Some requests!

[AnUnusedMoniker]

Hey there, So I've been amassing a large collection of games from GOG. I've also got some ROM's kicking around. I tried Launchbox this weekend and compared it to other programs like Photon's Game Manager. I decided I really like it, purchased a premium version, and set to entry. I really like the interface, the filtering system, and all the little things like: -The ability to mark games as completed. -The support for emulators -The Support for game music - Sorting titles Anyhow, there are some things that have been bothering me as I set up everything (which is a lot of time with 200 some games), which have come to mind so far (some of which I might have just not found the button for): 1. I've gotten a lot of older games downloaded, and some originally came with lots of things like maps, quick reference cards, and hint sheets. GOG has gone so far as to include a few more bonus items with some of them - walkthroughs, guides, and so on. Unfortunately, I'm limited to exactly one "manual" link. I figure I'll be working around this by populating the additional applications with links to a PDF reader, and command lines to get it toward the additional PDFs. It's going to be pretty annoying. 2. GOG includes DOSBox and Scumm as needed for applications, and while I could continue running the copy of whichever application is needed for the game from the folder it's included it, it seems that if dosbox or scumm were ever updated, I would have to update all of the individual versions in the folders. So it would seem that I should centralize. Now, Here's an example command line run: In Application Path H:\Games\I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream\DOSBOX\DOSBox.exe In Application Command-Line Parameters -conf "..\dosboxnomouth.conf" -conf "..\dosboxnomouth_single.conf" -noconsole -c exit Now, if I'm going to switch this to a centralized copy of DOSBOX, in the menus provided I can select a configuration file, but I can't add on any Command Line Parameters...so (and I'm pretty rusty on dosbox), I think that I would probably have to try and effect the command line changes into each individual config file. Which sounds like a monotonous nightmare. I've noticed that Scumm and the Emulation options also don't allow command line parameters, and I'm a bit confused as to if the "Application Command-Line Parameters" box would include them in the right place, or if that would be included at all when using those subapps. I guess any suggestion on this would be welcome. 3. I paid for the upgrade, but the help menu still has the option to upgrade, and it still links to the purchase page. 4. At some point I'm going to start exploring making all the boxes I have look nice and neat. However, I can't seem to find a spot on this site that has info on the perfect size of box, or anything like that. Any suggestions on that would be greatly appreciated. As would any information on the correct range of size for user submitted art and other stuff. 5. I'd like a way to get rid of "Thegamesdb.net ID" filter, since it just shows me which games I've had to get off of wikipedia's game database. Though some of them appear in the filter as (exists) with wikipedia tags. I don't know if they're somehow cross referenced out there in database land, but it's not a filter I would use to find games. 6. I'd also like the ability to mark out which games are multiplayer, co-op, or single player. The ability to pull up a list of games that are co-op enabled would make having a friend over and letting them choose a game pretty easy. Anyway, this is a great product, and it's helping me turn a disorganized mess of games into something really cool. Regards, -Conor

[SentaiBrad]

AnUnusedMoniker said Hey there, So I've been amassing a large collection of games from GOG. I've also got some ROM's kicking around. I tried Launchbox this weekend and compared it to other programs like Photon's Game Manager. I decided I really like it, purchased a premium version, and set to entry. I really like the interface, the filtering system, and all the little things like: -The ability to mark games as completed. -The support for emulators -The Support for game music - Sorting titles Anyhow, there are some things that have been bothering me as I set up everything (which is a lot of time with 200 some games), which have come to mind so far (some of which I might have just not found the button for): 1. I've gotten a lot of older games downloaded, and some originally came with lots of things like maps, quick reference cards, and hint sheets. GOG has gone so far as to include a few more bonus items with some of them - walkthroughs, guides, and so on. Unfortunately, I'm limited to exactly one "manual" link. I figure I'll be working around this by populating the additional applications with links to a PDF reader, and command lines to get it toward the additional PDFs. It's going to be pretty annoying. 2. GOG includes DOSBox and Scumm as needed for applications, and while I could continue running the copy of whichever application is needed for the game from the folder it's included it, it seems that if dosbox or scumm were ever updated, I would have to update all of the individual versions in the folders. So it would seem that I should centralize. Now, Here's an example command line run: In Application Path H:\Games\I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream\DOSBOX\DOSBox.exe In Application Command-Line Parameters -conf "..\dosboxnomouth.conf" -conf "..\dosboxnomouth_single.conf" -noconsole -c exit Now, if I'm going to switch this to a centralized copy of DOSBOX, in the menus provided I can select a configuration file, but I can't add on any Command Line Parameters...so (and I'm pretty rusty on dosbox), I think that I would probably have to try and effect the command line changes into each individual config file. Which sounds like a monotonous nightmare. I've noticed that Scumm and the Emulation options also don't allow command line parameters, and I'm a bit confused as to if the "Application Command-Line Parameters" box would include them in the right place, or if that would be included at all when using those subapps. I guess any suggestion on this would be welcome. 3. I paid for the upgrade, but the help menu still has the option to upgrade, and it still links to the purchase page. 4. At some point I'm going to start exploring making all the boxes I have look nice and neat. However, I can't seem to find a spot on this site that has info on the perfect size of box, or anything like that. Any suggestions on that would be greatly appreciated. As would any information on the correct range of size for user submitted art and other stuff. 5. I'd like a way to get rid of "Thegamesdb.net ID" filter, since it just shows me which games I've had to get off of wikipedia's game database. Though some of them appear in the filter as (exists) with wikipedia tags. I don't know if they're somehow cross referenced out there in database land, but it's not a filter I would use to find games. 6. I'd also like the ability to mark out which games are multiplayer, co-op, or single player. The ability to pull up a list of games that are co-op enabled would make having a friend over and letting them choose a game pretty easy. Anyway, this is a great product, and it's helping me turn a disorganized mess of games into something really cool. Regards, -Conor

