ExoDOS Import

[Jason Carr]

The post is live! Thanks again Donarumo. https://www.launchbox-app.com/

[p.bizzy]

Fantastic Is there a way to use the screenshot when there is no box art? Seems like anything would be better than seeing all the blanks hehe. At least until Jason implements list/icon mode.

[donarumo]

Thanks for the blog post. Sorry I didn't see it sooner, been busy with work. On the plethora of missing box art entries, I ended up writing a small program that looks for an image file (a file ending in either .jpg, .gif., or .bmp) named "title" in the screenshots folder and moves it to the main images folder and renames it Front with the same extension. I uploaded this file here: http://www.filedropper.com/project1 It's 12 megs (thanks Delphi!) but all it does is the rename process. To use it, you simply browse to Launchbox's images folder and then hit the rename button. Use this at your own risk of course as I'm not responsible for any issues you have. I can tell you I used it on my own images folder and it worked great. All of my titles from MEAGRE (other than those that already had front images) are now Front images (example below).

[Duckeenie]

@donarumo That will come in handy thanks. Delphi was my environment of choice back in the day though I rarely write code these days. Still, it brought a warm feeling to my heart seeing that project1.exe. sitting there

[Jason Carr]

Ha, nice, thanks for the solution donarumo. I do have this on my list to allow greater customization of what images to use as box art; I'll try and move it up higher on the list. Thanks, Jason

[eXo]

My ears were burning, and now I know why Donarumo, you cheater, you never told me you were moonlighting. Now I know eXoDOS will have exportable features to LaunchBOX. Also worth noting, there is a DBGL (DosBox Game Launcher) exporter as well as a Hyperspin launch Module for eXoDOS. I like MEAGRE because it is simple and Donarumo is great at working with me to include new feature. It is also worth mentioning that MEAGRE has a great GUI portion called Nostalgia mode. I think most folks don't understand just how many features MEAGRE has to offer. That said, I also know folks generally have their own preferred front ends, which is why there is a DBGL and HyperLaunch module available. I am also looking into adding support for a few other well known front ends such as GameEx. Anyways, glad folks are enjoying eXoDOS. I do recommend verifying you have the v2.0 release of eXoDOS. it fixed a lot of stuff, added tons of new games, and had the updated MEAGRE with it. I am currently about 75% of the way through Win3xO, a Win3x version of eXoDOS.

[Jason Carr]

Welcome, eXo, and many thanks for your work.

[65Cobra427SC]

Always had an interest in dos games... and I'm old so that's a loooong time. I've been looking around for a while now but after reading this thread, two things came to mind. Wondered how I could get in touch with eXo... or hoping he will see this post and contact me... because I have a large collection of dos games from years ago and I may have something that isn't in the eXoDOS collection yet. Also, I'm trying to find eXoDOS v2 without using a torrent. I'm familiar with archive.org but they only have 1.6 and I don't see anything that will update it to the current version.

[eXo]

Hey there 65Cobra427SC (quite a name you got there). You can email me at retroexo@gmail.com. I use that address for all communication in regards to my projects. I've just pinged archive.org to see what the status is on getting v2 hosted. It has sparked conversation on how to best host it and maybe adding some instructions as it seems a lot of folks see it as an excellent repository for games, but aren't understanding the full benefit of the front end and how to make use of the launch files.

[65Cobra427SC]

Thanks for replying eXo. I'll send you an email in the next couple days. One thing I'll mention here in case anyone else cares to chime in. I haven't been on archive.org for a couple months, until several days ago and now I can't get any kind of reasonable download speed from them at all. Never had that problem before... did a search and there are other complaints online from people blaming the new website interface. So I accessed the site via the old interface, and it's the same. Mentioning this because when eXoDOS 2.0 gets posted, it will be near impossible to download. Hopefully the problem will get fixed soon. Yeah, the name is a mouthful but Cobra will do just fine.

[eXo]

At one point Jason has talked about setting up eXoDOS on its own server. However there were some major networking issues they were trying to figure out. Archive.org is a pretty small operation when it comes down to the number of guys actually working on it daily. As in, it's pretty much just Jason. The speed will get fixed eventually. Just take time. The best place to get my work is [redacted]. While this does require maintaining a ratio, anyone can join. Around Christmas PD generally makes a large number of torrents 'free', including my projects. Other torrent sites offer it for "free" daily (as in, you don't have to seed it back), but they are invite only sites. I also have had folks sends me hard drives, and I load then up and send them back. I don't charge for this. It trends to be especially useful in areas that have limited bandwidth.

[65Cobra427SC]

Good news. I was looking around on archive.org yesterday and the issue I previously experienced with download speed has apparently been resolved so all is well there. Great site.

