LB falsely detects some roms as duplicates

[Amir Amran]

LB falsely detects some roms as duplicates.

The once in red are not duplicates.

Please fix.

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[Christian]

There are more than one reasons for a rom to be marked as duplicate in the audit window. The following cause the game to be marked duplicate:

1) The game’s title matches another game by the same title in the same platform
2) The same file has been imported as multiple games
3) The same LaunchBox Games Database ID has been assigned to more than one game

Are you sure those lines don’t qualify under one of those 3 conditions?

[Amir Amran]

They qualify to condition 3 it seems, not to 1, and i understand what condition 2 means.

I moved some translated roms from tg16 true platform, due to LB importing limitations, to a new temporary platform and i called it “NEC tg16”. So the untranslated version of the same games exists in tg16 true platform. It that the reason why they appear in the new temporary platform as duplicates? If so, then this needs change because in the emulation world there are hacked roms that needs to carry the same game data base id as the original untouched rom because there is no special game database id for translated roms, etc…

Suggestion:

1. Add duplicates indication marked in yellow for the same game database id that exist in two different platforms
2. Add duplicates indication marked in red for the same game database id that exist in the same platform.

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[Christian]

A hacked or translated version of a game is still the same game as one that isn’t. LaunchBox standard workflow would be that you attach any additional versions to the same game entry as an additional applications. Doing it this way allows you to use the same media for all versions of the game. Because you are adding the same game multiple times (hence them being a duplicate) you are also requiring more media be downloaded to display correctly in the application. This feature is designed to point things like that out so that you can reduce your hard drive foot print with your install. Right now the feature is working as intended. I will however leave this ticket open as a feature request that others can vote on should they feel the same way you do. If it get enough votes we can revisit the request at a later time.

[Amir Amran]

I now understand that this is by design but i can already point two flaws when the translated rom and cd hacked rom are combined with the untouched rom:

1. You have to guess which games have translated and cd hack versions because it hides the combined roms from the platform games list.
2. It makes a translated games playlist and cd hack games playlist unusable since there is no auto population by additional apps.

If so, what is the point of this design if you can’t play the games?

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[Christian]

1. You can use the multiple version badge to help identify games with multiple version in them if use premium
2. Right, you would be choosing to ignore the duplicate warnings (and the effects those warnings are there to alert you to) so that your hacks/translations are more easy to navigate to directly.

Neither of these affect your ability to play the games, with or without hacks. You are simply being reminded that the way you are organizing your collection will cause duplicated titles and media for those titles (as well as the platforms those titles are associated to). LaunchBox will allow you to use your current work flow as is, we just are letting you know that it isn’t the most efficient workflow in regards to space. Since you are intentionally importing duplicate entries you can simply ignore the warnings and proceed to use the program as you are right now.

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[Amir Amran]

1. I have a premium account, i cannot imagine using LB without one even though i love LB interface as well, but how is this a solution? So many of the original games (i use no intros and redumps mostly) already have combined multiple versions so this does not help, but makes things even more complicated. For example, MD - Aladdin, it does not even have hacked version but already has several original versions combined:

LB suggests to combine roms but does not give solution to the existing issue which is: There is no indication to which combined roms have translated roms\cd hacks\both\non hacked once. Moverover, badges are completely irrelevant when using BB which is a huge part of why i made a premium account. This is why i created playlists from the first place, but LB does not play nice with playlists method as well… Both methods can be improved.

2. The hacked roms would not be easier to navigate to, as explained in 1.

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[Christian]

I was unclear in my response apparently. I’m agreeing that to use LaunchBox/Big Box the way you are wanting you will have to do things the way you are. Because of this you can ignore the duplicate warnings in the audit tool, because you are choosing to have the same game multiple times to make your navigation work with the playlists you are creating.

Also Badges CAN be used in Big Box, just most themes don’t because it is a newer control now yet integrated into the Community Theme Creator.

[Amir Amran]

Right. Hopefully one of the methods or better, both, are improved along the way.

Thanks for taking the time to respond here, I appreciate it.