Hello folks,
in the next CVS, myPrograms will include an allgame-lookup option.
Here's a short HowTo to get you started. The first stable version of
this HowTo will be copied to our MediaPortal Wiki page.
What it is:
Emulator fans know the problem: you have a bunch of games organized
in rom files. You can include them in MP, but it's hard to get
additional informations and screenshots for the games.
The new allgame-scraper allows looking up additional information
(a bit like the music album lookup for mp3-files).
What you get:
Here's a shot of the asteroids game for the Atari VCS 2600:
Prerequisites & Remarks:
* ROMs must contain the name of each game (GoodTools-naming convention is best suited)
* the scraper won't work with MAME-style named roms!!
* This is an early version! I've tested it, but to play safe, backup your
image directories and backup your ProgramsDatabase.db file if you
spent already too many hours on the myPrograms database.....
Example: Lookin' up game information for the Atari 2600 VCS system:
1) Set up the emulator in Directory-Cache mode and do the import to
get a file list containing all the roms
(if this is not clear: see WIKILINK here )
1a) MAKE SURE the first imagedirectory of the ATARI-application exists and
is preferably empty. The scraper overwrites existing gamepictures with
newly found pictures.
2) Select the ATARI-application, select the "FILES" tab on the right side
=> a list of all the imported atari games appears (if not, recheck 1) )
3) Click the "INTERNET SEARCH..." button on the bottom right
=> the allgame scraper window appears:
4) On the "PLATFORM" dropdown, select the "Atari Video Computer System".
This is the platform allgame uses for ATARI 2600. You can skip this step,
but a correctly set platform improves the search results!
5) Check some games on the left listview and click the "1) START SEARCH"
button at the bottom.
=> the scraper starts searching games for each fileitem.
6) WAIT
7) Once finished, you can watch the results. Click a file item to get an ordered
list of matches on the right.
You can do several things here:
* manually select the match you'd like to assign to the game
* CLICK THE "2) SELECT BEST MATCH" button at the bottom, which will autoselect
the first match that:
a) has the platform you wish (exactly: "Atari Video Computer System")
and
b) has a relevance score of at least 70% (if you didn't tweak the min. number).
* Double-click a match-item to launch a browser window showing the allgame-details.
=> Fastest option is of course the "2) SELECT BEST MATCH"-button
8) Click the "3) DOWNLOAD & SAVE DETAILS"-button at the bottom
=> the scraper starts to download the favourite match of each checked fileitem and
fills the MediaPortal database.
9) WAIT & click the CLOSE-button.
=> you should now have tons of additional informations and screenshots!
10) ENJOY! (and report bugs in this thread!)
Daniel
in the next CVS, myPrograms will include an allgame-lookup option.
Here's a short HowTo to get you started. The first stable version of
this HowTo will be copied to our MediaPortal Wiki page.
What it is:
Emulator fans know the problem: you have a bunch of games organized
in rom files. You can include them in MP, but it's hard to get
additional informations and screenshots for the games.
The new allgame-scraper allows looking up additional information
(a bit like the music album lookup for mp3-files).
What you get:
Here's a shot of the asteroids game for the Atari VCS 2600:
Prerequisites & Remarks:
* ROMs must contain the name of each game (GoodTools-naming convention is best suited)
* the scraper won't work with MAME-style named roms!!
* This is an early version! I've tested it, but to play safe, backup your
image directories and backup your ProgramsDatabase.db file if you
spent already too many hours on the myPrograms database.....
Example: Lookin' up game information for the Atari 2600 VCS system:
1) Set up the emulator in Directory-Cache mode and do the import to
get a file list containing all the roms
(if this is not clear: see WIKILINK here )
1a) MAKE SURE the first imagedirectory of the ATARI-application exists and
is preferably empty. The scraper overwrites existing gamepictures with
newly found pictures.
2) Select the ATARI-application, select the "FILES" tab on the right side
=> a list of all the imported atari games appears (if not, recheck 1) )
3) Click the "INTERNET SEARCH..." button on the bottom right
=> the allgame scraper window appears:
4) On the "PLATFORM" dropdown, select the "Atari Video Computer System".
This is the platform allgame uses for ATARI 2600. You can skip this step,
but a correctly set platform improves the search results!
5) Check some games on the left listview and click the "1) START SEARCH"
button at the bottom.
=> the scraper starts searching games for each fileitem.
6) WAIT
7) Once finished, you can watch the results. Click a file item to get an ordered
list of matches on the right.
You can do several things here:
* manually select the match you'd like to assign to the game
* CLICK THE "2) SELECT BEST MATCH" button at the bottom, which will autoselect
the first match that:
a) has the platform you wish (exactly: "Atari Video Computer System")
and
b) has a relevance score of at least 70% (if you didn't tweak the min. number).
* Double-click a match-item to launch a browser window showing the allgame-details.
=> Fastest option is of course the "2) SELECT BEST MATCH"-button
8) Click the "3) DOWNLOAD & SAVE DETAILS"-button at the bottom
=> the scraper starts to download the favourite match of each checked fileitem and
fills the MediaPortal database.
9) WAIT & click the CLOSE-button.
=> you should now have tons of additional informations and screenshots!
10) ENJOY! (and report bugs in this thread!
)Daniel
Netherlands
