Progess Report for June 2021 : v1.21.x
Download Nostlan for FREE and if you enjoy the app, support the development of Nostlan on Patreon!
Join the Discord or contact me by email [email protected]. This update log covers changes made for v1.21x. Unfamiliar with Nostlan?
This update adds aesthetic hand written labels to games without cover or box images. I've also added a new feature that enables users to manually identify any misidentified or unidentified games. Select a game box, go to the edit menu, click on the title label, and starting editing it. You'll start seeing autocomplete suggestions from Nostlan's game database. When you click on a suggestion, Nostlan will try to auto-download images for that game. Watch this super quick demo video to see it in action!
| unidentified game | searching for images | success! |
|---|---|---|
 |
 |
 |
| If a game is not identified by Nostlan, the game ID label says "UNIDENTIFIED". | After I identify the game, the ID label turns blue and shows the game ID. Nostlan tries to find images for it. | Success! Cover and disc art was found by Nostlan! |
Note that some games are indeed unidentifiable, not found in Nostlan's database, such as mods/hacks and obscure titles. However, you should always try to identify games before adding images to them using the image browser since Nostlan might be able to find images automatically for you.
If Nostlan couldn't ✨ auto-magically ✨ find high quality images for one of your games, the image browser feature enables you to download images right within Nostlan using an in-app web browser. It's literally game changing!
All it takes is three steps. First select the type of image you want to download (front of the cover, full cover, front of the box, disc, etc.) and Nostlan will do a search for it (on DuckDuckGo) using the game's title and image type you specified. You can also edit the search terms and do another search if necessary. When you find an image you like click on it and then click the download button. Nostlan will download the image right into game's image folder. 🤯
For now the image must be actually clicked on for Nostlan to work its magic, not swiped into view using the arrow keys. Also note that game box images take priority over cover images when the game boxes are rendered. The fact that a web browser can be run inside Nostlan is possible because Nostlan is an Electron ⚛️ app. Electron is built on top of Chromium, a web browser. I thought I might as well take advantage of it with features like this one which are not available on any other game launcher!
To open the game's image folder, press the button labelled ImgDir (Image directory) on the edit menu.
This update adds open box menus I made for the Nintendo 3DS and PS3. Now every supported system in Nostlan now has an open box menu! Also the open box menu is now preloaded during the game library loading sequence, so there is way less loading delay when opening game boxes.
Nostlan's menus have been translated to three new languages! Huge thanks to elBandoler for their Spanish and Hebrew translation and TotorRuns aka HP ⚡ kosarials for their German translation. 🥳
Thanks to the Nostlan community's feedback and issue reporting on Discord and Github, many fixes and improvements to Nostlan have been made since January. 👍
- mouse navigation improved, you can now click outside of a menu to go back
- support for changes made to MAME that had broke Nostlan support
- support for Xenia's new command line args
- the default emulator for switch is now Ryujinx
- the default emulator for ds is now melonDS
- app builds are now available for new Apple ARM chip Macs (not tested)
- consolidation of user preferences files
- single direction scroll on the game library menu is now the default
- [v1.21.2] updated Nostlan's Nintendo Switch game database
Over the past few months some major milestones have been achieved towards the release of Nostlan version 2.0. Being a Patreon member not only gives you access to premium features but also supports the development of additional features that will be available to everyone! 🚀
- [v1.15] users can install emulator apps from within Nostlan using the automated install feature
- If Nostlan gets 10 Patreon supporters there will be an update to Nostlan that will enable faster batch image downloads that will run in parallel instead of downloading images one at a time. Free tier users will get a 2x increase, patreon member's speed will be 8x or more.
- If Nostlan gets 15 Patreon supporters, custom PC game support will be added.
- If Nostlan gets 20 Patreon supporters, N64 support will be added.
- If Nostlan gets 25 Patreon supporters, users will be able to drag and drop games to import them into their game libraries.
- If Nostlan gets 40 Patreon supporters, users will be able to use Nostlan to download games from the internet directly into your game libraries. (Nostlan will never store any links to download game roms. Nostlan does not endorse piracy. This feature will be similar to the image browser download feature added in this v1.21 update.)
Patreon supporters get premium features for as little as $1 a month!
- backup/sync game saves to the cloud or local storage device
- unlock alternate UI theme color palettes
- custom UI theming, lets you change the intro loading screens and make your own color palettes
- once the 10 patreon supporter goal is reached, batch image downloads for patrons will be at least 8x faster
Even though I decided to make this project open source and FREE to use, it still took a lot of work and a long time to develop. If you appreciate my work so far and will continue to use the app please support its development. Thank you!
- UI translations for Russian (50% complete) and Japanese (0% complete), if you'd like to help with other languages let me know!
- after v2.0 is released I'm going to make a lot of video tutorials and promos showing off the app. My goal is to have 50 Patreon supporters after v2.0 is released.
- support for more javascript based emulators in Nostlan
- an extension protocol that will let users add support for other system's game libraries and emulators
- support for the Xbox 360 arcade game library