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Games Library (Game & Emulator database + launcher) development project, help wanted!
Maybe someone could make a scraper for NintendoAGE

http://www.nintendoage.com/index.cfm?Fus...ass_ID=1,6

The NES section seems fairly complete with box art and other info.
If someone wants to a scraper I think the best solution will be to create a lvalue attribute with the different platforms in GetSettings element. In that way we would not need to deal with the different platforms in program library.

Elements to scrape is found in my list above, in lowercase, without dots and spaces. Would be graet if someone created a simple scraper to test with.
Hi guys, Ive been using xbmc for around 4 months now, first on my old xbox then I outgrew its capabilities and started from scratch building a htpc. I have been following development on this thread since day one and I havent actually registered until today when I really have come to my wits end. I understand how it annoys users when noobs ask stupid questions without reading up first so I can promise that I have done everything in my power to avoid asking for help until now! I have struggled through learning to code in python whilst I was adapting leo's launcher plugin to fit my needs (thanks for all that hard work by the way leo!) and after deciding I wasnt doing my games justice without a proper library as envisioned by this thread I went off to learn svn and merging/building releases.

Yesterday I managed to finally merge and build the gameslibrary3 branch with the most recent trunk and to my horror I could not get XBMC to run properly afterwards. Now I understand you guys really wouldnt want to put out any kind of a release untill it reaches a sufficient milestone but I am at the point now where I feel I must make a plea for someone with sufficient knowledge to please spare 15 mins and build a windows distro with the branch included for us budding onlookers, I dont mind if there is no scraper compatability or anything I just need to have an environment which I can add to start from, I can comfortably edit xml files and sort out all the thumbs and ext paths I just need the environment you guys have worked so hard on to get me started! So if someone come be so kind to help out a very enthusiastic and willing to learn noob I would be very very apreciative! Thanks guys Smile
It could have been merged easily if it was merged few months ago when its coded. the developers didn't want to merge it when it was easy and continued developing and changing the main branch and that made the merge you described so hard & broken.
if you'll try to build the branch (gamelibrary) as is, you'll see that it's stable and fully functional
Sorry for being a bit slow with responding guys. I have been working on filling the database in the meantime. I am currently at around 30.000 individual game releases. I am doing it rougly first, but I have thought of the following:

GAMES
- ID
- Parent ID (To group the same game release on different platforms and regions)
- Name
(- Japanese Name)
- Region
- System
- Serial #
- Barcode
- Developer (Main, Port, Assistant, ...)
- Publisher
- Release Date
- MSRP
- Max. Players
- Genre(s)
- Supported Peripherals
- Ratings (ESRB, PEGI, USK, ...)
- User Rating
- Description
- CRC

Additional media:
- Box Art
- Fanart
- Screenshots (At least title and one In-Game)
Sounds awesome!
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Quote:[b] SPILL [/ B]
- ID
- Foreldre ID (til å gruppere det samme spillet release på forskjellige plattformer og regioner)
- Navn
(- Japansk navn)
- Region
- System
- Serial #
- Barcode
- Utvikler (Main, Port, assistent, ...)
- Publisher
- Utgivelsesdato
- MSRP
- Maks. Spillere
- Sjanger (e)
- Støttet Peripherals
- Ratings (ESRB, PEGI, USK, ...)
- User Rating
- Beskrivelse
- CRC

Ytterligere media:
- Box Art
- Fanart
- Skjermbilder (Minst tittel og en In-Game)

Looks like you're on something, but I don't see why you have japanese title. What is System? Wouldn't that be what parent id refers to?
I woud also add perspectives.
Why do you have barcodes?
What serials is there?
Lightbulb 
[BRAINSTORMING] Metadata and Artwork Database for starting a Emulator Games Library

I'm currently on the stage of making a pre-filled DB containing metadata for nes, snes, n64, sms, smd (and gameboy when those first are done).

Although I'm currently not going to include 30000+ games, as I see no point in that myself today. So I will just be concentrating on eu/us/some translated games.

Approx 2900 games in the DB right now.

Reason for starting on a db before requesting scrapers is to ensure a roms scraper for XBMC not stopping to work due to sites going down or changing.

How far along are you guys with your own db's? and are you (like me) creating the databases for use with a allround xbmc game scraper?

Since i have no clue how to include this in xbmc i might give up xbmc as a frontend for now myself.. and keep track on this project and help out where i can.



My current db layout:

id,
platform,
title,
publisher,
developer,
releaseyear,
genres,
perspective,
description,
credits,
mobygamesurl,
mobygamesrating,
wikipediaurl,
youtubeurl

Coverart and screenshots (up to 10 pr game max) have been downloaded and linked to id in DB.

I've also making a script that downloads the gameplay videos of youtube (to ensure videos used are not removed from youtube), that will also be linked to the games in the DB.


If I can help or we all can 'join forces' please let me know!

