ExoDOS Import

[FistyDollars]

Yeah, can the eXoDOS/Win3xO integration be one of the things that @Jason Carr prioritizes for the 8.0 release? It wasn't on the poll, but there's clearly a lot of interest in it.

[SentaiBrad]

I believe it wasn't on the poll because it's a join effort of @Jason Carr and @eXo, something they've been working on for quite a while now. Things are progressing, slowly, is all I will say.

[Wintersdark]

Good to hear it's still being worked on!

[cleverest]

I'll probably be able to get 10 more people into Launchbox on this basis alone once it's rolls out....

[SentaiBrad]

I can promise you progress is being made. There is no ETA, it's still an effort between the two, the responsibility isn't on just one of them, so it's taking both of their efforts which by default means it will take longer because correspondence is needed. Both needed to also get up to speed with the systems already in play. It will be worth it though, I promise.

[Jason Carr]

Hey all, I'm hoping to make significant progress on this next week, once I get back from Colorado.

[MiraiKuma]

Was googling around and saw that people had success using rocket launcher with the eXodos collection. I know there is another post on here how to use rocket launcher with launch box. 

[2Play]

On 3/7/2015 at 2:08 AM, donarumo said:

Hey, when I wrote MEAGRE, there was nothing else like it out there. I know it's not the best looking front end but it gets the job done. I wish it looked as good as LaunchBox! I would love it if LaunchBox imported the information from the ExoDOS collection in MEAGRE. It would actually be a fairly simple process initially of scanning each folder for the .ini file or for the meagre folder itself (each game has a meagre folder). This parent folder can then be used as the application location, the game can be set to use DOSBox of course, and the custom .conf file is always going to be called dosbox.conf and reside in the parent folder. The other meta data can then be brought in from an online database or used from the various image and documentation folders in the meagre directory for each game. I know MEAGRE and ExoDOS are probably too "small market" to add as a major import function of LaunchBox but it would be cool. Just to be clear, I only wrote MEAGRE. Although I'm fairly versed in the ExoDOS data and formats, all of that data was compiled by EXO, a different guy.

Respect to you and your work!

[angelobodetti]

On 5/17/2017 at 5:35 PM, MiraiKuma said:

Was googling around and saw that people had success using rocket launcher with the eXodos collection. I know there is another post on here how to use rocket launcher with launch box. 

I use RocketLauncher with launchbox for the fades, bezels, and universal pause. Are you saying you saw a way to basically use the exodos collection as roms through rocketlauncher? My biggest issue with the dos stuff is that you need to install each game and no 2 games are alike. ScummVM is awesome the way it normalizes that stuff...

[2Play]

On 4/14/2015 at 0:21 AM, eXo said:

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.

Hi Exo, the bonus folders in version II do not have the Hypespin module. Is this how supposed to be? Where can we get the HS module?

[2Play]

Looking forward to see eXoDOS fully integrated!

[angelobodetti]

So should I get and import exodos collection (using ETA Prime's tutorial) now or should I wait because a newer better, more integrated way to do this is coming soon to LaunchBox?

[syntax_X]

That tutorial is not really related to the eXoDOS collection.
The beauty of eXoDOS is it installs the game the first time you choose it, second time it plays.
Like many others I have had varied results with installing/importing MS-Dos games within LB, but some legend named @eXo setup a bunch of customized batch files that do all that hard work for you.

All we need now is his game naming format added to Launchbox/MS-Dos

Really I don't see all the fuss with transferring over the eXoDOS metadata tho. 
What is not already in the LB database should be imported, and anyone using the eXoDOS collection and LB should just download their metadata from LB
Search the !dos folder for *.bat, remove all entries of install.bat.

LB metadata scraper should be updated to include the eXoDOS naming format.

I have attached a txt file containing all the .bat file names for each game in eXoDOS, shouldn't be too hard to match them with LB Dos DB right?

eXoDOS Game Names.txt

Edited May 26, 2017 by syntax_X

[syntax_X]

OK so I did a thing.
I took the entire !dos folder and copied it onto my desktop.

I then went to the original !dos folder and searched for install.bat and deleted every instance.
Then I loaded up launchbox and did a fresh MS-Dos import, looking in the !dos folder for *.bat
I then chose to leave everything where it was, search for all metadata and turned off any options that may interfere with eXos batch files such as downloading game configs.
At this point I expected everything to import but no metadata to transfer over as the eXo naming format is different.
But I was greeted 30 minutes later by an import screen showing every game matched to the LB database!
At this point I should add that id already tried to install a different Dos collection through LB and failed, but had a lot of metadata left over.
Downloading and using eXoDOS is just so straight forward and easy I personally wouldn't play my Dos games any other way.

So yeah I'm still waiting for all the missing metadata to download then after that I can see what I have to change in the LB dosbox start parameters to only open the .bat file when choosing a game but I'm hoping it will all work.

After the metadata is completed I will replace the original !dos folder that I deleted all the install.bat files from with the untouched !dos copy on the desktop. 

All in all theres around 4GB of metadata in the original eXoDOS collections that can be deleted by searching for MEAGRE folders in !dos if you want to save space.

 

Edited May 26, 2017 by syntax_X

[NLS]

So is there a guide for this?

 

[syntax_X]

If I have to change any settings to get it to work ill let you know

[eXo]

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.

[SentaiBrad]

Yea, the "fuss" came from importing the set in a round about way, which it does work honestly. We're trying to make that much easier, we just have a lot to go through. Like for example, @Vlansix wants to improve the database before we upload thousands of images.

[syntax_X]

Please excuse my ignorance.
After having a play importing in my round about way I've come to realize the LB DB is missing some of the MEAGRE data, I didn't think this was the case. I thought the LB DB was complete.

Still very impressed we already have matched eXoDOS file names

 

Edited May 27, 2017 by syntax_X

[SentaiBrad]

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.