Just updated the website, 0.76 is released (no changes since the last test build), enjoy!

Thanks for the great suggestions MrFibble, I'll certainly try to include these games in a next GamePackArchive.

My updated Spanish translation.

rcblanke wrote:

Just updated the website, 0.76 is released

Could you switch the version number given on the Mac port to the current version, if possible?
For now, every new DBGL version you release became version 1.0 again and again.
Sure, the correct information is stored in the info.plist file located within the package
(and in the version subtext in the DBGL.app info field of the Finder) , but...

Thanks for the update, Neville!

Thanks for letting me know of this little carelessness of mine, IIGS_User! Can you tell me where exactly I can see the '1.0' mentioned on a Mac system? It's probably related to some other variable defined in the info.plist file...

Back in September of last year I was contacted by Jim Leonard (MobyGamer / Trixter), suggesting I could have a look at his benchmarking tool TOPBENCH to maybe improve DBGL's standard templates somewhat. While we know that it's not possible to match a cycles setting to a particular machine (somewhat related is this recent thread), I have tried to come up with a list of PC systems to provide for a more fine-grained selection as a basis on which one could set-up a game profile.

I'm curious as to what you guys/gals think about this suggested list of systems/templates; am I missing certain templates, is the list too extensive, or maybe you think I should stick with the existing templates instead (booter, early 80's, late 80's, early 90's, late 90's)? Maybe the new templates give a false sense of accuracy that simply isn't provided by DOSBox?

Please let me know what you think!

Well, "Tandy 1000TL" might be a bit misleading, since the TL's 640x200 16-color mode isn't supported. And the two PCjr templates seem to be identical in all settings (not sure if a 8MHz PCjr template is very useful to have, anyway - they could be overclocked but none were sold like that).

Nice idea, though. :) If anything's missing, it would be a "turbo XT" clone (8088/86 at 7.16/8/9.54 MHz) and a faster 486 or slower Pentium to bridge the gap between the last two.

I think the "budget pentium 75/am5x86 133 system" option is missing. Dynamic, ~36000-40000 cycles, svga_s3 1mb 😀

rcblanke wrote:

Thanks for letting me know of this little carelessness of mine, IIGS_User! Can you tell me where exactly I can see the '1.0' mentioned on a Mac system? It's probably related to some other variable defined in the info.plist file...

Thanks for the replay, Rcblanke, I'll try to help:
As far as I can see, the version number in the info.plist file of an Mac application is listed as

1<key>CFBundleShortVersionString</key>
2	<string>1.0</string>

and/or

1<key>CFBundleVersion</key>
2	<string>1.0</string>

Both examples are taken from the info.plist file of DBGL.
If I'm right, the "1.0" could be replaced with the current version number of DBGL, if possible.
The

1<key>CFBundleGetInfoString</key>
2	<string>DOSBox Game Launcher 0.76 + DOSBox 0.74</string>

already contains the correct informations, as an additional value.

Hello ,

Could it be possible in a future update (of that great frontend!)
- to always show in DBGL the total number of games available in our colllection.
- to change the color of the background (instead of White)
- to Have the choice to Put the screenshots vertically on the right side (or horizontally like now)

Thank you !

Serge

Hello, I'd have a couple of minor UI suggestions:

1. the context menu is a bit cluttered, in the GUI options ability to select which elements to show and which not (with checkbox)
2. also I'd like if you could give a custom name to the alternative executables in the 'mounting' screen, so that in the context menu the name would be shown, not the filename.

Bye

Evening Everyone,

New Here...I have a few questions:

1) I know off Ctrl-F however how do you add additional games to to it?
2) Is here any search box to locate games since there is a lack of filtering options aka d-fend like.

I am really drawn to DBGL (love the layout, works well) but without having some additional filters it makes organizing 4000 games + far to difficult.

How does everyone else use it to organize their games or is the goal of adding them all to the enviroment is just not going to happen... at least not with this software in particular.

Jonathon

So it looks like i can edit the DB.script file to add games to filters using the unique ID number....not elegant but a workable solution.

If you want to create a filter with some games, select multiple games with Ctrl+click, then press Ctrl+F, you'll have a filter with those game IDs.

