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Separate Shortcut for Each Collection in GameBase?

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The Lord of the Flies
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Separate Shortcut for Each Collection in GameBase?

Thu Apr 21, 2011 2:04 pm

Okay, the GameBase frontend has a single shortcut for itself. Since until recently I only had one Collection in it (GameBase 64 v7), I would just double-click the GameBase's short cut and was, by default, taken to the one Collection I had.

Now I have two Collections to run through the frontend. So now whenever I double-click that same shortcut, I'm given a menu in a window from which to choose which Collection I wish to load.

Well how can I make a separate shortcut for each Collection (in my case, two) that will bypass that window/menu and take me right to the Collection that I want load-up?
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Pugsy
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Thu Apr 21, 2011 5:09 pm

I suppose you could have a shortcut to a .bat file for each collection that will rename the database file of the ones you are not interested in and make sure that the one you are interested in has the correct database filename.

So for instance if you have the amiga and c64 database you could have this for the C64.bat

Code: Select all

rename "D:\GameBase\GameBase Amiga\GameBase Amiga.mdb" "D:\GameBase\GameBase Amiga\DISABLED_GameBase Amiga.mdb"
rename "D:\GameBase\GBC_v07\DISABLED_GBC_v07.mdb" "D:\GameBase\GBC_v07\GBC_v07.mdb"
"D:\GameBase\GameBase.exe"
and this for the Amiga.bat

Code: Select all

rename "D:\GameBase\GameBase Amiga\DISABLED_GameBase Amiga.mdb" "D:\GameBase\GameBase Amiga\GameBase Amiga.mdb"
rename "D:\GameBase\GBC_v07\GBC_v07.mdb" "D:\GameBase\GBC_v07\DISABLED_GBC_v07.mdb"
"D:\GameBase\GameBase.exe"
This should work....but then the shortcuts on the GBToolbox are just so much nicer!
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K.C.
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Thu Apr 21, 2011 11:09 pm

That will work, but this is much easier:

Right click the GameBase shortcut, choose Properties and type the name of the collection you want to start automatically behind the filename, for example:

change:
"C:\Program Files\GameBase\GameBase.exe"

to:
"C:\Program Files\GameBase\GameBase.exe" GBC V07

to start the GameBase64 V07 collection.
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Pugsy
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Fri Apr 22, 2011 12:09 am

Doh!

I tried something similar first....but I was trying to pass the file with the mdb extension in it.

Not something I'd ever do myself, currently got >50 gamebase collections and I'm not a big fan of covering my wallpaper with icons that you can never find quickly.
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Fri Apr 22, 2011 4:22 am

Excellent! I did that what K.C. said following the contents of each Target field with "GBC_V07" for the GameBase 64 v7 shortcut and "GameBase Amiga" for the GameBase Amiga v1.6 shortcut hehehe

Now all I need to be done is how to get those icons that appear in that window/menu that comes up when you call-up the GameBase v1.3 frontend itself and put them on the shortcuts, then it'll be perfect and done! :)
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K.C.
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Fri Apr 22, 2011 2:37 pm

Pugsy wrote:Not something I'd ever do myself, currently got >50 gamebase collections and I'm not a big fan of covering my wallpaper with icons that you can never find quickly.
The Gamebase selector window doesn't support organizing your collections.
So if you have a large amount of GameBase collections, it isn't easy to find the collection you want to start up.

If you want to order your collections in groups, I'd recommend PStart. This is a little tool that displays a small icon in your system tray. By clicking this icon, you can show a little menu with shortcuts to the programs you use frequently. It looks like this:

Image

You can create groups and subgroups, add a hotkey for a program, add seperator lines, schedule a program to start, etc.
And of course, you can create a GameBase launch menu that is ordered in groups:

Image

The Lord of the Flies wrote:Now all I need to be done is how to get those icons that appear in that window/menu that comes up when you call-up the GameBase v1.3 frontend itself and put them on the shortcuts, then it'll be perfect and done! :)
The icon that shows up in the Gamebase selector window is a .GIF file (Startup_32x32.gif), located in the Gfx folder of your collection(s).
The only way to use this picture as an icon for a standard Windows shortcut, is to convert the .GIF file to a .ICO file. There are several utilities and online services you can use for this, for example this site.
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Sat Apr 23, 2011 8:04 am

Thanks for the info !
Really nice tool, K.C. 8)
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Mon May 09, 2011 3:36 pm

Hey, thanks! I did that and it worked! Now I have two new shortcuts by which to load each GameBase Collection separately! hehehe

I even put the shortcuts into my Steam interface. That way, people will know that I play cool C64 games (and Amiga games)! hehehehe

Image
See? ^^^ Hehehehe!

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