user interface feature requests

[Jimbo]

The user interface to GameBase is pretty ancient now. If anyone would like to offer suggestions for improvement I'll consider them.

What don't you like about the existing user interface?

Feel free to describe a better more flexible layout (I'm thinking a complete overhaul might be what's needed).

I quite like the gamebase64 browser for the Mac, so may steal some ideas from it.

Cheers

James

[Hidron]

There is one little annoying thing. I currently have over 70 gamebases setup, and when switching from one gamebase to another (while already in a gamebase), it is a bit painful to have to scroll down through them. I know in Windows XP's (possibly others) programs menu, you can turn the scrolling off and it will split the list into as many columns as it needs to to get them to all be displayed on the screen at the same time. I think I would almost prefer a way to go back to the original selection screen you see on startup to choose another gamebase.

Even being able to split them into sub-menus somehow like Console, Computer, etc. would be helpful to cut the list down to size.

[.mad.]

Hi Jimbo,

As well as a few cosmetic tweaks, i would like a few more GEMUS commands adding to the code.

http://www.autohotkey.com/docs/commands/BlockInput.htm

Make the Game Tabs 32x32, so more sprites can be used from games.

also found a bug that crashed GB

[Underfly]

I'm not sure if the aging VB6 would support it, but it would be nice if Gamebase could display smooth fonts, as more and more people are replacing their CRTs with LCD screens.

I have smooth fonts checked on in windows xp sp3, but smooth fonts don't show up in Gamebase user interface.

[hardmanm]

I would like the following modifications:

Fonts set in gamebase, instead of frontend
Loadable Skins and themes
more scaleble control of the gamebase frontend
Support for animated gifs
Genres added to and edited in frontend
_________________
Gamebase Developer of:

AcornMania, AmstradMania, Atari800, Apple II, SpeccyMania, GamebaseBBC, Gamebase Electron, Apple2GS, Sam Coupe, Gamebase GX4000, Memotech MTX, NEC PC98, Fujitsu FM-7 and Sharp X1.

[Vicman]

[OX]

GB Creator Wizard Functionality -

(Because by f*ck, these things are time consuming!)

A scan directory and add game feature - so Gamebase creators can add game images to the set games directory, the user can then set which file extensions to scan for and let the system add the found entries to a seperate temp database from which they can be tested, the user can then have the option to select the required entries from the temp list and committed to the MDB. Also a user-defined vars entry screen so that vars can be set in Gemus key-value pairs screen modifiable on things like filename, ext, size, type and set at scan time to aid in the loading/setup for each game image.

Other possible wizard options - auto screen snapshots, where (after the user has setup the emulator to start in full screen) a couple of game screens can be taken say a given interval apart or given key or button press apart, upon exit of the emu the screens resized to given dimensions (or not) and then saved in the given screenshots dir and entries added to the MDB.

[hardmanm]

[Jimbo]

[.mad.]

[K.C.]

Hi Jimbo,

Never had the time to put a reaction here, but it's good to hear you are still improving the GB frontend!
Here are a few feature requests that didn't make it in V1.4, but are still welcome in a future version:

• Various requests (Jimbo)
  (Especially the read-only/portable support and UNC network path support)
  
• "General Info" request (K.C.)
  
• Creating new/custom Genres with Toolbox (Vicman)
  
• Browse through games with joystick, start with fire button (Sinned)
  
• "verify available files" scan for files NOT needed (K.C.)
  

Other requests:

• Pressing Enter or space bar starts the selected game
  
• Lock/unlock selectable stuff in status bar (game file, sid file, extras). I frequently open the Game selector window accidentally when I want to click the Windows Start button.
  
• Kiosk mode. Strip all edit functions from the interface, run the frontend full screen and remove close button and drop down menus.

[Methanoid]

Dunno if its possible but what would be really useful would be if GB was "portable" with all its files/imgs/disks etc... So you could either run from USB stick or from HDD without installing it. Likewise would mean any assembled Gamebase collections could include GB frontend and simply, just work!!

Just my 2p!

[hardmanm]

Any betas for the new version of gamebase to be released soon?
_________________
Gamebase Developer of:

AcornMania, AmstradMania, Atari800, Apple II, SpeccyMania, GamebaseBBC, Gamebase Electron, Apple2GS, Sam Coupe, Gamebase GX4000, Memotech MTX, NEC PC98, Fujitsu FM-7 and Sharp X1.

[Jimbo]

[filevans]

Please could you add in the function to launch an Extra with GBLauncher.exe, it is very useful to be able to directly launch a c64 tape but at the moment it's only possible to launch the main gamefile, which is generally a t64/d64 and the only way round it at the moment is to create a completely new database with just tape files as the main game file or to change your main game file to a tape image, but then where do you put your t64/d64 in this case for rapid loading

thanks a lot for considering this idea