Hippyshake

Jason Carr said Hippyshake said Although I blame that on my addictive personality and lack of self control, rather than gaming and alcohol. Oh man, I feel you there. Lack of self control, check. Addictive personality, check. I tend to latch onto things and never let them go. LaunchBox is one of those things, so it's not all bad, I guess. If nothing else, LaunchBox is showing me how I've replaced my physical addiction with a digital one. So far, I have 6238 (!) legal games imported, and there are more to come. Just seeing those pretty boxes on my virtual shelf, and watching that number climb, makes me want more. I've just bought another bundle this morning, and there's one at Groupees I pre-ordered yesterday that drops in a few hours. Allow me to paraphrase myself: "Hello, my name is John, and I'm a LaunchBoxoholic!" :D Feel free to use that quote in promotional materials. :) As a bundle junkie, I'm constantly purchasing the same game more than once (which is great for giveaways, but not so great for my wallet). LaunchBox finally gives me a way to see everything that I own already, so that I'm not making the same purchase on multiple platforms anymore. In fact, feel free to use that quote in promotional materials, too. :)

SentaiBrad said Jason Carr said Ha, is that even *in* installation notes anywhere? Do we even *have* installation notes? ;) So easy to miss you don't even know. :P LOL! Yep, it's actually in the window that pops up during patching. I don't think I've read any of those since...oh, about 1996 or so. Completely my fault. :)

I've just noticed this, so it gets its own post. If you expand the Details pane on the right side, click a few games and then click on the red heart, LB will only add the last game clicked to your favorites, instead of doing a batch-favorite on all selected games. Clicking on the pencil to edit works the same way. If it isn't possible to launch the batch wizard via the icons, maybe a message to let the player know they haven't affected all selected games should be given?

Thanks, Brad. I should have actually read the installation notes. :P

Last file uploaded: LaunchBox v 4.8 beta 7 - Windows Scan - Missed Games (See previous files for C:\) I hope this helps. If you need anything else, please let me know. I'm happy to help. :)

Jason Carr said Hehehehe, sounds a lot like every kid's dream. Beer and video games? ;) True, except for the whole "spending thousands of dollars in storage and becoming an alcoholic" thing! :):):) Although I blame that on my addictive personality and lack of self control, rather than gaming and alcohol. Cadet Stimpy said Yeah, Hippyshake, the "collector bug" can be costly, as you (and many of us, no doubt) well know. This woman I used to work with made reference to my DVD collection as being like a Volvo in my closet. That's pretty rough! I'd give almost anything for a picture though, after hearing that comparison. lol

Jason Carr said The full paths would be awesome, John. No worries. I'm hoping to put the official release early next week. Can do. I've just tried scanning for Windows games on version 4.8 beta 7 and this time it didn't find the same games again (as it had immediately after finding them in the last release). It didn't find the ones it had missed though, so I'll start documenting paths. I'm assuming I should skip all games that fall under Steam, Origin, and Gog Galaxy? EDIT: Added the file. This is the same as the one I linked to, only at the bottom you'll find all the Windows games that LB missed in the C:\. I still need to do the I:\ (which is 2 terrabytes and is my primary gaming drive). That will be a separate file. Two important notes about this list: First, there are two executables in all Wild Tangent game directories. The one that must be used is the file with -WT appended (before the .exe) or the game will not run (due to DRM). For example: Braveland.exe will not work, while Braveland-WT.exe will. Second don't judge me for all the hidden object games. I am the only adult male in a house full of women. I promise: I have never, nor will never, play "Clover Tale: The Magic Valley". :)

When trying LaunchBox this morning, I received the "Some files could not be created" pop-up. with the suggestion to reboot Winodze and restart LB....which repeats the request once I've done those things. :) Is there a way I can save what I've imported so far, do a clean install, and transfer back those files to the proper directories (/Games and /Images, for example)? EDIT: Oddly enough, this only seems to happen with my initial copy of LB; my "testing" version updated just fine. Both are in /MyDocuments and called LaunchBox and LaunchBox2.

