A Media Manager for Launchbox

[DnK]

I have created a script to easily view the images, videos, and manuals I have in LaunchBox, so I can see what’s missing and what I need to find, as I found it a bit cumbersome to do it directly in LaunchBox.

The first thing I have to say is that I have NO IDEA how to program in Python. Everything was done by asking the DeepSeek AI for what I wanted, and it generated the code for me.

The main window of the program looks like this:
Main Menu

Clicking on "Settings" opens this window:
Settings

Here, we can configure the location of LaunchBox, the filters we want to use, the number of games displayed per page, as well as the cell size in text mode ("Yes/No only") or with images. There is also the "Alternative Path" option, which I use because I have my videos and manuals on the same HDD as the ROMs. This is because they take up the most space, and I wanted to free up some SSD storage.

Additionally, there are options for customizing cell colors:

• "Media found with Title" refers to the default name that LaunchBox assigns (e.g., "Super Mario Bros. 3-01.png"). It only checks for one image, not multiple, hence the "-01" search.
• "Media found with RomName" is based on the ROM's filename (e.g., "Super Mario Bros 3 (USA).zip").
• "Media found with Both" means both naming methods matched. This is mainly for identifying duplicate files.
• "Media NOT found " follows the same logic but applies when no media is found.

In addition to coloring, the status is also indicated with text:

• "(Yes Title)" for Title-based matches
• "(Yes Rom)" for ROM-based matches
• "(Yes Title/Rom)" when both match
• "No" if nothing is found

Finally, there is the local cache option, which creates JPG copies without transparency. These replace the missing areas with the background color set in the settings. The resolution is also adjusted for faster loading. If this option is disabled, temporary images are still created but at a slower speed.

Once everything is configured, clicking "Load Platforms" will populate the dropdown with all available platforms, with the first one selected by default.

Default View

At this point, if we click "Hide all YES," it will filter out all entries where every category is marked "YES," leaving only the ones where some media is missing.

With Hide all YES

Clicking "Image Mode" removes the text and displays images at the resolution set in the configuration. The first time may take longer, but once generated, it should load faster. At the bottom, where the pages are displayed, there are two additional buttons:

• One loads all pages at once (slower but useful).
• The other regenerates images if the resolution settings are changed. (Videos and manuals do not have previews.)

Default Image Mode

And that’s all! The program also allows sorting columns to move "Yes" or "No" results to the top or sort games alphabetically. Ideally, something like this should exist as a plugin within LaunchBox itself. But as I mentioned, I have NO IDEA how to program, and DeepSeek recommended doing it in Python. I'm happy with the result, so I’m sharing it in case it helps someone else.

If someone who understands Python reads the code, don’t be alarmed—I just pasted what the AI generated, and as long as it worked, I was fine with it.
If anyone has improvements and wants to share them, that would be great! And if you need additional features, you can simply paste all the code into DeepSeek and say something like, "I want to add a button to export to TXT," and it will easily help you implement it.

Cheers!

Here are the two Python files in pastebin:
LaunchBox - Media Manager.py
Settings.py

I’m also attaching them in case someone wants to download them instead of creating them manually. But really, it’s just a matter of copying the code into Notepad and saving it as .py.

If you don’t want the terminal to appear, you can save it as .pyw instead.

P.S.: I should mention that English is not my primary language, and both the GUI/comments in the code and this message were translated from Spanish using AI as well.

PS2: You need to have Python 3, which can be downloaded from the official website https://www.python.org/downloads/windows/. You also need to install Pillow by running the following command in a terminal: pip install pillow

LaunchBox - Media Manager.rar

Edited February 21 by DnK

[DnK]

I've created an executable (.exe) from the Python script. In theory, you don't need to have Python installed to run it—just double-click the .exe file. If anyone wants to give it a try, feel free! Although, to be honest, it doesn't seem like many people are interested. 

https://www.mediafire.com/file/p3tfw9hgvn2ty10/LaunchBox_-_Media_Manager.rar/file

To create the EXE, I used PyInstaller. To make it more convenient, I merged the two .py files into one. In the RAR file, you’ll find the combined code. Anyway, here’s the Pastebin link with the complete code in one file https://pastebin.com/qAnE6UL6

Edited yesterday at 01:07 AM by DnK

[Sbaby]

On 2/21/2025 at 6:15 AM, DnK said:

I found it a bit cumbersome to do it directly in LaunchBox.

Have you tried the "Games Without Media" tool in LaunchBox?

[DnK]

Yes, but scanning takes a long time. Although you can filter by platform, you can’t visualize all the game’s content quickly and visually with all the filters you want. The advantage, though, is that you can update directly from there.

However, if you want to check what you’re missing on X platform quickly and visually, in my opinion, this .py script is a thousand times more user-friendly and faster.

But maybe that’s just my personal take. I made it to pass the time and because it was useful to me. If it’s not helpful to anyone else, that doesn’t bother me—as I said, I did it for myself and to test the AI. If someone else finds it useful, great! If not, at least it’s been useful for me and kept me entertained while I worked on it.