2022 Poll Item #5 - Platform Details within the Game Details panel

[Retrofrogg]

I thought I'd start up a thread in relation to this exciting poll item so that the feature can be further discussed, as there doesn't seem to be a thread already. 

The poll item is #5 - Platform Details within the Game Details panel - (If this feature were to win, LaunchBox would display platform metadata and media when a platform is selected, and a game is not).

This is going to be a great addition to Launchbox and for me is the best of the current poll items. Currently the vast majority of the focus in Launchbox is on the games, with the platforms only being represented by their name in the platform tree. In BigBox we can see the platform details with most themes, but so far Launchbox has not allowed this; to see the platform details in Launchbox currently you would have to edit the platform.

This new feature would allow platforms to be browsed properly, not just games. Given that the plan seems to be to display both metadata and media, hopefully the platform videos and images can be shown, just like game videos are. It could be themed to allow some great ways of displaying the platform videos and associated platform information. Great for the collectors and info geeks amongst us. Hopefully it would lead to some expansion of the information that could be entered for platforms. For example, as well as an image of the platform itself, it would be great to have images of the controllers, the original box, etc. 

In terms of where this information will appear, the poll item suggests that it would appear in the Game Details panel. This would certainly seem the easiest way to implement it - but given that the Game Details panel tends to be a relatively thin panel at the side of the screen, it would seem preferable to display the platform detail in the main window - perhaps without any separate panel being present. 

 

Edited July 27, 2022 by Retrofrogg