Welcome, and thank you for purchasing a premium license. Jason and I appreciate it very much. Before I answer some things specifically, just know Jason is constantly developing new features, but he is one person. So I just ask that you know it can be slow sometimes, but even then personally I see him faster than other developers... so. So lets talk about GOG. In no particular order I'll address a few things. We do want to work on an import process that is similar to importing Steam games but for GOG and Origin. We think that could be invaluable in the long run. Without creating new features for LB the extra's part of GOG will have to remain separate. In the future though, I could see there being fields for GOG or any other games where you specify extra content. Linking to a PDF guide, Magic list, monster list, soundtrack etc. I also see that as a premium feature. As far as updating the version of DOSBox and ScummVM that ship with the game... GOG has gone out of their way to guarantee that the game they ship works with the version of the emulator they shipped it with. That's not to say the game wont work with a more recent version, if there is one for a specific game, but this is what they chose at the time to promise it works. I would suggest, not changing the version they shipped with. It sucks having to re-do settings for each game, but some games are tied in very closely to the files they install with and some even rely on the Registry to know what they are doing. I had to reinstall my OS and while some games worked in my GOG folder, some didn't and I had to reinstall them, albeit to the same folder, but they needed the Registry and p potentially any other hidden files to be repopulated. LaunchBox specifically you can change the version of DOSBox we ship with. I have been playing around with DOSBox Daum personally. The exe's are the same name and it just works out of the box. I have to edit the settings separate and its not as tied in to LB, but it works. I would assume the same can be said for ScummVM though I haven't needed or wanted to try. The images don't really have a standard. The theory behind this is that we support games going all the way back to 1980 up till 2015. The standards for a lot of aspects of video, images and computers change every 8 months. Not to mention, what works for one person, doesn't work for someone else. That said, you're more than welcome to use your own custom images and keep them all the same size if that is what you would want to do. If you want the front art or box art to all be landscape instead of portrait you're more than welcome to put it all at 720p for example. It is really open. It's hard to also create a standard when screenshots, fan art, box art and maybe CD art are all just wildly different. As for being able to mark games with more options. We're playing around with the idea of various different tags. For example I kicked around the idea for Jason to create a Rom Hack label. The best option for now that we have would to be able to create a custom filter for it, which you can do. You can specify specific games then just go to that custom filter when you want to. I think a custom list option would be cool to expand to and make it even easier then this solves everyone's problem and there is no need to implement 40 different flag types. I see this as being the most probable outcome. Also, the tag for "Thegamesdb.net ID" is an older remnant from when we didn't include Local or Wikipedia meta data scraping. All this field knows is that an entry has a Wikipedia or TGDB ID attached to it. When you edit an entry you can see a blue link in the upper right portion of the edit screen. You can even click on it to go to the games page that its using. Thank you again for joining and purchasing the license. It means a lot to both of us. Thank you also for the suggestions and feedback. We read everything between the two of us on this site and think that it is all invaluable. -Brad

[Jason Carr]

Welcome Moniker and thank you! All is good input. Thanks Brad for the follow-up. Per GOG's version of DOSBox, I actually tend to disagree with Brad there; GOG is historically not very good at using the best settings or DOSBox version for certain games. It can be hard to make them work on any kind of system, but I've found issues with GOG's settings many, many times. So from that perspective, yes, it would be good to centralize them to LaunchBox's version. If I'm not mistaken, you're over-complicating the DOS stuff. All you really need to do is check the "Use DOSBox for this game" box in the DOSBox tab, and then point the Application Path to the MS-DOS EXE (or BAT or whatever). This works with GOG games as well as other DOS games. Some games do require some extra mounts or special settings, however. I've noted all other items (most are already planned). Thanks again!

[SentaiBrad]

Jason Carr said Per GOG's version of DOSBox, I actually tend to disagree with Brad there; GOG is historically not very good at using the best settings or DOSBox version for certain games. It can be hard to make them work on any kind of system, but I've found issues with GOG's settings many, many times. So from that perspective, yes, it would be good to centralize them to LaunchBox's version.

