Help Us Expand the LaunchBox Games Database!

[robspenname]

The Sinclair ZX Spectrum Next.

The ZX Spectrum Next is a retro system that was primarily created to run ZX Spectrum programs (and as of the newest version, Sinclair QL and Commodore 64 programs), on actual hardware instead of emulation. However the system is also capable of playing exclusive games that are not compatible with any ZX Spectrum model or clone, or any other system. 

The ZX Spectrum Next has been available for eight years now, and there's currently a dedicated community of game developers creating titles and ports that are exclusive to the ZX Spectrum Next, including commercially available games. ZX Spectrum Next emulators are also currently being developed so that the games can be played on other systems, and most of the available games are sold or distributed digitally as ROM files.

 

Links:

Most Recent Kickstarter:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/spectrumnext/zx-spectrum-next-issue-3-0?ref=discovery&term=spectrum%20next&total_hits=14&category_id=52

About Page from Official Website:

https://www.specnext.com/about/

Wikipedia page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX_Spectrum_Next

List of Games:

https://fusionretrogames.com/

Emulators :

https://wiki.specnext.dev/Emulators

 

[XyberDAWG]

On 12/9/2025 at 1:44 AM, Hazuki said:

Pioneer LaserActive with its two PACs, the Sega Mega LD and the NEC LD-ROM².

Both can be emulated with Ares.

So I for one would like to see them added to the database.

Could we have maybe a LaserDisc platform that covers all the various LaserDisc games? Most are able to be run under Ares, Daphne, or Hypseus Singe. This platform could handle the various Smaller Releases like Sega Mega LD, NEC LD-ROM², as well as the Homebrew games currently being developed for Hypseus Singe. Listing of many LD games here: https://www.lddb.com/search.php?adv_search=*&category=18&max=250&sort=date,asc

[JoeViking245]

On 1/12/2026 at 4:24 AM, XyberDAWG said:

Could we have maybe a LaserDisc platform that covers all the various LaserDisc games?

A Feature Request was made for this that you may want to look at, comment/expand on and/or upvote.  

Missing Platform in the Game Database: Mega LD / Pioneer LaserActive

[Black Hazor]

On 5/12/2025 at 9:09 AM, AstroBob said:

Hi Folks. Apologies for the radio silence on this thread — a few recent releases on our end have slowed things down a bit. That said, I want to reassure everyone that we haven’t forgotten about the platform requests that have been submitted.

The good news is that our initial round of testing with the new backend system for adding platforms has gone well, and things are looking promising. We’re planning to start expanding support to more systems in the near future.

In the meantime, to tide you over — and in anticipation of a little something happening on June 5th — we’ve gone ahead and added the Nintendo Switch 2 to the database. It’s still pretty barebones for now, of course, but we expect things to start filling out quickly once the 5th rolls around. For the moment, it’s mainly there for tracking purposes — especially for those who like to catalog their collections beyond just what's playable through LaunchBox.

We’ll continue to keep you updated as more platforms get added. Thanks again for your patience and suggestions.

Here is the missng data 

Release: June 5, 2025

Media: Switch Game Card, Switch 2 Game Card, Digital

Overview: 

The Nintendo Switch 2 is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released in most regions on June 5, 2025. Like the original Switch, it can be used as a handheld, as a tablet, or connected via the dock to an external display. The Joy-Con 2 controllers can be used while magnetically attached or detached from the console. Compared to the original Switch, the Switch 2 has a larger liquid-crystal display (LCD), more internal storage, and updated graphics, controllers, and social features. It supports 1080p resolution (Full HD) and a 120 Hz refresh rate in handheld or tabletop mode, and 4K resolution with a 60 Hz refresh rate when docked, as well as HDR support on both the tablet and compatible external displays.

Games are available through physical game cards and Nintendo's digital eShop. Some game "key" cards contain no game content and require players to download the game via an internet connection. Select Switch games can use the improved Switch 2 performance through either free or paid updates. The Switch 2 retains the Nintendo Switch Online subscription service, which is required for some multiplayer games and provides access to the Nintendo Classics library of older emulated games; GameCube games are exclusive to the Switch 2. The GameChat feature allows players to chat remotely and share screens and webcams.