Jason Carr said Hehehehe. Very cool guys. I was born in 84, so I just barely missed out on a lot of that. There something to be said about living in a world before MTV (or cable, for that matter) and video games. Games appeared when I was around 8, and came into the home when I was about 10, so I had a so-called proper childhood where the most common thing adults said to me was "go outside and play!" :) I got to experience gaming as it erupted, as the world experienced it, which was pretty exciting. Arcades that I frequented had games like the Pac-man series (my favorite was Super Pac-Man), Defender, Moon Patrol, Asteroids, Galaga, Gorf, Tempest, Dig Dug, Galaga, Galaxians, Phoenix, Donkey Kong, Wizard of Wor, Berzerk, Crazy Climber, Venture, Star Castle, and, of course, pinball machines, as they preceded game cabinets. Some of those games are still amazing (if you've never played Phoenix, Wiz of Wor or Venture, you really should). I grew up in a bar, so there were always rolls of quarters available. I can't imagine the hundreds of dollars I put into some of those (I remember being really upset after going through several rolls trying to get to the end of Moon Patrol, only to find that the levels kept alternating and there was no end!). When the VCS / 2600 hit homes, it was a no brainer. To think that I saved up $40 to buy Maze Craze seems ludicrous now, but I was excited to get it, and it's stil a fun game, imho. The fact that it randomly generated levels was new back then, as I recall. scree said I never played The Mines of Terror, but I remember buying it's forerunner, Castle Quest, the Tomb Raider of it's day hehe (1985) on cassette. [snip] It was all very new and exciting at the time. So 3 cheers for emulation, it's like beer only free! It certainly was! But, as I've said, I grew up in a bar so...unfortunately, beer was free, as was everything else. Hello, my name is John, and I'm an alcoholic! :D I've always wanted to play Castle Quest too, but I've never been able to find it online. For those of you who aren't aware, Archive.org has an arcade that's playable in your browser window; very handy, that. https://archive.org/details/internetarcade

Great stuff, Jason! Thanks for the info. I'm not going to be much help over the weekend, I'm afraid, as I won't be able to be on my gaming machine (but I'll have access to a Chromebook, so I can at least chat). Come Monday though, I'll be able to get the full list to you. I don't think you've answered this question though: For the Windows games that LB didn't find, do you want full paths including executables, or just the directories? Cheers! John

scree said I was hooked and after looking around for a bit I went with Acorn's BBC Model B Microcomputer. I'm SO jealous!! I want to find one just so I can play this. :D

scree said Hi Hippyshake. That looks ok. All you need to do is click the blue bar under Associated Platform and type the name of the Platform for the Mame emulator. Then click OK. Thanks, I appreciate it. Feeling a bit stupid, though. :)

I know that this is something I'm missing, and it's probably a newbie issue, so my apologies in advance. :) While trying to import ROM files using a platform that isn't already setup for LaunchBox, I get these blank boxes on the configuration section: http://i.imgur.com/KXsnhTz.png I cannot, for the life of me, enter any data in those fields, and the program will not let me progress further. I get the message "Please enter at least one applicable platform in the grid." Clicking on a checkbox simply brings up another blank field I can't modify. What am I doing wrong, please?

Sorry about another post, but there's still no Edit button for me. For the Windows games that LB didn't find, do you want full paths including executables, or just the directories?

Ok, I have attached a pdf that sorts the games that are found & correct, the games that are found & incorrect, and notes. I still have to go through games that are missing, but there are a lot, so it will take a while. A few general comments: -- All games installed under Windows are assumed by LB to be Windows games (which makes sense) -- In the initial scan, while I had checked the options for import duplicates, LB only found the GOG version of Legend of Grimrock. I have at least two other copies installed on different drives and directories that it didn't find. -- After finishing, I re-scanned, and ensured the import duplicates button was checked. It found only the exact same list it had initially imported (I had incorrectly assumed it would check those against the games it had already found and not include them; although I believe this worked correctly when importing MS-DOS games in the previous version)). It did find a MS-DOS game I had installed via Origin after the first scan, though. -- Even though 21 out of 50 games are considered incorrect, 14 of those are actually through Gog (almost all are in the Windows directory), so that only leaves 7 true mistakes, which is pretty good for a new feature, I'd say. :) I'll work on finding the games it missed. Let me know if I can be of any other help, please. Cheers! [EDIT: Apparently the 130k pdf is too large, so I've uploaded it here. ]

Another observation as I go through the games LB has found: It appears that, as long as a game is in a subdirectory of Windows, it will be identified as a Windows game. I've found some old installs of games from Gog (prior to my purchasing an external HD a few years ago), and the default directory is apparently ..\..\..\..\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\GOG.com\[GAME]. For example, it's identified Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold as a Windows game (it's MS-DOS). The good news: It's picked up the .lnk instead of DOSBox. :)

