I need Ideas.

[LagMonster]

Here is my Idea.
I want to make a VB application that is a game loader. WHY? because I have a hard drive full of crap and my desktop is getting cluttered.

My Idea would take a gamelist from a .txt file. In this list would be a little record of all my games, for each game It would contain Title, App Path, Genre, Maybe a rating, and more... Thats where I need your help. What should the loader look like. I have an Idea of a list box on the left and when you select it the game data will show on the right.

After I get done I will give the source to anyone who would like it, and I will comment it.

If this is the wrong place to post this let me know.

Thanks for your time!

[QSECOFR]

Maybe make 2 panes. The left pane with categories, and the right pane with the list. You select a category, then select the game. Have a Run button...I've run out of Ideas...I'll post more later.

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OS/400...At least it's not Microsoft.

[hugheysoup]

In addition maybe you can have a stats button. It would open up to give the stats like your rateing, number of times used.......will write more I am in between classes
later

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Coding is easy; All you do is sit staring at a terminal until the drops of blood form on your forehead.

Real Programmers don't eat quiche. They eat Twinkies and Szechwan food.

[cyberhh]

List on the left, with nothing selected the right window shows pull down boxes (action, RPG, 1st person shooter : single player, lan, internet) and search windows. When a game is highlighted a screen shot is displayed with the game information including homepage (for updates) and a link for codes/cheats/etc.

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Death is lighter than a feather - duty heavier than a mountian.

[LagMonster]

Thanks guys This is exactly the suggestions I was looking for. They all are good and I'll keep reading for more. http://forums.windrivers.com/cgi-bin/forum/smilies/cwm30.gif

[hugheysoup]

in addition to my previous......
maybe include that last time the program was opened. I thought I had a few more ideas but lost them already will post more if the y come to me again or think of others.
later

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Coding is easy; All you do is sit staring at a terminal until the drops of blood form on your forehead.

Real Programmers don't eat quiche. They eat Twinkies and Szechwan food.

[KoWind7]

If you want to get really fancy, you could actally set up shortcuts/items for different game options that are available...such as the command line options in Doom, Quake, etc...



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-- What? No more Jolt!?!?

[mahdi]

KoWind took my suggestion :-(
That would be great to be able to make it like a compact shortcut storage. Just click the game you want it it launches (this is what I think you have planned)
I would be very interested in the source for this, let me know when your done with it...I love tweaking other people's programs http://forums.windrivers.com/cgi-bin/forum/biggrin.gif

[LagMonster]

I'll start on the program tonight, but probably won't finish tonight. I'll be adding all of the suggestions. I really like the command line suggestion. I might have to do some research(Maybe an ongoing project) for command line options for different games. So that maybe some will be Built in the App.
What types of Games should I put Cyberhh?


mahdi-> Your exactly right about the compact shortcut storage. Do you want the source as I go or when I am finish?

[DJ Chew]

This sounds exactly like something I would program. Would u mind sending me the source after you are done?
Thanks

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-DJ Chew

[mahdi]

Yes Lag, I've love to get it as you go along, maybe we can compile ideas as we go along or end up going two different dirrections. Eather way it will be cool to see how it/they turn out! What are you using for the compiler...I think all I have is VB 5.0, I'm not sure if VB is as picky with compilers as VC++ is. http://forums.windrivers.com/cgi-bin/forum/smilies/cwm32.gif

-edit
Bah! use luny2ny@earthlink.net to send the source to, less limits then Hotmail.

Also I would only like a working source (or close for debuging) I'm just starting to learn VB and need some slack http://forums.windrivers.com/cgi-bin/forum/smile.gif
But I do have many ideas for what to do and how...

[This message has been edited by mahdi (edited March 16, 2001).]

[mahdi]

CAn't PM LagMonster for some odd reason so...
I was wondering if you ever got around to starting on this, I just got VB 6.0 so you don't have to worry about downward compatability. Let me know how this is going or if it's been deep sixed...

[LagMonster]

NO it hasn't been sixed. I have been experiment with more robust code! LOL

Instead of using the standard shell or shellexecute I am creating a process and monitoring it(sort of). But this way I can set my games with High priority(or low, but why) in windows ME, or 9x.

Sorry about the update...I'll email you what I got when I get home. hehe

[mahdi]

Ok, cool...could you also send a discription of what it is you are trying to do with this 'process' for ME and 9x?

[LagMonster]

Every time windows starts an application or anything requiring CPU time a process is created.

Windows will automatically give each 'process' certain amounts of CPU usage based on its priority.

Example:

A medium priority application is running and taking up 70% of your CPU time(which would be a lot). If you started a high priority application that wanted to use 70% of the CPU the medium priority application would have no say in it what so ever. Windows would give everything it had to the higher priority. BUT if a low priority application wanted to use a lot of CPU windows wouldN'T let it use it. If your confused don't feel bad. Its not an easy thing to grasp at first.

[LagMonster]

In addition...

Windows NT/2k has a task manager where you can turn the priority up and and down as you please, but windows 9x, and ME do not therefore you can't control your processes unless you have a seperate program.

My program will just let the apps start with High priority so It will over power any other app with normal(or medium) priority.

[SNAFU]

WHOA! WHat a great idea Lag! Let me know when your done with your little proggie. I'd love to see the source (I'm like Mahdi...learn by looking at other's source and tweakin'). Actually...I'd love to help out...but I'm about to puke from the stress of work, school and girlfriend (last one takes the cake :) ) Again...awsome idea.