Jump to content
LaunchBox Community Forums

PC Game Scrapper .8.2.3

   (0 reviews)
spiritedusual
 Share

1 Screenshot

About This File

PC Game Scraper

A comprehensive LaunchBox plugin designed to scrape metadata, images, videos, and completion times from Steam, SteamGridDB, YouTube, and HowLongToBeat.

📖 Overview

PC Game Scraper is a plugin that automates the process of filling in metadata and downloading images and videos. It is designed to work for games that have not been imported from a specific digital storefront.

✨ Features

Metadata Scraping

Fetches Developer, Publisher, Release Date, Genres, Rating, Controller Support, and Descriptions directly from the Steam Store.

Media Downloading

  • Images: Downloads Box Art, Clear Logos, Fanart, and Screenshots from Steam or SteamGridDB.

  • Videos: Downloads Trailers or Gameplay videos using yt-dlp via Steam or YouTube. Supports FFmpeg and WMC codecs (up to 4K resolution).

HowLongToBeat (HLTB) Integration

Scrapes game completion times and categorizes game length automatically.

  • Custom Fields Created:

    • HLTB - Main Story

    • HLTB - Main + Extra

    • HLTB - Completionist

    • Length Category (e.g., "Extended (15-30h)", "Massive (60h+)")

  • Smart Safety: Uses randomized "humanized" delays and smart retry logic to prevent IP flagging while ensuring data accuracy.

Multiple Scan Modes

  • Automated: Auto-matches Steam AppIDs based on game title. If the game is not on Steam, it falls back to SteamGridDB (SGDB).

  • SteamGridDB: Skips Steam entirely and searches SteamGridDB directly (requires API Key).

  • Manual: Allows user input of specific AppIDs or Store URLs.

Smart Matching

Uses a similarity algorithm combined with exact match logic to detect the correct game, even if the title in your library is not an exact match to the store title.

🛠️ Prerequisites

To use this plugin, you must download the following external tools and place them in the plugin folder:

  1. yt-dlp.exe (Required for video downloading)

  2. ffmpeg.exe (Required for video processing)

  3. FlareSolverr (Required for HLTB Scraping)

    1. HLTB uses Cloudflare protection. You must have a running instance of FlareSolverr (usually running on http://localhost:8191) to bypass this protection.

**WARNING**

HLTB DOESNT LIKE THIS AND BY USING FLARESOLVERR TO BYPASS CLOUDFLARE PROTECTIONS YOU COULD POTENTIALLY HAVE YOUR IP MARKED AS SUSPICIOUS OR BANNED BY CLOUDFLARE. IF YOU START TO GET A LOT OF ERRORS WHEN SEARCHING FOR HLTB OR YOU SEE SITES MAKING YOU CAPTCHA WHEN THEY PREVIOUSLY DIDN'T IT MIGHT BE TIME TO ROTATE YOUR IP. I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR THIS. THERE ARE PROTECTIONS IN PLACE TO HELP PREVENT THIS BUT NO GUARANTEES. IN THE PROCESS OF TESTING I RAN OVER 30 GAMES IN A ROW WITHOUT ISSUE.

 

🚀 Installation

  1. Extract the plugin archive to your LaunchBox Plugins folder.

  2. Download the latest release of yt-dlp.exe and place it in the plugin folder.

  3. Download the latest version of FFmpeg (Essentials build). Locate ffmpeg.exe inside the bin folder of the download and extract it to the plugin folder.

  4. Verify that the plugin folder contains the .dll file, yt-dlp.exe, and ffmpeg.exe.

  5. Download flaresolverr and run.  If on windows a command prompt will open. When it is running you will see some success messages with 0.0.0.0:8191.

💻 Usage

  1. Open LaunchBox.

  2. Select one or multiple games.

  3. Right-click and select PC Game Scraper.

  4. Configure your settings in the popup menu.

⚙️ Configuration Options

Scan Mode

Choose between Automated, SteamGridDB, or Manual search.

  • Automated Mode: Depending on your settings, this will automatically scan Steam or SGDB by title.

    • If a Steam match is found, the plugin fills missing metadata and downloads Box Art, Fanart, Screenshots, and Video (if enabled).

    • If images are missing or do not match standard Steam resolutions, the plugin falls back to SGDB using the SteamID.

    • If the title is not on Steam, you will be prompted to fall back to SGDB for images.

  • Matching Logic: A game title must match 100% or be at least 93% similar to match without user input.

    Example: If you search for "Doom 2," the plugin will attempt to match it to "Doom 2" because it is an exact match. However, there is no straight "Doom 2" on Steam. Therefore, the plugin will prompt the user for input to try and find a correct match. If you select "Skip Steam," the plugin will search SGDB as the fallback, at which point it should auto-match.

HowLongToBeat Options

Enable scraping of completion times.

  • FlareSolverr URL: Enter the address of your running FlareSolverr instance (e.g., http://localhost:8191).

    • The plugin pings your flaresolverr address to ensure it is correct before proceeding. 

  • Overwrite HLTB Data: If unchecked, the plugin will skip games that already have HLTB fields populated. Check this to force an update.

  • Manual Search Fallback: If a game isn't found (e.g., "Disco Elysium - The Final Cut" vs "Disco Elysium"), the plugin will prompt you to enter a manual search term or stop the batch.

  • Due to the nature of HLTB cloudflare protection this step will take the longest and may fail on some titles. Make sure your titles match HLTB or you are entering the correct title into the manual search bar when prompted. If it fails try again and check the log.

Image Source

Prioritize "Steam (Official)" or "SteamGridDB (Community)."