[dillonm]

donarumo said Thanks for the blog post. Sorry I didn't see it sooner, been busy with work. On the plethora of missing box art entries, I ended up writing a small program that looks for an image file (a file ending in either .jpg, .gif., or .bmp) named "title" in the screenshots folder and moves it to the main images folder and renames it Front with the same extension. I uploaded this file here: http://www.filedropper.com/project1 It's 12 megs (thanks Delphi!) but all it does is the rename process. To use it, you simply browse to Launchbox's images folder and then hit the rename button. Use this at your own risk of course as I'm not responsible for any issues you have. I can tell you I used it on my own images folder and it worked great. All of my titles from MEAGRE (other than those that already had front images) are now Front images (example below).

Hi there, I downloaded that 'Project1' file but all I see is a grid when run the .exe with two buttons on it that says 'Button1' and Button2'. It doesnt seem to do anything. Any suggestions? Thanks

[StammesOpfer]

donarumo said Thanks for the blog post. Sorry I didn't see it sooner, been busy with work. On the plethora of missing box art entries, I ended up writing a small program that looks for an image file (a file ending in either .jpg, .gif., or .bmp) named "title" in the screenshots folder and moves it to the main images folder and renames it Front with the same extension. I uploaded this file here: http://www.filedropper.com/project1 It's 12 megs (thanks Delphi!) but all it does is the rename process. To use it, you simply browse to Launchbox's images folder and then hit the rename button. Use this at your own risk of course as I'm not responsible for any issues you have. I can tell you I used it on my own images folder and it worked great. All of my titles from MEAGRE (other than those that already had front images) are now Front images (example below).

So I know I am bringing this back from the dead. Any chance anyone has an active link or can reupload this? Seems the existing link is no longer correct unless a non-functional sheep game is somehow correct. Looks like that site allows other files to overwrite or has a time limit.

[franklb]

I successfully exported all the games from both eXoDOS v2 and Win3xO using MEAGRE v2.5.2.3 that comes with Win3xO. This added over 6000 games in total to LaunchBox. These are DOS, Windows 3.x and "PC Booter" games. I used the trick here https://www.launchbox-app.com/forum/troubleshooting/old-images-folders of setting ImagesReorganizedFor5 false to get all the exported media correctly named and located. I think this post: https://www.launchbox-app.com/announcements/new-launchbox-export-in-meagre should be edited to include the procedure for LaunchBox v5+.

[StammesOpfer]

franklb said I successfully exported all the games from both eXoDOS v2 and Win3xO using MEAGRE v2.5.2.3 that comes with Win3xO. This added over 6000 games in total to LaunchBox. These are DOS, Windows 3.x and "PC Booter" games. I used the trick here https://www.launchbox-app.com/forum/troubleshooting/old-images-folders of setting ImagesReorganizedFor5 false to get all the exported media correctly named and located. I think this post: https://www.launchbox-app.com/announcements/new-launchbox-export-in-meagre should be edited to include the procedure for LaunchBox v5+.

Did that give you cover art? I would just try it but I am waiting until Win3xO is done before I try it again.

[kmoney]

I'm curious about that as well. Last night I imported all my exodos collection to LB and used emumovies and the gamesdatabase for my art and such and there is a lot of missing art that those sites don't have. I looked in my meagre folder and noticed that it had a lot of missing artwork that I need and was wondering what was the best and easiest way of get this imported into LB?

[franklb]

StammesOpfer said

franklb said I successfully exported all the games from both eXoDOS v2 and Win3xO using MEAGRE v2.5.2.3 that comes with Win3xO. This added over 6000 games in total to LaunchBox. These are DOS, Windows 3.x and "PC Booter" games. I used the trick here https://www.launchbox-app.com/forum/troubleshooting/old-images-folders of setting ImagesReorganizedFor5 false to get all the exported media correctly named and located. I think this post: https://www.launchbox-app.com/announcements/new-launchbox-export-in-meagre should be edited to include the procedure for LaunchBox v5+.

Did that give you cover art? I would just try it but I am waiting until Win3xO is done before I try it again.

There is cover art for some but not all the games. It imported the front cover art from exodos/win3xo if it exists for each game.

[franklb]

kmoney2315 said I'm curious about that as well. Last night I imported all my exodos collection to LB and used emumovies and the gamesdatabase for my art and such and there is a lot of missing art that those sites don't have. I looked in my meagre folder and noticed that it had a lot of missing artwork that I need and was wondering what was the best and easiest way of get this imported into LB?

The latest MEAGRE frontend v2.5.2.3 has an option to export to launchbox. It also copies over the cover art and screenshots to launchbox. https://sites.google.com/site/meagrefrontend/download After the MEAGRE export, look here https://www.launchbox-app.com/forum/troubleshooting/old-images-folders for instructions on how to make the artwork be used by LaunchBox v5+

[eXo]

StammesOpfer said Did that give you cover art? I would just try it but I am waiting until Win3xO is done before I try it again.

Done as in, downloading? Or done as in, final release? I ask because from a release stand point, Win3xO is "done". I'll eventually go back to it and add missing games I've found, but that won't be for a few years.