[RELEASE] Rom Collection Browser - Browse and launch emulator game ROMs

Hello Malte,

It's been awhile but I'm still fooling around with RCB and love every bit of it! Thanks for this awesome tool.

Anyway, I have a suggestion/question.

This website ( http://www.thecoverproject.net/ ) is just amazing and has the most beautifull cover scans for retro systems available on the net (without watermarking or any of that sh*t). It would be great if RCB would have a scraper for this site somewhere in the future. What do you think?

Also, I don't know if you are up to date regarding the Hyperspin project. But anyway, they have collections of so called 'wheelart'. This is actually the game logo or game name logo. It would be awesome if RCB would be able to link to this type of art and to have this game logo/name logo presented instead of the game name in the specific skin.

Finally, some thing struck me. For example for DOS games there are numerous collections out there. Example, we have the scumm collection (adventure games) or the RPG collection or ... What is you want to implement such a collection in RCB? I mean, you can choose just one systems once. Once you have added a "genesis" collection for example, you can not add another genesis collection? So I was wondering, wouldn't it be cool if there would be a second option in RCB to name and create your own new collection? Is it possible to add a collection in the config xml that is not presented by RCB?

Just some thoughts.

Cheers,
Grave

st graveyard Wrote:This website ( http://www.thecoverproject.net/ ) is just amazing and has the most beautifull cover scans for retro systems available on the net (without watermarking or any of that sh*t). It would be great if RCB would have a scraper for this site somewhere in the future. What do you think?

Looks good. But I have to check if it is technically possible to scrape the site and if it is tolerated by the site maintainers. I read in the forum that they had some trouble with robots and that they want to add a login procedure to protect cover download.

st graveyard Wrote:Also, I don't know if you are up to date regarding the Hyperspin project. But anyway, they have collections of so called 'wheelart'. This is actually the game logo or game name logo. It would be awesome if RCB would be able to link to this type of art and to have this game logo/name logo presented instead of the game name in the specific skin.

This is already on my list (somewhere). Should not be much work.

st graveyard Wrote:Finally, some thing struck me. For example for DOS games there are numerous collections out there. Example, we have the scumm collection (adventure games) or the RPG collection or ... What is you want to implement such a collection in RCB? I mean, you can choose just one systems once. Once you have added a "genesis" collection for example, you can not add another genesis collection? So I was wondering, wouldn't it be cool if there would be a second option in RCB to name and create your own new collection? Is it possible to add a collection in the config xml that is not presented by RCB?

Nice idea. It may already be possible with editing config.xml but I have to check if there is a more user friendly way. Maybe it should be possible to enter self defined names for rom collections and select the system as separate option. I have to check this. Thanks for the input!

love this app btw.. just got one question..

I have several games that have multiple disks. So I named them FF7_Disk1 etc etc. My question is, how do I navigate to this second disk? I obviously want the game to only show once in the RCB section, but how do I select Disk 2?

Atm only loading all discs at once with different discnumbers is supported. But I guess uae (Amiga) is the only emulator that supports this scenario. It is on my list to support the multi disc scenario better.

so whats the way around this? basically deleting disk1 once im done with it and then renaming disk2 to disk1?

I'm afraid thats it. Maybe rename disk1, no need to delete it

It should be quite easy to implement a little dialog that asks for the disk to launch. I will see if I can add it with little effort.

(2012-05-06 23:11)malte Wrote:  I'm afraid thats it. Maybe rename disk1, no need to delete it

It should be quite easy to implement a little dialog that asks for the disk to launch. I will see if I can add it with little effort.

not a big deal.. would be nice though

(great app btw, you are the man)

Hey Malte,

I noticed yesterday that RCB and XMBC are supported at the EMUMOVIES website. How cool, he. This tool is getting bigger and bigger every day.

(2012-05-07 09:02)st graveyard Wrote:  Hey Malte,

I noticed yesterday that RCB and XMBC are supported at the EMUMOVIES website. How cool, he. This tool is getting bigger and bigger every day.

Yeah . They told me some weeks ago that they did but I forgot to mention it here. Thanks for bringing it up

Whilst I am in "news-that-I-forgot-mode": Any users that want to have RCB support in german language can now go to XBMCNerds.com. I started a thread over there some time ago. Even if not, the site is worth visiting if you want to talk about XBMC in german language.

Hi malte,

I've been using RCB in the last weeks and have 24 game collections working without many problems to figure how to make them work except my biggest collection, ZX Spectrum. I have all artwork in my hardrive so the main goal its import locally.

Like I said, I think that will not be an easy task (extensions like .tzx.zip or .tap.zip, game names that don't match entirely with artwork names, etc) so I tried to start with a simple configuration. I chosed 4 games and extracted them from the zip:
1942.tzx
1943.tzx
1999.tap
La Abadia Del Crimen.tap

1st: I created a Scraper with the files parserConfig.xml and Spectrum.txt downloaded from the Wiki and chosed the option "Use filename as CRC" and got no results from the import.
2nd: I created a parser.xml file and a Spectrum2.txt from your exemples in the Wiki (changing the Game: and Platform: values in the description text file and chosed the option "Use filename as CRC" and got no results from the import.
3rd: I created a Scraper with the files parserConfig.xml and Spectrum.txt downloaded from the Wiki and chosed the option "Search game by CRC" and I had the 4 games imported with the artwork. The problem its that most of my games CRC don't match with the CRC from the Spectrum.txt.