  • Box Art: Restricted to aspect ratios between 0.6 and 0.75. When a game is not on Steam, it is possible the highest-rated box art will be 660x930. The logic ensures you get the best-rated image within a reasonable range.

  • Fanart: Downloads up to 4K resolution as long as it matches the correct aspect ratio.

Overwriting and Mark Installed

  • Default Behavior: The plugin only fills empty metadata fields. If you have already populated fields using the LaunchBox Database, the plugin will skip them.

  • Overwrite: Select the corresponding overwrite options to replace existing data with Steam, SGDB, or YouTube data.

  • Mark Installed: Marks the selected games as "Installed" in LaunchBox.

Video Options

Enable video downloads, select the source (Steam/YouTube), and set the resolution (480p - 4K).

Engine Selection:

  • FFmpeg: Select this if LaunchBox does not crash and videos play using FFmpeg as the video playback engine. It supports modern codecs providing high video quality with significantly smaller file sizes.

  • WMC: Use this for legacy compatibility if FFmpeg causes playback issues. It is the most compatible option.

⚠️ YouTube Download Warning: yt-dlp cannot download age-restricted trailers without authentication, and YouTube may block automated requests. If you see errors in the log asking for sign-in:

  1. Extract your cookies file from your browser.

  2. Place the file in the plugin folder (named cookies.txt).

  3. The plugin will automatically use this file to pass verification.

SGDB API Key

Required to download community art from SteamGridDB. You can generate an API key in your profile section on the SteamGridDB website.

📂 File Locations

  • Logs: LaunchBox/Plugins/PCGameScraper/PCGameScraper.log

  • Config: LaunchBox/Plugins/PCGameScraper/config.json

  • Downloaded Media: Files are saved directly into the plugin folder under Images/ and Videos/.

Please reach out if you have questions! I plan on trying to implement IGDB support later and if anyone has suggestions or finds a bug please reach out.

Special thanks:

  • srxz, for developing the original steam scraper your plugin saved me lots of time and was the major inspiration for this plugin.

  • maikeru1986, for creating the vidsnap scraper which again saved me lots of time getting videos and was the major inspiration for the video download portion of the plugin (I basically ripped off your menu sorry)

  • JOEVIKING245: a god among moderators and who seems to have INFINITE PATIENCE. Seriously this person needs more credit!

  • 7nseccmem: for helping test the features on discord

Finally Google's Gemini which wrote the whole thing. It was a team effort I promise! If you don't believe me you go try and get Gemini to do something similar see how easy it is.

 

Edited by spiritedusual
Updated readme

What's New in Version .8.2.3   See changelog

Released

Another quick update, 

Now all titles are sanitized of special characters like TM, C, R, etc... before matching. 

I updated the flaresolverr and hltb scanning loop to make it go faster. There is less wait time between scans and the sessions ids are persistent until error 500 then it cycles. 

Added additional fields for HLTB games that are not story based such as online games. Specifically VS and CoOp

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 3
 Share
Previous File Launchbox Precache Manager - Speed up your build

User Feedback

Recommended Comments

bundangdon

bundangdon 469

Posted

Wow! This plugin was really helpful. I was able to get metadata and artwork for almost all of the missing PC game titles in my Launchbox setup. Thanks a lot for sharing this!

Martin Turesson

Martin Turesson 2

Posted

Is Launchbox 13.24 supported? When in manage/plugins it does not appear. I've put all 3 files (ffmpeg.exe) + (yt-dlp.exe) + (Pc Games Scraper.dll) in the \LaunchBox\Plugins folder. Also tried in a separate folder within plugins named PCGamesScraper.

  • Like 1
lessthanzero33

lessthanzero33 29

Posted

1 hour ago, Martin Turesson said:

Is Launchbox 13.24 supported? When in manage/plugins it does not appear. I've put all 3 files (ffmpeg.exe) + (yt-dlp.exe) + (Pc Games Scraper.dll) in the \LaunchBox\Plugins folder. Also tried in a separate folder within plugins named PCGamesScraper.

Same as Martin!, no matter what i did with the plugin, it would not appear at all and i also placed all 3 files inside the "Launchbox Plugins" folder itself and they still did not show.

spiritedusual

spiritedusual 9

Posted

3 hours ago, Martin Turesson said:

Is Launchbox 13.24 supported? When in manage/plugins it does not appear. I've put all 3 files (ffmpeg.exe) + (yt-dlp.exe) + (Pc Games Scraper.dll) in the \LaunchBox\Plugins folder. Also tried in a separate folder within plugins named PCGamesScraper.

 

2 hours ago, lessthanzero33 said:

Same as Martin!, no matter what i did with the plugin, it would not appear at all and i also placed all 3 files inside the "Launchbox Plugins" folder itself and they still did not show.

Try again. I used the latest beta plugin.dll on the first release. You should be good now. 

  • Like 1
spiritedusual

spiritedusual 9

Posted

6 hours ago, bundangdon said:

Wow! This plugin was really helpful. I was able to get metadata and artwork for almost all of the missing PC game titles in my Launchbox setup. Thanks a lot for sharing this!

Thanks Im super happy with it! Keep checking back I just added HLTB support and plan on adding IGDB as well. 

  • Thanks 1
Martin Turesson

Martin Turesson 2

Posted (edited)

Thanks, working fine now. Awesome tool! :)

Edited by Martin Turesson
  • Like 1
spiritedusual

spiritedusual 9

Posted

1 hour ago, Martin Turesson said:

Thanks, working fine now. Awesome tool! :)

Thanks let me know if you find any issues or have ideas! 

  • Like 1
TekkamanBlade

TekkamanBlade 38

Posted

Tried one game and it worked like a charm. Thanks!

  • Like 1

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Add a comment...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
×
  • Create New...