Feature Request: Completed save file database

[Gate Guy]

Hey, I have an idea for a feature that seems both useful and feasible to implement. For this feature, the existing games database would have user-submitted save files that fulfill certain criteria so players can quickly jump into a game. These would include saves with 100% completion, but also saves with only certain things completed as necessary. For example, racing games would have all tracks/cars unlocked but no other user records, fighting games would have all characters unlocked but no other user records, etc. The idea is that many people use emulation to play games that they already completed when they were younger, and they could have a hassle-free way to have everything unlocked in their favorite games without having to “re-complete” them or hunt down individual saves for every game.

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This would also be important for preservation since many games have special content that can’t be unlocked through normal means. For example, Mega Man Powered Up on PSP had Roll as a playable character, but you could only unlock her by downloading special data from Capcom’s website; now, the only way to play as Roll is to find that data on a third-party site.

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As for implementation, LaunchBox would detect where a game is downloaded (specifically the filename), the region, and the default emulator, then download and name the save file where appropriate. For example, if the player wanted to download a save file for Mario Kart DS (NTSC): LaunchBox would detect that the ROM filename attached to the game is “Mario Kart DS (U) [!].nds”, the region is NTSC, and the emulator is RetroArch; it would download the NTSC save as “%RETROARCH%\saves\Mario Kart DS (U) [!].dsv”.