14 DAY TRIAL // There are some programs out there that you would never consider using until you actually use them. GameLauncher is such a program, which I initially downloaded to have a laugh, but actually found could be quite useful. Apparently a waste of binary code, the program boasts being able to launch your games, but it's all in the way it does this, that makes this program actually useable.
Game Launcher? Initially you might think that this program is akin to those file launchers the likes of LaunchBar and Quicksilver. It is not. Those programs offer a great way to quickly find the file you want and interact with it, no matter where it might be located.
This program works in a somewhat reverse manner. You need to know exactly where the game you want is and either navigate to it from within the program, or from within the finder and then drag and drop it to launch.
As you might have already deduced, this program does not make the launching of the game, or program itself any faster, by any means, however, it does help a great deal with the step that usually precedes launching a game.
The actual use The most important thing that this program does is not the launching of the game or program itself, but rather what comes before it. It will automatically look at all currently running applications and present them to you in a list, for fine tuning purposes, after which it will quit all those applications and launch the game.
GameLauncher will quit everything it can get its hands on, even the Finder, but it will not kill important background system processes that can make the system unstable. Other than the bare essentials, everything else will be quit except GameLauncher itself and the game that is launched.
After the game is quit, GameLauncher will proceed to restore all those applications you had running, thus returning you to the state you were before so you can get back to work or whatever you were doing.
Useless? In all fairness, you can do all that by yourself, by hand, and it will not take up that much time. So from this point of view the usefulness of the program depends heavily of how lazy the user is.
On the game related usefulness of quitting all other applications, the documentation states that games need as much processing power they can get their hands on, and quitting all applications serves to provide this. This is not exactly precise, as only those games which do not make use of 2D acceleration are actually processor intensive, however, all games like RAM, and quitting all open applications does indeed make a lot more of it available. This, of course also depends heavily on how much RAM you have? a boatload of RAM means that you can safely leave other applications running in the background without any issues.
Forget the games In terms of games, I find this application to be less than great. Sure, it can help you cut down on the minute it takes you to quit all open applications and the extra minute it takes you to start them again. However, it is a small gem if you often work in demanding applications, doing demanding things. You can use this program to launch any application, making it ideal for quitting everything you don't need before firing up a demanding application like Maya or Photoshop, getting the work you need done and then firing back the other applications.
Once again, this can also be done by hand; however, when in the mindset of working, the little extra automation is actually welcome, whereas when it comes to games, one usually takes great pleasure in quitting everything work related in order to relax in a game.
The pro version Ironically enough, this application would become tenfold more useful if some of the features mentioned in the documentation for a possible pro version were actually implemented.
The ability to create 'launch files' that you could double click on, and they contained the application you wanted launched as well as list of programs to leave running would be great for switching between 'workloads' and getting the programs required for each up and running.
Also the ability to remember if applications were hidden or minimized, window positions and open documents would also go a long way? a very long way.
The Good Makes quitting and relaunching a lot of applications pre and post game launch a snap.
The Bad Not incredibly useful in its current iteration, being little more than a minute saver once every couple of hours at most.
The Truth Apparently useless software, it can be used well, but it's not something extremely useful. Judge for yourself.
Here are some screenshots, click to enlarge:
