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Zombeaver

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Posts posted by Zombeaver

  1. 2 hours ago, maschine said:

    Tough the manual files are present in the respective game folder, I can not read it by right-clicking on the game, since "view manual" is greyed out. Any ideas on that?

    They wouldn't be viewable via the right-click > view manual option even if they were in LB's manuals folder because 95% of them are not in .pdf format. They're .cbr. You could make scripts to launch them in CDisplay and then add those as additional-apps, if you were really adamant about it. That would be fairly redundant, however, since the manuals are all immediately accessible when you're going to actually need them - while playing the games.

    2 hours ago, maschine said:

    Is there a way of easily migrating C64 into existing LB libraries?

    Yes, follow the instructions in this post.

  2. Blog post for v0.35 on Zomb's Lair

    Download C64 Dreams version 0.35
    Download local magazine module (optional)
    Download Torrent
    Download v0.35 Hotfix 2/6/2021

    Game Details Spreadsheet

    Version 0.35 of C64 Dreams is now available! It features 500 new games (for a new total of 2500!) and a ton of improvements and new features. This update has been an absolutely monumental undertaking. This will likely sound ridiculous but I can say in all earnestness and without exaggeration that nearly all of my free time over the past 3 months has been poured into this project (and sporadic work in the 6 months before that). It ended up becoming a much more significant endeavor than I remotely anticipated going into it, not because of the new games that were added this go round, but because of a number of peripheral elements that ended up exploding into a huge project all to themselves.

    The most significant of these was the development of a new system which allows you to quickly toggle back and forth between the game and the manual. I had to write the code to make this happen, which took a fair bit of experimenting (and a bit of additional coding help by Launchbox users @jayjay and @JoeViking245, thanks again for that!) but finally came up with something that I'm quite happy with.

    Manuals have become a thing of the past these days, but they were once an integral part of the experience. Very often the background story was entirely relegated to the manual. In some cases - like some Infocom games for example - vital information for the completion of the game was contained in the manuals, along with artwork, maps, all kinds of wonderful treasures. So the single most significant addition in this update is incorporating as many manuals as possible in as high a quality as possible.

    This leads to the largest task of them all - sourcing the manuals to begin with. I scoured many, many, resources, and even got some additional help in this undertaking by @TimberlAndRE and Smiling Spectre of the eXoDOS project (thanks again!). Then, just to make things more difficult (because why not) and go the extra mile, I went through the process of converting nearly all of these from pdf to cbr format to improve the experience. There are several reasons for this - the most obvious is that they simply display more cleanly in the incorporated viewer (CDisplay) but this also allowed me to clean them up, divide them up in order to make them more easily readible, and add additional materials (maps, reference cards, etc.) into one combined document. All of this entailed a huge amount of by-hand work, but I think it's absolutely been worth it in the end. The current grand total is 1068 manuals incorporated into the collection, which means that 43% of the games have toggleable manuals. This is actually much more than I ever anticipated when I began.

    All of this was the outcropping of an earlier goal for this update - to show some love for text adventures. I know that these are not everyone's thing. I get it, I really do. That's why I wanted to see what I could do to make the experience a little bit more enjoyable. Manuals are definitely a huge part of this - especially in the case of Infocom titles which would regularly have extensive and extravagant documentation - but another issue is that many of these games are entirely silent. The thought occurred to me - there's an ocean of user-made SID music out there... why not try to incorporate some of that and help make the experience a little more atmospheric. The first task was figuring out how to even implement that, but after a fair bit of digging and experimentation I came up with a pretty nice end result which incorporates sidplayfp and mpg123 (depending on whether the music is in native .sid format or .mp3). The next task was finding music that was actually appropriate which ended up being a lot more difficult. I listened to thousands of tracks in the High Voltage SID Collection and on Youtube to find things that actually fit the tone that I was looking for. Low-key atmospheric/ambient music isn't exactly something that's typical for a lot of SID music, even though the chip is completely capable of it. I ended up finding a decent number of tracks that were what I was looking for, though I'm certainly not done on that front. There are some games that I have on the agenda to add some music to that I just didn't find anything I was quite happy with, so I'm still on the lookout. That said, I think you'll be happy with what I've come up with. In the vast majority of cases I've arranged the music into playlists of similarly-themed music that would be appropriate for the game they're assigned to. Each track loops infinitely until you tell it to change to the next. I did this essentially to allow you to change things up if you get tired of a given track.

    You can see an example of both the custom music and the manual features in the video below:

     

    With new features come the necessity for new controller and keyboard mappings. You can see the updated controller reference here (all existing notes overlays were updated accordingly):

    1128906164_ControllerLayout.thumb.png.a86b3cae508284766b51c0bd25e54d77.png

    Updated keyboard controls:

    8456 on the numpad = Up, Left, Down, Right
    Left Alt = Fire
    Left Ctrl = C= Key
    ESC = Runstop
    Numpad asterisk = swap joystick ports
    Numpad minus is the combo key
    Numpad minus + Numpad 0 = Eject/Insert Disk
    Numpad minus + Numpad 9 = Next Disk
    Numpad minus + Numpad 8 = Previous Disk
    Numpad minus + Space = Fast Forward (can also hold down PgDwn to activate warp mode)
    Numpad minus + Numpad plus = toggle controls/notes display
    Numpad minus + Numpad return = toggle manual
    Numpad minus + ESC = Quit
    Numpad minus + F2 = Save State
    Numpad minus + F4 = Load State
    Numpad minus + F7 = Next State
    Numpad minus + F6 = Previous State
    Numpad minus + Up arrow = show info on current custom music track
    Numpad minus + Down arrow = show info on current custom music track
    Numpad minus + Right arrow = play next custom track (if in playlist)
    Numpad minus + Left arrow = play previous custom track (if in playlist)

    On top of all this, I made a very concerted effort to improve the media and metadata in Launchbox. I upgraded hundreds of covers, added tons of logos, screenshots and other images, and filled in as many gaps as I could. Incorrect matches have been fixed, genre and production info added, and alternate names implemented (Coil Cop / Thing Bounces Back) for quite a few titles (so searching for either will display the corresponding game). It's still not perfect, but it's significantly better than in the previous version.

    I also created close to 700 3D boxes and unified the 3D box format across the collection. 3D boxes are now the default view for games. It creates a nice clean look. Thankfully the process is quite quick and simple so I can create more or upgrade existing ones quite easily, assuming I have something appropriate to use as the cover.

    1376714220_v0.35Screenshot.thumb.jpg.5bf995df8249d83c4bfa3e1ca108fe31.jpg

    All of this work combined became quite the grueling slog but will make things easier going forward. None of these things would have been overly taxing, on their own, if they were only required for new additions - it's the fact that so much of the work encompassed the entire collection - all the manuals, media, and metadata in one sweep. Phew! It was well worth it in the end though, and I'm quite proud of the result. It should be noted that all of this has had a very tangible impact on the filesize of the collection - the previous version was about 5GB without the local magazines and 10GB with them. It's now about 13GB / 19GB! I want to thank -Archivist for agreeing to host C64 Dreams on the-eye.eu and @eXo for pointing me in the right direction on that front!