Emulator plugin/scraper for XBMC
Reason for doing this: Firstly it's because I'm a huge fan of old games from nintendo/sega etc. Secondly because I really want to have the games browseable in a better way than just filenames. I also want to make the browsing feel more nostalgic (hence the .tbn for cover and -fanart for gameplay/fanart images). I'm going to create a database by scraping/manually inputting data for a test database very soon. I guess the database for browing "my emulator games) will have to be made outside XBMCs own database? The information/cover/gameplay/fanart I think could be scraped of
a page related to this project can host (which I'll make and host if the project goes further). I know alot of people download rom-collections ending up having thousands of roms. Usually you only play a fraction of those. So this is not a project meant to cover for example over 8000 roms from the GoodNES collection etc. This is meant to serve those who want to add the games THEY enjoy playing. In my case that would entail perhaps 40-50 or so NES games and 15-20 SNES games and some other games from SMS,SMD,GBA etc and I do believe having those accessible from XBMC like with movies,
music,tvshows etc would be a real treat if done correctly.

I'm not that familiar with the XBMC sourcecode etc yet so atm this project is at a 'brainstorming' level. The main thought so far is to have a plugin to browse your roms (pref. from a database, not files), and launch an emulator to play it, then return to XBMC where you left of after finished playing. How will this work directly from XBMC? I do not know yet Tongue.

Legal issues?
I do believe most covers and gameplay images are free to use for 'anything' since wikipedia and a bunch of other sites are using them without any information about licencing (that I can find).
Correct me if I'm wrong here. The rom files themselves are usually not free to use however and information about obtaining/sharing these files will not be covered or supported in this project.

What question/problems/thoughts needs answers/comments at the current stage?
1) Since I doubt XBMC will include emulators in XBMC itself (not dissing XBMC Smile just stating what I think is factual): How will launching emulators work from XBMC? Can XBMC contain the application to autoresume XBMC on exit from the emulator? Will selecting/launching emulators work platform indepentandly?
2) Filestructure for roms, covers, fanart good enough? (look below for a picture. Perhaps add a .nfo for the information (year, description, series etc) fetched from database?).
3) Database/scraper hosting? I believe I can host this on a 100mbit .nl box while developing and testing if the project goes past brainstorming stage.
4) Is there a programmer out there willing to give this some work? Smile I'm working on the database layout and inputting/scraping games myself.
5) Anything I've missed that makes this impossible or hard to make? Or that would improve or make this easier?
6) Should the project focus on browsing local files (with info/covers/fanart fetched from online database) or should it in some way incorporate a database solution for each user to make browsing more dynamic like we have with movies etc (using consoles, producer, year, series etc to sort/list roms)? Reason for this formulated as a question is due to the fact that I'm not to familiar with XBMC database to know if it's possible to use that in this matter.

I do believe some will try to "shoot me down" for trying to introduce a project/plugin in this early stage, and perhaps there already is a solution doing this (havn't found anything "advanced" tho..).
I just killed 7 hours at work today (not alot to do tonight Tongue) and thought it would be nice to hear what those who also wants something like this thinks of the idea.

Database example layout (will include more fields):
The information in this database (which is planned to be used with a rom-scraper) will be heavily filled by me, but I've also thought about creating a webpage where people can add if they find anything missing/wrong.

Image

Example file structure:
Here is a look at what I thought the file structure could
look like. Nfo's are in RED since I don't know if we can
get info from a local database yet.

Image

Example consoles:
More will be added ofcourse.

Image
Plugin features:
A quick overview of wanted plugin features:

Image
Image

Scraper database:
Short intro to some of the fields in the database example:

Image

Regardless of how this project progresses I'm starting the cover/gameplay/fanart scrapinghunt tonight and will make a database for 10-15 roms from different consoles to test abit myself. So, if anyone feels this is something they would like see developed or wants to join in on creating let me know!
Example of ZELDA on wikipedia (easy to scrape). Goes for most of the nintendo/sega games. This is for the scraper database i'll create.

Here i get cover, developer, publisher, designers, composers, series etcetcetc.

Image
http://super.nesguide.com/ and http://nesguide.com/
can be used for scraping nes/snes aswell. also containing youtube video for "all" games.
Search through the forums, people have already started this and given up many times. The discussions that have already taken place will be valuable to you if you're serious.
Always read the XBMC online-manual, FAQ and search and search the forum before posting.
For troubleshooting and bug reporting please read how to submit a proper bug report.

If you're interested in writing addons for xbmc, read docs and how-to for plugins and scripts ||| http://code.google.com/p/xbmc-addons/
rwparris2 Wrote:Search through the forums, people have already started this and given up many times. The discussions that have already taken place will be valuable to you if you're serious.

Will do that.. This just came to me tonight so I havn't checked the forum wholeheartedly yet.

Done scripts to fetch all info needed for NES and SNES now. Cover aswell. And youtube vids for almost all games on both consoles =)

Thanks for the headsup!
Just a quick mockup of how it might look if someone is able to join the project. The database and cover/gameart files are now filling up with NES and SNES today.. =)

Image
Just contacted http://www.mobygames.com asking for permission to use their superior database for cover/screens etc instead of scraping wikipedia, nesguide etc.. I feel this should be done by the books if it's to go anywhere.

About the plugin itself. I'm not that much of a coder.. If there is any plugin coder out there that wants to jump in on this at any point let me know.
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Games Library (Game & Emulator database + launcher) development project, help wanted!1