Screenscraper error API closed for non-registered members

Trebloth

Hi all, I stumbled on this topic in an attempt to solve the same issue the original poster was having (specifically, the fact that the scraper.cfg file doesn't save the username and password settings from ScreenScraper.fr). While a few people chimed in with bits and pieces of information, I'm going to give as much feedback / answers as possible to the initial problem.

To reiterate, this is specifically dealing with Sselph's Scraper (just referred to as 'scraper' most of the time). Some comments were talking about sky scraper, which I have not used and this information does not apply to.

Problem: running Sselph's scraper when ScreenScraper.fr is overloaded produces errors and does not work. We want to put in our login information to screenscraper.fr when running Sselph's scraper to bypass this issue as a registered user.

To get things to work cleanly, I deleted everything that was already in the images folder, as well as the gameslist.xml file.

Solution:

Exit emulation station (main menu -> quit -> quit emulationstation)
You will now be at a command prompt that says pi@retropie:~ $ (exact location text may be different if you left the command prompt from a different location)
typing 'ls' (short for list) will show you the folders and give you an idea of where you are.
cd RetroPie (this is case sensitive)
cd roms
ls (again, to see you roms folders)
cd (the folder you want to go to if you want to scrape one set of roms at a time like i did, in my case it was cd pcengine)

Now, this took me a few tries to get right, but what I figured out was that when running the command line, you have to tell it every single option that isn't default. For me, that meant telling it to use ScreenScraper.fr (-console_src=ss), download videos (-download_videos=true), download marquees (-download_marquees=true), and entering my username (-ss_user=[myusername]) and password (-ss_password=[mypassword]).

My command that finally worked was as written below (without the () symbols of course).

/opt/retropie/supplementary/scraper/scraper -console_src=ss -download_videos=true -download_marquees=true -ss_user=(insertusernamehere) -ss_password=(insertpasswordhere)

And to add, just type emulationstation to restart it.

Hope this helps someone! And thanks to everyone else who added some of the pieces that finally helped me put it all together.

thelostsoul

@Trebloth Its great to have a posting that is organized as a step by step tutorial and proven to be working. As an additional note, you could create a script out of the command, so next time you just call the script without worrying about settings.

WeirdH

I never used the command line, but instead scrape with screenscraper.fr from the retropie setup, like @top-specci said above. I use this method and it works for my needs (very basic info scraping with me manually editing the gamelist.xml to preference afterwards).

Granted, it's not the best option if you need to scrape hundreds of games, but for adding a handful of new entries, it's functional.

Colombia20102018

@mitu hello, I am having a lot of issues understanding the information. It is very high level for me and from all the different posts I see around the Internet, it seems I am not alone. I read the docs but some of the information assumes certain level of knowledge that I don't have. I registered at the screen scraper.fr page. All I want to do now is to go to Retropie to add my user and password so I can scrape all the roms to get video snaps. I see comments such as run it from the roms folder. How do I get to the roms folder to run it? Other comments say edit the config.ini. How do I edit it? How do I get there?
I would really appreciate if a step by step or video on how to do this could be shared. For example, step 1. from your emulation station type F4. step 2. type this command (....) and this path(...) to reach the roms folder. Step 3. now type this command (...) and this path (...). Step 4. Now that you are here do this, edit that, type there, change that, etc. Step 5. Save this way. Step 6. Now go back to emulation station this way. I am sure a step by step will save so much time to so many people that to play some games is all they want :). Thank you and Happy New Year

Clyde

@colombia20102018 I don't have a video for you, but I also don't think that one is necessary for the few steps in this matter.

As you already said, press F4 in Emulation Station.
Enter the command nano ~/.skyscraper/config.ini
You're now in the text editor "nano". Press Ctrl+End or use the cursor keys to get to the end of the file, and append the following lines. (Replace USER and PASSWORD with your own Screenscraper username and password, but keep them separated by a colon.)