    As a quick update on the progress of the collection itself, I've made it through 46% of Gamebase64, parsing through 19,575 out of 42,718 screenshots in that collection. I'm currently making my way through "K". While I certainly still have a long way to go, determining that I'd made it through almost half of GB64 made me realize that I was actually further along than I initially thought. That combined with the newly implemented manual and music systems in this update drove the decision for the larger than normal version bump this go round. In the last update I included a list of my favorite new additions to the collection, but since I focused more heavily on text adventures this time than normal, I thought I'd take a moment to provide some recommendations since this is a genre that I know many are mostly or entirely unfamiliar with and don't know where to begin.

    The most obvious answer is "anything by Infocom". There's a reason why they were so famous in this arena, and it's well-earned. You can't go too wrong with any of those (though I certainly prefer some over others). That said, so as not to be a complete cop-out, I'll provide some specific recommendations (and not limited to Infocom). If there's a single game that I can emphatically recommend as the best starting point for anyone new to the genre, however, it's Zork I: The Great Underground Empire. It's wonderful; and very easy to get into even if you're not a text adventure aficionado thanks to the excellent parser that makes the experience about as frustration-free as it can be. The single greatest difference between a good text adventure and a bad one is the quality of their parser and how that interacts with the puzzle design. Some games are extremely strict about what they'll accept, both in the method to achieve your goal and the specific way in which you phrase that method. Something that Zork manages better than many others is making all of that feel natural. You try something that seems like it might make sense and it often works and, if not, you'll at least usually get a humorous response that shows the developers already anticipated what you tried to do. I really can't recommend it enough as a great introduction to the genre. If it's something that's totally foreign to you, I would just encourage you to keep an open mind. Read the manual and try to immerse yourself in the worlds that they've created. And remember to examine everything! I'd recommend taking a look at this page too if you want some general pointers on how text adventures typically function if you're a beginner. Once you've dipped your toes in and want to go looking for more, these are some other recommendations:

    The Curse of Rabenstein
    Eight Feet Under
    Enchanter
    Escape from the Shire
    Federation
    Hibernated 1: This Place is Death
    Jack the Ripper
    Jewels of Darkness
    Kayleth
    The Lurking Horror
    Silicon Dreams
    Starcross

    There's a lot of other great ones out there (and some not so great ones, to be fair). I created a new playlist entirely for all the text adventures in the collection, so check that out as well!

    So, with all that out of the way, let's get on with the full changelog. It's a doozy.

    New:

    • Added a new category for Diskmags, with 25 associated mags
    • Added ability to quickly swap between the game and manual for many games - these are listed on the details spreadsheet in the new Manual column; can switch by pressing Numpad Minus + Numpad Enter or Back + R3 on a controller; manuals can be navigated with keyboard (arrow keys to navigate and -/= keys for zoom), controller (right stick to navigate and LB /RB to zoom), or mouse (scroll wheel to navigate and ctrl + scroll wheel to zoom)
    • Sourced and converted to .cbr format (and often cleaned up, adjusted, and split into separate pages) over 1000 manuals for use with the new manual feature. Phew! This means that 43% of the games have a toggleable manual (which is better than I initially anticipated). Thanks to @jophran, @TimberlAndRE, and Smiling Spectre for helping find some of these!
    • Added custom SID background music with libsidplayfp (and occasionally mpg123 when the .sids don't loop properly) to a number of text adventures (and a few other games) that oridinarily have no music or sound, detailed on the custom music tab of the game details spreadsheet
    • Added some configuration options for custom SID background music to Configurator, including the ability to disable it if so desired
    • Enabled new autowarp feature for games that use TrueDrive wherever possible (cases where it doesn't cause issues) - this dramatically reduces load times and can be particularly useful in games that have very frequent "short" loads but no audio/music (because it mutes the audio when it activates) - a perfect use scenario for this are certain text adventures that have graphics for each area that under normal circumstances might take 10 seconds to change locations and are now essentially instantaneous (games like The Brew are a good example of this)
    • Added a new generic (not game-specific) bezel with three variations, accessible via the Configurator; V1 is now the default
    • Reshade support is now included, accessible via the Configurator; once enabled it can be toggled with Numpad / and the Reshade menu can be toggled with Shift + Numpad /; note that it does increase hardware requirements and startup times slightly
    • Added a new shader (selectable via the Configurator) that only makes color correction adjustments in case you want to disable shaders altogether but still keep the color corrections (I would recommend using Esper though if your hardware supports it)
    • Added an alternate SuperCPU version of Rescue on Fractalus (right-click / additional apps menu); highly recommended!
    • Enabled mouse support for Cabal, Deja Vu, and Uninvited (with separate launchers via the additional apps menu)
    • Created custom joystick controls for Ultima II
    • Created custom joystick controls for Jungle Trouble
    • Added a new dynamic playlist for text adventures (any game in the collection with the "Text Adventure" genre tag)
    • Created separate xmls which can be imported into Launchbox (overwritten) to change the default launch behavior for magazines - the xml that is used by default uses the web versions as the default launch. If you install the local versions and want to use those as the default launch, simply copy the xml from C64 Dreams\C64 Dreams\Magazines\!XMLs\Default Local and replace the one in C64 Dreams\Data\Platforms\ with it. If you ever want to change it back just use the one from the Default Web folder instead.

    Version Updates:

    • Asterix and the Magic Cauldron - replaced with +7DHG Easyflash version by Excess
    • Bucket Wars - updated to v1.3
    • Card Sharks - replaced with Easyflash version by Excess
    • Combat School (Boot Camp) - replaced with +3D version by Lurid & Tricycle
    • Crack Down - replaced with Easyflash version by The Joker
    • Creatures II - replaced with +10DFIR Easyflash version by Nostalgia
    • Creatures - replaced with +10DFIR Easyflash version by Nostalgia
    • Curse of Rabenstein, The - updated to v11 by Laxity
    • Dig Dug - replaced with Remember version
    • Dominator - replaced with Easyflash version by Master
    • Empire of Karn - replaced with +DMW version by Hokuto Force
    • Frightmare - replaced with +3DG version by Hokuto Force
    • Infiltrator - replaced with Infiltrator Collection (Easyflash) version by Nostalgia
    • Infiltrator 2 - replaced with Infiltrator Collection (Easyflash) version by Nostalgia
    • Italy '90 Soccer - replaced with "New Version" by Fantastic 4 Cracking Group
    • Knight Games - replaced with Easyflash version by The Joker
    • Mayhem in Monsterland - replaced with +10DFIR Easyflash version by Nostalgia
    • Shinobi - replaced with +3D Easyflash version by Mayday!
    • Spy vs Spy - replaced with Remember version
    • Turbo Outrun - replaced +8DHF version by Excess
    • Dark Side - replaced with The Dominators version
    • Chance in Hell, A - replaced with a Super CPU version and included an altnerate standard C64 version with added music
    • Driller - replaced with 2000 A.D. version
    • Dracula - replaced with West Coast Crackers version (has all 3 parts on 1 disk)
    • Down at the Trolls - replaced with GB64 version (by Elite)
    • E-Motion (The Game of Harmony) - replaced with +3 version by Triad

