how to create a gamelist.xml

sohailoo

hey

i already have all the the snaps ,boxart, marquees ... etc

is there's a way to create a gamelist.xml file using the data i already have or the only way is to scrape them all again from scratch
other than doing it manually of course

dudleydes

@sohailoo There is an example of achieving this using SSelph's scraper for images in the wiki: https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Take-and-Scrape-Your-Own-Screenshots/#create-gamelist-with-sselphs-scraper

You will need to add the extra command parameters for video and marquee - a full list of parameters is available here. Before you do, it may be worth experimenting on a small group of roms with just the images to make you get the desired results.

The example command in the link assumes that the images are in the images folder in the roms folder. If they are not, an extra command parameter -image_dir may be needed.

If you are uncertain regarding which command parameters are required, then I'd be happy to help but please provide the full paths to the snaps, boxart, marquees.

I did something similar recently for my arcade build, for which I ended up writing a bash script that generated a gamelist, removed metadata such as description and rating, and fixed the paths in the gamelist to the media as I do not keep them in the same folder as the roms.

Halvhjearne

@dudleydes
skyscraper is a litte more complex, but significantly better.
it also has an option to import your own artwork and metadata, not to mention way better succes rate when scraping games automatically.

sohailoo

@dudleydes thanks that would be really helpful
i'm kind of new to retropie

i actually have the snaps and other stuff the the same rom folder so the path would be this

	<image>./boxart/"NAME".png</image>
	<marquee>./wheel/"NAME".png</marquee>
	<video>./snap/"NAME".mp4</video>

dudleydes

@sohailoo Are you happy to just include the paths to the image, marquee and video as in the example below?

	<game>
		<path>./agallet.zip</path>
		<name></name>
		<image>./../media/images/agallet.png</image>
		<video>./../media/video/agallet.mp4</video>
		<marquee>./../media/marquee/agallet.png</marquee>
	</game>

Or are you looking to add additional metadata, description, developer, release date etc?

I put together scripts to do both so let me know which you'd prefer.

Pie Guy

I hope that I am not hi jacking here.. but i was about to post a new topic and then I just saw this simular one...

I installed a new PSX game last night and after doing so... I noticed that my PSX game previews did not work anymore...

All I had left was a list of games but no box art or descriptions...

I went into the PSX rom file after reading other simular sitiuations and decided to delete the game... but in doing so i accidentally deleted the gamelist.xml file...

So, after more reading... I dediced to rescrape using steve and I now have box art and descriptions but no video preview... all my other consoles still have video..

After rescrapping there still isn't a gamelist.xml file in my psx folder....

Side note, i deleted my N64 gamilist file too... whoops... leraning here

Any ideas??

Pie Guy

Also, my sd card is 100% full with only 1.6 gb left of space

mitu

This post is deleted!

sohailoo

@dudleydes oh sorry i thought you only needed the image, marque and video

<game id="19607" source="ScreenScraper">
	<path>./Ace Combat 2 (USA).PBP</path>
	<name>Ace Combat 2 [USA]</name>
	<desc>.</desc>
	<image>./boxart/Ace Combat 2 (USA).png</image>
	<marquee>./wheel/Ace Combat 2 (USA).png</marquee>
	<video>./snap/Ace Combat 2 (USA).mp4</video>
	<thumbnail />
	<rating>0.8</rating>
	<releasedate>19970815T000000</releasedate>
	<developer>Namco</developer>
	<publisher>Namco</publisher>
	<genre>Simulation</genre>
	<players>1</players>
</game>

all i care about is the videos and images but if i can get both then why not

dudleydes

@sohailoo Thanks for the info.

For metadata, you will need to install Selph's scraper from the setup script. Once done, then exit ES and run the following command from the terminal or a SSH session:

cd RetroPie/roms/psx
/opt/retropie/supplementary/scraper/scraper -img_format=png -image_dir="./boxart" -image_path="./boxart" -download_images=false -image_suffix="" -marquee_dir="./wheel" -marquee_path="./wheel" -download_marquees=false -marquee_suffix="" -video_dir="./snap" -video_path="./snap" -download_videos=false -video_suffix=""

The above is an example for creating a gamelist XML for Playstation (PSX). For the other systems, the working directory needs to be changed with a command such as cd ../snes/ before running the scraper.

For arcade roms, remember to include the -mame parameter in the scraper command.