Z3R0B4NG

8 vs 8... that must be my most controversial submission yet, its in limbo for 2 days now, at this point i really just want to be able to read the comments! What is going on? It is listed for MS-DOS on wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbarian_II:_The_Dungeon_of_Drax i searched for Barbarian II and there was no DOS version in the DB that i could see... // .... 12 seconds later: OOOOH... ok, great, found the reason: https://gamesdb.launchbox-app.com/games/images/81191 welp, that's dumb. and now i just want to delete that submission again but can't until that epic deathmatch of the moderators has concluded. *SIGH* + LOL

on G-Sync read this: https://blurbusters.com/gsync/gsync101-input-lag-tests-and-settings/ specifically the part a bit down G-Sync & V-Sync https://blurbusters.com/gsync/gsync101-input-lag-tests-and-settings/2/ and maybe this section V-Sync does not act as V-Sync if G-Sync is on. It mostly just decides what happens when you reach the maximum refreshrate of the panel, if it runs "unlocked" (= screentearing) or locks at say 144FPS (=V-Sync inputlag), so ideally you want to lock the framerate at 140FPS so you don't run outside of the effective range of G-Sync to begin with. But it does some more internal stuff that i frankly don't quite understand that makes sure that G-Sync can work right. But the bottom line is G-Sync was intended to have V-Sync ON at all times, they didn't even want to expose the option in the driver to turn it OFF at first. Lets just say there are multiple settings from best to worst and not everything works with every game and G-Sync isn't the ultimate answer to everything, it has things it can't handle, like inconsistent frametimes... but ultimately, it is the best upgrade you can possibly make for a gaming PC, CPU and GPU make stuff faster, but a high refresh adaptive sync monitor will remove the bottleneck FROM YOUR EYES! (that is also the reason i'm still on 1080p and not 4K yet. ...but i'm thinking i might go for 1440p when the RTX 30 series drops... depends on pricing and benchmarks of course but i'm not jumping on 4K until there are >120Hz screens for reasonable prices and hardware to power it ...or adaptive scaling tricks on PC get a lot better.) i could go on and on about this stuff... but that is way off topic here.

hmmm there is still something off... i was able to fix it in my own Retro Arch 1.8.5 and the regular Vice core, but in C64 dreams i still get that breathing stutter despite G-Sync... don't understand, need to keep digging

WOW... that G-Sync toggle really makes ALL the difference! Shadowplay can't even record how smooth it looks now because its fixed to 60FPS, with the amount that you screw around with C64 get one ... its a night and day difference man! i tried recording the monitor with my phone... it is only 30FPS footage but you get the idea better than with shadowplay, go fullscreen, lean back a bit and just focus on the text, maybe loop the video 2 or 3 times... and in real life the difference is still way more obvious than that, but i think you can see what i'm talking about with the "breathing" stutter. ...now excuse me, i need to enable this for all my emulated systems

should be visible now

1080p 144Hz G-Sync screen, yeah i feared it would be the 50Hz thing... then the same thing would have to happen with other Cores, like SNES PAL games etc. ...i'm gonna double check just to be sure but i don't think they do that. > There's a "Sync to Exact Content Framerate" option under Settings > Frame Throttle that you should try if you have one. will do... and i guess i could try standalone Vice as sanity check

hmm... after playing a lot C64 recently... i start noticing stutter when anything is scrolling, happens in every game really. and it is a weird ...kind of "breathing" stutter, it plays perfectly smooth for a second then stutters shortly for like 3 frames that look way out of sync, smooth for a second, stutters shortly, smooth for a second, stutters shortly... it gets really obvious when you have scrolling text like in the intro from "Drip" and try to read. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoWWSVovPqE the video doesn't show it quite right, there is some slight wobble at all times in it (that isn't there for me while playing), but if you ignore the wobble, slow the video to half speed in the youtube options you can see the brutal stutters pretty clearly. it is not C64 dreams fault, i have it with my regular retro arch and vice cores as well... maybe you guys got an idea?

