We’ve Moved — Big Backend Upgrade for the Games Database!

[faeran]

Hey everyone!

We just wrapped up a major migration of the LaunchBox Games Database to a brand new server, and it wasn't just a lift and shift. We moved from a Windows based system to a modern Linux environment, which meant reworking some big foundational pieces behind the scenes.

This included:

• Migrating and restructuring our databases
• Replacing and reconfiguring web services
• Upgrading to the latest version of .NET
• And a bunch of boring backend plumbing

 

Why does this matter?
We are now in a much better place for long term stability, performance, and scalability. This new setup is leaner, faster, and way more futureproof, which means we can continue building great stuff on top of it without worrying about technical debt from 2015 breathing down our necks.

That said, any time you do a migration like this, there is always a chance something slips through the cracks. So if you notice anything odd, broken pages, weird behavior, let us know right here in this thread. We will be keeping an eye out and jumping on anything that needs cleanup.

Thanks for bearing with us through the transition! This is a big step forward for the future of the GamesDB and LaunchBox as a whole.

[MrDeKat]

A couple of problems I have detected:

• Approved entries with more than 3 validations are blocked as "Pending".

 

• "Type" and "ESRB" appear blank when you edited a game, even though they contain information.

[dragon57]

For whatever reason, I'm not seeing any performance improvement when searching on the DB. If anything, my average response time is worse. I probably search at least 100 times per day, and search times have been worse since the announcement.

[C-Beats]

1 hour ago, dragon57 said:

For whatever reason, I'm not seeing any performance improvement when searching on the DB. If anything, my average response time is worse. I probably search at least 100 times per day, and search times have been worse since the announcement.

@MysterNybble can correct me if I'm wrong, but in the migration we moved changed what database system we're using and so there's still work to be done to see under load to see where new indexes have to be created so the newer DBMS works as well as it possibly can. You should see speeds improve over time as pinch points are identified and addressed.

[faeran]

2 hours ago, MrDeKat said:

A couple of problems I have detected:

• Approved entries with more than 3 validations are blocked as "Pending".

 

• "Type" and "ESRB" appear blank when you edited a game, even though they contain information.

Thanks. I've noted this down and should be fixed when we do our next pass.

[MysterNybble]

7 hours ago, MrDeKat said:

A couple of problems I have detected:

• Approved entries with more than 3 validations are blocked as "Pending".

 

• "Type" and "ESRB" appear blank when you edited a game, even though they contain information.

Thanks for these reports :). These issues should be fixed. The approval queue was backlogged due to an error which has been fixed. It is catching up, and should be done in the next 10-15 minutes. The edit page should also populate those fields correctly as well.

6 hours ago, dragon57 said:

For whatever reason, I'm not seeing any performance improvement when searching on the DB. If anything, my average response time is worse. I probably search at least 100 times per day, and search times have been worse since the announcement.

@C-Beats is correct that we are on a brand new/different DBMS, which means we have to redo a number of the performance tweaks we made over the years on the old system. Stay tuned - should be pushing out more of these fixes in the next few days :).

[MysterNybble]

On 7/23/2025 at 10:15 AM, faeran said:

Hey everyone!

We just wrapped up a major migration of the LaunchBox Games Database to a brand new server, and it wasn't just a lift and shift. We moved from a Windows based system to a modern Linux environment, which meant reworking some big foundational pieces behind the scenes.

This included:

• Migrating and restructuring our databases
• Replacing and reconfiguring web services
• Upgrading to the latest version of .NET
• And a bunch of boring backend plumbing

 

Why does this matter?
We are now in a much better place for long term stability, performance, and scalability. This new setup is leaner, faster, and way more futureproof, which means we can continue building great stuff on top of it without worrying about technical debt from 2015 breathing down our necks.

That said, any time you do a migration like this, there is always a chance something slips through the cracks. So if you notice anything odd, broken pages, weird behavior, let us know right here in this thread. We will be keeping an eye out and jumping on anything that needs cleanup.

