Jason Carr

keltoigael said I dont know if this is a bug or not but with the latest beta client every NES game that I imported that started with a number, 720, 1942 etc got meta data attached correctly, no images and appears in the All tab but not in the NES library. I was able to go into the games and download images but they still appear in All but not in NES. I ran a quick test on this (imported a complete NES library), and the titles that start with a number imported fine into the NES platform, so yes, I think this must have been because the games existed before the import.

duhmez said Version 5.8 Beta 7. NOt sure if you want my feedback here or if this is already a known issue. The new beta version which just removed thegamesdb I did a fresh install and imported a full set of USA Snes roms (Goodsnes) with default settings and it imported only 1 game successfully. Maybe this is expected as you are building the db int he beta verstion still? Not sure so I post it here. I am now retrying by enabling the wikipedia option and try again see how it goes. Did you have EmuMovies enabled by chance?

DOS76 said I just added 53 Atari 7800 games to one of my LB instances and the local DB performed great. I didn't get a match on 3 games so it may be a little more finicky in offering alternative options of names it didn't like or find anything for these games Mario Brothers (changed it to Mario Bros. and everything was good) Donkey Kong Jr. (Changed it to Donkey Kong Junior and was good) Mean 18 Golf (Changed it to Mean 18 and it returned Mean 18 Ultimate Golf as an option) So without changing the names of these games the localDB was saying no game found so it will still offer options if not named exactly as in the last example but not matching Mario Brother with Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong Jr. with Donkey Kong Junior leads me to believe it is now a little more picky then before but it is exponentially better than the options we had available over the weekend. This was done with the first new Beta not with the latest one. Thanks, DOS. We'll need to keep in mind that the database is a bit out of date as well, compared to what TheGamesDB had, so some things that were in TGDB might be missing from the local DB (until TGDB comes back up and we can update it all). Good finds with the search. I expect that the local DB is pickier in some ways and less picky in others than TheGamesDB's API was. We can adapt the search to fix those discrepancies over time. One thing I'd like to do at some point is to tweak the database to come up with perfect data for everything for the NoIntro (or similar) sets. That way, most users will get perfect data consistently.

Another quick new beta is out that fixes a one-off bug where the videos weren't hiding after disabling them in the options. Planning on rushing out the official release tomorrow; hit me up with any bugs found.

SentaiBrad said I'm expensive, you can't afford me. ;) You or the camera? Which is more?

INTERVIEW ME, BRAD!!! :P

No worries @Drybonz, appreciate the testing/feedback. :)

Drybonz said I'm saying the metadata search is not working for me. Can you explain? "Not working" unfortunately doesn't help me.

Drybonz said If we need to tag the games with proper titles, etc so that it knows what images to pull, is there still no way to do that as of now? It should work just as it did before. You shouldn't notice anything different there. I don't really know what you mean, but the metadata search should work as usual and should then let you download images. You *can* download EmuMovies images now though without selecting a game from the database.

Another new beta is out that fixes some minor issues (EmuMovies error showing up unnecessarily, unnecessary download errors, etc.). Hoping this is ready for official release, and want to push it out ASAP due to TGDB. Please yell if you find any glitches.

Drybonz said I'm checking out the new beta now, but it doesn't seem to be pulling metadata from the new LB/GamesDB server. Currently, since the database is read-only, there's no reason to retrieve metadata from the server. It's simply using the local metadata database, which has a side of effect of making everything a lot faster. Going forward we may stick to this and provide daily updated database downloads or similar because of the performance benefits. So the images are the only thing being downloaded from the server at this point, by design.

CliveBarker said I just have a question: can the same thing happen to our database if the community grows a lot and the hosting costs become unaffordable? That's a definite no. Thankfully LaunchBox has a very good revenue stream now (we're making money on LaunchBox Premium sales), so we can afford a good server that can easily handle the load. TheGamesDB.net (at least up until now) has been run on a virtualized (low-power) server because they don't have the revenue for a server that can truly handle the load. We have a physical server that can easily handle the load, and can upgrade it if necessary. There's too much banking on the LaunchBox database functionality for me to ever let it fail, so that shouldn't be a concern. Hosting costs are minimal compared to the income of LaunchBox sales (which are now paying my salary and feeding my family, praise the Lord).

keltoigael said I do have a question about using the new Beta and the local metadata and images. Once we go through this process of updating imports how do we then flag our old imports to use new metadata once we make the switch to a newer api. Btw great job on the quick work and responses. Switching to the new API will be automatic, because we're using the same IDs that TheGamesDB.net used.

Awesome, thanks @GatoSoft. I'm hoping eventually we can allow contributions to the database from directly inside of LaunchBox.

