Dragon GameBase

[.mad.]

Dragon GameBase has been released.

Download and install the GameBase v1.3 frontend (windows only).
https://sourceforge.net/projects/gameba ... base/v1.3/

Download the Dragon GameBase files.
https://mega.nz/#F!S4YxjAKQ!j4kkmweXSTyhN_JTxj1i5A

extract the files to the GameBase install folder.

C:\gamebase\dragon\dragon.mdb
C:\gamebase\dragon\games\
C:\gamebase\dragon\extras\

[sorchard]

Seeing grufty old Cuthbert has made my day

I'm a Linux user, but highly tempted to install Wine to try this out. Just browsing around the files I see there are thousands of screenshots. It would have taken me years to put all this together

[.mad.]

Hi Stew,

yes, it took me ages to put together.

Thanks to the WOD archive.
At least i didn't have to scan all the covers and dump the tapes.

let me know if you get it working in Linux.
But it's well worth a dual boot windows partition.

[robcfg]

I couldn’t get it to work on MacOS (even after converting the mdb to sqlite and a lot of other stuff), and I got weir results running it on a Windows XP virtual machine.

It’s a pity that the creators didn’t choose a multi-platform window library (FLTK, Qt, etc...) and that it’s so Commodore-centric, because otherwise is a nice tool.

[.mad.]

Hi Rob,

The GameBase tool was made way back in time using Visual Basic 6.
James (Jimbo) Burrows did tinker with a completly NEW engine using SQL.
however this project was never finished due to family and work commitments.

I have tried many frontends over the years, and always comeback to GameBase.
Even though it does have many flaws and bugs.
The easy of use and very small footprint (no bloated nonsense) makes it a winner.

A programmer has long been needed to update /convert the GB code to VBNET ,C++ or something that can be compiled to many platforms like MAME.
The original source code is freely available as a starting point.
But i fear it would need a complete rewrite for mac OS compatibility.

There is a JAVA version of GB which is supposed to work on MAC?
https://jgamebase.sourceforge.io/
but the MDB code needs to be converted to use that format and folder structure.

[robcfg]

I've tried this port to MacOS: http://sidmusic.org/gamebase64browser

But it is entirely written in Objective C, and I couldn't manage to make your database work properly there even after converting it to sqlite.

[.mad.]

I've tried this port to MacOS: http://sidmusic.org/gamebase64browser

I couldn't manage to make your database work properly there even after converting it to sqlite.

Unfortunatley, Mac gamebase64 browser is designed for converting and viewing GameBase 64 (Commodore 64) only.

quote from the program creator...

It's designed for GB64 only, but someone might take the source and do something else with it.
I personally have only interest in GB64, and I won't spend time on other platform support.

[sorchard]

let me know if you get it working in Linux

It seems to be working ok under Wine in Debian Buster. The images in the extras don't appear in the Wine version of Internet Explorer but there's probably a way to fix that.

I had to install i386 libraries prior to installing Wine, and then the VB6 Visual Basic runtime needs to be installed before installing GameBase. I used winetricks to install the vb6 runtime. The details are fairly easy to find.

The bundled windows versions of mame & xroar look like they're running ok, though it might be worth looking into changing the settings to call up native versions.

This is a pretty handy way to get a vast library of software in one place

[.mad.]

The images in the extras don't appear in the Wine version of Internet Explorer but there's probably a way to fix that.

On Windows it uses the DEFAULT MS-photo viewer to see the JPG's in the extras.
depending on what tools you have installed, it might be required to change settings of ALL picture filetypes
PNG, JPG, BMP...
to ALWAYS open with that program.
GameBase then runs that picture file like an EXE, which is then opened with the assigned program.

I have ZERO Linux knowledge.
But Linux should have something similar for viewing pictures.
I GUESS you just need to assign a JPG viewer program as a default.

[sorchard]

I GUESS you just need to assign a JPG viewer program as a default.

That's pretty much the size of it. I did it by editing the windows registry within wine. The link below describes how to get web pages to open up in a native browser:

http://www.webupd8.org/2010/03/how-to-m ... -your.html

Then in addition to that you need to find the file types of interest and edit those to do something similar:

e.g. HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT -> jpegfile -> shell -> open -> command

On my system the files were being opened with iexplore which didn't work. I had to change the command to use 'winebrowser.exe' just like the modified http entry.