openMSX Launcher v1.14

First time installation

Windows: unzip the Windows package anywhere on your system.

MacOS: open the downloaded DMG and drag "openMSX Launcher.app" into your "Applications" directory.

Linux/BSD: unzip the Linux/BSD package anywhere on your system.

Upgrade from version 1.13

In all platforms (Windows, MacOS, Linux and BSD) you can upgrade from within the 'Help->Check for Updates' window. After you install, you need to restart the launcher.

Upgrade from versions earlier than 1.12

How to start

Windows: double-click on the exe file. The exe will locate the JRE on the machine automatically and start it. The exe takes in the JRE location as an optional argument in case it cannot find it. In this case, in order to pass the JRE location as an option, create a shortcut for the executable and edit its target to pass the JRE location. Make sure you add the location without double quotes (i.e. C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.8.0_212\bin\java.exe)

MacOS: double-click on the application icon.

Linux/OpenBSD: type and enter openmsx-launcher.run in a terminal window. In a GNOME environment you can create a shortcut to the launcher.

Settings

Note: the detect button will 'suggest' the path to the openMSX based on the platform. Try that first, and if that doesn't work you can enter it manually.

Windows:

Emulator: <Path>\

Mac:

Emulator: /Applications

Linux (Debian, fedora, ubuntu):

Emulator: /usr/bin

FreeBSD

Emulator: /usr/local/bin

Fill Database

Change Machine

Favorites

Filters

Search

Note: mouse clicks don't work on Ubuntu (the only Linux flavour that was tested) or MacOS (Sierra). This could be a bug in the implementation that hasn't been identified yet. Use the Enter key instead.

MSX News

Update All Databases

Right-click context menu

Database Manager

Activity Viewer

IPS / UPS Patch Center

LHA Extractor

Drag and Drop

Keyboard short-cuts

Application menu on Ubuntu 15.10 and later

description "Java Ayatana"

start on starting dbus

script
 initctl set-env --global JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS="-javaagent:/usr/share/java/jayatanaag.jar $JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS"
end script

You can also enable it for only openMSX Launcher and not globally. You can find more information about this topic on the Web.

Support/Suggestions/Questions/Translation fixes/New translations

Release history

• Improved the related games algorithm and added a link to the game if found in the launcher
• Added LHA/LZH file extractor
• Added 'tsx' extension to the list of acceptable Tape types

• Added find related games
• Added sound quick filter
• Added system field (MSX or ColecoVision) to game properties
• Minor graphical changes to game properties

• Added quick filters
• Added tool tip showing current set filters when hovering over the filters box
• Added ability to filter by video source (if set manually in the profile)
• Added screenshot and sound and generation LED transition effects

• Settings screen not closing when clicking OK while MSX News service was disabled

• Added support for input devices and GFX9000 in game profiles
• Changed the look of the search and favorite lists

• Added number of disks or tapes in multi-disk/multi-tape games in the game properties window
• Added support for harddisk hdd extension
• Added JRE version to the About window

• Disabled the delete button after deleting an entry in the list (after which no element is selected)
• Fixed JRE location via registry for version 9 and later
• Fixed the log filename to read when messages log is rotated

• Provided an option to allow TCL scripts to override or be added to other profile fields when starting a game. The old behavior was to always override. This is useful when, for example, running games that require GFX9000
• Allow the Windows executable to take an optional parameter that points to the location of the JRE on the machine
• Removed rarely updated MSX sites from the news service and kept only MSX Launchers, MRC and MSX Blog
• Added 'col' extension to the list of acceptable ROM types

• Added support for disk and tape XML databases (tape XML file is the one supplied by blueMSX). These will provide more info on known disk and tape dumps
• Added service to retrieve MSX news from common MSX websites

• Added IPS and UPS patch tools
• Added ability to change machines in launcher profiles
• Added Polish language
• Changed the order of events in the Activity Viewer to show most reccent on top
• Made graphical changes to the menus

