Games Library (Game & Emulator database + launcher) development project, help wanted!

VictorV Wrote:A port is not the solution. It would be better to use xbmc skinning library and make a re-write.

But I think xbmc with a game library and launching through external emulators would be way better than the xport project and xtras over at xbox-scene. No offence tho. They are doing a great job, but collecting all the correct roms and packs of artworks are not for the masses.

it is for the masses and it might even help the masses imo. no offence at all taken as the artwork collection along with the rom collection is something i know alot will enjoy not having to search for roms, download roms and in addition have all artwork for it is a retro gamers dream. well half-dream since we'd need a frontend supporting it outside the xbox.

i agree that the xport/xbox part isnt for the masses tho. you'd need an xbox, know how to mod it and etc..

but yes this project over at XS will hopefully fuel some coders to make a emulator frontend to browse/display roms/artwork and make it possible to launch external emulators.

using the xtras as a base i made a simple frontend/game browser displaying covers, screenshots, gameplay video etcetc in delphi in like 30min so i guess anyone with xbmc coding experience could be able to dish out a script doing just that

Sounds sweet Wimpy. Yeah.. we need to persuade some XBMC coder to do the dirty job... I'm a retro gamer at heart. And i just sold 2 of my modded Xboxes and now i find out i can't run emulators on my front-end HTPC? Christ!!

Thanks for the work your doing Wimpy.. hope it will inspire the XBMC crew to do the same!

Quote:They are doing a great job, but collecting all the correct roms and packs of artworks are not for the masses.

I guess your right.. but i just dont wanna believe it!

Dannermax Wrote:Sounds sweet Wimpy. Yeah.. we need to persuade some XBMC coder to do the dirty job... I'm a retro gamer at heart. And i just sold 2 of my modded Xboxes and now i find out i can't run emulators on my front-end HTPC? Christ!!

Thanks for the work your doing Wimpy.. hope it will inspire the XBMC crew to do the same!

Thanks, but I'm just a small part in Ressurect's project He's the one deserving the thanks=)

Dont get me wrong.. alot of the boxart, roms etc are already out there in different packs.. but this is the first (and biggest) project i've seen so far when it comes to creating such a massive "all in one" retro collection. We're not reinventing the wheel so to speak, but the project will be a great find for those looking for a retrogame database of boxart/gameplay videos and roms..

i just hope we're able to make some sparks in a retrogamers heart that's also a good coder to utilize this collection

for those unsure of what this "xtras project" actually is visit http://www.ressurectionxtras.net for some information. page is not 100% finished tho so keep that in mind also please for xtras related discussion or comments use this thread: http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=660135 since this isnt really xbmc related yet

VictorV Wrote:But I think xbmc with a game library and launching through external emulators would be way better than the xport project and xtras over at xbox-scene. No offence tho. They are doing a great job, but collecting all the correct roms and packs of artworks are not for the masses.

I agree a game lib would be a great addition, but i feel that's more pointed towards new games. I can't imagine having 10-15000 games in a library (and having to scrape them all) would be a good solution.. I _think_ (if this is what you meant) that would make me skip using the games library for emulator games think..

That would perhaps be a way for people who only play a few emulatorgames to interact with their games, but when we talk about a (excuse my language) shitload of different consoles and games I think having a base to work out from is a better solution than making people have to scrape their own roms.

I know this collection/project isn't for everyone and I'm not trying to diminish the thought about a Games library at all

I know making a script displaying Xtras information like boxart, screenies, cartridge, entire synopsis etc is not something just I want so I'm still hoping for someone to have a look at the Xtras release in mid-march and think "oh snap.. i need to make a script for XBMC using this release". If it doesn't happen it's not really a big deal for me myself since I'm more in this project for the collection itself than anything else at this moment.

I'll be more than happy to discuss the idea of playing emulator games in XBMC, no matter solution to see what's the best solution. Right now I'm atleast leaning towards using the Xtras as a base instead of having a scraper-solution into a games lib.

