I have always found it impossible to organize my games by putting them on folders alone no matter how many sub sub sub directories I created. I also have the habit of clearing my desktop of all the icons that belong to software that doesn't have to be right in front of me to remind me that I have it. Some of my games are not even PC games, so I had no choice but use organizing software.

I first used Microsoft Access and created relational databases which could be queried to spit out not only which games I had, but also which ones I got last month, which were RTS's of FPS, for PC or Xbox, you name it. The queries will produce lists of the specific games I wanted and where they were located, not only on my PC, but also physically stored in the house.

That was no easy task, although it was made somewhat easier because there are tons of already made templates made for cataloging all kinds of stuff and they can be converted relatively easy to your own custom made catalog. I have also used spreadsheets, but the number of things you can do with spreadsheets is very limited compared to the functionality of true relational databases.

I am aware that this is far from what the OP asked for and can be even considered as reinventing the wheel, but sometimes if you want the job done exactly the way you want it you have to do it yourself.

I must say that all those attempts to bring order to my chaotic gaming life were terminated long ago and at this point in life I don't care about cataloging games anymore, the reason being that I refuse to spend a dime on anything new until I finish all the games I already own.

Not only the games I want will become cheaper when I get to buy them, but I also save a lot of money on computer or console upgrades. IMHO the gaming industry is too preoccupied with realism and they forget that games are suppose to entertain. The former depends on technology, but the later requires thinking and innovation. After 20 years shooting people with the mouse and keyboard (or joystick for that matter) gets boring, even if the people you are shooting at look more real.

So I pretty much know all the games I own already for my PC, DS and Wii and you know what? I am happier now because I get more challenged because, instead of dropping a game when it got too difficult and start playing another one, I force myself to finish it.

Of course there is always the free games and the 'not so often anymore' game giveaways. When I find a free game I like I install it only if necessary (as GGOTD) but mostly I just download it and put it in a simple queue that I create to await its turn.

One thing I found that was somewhat useful (back when I was squandering my money) is that Steam allows you to add any game to the list of Steam distributed games you own, so you don't have to hunt for it on your HD. Just start Steam and find the game on an alphabetically ordered list

I hope this can be helpful, even if just a little bit, to ya'll wonderful folks.

AxCut

oh dan.........don't start with the mango-mama. haven't you witnessed any of the duels.

she has lots of weapons and lots folks who have her back.

Well, I've only been on here since March 12th, but I still don't recognize those names.

Princess of the Order of Mango?

You could shorten that to P.O.M.

Would that make you a Pom-Pom girl?

Go Team!!!

Hello there my silly Pretzel
Ohh dear, you must be down right blind :D

Face, Archangel, Vampire Rat, AlexSJ, lwbjag, are still around.
Swan did a disappearing act some time ago. She was active in the Forum and also did SW reviews I think, not only games. She had a "Button" thingy like BThth. And she has a website, I should have it somewhere in my hummungus BMOrganizer - don't know why it isn't linked on her name? Should be!
Now we lost her AND BThoth :(

-Archangel is an ex-cop, he follows the asylum via his BBerry when he can, we'r careful w what we say 'round him ;) HeeeHeee
-Alex always signs "PuraVida", it's hard to miss here & the comments page.
-Not sure, but I think VRat is one of the Ladies of the Night? Not seen her in a bit... Where are u Sue?
-I don't know Michelle but she's around too.
So, really only Tiggs abandoned us :(

Hope this bit of trivia amuses you <(*o*)>
Royal Princess of the Order of Mango

=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=
Still, this Games Organizer idea is mighty interesting!!!
Donno if we ever got one? Been here almost 8 months, never saw one!!

And speaking of 9 months passing.....who the heck ARE all those posters above??? I don't recognize a single nickname! Maybe if they had a game organizer, they would still be showing up here.......

Wow!......9 months and no one else has posted in the forum on this thread? Does everyone have all their games now neatly organized and easily available? I thought not.

