spiritedusual

🎮 The Game Scraper for LaunchBox
The Game Scraper is a high-performance, multi-threaded metadata and media powerhouse for LaunchBox. It intelligently routes requests based on platform, performs deep "gap-filling" between APIs, and features a unique Bulk Resolution workflow to ensure no game is left behind.
🛠️ Dependencies & Requirements (Pre-Bundled)
To provide a seamless experience, everything you need is included in the plugin folder. You do not need to download external binaries unless you wish to update them manually.
Required Core Components (Included)
yt-dlp.exe: The core engine for downloading trailers.
ffmpeg.exe: Handles video merging and ensures files play correctly within LaunchBox.
SteamKit2.dll: Enables high-speed, anonymous communication with the Steam network.
windowsshortcutfactory.dll: enables integration with Better PC Game Importer
aria2c.exe: Included to provide accelerated, multi-segmented download speeds for video assets.
deno.exe: Included to help solve captchas and bypass YouTube's bot protection for age-gated or restricted content.
Recommended APIs (User-Provided)
SteamGridDB API Key: Required for high-quality, community-voted covers, heroes, and logos.
IGDB Client ID & Secret: Powers all console metadata and "Gap Filling" for PC titles.
FlareSolverr: Required for HowLongToBeat integration to bypass Cloudflare security gates.
 
📖 How to Use
Running a scrape takes only a few clicks:
Select one or more games in your LaunchBox library.
Right-click the highlighted selection.
Choose The Game Scraper from the pop-up menu to open the dashboard and customize your options.
 
🚀 Feature Guide: How It Works & What It Can Do
🧠 General/Metadata Options
What it can do: Automatically scans, identifies, and populates game descriptions, developers, publishers, genres, play modes, release dates and other metadata fields based on your source selection.
How it works: In automatic mode the plugin checks your game's platform. For PC games, it scans Steam first, then automatically reaches out to a second console database to "gap-fill" hidden details that Steam lacks, like what Series a game belongs to or its official Age Rating. For Console games, it skips Steam entirely and routes straight to dedicated console databases based on the platform name. By selecting a different source you force the plugin to use it as the primary source. Select other options as you deem necessary. 
Better Pc Game Importer integration: If you have the Better PC Game Importer plugin it will integrate and you can select your game install folders. When you start your batch here the plugin will rename the folder, shortcuts, and update the path to match the new game title ensuring your library is in sync next time you import new game(s) in the Better PC Game Importer plugin. 
 
🎬 Game Trailer Downloader & Trimmer
What it can do: Finds, trims, and downloads game trailers up to 4K quality that stream seamlessly inside LaunchBox when you highlight a game.
How it works: You select your preferred source (Official Steam Storefront videos or a YouTube search query). For YouTube videos the plugin will automatically download the video and slice it at your exact cutoff mark (e.g., turning a 20-minute walkthrough video into a tight, 2-minute attraction preview). If your chosen resolution isn't available, it automatically scales down to the next best option. You can also select between FFMPEG and WMC. I recommend you try FFMPEG if it doesnt work or crashes Launchbox use WMC instead. Also for YouTube is the Suffix field. You may change this and the plugin will add it on to the end of the search which is always going to be the name of the game (sometimes the platform) and then your suffix. 
 
⏱️ Playtime Tracking (HowLongToBeat)
What it can do: Imports real-world completion times into custom LaunchBox fields so you can filter your library by game length.
How it works: The plugin HLTB to get the aggregated playtime for the game being scanned. It uses FlareSolverr to bypass cloudflare protections. The plugin will pull the completion times, Main Story, Main+Sides, Completionist, etc... and will create a new category the game fits in to based on the "Main Story" completion time. This allows you to create dynamic, auto updating, playlists in Launchbox that get updates when you add games. 
Quick: Under 5 hours
Standard: 5-15 hours
Extended: 15-30 hours
Long: 30-60 hours
Massive: Over 60 hours
NOTE: Because there is no official API, and because we use FlareSolverr, HLTB cannot be ran with the metadata/media portions on the plugin. To do so would either get you banned or be incredibly slow. Thus it must be ran separate. 
 
