Jason Carr

Hey Circinus, let's get this resolved. Not exactly sure what might be going on, but we'll get it figured out. Have you tried installing to a brand new folder without any existing LaunchBox.xml files (an empty collection)? Also, make sure that you have full access to the images folder; it looks to me like it might be caused by incorrect file system permissions in the images folder. So first off, see if a brand new installation of LaunchBox works properly somewhere inside your My Documents folder.

Hi mnemoic, sorry for the late reply here. Yes, I do think this would be a good idea to provide this option; I'll add a to-do item to my list.

Hi ncross, welcome indeed. Sorry I'm getting to this post so late (been hiding away feverishly building new features). An option for #1 is already planned (though it may be only in the future premium version). I'll add to do items to look into #2 and #3. Btw, if you're interested in beta testing, please do hop on in and subscribe to the beta testing thread.

Hey all, I went ahead and released 3.5 today; there were some serious bug fixes that needed to get out ASAP. I believe Brad's issues above have been solved. More importantly, I just put out a new nightly build with a very early (but semi-functional) sidebar. Feel free to give it a shot and comment on it. I expect that a lot will change with it yet, but it's a start. https://bitbucket.org/jasondavidcarr/launchbox-nightlies Thanks, Jason

I see what you mean here, mnemonic. If the user specifies to use the game folder for the name, then it really should only add one game, even if there's multiple files in the folder. I'll add this to my to do list. Problem is, though, it still would have to guess which file to use.

Welcome to the forums, mnemonic. There isn't really a Windows game importer for the moment, but you can manually add them via Game > Add, as Brad suggested. The DOS game installer wizard won't work very well, though; I wouldn't suggest using that. Thanks, Jason

And here's an updated build from tonight's development: https://bitbucket.org/jasondavidcarr/launchbox-nightlies/src/6ae6c0361f0e199ec81086eadc6309824b340160/LaunchBox_nightly_2014-08-22_00-26-12.exe?at=master I really need some help testing this one as I've been battling some sporadic crashes while navigating between games. It seems to happen on right-clicking games but I haven't been able to check if that's the only time that it happens. Any testing anyone can do would be appreciated; most importantly, let me know if you get any crashes and what the errors are. Thanks, Jason

Alright, so I have a beta release ready sooner than I expected. I've done a lot of code cleanup for this release, so some general testing would be good. The primary change for this, though, is a new adjustable RAM cache feature that will help to speed up scrolling performance. Check out the RAM Cache tab in the Options dialog. Need to test for scrolling performance and also just to make sure that there are no crashes. Also, I've created a semi-automated "nightly" build system that will make it easier to test beta/nightly releases. You can download the releases here: https://bitbucket.org/jasondavidcarr/launchbox-nightlies Here's the link to this particular release: https://bitbucket.org/jasondavidcarr/launchbox-nightlies/src/1c345f75efe34f373e30fb4546057d8bd8261091/LaunchBox_nightly_2014-08-20_21-21-06.exe?at=master

Great, thanks Ron. I've granted you access to the beta releases. I have should have a new beta release posted within the next couple of days. Make sure you subscribe to this thread so you can get notified.

I should have another beta release coming within the next couple days. If you can subscribe to the beta testing thread I linked above, you'll get notified. Thanks, sudo.

Great. Nothing that advanced ftm. Just been posting beta releases here: https://www.launchbox-app.com/forum/features/launchbox-beta-testing Though you're absolutely right, would be good to get nightlies going. I'll add that to my to-do list. Also worth noting is I have an issues list here: https://bitbucket.org/jasondavidcarr/launchbox/issues?status=new&status=open It contains everything: new features, bugs, etc. I'm asking people not to add to the list (I'd rather maintain it myself and get things to come in via the forums), but feel free to browse it (and maybe vote or comment on things if you feel inclined).

Hi sudo, welcome to the forums. Let me clarify some things here... The ID generation is *not* based off of hardware at all. It's a simple industry standard GUID. LaunchBox does *not* observe your hardware for anything. And yes, LaunchBox is fully portable. Not sure how we worked hardware into the discussion, but that's not right. Brad is right regarding the character replacements in the images paths. It's not problematic if it's done consistently, and it's currently posing zero issues. However, I understand your desire to have everything inside the game folder. This is an option I might add at some point soon, because it keeps getting requested. It will likely end up in the premium version I'm planning for December, however. It is likely to slow down LaunchBox a hare, but I doubt it will be too significant; we'll have to see how it goes when I tackle it. One more thing, we are looking for more help beta testing. Interested?

Thanks, sla.ro, I've given you permissions to download the betas. You can follow this thread here: https://www.launchbox-app.com/forum/features/launchbox-beta-testing I'll be putting out a new beta within the next few days.

Nice, Ron. Welcome to the forums. Hit us up here if you're interested in beta testing: https://www.launchbox-app.com/forum/features/launchbox-beta-testing

Now that's a great looking collection. Gecko, I trust that running the web browser games is working well enough for you now?