• Added ability to disable second or both disk drives per game. This is useful for some disk and tape games that require more memory
• Added Activity Viewer tool to view game launch history as well the most played games

• Added logging. Currently game launch events (used by the new Activity Viewer tool) and launcher command line output are logged

• Changed main window look and added sound and generation indicators when selecting a game
• Allowed extensions to be set in addition to ROMs. In older versions, you could not set both ROMs and extensions at the same time

• Fixed many minor bugs

• Added search for games by name or SHA1 code
• Improved keyboard support and added more keyboard shortcuts
• Removed 'Update all databases' from Action menu and incorporated the functionality in the upgrade system. Instructions on how to enable it are in the help file

• Enhanced the in-line upgrade system (accessible through 'Help->Check for Updates')
• Fixed many minor bugs

• Switched to JDK 8. Now Java Runtime Environment 8 or higher is needed to run the launcher
• Added support for viewing, deleting and restoring database backups
• Drag and drop game files and directories on the main window of the launcher for quick adding to the current database

• Fixed many minor bugs

• Added favorites support
• Added ability to check for updates from within the launcher and the ability to update automatically
• Made changes to main window
• Allow only one instance of the launcher to run

• The extensions list in the Add/Edit profile was not showing the extensions for the latest versions of openMSX after the switch from directories to XML files. This should work now for all versions of openMSX. There is similar to the machines listing bug that was fixed in the previous version of the launcher

• Switched to an embedded database (Apache Derby) from CSV files to store launcher data. All user's CSV files are migrated to the new embedded database automatically when new launcher is started for the first time
• Old backups are deleted. The new version allows to take backups but they still cannot be restored

• Switched to JDK 7. Now Java Runtime Environment 7 or higher is needed to run the launcher
• Added Database Manager to rename or delete databases
• Simplified the settings window by removing the machines field and adding a button to detect the openMSX path (Note: Mac users need to set the openMSX path value to /Applications or the directory where the launcher is installed)
• The update all databases tool now returns the number of updated profiles
• Added keyboard short-cuts
• Added a tool to import blueMSX Launcher databases (only for the Windows version)
• Added total known dumps to the profile properties window

• The machines list in the Add/Edit profile and Fill Database screens was not showing the machines for the latest versions of openMSX after the switch from directories to XML files. This should work now for all versions of openMSX

• Added ability to filter databases by company, year, country, medium, size, MSX generation, sound chip and genre
• Added game properties in the right-click contect menu
• Added ability to update game extra data in all databases. Useful when there's a new version of the accompanying extra-data.dat file
• Added slight display improvements to the Mac version
• Added ability to select a game in the list by typing the first few letters of its name

• Some fields set internally in the game profile (and only now displayable in the new properties screen) were not correct. The new 'Update all databases' feature fixes that automatically

• Added ability to move games between databases via the right-click context menu
• Added ability to bring up the platform's file manager (File Explorer on Windows, Finder on MacOS, etc) via the right-click context menu
• Added menu item in the Help menu to bring up the help file
• Added ability to create empty databases
• Added a bar above the game list to show company, year and size of file of the selected game
• File fields in Add/Edit screens now support drag and drop of files
• If a script is defined in the profile then it will override all other fields when openMSX is launched
• Many other minor enhancements

• When adding a new game or editing a new one, the recorded size for ZIP files, which is stored in the database, is wrong. This will be seen with this new version where the size displayed in the bar above the game list will be that of the ZIP file rather than the original size. In order to fix it, just edit the game and save immediately without modifying any other fields

• Create multiple databases of all MSX software supported by openMSX
• Scan the hard disk to automatically fill launcher databases with ROMs, disks, tapes, hard disks and laserdiscs, and sync the database to your hard disk any time later. Display two screenshots for each game
• Display the text on the launcher using a number of supported languages (English, Arabic, Catalan, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Swedish)

Appendix A - Update all databases

showUpdateAllDatabases=true

and restart the launcher.