OK, looks better now. how, do i get into the RA quik menu again? F1 doesn't work. i know it has been answered before...

installed the update (on a fresh install) as instructed... aaaand somethings horribly off here //removed because fixed//

Don't ask me, i don't even have Photoshop... my painting Skills end with MS Paint.

hehe yeah, but it also shows how different things were back then. They had no Internet, no way of knowing if some russian on the other side of the planet made a game with the same name or whatever, and they would not have cared anyway. Today you get a DMCA faster than you upload your little home made fan game, if it is even loosely based on somebody else's IP or happens to have a similar name.

Neither of the two guys responded to me (in 4 days now)... it was a long shot to begin with as those posts were made years ago. Of course the background would not be part of a 3D box. But unless one of you guys takes the .psd template he uploaded and makes a complete new set based on that i don't think this is happening. This is what i'm currently looking at: they will of course not ALL look like that... ------- The workflow i came up with looks kinda like this. First i deleted everything in the 3D box folder, then i threw this entire set from marcoooo in there, with all the unsorted mess that it is. Lets say 80% or so of the covers matched out of the box, the rest i have to add manually (and while i'm doing that i'm also fiddling with the LBDB, adding generic clear logos and generic tape fronts to plug holes and whatever else comes up, fixing a lot of naming conflicts in the database and so on, but its of course still only a drop in the bucket, it should make things a little faster/easier for Zomb whenever he decides to do a complete new scrape, it should be 5% less of a mess to deal with ? ). I marked everything as favorite, so LaunchBox sorts it to the top, now i'm in the process of going from the top to the bottom and checking every single one that has no 3D box if i can find one in the folder anyway (a lot actually)... everything where i can't find a 3D box i remove it from favorites so it gets sorted back to the bottom. I'm still in the process of doing that and it takes a lot longer than i would have thought... but i got time to kill and am bored. Once i'm done with that i'll scrape only the LBDB for 3D boxes on the stuff on the bottom that has none yet, then i'll check one by one to make sure there are no missmatches and that i didn't miss anything on my HDD, the ones i'm done with get marked as favorite again and go back to the top. for the remaining stuff i will then scrape EmuMovies for those basic bi**h 3D boxes with the placeholder spines, they are still better than nothing. do another pass on those if there are no missmatches... sort them to the top when done and ultimately i will look how much is left and see if there are any of those fanart 3D boxes and fanart covers from that Lassiverans set that have been missed so far. But this is still ALL happening on my own LaunchBox. THEN, i'll copy that 3D box folder back over to the actual C64 Dreams 0.20 folder (i'll do a fresh extract from the .zip just to be on the safe side) Do another pass over everything because a hand full of filenames will already not be matching with my own LaunchBox anymore, but that should be 20 games tops, should not take that long, another hour or 5 tops. Once that is done i will tell Launchbox to delete all pictures that are not currently used and that should in theory delete all the mess behind the scenes (i can't do that on my own launchbox anymore because i got so many systems with 3D box sets and stuff that i don't want to delete by accident). So the set will not be the 7000+ random 3D boxes that you don't need from that set, but exactly the ones for the 2000 games in C64 Dreams 0.20 and you will all be able to drop it in your folder as is and done. ...and this is all taking foreeeeever because i'm not only fiddling around to polish stuff on my own end, but i also fix any problem i see in the LaunchBox Database and upload as many missing pictures as i can while i'm at it (and its a MESS! This System NEEDS me. The Nintendo and Sega stuff is sorted so well people are fighting each other over how Pokemon is being spelled (with é or with e) back and forth back and forth... so silly, yesterday i fixed 7 games for C64 who had the exact same name, SEVEN! and only one shows up in LaunchBox when that happens, now they all show up.). tl;dr: multiple passes of polish are being applied, which is why this takes so long. ...and i told you i'm a bit obsessive about this stuff.

