Any slight chance to search the game notes?

[Daliant]

I have several hundred magazines added to a playlist in Launchbox. They are magazines related to video games. I would very much like it if when using the search engine with the word "Sonic" in addition to all the installed versions of the game in my collection appearing, those magazines that talk about the game or that have some type of report would also appear. All the magazines in my collection have a summary of each of them added in the notes section.

Can I have any hope that this will become a reality or is it extremely difficult and complex to make the current search engine not focus only on the game title and search in all available sections (company, publisher, year, notes)?

The truth is that I cannot understand how today this frontend does not allow you to perform advanced searches, when other frontends with less community and less support do it perfectly. I don't think it's such a crazy idea that it isn't implemented today, honestly.

I am convinced that many users have the same need as I do with their magazines and manuals.

[C-Beats]

Our search has almost always searched multiple fields. Title searching is something fairly new (and can be disabled in options if you don't want to use it) and can be bypassed by using the "all:" (without quotes) switch. That being said the notes field isn't something we've ever searched in and an overwhelming number of people were pretty vocal about their disdain for the fact that search WASN'T title by default, let alone searching notes.

[Daliant]

Hello @C-Beats, thanks for your reply.

 

Couldn't people who want to search the entire content (including notes) be given the ability to do so?

 

In the same way that you can deactivate the advanced search, there should be the possibility of searching for a keyword in any field of the database. In this way everyone could use the search to their best convenience.

 

What is the point of having an immense database with countless fields if we cannot later use them to filter, sort, clean, etc... our collections? If you can do this with a simple Excel, why use Launchbox then?

 

On occasion I have said in these forums that my passion for video games goes far beyond playing them. I personally spend a lot more time going through my collection, looking at the manuals, learning the history of each game than I do playing the game itself. I know that there are many other people who, like me, appreciate Launchbox not for being a video game launcher, but for having all its arts and accessories in an organized way.

 

There are plenty of frontends out there that are designed to just click a button and play without worrying about anything else. I think Launchbox is a step up in this regard and in its nature aims to be more than just a game launcher.

 

These kinds of things are what I miss about the little-remembered GameEx. Tom Speirs was a genius at implementing this type of resources in databases and he did wonders with a program that was surely much inferior to Launchbox, but that made those of us who appreciated the exploration of our collections a dream.

 

Some of these options have been implemented in Launchbox over time, such as the view of similar games or ports, but in my opinion (which is surely worthless) it is still far from what GameEx could do in this regard.

 

The truth is, I still use Launchbox because I have not yet discovered another frontend that gives me everything I need in terms of exploring my collection. Most frontends focus on simply launching games.

 

For now, it's time to continue dreaming about the definitive frontend.

 

All the best.