Z3R0B4NG

Well ...now i need to see Pics! In the meantime, have fun digging through here: https://z3r0b4ng.imgur.com/

I'm using the bluetooth from my Asus Maximus IX board.

Oh you Sir are definitely OCD. I can't even comprehend 15k roms ...not, yet anyway, but give it a few more months, maybe i'll get there. If i may ask, how long have you been at it?

yepp, love them. i think i would like the NES controller more if it was authentic, 2 instead of 4 buttons and no shoulder pads, so they feel as shitty and blocky as the original but i take the wireless over 100% accuracy any day, The SNES pad is near perfect, but i've seen some of the super nerds mod the D-Pad, replace it with the original SNES controller one, or put tape on the pcb so that it is less responsive, i don't really have any problems with that, but i may try that eventually. I never had a N64 so don't ask me how good that controller is, its wireless i bought it more as a joke and because it seems to become a rarity fast because they are not producing them anymore, even the SNES and NES controllers with the original optics have vanished from the 8bitdo webiste, so grab them while you can. I can only guess they got scared of Nintendo. And don't forget about updating the firmware from their website. The SNES pad with the analog sticks is just freaky good, it even has rumble, the only thing really missing is analog shoulder triggers but it at least has 2 buttons, so PS1 wouldn't be a problem... modern racing games are its only weakpoint. But for the purists i should note that the D-Pad and Facebuttons are moved up a bit on the pad compared to the original design to make room for the thumbsticks, but it feels like it always meant to be this way, it just looks a little weird. ... and thanks to bluetooth and firmware updates all the pads are compatible with a ton of systems, PC, Mac, Android, Switch... etc. make sure to look into the manual online to know exactly. They have receivers for the NES and SNES mini if you got one of those. Only the N64 pad is a bit older and doesn't support as many systems. ...and when Retro-bit finally releases the licensed SEGA Genesis/Saturn/Dreamcast pads they showed off at CES 2018... instant buy! They even have the SEGA logo on them. I know retrobit quality has been a bit hit and miss historically, but when they are licensed by SEGA i bet they put their A-Game forward for those Products and won't have mushy D-Pads. Didn't know that those were bluetooth, that's easy then (at least as long as they sell them, 10 years from now, not so much). But i'm wondering, i got an Oculus Rift, could maybe the Touch Controllers and the Sensors do the same job in some Wii Emulator? I'm just thinking 10, 20, 30 years down the line the original hardware won't be around so alternate input methods should be supported, the VR headsets are pretty mainstream already and basically do that same job as far as motion controls go. It might need some hacky driver stuff but that should be possible at least.