    Changes/Fixes:

    • Updated Retroarch to 1.9.0
    • Updated to latest version of the core which now supports, among other things, per-pixel horizontal and vertical cropping, an updated SID engine (ReSID-fp), and automatic load warp for TrueDrive enabled games. Thanks to @Pixelpiper for the work on his BC core which prompted the per pixel-cropping implementation.
    • Added or adjusted custom cropping for 2000 Kung-Fu Maniacs, Abyssonaut, Alcon, Alien Syndrome, Another World, Ballblazer, Bangkok Knights, Bear Essentials, Beyond the Forbidden Forest, Brainway, C64 Snail Maze, Delta, Dominion, Donkey Kong (Oxyron), Draconus, E-SWAT, Forgotten Forest, Fortress of Narzod, Game Over II - Part 1, Gemini Wing, Genesia, Ghostbusters II, Hans Kloss, Harrier 7, Heatseeker, Hyperion II, Interchange, It's Magic, It's Magic II, It's Only Rock n' Roll, Kobo64, The Last Fight, Mega Phoenix, No Mercy, Outlaw, Paperboy, Phobia, Planet Golf, Powerglove, Run Like Hell, Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles, Tiger Claw, Turbo Outrun, Wizball, Wolfling, Worm, and Zolyx. Now everything involving cropping is handled through core options - Retroarch's video output settings are untouched. This means that no manual adjustment should be necessary regardless of your monitor's resolution or aspect ratio! Woohoo!
    • Adjusted the vertical and horizontal crop settings on Frogger Arcade
    • Corrected the horizontal crop settings on Jars' Revenge (uses horizontal overscan space)
    • Made first overlay image for Ballblazer transparent as the game is zoomed in (and the bezel would cover it)
    • Made first overlay image for Jars' Revenge transparent as the game uses the horizontal overscan space (the overlay was disabled entirely previously, but now you can still access the control overlay while the bezel image is unused)
    • Switched to new ReSID-fp audio engine (more accurate)
    • Replaced Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles with correct game (was the Coin-Op)
    • Dragon Ninja and Bad Dudes vs Dragon Ninja are the same game, removed "Bad Dudes vs Dragon Ninja"
    • Coil Cop and Thing Bounces Back are the same game, removed "Coil Cop"
    • Guardian and Stargate are the same game, removed "Stargate"
    • Changed "Daley Thompson's Decathlon" to "The Activision Decathlon" in LB, as it was matched incorrectly previously
    • Renamed Summer Games to The Games: Summer Edition and Winter Games to The Games: Winter Edition, and added in Summer Games (1984) and Winter Games (1984)
    • Renamed "Ice Palace" to "Ice Palace (K-Tel)" because "Ice Palace (Creative Sparks)" was added
    • Renamed "BC II - Grog's Revenge" to "B.C. II - Grog's Revenge"
    • Renamed "Dan Dare II" to "Dan Dare II - Mekon's Revenge" and "Dan Dare 3 - The Escape" to "Dan Dare III - The Escape"
    • Renamed "Demons Kiss" to "Demon's Kiss"
    • Renamed "Judge Dredd" to "Judge Dredd (Melbourne House)" because "Judge Dredd (Virgin Mastertronic)" was added
    • Renamed "Deadline" to "Deadline (Visualize Software)" because "Deadline (Infocom)" was added
    • Renamed "Frankenstein" to "Frankenstein (Zepplin Games)" because "Frankenstein (CRL)" was added
    • Renamed "Haunted House" to "Haunted House (Alligata Software)" because "Haunted House (Planet Rock)" was added
    • Renamed "Boom" to "Boom (567 KByte)" 
    • Renamed "Bomb Jack 2" to "Bomb Jack II"
    • Renamed "E-Swat" to "E-SWAT"
    • Renamed "Cyberworld" to "Cyber World"
    • Renamed "3D Golf" to "Hole in One"
    • Renamed "Castle" to "Castle (LK Avalon)"
    • Renamed "Sinbad and the Throne of Falcon" to "Sinbad and the Throne of the Falcon"
    • Renamed "Earth Orbit Station" to "Earth Orbit Stations"
    • Renamed "Experimental Traxter 7" to "Experiment Traxter 7"
    • Renamed "Bignose's USA Adventure" to Big Nose's American Adventure"
    • Renamed "Captain America and The Doom Tube" to "Captain America in The Doom Tube of Dr. Megalomann"
    • Renamed "The Catacombs" to "Catacombs"
    • Renamed "The Game of Harmony" to "E-Motion" (European title)
    • Renamed "Boot Camp" to "Combat School" (European title)
    • Renamed "F40 Pursuit" to "Crazy Cars II" (European title)
    • Duplicated all the game overrides and option files into the x64sc folder so that that core can be used instead if so desired. It should be noted, however, that this requires a mass find and replace in the game .bats to change the references to a different core - this is easy enough with Notepad++ (or equivalent) though. There is a possibility that x64sc will be used by default in the future, but in my experience the benefits are minimal while the drawback is higher hardware requirements and slower warp/fast forward speeds.
    • Changed default frame delay value to 0 and a few other backend settings to help with lower end hardware performance
    • Corrected Black Magic, Combat School, Cycle Knight, Drag Race Eliminator, The Great Escape, Jack Attack, Kikstart II, The Pit, and V - The Computer Game to use port 1
    • Changed F1 GP Circuits filter mode from 2 to 1
    • Fixed an error in the Steel Ranger [commercial] .cmd
    • Removed -autostart x64 from .cmds as it's no longer necessary; this also helps facilitate easier swapping from x64 to x64sc if so desired
    • Added some additional code to .vbs files to help with rare focus issues
    • Configured NTSC games to use custom palette settings; default settings are way too dark, Colodore looks better than the default for NTSC but it's still too dark and looks terrible for PAL (saturation is way too high)
    • Reduced contrast of CRT-Easymode-Halation-C64 shader slightly because it was unintentionally turning very dark greys solid black (the trainer menu for Alienworld is a good example)
    • Replaced BZRPlayer with libsidplayfp for standalone SID tracks as it's significantly more accurate and sounds much better in a number of cases
    • Moved CDisplayEx to Utilities folder and updated magazine .bats accordingly
    • Added addditional map overlays for Alternate Reality - The City, Alternate Reality II - The Dungeon, The Legend of Blacksilver, The Magic Candle, Pirates!, Ultima I, Ultima II, Ultima III, Ultima IV, Ultima V, and Ultima VI
    • Changed Kayleth to use the SuperCPU core running at 48% speed (100% is too fast; crashes RA if below 48%) because the animation sequences make the game run very slowly (making typing difficult/slow) which can be resolved with the SuperCPU - this also has the added benefit of making area changes/loading much faster
    • Added alternate launch options for A Chance in Hell, Dark Side, The Eidolon, Koronis Rift, and Rescue on Fractalus to use the SuperCPU to make them run faster
    • Increased deadzone slightly for right-stick to arrow keys, this helps prevent erroneous inputs either by straying diagonally or by stick release flipback
    • Changed Boom (Brainstorm Amazing Software) to use SuperCPU (supported by the game natively)
    • Added autoloading savestates to multi-game Easyflash carts so that the correct game is loaded on start rather than loading to the game selection menu - this had already been done previously for games that didn't require any in-game saving but wasn't used in cases where in-game saving was possible because doing so would (at the time) break those saves - this has since been patched!
    • Added alternate name data to Launchbox (typically for alternate region titles ex. Coil Cop vs Thing Bounces Back) for about 70 games

