myGames plugin: Early progress report

[waeberd]

Hi,

This is a very early plugin progress report for myGames.

The main idea behind this plugin is to be able to
launch emulated games and have additional information like
screenshots, game descriptions, etc.

For this, myGames does not list directory contents (like myPrograms
does), but uses a small, suitable SQLite Database.

You can see two screenshots with a very incomplete layout
(in fact, I simply used myProgram.xml).

emulator overview
game overview

What works:

* DB-reading of emulators and load-on-demand of all games of one emulator
* emulator launching in NORMAL / MINIMIZED / MAXIMIZED or HIDDEN mode
* Usage of quotes around the gamefilename ON / OFF
* run-parameters to launch the emulator in a suitable mode
=> tested it with MAME32, Project64 and ZSnes, runs cool! 
   Without using the good old BAT files!

What I did:

* I've contacted reverson1 (the author of the myGames-utility, see
  [url]http://www.getmygames.com[/url] ):
  My wish would be that he writes a "EXPORT TO MEDIAPORTAL" function
  as soon as my database schema is stable enough.
  He thinks that this would be cool and chances are high that he
  would write such an export 
  (I can hear you say: "So... don't fuck it up, Dude!!"  8)  )
  (Meedio-Export is already in that tool and writes a SQLite database,
   so reverson1 certainly has the knowledge and the environment to do that!)

What next?

* improve layout and display additional information that is already
  stored in the database (current fields for each game are: title, 
  filename, imagefile, genre, country, manufacturer, year, rating, 
  overview, system)
* write plugin configuration to edit the database (until now you
  have to use SQLiteBrowser)
* write import of myGames "*.my" files (ini-format)
* MAYBE LATER: write conversion of Meedio-export of myGames (SQLite database)
* ask Samsonite for a funky joystick - JPEG :-D
* MAYBE: get online game info (e.g. consult www.allgame.com )

So there's still a whole lot to do, but I hope that this is
a good first teaser....

I'm very excited about the way plugin dev works and I hope
that I can give you a first test version in about two weeks
(but please don't kill me if I don't get it until then....)

Comments are welcome... personally I think that a database-oriented
launcher is the way to go for emulators.....

Keep gamin' & CHEERS!

Daniel

[tomtom21000]

Sounds all veeery promissing!

Looking forward to it.

Maybe consider a possibility to launch normal PC games too (and have a thumb for it). I know your focus is on emulators but it would be logical to look for a pc game in my games. Would be a pitty to start it via my programs then.

tomtom21000

[waeberd]

Originally Posted by tomtom21000

Maybe consider a possibility to launch normal PC games too (and have a thumb for it). I know your focus is on emulators but it would be logical to look for a pc game in my games. Would be a pitty to start it via my programs then.

Oh you're right!
The emulated system would be.... <mhh> a PC..... and the roms would be..... just EXEs :-)

I'll pack it into the database schema, and.... yes, it's a (simple) special case.

Thanks for pointing that out because it needs database modification! I will integrate DIAMOND CAVES II and other nice classic remakes!

Cheers,

Daniel

Originally Posted by waeberd

Oh you're right!
The emulated system would be.... <mhh> a PC..... and the roms would be..... just EXEs :-)

I'll pack it into the database schema, and.... yes, it's a (simple) special case.

Thanks for pointing that out because it needs database modification! I will integrate DIAMOND CAVES II and other nice classic remakes!

Cheers,

Daniel

You will be needing some graphics, I will fix some nice stuff for MCE

[waeberd]

Originally Posted by Samsonite

You will be needing some graphics, I will fix some nice stuff for MCE

Yeah, that would be fantastic! I'm really bad in graphics :-) !!
Thanks Dude!

[waeberd]

Hello,

some current screenshots for the myGames plugin prototype:

Applicationlist
Gamelist
Gameinfo

what next?

* write a *.my file importer that can be triggered using
  the refresh button in the Gamelist window.
* integrate all that stuff into myPrograms

everything else can wait for now....

Screenshots show "live" data out of "my" SQLite database (which I hacked in manually, that's why there are so few games there)
So the main task is now to populate the tables there using importers!

Stay tuned for more info soon!

Cheers,

Daniel

Ahh sweet stuff, cant wait

Dst

[MrMario64]

whats the plan on integrating this all into MyPrograms ?
As thats where this really belongs...

[waeberd]

Originally Posted by MrMario64

whats the plan on integrating this all into MyPrograms ?
As thats where this really belongs...

You're right! We don't want two buttons for PROGRAMS and GAMES!

domi_fan is / will be extending myPrograms and as soon as he's ready, I'll have to adapt my code to merge into his plugin.

The basic idea is that myPrograms will work with a SQLite db (scans directories and saves the result in a db, content can be refreshed by the REFRESH button). => SOURCE is a directory

So a game would simply be a special case of a launchable program
=> SOURCE is a *.my file or a meedio-export-file from mygames.exe

That's the rough idea and of course there are many details left to fix!
As soon as domi's ready, I want to be ready to merge my stuff!
So in the meantime, I do a stand-alone prototype...

Hope that's cool for you!

Cheers,

Daniel

[cheezey]

I don't agree, I'd personally like My Games on the home page (along with "My Whatever" for individual shortcut categories e.g. My Karaoke, My Internet, My Documents etc etc...).

Can you keep the option of having your My Games on the home page while incorporating it into the My Programs plugin also?