I do believe I have this fixed. I'm planning on putting out a quick bugfix release over the weekend, so this should be included.

Conehead, you're a genius. Thanks for that. I'll get this fixed.

Planning to release the official version 3.3 tomorrow night. Here is beta 3; I expect the official release to be very similar to this. The only things different in this from beta 2 are a few minor fixes, a new background fading feature, and an updated welcome dialog to introduce the upcoming premium version. Let me know if anyone runs into any bugs; otherwise, we'll shoot for an official release tomorrow night. Thanks again, everyone.

As we've previously discussed on the forums, a premium version of LaunchBox is in the works; we're shooting for December 2014 as the first release of the premium version. We're hoping this forum post can help to answer everyone's questions on the matter, and provide a good place for discussion and feedback. Why a premium version? As much as we'd love for all LaunchBox features to forever be free, we'd like to take LaunchBox much further than it already is, and we're starting to hit some walls. For example, as we've discussed previously on the forums, we'd like to add skinning support, but we would need to purchase a third-party product to integrate it into LaunchBox. Unfortunately, coming up with the funds for things like this is difficult with a donation-only model, not to mention that this site alone costs more than the what is being generously donated. Rather than be annoying and beg for donations, or just greedy and charge everyone for LaunchBox, we think that a free/premium model would be the best solution to the problem. We'd like to keep LaunchBox ad-free, nag-free, and free to distribute, and this seems to be the best solution. What will the premium version include? We're considering many different features for the premium version, but we expect most of the features to surround advanced customization abilities, such as themes/skinning support, searching more online databases than just TheGamesDB.net, and similar options. One of the biggest goals with LaunchBox from the beginning was to make everything as clean and easy as possible. We still want to keep it this way for the current free version. Therefore, the benefits of the premium version will be limited to power-user features that have not yet been implemented. Anything that is implemented to make LaunchBox easier to use will be kept in the free version. How much will it cost and what if I've already donated? Currently, we're considering charging $10 for the premium version, which we consider to be very reasonable. LaunchBox users who have already donated or who donate between now and the release of the premium version will get immediate access to it upon release. We're also planning on using a lifetime license model, so that once you pay for the premium version, you will continue to get upgrades for free for life, and can use your copy on any number of machines (even in a portable manner). We plan to include no DRM, and to discourage piracy only by stating who a premium copy of LaunchBox is licensed to in the program's title bar. We recognize that this will result in some level of piracy, but we would rather deal with a minimum amount of piracy than cripple the software for paying users. What about the current free version? Will it continue to be updated? Yes, the current free version will forever continue to be updated. New features will keep being released. When considering whether a new feature belongs in the free version or the premium version, we'll ask the question, "Is this a power-user feature?" If the answer is yes, the feature will likely end up in the premium version. However, features like imports, library management, or anything else that make LaunchBox easier and more convenient to use will continue to be released for the free version. We want LaunchBox to be the go-to app for multi-platform gaming on the PC, and we want it to be free. We need your feedback. Please let us know if you have any thoughts you'd like to share on any aspect of this. If you're excited about the premium version, let us know. If you dislike the idea, let us know as well. If you have ideas for features that you'd like to see in the premium version, by all means, do share. We want to keep LaunchBox a community-driven application, even for the premium version, as it has been from the beginning. Thanks for all your support; we can't wait to see where we can take LaunchBox going forward.

Turns out this issue was caused by the fact that with large collections, LaunchBox would take a bit of time to exit after the window was closed. Then, if it was started again while the main window was closed but LaunchBox was still running, it would result the above screenshot. I've resolved the issue by putting up a "please wait for LaunchBox to close" notice.

Thanks, bd.

So! Here's version 3.2 beta 2. This now has the import process to go along with the export, and fixes all the recent bugs that have been reported (both with the import and otherwise). You can see a list of all the recent bug fixes here (just look at the Updated date): https://bitbucket.org/jasondavidcarr/launchbox/issues?kind=bug&status=resolved I really need the import and export processes tested as extensively as possible. Also, please test any previous bugs you were running into (from the list I linked) to ensure that they are resolved. I'd like to put out the next release after we iron out any issues with beta 2. Thanks, Jason

Gotta say, this is really strange. For all the examples here, where you don't get a release date, I'm getting the release date just fine on my machine (both in the drop down list and upon selection). So that's pretty odd. I wonder what the difference is. I suppose it could be some sort of random glitch on TheGamesDB, but I don't think that's likely since this issue seems to happen often for you, but never for me. Are you from the US? What are you language settings set to? Thanks, conehead.

Hmm, good question. I believe LaunchBox starts with the visible games and caches them, and then moves on to the invisible games in the background and caches those as well. But I do need to revisit that code (I don't exactly remember the specifics).