    Miscellaneous:

    • Updated and cleaned up Automator code a bit
    • Added additional notes in the Config Editor
    • Audited all per-game core option files to correct any instances of incorrect (legacy) values for SID resampling or missing values for color adjustments due to core updates
    • Created a startup watchdog app that waits 15 seconds for Retroarch to start, and if it hasn't started by then it closes any running scripts/apps that were launched - I thought this was prudent since there are a number of scripts and apps that are launched in conjunction with Retroarch now to facilitate the manuals and music - these ordinarily close upon Retroarch closing but, in the event that something weird happens and for some reason Retroarch doesn't start to begin with, they don't have that trigger and will otherwise remain open; the watchdog is essentially a failsafe for this so that you don't have a bunch of stuff still running in the event that Retroarch doesn't start correctly for whatever reason; if Retroarch is open once the 15 seconds are up (and it certainly should be, that's plenty of time) the watchdog closes itself; in case your PC is just an absolute potato and it takes it longer than 15 seconds for Retroarch to start, I've included an alternate version that waits 30 seconds in C64 Dreams\C64 Dreams\Retroarch\!Startup Watchdog - it takes about 2 seconds on my PC and it's about 7 years old now so I can't imagine many/any people needing this but you never know. I've also included a StopAll.exe in C64 Dreams\C64 Dreams which kills everything instantly just for good measure.
    • Created clear logos for Diskmags, Magazines, Best Of Vol. 5, and Text Adventures
    • Created nearly 700 3D boxes and unified the format for all 3D boxes in the collection. 3D Box is now the default view for games. Thanks to @Z3R0B4NG for assembling a collection of the boxes to point me in the right direction and to @marcoooo and @edgemundo for their contributions in helping to create many of the other 3D boxes in the collection.
    • Changed CDisplayEx versions to one that's completely portable (previous version wrote some settings to an external local path)
    • Lots and lots of media and metadata additions/cleanup in Launchbox; it's still not perfect (and realistically never will be) but it's significantly better than it was in the past
    • Submitted several tickets for various core issues, all of which have been resolved thanks to the excellent support of sonninnos, the core maintainer:
       

    New games with multitap (3-4 controller) support:

    • Hockey Mania

    New custom note overlays:

    • Alternate Reality - The City
    • Alternate Reality II - The Dungeon
    • Angel of the Hell
    • Asylum
    • Ballblazer
    • Below the Root
    • Bushido - The Way of the Warrior
    • Centauri Alliance
    • Evil Prince, The
    • Fall
    • Fallen
    • Galleon, The
    • Garrison
    • Hydrax
    • Jonny Quest in Doctor Zin's Underworld
    • Jungle Trouble
    • Kayleth
    • Maniac Mansion
    • Omega - Neural Cybertank Design & Simulation
    • Questron
    • Questron II
    • Shadow Over Hawksmill
    • Shamus Case II
    • Spelunker
    • Tangled Tales - The Misadventures of a Wizard's Apprentice
    • Ultima II - The Revenge of the Enchantress!
    • Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders

    I also created a couple generic note overlays that apply to multiple games. One of which is a note that you need to press F1 to start the game. This has been added for the following games:

    • Big Trouble in Little China
    • Bop'n Wrestle
    • Devil's Gallery
    • DragonHawk
    • Ghostbusters
    • Jetboys
    • Juice!
    • Pastfinder
    • Pitfall II - The Lost Caverns
    • Zenji
    • Zeta-7

    Another generic overlay was created to cover the saving and loading procedure for all Infocom games. This has been added for the following games:

    • Deadline
    • Enchanter
    • Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
    • Lurking Horror, The
    • Moonmist
    • Planetfall
    • Seastalker
    • Starcross
    • Suspended
    • Zork I - The Great Underground Empire
    • Zork II - The Wizard of Frobozz
    • Zork III - The Dungeon Master
    • Zork - The Undiscovered Underground

    New games:

    2438 The Return
    3-D Skramble
    720 Degrees
    Accolade Comics
    Ace of Aces
    Adventureland
    Adventures of Tronic
    Age of Heroes, The*
    Aigina's Prophecy
    Aliants - The Desperate Battle For Earth
    Alien (Argus Press Software)
    Alien Bleed
    Amazon (Telarium)
    Andy Capp
    Archon II
    Army Moves
    Around the World in 80 Days
    Aussie Games
    Autoduel
    Aviator Arcade II*
    Avoid
    B.C.'s Quest for Tires
    Balakon Raider
    Beer Belly Burt's Brew Biz
    Birdie Bird
    Bobby Bearing
    Book of the Dead
    Breakthru
    Brubaker
    C64 Snail Maze
    Centauri Alliance
    Centric
    Chameleon
    Chomp!
    Crush, Crumble & Chomp
    Curse of Ra
    Cybo-Cop
    Darkhorn
    Davy - King of the Wild Frontier
    Deadline (Infocom)
    Deadly Thunder
    Death Battle 2200
    Death Saw Challenge
    Declem
    Demon's Winter
    Destruct
    Drol
    Dungeon of Rott
    Elevator Eric
    Enchanter
    Endless
    Escape to Murky Woods
    Ewe Woz 'Ere
    Eye of Horus
    Fall
    Fallen
    Flax
    Forever Extending Hungry Snake, The
    Frankenstein (CRL)
    Game of Harmony, The
    Garrison
    Gateway to Apshai
    Ghost of Genghis Khan, The
    Ghost Town 64
    Golden Pyramids, The
    Greystorm
    Guild of Thieves, The
    Gun City
    Gun Runner (Mnemonic Productions)
    Gun Runner (The Power House)
    Gunboat
    Gunfighter
    Gunfighters
    Gunfright
    Guns 'n' Roses
    Gunslinger (Datasoft)
    Gunslinger (Virgin Mastertronic)
    Gunstar
    Gutt Blaster
    Guzzler
    H.A.T.E.
    Hades Nebula
    Hagar The Horrible
    Halcyon
    Halley Mission, The
    Halloween
    Halloween Police
    Halls of Death
    Halls of the Dwarven Kings, The
    Halls of the Things
    Hammer Boy
    Hangman's Hazard
    Hans Kloss
    Happiest Days of Your Life, The
    Happy Gardening
    Happy Hacker
    Harald Hardtooth
    Hard Work
    Hardsync
    Harrier 7
    Harrier Attack
    Harrier Combat Simulator
    Harvey Smith Showjumper
    Hassle Castle
    Hatchet Honeymoon
    Haunted Hill
    Haunted House (Planet Rock)
    Haunted Inn
    Haunted Mansion
    Havoc (Players Premier)
    Hawk
    Hawk Mission
    Hawk Mission II
    Hawk Patrol
    Hawkstorm
    Head Start
    Head The Ball
    Head to Head Karate
    Head-On (Compute)
    Headache
    Heavy Metal - Modern Land Combat Vol. I
    Heavy Metal Deluxe
    Hektic
    Hektic II
    Helden
    Heli Rescue
    Helicopter Mission, The
    Hell for Leather
    Hell Zone
    Hell Zone II
    Hellfire
    Hellraid
    Helm, The
    Helsings Hunt
    Hercules - Slayer of the Damned
    Hermitage, The
    Hero Quest
    Hero Quest II
    Hero Time
    Hero Time II
    Heroes of Karn, The
    Heroes of Midgard
    Hideous
    Hideous Bill and the Gi-Gants
    Hidihood
    High Frontier
    High Mountains, The
    High Rise
    Highland Games
    Highlander
    Highway Encounter
    Hillsfar
    Himalayan Odyssey
    Hit and Run Baseball
    Ho! Ho! Ho!
    Hobbit, The
    Hobgoblin
    Hockey Mania
    Hocus Focus
    Holiday Cops
    Holiday Games
    Hollywood or Bust
    Hollywood Squares
    Holo
    Holocaust
    Hong Kong Phooey
    Hook
    Hopeless
    Hopper Copper
    Hopping Hoodlum, The
    Hopto
    Hostages
    Hot Pop
    Hot Shot
    Hot Wheels
    Hotel Alien
    House Case
    House of Usher
    House, The
    How to Be a Complete Bastard
    Human Killing Machine
    Human Race, The
    Humanoids
    Hummdinger
    Hunchback - The Adventure
    Hunchback at the Olympics
    Hunt for Bubber's Bathtub
    Hunt for Red October, The
    Huntress of Midgard
    Hybrid
    Hydra
    Hydrax
    Hypa-Ball
    Hyper Active
    Hyper Circuit
    Hyper Space Warrior
    Hyper Viper
    Hyper-Hen
    Hyperbowl
    Hyperion II
    Hyperrace
    Hyperspeed
    Hyperthrust
    I Play 3D Soccer
    I Play 3D Tennis
    I-Alien
    I-Ball
    I-Ball II - The Quest for the Past
    I-Wizard
    I-Xera
    Ice Island
    Ice Palace (Creative Sparks)
    Ice Temple, The
    Ice-Mania
    ICUPS
    Ihanpaska
    Ikari III - The Rescue
    Ikari Warriors II
    Ikarus
    Iketa
    Ikkiuchi
    Illgen
    Illusions
    Imagination
    Imaginator
    Imperium
    Imperoid
    Implosion
    Impossible Game, The
    Imshi
    Incredible Laboratory, The
    Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade
    Indoor Soccer
    Indoor Sports
    Indy Heat
    Inertiania - Land of Motion
    Infection
    Infinite Inferno
    Infinity Worlds in the Space
    Infodroid
    Ingrid's Back
    Inheritance, The
    Inheritance, The - Chaos in Scotland
    Inheritance, The - Panic in Las Vegas
    Inherits of the Throne
    Inner Space
    Inner Space Plant Attack
    Insanity in San Francisco
    Insects in Space
    Inspector Gadget
    Institute, The
    Interceptor Base
    Interchange
    Intergalactic Cage Match
    International 3D Tennis
    International 5 A-Side
    International Basketball
    International Ice Hockey
    International Ninja Rabbits
    International Speedway
    International Sports Challenge
    International Team Sports
    International Truck Racing
    Interview
    Into the Nature
    Intrigue!
    Intruder - The Game
    Intruder - The Space Quest
    Invader
    Invasion
    Invasive Action
    Invasor
    Invert
    Invest
    IQ
    Iron Horse
    Island of Dr. Destructo, The
    Island of the Dragons
    ISS - Incredible Shrinking Sphere
    Issuar
    It's a Knockout
    It's Only Rock n' Roll
    Italy 1990
    Iznogoud - The Grand Vizir
    Jack and the Beanstalk
    Jack Bullet
    Jack Charlton's Match Fishing
    Jack Nicklaus Championship Golf
    Jack The Ripper
    Jackal (Imagine)
    Jackal (Konami)
    Jackal II
    Jahangir Khan Squash
    Jai Alai
    Jail Break
    Jail War
    Jailbreak (Michael Lalonde)
    Jam It!
    James Bond
    JANI
    JANI 2
    Jara-Tava - The Isle of Fire
    Jasg
    Jason of the Argonauts
    Java Jim in Square Shaped Trouble
    Jaws (Box Office Software)
    Jaws (Outlaw-Emix Software)
    Jaws (Screen 7)
    Jax
    Jed's Journey
    Jeep Command
    Jeep Command II
    Jeffy
    Jessy the Worm
    Jet Power Jack
    Jet Set Willy
    Jet Set Willy II - The Final Frontier
    Jet-Boot Jack
    Jetan - Martian Chess
    Jetboys
    Jetsons, The
    Jewel Thief
    Jewels of Babylon
    Jewels of Darkness
    Jihad - Raid Over Baghdad
    Jimbo
    Jinks
    Jinn-Genie
    Jinxter
    Job Race
    Jocky Wilson's Darts Challenge
    Jocky Wilson's Darts Compendium
    Joe (CP Verlag)
    Joe Dick - Private Investigator
    John Elway's Quarterback
    John Lowe's Ultimate Darts
    Jolly Roger
    Jonah Barrington's Squash
    Jonathan
    Jonny Quest in Doctor Zin's Underworld
    Josh
    Journey to the Centre of the Earth, A
    Judge Dredd (Virgin Mastertronic)
    Juice!
    Juke Box
    Julius Caesar
    Jump Machine
    Jumpin Jack
    Jumpin' Jimmy
    JumpJets
    Jumpman Junior
    Jungle Drums
    Jungle Jack
    Jungle Patrol
    Jungle Quest
    Jungle Raid
    Jungle Trouble
    Junkyard
    Junkyard Jalopies
    Juno First
    Jupiter Mission 1999
    Jupiter's Electrician
    Kabura
    Kacper
    Kaiv
    Kami-Kaze
    Kamikaze Duck
    Kangarudy
    KAOS
    Karamalz Cup
    Karate Champ
    Karate Chop
    Karnov
    Karting Grand Prix
    Kat Trap
    Katapult
    Kayden Garth
    Kellogg's Tour 1988
    Kennedy Approach
    Kentilla
    Kernal's Chaos
    Kettle
    Key Finders
    KGB Agent
    KGB Superspy
    Kick Box Vigilante
    Killed Until Dead
    Knax
    Knights of Legend
    Kobo64
    Last Fight, The
    Left 2 Die
    Left 2 Die Part 2
    Lord of Dragonspire, The*
    Lurking Horror, The
    Macbeth
    Magical Girl Mary vs E.V.I.L.
    Make My Day
    Mancala
    Mars*
    Mask of the Sun, The
    Maxwell Manor - The Skull of Doom
    Mean Streets
    Mega Tank Blasta
    Metal Dust*
    Michael Jordan vs Larry Bird - One on One
    Mini Golf
    Mirage
    Moebius
    Moebius - The Orb of Celestial Harmony
    Monopoly Deluxe
    Moonmist
    Muncher Eats Chewits, The
    Munsters, The
    Muppet Adventure - Chaos at the Carnival
    Neptune Lander Elite
    Newcomer
    Nightwalker
    Ninja Rabbits
    Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less
    Old West World, The
    Omega - Neural Cybertank Design & Simulation
    Outlaw
    Over The Net
    Phantasie
    Phantasie II
    Phantasie III
    Pilgrim
    Planetfall
    Project FX-64
    Puffy's Saga
    Quest of the Space Beagle
    Questron
    Questron II
    Rally Speedway II
    Rambo III
    Ring of Power, The
    Robin of Sherwood - The Touchstones of Rhiannon
    Robots of Dawn
    Rogue
    Rudy Hammer
    Run Demon Run*
    Saracen
    Seastalker
    Sector Patrol
    Sentinel Worlds I - Future Magic
    Shadow Over Hawksmill*
    Shadows of Mordor, The
    Shamus
    Shamus Case II
    Side Arms
    Silicon Dreams
    Silicon Warrior
    Sizzler*
    Slam Dunk
    Slurpy
    Snake-A-Space
    Snap Snake
    Soko-Ban
    Sooper Froot
    Space Mission
    Space Swarm 64
    Standing Stones, The
    Starcross
    Stellar Wars
    Storm Chase
    Successors of the Throne, The - War for the Crown II
    Summer Games
    Super Nova
    Survival Messenger
    Survival Messenger Adventure
    Suspended
    Sword of Fargoal
    Tai-Pan
    Tangled Tales - The Misadventures of a Wizard's Apprentice
    Tau Ceti
    Temple of Apshai Trilogy
    Test Drive
    Test Drive II - The Duel
    To Be On Top
    Toilet Paper Stacker
    Uchi Mata
    Ultima I - The First Age of Darkness
    Ultima II - The Revenge of the Enchantress!
    Ultima V
    Ultima VI - The False Prophet
    V.I.O.S.
    Where in Europe is Carmen Sandiego
    Where in the USA is Carmen Sandiego
    Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego
    Windwalker - A Tale from Moebius
    Winter Games
    Wizard's Crown
    Wolfman
    You Had One Job
    Zambeezi
    Zombie Party
    Zork - The Undiscovered Underground
    Zork I - The Great Underground Empire
    Zork II - The Wizard of Frobozz
    Zork III - The Dungeon Master
    Zork Quest I - Assault on Egreth Castle
    Zork Quest II - The Crystal of Doom

     *these games are still commercially available so the roms are not supplied

    New Magazines:

    Zzap!64 Issues 51-60
    Commodore Format 26-34

    New Demos:

    5 Shades of Grey by Lethargy
    Diagonality by Genesis Project
    Dream Travel 100% by Samar Productions
    In A Hurry by Padua
    Nothing But PETSCII by Genesis Project
    Out of Contex by Artline Designs
    Pagan's Mind by Dream
    Remains by Booze Design
    Rocketry by Chorus
    Snakepit by Delysid

    New Diskmags:

    Attitude 15-20
    Dawn 1
    Propaganda 25-29
    Recollection 1-3
    Vandalism News 61-70

    New SID:

    Ain't Seen Nothing Yet by Shinobi
    Bomba by Flex
    Cold War Generation by Linus
    Danger Dawg by Steel & Stinsen
    Ed in His Lib by Jammer [with SFXExpander/YM3812 support]
    Electric City by Flex [2SID]
    Elusive Groove by Flex
    Empty by Jojeli
    Foregone Destruction by Jammer
    Hawkeye 2018 by Flex
    I Dug Some Graves You'll Never Find by Linus
    Keine Music by Taxim
    La Mer by LMan
    Les Cathedrales by Shogoon
    Lundia by Flex
    Mainstream Lamestream by Mr. Mouse
    Midnight Kisses by Mibri [with SFXExpander/YM3812 support]
    Mini by Fegolhuzz
    Miss You! by Juzdie
    Mission Solaire by Flotsam
    Mutants Revisited by Jason Page
    No Conocida by Zardax
    Odyssey by Jammer [2SID]
    On The Waves by psycho858o
    Player by psych858o
    Rastaline Dub by LMan
    Red Herring Caught Red Handed by Jammer
    Robot Sensuality by LMan
    Smile to the Sky by Geir Tjelta
    Snowcial Distancing by Fegolhuzz
    Sockerbeat by Qdor
    Something Squared by Xiny6581
    Spacebar by MCH
    Squad Signal by Dave
    Stay Strong, My Friend by Jammer, chuinho, GH, LMan, MCH, Mibri, psych858o, Shogoon, and Wiklund
    Stomp by Jammer
    Thus Spoke the PC Speaker by lft
    Turbo Killer by Noplan
    Vandal by Heart by TDM
    Vortex by LMan

    Finally, I just want to once again thank all the people that helped contribute to this update in various ways. Thanks again, I appreciate the support!

    sonninnos
    @Pixelpiper
    @Z3R0B4NG
    @edgemundo
    @marcoooo
    @jayjay
    @JoeViking245
    @jophran
    @TimberlAndRE
    Smiling Spectre
    The folks at The Museum of Computer Adventure Game History and the Ultimate Tape Archive
    Everyone who contributes time and energy on improving the LBGDB with media and metadata!

