Games library (with database), and extend scraper interpeter/engine to include games?

I though that since I also request that the scraper parser interpeter/engine be extended to include music and weather then I might as well be bold enough to request that it also be extended to include games.

Using several different websites the the source for the first metadata scraper(s) XML for the games, like; thevideogamedb.com, EmuXtras (emuxtras.net), allgame.com (All Game Guide) and/or gamefaqs.com (GameFAQs) and/or giantbomb.com (Giant Bomb), MobyGames (mobygames.com), nesguide.com, and SNESguide

Also video game trailers could be scraped from gametrailers.com, and/or eurogamer.net (EuroGamer), Dtrailer.com, and/or GameSpot.com as a bonus, (similar to how XBMC already scrape movie trailers via the AMT plugin), and additional bonuses would be game rankings from gamerankings.com, and game reviews, ratings, and comments from metacritic.com and gamespot.com or similar sites.

Add to that a dedicated "Games" section to XBMC GUI (which includes emulator ROM listings) with a library mode (tied to a SQL database) for filtering and searching.

allgame is a new website from AMG (All Media Guide), the company that also makes allmusic and allmovie. The allgame website and database is still in the BETA phase but looks to be very mature.

An alternative site to scrape for game meta data is gamefaqs.com which like allgame also support many game-console platforms as well as PC games.

The Xbox games list can be found here on allgame.com:
http://www.allgame.com/cg/agg.dll?p=agg&sql=5:26052~T1
and here on gamefaqs.com:
http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/xbox/

Example (Halo 2 for the Xbox) on allgame.com:
http://www.allgame.com/cg/agg.dll?p=agg&sql=1:41176
and here on gamefaqs.com:
http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/xbox/home/562116.html

Additional information available for that entry:
http://www.allgame.com/cg/agg.dll?p=agg&sql=1:41176~T5
http://www.allgame.com/cg/agg.dll?p=agg&sql=1:41176~T2
http://www.allgame.com/cg/agg.dll?p=agg&sql=1:41176~T3

Metadata information provided are:
Title
Synopsis (plot)
Cover Poster
Screenshots (thumbnails and large pictures)
Platform
AMG Rating
ESRB Rating
Genre
Styles
Developer
Publisher
Release Date
AMG Game ID (only for internal database use)
Similar Games (not sure if this would be of any interest to XBMC)

Lists and (SQL) search are also available for practically all other game platforms released in the last 20-years.

Also game-trailers (URL's to streaming video) which can be gotten from one or several third-party websites.


What do you think? Good idea? Any comments on suggestions about this 'games library' concept?


PS! I have started a separate feature suggestion forum discussion thread for Game FanArt/Backdrops, see:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=43766

i can say that i have no interest for games at all. i would ofc be willing to lend a hand to whomever else might like to take on this endevour (regarding the scrapers..)

The creators of allmusic.com now have a movie and videogame database sites as well the game site is in beta, is it possible to have a videogame database in xbmc with the media info view (since there is a description for each game at the site) for those who have a lot of games.

Here is an example
http://www.allgame.com/cg/agg.dll?p=agg&sql=1:50443

Info they have for the games:
Title
Platform
AMG Rating
ESRB Rating
Genre
Styles
Developer
Publisher
Date
etc...

Its a good idea but I think you will find from the dev point of view there will be little interest since most of the actual coders don't really play games much / at all anymore

ive already done the scrapers for allmusic/allmovie/allgame feel free to patch the code to allow for music/games scraper xmls

This site opens up a lot of really kickass possiblities. I'm at work right now and the corporate proxy blocks my access to that site Anyways, this would actually be pretty easy from a dev point of view, because the code is like 90% done already. The first step would be to get the scapers in place and add the additional stuff in the Programs database. Once thats done then the skin engine would need to be updated to make the additional info available for display. Somehow using this stuff with emulators / ROMs would be amazing.

Nuts... would be a sweet idea. A Media center that has detailed information (or the ability to aquire it) for ALL the media it makes use of....

I like the idea too.

Also like the idea of having individual files for scrapers.. sort of like plugins so that they could be maintainned, hosted and shared easily.

has there been any more progress on this feature? as i understand mediaportal allready is able to scrape allgame - i think the feature would be really great, even if it is technically limited to the xbox games on hd (emulator support would be wicked though)

there is a wealth of info on the page such as reviews or control info

No programmer has volunteered, so no. I put it up as a Google Summer of Code project suggestion though.