diff --git a/src/BizHawk.Client.EmuHawk/Program.cs b/src/BizHawk.Client.EmuHawk/Program.cs
index 3486bfd2d1..3a61f32e6e 100644
--- a/src/BizHawk.Client.EmuHawk/Program.cs
+++ b/src/BizHawk.Client.EmuHawk/Program.cs
@@ -316,6 +316,9 @@ namespace BizHawk.Client.EmuHawk
 			try
 			{
 				GameDBHelper.BackgroundInitAll();
+#if BIZHAWKBUILD_RUN_ONLY_GAMEDB_INIT
+				GameDBHelper.WaitForThreadAndQuickTest();
+#else
 				MainForm mf = new(
 					cliFlags,
 					workingGL,
@@ -362,6 +365,7 @@ namespace BizHawk.Client.EmuHawk
 						movieSession.Movie.Save();
 					}
 				}
+#endif
 			}
 			catch (Exception e) when (!Debugger.IsAttached)
 			{
diff --git a/src/BizHawk.Emulation.Cores/GameDBHelper.cs b/src/BizHawk.Emulation.Cores/GameDBHelper.cs
index e1c7f8afb3..a7aafbf1ff 100644
--- a/src/BizHawk.Emulation.Cores/GameDBHelper.cs
+++ b/src/BizHawk.Emulation.Cores/GameDBHelper.cs
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 using System.IO;
 
+using BizHawk.Common;
 using BizHawk.Common.PathExtensions;
 using BizHawk.Emulation.Common;
 using BizHawk.Emulation.Cores.Arcades.MAME;
@@ -19,5 +20,13 @@ namespace BizHawk.Emulation.Cores
 			BootGodDb.Initialize(bundledGamedbPath);
 			MAMEMachineDB.Initialize(bundledGamedbPath);
 		}
+
+		public static void WaitForThreadAndQuickTest()
+		{
+			RomStatus StatusFor(string hashDigest)
+				=> Database.CheckDatabase(hashDigest)?.Status ?? RomStatus.NotInDatabase;
+			Console.WriteLine(StatusFor(SHA1Checksum.EmptyFile)); // NotInDatabase
+			Console.WriteLine(StatusFor("3064E664D34859649B67559F0ED0C2FFD6948031")); // BadDump
+		}
 	}
 }