ExoDOS Import

[syntax_X]

My round about import method resulted in working games but all with short file names..:(

[cleverest]

1 hour ago, SentaiBrad said:

Oh god no, our Database is far from complete. We had our data from Games DB about a year ago now, and since then we've had almost 3 million submission changes from our community. It's growing, fast, but it's far, FAR from complete.

 I haven't  tried the new plug in to help make the process easier for submission  to the Launchbox database , but assuming that it's working well, that should dramatically speed up the process I would think! 

[syntax_X]

Ended up using Launchbox tools to scrape the names back to what they should be.
Ill write up a short tutorial on how to import the eXoDOS collection with its configs but using LB metadata if enough people are interested and can't wait.

[FistyDollars]

4 hours ago, eXo said:

I'm working with the guys to find a way to batch import my entire database for of metadata and game entries into the games db. Once that is done, a large part of the work will be done.

 

There is however an issue with my box shots and screens, as many of them have watermarks from various sources I scraped them from. But I'm messing around with a tool that may be able to take the assets that exist in my collection and copy them to the proper folders to be recognized by launchbox.

I'm REALLY happy to hear that. Our DOS section kind of sucks right now, and I was always really impressed by the amount of metadata you have in eXoDOS and Win3x0. 

Personally, I'd say we should make a watermark exception in your case, given the massive size of data available, and just update them in the database with non-watermarked images when we can.

[Retrofrogg]

Looking forward to the progress here. On a side note - are there any thoughts on doing something similar for the GOG pack? It's bigger than the exodos pack at around 0.51TB, though the games are less in number.

[Wintersdark]

Really excited for a native import.  

I've considered Syntax's approach above, but honestly I've got so many projects on the go, I'd just as soon wait for the native system rather than monkey with it.  I've been following this for ages, and can wait a bit longer =)  

 

Always glad to hear it's still on the table and being worked on!

[eXo]

57 minutes ago, Dan said:

Looking forward to the progress here. On a side note - are there any thoughts on doing something similar for the GOG pack? It's bigger than the exodos pack at around 0.51TB, though the games are less in number.

Do what with the GoG pack exactly? Release a GoG pack like eXoDOS?

All of the DOS games from GoG are already in my set. As far as other games go, I have several reasons I would never do the same thing with gog.

 

A: Non dosbox gog games require an install. Many use things like directx and such. There is no way for me to create a pre-installed version of these games that would work on every single person's computer. You pretty much need to run the installers.

B: GoG games have done the hardwork for you anyways. Just double click the setup file and you are playing.

C: Even if I could make every dos game playable without an install, I wouldn't, as most of those games deserve the few dollars they are charging for them. While a handful of the games in my pack are commercially available, the bulk of them are not. There are also *many* gog games that are super new, and more are getting added all the time. That would be almost like trying to build a "steam collection". It just isn't feasible on top of taking money out of devs pockets.

 

What the real solution would be here is to simply get all the GoG games entered into the Games DB. However, that is on the community to do. There is nothing stopping anyone from creating a spreadsheet or database of every gog game and going through them one-by-one and entering them into the games db other than time and/or sanity. Then again, I could also say there was nothing stopping anyone from making something like exodos... except the aforementioned time & sanity. Luckily I often have lots of time and little sanity, so it's a good mix for me.

Getting my DOS metadata into the DB will be a huge step forward for that section. However it will also require careful attention and moderation as many games have alternative names, and I can easily see the dos section turning into a mess.

Imagine:
Kings Quest 6

King's Quest 6

King's Quest VI

King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow

Roberta William's King's Quest VI

And any variation of apostrophes, colons, prefixes, suffixes, etc... I could have added like 8 more variations of that game alone. hint: The 4th one is the correct one.

The other major issue is the dos/pc platform is one of the few platforms you will find where multiple games will have the exact same name. There are two games for DOS called Overkill for example. One released in 92' and one in 96'. I differentiate these in my sets by using the year most of the time. But then I got stuck when I got to 5 dos games simply called "monopoly", and two of them were released in 1982. Now I had to add the developer & the year to the game name to keep things from crapping the bed.

 

The short of it is, it won't do any good for me to get all my data in the db, if it isn't moderated properly. I've been active in the mod queue over the past week, and every day I reject 5-10 entries for "new games" that are simply games with alternate titles. I tend to wonder what the mind set is of the person who thinks they have a genesis or NES game not already in the database...lol

[syntax_X]

Then you have the ones with names that are small sentences like :

The Adventures of Alice who Went Through the Looking-Glass and Came Back Though Not Much Changed.bat

Just spent 2 hours trying to compile a.bat file into an exe that simply runs .bat files and was planning to replace dosbox in LB with that.

Had no luck then found the DONT/USE DOSBOX OR SCUMMVm checkboxs in edit. Did a mass edit.
Whole collection runs beautifully. ExoDOS functionality with Launchbox snaz!
Enough Metadata to make it worth it too, and when MEAGRES data is finally added to the LB DB all ill have to do is update  
 

 

Edited May 28, 2017 by syntax_X

[syntax_X]

Just spent the afternoon renaming all the images that come with eXoDOS 2.0 to be compatible with Launchbox 7+
There's a link to download them in the above tutorial.

 

[eXo]

Wow. 

 

I may have a tool just about ready that will convert eXoDOS to LB standards

[ReaperZer0]

8 hours ago, eXo said:

Wow. 

 

I may have a tool just about ready that will convert eXoDOS to LB standards

I'm actually way too excited for this.

[syntax_X]

9 hours ago, eXo said:

Wow. 

 

I may have a tool just about ready that will convert eXoDOS to LB standards

And miss the opportunity to piece this together like Ultra Magnus? NEVER!

Yeah there's no way I have enough time to code something to export Meagre to LB.
All I did was export to LB 4.5 which renamed to image folders to something I could work with. 

It is missing the txt files though which kinda sucks.

 

[Retrofrogg]

Exo, is your tool any use for exporting to something that Hyperspin can use? If not then would yoo consider adding that functionality? Or is HS a different kettle.l of fish?

cheers 

[angelobodetti]

8 hours ago, Dan said:

Exo, is your tool any use for exporting to something that Hyperspin can use? If not then would yoo consider adding that functionality? Or is HS a different kettle.l of fish?

cheers 

I don't use Hyperspin but I use LaunchBox and RocketLauncher. It would be great if however this is setup I can have RocketLauncher launching the games from LaunchBox. 

[bundangdon]

46 minutes ago, angelobodetti said:

I don't use Hyperspin but I use LaunchBox and RocketLauncher. It would be great if however this is setup I can have RocketLauncher launching the games from LaunchBox. 

Agreed. And if you could set this up with RocketLauncher, then you could basically use it with any frontend including launchbox, hyperspin. etc.

[MiraiKuma]

I created a eXoDOS importer. It does not do images nor do I plan to because my harddrive with eXoDOS became corrupt and I don't plan to download it again. However You can still use the launchbox DB to get some of the images for the games. 

 

[Soundtrackgeek]

So what's the situation exactly with the latest Launchbox and ExoDOS & Win31? There is a export button in Meagre, but will it work like it used to because of all the splitting of XML files?

[eXo]

The meagre importer is broken at this point and no longer receives support, as the author has moved on to other things.

 

The next versions of eXoDOS and Win3xO will both release with launchbox packed in and ready to go. For those who already have my sets, there has been work on an importer, however it is slow going currently as those involved are all also working on other things.

 

While the goal is to eventually get all the exodos art assets uploaded to the gamesdb, that will obviously take some time. So I want to ensure that those who download my sets have art right off the bat, and don't have to go through a lengthy import/d/l process in order to enjoy the work I've done so far. So the importer is key for that. Hopefully I'll have something that works soon.

Edited October 4, 2017 by eXo

[Soundtrackgeek]

Thanks for the update @eXo

[eXo]

On 6/7/2017 at 9:17 PM, Dan said:

Exo, is your tool any use for exporting to something that Hyperspin can use? If not then would yoo consider adding that functionality? Or is HS a different kettle.l of fish?

cheers 

Just saw this. The guys behind the HS launcher created a script for exodos. I've never used it myself, but I have spent a decent amount of time giving them my scripts and my databases so they can create launcher exceptions for all the quirky games. I suggest searching the topic over on the HS forums.