It's the option "Use filename as CRC" working or I misunderstood how it should work ?

Here's the log of the my 1st try:

16:43:46 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: init ContextMenu
16:43:46 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: onInit ContextMenu
16:43:48 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: Begin updateDB
16:43:48 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: Begin clearCache
16:43:48 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: End clearCache
16:43:48 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: init ImportOptions
16:43:48 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: onInit ImportOptions
16:43:54 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: Selected scraping mode: 0
16:43:54 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: Start Update DB
16:43:54 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: Iterating Rom Collections
16:43:54 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: current Rom Collection: ZX Spectr
16:43:54 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: ignoreOnScan: False
16:43:54 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: update is allowed for current rom collection: True
16:43:54 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: max folder depth: 99
16:43:54 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: Rom path: ['C:\\Documents and Settings\\XBMC\\Ambiente de trabalho\\Spectrum\\Rom\\*.tzx', 'C:\\Documents and Settings\\XBMC\\Ambiente de trabalho\\Spectrum\\Rom\\*.tap']
16:43:54 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: Reading rom files
16:43:54 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: walkDownPath romPath: C:\Documents and Settings\XBMC\Ambiente de trabalho\Spectrum\Rom\*.tzx
16:43:54 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: dirname: C:\Documents and Settings\XBMC\Ambiente de trabalho\Spectrum\Rom
16:43:54 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: basename: *.tzx
16:43:54 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: checking sub directories
16:43:54 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: walkDownPath romPath: C:\Documents and Settings\XBMC\Ambiente de trabalho\Spectrum\Rom\*.tap
16:43:54 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: dirname: C:\Documents and Settings\XBMC\Ambiente de trabalho\Spectrum\Rom
16:43:54 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: basename: *.tap
16:43:54 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: checking sub directories
16:43:54 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: Files read: [u'C:\\Documents and Settings\\XBMC\\Ambiente de trabalho\\Spectrum\\Rom\\1942.tzx', u'C:\\Documents and Settings\\XBMC\\Ambiente de trabalho\\Spectrum\\Rom\\1943.tzx', u'C:\\Documents and Settings\\XBMC\\Ambiente de trabalho\\Spectrum\\Rom\\1999.tap', u'C:\\Documents and Settings\\XBMC\\Ambiente de trabalho\\Spectrum\\Rom\\La Abadia Del Crimen.tap']
16:43:54 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: Start building file dict
16:43:54 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: current rom file: C:\Documents and Settings\XBMC\Ambiente de trabalho\Spectrum\Rom\1942.tzx
16:43:54 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: gamename (file): 1942.tzx
16:43:54 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: gamename (friendly): 1942
16:43:54 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: current rom file: C:\Documents and Settings\XBMC\Ambiente de trabalho\Spectrum\Rom\1943.tzx
16:43:54 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: gamename (file): 1943.tzx
16:43:54 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: gamename (friendly): 1943
16:43:54 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: current rom file: C:\Documents and Settings\XBMC\Ambiente de trabalho\Spectrum\Rom\1999.tap
16:43:54 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: gamename (file): 1999.tap
16:43:54 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: gamename (friendly): 1999
16:43:54 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: current rom file: C:\Documents and Settings\XBMC\Ambiente de trabalho\Spectrum\Rom\La Abadia Del Crimen.tap
16:43:54 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: gamename (file): La Abadia Del Crimen.tap
16:43:54 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: gamename (friendly): La Abadia Del Crimen
16:43:54 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: start parsing with multi game scraper: ZX Spectr
16:43:54 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: using parser file: C:\Documents and Settings\XBMC\Ambiente de trabalho\Spectrum\Info\parserConfig.xml
16:43:54 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: using game description: C:\Documents and Settings\XBMC\Ambiente de trabalho\Spectrum\Info\Spectrum.txt
16:43:54 T:344 ERROR: CLocalizeStrings::ClearBlock: Trying to clear non existent block C:\Documents and Settings\XBMC\Application Data\XBMC\addons\script.games.rom.collection.browser
16:43:54 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: searching for Key: 8ac1763c
16:43:54 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_WARNING: game 1942 was found in parsed results but not in your rom collection.
16:43:54 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: searching for Key: c97f9144
16:43:54 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: searching for Key: 88493f15
16:43:54 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_WARNING: game 1943 - The Battle of Midway was found in parsed results but not in your rom collection.
16:43:54 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: searching for Key: dd38c276
16:43:54 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_WARNING: game 1999 was found in parsed results but not in your rom collection.
16:43:56 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_INFO: searching for Key: 7bd1ab11
16:43:56 T:1844 NOTICE: RCB_WARNING: game Abadia del Crimen was found in parsed results but not in your rom collection.


I may give you the other if you want but the massege its getting long

Thanks for any help