CPU: Octa-core ARM Cortex-A78C @ 998 MHz (docked); 1,101 MHz (undocked)

Memory: 12 GB LPDDR5X 128-bit @ 6,400 MT/s (docked); 4,266 MT/s (undocked)

Graphics: Custom Nvidia Tegra T239 processor (codenamed "Drake") 1,536 Ampere-based CUDA cores; Docked: 1,007 MHz, 3.07 TFLOPS; Undocked: 561 MHz, 1.72 TFLOPS

Sound: Undocked: Linear PCM 2.0 ch stereo speakers, 3D audio effects; Docked: Linear PCM 5.1 ch, 3D audio effects

Display: 7.9-in LCD screen (279 ppi), 1080p up to 120 Hz with HDR10 and VRR; Docked: 720p/1080p/1440p up to 120 Hz, 4K at 60 Hz via HDMI with HDR10

Image: 

 

[Freestate]

@AstroBobGreetings, I'm writing this as a long-time moderator and contributor to the database, since its inception. I can't help but express a certain amount of sarcasm and considerable annoyance when you announce database improvements without first addressing issues that date back almost a decade. Frankly, when I comment on certain things, it feels like I'm preaching to the choir. There are certain aspects of the database and how the system works that need review and changes, not just now, but for a very long time. These are situations that should have been resolved, and I urge you to address them as soon as possible:

 

A: Moderation and contribution cannot continue to be done solely through an informal system of three "OK" votes without any kind of updated instruction manual. The only reference provided was over a decade ago, and there are always conflicts among the moderators between those who want to be rigorous with the data and those who make shortcuts or shoddy work simply to suit their personal preferences. There's no control whatsoever; it's simply the pressure of whoever has the majority at the time something is submitted or moderated.

B: Many of the problems arise because part of the community wants material tailored to their region and personal tastes across all media categories, even though there aren't specific categories for it. This has been exacerbated by the requirement to regionally tag all media, so many non-fan-art categories are overflowing with fan recreations, logos, 3D boxes, screenshots, cartridges, etc. I understand that some people want this, but without specific categories and with regionalization, it gets mixed up with the real media, causing users who only want fan-made material to receive massive downloads of something they didn't choose. It's one of two things: either fan-art categories are added for all media, or everything added to categories not enabled for it is deleted by default. On the other hand, I don't know what the point is of having regional tags if there are constantly battles where, according to the user's whims, they prefer that a piece of media be tagged as "world" or "Europe," even if it's from another region, just because they don't feel like setting region priorities in the application or because they prefer to assign everything to the same region to avoid complications (usually those who insist on "world" are the ones who want American art everywhere) or those who insist on "Europe/USA/Japan" are the ones who don't want to configure anything.

What I see as the result of not addressing these issues and not valuing those committed to data rigor and quality media is that fewer and fewer people are contributing and moderating. Before, when I logged in on any given day, the average queues were enormous, and now they sometimes don't even reach a few dozen. Ultimately, those concerned with bringing order and clarity have grown tired of the stubbornness of a few prevailing over doing things properly. I see dozens of things that have slipped through: screenshots with 4K upscaling, arbitrary and inaccurate regional assignments, a lot of fan art labeled as official where it doesn't belong, useful names for avoiding scapping errors deleted, and above all, a lot of tyranny from those who, due to their personal whims, only want US material, altering main names and labeling everything as "world" or "USA"...

[Ritchardo]

On 4/3/2026 at 3:54 AM, Freestate said:

@AstroBobGreetings, I'm writing this as a long-time moderator and contributor to the database, since its inception. I can't help but express a certain amount of sarcasm and considerable annoyance when you announce database improvements without first addressing issues that date back almost a decade. Frankly, when I comment on certain things, it feels like I'm preaching to the choir. There are certain aspects of the database and how the system works that need review and changes, not just now, but for a very long time. These are situations that should have been resolved, and I urge you to address them as soon as possible:

 

A: Moderation and contribution cannot continue to be done solely through an informal system of three "OK" votes without any kind of updated instruction manual. The only reference provided was over a decade ago, and there are always conflicts among the moderators between those who want to be rigorous with the data and those who make shortcuts or shoddy work simply to suit their personal preferences. There's no control whatsoever; it's simply the pressure of whoever has the majority at the time something is submitted or moderated.

B: Many of the problems arise because part of the community wants material tailored to their region and personal tastes across all media categories, even though there aren't specific categories for it. This has been exacerbated by the requirement to regionally tag all media, so many non-fan-art categories are overflowing with fan recreations, logos, 3D boxes, screenshots, cartridges, etc. I understand that some people want this, but without specific categories and with regionalization, it gets mixed up with the real media, causing users who only want fan-made material to receive massive downloads of something they didn't choose. It's one of two things: either fan-art categories are added for all media, or everything added to categories not enabled for it is deleted by default. On the other hand, I don't know what the point is of having regional tags if there are constantly battles where, according to the user's whims, they prefer that a piece of media be tagged as "world" or "Europe," even if it's from another region, just because they don't feel like setting region priorities in the application or because they prefer to assign everything to the same region to avoid complications (usually those who insist on "world" are the ones who want American art everywhere) or those who insist on "Europe/USA/Japan" are the ones who don't want to configure anything.