Thanks for bearing with us through the transition! This is a big step forward for the future of the GamesDB and LaunchBox as a whole.

For those that care this migration was indeed quite a bit:

• .net 6 -> .net 9
• mssql -> PostgreSQL
• windows/iis -> linux/docker/traefik
• manual deployments -> automatic deployments/migrations
• insanity -> sanity

I go sleep now 😛

[MysterNybble]

On 7/24/2025 at 12:32 PM, dragon57 said:

For whatever reason, I'm not seeing any performance improvement when searching on the DB. If anything, my average response time is worse. I probably search at least 100 times per day, and search times have been worse since the announcement.

I put a pretty noticeable speed improvement in place for the search feature - how does it feel for you now?

[dragon57]

6 minutes ago, MysterNybble said:

I put a pretty noticeable speed improvement in place for the search feature - how does it feel for you now?

Wowzers! Much better, well done.

[TheNewClassics]

It's insanely quick; awesome work LB team. One thing I've noticed is that any games that were added to the DB within the past couple days don't seem to be pulling over to the new LB database file locally, at least for me. I added a couple about 3 days ago and they aren't found when searching the LB database file on my PC. I've tried Force Updating the Metadata as well.

[ancient_mu_mu]

21 hours ago, TheNewClassics said:

It's insanely quick; awesome work LB team. One thing I've noticed is that any games that were added to the DB within the past couple days don't seem to be pulling over to the new LB database file locally, at least for me. I added a couple about 3 days ago and they aren't found when searching the LB database file on my PC. I've tried Force Updating the Metadata as well.

I've experienced the same. I added Worms Forever (a rom hack of the Game Boy title, Worms) to the Launchbox gamesdb on 24th July, yet when I search for the game details from within my own Launchbox install, nothing comes up.

[ancient_mu_mu]

It also seems to be affecting the community star ratings. Additions I've made are showing on the Games Platform DB online, but aren't downloading the updated rating to my Launchbox install when I select Update Community Star Ratings.

[faeran]

On 7/26/2025 at 10:32 AM, TheNewClassics said:

It's insanely quick; awesome work LB team. One thing I've noticed is that any games that were added to the DB within the past couple days don't seem to be pulling over to the new LB database file locally, at least for me. I added a couple about 3 days ago and they aren't found when searching the LB database file on my PC. I've tried Force Updating the Metadata as well.

On 7/27/2025 at 8:07 AM, ancient_mu_mu said:

I've experienced the same. I added Worms Forever (a rom hack of the Game Boy title, Worms) to the Launchbox gamesdb on 24th July, yet when I search for the game details from within my own Launchbox install, nothing comes up.

We should have this fixed up today. Our nightly scheduled task for building up new local database files just needs a kick in the behind.

[ancient_mu_mu]

Thanks for your reply.

 

It's still not finding recently added games, and now something else seems to have broken.

 

When I search for a game in Launchbox from the gamesdb, if it's for a platform I have created but I'm scraping it as something else, such as MGT Sam Coupe instead of Sam Coupe, or Nintendo WiiWare instead of Nintendo Wii, then Launchbox crashes with this error message:

 

 

[genaca]

an error occurs when entering these latest games:

The Ruin of 0ceanus Pr1me
Altered Beast 2
SDL-Connex
Sonic the Hedgehog: Anniversary Edition
Sonic the Hedgehog 2: Anniversary Edition
Black Tower
Mister Scary: Where Are You?
Fami Dave
Barback
Social Studies I
Jim & Dill III
Shera and the 40 Thieves: Definitive Edition
Super Bros. 9

(sorry for my bad English)

[C-Beats]

To recover from the error please open LaunchBox and go to Tools > Download > Force Download GamesDB Update (last option). After doing that you shouldn't get the error any longer.

[genaca]

Thanks

now it works

 

[ancient_mu_mu]

Awesome work, thanks!