A PC Game Organizer would be a great piece of software for GOTD to offer. Maybe even on one of those games days of Saturday or Sunday, when a game is mysteriously not offered.

After all, if we could organize our games better, we would play them more often, and probably download even more of them. If I knew how to write programs, a game organizer would be my first project.

I think this thread deserves to be brought back for another look - as seems to be the fashion lately! (Ha! Ha!) Especially since we all have another month's worth of games collected at this point.

I've checked out a few Games Managers (in case tiggs and Swan don't have theirs quite up and running yet!) and I think Game Collector Pro (Swan's 3rd choice linked above) seems to have most of what we all want and would make a great GGOTD offering.

It has the added attraction of coming from a site (producer?) which slso offers a number of other organizers/managers, such as for movies, books, comics, photos, etc., which should appeal to this group:

http://www.collectorz.com/

This makes it perfect for us, given the premise - give them one free, they'll buy some more - which many companies that support this site prescribe to; or perhaps the more preferred (around here) - give us one free, then give us some more free! (See Merscom LLC for specific details - basically it involves giving away great stuff again and again, to the delight of GGOTD regulars!) policy could be encouraged. Either way, this looks like a company with whom we could develop a mutually beneficial relationship. And - most of their software (including Game Collector Pro) is Vista compatible.

Thanks Swan for starting this important thread and especially for bringing this appealing software to our attention. Keep up the good work!

Thanks BuBBy and Archangel. Nice to know I'm on the right track and not leading the sheep to the wolves.

The browser you are using - it shouldn't make any difference. The issue is what happens after that - how the setup progresses & ensuring that activation is run correctly.

I've been planning on putting together a detailed step by step guide (particularly for users with Winzip and using the (yucky) "wizard mode"). This is the biggest issue for users who never get to see the Activate.exe program.

@katbirdz, we all started where you did. Nothing wrong with hands on and usually a good learning lesson that one never forgets is when something goes BAD. LOL

Hey Bubby -

You kinda echoed my thoughts on the set-up process, I always feel so bad when I see several requests for help, or like yesterday - folks who had no idea where the game went.

I'm rather self-taught when it comes to my computer. Got the basics from my husband and the rest is well, time on my hands and willingness to explore. I can relate to anyone who looks at their computer and says "Huh?" and enjoy the process of translating.

Could you critique my advice up there? For instance, does it apply to computers running on something other than Firefox?

@Swan,

"A Common Cause Of The 0xC0000005 Error:

Usually you get this error message when performing a specific task, and if that happens you need to check the corresponding 3rd party's website/support department to see if they are aware of the problem"

In terms of what you can do immediately - scan & clean (if necessary) your PC with antivirus/spyware. Then go to http://memtest.org

download the floppy image, or create a bootable CD from the ISO image of the lastest version of memtest - and run it a few times (I'd suggest at least leave it running overnight). This should indicate if there are any serious problems with your PC memory.

If the problem keeps on occurring with DNA - I would get in touch with the developer as it might be a bug that has slipped through their beta testing. Otherwise it could be your graphics, sound or directX drivers.

http://www.un4seen.com/bass.html

Go there - at the top of the page is a download link - then pick a server & download the zip file (bass23.zip)

In it you need only the bass.dll file (92,728 bytes)

Put bass.dll into the game program directory.

I love the site and have downloaded many games

however...on this game...I get an error msg "missing bass.dll", have downloaded it twice and on 2 different pcs....same result

any ideas??
thanks

Hi Bubby! ;)

I have this nice surprise for you! :)

Exception: Access Violation (code 0xc0000005) at address 00458302 in thread 5D0
Module: DNA.exe
Logical Address: 0001:00057302

Product: D.N.A
Version: (Build 7.30.1137 beta)
Time Loaded: 00:00:04
Fullscreen: No
Primary ThreadId: 284

Nice of me to surprise you huh? ;P

I played the game for a good hour this morning - went out with David for a while - then thought I'd play again when we came back and do my review.