What I see as the result of not addressing these issues and not valuing those committed to data rigor and quality media is that fewer and fewer people are contributing and moderating. Before, when I logged in on any given day, the average queues were enormous, and now they sometimes don't even reach a few dozen. Ultimately, those concerned with bringing order and clarity have grown tired of the stubbornness of a few prevailing over doing things properly. I see dozens of things that have slipped through: screenshots with 4K upscaling, arbitrary and inaccurate regional assignments, a lot of fan art labeled as official where it doesn't belong, useful names for avoiding scapping errors deleted, and above all, a lot of tyranny from those who, due to their personal whims, only want US material, altering main names and labeling everything as "world" or "USA"...

I just popped on to say that I agree with this in full.  I personally haven't moderated in an ice age and, while I've started contributing again recently, I cut back on it because it was like pouring water into a raging inferno - the straw that broke the camel's back for me was a seemingly never ending battle to add some Brazilian Master System games that were re-skins of existing MS games.  There ended up with two battling camps clogging up the feed and due to the system there was no way to have an actual debate about it.  I think it ended up spilling into the forums and quite a lot of people, myself included just gave up at that point because my spare time is limited - the constant wading through people adding alternate regional titles, removing them, adding separate entries, trying to delete them again became utterly soul destroying.

 

From what I can see, while that particular situation has, presumably, been resolved the underlying issue hasn't and Freestate sums up a lot of the issues extremely well.  For me, these are some of the key issues:

* There really has to be an updaed rule-set and some kind of standardisation set that moderators should be signing up to - this would cover topics such as naming conventions, adding alternate names to assist with scraping, the use of individual programmers' names etc.

* The feedback system - moderators already need to give reasons when they reject a change - this rarely flows through to the user (only when the change is rejected outright) and never to the other moderators - if someone has noticed something that you might otherwise overlook, this could be invaluable information, likewise you should be able to respond to and provide feedback to the moderator via an appeal - this way everyone learns and the quality of submissions, and how they are managed, is improved.  Ideally some sort of forum where moderators can ask questions of each other would be ideal, if they're on the fence about something or would like a second opinion.

* Housekeeping - I do think there should be housekeeping conducted a mass edit of, in particular, company names - there are so many variants in the database of companies out there (e.g. Codemasters, Codemasters Ltd, The Codemasters Software Company, Code Masters etc, etc.) - it makes searching and filtering by companies a complete waste of time, again, personally, I think companies should match the box art the same way that the game titles should. 

 

And while I'm at it, I have a few suggested additions...

* Official On-Screen Languages - why this isn't already in the database is beyond me - a field where we can input what the actual language of the game is.  Again, a simple and easy way for people to filter out games that are potentially understandable would be a huge timesaver for people building thier collections and trying to understand, at a glance whether this is a game they should be adding/keeping/filtering out or getting rid of to make room for something else.

* Unofficial Translations- following on from the above, a field that lets you input whether there's a fan translation out there and available and what language it's in - that can, again, help users start to track down other versions of games. 

* Additional Fanart categories - if I've made a rather neat Box Front and posted as Fanart, I might like to add whatever logo I've created or a spine image or 3D box - having all of these available to upload will stop the main art categories being cluttered up (a little) and help people, in theory, really craft their own collections.

* Some kind of Kudos system - every successful change you propose awards you a little kudos, every rejection loses you a little - drop below a certain level and you're frozen out from making changes for a while.  Drop further and you're kicked from being able to make the changes.  It doesn't stop wanton sabotage completely, but it would slow it down.  Likewise moderation should be by application and approved by a group of existing moderators based on the number of contributions made, the feedback they've received and any adjustments they've made etc - again reasons for rejection would have to be clearly articulated with feedback provided as to what someone has to do to reach the standard required.

 

This has gone on far longer than I anticipated when I started... I hope it's taken in the spirit that it's intended, a general air of just wanting things to reach the potential that they can.

[Freestate]

7 hours ago, Ritchardo said:

I just popped on to say that I agree with this in full.  I personally haven't moderated in an ice age and, while I've started contributing again recently, I cut back on it because it was like pouring water into a raging inferno.

