Import from Gamebase?

[pitkin]

Would be nice, I've a few too. Hopefully someone can automate the process at some point.

[Retrofrogg]

Another vote for Gamebase import here!

[harryoke]

42 minutes ago, Retrofrogg said:

Another vote for Gamebase import here!

same here , gamebase is a wonderful compendium of games & media , easy import would be amazing.

[Quaros]

22 hours ago, Retrofrogg said:

Another vote for Gamebase import here!

And another one here. Would love to have an import function.

[Aevans0001]

If you follow my directions it should work on each gamebase.  It was rather easy, although it would be a more official way if @Jason Carr could happen to find a way...  I didn't notice this on the 2019 vote

[Jason Carr]

I'm surprised this didn't come up too; I don't recall it being mentioned during the live stream or anything, but I could be wrong. I'll keep it in mind though, at least put it on my ideas list.

[neil9000]

2 minutes ago, Pixel said:

This has been on the "list" since 2015, I recall.  But still not on the poll.

What went on the poll was sourced from the community during a live stream. The poll had the top 40 requested features on it, so the fact that this didn't even make that list shows how many people actually want this. You may have to just accept that the people requesting this are a very vocal, but small minority of the overall community.

[Jason Carr]

To be honest, if we put it on the poll, history tells me that it would not be highly voted. Most people would look at it and go "what's GameBase?" and then ignore it, as that's how items like this typically go. That said, I do see the value in the feature, so hopefully we can add it in eventually.

[Quaros]

7 hours ago, Pixel said:

If they ask it, then you will tell them that it is an older version of LB

But many PC users who are interested in retro games know what it is.

It's like saying that few people know what is RocketLauncher, so let's not bother with it etc.

I do not need Gamebase anymore because I managed to import it over the years. I had to use paid apps to do that. Obviously, the  GEMUS scripts won't work, but I used the database at least.

So purely out of curiosity how did you do that and what apps did you use for it?

[Aevans0001]

Ok so I liked Gamebase because it was a good list of files, All the games I remember were on it.  Most of the other lists didn't include a couple of games I remembered.  So all I really wanted it for, was the games.  However the naming makes no sense, so if you look back at page 2, I developed a little script to rename the files to something both I and launchbox likes.  Launchbox still has its issues with some of the games, but....

[FistyDollars]

Just discovered GameBase, I'd really like the option to import from that as well. 

[Retrofrogg]

Quote

 

Any progress in terms of importing Gamebase databases into Launchbox? Would be amazing!

@Pixel care to share your method?

Edited April 27, 2021 by Retrofrogg

[dillonm]

No further forward with this?  I have a mountain of Gamebase Collections that need importing into Launchbox

[kev25b]

[JoeViking245]

I was playing around with this a little last spring and am able to convert the GameBase database to xml, and from there import the metadata information into LaunchBox.

It's kind of a grab-and-smash in that it'll grab the metadata, rom name and manual name, and smash each game into a new Platform and list the rom as being located in LaunchBox/Games/newPlatform/  and the manuals (if one was noted in the .mdb file) under LaunchBox/Manuals/newPlatform/.

No more. No less. For now...?

At this point it won't search for any existing physical roms and manuals.  It just uses the data extracted from the .mdb file and sets the paths as noted.  Images for the time being are out of the question.  Getting "proper" game Titles may be a big (huge?) hurdle.

There's always room for improvement.  So you can give it a try if you're so inclined and leave suggestions to make it better.  Or wait for the feature request to get added to a poll and receive enough votes to have @Jason Carr  'officially' incorporate it into LaunchBox.

 

 

Tagging a few people from this thread who may be interested.

@kev25b @dillonm @Retrofrogg @FistyDollars @Aevans0001 @harryoke @pitkin @mgtroyas

 

 "See a need. Fill a Need." (Robots, 2005)

[Aevans0001]

@dil

On 2/10/2022 at 5:03 PM, dillonm said:

No further forward with this?  I have a mountain of Gamebase Collections that need importing into Launchbox

@dillonm

 

If you look back at page 2 you will see that i created a little script to do most of the work.  it would work the same with the other gamebases.  However if you look above this post.  They created a little program.

 

[dillonm]

1 hour ago, Aevans0001 said:

@dil

@dillonm

 

If you look back at page 2 you will see that i created a little script to do most of the work.  it would work the same with the other gamebases.  However if you look above this post.  They created a little program.

 

Yes I was involved in the testing of the new Gamebase import plugin just released by JoeViking 245

[Retrofrogg]

@JoeViking245's plugin worked pretty well - thanks dude! But as he said, it doesn't do the images. I imported the CPC collection, and have been going through adding the images manually (which is very time consuming, as in the Gamebase collection all the images for a game are grouped together as a PDF file, so you have to extract each individual image from that - which I have been able to automate). The work is such that I'm considering just having a link to the Gamebase database in Launchbox, and then browsing the games within Gamebase - but of course the Gamebase UI isn't a patch on Launchbox, and I prefer to keep all collections together in the same format. Any thoughts on progressing this work Viking?

Edited September 18, 2023 by Retrofrogg

[JoeViking245]

1 hour ago, Retrofrogg said:

@JoeViking245's plugin worked pretty well - thanks dude! But as he said, it doesn't do the images.

...

Any thoughts on progressing this work Mr. Viking?

As stated in the official plugin release notes, only screenshots will be imported. All other images are stored too inconsistently among the various databases with respect to the folders they reside in.  The notes do continue to say how you can manually copy available images.  [After a year and a half] I don't recall if all databases had their images in pdf files, or just certain ones.  Or just certain sets of images.  The ones that aren't in embedded in a pdf file should be a simple copy/paste.  Sounds like you found a way to automate the process for the ones that are in pdf's.

@foleyjo did do a write up and created some batch files (found here on the Official Release Support page) for getting all the screenshots, cover-art and music added to the C64 GameBase collection.  He later stated that with some slight modifications to the batch files, he was also able to use them for Spectrum and Acornmania.

 

[Xyb0t]

I would akso really love to see an "official" method for Gamebase import to Launchbox/Bigbox.