The fatal error occurred the second I clicked on the game shortcut.

By the way, did you realize we'd been given a beta version of the game?

I'm still able to launch the game again, so I'm not too sure what happened. Any ideas?
~ Swan

The program setup and how it works, is provided as it is supplied by the developer. The setup.exe for a game is often packaged differently from day to day.

Perhaps if all developers stuck to some agreed minimum standard for what constitutes a "program setup" the pc newbies would have some consistency and know what to expect when installing software. Today's game setup is just the result of a rushed or lazy developer.

For those who say they cannot activate or find the game after installation, these directions are what I do on my computer. Others may vary slightly. Basically, pay attention to where the computer installs the game and you should be able to find it and create your own shortcut to your desktop.:

1. Download above
2. Click Setup
3. Before you Click Unzip,take notice of which folder the computer plans to install to.
4. If you prefer a different folder, click Browse and highlight the folder you wish.
5. For a novice, you are better off letting the computer chose and just writing it down.
6. For a novice, leave the box that says "Overwrite files without prompting" alone.
7. Click Unzip and then Close.
8. You should see a box that says "Successfully activated", click "Okay" and it will open a page on Game Giveaway of the Day that says "D.N.A activated - what next?" Congratulations.

Now, to find your game in your computer, create a desktop icon and play:
1. Click START on your computer then click MY COMPUTER
2. Click "(C:)"
3. Click "Documents and Settings"
4. *IF* you have more than one user on your computer click your name
5. Find the folder you took note of in step 3 above and click it
6. You should now see a folder labeled "D.N.A.". Click it.
7. You will now see several folders and a blue icon that says "D.N.A."
8. Right click it and chose "Send to" then "Desktop"
9. The icon should now be on your desktop. Enjoy the game.

This may be overkill for most of you, but a lot of folks here are new at this site and computers in general. The installation doesn't give an option for an automatic icon. (I appreciate that fact actually)

Geez, I wish GGotD gave more detailed instructions for individual games since they differ in how they install. I am by no means a techie so I wonder if it has to do with the game, the developer, or a person's computer?

Hi Musika and Merril. Bonnie here. I'll try to tell you how I fixed my Nuclear Ball today. It'll take me a while to get this right, so bear with me.

1. Last night I downloaded and installed the fix from
http://www.ursegames.com/games/nuclear-ball/nuclear-ball-setup.exe
into a new folder and did not overwrite the existing file.
2. I have no idea why I did this.
3. It started on the famous Level 29 and after killing the dreaded floating box, I played it as a "trial version" for the entire 60 minutes at which point it became unplayable.
4 :(
5. This morning, after some experimentation, I uninstalled the trial version.
6. My original game installed May 22 works like a charm and does not say Trial Version.
7. I have no idea why this worked.

I hope you are able to fix yours, Musika. It's a great game isn't it? I went to level 46 this morning and look forward to all 100 levels. I think it was awsome of the company to issue a fix to us. I'm going to send them an email now to thank them.

Thanks for the original link to the fix, Merril.

Ability to export title names to a printer and/or cell phone. This would hopefully aid in not buying duplicates when shopping. ... 8-)

Oh! I'm not sure whether this really needs saying or not, but the game organizer should have the ability to LAUNCH the game from within itself.

Without this feature, it becomes nothing but a catalogue program for games.
~ Swan

Hello everyone, :)

Archangel: Please specify what your idea's are. What functions does the software need to do?

Well, firstly I love all of Alex's ideas - he's full of them!

Here are my specs:

- Attractive and intuitive UI;

- Program's own downloader AND installer;

- Ability for installer to be scheduled for automatic game downloads each day (from GgotD) - if desired;

- Download games from (personally pre-approved) gaming websites and automatically install them.

