'Child' games under a 'Parent' game?

[CadetStimpy]

Is there a way to have 'sub-games' under a 'main game'? Case in point: "Sam & Max: Season 1" The actual 'season' is comprised of 6 episodes (6 separate games). Season 1 doesn't have is own game launcher for the 6 separate episodes; you have to launch each episode individually. Is there a way in LaunchBox I could just have one icon for Season 1, and when clicking on that, it'd open another window that contained the 6 icons for the individual episodes? Granted, this scenario isn't common, so it may not be worth the effort to incorporate it into LaunchBox, but I'd consider it a cool feature.

[Jason Carr]

Hi Stimpy, there's a couple of options. One option is to use Additional Applications for each episode (they're accessible from right click or the controller). That's probably the closest to what you're looking for. Another option would be to use the new Game Series field that I'm adding to the next version (a beta release should be out soon).

[CadetStimpy]

The Game Series feature sounds interesting, but while waiting for the Beta release, I tried the 'Additional Apps' solution. I can't get that to work, though, because (I think) Sam & Max: Season 1 doesn't really point to anything. Comment for S&M 1.jpg: Season 1 doesn’t have its ‘own’ executable. Comment for S&M 3.jpg: I can’t really do anything with two check boxes at the bottom, because I’m not running a ‘Main Application’, as there isn’t one. Season 1 doesn’t have its own program, as it’s just a shell (for lack of a better term), in appearance only, I guess, for the actual six episode executables. So, is there a way I can get this to work as I'd like, or is it 'not doable' at this time? P.S. S&M.jpg? LOL, 'cause in this case, it stands for Sam & Max, not what may come to mind initially.

[Jason Carr]

Sure, there would be no way to launch the individual episodes if the game doesn't allow you to launch them with different commands, unfortunately. We could divide them up, but there would be no way to launch them. Or maybe I'm confused...

[CadetStimpy]

Ah, yeah, I might not be too clear. This probably wouldn't be the way to do it, but how 'bout this? I have the icon in LaunchBox, Sam & Max: Season 1. When I launch that, it just 'spawns' another mini-LaunchBox (so to speak), that I could add the 6 episodes as 6 regular games, as I would in the main LaunchBox. But, of course, those would be the only games in that mini-LaunchBox. Does that make sense?

[Jason Carr]

Sure, nesting like that has been a long time request, and I can definitely see the benefit of it. It is unfortunately still a major thing to tackle, which is one reason why I haven't gotten to it at any point. I'll add this to my list.

[CadetStimpy]

Great, Jason, thanks. Guess I need to scour the Forums more thoroughly before I Post stuff, as things I suggest have already been suggested. Not surprising, though, since it's not as if I'm 'Mr. Thought of it First'.

[Jason Carr]

No worries, I don't mind. Multiple posts means I know more than one person would like a particular feature, which often lights a fire under my posterior.

[kamyk2000]

Hi, I have a similar request I think... I am finding that my lists are being cluttered up by multiple game entries for the same game when those games have more than one disc. Final Fantasy 9 for PS1 has 4 discs, and Resident evil for the Gamecube has 2 discs. It isn't a question of just removing the extra entries though, I am deliberately adding them because I want them available so I can run whichever disc I happen to be on playwise. Using Resident Evil for my example, I am currently titling them as Resident Evil (disc 1) and Resident Evil (disc 2) to differentiate them, but it would be much cleaner if there were some way to allow me to boot either image without needing two separate database entries. (It also throws off my total game count because it counts multi disc games as a separate game for each disc). Hope this makes sense...

[spycat]

Hi kamyk. Have you tried adding the extra discs as Additional Apps attached to the game's main (disc 1) entry? This way you have only 1 icon per game. Left click to run disc 1, right click to select and run one of the other discs. Also, your games count will now class a multi-disc game as 1 game. Each extra disc will need a separate Additional App. When adding discs as Additional Apps, the Autorun before/after boxes should be left empty.

[kamyk2000]

Thank you. You just saved me a ton of clutter. There were so damn many RPGs on the PS1 (lots of them multi disc) that I had to make a separate list just for those. Now it isn't quite so messy or overblown. My list dropped from 73 PS1 RPG entries to 41. Now I can actually see what they all are. And it's nice to have things like "The making of Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete" and "Brave Fencer Musashi: Bonus Disc" tied to the game entries instead of having to look for them.

[CadetStimpy]

I did get the 'Additional Apps' thing working (I was suffering from lameness, which I frequently do). It's actually a very good solution for what I wanted to accomplish. Perhaps even better than launching some 'child window', 'cause then I'd want to have artwork for each episode (as in my Sam & Max example above), which I'd have to procure, as TheGamesDB only has artwork for Season 1, but not the individual episodes. Same thing with Tales of Monkey Island, e.g. TheGamesDB has the 'main' artwork, but not for the individual chapters of the saga. Plus, when right-clicking on the parent games, the chapters and episodes do have their own differing, individual icons.

[kamyk2000]

Nah, you aren't lame. Launchbox is full of surprises, some of which I'm not even sure Jason intended. It's a learning process as we go along figuring out new ways to use it. For example, earlier I just figured out how to make Launchbox mount CD images for me then boot them in the proper emulator using the additional apps thing. I'm sure there are tons of uses we haven't stumbled on yet.