I'm fed up with proposing modifications with detailed explanations of why something is being promoted, only to be met with responses that simply say, "No, don't insist, I'm not going to do it, pal." Since people committed to accuracy have had enough of so much arbitrariness and garbage, the moderation team has been filled with capricious parachutists. As soon as I logged back in, I saw:
1: Tons of fan media with no common elements or quality criteria, all regionalized. Downloading media is now a minefield where, in addition to the original media, an even greater volume of fan material is downloaded, with no way to skip it. Tons of fan boxes, logos, or cartridges are placed in non-fan categories, burying all the original material. 2: Names removed on a whim when they were added to avoid scraping errors. 3: 4K resolution screenshots when it was stated some time ago that it was unnecessary because a native PNG scales correctly. 4: Insistence on labeling everything as "world," including fan media and US or European art, exacerbating the unpredictability of downloads. 5: Names in regionalized non-Western alphabets, which completely disrupts the order; if Launchbox assigns a name in kanji, it makes the order untraceable for a non-native speaker.

 

I personally find it hard not to use strong language because they don't pay attention to this. If there's one thing that sets Launchbox apart from other frontends, it's its integrated database, and the developers show very little respect by neglecting those who work hard to make it stand out.

[dragon57]

9 hours ago, Freestate said:

I'm fed up with proposing modifications with detailed explanations of why something is being promoted, only to be met with responses that simply say, "No, don't insist, I'm not going to do it, pal." Since people committed to accuracy have had enough of so much arbitrariness and garbage, the moderation team has been filled with capricious parachutists. As soon as I logged back in, I saw:
1: Tons of fan media with no common elements or quality criteria, all regionalized. Downloading media is now a minefield where, in addition to the original media, an even greater volume of fan material is downloaded, with no way to skip it. Tons of fan boxes, logos, or cartridges are placed in non-fan categories, burying all the original material. 2: Names removed on a whim when they were added to avoid scraping errors. 3: 4K resolution screenshots when it was stated some time ago that it was unnecessary because a native PNG scales correctly. 4: Insistence on labeling everything as "world," including fan media and US or European art, exacerbating the unpredictability of downloads. 5: Names in regionalized non-Western alphabets, which completely disrupts the order; if Launchbox assigns a name in kanji, it makes the order untraceable for a non-native speaker.

 

I personally find it hard not to use strong language because they don't pay attention to this. If there's one thing that sets Launchbox apart from other frontends, it's its integrated database, and the developers show very little respect by neglecting those who work hard to make it stand out.

Take it from me, I stopped moderating years ago because of no rules, docs, or guidance from the responsible person(s) for the DB. Just stop moderating until someone in control either fixes things, or just do what I do. I manually download from other sources and update my metadata with my own tools/editors. The LB DB has never been close as authoritative like some other sources are, or are closer than what is hosted here. Don't get me wrong. LB/BB has a great dev team and support staff, but the DB has never had that type of effort put into it. Just my opinion, of course.

[Freestate]

21 minutes ago, dragon57 said:

Take it from me, I stopped moderating years ago because of no rules, docs, or guidance from the responsible person(s) for the DB. Just stop moderating until someone in control either fixes things, or just do what I do. I manually download from other sources and update my metadata with my own tools/editors. The LB DB has never been close as authoritative like some other sources are, or are closer than what is hosted here. Don't get me wrong. LB/BB has a great dev team and support staff, but the DB has never had that type of effort put into it. Just my opinion, of course.

@Jason Carr Let it be known that I'm not the only one reporting these issues. Please, let's bring some order to this, improve the database, and above all, give some recognition to those who have worked tirelessly for years without pay. It's in everyone's best interest; this isn't about egos.

[Shredder_guitar]

3 hours ago, dragon57 said:

Take it from me, I stopped moderating years ago because of no rules, docs, or guidance from the responsible person(s) for the DB. Just stop moderating until someone in control either fixes things, or just do what I do. I manually download from other sources and update my metadata with my own tools/editors. The LB DB has never been close as authoritative like some other sources are, or are closer than what is hosted here. Don't get me wrong. LB/BB has a great dev team and support staff, but the DB has never had that type of effort put into it. Just my opinion, of course.

Without reading the prior conversation for context, I share roughly the same opinion...there is a lot of half-assed artworks that needed better labels than being considered official truths. But it is what it is... I only wanted to add that I imagine that the database on the backend needed to be split and wasn't and is now unmanageable because it's too big or not enough personelle policing it for validity. LB has clearly stated that it is Anti-DRM ...which is a weird topic to navigate when it comes to 'What is allowed...What is disallowed' because you can't play both sides of the fence on that. I think the peer review method was a good idea in the context of reviewing so complete trash is not uploaded... but it also facilitates that we are creating our own hell....OR we work together to figure it out...there is no gray area....there probably needs to be, but separately from 'official sources'....but also those 'official' sources should be disallowed to be monetized because I JUST KNOW some people would chomp at the bit to capitalize on that shit and that should never be permissible with communities like these...it's already destroyed HS (from my pov) I would hate to see that happen here as well.  

Edited 4 hours ago by Shredder_guitar