this is gonna be another long one... i'll try to format a bit after topics --- bug reports/feedback: "Coil Cop" and "Thing Bounces Back" are the same game (US and EU versions). note: "Battlefield" is "Battle-Field" with the dash it will find the correct id https://gamesdb.launchbox-app.com/games/details/88182 --- I asked about 3D boxes a few days back, well, i kept digging... time to report my findings. best find first: link to "7200" of these: those boxes look great!!! "Generic" still not "accurate" to the real thing, but these are as good as it gets for generic boxes. It is not a perfect set, quite a few boxes have errors, like having the complete cover (back+spine+front) in the front... so don't just dump it all in your 3D box folder it does need some cleaning up, I think marcoooo scraped a ton of covers, didn't bother to crop anything and just send it all through a script, i've send him a direct message to see if he is still around and willing to update it or if he maybe updated it already and just didn't share it here (i mean he got ONE reply to his post and a few icon presses)... I just think its weird that this set isn't on Emu Movies or anywhere where people would actually find it (or where LaunchBox would be able to scrape it)... no one has added any of these to the LBDB yet (except for me, but those are 7000+ boxes, i'm happy if i get the holes for the C64 Dreams set plugged over time ...this is gonna take days as it is, so if anybody wants to jump in and add more of these to the LBDB, be my guest!). ...when i'm done and happy with this in my own LaunchBox i'm gonna put these back into the C64 Dreams version and send them to you Zomb so you can integrate them in the next version, ...i mean, if you want, without as much hassle so you can keep doing what you're doing. Whenever i'm done and happy with it. I mean i got time to kill, this seems like something "productive" to do. He also made some SIMPLE Fanart Tapes (Fanart - Cart - Front), nothing insane but good enough to plug some holes in the database if nothing else exists. --- Next one is a long shot and will most likely lead to nothing... but OMG ... LOOK AT THAT thread: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3868/8-bit-computers-snapshots-and-covers That is what i imagine 3D boxes for Tapes should look like, he shared a .psd template for this crystal case but then the thread (2016!) just fizzled out, i don't think that this ever resulted in anything or these boxes would have shown up somewhere by now, I've left a reply on that thread at the off chance that he gets a notification and reacts, but i'm not expecting anything to happen there. BUT He did share a .psd file ( https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BwdzHtv3rOY1ajJNbzlybXNna3c ) ...if anyone with Photoshop Skills (not me, i got none) wants to take a stab at this, that would be dope. I mean compare that stuff to these old things... better than nothing, but ...not really thaaat great. I mean a FULL set of these would still look good in the Frontend, but right now its like swiss cheese, full of holes. Welp, that is what my digging through the depths of the internet has resulted in. I know you've said you're not a fan of 3D boxes, but if you don't mind i'll dig through that pile and prep a folder for you. Just a question of weeks until i'm done ? ---- one more thing... I'm seeing a lot of Euro titles instead of the US names that LBDB uses as primary, like Hero Turtles instead of Ninja Turtles. Is that intentional or coincidence? I'm mostly asking because it bothers me a tiny little bit that the region tag is not set in LaunchBox for these games, which means the region tags in the LBDB are a bit more useless than usual, so i'm wondering what the reason for this is and if there is intent behind a lot of it being Euro releases instead of US. I guess that the Euro C64 scene is still very active and US is not? Or that it isn't always clear what the source of a cracked release is to begin with so you don't bother with it. Just curious... not asking to change anything.

