Jump to content
LaunchBox Community Forums

ExoDOS Import


Jason Carr

Recommended Posts

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.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...
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!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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 by syntax_X
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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 by syntax_X
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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 by syntax_X
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...