Other filtering options are:

GAM.FAVORITE=true
CUST1.VALUE='x'
YR.YEAR < 1990
UPPER(DEV.NAME) LIKE '%x%'
UPPER(PUBL.NAME) LIKE '%x%'
UPPER(GEN.NAME) LIKE '%x%'

(favorites, custom fields, year, developer, publisher, genre, there are probably others). Those with 'UPPER' must have the argument written in uppercase (e.g. UPPER(DEV.NAME) LIKE '%APOGEE%')

I agree that there isn't any clue in the program or anywhere else (that a newbie user can know of) on how to set up filters... Maybe some explanation in the Help menu?

yeah its so close to being the perfect Dos Front end, only needs a few things in my opinion:

1-Better Filters, instead of tabs maybe a drop down selection box.
2-Quick search box
3-Scan to add new games or a batch to add so that it can add games faster
4-Right click Update from Moby for pics and info, download all by default would be fine i guess.

I know i tried to update my collection today to .76, added the needed extra files and the jar file and it wont start now...so i am going to try it again since i made a backup of the directory.

2. if you press a letter you're brought to the first game that begins with that letter (press more than once if games aren't sorted by title)
3. there's a wizard although I never used it (I prefer adding them by hand and use templates, I find it faster)

Yup worked fine, ive been playing with Dfend also...works well has the filters and organization options i want in dbgl...any reason one is better than the other?

Thanks for all the comments, suggestions and user-support while I was away on a holiday!

Could it be possible in a future update ... to always show in DBGL the total number of games available in our colllection.

You can see the number of entries in a filter collection by hovering over the active filter tab. Selecting the first tab 'All profiles' and hovering over it will display the amount of profiles in total, consequently.

I agree that there isn't any clue in the program or anywhere else (that a newbie user can know of) on how to set up filters... Maybe some explanation in the Help menu?

For the moment, all the information regarding advanced features like the filtering of profiles is available on the main website only (well, also in this +/-50-page thread). I'll certainly consider improving profile filtering, but it's not high-priority for me, at the moment.

... ive been playing with Dfend also...works well has the filters and organization options i want in dbgl...any reason one is better than the other?

You're not asking me, are you? 🤣

Anyways, I have another minor update ready, 0.76a:

* Implemented drag-'n-drop support for confs, gpas, etc. by dragging those onto the DBGL profiles list
* Implemented template duplication and .conf viewing by using the mouse right-click context menu, and moved dosbox .conf editing from editing dialog to context menu as well
* Fixed DBGL version info for Mac (thank you IIGS_User)
* Added the updated Spanish translation from Neville, and the completed Polish one from ZeroX4
* Updated the SWT library to v4.3 and Gallery to v0.6.0

All the latest files
To upgrade, grab the dbgl.jar as usual.

Regards,
Ronald

rcblanke wrote:

* Fixed DBGL version info for Mac (thank you IIGS_User)

Nice to see that my suggestion works. 😀

There seems to be a lot of discussion about filters. I don't use them much, but here is a summary of the main help screen and all the posts in this thread, which you might find useful.

Create filter
=============

* Select Items
* Press ctrl-f

NB: There are no menus or toolbar buttons for this. ctrl-f is the only way.

Edit Filter
===========

* Double-click on the tab for the filter to be edited.
NB: To create an advanced filter, first create a simple filter as described above, then edit it.

Delete Filter
=============
Click on the "x" on the filter tab. This action cannot be undone.

ADVANCED FILTERS
================

Advanced Filter Fields
======================

[The full rundown of all available filtering columns can be found in /org/dbgl/db/database.java, line 46 in the javasrc package]

The list of fields that can be used for advanced filters:
GAM.ID GAM.TITLE DEV.NAME PUBL.NAME
GEN.NAME YR.YEAR STAT.STAT GAM.NOTES
GAM.FAVORITE GAM.SETUP GAM.SETUP_PARAMS
GAM.ALT1 GAM.ALT1_PARAMS GAM.ALT2 GAM.ALT2_PARAMS
GAM.CONFFILE GAM.CAPTURES GAM.DBVERSION_ID
GAM.LINK1 GAM.LINK2 ..etc up to .. GAM.LINK8
GAM.LINK1_TITLE GAM.LINK2_TITLE ..etc up to .. GAM.LINK8_TITLE
CUST1.VALUE CUST2.VALUE ..etc up to .. GAM.CUSTOM10

Advanced filters from the Help File
===================================

To create a filter showing a certain subselection of your profiles, use ctrl-f. For example, you can create a filter to only display profiles with the string 'quest' in it's name by simply creating a filter with that title. To remove a filter-tab simply click on its close button, or double click on a tab to change it. More advanced filtering is also possible; for that you'll have to write a sql 'where clause' in the filter's condition field. Some examples:

- To show all your favorite games: GAM.FAVORITE=true
- To show all profiles with the first custom field filled in with MT-32: CUST1.VALUE='MT-32'
- To show the oldies: YR.YEAR < 1984
- To show all profiles with the text 'keys' in its notes and that have a setup: UPPER(GAM.NOTES) LIKE '%KEYS%' AND GAM.SETUP=true
- To display all profiles with apogee as developer or publisher: UPPER(DEV.NAME) LIKE '%APOGEE%' OR UPPER(PUBL.NAME) LIKE '%APOGEE%'
- To filter for action games: UPPER(GEN.NAME) LIKE '%ACTION%'

Advanced Filters from the Forum
===============================

- Filter by screenshot: not possible as this information is not in the database, only on the filesystem
- Filter on link existence
GAM.LINK1 <> '' OR GAM.LINK2 <> '' OR GAM.LINK3 <> '' OR GAM.LINK4 <> ''
- Filter on link URL (to mobygames, for example)
UPPER(GAM.LINK1) LIKE 'WWW.MOBYGAMES.COM%' OR UPPER(GAM.LINK2) LIKE 'WWW.MOBYGAMES.COM%' OR UPPER(GAM.LINK3) LIKE 'WWW.MOBYGAMES.COM%' OR UPPER(GAM.LINK4) LIKE 'WWW.MOBYGAMES.COM%'
- Filter on link Title (a link pointing to a manual, for example)
UPPER(GAM.LINK1_TITLE) LIKE '%MANUAL%' OR UPPER(GAM.LINK2_TITLE) LIKE '%MANUAL%' OR UPPER(GAM.LINK3_TITLE) LIKE '%MANUAL%' OR UPPER(GAM.LINK4_TITLE) LIKE '%MANUAL%'
- Filter by status 'shareware', for example
UPPER(STAT.STAT) = 'SHAREWARE'
- If you want to create a filter with some games, select multiple games with Ctrl+click, then press Ctrl+F
you'll have a filter with those game IDs.

Other filtering options
=======================

GAM.FAVORITE=true
CUST1.VALUE='x'
YR.YEAR < 1990
UPPER(DEV.NAME) LIKE '%x%'
UPPER(PUBL.NAME) LIKE '%x%'
UPPER(GEN.NAME) LIKE '%x%'

Those with 'UPPER' must have the argument written in uppercase (e.g. UPPER(DEV.NAME) LIKE '%APOGEE%')

CURRENT VERSION OF "Line 46"
============================
This is taken from the latest source, for DBGL 0.74
"SELECT GAM.ID, GAM.TITLE, DEV.NAME, PUBL.NAME, GEN.NAME, YR.YEAR, "
+ "STAT.STAT, GAM.NOTES, GAM.FAVORITE, "
+ "GAM.SETUP, GAM.SETUP_PARAMS, GAM.ALT1, GAM.ALT1_PARAMS, GAM.ALT2, GAM.ALT2_PARAMS, "
+ "GAM.CONFFILE, GAM.CAPTURES, GAM.DBVERSION_ID, "
+ "GAM.LINK1, GAM.LINK2, GAM.LINK3, GAM.LINK4, GAM.LINK5, GAM.LINK6, GAM.LINK7, GAM.LINK8, "
+ "GAM.LINK1_TITLE, GAM.LINK2_TITLE, GAM.LINK3_TITLE, GAM.LINK4_TITLE, GAM.LINK5_TITLE, GAM.LINK6_TITLE, GAM.LINK7_TITLE, GAM.LINK8_TITLE, "
+ "CUST1.VALUE, CUST2.VALUE, CUST3.VALUE, CUST4.VALUE, GAM.CUSTOM5, GAM.CUSTOM6, GAM.CUSTOM7, GAM.CUSTOM8, GAM.CUSTOM9, GAM.CUSTOM10 "

Here's another minor update ready, 0.76b:

* Added all suggested new templates to DBGL's default list, and a couple more (Hercules and GameBlaster ones, slower Pentium), removed the old templates.
* Added main menu function to be able to add them to an existing DBGL installation. PLEASE NOTE that a new file is required for this to work. Simply put default.xml in your DBGL templates directory.
* Implemented (crude) DOSBox installation detection function to help defining an (initial) DOSBox version when no DOSBox version is included in the DBGL package (such as in Linux packages). Should work on Windows (%programfiles%), OSX (/Applications) and Linux (/usr/bin), only detects DOSBox version 0.74 as of now.
* Revamped and restyled the main menu somewhat, and fixed some bindings on OSX such as for 'Preferences' and 'About'.
* Altered shortcut keys on OSX to use the standard modifier CMD instead of CTRL.

All the latest files
To upgrade, grab the dbgl.jar as usual.

Regards,
Ronald