spiritedusual

🎮 PC Game Scraper for LaunchBox
**If you are having problems with youtube video downloads always make sure you have the most up to date version of yt-dlp.exe before reaching out for help.**
PC Game Scraper is a robust metadata and media scraping plugin for LaunchBox. It intelligently prioritizes Steam for PC game metadata and IGDB for console titles. It leverages SteamGridDB for high-quality frontend artwork and YouTube (via yt-dlp) for video trailers.
The plugin features advanced integration with HowLongToBeat (via FlareSolverr), now upgraded with a dedicated "Console Fork" to pull version-specific completion times directly from the site’s internal data.
🛠️ Dependencies & Requirements
To use all features, the following components are required or recommended. I've included everything I can for your convenience. If you are not comfortable with them or do not want to use the optional Deno.exe. You may download your own or remove Deno.exe if you don't plan on using cookies.txt or downloading age gated videos. 
Required for Core Functionality
yt-dlp.exe (Required for Video): The engine that downloads trailers. Must be placed in the plugin folder.
ffmpeg.exe (Required for Video): Handles video merging and ensures files play correctly in LaunchBox.
Recommended
SteamGridDB API Key (Highly Recommended): Required for fallback images not available on Steam.  IGDB Client ID & Secret (Highly Recommended): Required for all console game metadata and "Gap Filling" for PC games metadata either not on Steam or difficult to extract. 
FlareSolverr (Required for HLTB): A local proxy service needed to bypass Cloudflare security when fetching HowLongToBeat playtimes.
cookies.txt and Deno.exe (Optional): Helps yt-dlp bypass age-restricted content gates on YouTube and sign in to your premium account. Deno.exe will solve captchas to bypass YouTube's bot protection. 
⚠️ Disclaimer
✨ Key Features
🧠 Smart Metadata Routing
PC Logic: Scans Steam first. If a game is found, it then uses IGDB to "Gap Fill" fields Steam often lacks, like Series and Age Rating.
Console Logic: Automatically skips Steam and routes directly to IGDB based on the game's platform.
Manual Search: If automatic matching fails the user is prompted for a new search term, steam app id, steam store or igdb url. 
🎬 Video Downloader
Source Selector: Select your desired source, Steam or Youtube.
Smart Fallback: For PC games, if Steam source is selected it attempts to grab the official Steam Store trailer first. If unavailable allows the user to switch to Youtube, or if the game is a console title, it pivots to a YouTube search and injects the platform in to the search term for better matching. 
Dynamic Slicer: Automatically applies your "Max Duration" limit to YouTube downloads to save disk space. YouTube videos will be cut off at the time set.  A 10 minute gameplay video is cut down to 5 minutes. 
Resolution: Will attempt to download the desired resolution. If it is not available will scale down until one is found for the selected video. 
Suffix: Allows user to define desired youtube search term suffix, IE Trailer, Gameplay, etc...
⏱️ HowLongToBeat
The plugin now uses two distinct methods to fetch playtimes:
PC Logic: Pulls the general "blended average" from the HLTB search results.
Console Logic: Loads the game's specific detail page and extracts the exact platform data (e.g., pulling GameCube-specific times for Metroid Prime rather than the Wii Remaster times).
Custom Fields: Creates custom fields for dynamic playlist creation. Marathon 60h+, Long 30-60h, Extended 15-30h, Standard 5-15h, and Quick <5h, as well as the exact times provided by HLTB. 
🎮 Real-World Workflow Examples
If you select a game and run all three functions (Metadata, Images, and Video), here is how the plugin behaves:
Example A: Windows Game (Cyberpunk 2077)
Identification: Finds the game on Steam via name match.
Metadata: Pulls metadata from Steam, then if client id/client secret are populated and correct hits IGDB to add additional fields not available or hard to parse from steam. 
Images: Grabs all available steam images. If images are missing or if SGDB override is enabled and your SGDB API is present it hits SteamGridDB.
Video: Downloads the official trailer directly from the Steam Store servers or YouTube if the video source is YouTube. 
HLTB: If enabled and flaresolverr is setup. saves the general PC completion times to your custom fields as well as the category times mentioned above. 
Example B: Console Game (The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for GameCube)
Identification: Automatically routes to IGDB after detecting the GameCube platform.
Metadata: Pulls the IGDB metadata.
Images: Since no Steam ID exists, it goes straight to SteamGridDB to find the community-voted best GameCube media. 
Video: Recognizes it isn't a PC game and routes to YouTube to search for "The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess GameCube Trailer".
HLTB: Triggers the Console Fork. It ignores the Wii and Wii U times and pulls only the GameCube platform data.

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.