    So, that's it for now. I'm in dire need of a nap.

    Have fun!

     

     

    • Like 12
    • Thanks 2
    • Game On 1
    • Unusual Gem 2
  3. No problem.

    The way Retroarch handles combos isn't via two buttons/keys mapped to one function, it's via enable_hotkeys (in this case that's assigned to the back button) which functions as the combo button which you have to hold down in combination with any other hotkey. In this case the "exit" and "next overlay" hotkeys.

  4. 2 hours ago, SiriusVI said:

    Looks really cool. Love the way you select characters. I olso like the bezel, but I don't know how to turn it on. I just get black borders. Could you please tell me how to enable the bezel?

     

    12 hours ago, Zombeaver said:

    If you want to enable Reshade, go into the ZombsReshade subfolder and start "Enable.bat". "Disable.bat" turns it off. It's setup to use my own bezel which is designed for 1920x1080. If you're using something else you'd want to disable the overlay and the aspect ratio passes.

     

  5. Alright, here it is. If you want to enable Reshade, go into the ZombsReshade subfolder and start "Enable.bat". "Disable.bat" turns it off. It's setup to use my own bezel which is designed for 1920x1080. If you're using something else you'd want to disable the overlay and the aspect ratio passes.

    It has a "Loading..." intro when it starts but you can skip it by pressing Esc. Be aware that the first time you start it, it will take a while to load to the title screen because it has a lot of data to cache. It will seem like it's frozen but it's not. It should start quickly on subsequent launches until you restart.

    You select characters by moving up and down the character selection screen to different categories and then pressing left or right. Until you press left or right, it'll select a random character if you press a button. Once you've pressed left or right to see characters in a section, you'll need to move back to the starting position (it circles around whether you go left or right; when it starts flipping through characters randomly you're back to the starting position) before moving up or down to a different category.

    This may seem a little odd add first but you'll get used to it. The alternative to this is what you see in a lot of M.U.G.E.N. setups - a gigantic grid of characters that's a complete mess with tiny character icons. I much prefer this.

    552924485_Winmugen2021-01-2820-28-24.thumb.png.9a6a5ccf96ba72ab67d04730cf7058fd.png

    • Like 2
    • Thanks 3
  6. 9 hours ago, EthanFox said:

    This project is so great - thanks for all your effort on this.

    Quick question - the only issue I have is that I've imported everything into a previous LB setup; my LB has the controller's start/stop buttons mapped to exit the emulator.  Your configuration has the same combo mapped to display the controller map png file.  So, I'm unable to view the file without exiting the emulator.  I'm super novice when it comes to RetroArch - how can I remap your project's controller buttons to remedy this?  I was hoping to change select/LB to show the png file and eliminating the start/stop combo so the LB mapping won't interfere.  Can't quite figure it out, didn't see the combo in the retroarch.cfg file. 

    If you open up retroarch.cfg you'd need to change the following:

    input_exit_emulator_btn = "4"

    to

    input_exit_emulator_btn = "nul"

    and

    input_overlay_next_btn = "6"

    to

    input_overlay_next_btn = "4"

  7. It's funny for this to come up out of the blue since I randomly added some stuff to it a couple months ago haha; mostly as an excuse to mess around with using Reshade to see how well/if it would work with it. Took a fair bit of fiddling to get them to cooperate the way I wanted.

    1554145065_Winmugen2021-01-2818-08-40.thumb.png.47ebd20e92a19ea21d467292cdc90f73.pngI'll upload the current version to my Google drive and link it in here. It might be tomorrow. It's about 14GB uncompressed.

  8. They do not. Video snaps aren't usable with the free version of Launchbox so they're not a high priority. That said, the plan is eventually create those as well once everything else is essentially done. I recorded about a hundred very early on but as I said it's not a priority currently.

    Emumovies does have video snaps for C64 but generally they're low quality and seemingly all in the wrong aspect ratio; and game coverage is sporadic.

  9. 13 hours ago, maschine said:

    I would really love to see the game Bristles in the collection. Thanks for considering.

    All the slots are taken for the upcoming update but I'll add it to the to-do list for the one after that.

    Another quick update: 84% of the tape archive complete - 366 covers / 309 back covers / 642 3D boxes created / 1033 total manual count

    • Like 1
  10. Just to provide a quick update, I've finished pulling out and processing media from the tape archive for 60% of the collection. I've gotten 238 covers (the archive already includes separate images for the covers, but a lot of times they aren't cropped all that well so I usually end up having to crop them from the original complete inlay anyway) and 203 back covers, compared those against the ones that were already in the collection and replaced where it was an upgrade (which is most of the time), and made 3D boxes for many of those. The current count of 3D boxes that I've made is 556.

    In addition to that I've created manuals from the inlays for about 230 games, about 70 of which were entirely new and the rest were upgrades/replacements of existing manuals. The current total manual count is 983, and I anticipate this will surpass 1000 by the time it's all done.

    The process is slowed down by the fact that many of the manuals are in a format that's really not ideal for viewing in the manual viewer by default.

    For example:

    image.thumb.png.b3b824c401c1c234a702448e4563f860.pngSo what ends up happening is I have to cut these up into separate images for easier viewing:
    image.thumb.png.41e8d51739ccb6777b98794cbcef8ba9.pngimage.thumb.png.ea05a2252201f09ef1c34bd7730698c0.pngYou can, of course, always zoom in on any of these, but I want to have them formatted in such a way that by default that isn't really necessary. Any given page should be relatively easy to read as-is without doing anything (other than changing from one page to the next). Sometimes it's a relatively straightforward change like the above, other times not as much.

    Original:

    image.thumb.png.cf07bd51e3d3ef0d1f64939ee8b0dbec.pngEdited:
    image.thumb.png.002b8d0b87e9b37560c04d8d15e457fe.pngimage.thumb.png.b9592225662a19bd8ced577a4763a55e.pngOriginal:
    image.thumb.png.9a469031c00103d19b60577dccfd8012.pngimage.thumb.png.c970069a7910ba8687d6c3c19e304030.pngEdited (editing the image so that the language order matches the first page):

    image.thumb.png.c008a7ccfcdec34746d3138f215bfee1.png

    ...all this crap ends up taking time. But, as I said, I'm 60% through at this point so that's pretty good progress for a week I think. Just gotta keep on trudging through it.

    • Like 3
    • Thanks 2
  11. Not familiar with that one either, I'll take a look.

    For reference, the primary sites that I used for manuals were:

    https://www.mocagh.org/loadpage.php?thelist=2
    http://69.60.118.202/commodore/games/
    https://archive.org/download/Commodore64Manuals
    https://www.gamesdatabase.org/list.aspx?DM=0&system=commodore_64&manual=1&sort=Game
    https://www.c64games.de/phpseiten/spielesuche.php
    http://www.c64sets.com/boxed_sets.html
    http://infodoc.plover.net/manuals/index.html
    http://infocom.elsewhere.org/gallery/greybox.html

    These generally weren't great for tape manuals though. http://69.60.118.202/commodore/games/ has a decent selection in the tapes subcategory, but generally these sites focused more on separate manuals, i.e. not ones that were included as part of the tape cover.

