E-Explorer (replacement for Vista Game Explorer)

[Ryan R]

What can I say - there's no news until Julius posts some news. I'll be honest, I'm started to get annoyed as well. I wanted this to be finished weeks ago too. I simply don't have the same programming knowledge that he does. If there are any other programmers out there then feel free to help out. Send me a PM or post below.

[Ryan R]

Well that didn't take long! :)

andyr2005 has volunteered to help, so we'll see what happens.

Thanks on behalf of everyone

[rakeshishere]

WOW..... I kept on looking if someone was interested in making a alternative for Vista game Explorer.. Just Glad to know a project is been developed.

I would suggest these ideas

1.Tighter integration with atleast one or two popular Parental control s/w

2. Ability to add games which are not supported in this utility

3. WEI for the individual game listed

4. Looks like a native app in Vista

[Ryan R]

Glad you're thinking along the same lines of myself - tight Vista / Win7 integration (also in looks) has been the plan all along.

If you haven't seen this - you might be interested - http://vge.editor.googlepages.com/e-explorer

[SuperKid]

Seems promising, the feature i would love is the ability to launch games from steam using the explorer too. i think there is a command line per game you can execute to run the game through steam so i would like it to support left 4 dead, half-life 2, css etc.

[Ryan R]

Could you provide examples of how to do it, just in case (I don't use Steam) :)

[Kyjibo]

Seems promising, the feature i would love is the ability to launch games from steam using the explorer too. i think there is a command line per game you can execute to run the game through steam so i would like it to support left 4 dead, half-life 2, css etc.

You can already do this in the regular games explorer.

Right click -> Customize -> Edit

You can add the argument in the target field. If you don't know the games number, just send a shortcut to the desktop using steam and check the target on that.

Ex - To launch Left4Dead using the games explorer you would need to append " -applaunch 500" to the target so it looks like ""C:\Program Files\Steam\Steam.exe" -applaunch 500"

On another note, in the games explorer I cant get games to show up at all. I installed VGEE and attempted to add some titles but after it borked up i told it to "repair"by clearing out my programs. Now I can't get the only title that it grabbed new info for(call of duty) to show up. I tried running the game, copying a shortcut in and using the "add a supported game method" shown in the video on the site. None of them work. Anyone know what I'm doing wrong?

[Ryan R]

The Windows account might have packed up as far as the VGE settings go - sometimes it just happens and absolutely nothing you do fixes it.

Easiest solution is to create a new admin account - move all your docs, etc across and delete the old account.

[D@V!D]

hi mate! how r u? do u have any news? :D

[D@V!D]

hope that u dont left the project mate cuz is a great tool! =(

[Unimatrix Xero]

i smell abandonware

[Ryan R]

E.Fahd has had a look at the code, played around with it, and sent me a pic showing the app with all the BoxArt showing up which is great. We should be able to make some more progress now. :)

[D@V!D]

wow!! awesome !! that's what i was waiting for!! some good news!! xD thx and waiting more! ;)

[deletedxyz]

Didn't you say you were close to a working version sometime in February or something? This is kind of ridiculous.

You got to love how people criticize a volunteer driven project as if they're entitled to it.

[Skulltrail]

It will not be an easy application to write. Best of luck! (Y)

[Ryan R]

Thanks for the support, guys :)

[myztikrice]

You got to love how people criticize a volunteer driven project as if they're entitled to it.

In what way do I feel entitled? If he makes a prediction and overshoots it by a year I ask him about it. If he had said nothing I would have said nothing.

[Ryan R]

Yes, I thought I'd have a version released in Feb 2008. Then I got a full time job. Then Julius got a new full-time job. Then months went by without me hearing from Julius. I did get an email from him today though - and he reckons he can sort out all the remaining issues on his end fairly quickly. Only time will tell.

Obviously - I'm not planning on making ETA's now - but for those of you who really want to know what the progress is, then here:

What's working

E-Explorer - Windows XP Version:

------------------------------------------------

1. Can add games

2. Can view games

3. Code built in to edit games.

4. Other code related to GUI.

E-Explorer - Windows Vista/7 Version

------------------------------------------------

1. Same as above

2. Lots of 'behind the scenes' code by Julius to allow EE to talk to WMI

3. Online searching of AllGame.com built in when adding new games (currently disabled)

What's preventing release of Alpha 1

Despite having code in place, choosing to edit game doesn't populate textboxes, etc.

Once that's working - need to test the 'Save/Update' game methods

Need to build an update checker similar to VGEE (won't take long - mostly a copy/paste job from VGEE code)

Need to make an 'About' screen so I give credit to those who have helped

Getting that working should be just enough for an Alpha release to a select few people (you know who you are). If that all goes well - we can release it to more people and start adding the extra features and improved looks.

When Julius is available, I'm at work, and when I'm available - Julius is asleep.

Once we get to the Alpha 1 release stage I think things should speed up pretty quickly - we'll see.

[D@V!D]

awesome news mate!! :D im glad to hear that mate!! waiting for more news and the release of the alpha 1!! cheers and thx for ur time!

[D@V!D]

hi again mate how are u?? how is the project going? hope that you can finish it! cheers! ;)

[Ryan R]

I've been running Windows 7 for nearly a month now at home (RC1) which is great, but I think it will require a few changes to the code Julius wrote for me. Let's just say when I loaded the project this morning and hit the Debug button, it didn't run error free.

I'm also still waiting for the code that E.Fahd wrote to fix the displaying of boxart. He fixed one of the problem and sent a screenshot, but forgot to send the code as well :)

[D@V!D]

finally some news!! thats great mate!! :D hope that u guys can finish it! thx a lot for ur time! ;)

[D@V!D]

hi mate how are u? :)

any news about the project?

hope that u can post some news soon! cheers! ;)

[ryoran109]

I'm sure you've answered this previously, but just for clarification: Will EE allow you to edit rating info/content descriptors and/or product version?

[Ryan R]

I'm slowly working through each of the main operations (add, edit, delete), fixing bugs, scratching my head a lot, adding support for Windows 7 (trying to get it's default games to show up properly, seeing what else has been changed), etc. Spending more free time on the project during August while work is quiet. EE allows you to edit everything (well, when we finish coding it). I'm keeping quiet until I have something to shout about in size 72 font :)

Edited August 12, 2009 by Ryan R