Special thanks to 7nseccmem for extensive testing and ideas for this version. 
Coming soon... ScreenScraper source

Better PC Game Importer
This plugin automates the process of adding PC games to LaunchBox by intelligently identifying titles and executables while offering bulk folder renaming and shortcut management for titles already imported. It is designed to replace the tedious manual importing process with a smart, heuristic-driven workflow. Can link to my other plugin "The Game Scraper" to help sync folder names.
Why does this exist?
LaunchBox excels at automatically importing games purchased from major storefronts, but adding independent or DRM-free titles manually often requires navigating deep folder structures to find the correct executable. While some users create shortcuts and house them in a single folder to speed up the process, managing those shortcuts is still a tedious, manual task. This plugin automates that entire workflow—scanning your folders, identifying the best executables, and managing your library with minimal effort.
 
🚀 Key Features
Effortless Bulk Importing: Add dozens of PC games to your LaunchBox library at once instead of one by one.
Smart Library Matching: Automatically connects your folders to the correct game titles already in your LaunchBox collection, even if the folder names are messy.
Automatic File Selection: Identifies the actual game executable while skipping over "junk" files like installers, setup tools, and uninstallers.
Physical Folder Renaming: Renames your game folders on your hard drive to match the clean, professional titles found in your LaunchBox library.
Centralized Shortcuts: Automatically creates and stores game shortcuts in a single folder, keeping your library paths organized and easy to move.
High-Speed Scanning: Uses a "self-healing" cache to remember your folders, so re-scanning large collections takes only seconds.
 
📋 Requirements
LaunchBox: 13.26
WindowsShortcutFactory: Required for the plugin to generate and manage desktop-style shortcuts. (INCLUDED)
 
🛠 Installation Instructions
Extract the archive to your root Launchbox folder. 
 
📖 How to Use
1. Open the Plugin
Open the Tools menu in LaunchBox and click Better PC Game Importer.
2. Configure the Scan
Select Folder(s): Choose the folder(s) where your PC games are stored. Both Imported and Non-Imported. Your folder names should match the game titles as close as possible.
Platform: Select the LaunchBox platform you are importing into (e.g., "Windows").
3. Scan and Review
Run Scan: Click Scan Folders to begin the analysis.
Check Status: Review the Status column. The plugin identifies games as "New Game," "In Library (Locked)," or "Update Link".
Fix Matches: If a folder is labeled "New Game" but it is actually already in your library, manually select the corrected title from the game title dropdown. This instantly changes the status to Update Link.
The plugin can now match imported titles to mismatched folders via .exe and shortcut paths. Meaning if a folder does not match the launchbox title but that launchbox title has a launch path that is either to a direct .exe or to a shortcut (.lnk) that launches that .exe it will match and let you know that the folder can be updated.
Auto-Rescore: Changing a title triggers the plugin to re-score the folder's executables, often finding a better match based on the updated name.
Manual Overrides: Use the Selected EXE dropdown or the Browse button if you need to manually pick a specific file.
4. Execute Import
Select the games you want to process (Shift + Click works for bulk selection).
Rename Folders: Check this box to physically rename your folders on your hard drive to match the corrected titles.
Create Shortcuts: Check this to generate .lnk files in your designated shortcut folder.
Unlock 'In Library' Games for Editing: Unlocks In Library games for editing.  
Click Import Selected to update the LaunchBox database and process your files.
 