    The other thing to keep in mind is that oftentimes manuals for 8-bit PCs were cross-platform, and are oftentimes sites only have them listed under one (that isn't C64). The most common crossover is between ZX Spectrum and C64, but in some cases you might see Spectrum, C64, Amstrad, and Atari 8-bit all sharing one manual, and have it only listed under one of those platforms on the site they're uploaded to, so that complicates matters.

  12. I'm familiar with c64sets (which has nice scans but a pretty limited selection) and retrocollector; the latter of which, in rather cancerous fashion, puts a nice big watermark on everything, so I refuse to use them. To add insult to injury they have some extremely rare media there that I haven't seen anywhere else, yet have the audacity to hamfistedly slap their shit on it like a video rental store out of the 90s. The preservation of tangential media like covers and manuals, while not quite as important as the preservation of the games themselves, is still important; and behavior like that actively damages that effort. /rant

    I haven't seen c64tapes before though, and it looks like they have some nice scans of some of those inside covers that I mentioned, so thanks! That should help.

    • Like 1
  13. There's some good stuff in there @Z3R0B4NG!

    I don't suppose the source for those also had scans for the reverse sides of any of those? The reason I ask is it was common - as demonstrated by those images - for games released on tape to include the manual on the tape cover itself. Sometimes this spanned onto the flip side of the cover, sometimes it didn't. I've gotten several new manuals out of what's there already, so that's awesome. I break them up into separate pages, combine them into a .cbr, and we're good to go.

    1938894126_Cosmic_Cruiser_(0272_Imagine)_1919.thumb.jpg.d0ed2b103a3c420eea9bc15d5547d72a.jpgThey're missing the inside scans for some of them though - Code Masters did this quite a bit. I've found some of them on Mobygames and combined them together (since the existing elements from your set are generally higher quality). If your source for these has scans of the inside covers, I would be very interested in getting them.

  14. Alright, so that was a fun little rabbit hole. @edgemundo sent me a bunch of boxes (thanks again!) and I ended up making / remaking a bunch (383) myself as well. Turns out marcoooo's boxes are a modified version of Mr. Retrolust's arcade boxes so, with some fiddling, I made the modifications to the template/PSD actions/bats from there to recreate the same format that he used; and now the process from beginning to end is super quick and easy, and I can create/update the boxes as needed over time. As an added bonus, I ended up finding some better covers for some games while working on these as well.

    If anyone wants to upload any of these to the LBGDB, they are welcome to do so. You can find them here:

    3D Boxes.zip

    I may end up creating a few more here and there if anything grabs my attention but by and large my sweep through the collection is complete.

    1029720380_RescuingOrc-01.thumb.png.48370add4feec5f8c9e2b1ca17ffa6d0.pngSpelunker-01.thumb.png.1822a0983005fd40c2aa70bbff03875c.png826105297_TigerClaw-01.thumb.png.f0ce4a7646068bcf27905a394ce85f68.png

    Everything's looking nice and snazzy now. Minus the ones that are currently just a screenshot, of course, but I can live with that for the time being.

    image.thumb.png.c5b9ef25c68c6c3f85a7cf971e3fe8bb.pngThe metadata cleanup is complete (or at least as complete as it's going to be for the time being). Everything that I could match I have, any incorrect matches that I've found have been fixed, anything that was already matched but had additional metadata on the db but not in the collection has been updated (that I found), and every game has, at the very least, a genre tag.

    The last thing I'm doing is auditing to see what needs to have screenshots added and adding them as much as I can (this is basically only remaining for games that have no db entry at all and need screenshots added manually). I may or may not finish that, it just depends on whether or not I get too tired of it haha

    After that, all I need to do is make two versions of the Magazines xml for import (one for default launch with web versions and one for default launch with local versions) per @mordroc's request a while back [edit: done], update the Import and XML insert text files [edit: done], do a bit of testing with importing the collection into my main LB setup, and then some backend tidying.

    • Like 7
  15. 4 hours ago, DroneSA said:

    1.) None of my F-keys work in-game. This is a bit annoying for titles that have a menu screen that require you to e.g. press F1 for One Player, F2 for Two player, etc.

    No idea on this one, never experienced that. You should probably talk to Frode about that.

    4 hours ago, DroneSA said:

    2.) Likewise, I'm having trouble figuring out how to define a global close emulator key (for keyboard, not using a controller) in FS-UAE 3.0.5. Under Launcher Settings -> WHDLoad there is an option to set an Override WHDLoad quit key, but the info button says that this option is deprecated and may have conflicts with a newer solution that I have no idea how to use

    I'm not sure what that would be in reference to. It's always worked fine for me.

  16. Okay, so I've finished sorting through the 3D boxes for the entire collection. @edgemundo has been a real champ working on 3D boxes to fill in the gaps.

    This does not account for the games that have no cover whatsoever, however, that will need a fanart box created for them. If anyone has any desire to help with those, I've attached a zip of the screenshots used as covers for the relevant games. There are 430 of them.

    Temp-Screenshot.zip

    At this point I'm just going to let edgemundo do his thing while I work on backend cleanup and some final testing. We're almost there!

    • Like 5
  17. Well I think the idea is ostensibly that those platforms will be emulatable at some point. And while this is of course true for PS5 as well, it's even further off than it is for those platforms (which are pretty far off).

    All of this stuff will make sense in LaunchBox eventually. But as it stands it's not the type of thing that really should be much of a priority because there's not much you can actually do with it at this point. Meanwhile, there is plenty of media and metadata missing from games that are perfectly playable right now.

    There are actually a lot of websites out there that are specifically designed around making lists of various stuff. Ones that would be quite a bit easier to utilize than Launchbox for purely that purpose too. Functionally, the way Launchbox is designed is in such a way that you're supposed to import something (a rom, a disc image, what-have-you) which you can subsequently play. And the DB should generally reflect that.

  18. 7 hours ago, glaymore said:

    It's about managing game lists of all kinds.

    It's actually not. That's why it's not called ListBox. It's called LaunchBox because it's designed to give you a nice, pretty, organized list of things that you can then launch.

    You're welcome to put whatever you want into it, and call it whatever you want. You could make a platform for your favorite deli sandwiches if you wanted to. There's nothing stopping you from doing that, but that's not what what LaunchBox is actually designed for, and as such the value to having PS5, deli sandwiches, what-have-you, in the db are limited at best.

    I don't think the DB should have an XB1 or PS4 platform either, honestly, although I do know that some users have rigged up ways to get Launchbox to start things on their physical console so hey, shrug emoji.

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