Versatile C++ game scraper: Skyscraper

A Former User

I really wish I could use this on my Windows machine. :(

Maybe I'll set up a Linux partition just to run this.

muldjord

@quicksilver said in Versatile C++ game scraper: Skyscraper:

Except that it isn't working properly. The gamesdb will give a "file not found" for every one of my ports games. If I manually switch the platform to pc it will find the games no problem (I am aware this will not work properly for generating the Gameslist). This says to me that the platform "ports" is not properly searching "pc" like it's supposed to.

Also do you have a PayPal account? Or only patreon? I would like to tip you for all your hard work on this but would like to give a one-time payment. Wasn't sure if cancelling a patreon after a one month paemt was considered bad form.

pc and ports have the exact same aliases, so this is caused by something else. The only difference between the platforms is that pc also looks for *.com *.bat and *.exe in addition to *.sh where ports only look for *.sh. So that might be the issue instead. The aliases are the same. But once again, you need to do the code change I mentioned earlier if you want it to work for screenscraper as well (I know you are using thegamesdb). Just to be clear. :)

You can donate directly to paypal by using muldjordlars@gmail.com, but I'd actually suggest you donate to the RetroPie project instead. :) That's up to you of course.

muldjord

@LiveFastCyYoung said in Versatile C++ game scraper: Skyscraper:

I really wish I could use this on my Windows machine. :(

Maybe I'll set up a Linux partition just to run this.

I'm not sure how much work it would take to get it on Windows (probably not that much). But if I do port it to Windows, it will be command line only. :)

A Former User

@muldjord I'd be fine with command line only. :D

quicksilver

@muldjord thanks for the reply. All of my ports games are launched via .sh files so it shouldn't be a problem. But obviously it's not working so I'm not entirely sure what to do then.

I do donate already to RetroPie from time to time but I do also like to reward others as well!

Edit: looks like it's just thegamesdb that has an issue with ports. I scraped using openretro and mobygames and it picked up a lot of the games without an issue.

mitu

@LiveFastCyYoung Skyscraper is command line only. If you feel adventurous, install Cygwin and try to compile it on Windows.
Have you tried Skraper ?

muldjord

@LiveFastCyYoung said in Versatile C++ game scraper: Skyscraper:

@muldjord I'd be fine with command line only. :D

I've compiled a Windows version that seemingly works. Please follow the instructions in the INSTALL_README.txt after unzipping it. This is important, otherwise it won't run!

Also note that this version is 100% unsupported, so you are on your own in using it. :) The only thing I am interested in is to know whether it runs with the dll's I've included. If not I need to include them. So please let me know if it complains about missing dll's when running it. Other than that, it should work just fine. I did a really quick test with it and it scraped nes roms just fine and also generated a gamelist without problems.

Here ya go: http://www.muldjord.com/downloads/Skyscraper_3.1.2_unsupported_win_version.zip

EDIT: Another quick note. Windows probably has the worst command prompt of any OS and so it does not support the color codings I use. So the output will look pretty weird.

EDIT2: I just tried running it from the Powershell. This won't work. You apparently need to use the older Windows command prompt that you can run with "cmd".

EDIT3: Updated it to 3.1.1

EDIT4: Updated it to 3.1.2

A Former User

@mitu I currently use Skraper. Since Skyscraper can use more sources than just ScreenScraper, I'd like to give this a shot.

@muldjord Excellent! I will run it from cmd prompt when I get a chance tonight and let you know how it goes. Thanks! :)

muldjord

Skyscraper 3.1.1 released: https://github.com/muldjord/skyscraper

Worked around a bug in the 'screenscraper' xml output improving stability
Added limiter to media getter functions for 'screenscraper' which should improve stability

I've been working to improve the stability of the screenscrapermodule. The fixes included in this release seem to have made quite a difference, so please update.

chubsta

Quick question guys - if I am trying to update a set of roms, do I have to delete the game list, rescrape the roms, and generate the new game list, or just rescrape and generate?

muldjord

@chubsta said in Versatile C++ game scraper: Skyscraper:

Quick question guys - if I am trying to update a set of roms, do I have to delete the game list, rescrape the roms, and generate the new game list, or just rescrape and generate?