that is a yes. you could MAYBE identify it when manually searching if the release date was entered correctly and you happen to know it (fat chance of that), but no idea what happens in mass importing. Worse: i got a game "Aliens" which is some Homebrew thing from a magazine, not the retail game, so i renamed it "Aliens (CP Verlag)" and the video from Emu Movies that is just Aliens.mp4 still plays, of course that is the wrong video. I think it either ignores the (CP Verlag) part entirely or just grabs onto the closest filename. I also tried deleting the path to the video inside the Edit window for the game, but it doesn't care and adds it right back as soon as you click on it. //EDIT: ok i just tested a bit on my end, didn't change anything in the database for this. if i have a game "Alien" and a game "Alien (CP Verlag)" then Launchbox turns the names of the pictures into Alien-01.png and Alien (CP Verlag)-01.png and does not get confused. but the video Alien.mp4 gets used for both... i do not have a video for the (CP Verlag) version... if i rename another video and call it "Alien (CP Verlag).mp4" then it uses that one. if there is only one Alien.mp4 ALSO if i rename that entire game Alien (The Game).mp4 ...then Alien (CP Verlag) will STILL latch onto this video ...i guess it acts that way because the stuff in the brackets might as well be a region tag or something. and for the record: when i renamed the game in LaunchBox from Alien to Alien (The Game) it did not rename the mp4 file, only the pictures. and i don't want to rename the game for the official Movie game anyway, not because some kid got his homebrew thing with the same name onto a magazine disk...

@Zombeaver bug report: "Dragon Ninja" and "Bad Dudes vs Dragonninja" are the same game, but different hacks (not sure which version is better) both link to "Bad Dudes" https://gamesdb.launchbox-app.com/games/details/24795 and that DB entry actually has both titles listed as alternate names, so it is indeed supposed to be the same game the "Bad Dudes vs Dragonninja" variant has the gamepad also on the wrong joystick port (need to press Y select JOY and Y again so you can move in-game)

Just for information, don't take it as criticism please, i decided, after i integrated the games from this set into my own launchbox, to go over the metadata and images once more (i'm a bit more obsessive about that stuff than i should be) and noticed a few things. - you have not scraped videos from emu movies, i assume you did that to keep the package size small, i just didn't expect having to scrape those myself, if it wasn't mentioned in the documentation you maybe want do that or i missed it (it actually found quite a lot of videos, didn't expect that, totally worth it). - i noticed there are a LOT more 3D boxes in the LBDB with actual spine art by now than last time i checked, so i've been going over that stuff a lot. - i noticed you have pictures that should be in "screenshots - game title" in the "box - front" folder for many homebrew titles or stuff without covers, that isn't needed for them to show up as cover if you just set the priorities in the Launchbox options right. I GUESS you did that because the free version doesn't allow to change those priorities (i'm not sure right now how the free version handles that)? Either way i manually moved them for my own install into the correct folder. - C64 has cartridges, Casettes and Floppy Discs, i noticed in the LaunchBox DB people have been uploading all of those in random categories a lot, Cartridges and Cassettes should be "Cart - Front" and Floppys should be "Disc" both folders are a total mess of both, i corrected some of the tags in the LBDB that i've stumbled over but no way i get that cleaned up on my own, but i've moved the pictures locally into the correct folders (so i can prioritize if i want to see casettes/cartridges or floppys or fan-art discs in the loading screens) - i added a lot of "Fan Art - Disc" images to the LBDB over the past days, make sure to scrape for that category next time, i'm still at it actually and i fill in 3D Boxes from the Emu Movies set where there are holes in the LBDB... as many as i stumble over anyway but most of the more accurate 3D boxes are NOT in C64 Dreams, i really would suggest a fresh scrape on those with LaunchBox DB as the priority, and EmuMovies as a second scrape without overwriting anything existing. - i've seen one other guy who went heavy at C64 stuff in the past few days while moderating changes. ...so what i'm saying is, you probably want to do a complete new scrape of everything by the time for the next release because a lot of work is put into the DB right now and your release triggered that work. Most of this stuff should naturally trickle down into the next release anyway, i just wanted to mention it so it doesn't go under.

here are 3 more "The Great Escape" https://gamesdb.launchbox-app.com/games/details/102809 https://gamesdb.launchbox-app.com/games/details/102810 https://gamesdb.launchbox-app.com/games/details/6249

these 2 games are both called "Finders Keepers" but they are different games... https://gamesdb.launchbox-app.com/games/details/34000 https://gamesdb.launchbox-app.com/games/details/100923 here are the gamebase 64 DB entries for comparison: http://www.gb64.com/game.php?id=2742&d=18&h=0 http://www.gb64.com/game.php?id=25976&d=18&h=0 i just stumbled over one and started adding cover art of the wrong one (which i need to delete tomorrow because moderators will most likely wink it through) the problem is, LaunchBox only finds one of the two DB entries if they do have an identical name for the same System. So, what do the rules say in this case? how should i rename them, add the release year (1985/1983) or the Publisher? ...can't leave it like that if LaunchBox bugs out because of it. ...and why would the LBDB allow for same name entries to begin with if the software can't handle it, seems like something that could be prevented in software before it happens.