Here's the list. The first item is the name on TheGamesDB and the subsequent items are the ones that I look for in addition. "3DO", "3DO Interactive Multiplayer" "Amiga" "Amstrad CPC" "Android", "Droid" "Arcade", "MAME" "Atari 2600", "Atari", "2600" "Atari 5200", "5200", "Atari 5200 SuperSystem", "5200 SuperSystem", "Atari SuperSystem", "SuperSystem" "Atari 7800", "7800", "Atari 7800 ProSystem", "7800 ProSystem", "Atari ProSystem", "ProSystem" "Atari Jaguar", "Jaguar" "Atari Jaguar CD", "Jaguar CD", "Jag CD" "Atari Lynx", "Lynx" "Atari XE", "Atari XEGS" "Colecovision", "Coleco", "Coleco Vision" "Commodore 64", "C64", "C=64", "CBM 64", "VIC-64", "C 64", "CBM64", "VIC 64", "VIC64", "Comm 64", "Comm. 64", "Comm64", "Comodore 64", "Commodore" "Intellivision" "IOS", "Apple", "iPhone", "iPad", "iPod", "iPod Touch" "Mac OS", "OSX", "Mac OS X", "Mac OSX", "Mac" "Microsoft Xbox", "X-box", "MS Xbox", "Microsoft X-box", "MS X-box", "Xbox" "Microsoft Xbox 360", "Xbox 360", "360", "MS Xbox 360" "Microsoft Xbox One", "Xbox One" "Neo Geo Pocket", "NeoGeo Pocket", "NGP" "Neo Geo Pocket Color", "NeoGeo Pocket Color", "NeoGeo Color", "NGPC" "NeoGeo", "Neo Geo", "Neo Geo Multi Video System", "Neo Geo Advanced Entertainment System", "MVS", "AES", "Multi Video System", "Advanced Entertainment System", "Neo Geo MVS", "Neo Geo AES", "NeoGeo MVS", "NeoGeo AES", "NeoGeo Multi Video System", "NeoGeo Advanced Entertainment System" "Nintendo 3DS", "3DS" "Nintendo 64", "N64" "Nintendo DS", "Nintendo DSi", "NDS", "NDSi", "DSi", "DS" "Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)", "Nintendo Entertainment System", "NES", "Nintendo", "Famicom", "FC" "Nintendo Game Boy", "Game Boy", "GameBoy", "NGB", "GB", "Nintendo GameBoy", "Nintendo GB" "Nintendo Game Boy Advance", "Game Boy Advance", "GameBoy Advance", "GBA", "Nintendo GameBoy Advance", "Nintendo GBA" "Nintendo Game Boy Color", "Game Boy Color", "GameBoy Color", "GBC", "Nintendo GameBoy Color", "Nintendo GBC" "Nintendo GameCube", "Nintendo Game Cube", "NGC", "GameCube", "Game Cube", "GCN" "Nintendo Virtual Boy", "Virtual Boy", "VirtualBoy", "Nintendo VirtualBoy", "NVB" "Nintendo Wii", "Wii" "Nintendo Wii U", "Wii U", "WiiU" "Ouya" "PC", "Computer", "Personal Computer", "Windows", "MS-DOS", "DOS", "Microsoft Windows", "Win32", "Windows 3.1", "Windows 3.11", "Windows 95", "Windows 98", "Windows 2000", "Windows ME", "Windows XP", "Windows Vista", "Windows 7", "Windows 8", "Windows 8.1" "Philips CD-i", "Philips CD-i (Compact Disc Interactive)", "Compact Disc Interactive", "Philips Compact Disc Interactive", "Philips", "CD-i" "Sega 32X", "32X" "Sega CD", "CD" "Sega Dreamcast", "Dreamcast" "Sega Game Gear", "Game Gear", "GameGear" "Sega Genesis", "Genesis" "Sega Master System", "Master System", "SMS" "Sega Mega Drive", "Mega Drive", "MegaDrive", "Sega MegaDrive" "Sega Saturn", "Saturn" "Sinclair ZX Spectrum", "ZX Spectrum", "Spectrum", "ZX" "Sony Playstation", "Playstation", "Play Station", "Sony Play Station", "PS1", "PSX", "PS", "Sony PS1", "Sony PSX", "Sony PS" "Sony Playstation 2", "Playstation 2", "Play Station 2", "Sony Play Station 2", "PS2" "Sony Playstation 3", "Playstation 3", "Play Station 3", "Sony Play Station 3", "PS3" "Sony Playstation 4", "Playstation 4", "Play Station 4", "Sony Play Station 4", "PS4" "Sony Playstation Vita", "Playstation Vita", "PS Vita", "PSVita", "Vita" "Sony PSP", "PSP", "Sony Playstation Portable", "PlayStation Portable" "Super Nintendo (SNES)", "Super Nintendo", "SNES", "Super Nintendo Entertainment System", "Super NES", "Super Famicom", "SFC", "Super Comboy", "Comboy" "TurboGrafx 16", "TurboGrafx-16 Entertainment SuperSystem", "TurboGrafx-16", "TurboGrafx", "TESS", "PC Engine", "PC-Engine" "WonderSwan", "Wonder Swan" "WonderSwan Color", "Wonder Swan Color"