[screenscraper]
userCreds="USER:PASSWORD"

Exit nano by pressing Ctrl+x, answer the save question with y, and press Enter to confirm the file name. You should be back in the command line after that.
[Optional] Enter the command tail ~/.skyscraper/config.ini to display the last 10 lines of the config file, and check if your changes were saved.
Exit the command line by either entering exit or pressing Ctrl+d. This should return you to Emulation Station automatically.

Now, Skyscraper should use your credentials to log into Screenscraper if you choose the latter as the scraping source.

Alternatively, if your Pi is connected to your LAN, you should be able to access it via Samba like it's described here. Skyscraper's config files should be accessible at the Samba network address \\retropie\configs\all\skyscraper, see here. You should be able to make the changes described in #2 this way, too.

mitu

@colombia20102018 said in Screenscraper error API closed for non-registered members:

hello, I am having a lot of issues understanding the information

Using Skyscraper in RetroPie is described in detail in the Docs. The advanced options menu will allow you to edit the configuration file and add your ScreenScraper credentials.

Colombia20102018

@clyde hello. Thank you for the steps. I followed them and checked that the user and password were saved. When I try the screen scraper it tells me invalid character F for all roms. When I try Skyscraper it tells me to sign up for an account. I did a reboot and tried again and still got the same messages. What else am i missing? Thanks

Colombia20102018

@mitu I read the docs one more time plus the troubleshooting section. I do not see the steps to enter the user and password anywhere. Where is this information? Thanks

mitu

@colombia20102018 said in Screenscraper error API closed for non-registered members:

Where is this information? Thanks

The advanced options menu will allow you to edit the configuration file and add your ScreenScraper credentials.

Colombia20102018

@mitu the advance configuration section does not explain how to do any of that. This might me intuitive for some people but not for me 😊
This is the message I am getting now:

mitu

@colombia20102018 said in Screenscraper error API closed for non-registered members:

the advance configuration section does not explain how to do any of that.

The advanced options section has an entry to edit your configuration:

When you select it, an editor is opened to edit the file and you can enter the user and password in the [screenscraper] section, as @Clyde explained to you.

This is the message I am getting now:

This means you didn't properly add your user and password and Skyscraper doesn't use your registered account to access ScreenScraper.

Colombia20102018

@mitu I checked both ways. The configuration file shows the correct user and password. I am assuming the user is the pseudo name and not my email address, correct? Maybe it takes some time for the system to sync?

mitu

@colombia20102018 said in Screenscraper error API closed for non-registered members:

The configuration file shows the correct user and password.

Post the configuration file, obscuring or removing the password.

I am assuming the user is the pseudo name and not my email address, correct? Maybe it takes some time for the system to sync?

I don't think there's any sync involved, if you're able to login to the site, your account is valid.

Colombia20102018

@mitu this is how it looks:
There is a : between user and password.
Thanks

mitu

@colombia20102018 said in Screenscraper error API closed for non-registered members:

There is a : between user and password.

Yeah, that's not what @Clyde indicated you to add. Add the information exactly as specified. Your configuration file has only comments (lines starting with #), that are ignored.

Colombia20102018

@mitu @clyde that’s the only place that says user or password. Where do I need to change it? This will be so easy with a video 😊

Colombia20102018

@mitu @Clyde ok I think I figured it out. I thought I was supposed to overwrite the user and password right on the script. I know zero about scripts. I think I go it right now. Thanks for your patience.

Clyde

@colombia20102018 Well, I never told you to overwrite anything, but to add said lines to the end of the config file. A video wouldn't help much more if you don't follow it exactly either, and you don't have to know anything about scripts just to add two lines at their end (besides that the config file isn't a script anyway).

Follow instructions exactly as given, lest you stand in your own way on the path to success.

This only as a friendly word of advice for the future – imagine the sentence in bold print shouted in an overacting, dramatic voice like in bad movies. 😉

I'm glad that it's working for you now. Have fun with RetroPie!