don’t work well through normal methods, without needing to clutter the Android home screen.
Benefits:
Improves compatibility with tricky emulators like Citra MMJ and Winlator
Offers a workaround for launching games that don’t behave properly through LaunchBox’s standard integration
Keeps everything neatly managed within the LaunchBox UI
Enhances flexibility and makes LaunchBox feel more robust and user-friendly for Android setups 🤖👍
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Comments3
AstroBob
Apr 15, 2025
Hi there,
Thanks for the great request here. May I enquire a bit more as to how you envision this working? Is the goal to be able to quickly launch specific games from your Android home screen without needing to navigate through LaunchBox (but then still retain the LaunchBox functionality such as playtime tracking, etc)?
Or you’re looking to use the emulators shortcuts, and have those accessible from within LaunchBox? (though at that point, what would the difference be to just navigating to the game within LaunchBox).
Apologies if I’ve missed something there, but I’d love to learn more and I’ll make sure to flesh this request out
Jeno_Jodi
Apr 15, 2025
Hi. Thanks for the reply. Its the second interpretation that I'm looking for. Some emulators can make game shortcuts of specific games on my home screen. I'm looking for those shortcuts to be made in Launchbox instead of my home screen. Let me give you an example. Citra mmj is a problematic emulator for frontends. When I try to launch a game with Citra mmj using Launchbox, it only opens the emulator, not the specific game. From there, I have to select the game again to play. But in Citra mmj, home screen shortcuts of games can be made to launch that particular game directly from home screen and those work just fine. Similar situation exists in case of Lemuroid, Winlator etc, which are not currently a compatible emulator with Launchbox, but allows making home screen shortcuts for games. So my suggestion is that, if there was a way to make those shortcuts within Launchbox instead of the home screen, the mentioned issues could be solved. I've also mentioned idtech4a++, which is an app that allows playing some idtech engine games like Doom 3, Return to Castle Wolfenstein etc on Android. It also allows home screen shortcuts for every supported games individually. The suggested feature could also help directly run games in such scenarios. I don't know if it's a realistically implementable feature, but in theory it seems to be able to add some convenience. Let me know if I was able to clarify.
AstroBob
Apr 16, 2025
Thanks for the update. I’ve fleshed out the request and opening it up to the community for discussion