- Store website name, plus URL;

- Allocate a profile to each person using the program, so that they can set it up the way they want (a la any other software ;)

- Multiple ways to sort;

- Fields for publisher AND developer AND version;

- Tree structure with sub-folder capability, plus showing game icon;

- Drag and drop enabled (definitely!);

- Color coding enabled (definitely!);

- Automatic (preferred,) or manual storage of serial numbers, registration info., etc;

- Automatic classification of game age groups AND genres, as predefined by end user;

- Able to sort within a sort - eg., Puzzle Games -> Match 3s, or Puzzle Games -> Strategy;

- Each user to have their own favorites file;

- Notations, input field for each game if desired;

I'm sure if I thought a little harder on this, I could come up with more related features - I just don't have the time to brainstorm any more at the moment.

Hope that gives you a starting point Archangel. ;)

Have a great day everyone!
~ Swan

The menitioned game organizer might have been discontinued as I cannot find it on the homepage.
Anyway, I have recently started to add my application information to the ToDoList from Abstract Spoon. It's freeware and they have a wealth of fields to put information in. It is organized in tree-structure like Explorer, you can drag and drop the sub-tasks or if you so will titles. You can color-code them, add the serial number and above all you can copy&paste in screenshots to the description. You can filter by practically any category that you define and do advanced filters say: Developer and genre. You can also link a file to the entry and open up the folder, even displays its icon. The only thing it ain't doing is directly open up the linked file for playing, at least not my laptop.
http://img230.imageshack.us/my.php?image=todolistle0.jpg

Pura Vida!

Please specify what your idea's are. What functions does the software need to do?

Is the one you told about also a downloader from game sites? It sounds like it might be a part time project if anyone else is intersted.

HI
I found this but have NOT tried it- Ok

http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Utilities/Misc__Utilities/Game_Organizer.html

Game organizer is a database program designed and developed for organizing and enhancing play. You can not only store and retrieve game stored in your database but can also download the favorites from Internet directly to your application

It is 29.95 but I am sure that all you BRILLIANT programmers out there can come up with SOMETHING! LOL

These are just some brainstorming ideas: IF I GET AMBITIOUS I MAY TRY SOMETHING-lol

EVER MAYBE THINK OF CREATING YOUR OWN USING ACCESS (DATABASE) OR in a Spreadsheet in Excel? i HAVE FOUND 3 PROGRAMS THAT were just on givaway that will "accomplish the task" and with all the different editors, etc that we have gotten - Especially that FileFolder Program where u can change the color-etc. an Idea would be t0 use thE .gif or jpg or .bmp file so u can see at a glance.

One way I have organzed "on desktop" I create a shortcut for ALL the programs and we have shooting games etc and I give the folder that title - and shortcuts If I need more info then I just go to the program folder

iF SOMEONE TRIES THIS OR IF I DO - MAYBE THEY CAN REPORT BACK!

Hope this helped some.

Swan
You are right, and I am learning to frequent the forums for good info.
You must be a retired grandmother, too. ;-) Vampires are up all night long, rats are out at night, and so am I, now that I can keep my own hours. It started with a cute picture I found. Besides tame rats are cuddly critters. But my little dogs would think they are play-toys, so none around here.

*sighs

Well that was a botch up if ever I've seen one. :/

Here's that one relevant link again:

Coollector Forums

I have to get some sleep ...
~ Swan

Hi lwbjag,

I have 'Coollector! And I've also closely been monitoring the forums to keep up with programming progress. If he can create a game organizer as well as he created 'Coollector,' then I think we're in business! ;)

Hi Vampire Rat! (couldn't you have been 'Vampire Master' or something cool - but a rat!?! *shudders* ;)

Thanks for the support on this request - I appreciate it. I really wish that more of the 'commenters' (polite term,)would check out the forums - perhaps they'd get a lot more of their questions answered also.

Hi katbirdz! :)

When I want to play, I just scan the icons in that one folder on my desktop 'till something catches my interest.

