This page lists stuff which is planned for implementation. The page also includes FS-UAE Launcher items which is related to the online database. Information is currently added to this page bit by bit, so it is not complete. There’s no specific order (items are not sorted by priority).

Ability to reject ones own submissions

A user with a change in the moderation queue should be able to cancel / reject the submission, if the submission was an error.

Improved database refresh function in FS-UAE launcher

Reorganize the FS-UAE Launcher database support, and make refreshing faster. The Launcher can apply logic to only rescan the configurations which are affect by changes since the last update.

Also, checking which games you have by comparing with information from the file database is quite expensive. An improvement here would be welcome..

Another small improvement, make it possible to force a rescan of files as well by holding down the shift button while clicking on the refresh button (saves a trip to the scan files dialog).

Better handling of non-portrait covers?

The covers should be presented with correct (or near correct) aspect ratio in all places. This is mostly done (updated client software is not yet released).

Separate game database tab in FS-UAE launcher?

The heading says it all 🙂 – Locally created configurations would then be separated from the online database content.

Genre / tag system?

While not considered a primary feature, some sort of genre system will help people looking for games to play. The genre system must not be too complicated. A likely candiate for implementation is genre keywords. For example, Lotus Turbo Challenge 2 could be classified as “Racing, Arcade, Behind”. The user would be able to find it by browsing for any (or a combination) of the genre keywords. See this page for current plans and thoughts.

Update: The tag system is currently implemented, not tags are not browsable in FS-UAE yet.

Relationship system?

Like a genre system, not a primary feature. But useful for discovering and browsing games. Relationships can include “sequel”, “prequel”, and “similar-to”.

A slightly more important feature is the ability to group several entries for the “same game” together. For example The Settlers and Die Siedler, or CD32 and Amiga versions of the same game. If there is a relationship between these games, clients such as FS-UAE Launcher can choose to merge these game entries together for browsing purposes.

System for deprecating variants and games?

Work is underway to make it possible to phase out irrelevant variants and games. Edit: It is now possible to do this via the _status field (reserved for moderators, for now). There is partial support for this in FS-UAE Launcher.

Support for launch configurations / sub-variants?

This is useful in some cases:

• When there’s a WHDLoad game with multiple startup options (e.g. to start an expansion or not, or with or without intro).
• For some floppy games, where we want to make it possible to start it with or without intro (by having different floppies inserted).

New Amiga model / profile system?

Under consideration: Due to a growing number of users, and increased complexity in the database, we may want to introduce a number of “Amiga model profiles” which cover 99% of the use cases. The current system of allow to specify memory and other hardware requirements independently (and which is inherited from game to variants), while flexible, may cause problems in the long run.

Use floppy checksums as real disk file names?

If floppies are stored with names corresponding to the checksum, then save games / highscores will continue to work even if we change the user-visible floppy name in the database. Currently, such as name change can cause “lost data”, since an older floppy overlay file will no longer be used.

The user should not notice this of course, this only applies to how FS-UAE store the floppies in the temporary directory (and in the state dir). This requires that FS-UAE support custom floppy labels for disk files, so the Launcher can tell FS-UAE what names to display to the user.

Better commenting system?

Users should be able to edit and delete their own comments (done). Also, some sort of subscription system, where users can get e-mail notification for comments on a particular game would be useful.

Update: a user mentioning and notification system is implemented (@user).

Better implementation of TODO comments?

• Anyone should be able to mark anyone’s TODO comment as “likely resolved”.
• Moderators should be able to mark the TODO comment as resolved.
• Give the game entry a negative quality score if it has unresolved TODO comments.

More efficient game editing interface?

While the interface works well enough, and as intended, it suffers from being hastily implemented. Data entry would be more efficient if the interface is reworked. Input validation for key-value fields in game database editor is also an important point as the number of users grows.

EDIT: input validation for some fields (languages) added.

A specific dialog to set multiple common meta-information for a game?

Information such as name, description, year, publisher, tags, etc should be editable from a single dialog, so one can quickly edit / fill out these common fields. This will work in addition to the existing key-value field entries.

Set languages for all variants?

Since “languages” may differ for variants, it is generally recommended to specify this on variant level rather then game level, so it won’t accidentally apply incorrectly to future new variants. But adding this for each variant can be tedious, so a short-cut function to add for all existing variants is desirable.

Favorites and/or game lists

Implement a system for marking games as favorites. Alternatively, create a system where users can create game lists (where one such list could be “Favorites”) and assign any number of games to each list. The list of favorites and/or game lists should be selectable in FS-UAE Launcher.

Update: The variant rated 5 by a user is automatically selected in FS-UAE Launcher when the user selects a game.

Paginated browsing?

Currently, game lists are displayed on one big page. Paginated browsing must be implemented now that the number of games is getting high.

Update: Games are browsable by letter now, which helps considerably.

Search for missing information?

For contributors working on the database, it is useful to be able to search for all games missing certain information. For example: search up all games missing front cover, games without publisher information, or games which have no verified working variant. Update: It is now possible to search for games with missing screenshots, missing covers and missing player information. Other reports should follow.

Support for variant clones / shadow variants?

Under review. In some cases, we may want to duplicate variants under several game entries (for example related to some compilations or bundles). There are several things to consider here, and there are no detailed plans here yet. One must also make sure this works properly with the planned sub-variants / launch configurations.

Store .cue files for CD images in the database?

Since file names are stored in the .cue file, the .cue file will differ if your CD images have a different name than what the database expects, thus making it irrelevant if the actual CD files are found by checksum. A better way is to store the .cue within the database, and automatically re-create a temporary .cue/iso/wav file set on demand. This will solve several problems, including problems where the file case in .cue files differ from the file names (on case-sensitive file systems). And since files are fetched on demand, it’ll then also be possible to support zipped CD images.

Store authentication tokens in FS-UAE Launcher

Instead of storing the user’s username and password in the settings file for FS-UAE Launcher, the system should issue an authorization token when the user logs in via FS-UAE Launcher. Only this token will then be stored.

Import CD32 / CDTV variants based on Redump.org information

The Redump.org variants will complement the existing ones from TOSEC. For consideration: It may also be an idea to include variants for plain .iso versions of these variants as well – for games with only one data track.

Import disk-based variants for disk sets in GameBase Amiga

Import disk-based variants for disk sets in GameBase Amiga, where currenly missing. Most common reasons for missing variant is that some of the disks are marked with [a] in TOSEC.

Function to upload files to the database for distributable games

Distributable games include freeware, shareware, public domain, games which have been published with redistribution permission, or where explicit permission has been given to host and distribute games. See also “Automatic download of restributable games”.

Misc improvements to the web interface

• When you edit __link_name, redirect to the edited one
  
• Function to scroll the screenshot bar on the new game pages