Hi wimpy,

I read some pages of the xbox-thread and had a look at the new site. I also downloaded a synopsis pack to see what data will be provided by the xtras project. But to be honest I still don't understand how the finished "product" will look like. Will there be an online database with kind of an API to fire queries against it (like thetvdb for example) or maybe something scrapable? Or will you have to download the complete packages? There is something said about torrents at the download page so I guess it will be the last one. And once downloaded the whole bunch I end up in 50 playable games (or whatever I have inside my rom-collection) and 15000 trailers? Or do I have to scrape it locally after downloading?

I am sorry to ask that dumb questions but I don't own an xbox and don't know the xport emulator. Also sorry for asking here and not in the original project thread but I don't want to sign up at xbox-scene without even owning an xbox;-)

regards,
malte

malte Wrote:Hi wimpy,

I read some pages of the xbox-thread and had a look at the new site. I also downloaded a synopsis pack to see what data will be provided by the xtras project. But to be honest I still don't understand how the finished "product" will look like. Will there be an online database with kind of an API to fire queries against it (like thetvdb for example) or maybe something scrapable? Or will you have to download the complete packages? There is something said about torrents at the download page so I guess it will be the last one. And once downloaded the whole bunch I end up in 50 playable games (or whatever I have inside my rom-collection) and 15000 trailers? Or do I have to scrape it locally after downloading?

I am sorry to ask that dumb questions but I don't own an xbox and don't know the xport emulator. Also sorry for asking here and not in the original project thread but I don't want to sign up at xbox-scene without even owning an xbox;-)

regards,
malte

Warning. Wall of TEXT:

They are not dumb questions. At it's current state it's only downloadable in parts in the main thread with some old files. (I wouldn't recommend using those to judge the content of the project).

This is an example of the content (folder structure):
MEDIA\NES\ARTWORK\COVER\Legend of Zelda, A Link to the Past.jpg
MEDIA\NES\ARTWORK\TITLE\Legend of Zelda, A Link to the Past.png
MEDIA\NES\ARTWORK\ACTION\Legend of Zelda, A Link to the Past.png
MEDIA\NES\ARTWORK\CARTRIDGE\Legend of Zelda, A Link to the Past.png
MEDIA\NES\ROMS\Legend of Zelda, A Link to the Past.nes
MEDIA\SMS\+++
MEDIA\GENESIS\+++

Just an example. This means all roms are renamed to "normal reading" names, linked to artwork and other stuff. Which means it will be rather easy to create links from the roms to the artwork to create a frontend/script to display a selected roms artwork and other xtras.

The roms are added with CRC in the synopsis file to make it easy to parse the file for the additional information like publisher, release year, synopsis, genre etc. (this file can also be used as the basis for an mySQL database).

There will be three torrents. One with the all the graphics(boxart, screenies etc) together with the games, One for HQ boxart/WMV videos, One for the emulators for XBOX themselves.

This release in march is foremost aimed at people owning an old XBOX since it's setup to work after a quick FTP over to the box with skinned emulators etc to make it seem like a single fluent emulator experience.

However the pack itself will be available for others to use. The release in march won't see APIs etc for queries/scraping, but I'm going to try and run the synopsis files etc into mySQL to make it search/scrapeable through an "php API" on the page. For whatever reason I'm not 100% sure yet, but I know that's a step in the right direction.

Question about scraping (locally or not) there is no setup for XBMC (except for the Xport emulators on XBOX1) when it comes to emulators. That's what we're hoping will change in the months to come.

The release in march will actually be the _first_ release and updates to other systems will come in the months to come.

Like i said in an earlier post we're not re-inventing the wheel, we're just collection alot of the stuff out there (and adding alot of own stuff) to create a huge emulator related content pack that can be used as either a filebase or through a scraper solution.. but like I said for now it's more about releasing the contents and then look forward after that..