Really? I never had problems with it, so I never wanted to change it. Why try to change something when it was working. Takes time away from playing the games. I need to test DOSBox Daum on it then.

[AnUnusedMoniker]

Guys, Thank you for the quick replies. It's nice to know this forum is well cared for. -----------About the images: I think I'll just pick a PC box I like the look of and fit to that. There seems to be a big community of people replicating console game boxes, so the ROM side of things should be a breeze. -----------About dosbox: -It occurred to me that I can centralize my dosbox app by just changing the application path value to my chosen dosbox or dosbox alternative, so long as I set my working folder. -I worried about using the dosbox and emulator tabs because I don't know what the command line syntax would look like. This is important because almost all of the games that GOG has packed with Dosbox use switches on the Dosbox command line, and many also use switches on the game's command line. I'm not sure if it launchbox uses (Dosbox)(game executable)(Application Path Parameters) or (Dosbox)(Application Path Parameters)(game executable) Either way, I don't have (Dosbox)"(Game)(Game Parameters)"(Dosbox Parameters) available to me through the tab. I assume the built in dosbox command line also uses some switches, such as "-noconsole" , but I'm not sure which ones, so I'm not sure if I'll be putting in duplicate or contradictory instructions. In short: using the tab makes the command line obscure and an important part of it cannot be changed. -----------About that thegamesdb.net ID thing: Lastly, here's a screenshot of thegamesdb.net issue that I find a bit annoying: Is there a way to remove "THEGAMESDB.NET ID" from a top level sorting position? It's not a way I would ever look for particular games. -----------Anyway, all of this is just little stuff. Everything is running just fine, and in a few more days, it should look awesome. Regards, -Conor

[AnUnusedMoniker]

Hey, Couple things I forgot: On dosbox: An example command line that is from GOG that's impossible (as far as I can tell) with the dosbox tab is: H:\Games\I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream\DOSBOX\DOSBox.exe -conf "..\dosboxnomouth.conf" -conf "..\dosboxnomouth_single.conf" -noconsole -c exit Or: H:\Games\Star Control 1 and 2\DOSBOX\DOSBox.exe -conf "H:\Games\Star Control 1 and 2\Star Control 2\dosboxSC2.conf" -conf "H:\Games\Star Control 1 and 2\Star Control 2\dosboxSC2_addon.conf" -noconsole -c exit Input on input: It'd be really nice if the program could strip off quotation marks from app paths. When you're inputting large amount of games, there's the need to manually take off the quotation marks from about 90% of GOG's shortcuts that are all along the lines of this: "H:\Games\Spacecom\SPACECOM Game Manual.pdf" which need to be H:\Games\Spacecom\SPACECOM Game Manual.pdf And finally - I found a solution for the lack of additional documentation support in this version - add everything as an app. Thankfully Launchbox doesn't challenge the command line for a PDF as not being a .bat, .exe. or .com. Please don't change that. Thanks again, -Conor

[SentaiBrad]

AnUnusedMoniker said Hey, Couple things I forgot: On dosbox: An example command line that is from GOG that's impossible (as far as I can tell) with the dosbox tab is: H:\Games\I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream\DOSBOX\DOSBox.exe -conf "..\dosboxnomouth.conf" -conf "..\dosboxnomouth_single.conf" -noconsole -c exit Or: H:\Games\Star Control 1 and 2\DOSBOX\DOSBox.exe -conf "H:\Games\Star Control 1 and 2\Star Control 2\dosboxSC2.conf" -conf "H:\Games\Star Control 1 and 2\Star Control 2\dosboxSC2_addon.conf" -noconsole -c exit Input on input: It'd be really nice if the program could strip off quotation marks from app paths. When you're inputting large amount of games, there's the need to manually take off the quotation marks from about 90% of GOG's shortcuts that are all along the lines of this: "H:\Games\Spacecom\SPACECOM Game Manual.pdf" which need to be H:\Games\Spacecom\SPACECOM Game Manual.pdf And finally - I found a solution for the lack of additional documentation support in this version - add everything as an app. Thankfully Launchbox doesn't challenge the command line for a PDF as not being a .bat, .exe. or .com. Please don't change that. Thanks again, -Conor

We've had some people run their entire OS more or less through LaunchBox. They manually added programs and files they wanted and played around with launching them through it, so this is just as cool. Edit: I said through DOSBox, I meant LaunchBox. I've been awake a while, but not waking up.

[AnUnusedMoniker]

SentaiBrad said We've had some people run their entire OS more or less through DOSBox. They manually added programs and files they wanted and played around with launching them through it, so this is just as cool.

I think GOG is doing a damn fine job with supporting the older games. I haven't yet wrapped my head around the double configuration load, but it seems to run great. I just finished inputting all of my PC games, and oddly enough the only one that won't run though Launchbox is a newer one; S.T.A.L.K.E.R : Call of Pripyat