When you've been here for months and months, have a broad range of games that you enjoy and download many games for ages 12 on upward - you soon find that you have games that number in the hundreds. Uh huh, you read that right - the hundreds!

With more games ahead, I want a way to catalogue (and contain shortcuts obviously to) all my games, enabling each user on our home network to have the ability to sort by a number of different personal criteria, thereby locating the desired game far more quickly without rearranging the original catalogue listing.

I think this will be a far more efficient way to cope with all the games that GOTD 'twists our arms' to download for free. ;)

You can't find all of your games? I install all games to one folder in C on my computer and not just let the download choose where it wants to install.

I install all mine to C:\games\developer\game - This shortens my menu listing considerably.

Eg:

C:\games\Reflexive Arcade\Agatha Christie: Death on the Nile
C:\games\Reflexive Arcade\Magic Academy

And now, I also have a special 'links' toolbar that I created, which is part of my Windows status bar where I can click and see them all listed by genre instead. (Alex's wonderful idea!)

You know katbirdz, I'll bet you'll be wanting an organizer before too long! ;)

I always look for your comments on the games page, and wish I could mark yours "found comment useful" as I can on the software page.

That's very kind, thank you. :)

I've wondered myself why we can't do this. I've noticed that it really has filtered a little of the trash out from the comments section over in the serious software give aways.

It's beyond me why the web master decided one site was worth it and not the other.

Thank you to all on this thread - perhaps we should start another one now about the latter. ;)
~ Swan

Edit: OMG... formatting. BuBBy ;)

Bluesquad gave GameCollector free the other month in January I think.

http://register.bluesquad.com/register/register_cov_gd.cfm?idcgd=233

The new giveaway this month, doesn't look like a bad program. I haven't installed it yet, if you want to download and get it for free it to use it for free (the full version) and install it as many times as you want, you must join their newsletter.

You do get some e-mails from time to time, some offers on programs and stuff like that. I made a junk e-mail account, well it wasn't made to be a junk e-mail account then, but that's where all my junk mail goes, it's only a free yahoo e-mail account so it doesn't matter, but most of it if not all of it is junk.

GameCollector is a good way to keep track of your games, but I have found out that it it's game selection is limited and it doesn't have info on all the games. For example games on realarcade.com, some they have info on and some they don't.

I have GameCollector 2.0 Pro don't know if their is a newer version or not. It's not only for Pc Games, you can use it to keep track of your xbox games, etc.

I honestly don't think I would spend $39.99 for it, I don't think I would really need it that bad.

Hmmmm, just had a thought. I renamed the shortcuts to the GGotD screensavers and prefaced them with a "z" (zPlanet Earth 3D Screensaver) so they would all be at the bottom of the list and not mixed in with the games. Maybe I will try prefacing with b(oard), sh(ooter), st(rategy), m(emory) to group the games.

Swan, keep watching Giveaway of the Day. With all the software and occasional duplication of services, I wouldn't be surprised to see a game organizer there sometime. I always look for your comments on the games page, and wish I could mark yours "found comment useful" as I can on the software page.

Why can't we mark whether or not we found a comment useful on the games page I wonder? We can on the regular software site and I think it cuts the crap.

Gee. I just have a GGotD folder on my desktop with direct shortcuts to all my games.

I go into PROPERTIES after right clicking the game and change the icon to a picture from inside the game itself. It takes a little time to find an icon in the game sometimes, but the visual cues are great - especially if I haven't played something for a while. When I want to play, I just scan the icons in that one folder on my desktop 'till something catches my interest.

lwbjag - I DO like your idea of separating games into genre folders such as Shooters, Strategy, Board, Memory etc. Short of a real organizing software menu, that could be very nice, thanks for the suggestion.

You can't find all of your games? I install all games to one folder in C on my computer and not just let the download choose where it wants to install. I turn down those offers for shortcuts and start up menu links when given an option and take the time to visit the download target to remove those pesky links and track backs. I have found that if I create my own I know where things are and don't "forget" games I like to play.