Jason Carr said The only reason non-games are showing up is because there are legitimate games with that name. I hadn't realized that, but it's good to know. Jason Carr said There should be an Edit button in the top right hand corner of the posts, next to Quote and Report. Is it not there for you? The only post it appears on (I missed it yesterday) is the one from April 29, 2015 at 7:50 am; the rest of my posts only have Quote and Report. Odd. Jason Carr said Alright, I have a new beta out. I've improved the Windows search a bit; it should no longer show duplicates, and favors using links instead of direct EXEs. I still have some more testing to do with GOG games, but hopefully that is working well enough. All my Origin games were found, so that's good. Let me know of any other findings. :) Scan completed. I started with the latest clean update of LB, with nothing in it. This time, it only shows 50 imports, but there are quite a few errors. It's also found things like DOSShell (MS-DOS 4.01). I think it only showed two imports from I://, which is my main gaming drive (and LB found much more yesterday). I want to make sure the indexing was completed properly on my end before calling it LB's error. I'm creating a database of what I have vs what LB finds, and whether or not it's correct. Do you have a gmail address? I'd like to throw a shared spreadsheet on to Google Drive to make things easier.

Jason Carr said Hippyshake, for some reason I just caught the stuff about the different drive; missed it the first time. The search uses your Start menu, so I'm guessing you have a bunch of old, bad links either in your Start menu, or in the Windows Games Explorer. Still, that's a good point, I should check to make sure that the files actually exist. No worries. Start menua was clean, but I'd been neglecting the Windoze Games Explorer. I deleted the cache and reindexed the whole computer, so I'm having LB scan right now. Sorry it took so long!

Jason Carr said Hi Hippyshake, unfortunately I think the Windows search will have to just assume that everything it finds is a Windows game. Obviously GOG's collection is split between both. That's a good point about GOG; I'll see if I can address that, thanks. If you mean about having LB import the .link instead if the .exe then I'd definitely try it. I think there will be fewer dead links. A potential problem could be a performance hit, depending on much much LB uses...but swapping out as Anarchy Arcade does might be the answer to that (potential issue). Windoze is still indexing. :)

Correction: I'm going to delete the catalog, reindex Windows, and start again.

It's cataloged games on the proper drive that simply don't exist. For example, I:\Installed Games\Demon Stone\demonlaunch.exe (I:\Installed Games exists, but the rest does not, and hasn't for months). I'm not quite sure where to start. During the Windows import 111 games were found, far less than what actually exists. That includes MS-DOS games (such as I:\GalaxyClient\GalaxyClient\Games\Star Wars - Dark Forces\DOSBOX\dosbox.exe although that's the incorrect launch file). I guess I can go through them one at a time and see which ones will actually launch, for starters.

Hippyshake said It's reading games from a hard drive that doesn't exist. These are actually on drive I: I really want that edit button. :) Ok, so a correction: Most of those games no longer exist, but I believe I did have a drive G at one time, years ago, and these were on there, so it's picking up a Windoze directory listing somewhere that still thinks it's 2010? :) Also, I've noticed LB is recognizing some games and missing others within the same parent (for example, C:/Program Files (x86) ). I'll get you a full list, but I wanted to let you know about the drive issue.

It's reading games from a hard drive that doesn't exist. These are actually on drive I:

As an update: I tend to be pretty organized with my games, so I'm installing several DRM-free Windows games (from the 1990s to the present) across different drives and directories in order to give LB a better workout. Is there no edit button on posts, or am I just missing it?

Jason Carr said Take note though that you can just use a separate LaunchBox install, so there's no need to wipe your collection. I'm mostly interested in the games that it doesn't find, but the non-games could certainly prove useful as well. Much appreciated. Thanks for the tip on the separate install! I forgot about LB's portability. I have several thousand games installed, so this will be a few hours. I also have to babysit my grandson at 1pm, so if I'm not done by then there will be some time I won't be able to work on it. The biggest problem so far that I've noticed is that LB tends to grab the DOSBox executable instead of the "Launch [Game Title].lnk" when importing Gog Galaxy games. (Just to satisfy my own curiosity because I can see an argument for both ways: Do you want LB to consider games from Gog as Windows or MS-DOS games?)