Speaking off rabbit holes. I wanted to play some F-Zero... a month later i'm at >5000 games in LaunchBox i suddenly have weird plastic critters multiplying on my Desktop (yes that's a GameBoy mug!) making Excel sheets again (what Emulator does what system and links to stuff etc, just to keep track of what i can set which emulator to emulate within launchbox) ... and i keep adding pictures and stuff to the LaunchBox DB for hours and hours... the worst part about it all was to get my head wrapped around it that Emulators need BIOS files that you need to find SOMEWHERE ELSE... took me a good week just fiddling with that stuff a little every day until i finally had it all working. i was really kinda proud once that giant list of BIOS files in BizHawk was complete. and i should really buy some more HDDs, i REALLY need to dump a ton of stuff on my unRAID server so that its at least protected by the parity disk, if this HDD dies a month of my life would just go POOF... and thats just the Emulation stuff. probably four 6 or 8TB WD Reds, still arguing with my wallet about that one. But then i should be good for a few years to come. This Excel spreadsheet which emulator to use for what System, just to keep track of what i can even use for what System in LaunchBox, i make a note of everything i see anyone mention anywhere... half that stuff is like doing archological digs on long abandoned software projects... that still may have some value or are complete trash. My logic is, no one emulator can emulate everything on a System, so if a ROM doesn't start i can just rightclick in LaunchBox and try all the other ones that are known to emulate this system and see what happens. So i'm not only collecting Roms, i'm also collecting Emulators! I need like a 3rd dimension in Excel so i can add a Z axis add all the Games of every Platform and color code what game works and what doesn't... My brain is constantly exploding with ideas what information i would need, how to implement that into the Launchbox Database, then crowdsource that information and automate it back into the frontend. Like, why is Launchbox detecting games only via name, there are lists all over the place with full romsets and their SHA1 or CRC checksums, use that instead of just names to improve detection. Then on base of that checksum you could start a compatibility list for all known Emulators (not only game, but ROM specific for maximum accuracy!) and even the used version number of the Emulator by doing a CRC check on the emulator .exe that LaunchBox starts and then asking the user "how well did this rom work? perfect/OK/badly/crash" and having a compatibility feedback button ... then color code or suggest emulators in the rightclick menu on a per rom basis that work... heck on rom import the emulator field could be populated based on this data, this could go so many levels deeper in so many directions if we crowdsource the shiznit out of all of this. I really see the long term value of Launchbox in its Database, not so much in the Frontend looking pretty (that gets you through the door, but you stay for the convenience of it automatically scraping all the pictures and managing those roms). We could even provide valuable feedback to the people making the emulators that way if just enough people participate in providing feedback and adding to the DB with their own experiences. Most of those compatibility lists on the Emulators own websites are incomplete and outdated because nobody contributes (that could be a starting point though, copy that list somehow and you already got an indication of what is possible with many emulators). The deeper i go the more ideas like this pop into my head... too bad the only thing i'm half decent with is Excel and Googlesheets ;P I guess the point here is, the more data you dump into a Database the more data you can cross reference and extrapolate and come up with different use cases for it and once you can make some use of it in the frontend itself, in counterturn seeds interest in the userbase to add more data to it by simply using it. Then all you need to do is wait and let it take its course. ...just like with the metadata and pictures we are collecting now, i see myself constantly seeing, oh cover missing for this, lets google it and add it to the DB etc. ...seriously, i just wanted to play some F-Zero!!! ...maybe some Turtles in Time... but i'm currently planing to draw the line at NES/Master System, at least for now, anything earlier than that is just not going to be worth it for me, not a fan of giant pixels and beepy sounds. The 8bit visuals of the consoles and the midi like music has a certain artistic value and nostalgia that i can appreciate, but if its literally just giant Pixels and i have to imagine what is even going on... that is when i start to question my life choices ;P I might one day go for C64 because i had one waaay back that my Dad dumped on me next to the SNES and i might maybe by some freak accident find some of those again... but the plan is to go forward and emulate more modern stuff and see how far i can push it. I stumbled over Citra and the 3DS and that is when the filesizes are already becoming bigger where i really need to pay attention to not have the same game twice in the folder and where i start sorting out the absolute trash... and since the OpenGL update 3DS emulation got soo much faster i went neck deep into it and that was my last week. So with bigger roms and my slow internet it takes of course longer to get the numbers up. I also threw out all JAP roms, i don't speak that language, i don't even like Anime so whats the point. I know there are some fan translated roms but i decided to strictly go with retail releases and ignore all the other noise like Betas and Prototypes and unlicensed games... and i'm constantly struggling with myself if i should go for completion and then just set favorites in launchbox or if i should throw out some things i just REALLY don't care about, like basically all the Sports games, how many versions of GOLF do i need? Why does the 3DS have so many versions of Mahjong!? And all the obvious girls games about Ponies and Cats and Dogs ... What really bothers the hell out of me though is ... updates, DLC and online only games. How do you even... god i hope those people did set the filenames properly... and the Wii with its motion controllers, how would you even go about emulating that input on PC? ...i know i will never play even 10% of all these games. But i'll make damn sure i'll play ALL of the Ninja Turtles games that i never even knew existed! ok, its late i'm rambling... but yeah... down the rabbit hole and no end in sight. ...and its 6 in the morning AGAIN... why does this keep happening!?

