Scanning For Removed Roms - Allow to work with any file no longer found (not just emulated platforms)

[Simon Quincey]

Windows 7, latest Launchbox (11.11), i imagine the issue is long standing and will continue to be unless dealt with.

I don’t know if the file extension is considered when scanning for roms, i imagine it isn’t, but when games are installed in their own folders (all belonging to one defined platform) it seems that the “scan for missing roms” never finds any missing, even after i've knowingly deleted some of the game folders. This is in relation to ms-dos, the exodos collection and the games are all being imported as .bat files. The games are imported, they work, that is the batch file is run, and it does what its told, i.e. launch dosbox and load the game, and even artwork and scraping works due to the bat files being well named. Each game has its bat file path stored correctly too but Launchbox doesn’t seem to check that path, instead checking the path listed under the platforms game path option. Clearly in there you can only set one path, the one just one level up from all those individual game folders.

My suggestion would be that if no games are found to be missing that the user is presented a further scanning option such as “do you want to scan all subfolders as well” or even offer that option initially. Or… just scan using the paths stored in each seperate game rather than the platforms single default path. Maybe the games are imported where a flag is set for “games in own folder” so that the search knows how to detect if its no longer present. Not a bug, not a deal breaker, but i think something to consider.

Many thanks for a great program (i’m a paid up BigBox user), best wishes to the team

[Christian]

Updating title to be a bit more clear at a glance

[Christian]

User is requesting that any game who’s application path is pointing to a file that no longer exists be removed with the “Scan for Removed Roms” tool

[Quinn]

I second this, for pretty much the same reason. In my case, I am using the eXoDOS package to try reinstalling the games I already had, but accidentally wiped from my portable drive. I did not have nearly the whole clump before, and I don’t want it now. It is turning out I was close enough to the middle that neither trimming down nor digging out the ones I had before and manually installing them is without agony, as I didn’t have a proper, easy-to-search list that corresponds to the filenames/folder names in eXoDOS.

I am in a slightly different situation, in that I have left the games zipped rather than installed, for space reasons. Which means to delete a game and get my disk space back, I have to delete the zip and the run folder, then remove the entry in Launchbox, so that a cleanup at the end will be able to tell those games are not a thing any longer, and delete the no-longer-associated media (hopefully). It would save me quite a lot of cumulative keystrokes if I could let Launchbox figure out for itself which ones I deleted.

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[Quinn]

Not a counter to desiring this feature, but in terms of using the eXoDOS collection, I did figure out a solution to my use case, at least. Including here for completeness and in case anyone is wanting to do the same thing.

I am now using the Lite version of the setup (slightly hybridized so I get the magazine games as well), which apparently only creates the LaunchBox entries without the config folders and zip files, until you try to run the game, then offering to download and install the game. When used this way, deleting the LaunchBox entry is all that is required to remove a game if you have never installed it, and I don’t have to do all the extra steps I mentioned in my previous message. Hoping this is enough to make LaunchBox aware that those games are gone for the purposes of removing unused media at the end. If so, I am good.

The requested feature would still be useful for things like SCUMMVM games and DOSBox games added directly, however, so again, this isn’t an argument against the feature being added.