Tools for rom informations....

[gogol]

Hello folks,

first post here, this looks like a great forum!!

I am looking for a tool that collects information / images about emulator roms and does a file export.

Tools I've found:

* myGames (http://www.getmygames.com)
* Game Collectorz (http://www.collectorz.com/game/)

Both tools have limits and disadvantages (too buggy / too expensive :-/ ).

Does anybody know about alternatives?

The goal is to integrate game information into a open source HTPC application called MediaPortal (see http://mediaportal.sourceforge.net ) and I'm one of the plugin coders there....

Cheers,

Daniel

 

[MasterPhW]

A file export? Explain please a little bit better, don't understand what are you meaning.

Rom informations can mostly seen in the emus itslef, grab a open source emu like 1964, PJ64, VBA etc and look into the source for the different comamnds you will need to make a plugin which can read and show informations of these roms... sorry, my only idea, propably it'll help a little bit!

 

[Clements]

GoodTools
NSRT (Snes)

 

[gogol]

next attempt

A file export? Explain please a little bit better, don't understand what are you meaning.

Hello,

You're right, this was a bit of a messy post :whistling

Second try:

First some screenshots, this is how stuff appears on the TV:

info screen for one n64 game
overview for available n64 games

Here you can see the n64 game list in overview mode
and the details of one single game.

Now I'm looking for an easy way to get the information and screenshots for a
rom collection.

The mentioned myGames tool (getmygames.com) does the following:

* Scans your roms
* Retrieves informations from different websites using some nifty scripts
* Saves all the collected stuff
* export the collected information into a ascii-file (see below)

In MediaPortal I can re-import the file and have all I need to
display informations and launch the games using the remote control...

My problem lies in the myGames tool
- too many bugs
- not free
- no sourcecode available
- MSAccess based (ok this point is personal <g>)

and I'm looking for alternative ways to reliably get the infos...

I was checking out the mentioned "Game Collectorz", but they don't
want to add ROM-info to the games and are not interested in the
emulator scene... and it's way too expensive, but has a very nice GUI
and cool ideas!

So other alternatives are very welcome... I hope that this is understandable now

Thanks,

Daniel

P.S.

Here are 2 entries of a *.my file export from the myGames tool:

[1]
title=AAAHH! Real Monsters
Category="System","Super Nintendo"
Category="Genre",[Unknown]
Category="Country","USA"
Category="Alpha","A-E"
Category="Company","[Unknown]"
Category="Year","[Unknown]"

Produced=[Unknown]
Review=5
Overview="blablablablabla"
chain="Game","C:\emu\zsnes\roms\AAAHH! Real Monsters (U).smc"
images="C:\emu\zsnes\imgs\AAAHH! Real Monsters (U).png"
[2]
title=Adventures of Batman & Robin, The
Category="System","Super Nintendo"
Category="Genre",[Unknown]
Category="Country","USA"
Category="Alpha","A-E"
Category="Company","[Unknown]"
Category="Year","[Unknown]"

Produced=[Unknown]
Review=5
Overview="blablablablabla"
chain="Game","C:\emu\zsnes\roms\Adventures of Batman & Robin, The (U).smc"
images="C:\emu\zsnes\imgs\Adventures of Batman & Robin, The (U)_4.png"

 

[Doomulation]

Hmm, export you say? I know of tools that displays information in gui. You could take such a source and compile your own app to export information, couldn't you? If you need some sources, I can provide you with one.

I also take it that you're gathering info for all systems, hm? If only you have the header information, such a tool is easy to write.

 

[gogol]

Hi Doomulation,

Yes, some sources would be very nice!!

Maybe I'll end up writing my own data gatherer........

Thanks, Daniel

 

[Doomulation]

A tool that incorporates info about n64 rom headers that I write long ago is still present at http://pj64utility.emuxhaven.net/downloads.htm.
I wrote it in VB, but it should be clear enough to read. Take a look at Global.bas and look up the functions ReadRomHeader as well as the TranslateCountry functions. They should hold the data you seek hopefully.

If it isn't clear enough, then maybe I can help you further.

 

[gogol]

A tool that incorporates info about n64 rom headers that I write long ago is still present [....]

Great stuff Doomulation!! I didn't think of your approach to read the data out of the roms directly but this is reliable once you've got it - and you don't need to be online...
Get this, match some screenshots out of the GREAT http://www.screenshotarchive.com packs and the only thing missing is a review and a rating... and that's it...

Thanks a lot, dude!

Daniel

 

[Doomulation]

No problem. Glad I could help.