Depends on what you mean by "update a set of roms". If you mean you want to update the data from the sources, then you need to regather the data first using the "--refresh" option and then regenerate the game list afterwards. But if you mean "update a set or roms" after you've just changed some artwork configuration or other local Skyscraper setting, then you just need to regenerate the game list. No need to regather the data as it is already cached and ready for use.

EDIT: This page explains it: https://github.com/muldjord/skyscraper/blob/master/docs/USECASE.md

chubsta

@muldjord thanks for the fast reply - I have removed a load of roms from one of my Mame sets, and added some more. I don't have any cached info as I clear the cache once I have scraped, my concern was that when writing a new game list it would add the new info to the old and I would end up with both duplicate games and also games in the list that are no longer in the folder.

I guess in this case it is simple enough to just delete the old one and rescrape to give myself a fresh game list.

Great scraper BTW, works so much better than anything else I have tried!

ByteThis

@muldjord said in Versatile C++ game scraper: Skyscraper:

Windows probably has the worst command prompt

And OS ever. I'll leave this here..lol.

Silent

Hey,

Moonlight scriptmodule has now been merged into RetroPie-Setup. Hence, this is the correct time for me to summarize a request to add support for streaming media, like I did in my PR a while ago.

What I propose is:

Make .ml a valid extension for all platforms, like .zip .7z is at the moment. Technically you can stream anything from your PC, so there is no reason not to allow it everywhere.
Add steam platform support. Should have same aliases as PC platforms, maybe with PC platform also getting a Steam alias.
Add ps2 platform support. Even though there is no PS2 emulator on Pi, you can obviously stream it and technically RetroPie supports it. Most EmulationStation themes already support this platform, too.

Those are the changes I made in my local copy, and I think they should be sufficient. Technically, you could argue that ps3 (because of RPCS3) and x360 (because of Xenia) platforms also make sense, but I don't know if there are themes supporting that.

Thanks in advance!

quicksilver

When scraping a game that won't be able to be found by it's checksum, Screenscraper will attempt to match by exact rom name from what I understand. However if there is more than one game with that exact title it will fail to scrape. I have a number of .sh and .conf files that cannot be found by checksum but fail based on ROM name because there are many versions of the game in screenscraper's database (quake II for example). Is there anyway to work around this?

muldjord

@quicksilver said in Versatile C++ game scraper: Skyscraper:

When scraping a game that won't be able to be found by it's checksum, Screenscraper will attempt to match by exact rom name from what I understand. However if there is more than one game with that exact title it will fail to scrape. I have a number of .sh and .conf files that cannot be found by checksum but fail based on ROM name because there are many versions of the game in screenscraper's database (quake II for example). Is there anyway to work around this?

Not that I know of. This is a small limitation in how their database handles things. I do believe it only searches on the platform in question though, so this shouldn't happen too often as the platform id is also send in the requests.

muldjord

@Silent Awesome, I'll look into it and include it in the next release. Thanks.

EDIT:

Only igdb has a platform for Steam related platform called steamos. I have added that to pc and steam but it is only relevant when scraping with igdb
steamplatform added with all relevant aliases including steamos
ps2 platform added with all relevant aliases
*.ml added for all platforms

I'll leave out ps3 and x360 for now. I don't want to spam platforms all over the place just for the sake of it.

quicksilver

@muldjord strangely the built in scraper in emulation station will find the same titles using screenscraper as the source, unless of course it searches for ROM name differently. Either way, I was able to scrape those problematic games using different sources. Again, thank you for your help. I have been promoting skyscraper every chance I get!

muldjord

@quicksilver said in Versatile C++ game scraper: Skyscraper:

@muldjord strangely the built in scraper in emulation station will find the same titles using screenscraper as the source, unless of course it searches for ROM name differently. Either way, I was able to scrape those problematic games using different sources. Again, thank you for your help. I have been promoting skyscraper every chance I get!

Can you give me an exact file name and platform for a game it doesn't find that the built-in scraper does find when using screenscraper as source? I would like to test this.

quicksilver

@muldjord "Oregon Trail II". It's a .conf file in my PC folder. Built in scraper will find it with screenscraper as the source but skyscraper will not. There were a couple others, but Im away from my pi and can't remember off the top of my head. But I'll check when next I'm home.

Edit: "Myst" is another one.