🔄 Real-World Workflow Example
Imagine you are cleaning up a directory with a mix of new downloads and existing library entries:
1. The New Game: You have a folder named Super_Racing_2024. Since this isn't in your library, it appears in the grid as a New Game with the title defaulting to the folder name Super_Racing_2024. You can leave it as-is or click the field and manually correct it to Super Racing to keep your library clean.
2. The False Positive (clos2): You have a folder named clos2. Because it doesn’t match any games in your library, it shows as a New Game titled clos2. You think this is Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 so you go to the title field and either start typing or drop down and find and select Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2. The status instantly changes to Update Link. Because you changed the title, the plugin re-scores the folder—now recognizing that CLOS2.exe is a high-score match because it fits the acronym of your new title.
3. Fixing Broken Links: You notice Portal in your library is currently pointing to a configuration tool instead of the game. You check Unlock In Library, which scans your existing games and makes them editable. You can now use the Selected EXE dropdown on the Portal row to switch the executable from config.exe to portal.exe.
4. The Cleanup (Rename & Shortcut): Before finishing, you check the Rename Folders and Create Shortcuts boxes.
Rename Folders: The physical folder Super_Racing_2024 will be renamed to Super Racing on your hard drive to match your corrected title.
Create Shortcuts: Instead of pointing LaunchBox to an EXE buried deep in subfolders, the plugin creates a Super Racing.lnk in your central shortcut folder. LaunchBox will now launch through that shortcut, making your library paths clean and portable.
5. The Result: You click Import Selected. The plugin physically renames the folders, generates the shortcuts, updates your existing Portal path, and adds Super Racing to your LaunchBox database all at once.
 
TIPS: This plugin works best when your folders are named correctly. If you use this you should check out my other plugin, "The Game Scraper". You can download metadata, media, and hltb data. It also integrates nicely with this plugin to help you sync folder names after The Game Scraper changes the title to match Steam. 

Any bugs or questions please feel free to ask. I'm also in the Discord. 
Thanks to 7nseccmem for helping test this. 
 
 

Project Merger Plugin for LaunchBox
The Project Merger Plugin is a high-performance utility designed to integrate massive retro-gaming collections—including the eXo collections, C64 Dreams, and Flashpoint—directly into your LaunchBox library.
Rather than moving or duplicating terabytes of data, this plugin utilizes symbolic links (symlinks) and surgical XML injection to make external collections behave as if they were natively installed within your LaunchBox directory 🛠 Requirements
LaunchBox Version: 13.26 or higher
If merging Flashpoint and you want the images then download the Flashpoint image archive from the flashpoint site (https://download.unstable.life/ultimate-direct/14_packed/) and extract them to your flashpoint directory. This is only required if you have Flashpoint Infinite. Flashpoint Ultimate comes with the images.
❓ Why This Plugin Exists
When you know how Launchbox works the concept of merging installs is not difficult. However, it is a pain to do and can cause issues if you mess things up. I wanted a way to automate the process and merge the projects in to an existing launchbox install in a way that would not change the users existing library, be neatly organized, have a small storage footprint, and be non destructive to the original project files.
📂 Supported Projects
The plugin is fingerprinted to recognize and process the following specific directory structures:
eXo Collections: eXoDOS. exoDOS Lite, eXoWin3x, eXoWin9x, eXoAppleIIGS, eXoScummVM, eXoDREAMM, eXoDemoScn, and eXoIF. Can be merged in either individual projects or if you've already merged exo projects.  C64 Dreams Flashpoint: Support for both Ultimate and Infinite. 📖 How to Use
Extract the content of the archive to your /plugins/ folder. Download and follow the instructions to install/unpack your desired projects (exo, c64, and/or flashpoint). Start launchbox and go to the tools menu and select the plugin. In the plugin window browse to your source project folder. If you have multiple projects select the root folder that contains the project sub folders. The plugin will auto populate with the projects available for import. There is a "Dry Run" option enabled by default if you'd like to see get an idea of whats about to happen otherwise uncheck that option. Click start import. The plugin will create a backup of your parents and platform xml files prior to making changes. These can be found in the plugin directory. You will get a UAC prompt about half through the process. This is required to create symlinks. A full import of all the projects on a destination NVME takes about 10 minutes. 
If you run in to issues or want to remove a project the second tab is for you. You can get a very basic idea of what the condition of the install is in, repair it, or uninstall one or multiple projects. Additionally, If there is ever an update you simply update the project at the source and select repair on the second tab. 

