Spectabis | Advanced Game Launcher (Frontend)

[Nuggets]

Attention
I've been using Spectabis 1.4 for a couple of days and even though the UI could use some work, I was pretty satisfied with the frontend. That is until now!
When I started Spectabis earlier I was greeted by the following screen http://imgur.com/a/QCmZf.
Basically the program tells me that my "trial" has ended and to continue using the program I have to pay a hefty amount of money. There isn't even the option to use the program with reduced functionality!
The thing is... nowhere does is say that this is only a trial. On the contrary the git says it's a free frontend. That's why I want to know from the developer what this is about and whether it's legit.

Possible explanations:
1. I caught some malware - can't be as this prompt is embedded in the program and looks like a natural part of it. Even has the program's name in it
2. it's some old code that triggered randomly and shouldn't be in it - I doubt it and it's also questionable why it existed in the first place
3. the dev added this recently to earn money - it's their choice but some notice would've been nice. My honest opinion on those prices... that won't sell at all. Maybe 15$ for lifetime at max
4. the dev got hacked and someone added this to scam users - possible, and people should be warned about this

Oh yeah. I tried unpacking the zip again and overwriting all files, didn't work. I also looked through my registry and deleted everything related to Spectabis, still doesn't work. I'm no expert but I suspect that the license check is hidden in the registry under some different name, which is - again - bad practice and possibly malicious.

Maybe all of this is just a misunderstanding or minor issue, in which case I'll apologize immediately. But should this be some scam/hack type of thing I want people to be warned and hope that the program doesn't install ransomware or something...

On the frontend itself: the design is quite simplistic but I like that I can edit the settings of each game easily. I would improve the browsing from options to library by adding some (back/forward) buttons or menues.
An issue I encountered all the time while the "trial" still worked: the notification that "There are x new games in your directory" did not work at all! It didn't add anything and the notification could not be dismissed (IIRC).
Another minor annoyance is that whenever I select a folder with my ISOs the program overrides the location of PCSX2. That's why I had to add my games manually.

Well, I switched to PCSX2Bonus and luckily I could use the config folders of Spectabis. I spent quite some time on those settings :/
I hope this issue is nothing minor and the dev responds on this trial issue. Oh, and if this turns out to be an April Fool's joke, this is not funny...

Cheers

[FaithLV]

I hope this issue is nothing minor and the dev responds on this trial issue. Oh, and if this turns out to be an April Fool's joke, this is not funny...

Also, nothing should be written to registry. If you don't trust it, you can read the code and compile yourself - https://github.com/Spectabis/WPF_Spectabis

[Nuggets]

Thanks for the quick reply. So I just opened Spectabis and it works again. Btw the notification about new games does auto-hide, so I remembered wrong

So if I get this right, the whole "trial" thing was really an April Fool's joke? Honestly, I think that's in bad taste. Software should never be part of those jokes except when you make a specific "joke/fake release" on said day, not something coded into the regular release that triggers on certain days.
The "horse armor DLC" would have been acceptable though, but I didn't get that one.
In case the notification I got would've gone away and even told me it was a joke after I clicked on one of the payment options... well I didn't want to click those just to test it. To me it looked like a scam   IMO if you want to make those jokes they should never look like potentially malicious stuff, so you might want to rework this joke^^

I'm an amateur so I'd most likely overlook the important parts when checking the code. I just assumed that the "license check" had to be hidden in the registry because I deleted and replaced everything with a fresh copy. I didn't think you'd code it into the program itself^^

At first I wanted to use PCSX2Bonus, then I noticed the more recent Spectabis, so I went with yours. For now I'll switch and see how the "original" does in comparison. I may give Spectabis another try when I've cooled-down a bit  

Oh, and I meant "nothing major" in my earlier post hehe

Cheers

[orac31]

Can you help please I can use this program with launchbox but I cant exit the emulator even if I just use the program on its own the esc key wont work(ok if I just use pcsx)

my bad when run as admin its fine

thanks for your app

[FaithLV]

1.0.5 Release!

• "Input Settings" button in options will be disabled if using Global Controller profile
  
• Minor code cleanups
  

Fixed:

• When no logs files are found, Spectabis crashes
  
• Changing game title reloads library
  
• Compiling releated issues
  
• Resources folder is leaked into drive directory on each launch
  

Download: https://github.com/Spectabis/WPF_Spectab.../tag/1.0.5

[Bositman]

Thanks for the new X new games detected (show all) prompt
3 things wrong with it still:
1)At launch, I didn't have time to click show all, the prompt faded out too fast (maybe it was counting down time since the GUI was not initiated?). I got it the second time I browsed through settings then back to library
2)After pressing show all, I had to click 200 check boxes to select all my games, which is faster than the previous method but still a select all button would do wonders
3) After adding all but 3 or 4, I still get the prompt that says about 67 games, and when i click show all I see the actual 3-4 that I left

Also all games I added this way did not get box art downloaded automatically so now i have to rescrape all of them one by one (a rescrape all would be nice too

[FaithLV]

Thanks for the new X new games detected (show all) prompt
3 things wrong with it still:
1)At launch, I didn't have time to click show all, the prompt faded out too fast (maybe it was counting down time since the GUI was not initiated?). I got it the second time I browsed through settings then back to library
2)After pressing show all, I had to click 200 check boxes to select all my games, which is faster than the previous method but still a select all button would do wonders
3) After adding all but 3 or 4, I still get the prompt that says about 67 games, and when i click show all I see the actual 3-4 that I left

Also all games I added this way did not get box art downloaded automatically so now i have to rescrape all of them one by one (a rescrape all would be nice too

You can hold and drag to check the boxes in game list. 
Thanks for your feedback, I'll try to fix the issue with game prompt when I get around to it.

[aysew]

Hello, I have been attempting to use your frontend and I have run into an issue.

Whenever I attempt to boot a game, I am promptly shown this error message:
 

Any idea on how to deal with this?

Thanks in advance!

[aysew]

Well I solved my own problem. I just installed all my files into the directory requested haha.. duh! Mary Jane got the best of me again  . 
Is it supposed to function this way? Just curious!

[FaithLV]

Well I solved my own problem. I just installed all my files into the directory requested haha.. duh! Mary Jane got the best of me again  . 
Is it supposed to function this way? Just curious!

It's better to open PCSX2 once and configure a "default" setting before using Spectabis.