The Movies the games are based on are a Series. And that would mean 007: From Russia with Love is 3 times wrong in the DB. the REDUMP filenames say: "007 - From Russia with Love (USA)" while No-Intro says "GoldenEye 007 (USA)" ...so it seems people go with the filenames rather than what it says on the box... hmmmh...

My OCD demands consistent franchise naming so sorting in the frontend can function properly. I'm just gonna leave this here (i renamed a few myself, the rest i used the Sort Title to get into position) : the naming of this Franchise is all over the place... James Bond 007: [TITLE] 007 James Bond: [TITLE] 007: [TITLE] [TITLE] 007 Can we please all agree that no matter what it says on the box, the Franchise name should always go first? Also... 007: From Russia with Love seems to be the go to for people, even though the 007 is at the end on that cover as well, but modertators put up resistance when i want to rename "GoldenEye 007" to "007: GoldenEye" !? ... make up your mind lol

awesome thanks

Hate to be the guy that points out the first error but you were too fast for me to play around with the test version ? ... big TMNT fan, so first thing i click on is of course: "Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles" it is supposed to be this game https://gamesdb.launchbox-app.com/games/images/57129 (i did not know there was C64 port of this) but it actually is the Coin-Op https://gamesdb.launchbox-app.com/games/details/24845 which is already in the collection, both TMNT game icons effectively start the same game, you just used a different hack for it with some trainer cheat thing in front for the new one. the Coin-op is the first and only C64 game i ever bought retail myself, my C64 (along with a big box of pirated copies) was a hand me down from Dad when he got his first 386 PC, i had it sitting next to my SNES... i bought the game when i was a 3rd grader, i only remember i bought it on the way to school in that one local small computer shop, i saw it and i just NEEDED to have it, i couldn't afford it right away and needed to save up for a few weeks, i checked every day if the Box was still there to the point where the shop owner kicked me out ...a week later i had the money and finally bought it!, ...i also lend that game to a friend, the bastard never gave me back the instruction manual, wich meant i couldn't get past the copy protection because there were codes printed in the manual that you needed to start the game. It is probably the worst version of the game (you can't even walk straight up or down like in every other version of it) but it totally triggers my Nostalgia bone. (yet somehow i never had Turtles in Time for the SNES, i only played that one at another friends house every time i had the chance). btw. Can you point me to where the instructions are to import this to my own Launchbox, it's time now that i get that done.

I would really love if somebody could make a good set of 3D box art for the C64 (and for eXoDOS as well for that matter). Any thoughts on that topic? Somehow the more computer based stuff doesn't seem to get a lot of love from Emumovies & Co. and just in general, even the 2D box art does not seem all that well preserved. You got a post over on their forums? Maybe do some more recruiting/advertising once you drop this release? (just thinking out loud, i'm sure you got your workflow) I mean i do what i can with artwork to add to the Launchbox DB, but artwork for C64 and MS-DOS is a pain compared to console stuff and i don't have the skills to do 3D artwork or i'd be all over that myself (heck, i'm happy i figured out how to do transparent backgrounds for PNG files by now but my skills pretty much end with MS-Paint ?). off topic: That sounds interesting, REDUMP doesn't provide a parent/clone set for 1G1R, i'm sure i could free up some serious space on my unRAID server if that was a thing and with CD based systems it might actually be worth it, you got a post somewhere about that or a link?

holy necro batman, but thanks that makes sense.