💻 How does it work?
Retro Exo and C64 Dreams are simply just highly curated Launchbox libraries by themselves. They both utilize a custom project folders at the root of their Launchbox folders. With this in mind and remembering our goal of small storage footprint and wanting to keep the source intact we can move over dependencies and symlink anything else. In broard terms the games and media themselves are all still at their source while things like emulators and config files are copied over. You could technically play a game on exodos and then pick it back up where you left off on your merged launchbox folder. There are also dependent plugins for C64 Dreams and Retro Exo that get added in as well. I include these in the plugin folder because depending on which version of the project you are importing you may have an out of date version so the plugin contains the most up to date for you. 

Flashpoint is a little different. It looks similar to Launchbox but it is not Launchbox thus we must convert it to something Launchbox can understand. There are over 200k titles in Flashpoint. The plugin scans the source Flashpoint directory finds the sql database and converts it in to a Flashpoint.xml. It does the same for the playlist json files converting them to xml files. Additionally, the images folder is nothing like what Launchbox needs. Thus it finds all images in the Flashpoint folder and creates symlinks of them to your destination Launchbox directory. Finally, we extract ClifP from the plugin folder to bridge Flashpoint and Launchbox and actually run the games. 

To get the archive imported without conflicting with the users current library we rename the platforms to identify them as purely the project they represent, ie MS-DOS = eXoDOS, AppleIIGS = exo AppleIIGS, etc... Additionally, to keep it clean we create "master platform categories" such as "Retro Exo" and nest all the projects/platforms under the master platform category. IE: Retro Exo (Master Category)>eXo DOS (Project Category)> "exo dos platform and playlists go here". The plugin does all the xml injections and edits in the background. 
⚠️ WARNING
Flashpoint Scale: Flashpoint is incredibly resource-intensive, featuring approximately 200,000 titles and nearly 500,000 images. It's recommended you use an SSD as your destination Launchbox install for best performance. 
StableBit DrivePool Incompatibility: During development, it was identified that StableBit DrivePool does not handle large volumes of individual files and symbolic links effectively. Attempting to use this plugin on a pooled drive can and will cause system crashes that wont resolve after a restart. I spent about 24 hours in windows recovery and physically unplugging drives to get my system to boot again. Please ensure you are targeting a standard physical drive to maintain system stability.
 
A final word on compatibility. While I tested several games across all the projects during the course of development I cannot guarantee that this is truly 100% working. Thus any and all feedback is appreciated.
 
Eventually I plan on creating a custom media pack for this plugin so everything has, icons, clear logos, and videos. 
 
 
 

