Hi,
Currently I am looking for a way to organise my quite huge disc/floppy (and other physical) game collection.
At the moment i use an open source library software (which was originally ment for books XD)

I discovered the ability for custom integrations in gog 2.0 and was curios if there already is a community integration which would allow me (with some adoption) to import the MySQL Database into gog galaxy.
This would be perfect bc the automatic metadata it provides.

Also seperat from that
@other "collectors" how do you organise your collections/ do you know a good solution?

It should:

>run offline on a local server
>ability to categorize the games/add categories manually (N64, Wii, PS2, PS3 etc
>give the ability to add manually metadata (preferable automated but at least manually)
>be accessable through the browser "local Webpage"

Also
Open source and the ability to add later downloadable files such as titlemusic, wallpapers etc to the games

:)

I use Collectorz Game Collector and Launchbox.
Both programs can have their data stored on a network location...

Game Collector: I've added all my games manually. (not the metadata)
Launchbox: Can import your GOG/Steam/Epic/Etc... collection from your account(s). Can detect and launch your games through Galaxy.

Launchbox is mostly free.

There is not anything that does exactly what you want, I have spent years looking for it. See:
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/storage_and_organisation_discussion
For latest post on it.
What is out there currently:

Collectorz, it’s not bad software. Import however is non existent, biggest let down. It is also proprietary, so you can’t access the backend say if you want to check those games are present on disk.

Playnite, is open source. Lacks import/export. Database is local and accessible, though currently a mess of Jason files. Apparently version 9 will bring single database. Uses litedb backend, so useful if you know c#. Has potential, but seems to be more focused on launcher aspect (sadly a common theme now)

Launch box, another “launcher” rather than organiser. No import feature. Can’t remember if you can export.

Galaxy/other client/ad/spyware, all designed to tie you into online. No benefit of any of them, avoid.

I am currently back to using an excel sheet with some vba scripting, running at 20k plus records. The only other thing I found was tagspaces, which is more for tagging files (if you pay for it, you can save tags in a sidecar rather than file names), which could be an option, set folders and then tag in all information needed. Haven’t really tested it yet. It’s either that, excel, or a some sort of database.

thanks for all answeres :)
Thats a real shame that there isnt anything like that out there :/
I talked with a few friends who have the same problem and currently we are thinking of trying to write a program like that on our own. If we really decide to start it, i will update here, if anyone else would like to participate :p

I would have a look at playnite, it is open source. If they do go with the one database in v9, then you could potentially create a large sql dump from your current data and then insert that into your local playnite database. Until we see implementation there it’s hard to see. It is c# and litedb, which is nice (used c# for a long time, and really didn’t get on with the mvvm setup, and don’t really use it in the regular job), I do already have several projects there though (one being a card browser for TCG card games. After that I maybe look again
This was something else that had cropped up on my searches:
http://www.myvisualdatabase.com/
Anyways, yes keep the thread updated, I have it favourited though I don’t visit here much anymore.

Just wondering if anyone had come across anything useful in terms of organiser software? I have a list of things tried:
Launchbox - its more of a frontend.
Playnite - as above, more focused on front end. 9 did bring a more unified set of DB files, however these are not accessible. Lacks any means to effectively get your metadata out.
Collectorz - Its closed, no way to get your metadata out again. Its also a yearly cost (the software itself isn't bad though).
Excel - what I am currently using, functional, but not great in terms of code lists and such like.
Myvisualdb - Seems quite good, sqlite backend (so has tools to manage), pretty straightforward.

The other thing I was looking at was building something in Godot with sqlite backend, going to take me a fair bit of learning though.

Anyone else come up with anything along these lines - note not interested in connectors to stores, or online only products/databases, simple list grid and detail pages with a DB backend.

I can imagine that you want something with Excel import, but why do you need an export function?
Collectorz has CSV import/export, and a few other export formats.

For me, Launchbox works fine as an organiser. I don't consider it "more of a frontend" - I just need less database functions / fields than you (making elaborate databases takes up A LOT of time).

Export is required for many reason. For instance, if I want to use that metadata for other purposes, e.g.

- moving to other software - software does not last, and I want my data to be movable, it is my metadata after all. Collectorz provide a minimal cvs export I had a lot of issues with it (quite a while back so can’t tell you exactly, but I lost a fair bit of information).

- check my system structure (what do I think I have, what do I actually have)

- backup

Nope, I don’t want an excel importer (or exporter). I simply want to be able to access all of the metadata either through export or via straight backend access, for whatever purpose I want. I put a lot of time into collating my metadata, it’s mine, and I want to do with it what I want. Unfortunately that seems to go against the ideals of most of these apps who make it hard if not impossible to get data out. Front end really has no interest for me, I simply need an organiser, no account linking, runner, or other.

The database is pretty easy really, I had an SQLite database with views and triggers running really well. Db browser hower isn’t the best front end and that is where excel really comes into its own. Playnite is quite nice, easy to grab data including images off igdb, however it’s missing some user fields and grouping with series doesn’t work if most of your games are not in a series. Also, export is a pain, the html exporter I could get working right, and don’t have time to learn powerscript.

All I am after is a Digital Asset Manager for games. Tried tagspaces, that’s pretty good, but would need other tools, still it’s an option.

I find it unlikely that the software won't last during your lifetime, if necessary via a Virtual Machine. But on principle, you're right, free exchange of metadata is a good thing.

I don't know what you mean by checking system structure. I use Collectorz and Launchbox; I can see what I have in both programs.

I have no issues backing up my data.

--- I'm not trying to argue right or wrong here (there isn't any); I'm just curious. ;-)

Yep, no worries. I currently have VBA scripts, which take a directory listing of my games store area, and compares it line by line with the metadata I have, thus I can tell if something has been removed or moved accidentally, or folders I don’t want are created, and it would be nice if it created the default folder structure direct from metadata. The aim was to add hash checking of files as well, and perhaps have other information stored in the game area such as mod lists. I was going to add an audit function to the sheet as well, even though it’s backed up, but more of a changes history. However this is much simpler in SQLite as you can have triggers inbuilt for the various functions. Other nice things like views of the data, so externally you can acces one view to get all data linked and such like. Plus all the benefits of a database like code lists. That part is not a problem, but it’s the front end. I tried csharp, but the whole data binding really pee’d me off. Can do pascal (Lazarus/myvisualdb). I was thinking about implementing in Godot now though, built for handling images, cross platform, simple language/structure. Will have to see.

I use my own client which downloads my game in a local Minio store running on my LAN. The metadata files are in json which makes them easy to manipulate, though I try not to (if I get the urge to do that, I try to add functionality in the tool that does what I want).

The experience navigating my game collection right now is very plain (I use the minio dashboard and my top level directories are game ids so I search the manifest to map the title that I want to its id using a command on the client).

I have some plan to download more things from GOG and provide a full blown dashboard to visualize and download my collection, but realistically, I'll have that next year:
https://github.com/Magnitus-/gogcli/issues/7
https://github.com/Magnitus-/gogcli/issues/8

I'll probably add a functionality to add select third party files (mods, headless servers provided by the game's creator, etc). Not 100% sure I'll add more customization beyond that (maybe tags).

This is for my digital game collection here however. I don't have strong wishes to organize my physical game collection into anything fancy. Maybe I should figure out a way to rip games off my game DVDs for things that are not on GOG, but time is in short supply. I strongly value the games themselves, but their physical media, not so much.