Maybe I should buy you a camera, Brad. :)

Awesome, turned out really well. Thanks again for sharing the build @dovella. Even my full-size cabinet is a little jealous of that thing. ;)

New beta version is out. I got sick and tired of TGDB going down so I ragequit. We're no longer reliant on TheGamesDB.net. LaunchBox is now connected to a read-only database hosted by us (based on the data from TheGamesDB.net). The data is basically an outdated copy of the data from TGDB, including images. Whenever TGDB does come back up (based on my talks with Flexage I am confident that it will but not sure how long it will be), we can update the data in our own database from the data in TGDB database. Soon enough though we will be branching out completely and allowing users to contribute to our database. I think you'll find that imports are faster and cleaner now. Please test everything you can as soon as you're able; I'm hoping to put this out as an official release as soon as possible, since LaunchBox 5.7 is so crippled without TGDB being available. This has no effect on our plans to add additional scrapers such as MobyGames. That is still planned.

New beta version is out. I got sick and tired of TGDB going down so I ragequit. We're no longer reliant on TheGamesDB.net. LaunchBox is now connected to a read-only database hosted by us (based on the data from TheGamesDB.net). The data is basically an outdated copy of the data from TGDB, including images. Whenever TGDB does come back up (based on my talks with Flexage I am confident that it will but not sure how long it will be), we can update the data in our own database from the data in TGDB database. Soon enough though we will be branching out completely and allowing users to contribute to our database. I think you'll find that imports are faster and cleaner now. Please test everything you can as soon as you're able; I'm hoping to put this out as an official release as soon as possible, since LaunchBox 5.7 is so crippled without TGDB being available. This has no effect on our plans to add additional scrapers such as MobyGames. That is still planned.

New beta version is out. I got sick and tired of TGDB going down so I ragequit. We're no longer reliant on TheGamesDB.net. LaunchBox is now connected to a read-only database hosted by us (based on the data from TheGamesDB.net). The data is basically an outdated copy of the data from TGDB, including images. Whenever TGDB does come back up (based on my talks with Flexage I am confident that it will but not sure how long it will be), we can update the data in our own database from the data in TGDB database. Soon enough though we will be branching out completely and allowing users to contribute to our database. I think you'll find that imports are faster and cleaner now. Please test everything you can as soon as you're able; I'm hoping to put this out as an official release as soon as possible, since LaunchBox 5.7 is so crippled without TGDB being available. This has no effect on our plans to add additional scrapers such as MobyGames. That is still planned. Also fixed the issues with EmuMovies requiring a TGDB ID, etc.

New beta version is out. I got sick and tired of TGDB going down so I ragequit. We're no longer reliant on TheGamesDB.net. LaunchBox is now connected to a read-only database hosted by us (based on the data from TheGamesDB.net). The data is basically an outdated copy of the data from TGDB, including images. Whenever TGDB does come back up (based on my talks with Flexage I am confident that it will but not sure how long it will be), we can update the data in our own database from the data in TGDB database. Soon enough though we will be branching out completely and allowing users to contribute to our database. I think you'll find that imports are faster and cleaner now. Please test everything you can as soon as you're able; I'm hoping to put this out as an official release as soon as possible, since LaunchBox 5.7 is so crippled without TGDB being available. This has no effect on our plans to add additional scrapers such as MobyGames. That is still planned.

Alright guys, new beta is out. I got sick and tired of TGDB going down so I ragequit. We're no longer reliant on TheGamesDB.net. LaunchBox is now connected to a read-only database hosted by us (based on the data from TheGamesDB.net). The data is basically an outdated copy of the data from TGDB, including images. Whenever TGDB does come back up (based on my talks with Flexage I am confident that it will but not sure how long it will be), we can update the data in our own database from the data in TGDB database. Soon enough though we will be branching out completely and allowing users to contribute to our database. I think you'll find that imports are faster and cleaner now. Please test everything you can as soon as you're able; I'm hoping to put this out as an official release as soon as possible, since LaunchBox 5.7 is so crippled without TGDB being available. This has no effect on our plans to add additional scrapers such as MobyGames. That is still planned.

Thank you very much, guys. My last day on the job is this coming Friday, and then 100% of my time goes to LaunchBox. I can't wait. Thanks for bearing with me for the last couple of weeks, of course my work is heavy right now since I'm leaving.

Wow, very cool. That's exciting. That error looks to be a glitch with the XML reading apparently under WINE. Not sure what I could do to fix that other than to completely rewrite the XML engine. Do you know if there's someone we can report the glitch to?

Really? Nice, they must have changed that then. Last I tried was like a year ago.

CriticalCid said The only real downside is that only one person at the same time can use the game library. If one of your friends or family members plays a game of yours and you want to play yourself (it doesn’t matter if it’s the same game or a completely different one) they would have to exit the game. And of course games which need a second launcher (like Uplay) won’t work either without sharing your account information’s. Yeah, I thought Steam was 100% perfect and wonderful until I had kids. Now I hate the heck out of it. Think about it, I own hundreds of games. And now my kids can't play ANY of them while I'm playing a different one? Or vice versa? When I found that out I felt pretty robbed.