Second Screen Companion - View Manuals, Guides, & Media on your Phone!
Second Screen Companion is a lightweight LaunchBox plugin that instantly turns your smartphone or tablet into a dedicated companion hub for whatever game you are currently playing.
Whenever you launch a game, the plugin silently starts a local web server. Just scan a QR code, and your phone will instantly load a beautiful, dark-mode hub containing all of the game's manuals, strategy guides, artwork, and media so you can browse them while you play!
🌟 Features
Live RetroAchievements Tracking: Watch your achievements unlock in real-time! The hub securely syncs your progress while you play. Newly earned achievements are automatically sorted and pushed to the absolute top of your phone screen with a satisfying visual "pop" animation so you never have to scroll to see what you just accomplished. The Companion Hub: A sleek, mobile-optimized webpage that automatically uses your game's Clear Logo and Fanart Background for a premium look.
Comprehensive Media Scanner: Automatically finds and serves:
📖 Documents: Game Manuals and Strategy Guides (pulled dynamically from your Additional Apps).
🖼️ Artwork: Front/Back Box Art, Discs, Carts, Clear Logos, Fanart, Storefront Posters, and dozens of other image folders.
🎵 Media: Automatically plays your game's Theme Music or Gameplay Videos right in your mobile browser via native HTML5 players.
Smart Image Viewer: Transparent PNGs (like Clear Logos or isolated box art) are displayed over a dark-mode checkerboard background so they always look perfect and never vanish into a black screen.
One-Click Network Setup: Built-in tools to automatically open the required Windows Firewall ports so you don't have to mess with command prompts.
🛠️ Installation
Download the latest release zip file and unpack in your LaunchBox\Plugins\ directory.
You might have to right-click the dll file, go to Properties, and check the "Unblock" box at the bottom (this is required by Windows for downloaded DLLs).
Extract the Second Screen Companion folder directly into your LaunchBox\Plugins\ directory. (You should have a folder path that looks like: LaunchBox\Plugins\Second Screen Companion\WirelessScreenServer.dll and QRCoder.dll)
📱 How to Set Up & Use
Open LaunchBox.
Go to the top menu and click Tools -> Second Screen Companion Settings.
You can leave the Default Port as 8080, or change it if you have conflicts.
Click Apply Network Rules (Admin). This will trigger a Windows prompt to automatically open the port in Windows Firewall for the server. (You only need to do this once!)
Click Test Connection QR. Scan it with your phone's camera. If your phone and PC are on the same Wi-Fi network, you will see a green "Success!" screen.
Play a game! The next time you launch a game, access the host pc ip on the port assigned. The hub will automatically populate with all the media for the active game.
⚠️ Troubleshooting / Notes
Same Network Required: Your phone/tablet and your LaunchBox PC must be connected to the same local network/Wi-Fi.
Missing Media? The plugin strictly reads the media you have stored in your LaunchBox folders. If LaunchBox doesn't have a manual or video for the game, the hub won't display it.
Browser Caching: Mobile browsers like to cache things. If you swap games and the phone still shows the old game, just pull down to refresh the page!

Strategy Guide Importer & Manager
A plugin to automatically batch-match and attach PDF strategy guides to your LaunchBox games, complete with a management tab to safely bulk-remove them.
✨ Key Features
Smart Matching: Ignores special characters and perfectly matches your PDFs to your LaunchBox database (e.g., Spider-Man Web of Fire.pdf matches Spider-Man: Web of Fire).
Auto-Brand Extraction: Automatically tags the publisher in LaunchBox if formatted correctly (e.g., names it Strategy Guide (BradyGames)).
Built-in Deduplication: Skips PDFs that are already attached to prevent menu clutter.
Safe Bulk Removal: A dedicated tab to scan for and unlink attached guides. (Note: This only removes the database entry; it never deletes your actual .pdf files).
📥 Installation
Create a folder named Strategy_Guide_Importer inside your LaunchBox\Plugins\ folder.
Drop the plugin .dll file inside.
(Optional) Right-click the .dll, select Properties, and check Unblock if Windows blocked it.
Restart LaunchBox.
📖 How to Use
Open LaunchBox, go to Tools, and select Strategy Guide Importer.
To Import: Use Tab 1 to select your PDF folder, review the matched platforms/games, and click Save.
To Remove: Use Tab 2 to scan your library for currently attached guides, check the ones you want to unlink, and click Remove.
🛠️ File Naming Best Practice
For the best automatic matching and brand extraction, name your PDFs like this: Game Title - Guide Publisher.pdf (Example: Final Fantasy VII - Prima.pdf)

I've created a controller support theme video using Vikings colorful windows theme and a youtube video, History of Game Controllers. 
Thanks go to them for those resources.

Simply, this is the only recently played icon on the forum added on to the oval tiles to match the format of pawpaw's clear icon playlist set. This should hopefully help make your set up cleaner.