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IDEA: PC game launcher/organizer/frontend
wraith808:
Sorry, I guess I'm so familiar with apps like this that I forget not everyone else is :)
It should be stand-alone, self-contained and portable. ZIP distribution, relative paths, and all the rest.
It should be based around some sort of database where all information is stored - something that can be backed up, and maybe even manually edited if mass changes need to be made.
The GUI should be tripartite, taking the form of FOLDER TREE - DETAILS LIST - SCREENSHOTS. Tree doesn't really need custom icons like QuickPlay has, but it should offer folders for each of the default columns in the details view (name, date, publisher, distributer, genre, rating, playcount, etc), along with the ability to create custom folders based on user-defined queries.
The details list should offer an icon column (preferrably 32x32 rather than just 16x16), followed by all preset and any custom data fields present. Columns should be moveable and sortable. In-line editing of data would be nice.
A "new game" dialog should let users easly add a new executable, and to designate any command line switches and/or helper apps to launch with the game. By default it will choose the EXE's icon, but users should be able to choose an alternative icon if desired. Ideally most data would be scraped from MobyGames - I'm sure their API is published someplace. DOSBox Game Launcher even pulls screenshots from there, it's very handy!
The screenshot window simply displays all images in the directory associated with the selected game.
This is pretty much the minimum - though the MobyGames scraping is just an added perk. Later could come things like local links to files such as manuals, walkthroughs and maps, mounting of CD images for launching game backups, GUI customizations, and more.
I'm probably asking for a lot - oh how I wish I knew how to write this app myself!
-garbanzo (May 05, 2011, 09:40 PM)
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Unless anyone else wants to take this, I'll see what I can put together. I'll probably do it iteratively, i.e. get the basics done and continue from there.
garbanzo:
;D
good to hear, wraith808.
fyi i'm here all next week, then away for 2 weeks, so if you post something and get no feedback/praise from my end, then that's why!
i know my donation is currently at $0 but if you put are willing to put your time and energy into this, that will certainly change.
kamahl:
Well, I just use Steam as my game launcher. Even for non-Steam games. But that probably won't be useful for games that require DOSBox.
-Deozaan (May 05, 2011, 09:48 PM)
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I use XFire for my game launcher, although I'm currently also playing the Raptr, which is quite similar.
-kamahl (May 05, 2011, 10:21 PM)
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I didn't suggest that either b/c if he wasn't satisfied with the game explorer, he definitely wouldn't be satisfied with steam or xfire or raptr. They have even *less* customization options.
-wraith808 (May 06, 2011, 06:06 AM)
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I agree, but thought I'd weigh in my opinion regardless - My personal complaint with Games Explorer is that of the 200 games on my computer, Games explorer notices eight of them.
(Also, Both Steam and XFire allow you to put in Command Line Arguments, which was one of the requests above, and also have a per-game screenshot manager)
Ath:
Games explorer notices eight of them
-kamahl (May 07, 2011, 06:53 AM)
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Problem here is that games have to register with Games Explorer, during install usually, to be noticed by GE, so it's not directly GE's 'fault', IMHO :o
wraith808:
Games explorer notices eight of them
-kamahl (May 07, 2011, 06:53 AM)
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Problem here is that games have to register with Games Explorer, during install usually, to be noticed by GE, so it's not directly GE's 'fault', IMHO :o
-Ath (May 07, 2011, 07:23 AM)
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Exactly. And there are ways around that.
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