I'm sorry if I've repeated myself alot of times.. I'm quite tired right now

If you'd like more info or 'clearer' info you could join the EFnet channel instead of the forum

Cheers.

And what a fine description it is Wimpy!! Thanks for taking your time to fill us in on the subject. I think most Xbox users with a nostalgic gaming feeling, will be waiting anxious for this "Extras" release.

Personally i am more drawn towards the Amiga and Nes gaming systems. And i've been fiddling with the possible of emulating these games through the Launcher. I haven't tried out the nes yet, but in order to launch amiga games through launcher, and with the use of "Winuae", it would need individual command lines, or predefined settings in order to make the respective game work. Like what workbench to use, cpu, the size of internal memory and etc. And this i dont know how to do.

If it was possible to emulate Xbox games "ISO files" through XBMC (Windows), i could just run the BAED (Big Ass Emulator Disk) images, and have tons of playing hours there. I guess this would solve alot of problems. But right now i don't think that much effort has been put into this.. So im kinda back to the point where i shoulden't have sold my old Xboxes!!

At work so little time to reply, but amiga is actually being worked on for an update after the initial release in march this is for the Xbox tho, but atleast it means boxart, gameplay vids etc are being worked on

Also the configs you are mentioning pr game is being added as far as i know, hopefully they can be used/ported for Windows amiga emu aswell

about BAED.. That is the DVD(s) that opened my eyes to a project like xtras.. Hopefully there will be someone that can help us make a "BAED:2010" like system showing boxart, gameplay vids and the rest of the contrnt etc

Some people might think this "xtras" project isn't needed etc, but we don't care we're a bunch of guys very much into collecting and archiving it nicely for the masses. It's so Nice to see some people see this as the same as we do: Retrofreakingawezome=)

Quote:about BAED.. That is the DVD(s) that opened my eyes to a project like xtras.. Hopefully there will be someone that can help us make a "BAED:2010" like system showing boxart, gameplay vids and the rest of the contrnt etc

Well isn't this what the Extras project is supposed to do?

Quote:Some people might think this "xtras" project isn't needed etc, but we don't care we're a bunch of guys very much into collecting and archiving it nicely for the masses.

Hell yeah bro.. i know exactly how that feels. I have the same thing with amiga stuff. I just wanna preserve everything i can get my hands on. Actually this extras project got me so psyched, so i orderes a chipped Xbox today, just so i can get to try the "extras" compilation of emulators. The Xbox would be like a treasure of nostalgic gaming experince, just waiting to be explored, and my htpc would be for playing high quality media.

Quote:At work so little time to reply, but amiga is actually being worked on for an update after the initial release in march this is for the Xbox tho, but atleast it means boxart, gameplay vids etc are being worked on

Well this only tells me that i made a right decision in re-purchasing an Xbox..but really cool to hear that the amiga part is getting some attention aswell.

And btw.. hell yeah the BAED discs rocks. great menu structure with pictures of the console and everything!! But isn't that sort of what the extras are going to look like?

Dannermax Wrote:Well isn't this what the Extras project is supposed to do? And btw.. hell yeah the BAED discs rocks. great menu structure with pictures of the console and everything!! But isn't that sort of what the extras are going to look like?

Yea the easy-2-use setup for XBOX will be like the"BAED discs", but with boxart, gameplay videos, ++ and even rumbles(for the Xbox controller) for alot of the games have been added for the Xbox.

What I meant that might have been misunderstood is that I'm looking for other uses for this release outside of the XBOX aswell since alot of people don't have an XBOX and perhaps (like me) wants to experience the "gallery/museum" feel by using the Xtras on a HTPC etc. (so atm the XBOX is the only plug'n'play supported platform..)

I myself will use this on the XBOX as a starting point and hope for a solution for my HTPC that will be as cool (or cooler) as the XBOX setup will be