ZX Spectrum Scraping Problem

lordkramGB

Has anyone had any luck with being able to scrape ZX Spectrum games?
I have a complete collection, have tried various formats (Z80,TAP.TZX) but when using the scraper nothing happens, it just flashes up quickly and goes back and says "system scraped" with no actual scraping done
Have tried various options in the scraper changing filename, source and overwrite/append options for gamelist
Any ideas please?

(Pi 3 model B)
RP 4.2
PS 4 Controller connected, Bluetooth usb dongle
Connected via ethernet
128gb sd card

jonnykesh

@lordkramgb I'm assuming you are trying to use thegamesbd.net, Checking their PLATFORMS section they don't have the Speccy listed so... change the source. Check in a browser if they are listed first.

lordkramGB

I've noticed screenscraper has zx spectrum listed, tried changing that in the options but still fashes quickly and doesn't scrape any roms
Do they need to be zipped files or are the tzx,z80 etc acceptable?

jonnykesh

@lordkramgb I'm not 100% sure but I think Screenscraper uses hashes to identify the ROMs so if they are zipped the hash won't match. Try unzipping a batch of about 10 and give it a go.

lordkramGB

Still having no joy with zipped or unzipped files in the scraper on the PI, although I have had some success partly with the universal XML scraper, but it seems to miss a lot of the files

blargsnarf

Shoot, I thought I searched before posting my problem but somehow missed this. I'm having a relatively similar problem, except the first time I tried to scrape it did scrape some of the files.. and then produced a bunch of unformatted text on-screen. Now when I go to scrape, I'm getting the same as you, just flashing up "all games scraped" regardless of source.

All my roms are unzipped .z80s or .taps fyi.

BladeHunter

Screenscraper does use hashes (MD5, CRC and SHA-1) but it doesn't care about the files being zipped or not, it's all about the rom being associated on the database.

I have gone through and done many associations from the WOS site rip that was floating around but there are loads still to do.

If you want to post a list of the files I will match them in my records and associate them for you. If you have zipped them yourself or gained them from a source other than WOS then you may need to post the CRC / MD5 for me too.

It's literally a 10 second per ROM task for me so post as many as you want.

lordkramGB

@BladeHunter As I'm prob not allowed to post the original source to the package I have, its the complete rom set by TOSEC (Zx Spectrum) I have tried another one from similar source

BladeHunter

@lordkramgb said in ZX Spectrum Scraping Problem:

@BladeHunter As I'm prob not allowed to post the original source to the package I have, its the complete rom set by TOSEC (Zx Spectrum) I have tried another one from similar source

Hi mate, I don't need the source, just the filenames of the ones that don't work so I can associate them on the site for you, you could drop them in pastebin if you like. I don't think it breaches the rules as you are not posting any copyrighted material, just a list of filenames.

lordkramGB

@BladeHunter Tried to rescrape with the RP in built scraper but every rom just says no valid rom found in zip
Settings I've tried:
Romname filename and no intro
Game list overwrite and append
Use rom folder for game list and image both enable and disable
Should I try unzipping all the files?

I tried using the universal xml scraper but for the ones it did scrape I'm not sure where to put the images it created as it didn't show up anything when I put them in the box art folder
Sorry for being a nuisance but this is really bugging me!

BladeHunter

@lordkramgb They are possibly in /retropie/configs/all/emulationstation/gamelists/zxspectrum by default change the settings in UXS to put them in /downloaded_images/ in the systems rom folder.

You don't need to unzip them for the purpose of scraping but I am not sure if the emulator you are using runs them zipped, I have never tried as there can be multiple files per zip, I am not sure how it handles that.

Drop me an email and I can help you more, it's my name on here with a . between the two words and its at gmail.com

lordkramGB

@bladehunter Finally managed to figure out how to use the software properly, and where to put the files!
I am scraping my entire 9000 roms I have and will email you the list that are missing!
Many thanks

elshiftos

@lordkramgb

Did you manage to figure out ZX Spectrum scraping, and if so would you mind posting the solution here?

I understand the workings of the file system and where the gameslist and images are stored, it's just that I'm having the same problem as others in that Selphy doesn't find any games and the ES scraper does a poor job.

Thanks

BladeHunter

Use Universal XML Scraper (UXS) or Skraper or Skyscraper

jozzy1

@elshiftos spectrum scraping works just fine with screenscraper. I've uploaded a ton of box scans but nowhere near a complete set. It is picky with the filenames though so maybe check on the website that you're romnames are correctly named?