What do you think about adding a field to the pictures section for complete Cover inlays? (front, side and middle together) ...or 2, for scans of the original and fan-art/reconstructed. While i'm searching for covers to add i keep stumbling over pictures of the complete thing that i could easily add while i'm at it, but there is no correct "field" for them, and i keep finding the occasional picture like that in the DB that somebody else added -> example: https://gamesdb.launchbox-app.com/games/images/20272 somebody uploaded one here as "3D Box", which is obviously wrong, i would prefer to put the picture in the correct category instead of requesting deletion. I'm thinking, those 3D Boxes that people make (love them btw. keep up the good work, whoever you are!), i think it would be more convenient for the people with the Photoshop Skillz (i don't have any :-/ ) to have complete covers to work with, including the sides and not just the front. Most 3D Box art i see is simply a template of a Box and people just add the Cover into the Template but leave the side blank in most cases, i wouldn't go out of my way to look for complete covers either if i had hundreds of games for a System to go through and the cover pictures from for LaunchBox already on my Disk, together in one convenient folder. But if there was a convenient way to have the full cover art at hand by just selecting the download button in LaunchBox... i don't know. I would like to hear the opinion from some 3D Box artists on this, would this be helpful or is the process more convoluted than i think? .... I know having a complete cover probably doesn't add anything obvious to LaunchBox as a Frontend instantly, but i think it would add indirect value to the DB as a one-stop-for-everything-gamebox-art/cover related. Even if its just about printing covers for your physical Games. For example, i heard people use VHS Boxes (or similar "universal retro game boxes") for their old cartridge games like SNES and print out custom Covers for them, when they either have no original Boxes anymore or so the original boxes stay in pristine condition in storage... i mean that isn't me either way, but if we all are building a Database that is all about game covers here, we might as well add some full covers (and maybe fan art?) to actually print out while we are at it. (not that i would go out of my way to search that stuff, but i just keep stumbling over those pictures and am a bit annoyed that i can't add them while i'm adding stuff anyway). And if the answer is No, if we don't do complete covers here, what is the point of having the backside as an option? Is anything in BigBox maybe showing the back? I only have the free LaunchBox (no Credit Card = no BigBox ...and they don't want my PayPal money ...hmpf)... ...not that i want do add more pointless busy work. I'm not sure, what do you think? //edit: I did a collaboration with the Artist that makes the Nintendo 3DS 3D Box art a few days ago (you may have noticed that there are 99 additional 3DS and eShop covers available on Emu Movies now and i'm adding them as good as i can to the LauchBox DB) and he said that he needs the "Spine" so he can include it in the 3D Box art. ...so well, there you go.

ok, update: so it turns out the Metadata search function thingy in LaunchBox fails to find the nickelodeon game completely if you just have "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" as the filename. You need to manually type in Nickelodeon in front of it for the entry to show up at all (that requires some level of mind reading capability, i don't think anyone would actually do that) I don't like that "nickeloden" name in front anyway because it messes with the alphabetical order (muh OCD!), i want the TMNT games to be together... So, attempt number 2: I just do like Amazon does! "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", no nickelodeon and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - The Movie" makes more sense to add "- The Movie" at the end (more intuitive), the search should then also show both entries, i hope. ( i know, this bothers me more than it should ;P )

ok, i've added the Nickelodeon bit in front and the change went through tonight, guess i'll add the other game now. but in general, would it be possible to have 2 games in the DB for the same system with an identical name or would this produce problems, i mean the entries would technically still have a different ID in the DB? LaunchBox would of course get confused which one to pick when adding roms.

just wondering because i stumbled over this: https://gamesdb.launchbox-app.com/games/details/34084 the first one says Nickelodeon on the cover, but that is not something anyone would include in the title (and is not included in the existing DB entry as is) the second game does not have a DB entry yet.