Easy way to add video and marquees tags in your gamelist for video support.

[Nismo]

Since new versions have video support maybe it's a pain for some people to add video and marquees tags by hand in their gamelist.xml, so here you have an easy way.

This will only work in windows 7 and windows 10. Windows vista not tested. This will not work on windows XP.

• On windows create a new text document.

Paste this code:

$doc = [xml] (Get-Content -raw gamelist.xml)

foreach ($gameEl in $doc.DocumentElement.game) { 
  # Use -replace to extract the filename without extension from the 
  # path contained in the <path> element.
  $gameName = $gameEl.path -replace '^.*/(.*)\..*$', '$1'
  # Append elements 'video' and 'marquee', but only if they don't already
  # exist.
  if ($null -eq $gameEl.video) {
    $gameEl.AppendChild($doc.CreateElement('video')).InnerText = "./videos/${gameName}.mp4"
  }
  if ($null -eq $gameEl.marquee) {
    $gameEl.AppendChild($doc.CreateElement('marquee')).InnerText = "./marquees/${gameName}.png"
  }
}
rename-item gamelist.xml -newname oldgamelist.xml
$writer = [System.IO.StreamWriter] "gamelist.xml"
$doc.Save($writer)
$writer.Close()

This will work for all systems if you have videos and marquees folders inside your roms folder, for example:
rom/snes/videos and roms/snes/marquees

or

roms/megadrive/videos and roms/megadrive/marquees

Or you can change the paths to fit your path for videos and marquees:

"~/.emulationstation/roms/snes/Videos/${gameName}.mp4"

"~/.emulationstation/roms/snes/Marquees/${gameName}.png"

• Save the document.

• Rename the extension from .txt to .ps1 for example "addvideo&marquees.ps1"

Now you only need to place it inside a folder containing your gamelist.xml.

• Then click right mouse button on the file addvideo&marquees.ps1 and select "exec with powershell".

Your old gamelist it's not deleted, your previous gamelist it's renamed to oldgamelist.xml.

• A new file "gamelist.xml" will be created with the tags.

It takes the name from the <path> tag from your gamelist.xml, so then you need a program like fatmatch to match your videos and marquees with your rom name.

Keep in mind than this will create video and marquees tags for all games in your gamelist, even if the videos or marquees doesn't exist.

Also keep in mind that i have all my marquees in png format, so if you use some jpg files you will need a batch image converter or something similar...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Issues:
On some computers maybe you can get an error: "cannot be loaded because running scripts is disabled on this system".

Easy fix:

1- Open a text document and place this inside:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -File addvideomarquees.ps1

Make sure the name of .ps1 file is the same than in the code above and save changes.

2- Rename the .txt extension to .bat

3- Place it in the same folder than addvideomarquees.ps1 and do right click on the .bat file and select " exec as administrator".

Hope this helps. Regards.

[ebtalk]

@Nismo
One thing it does is cuts off remaining characters after a period.

For instance. If the file name is ./Zany Golf (USA, Europe) (v1.1).zip

The mp4 name will come back Zany Golf (USA, Europe) (v1.mp4

It cuts off everything after. Nothing major and easy to clean up but something to note. for people.

Otherwise thanks for the script. It has saved so much time.

[ebtalk]

I'm getting this error now when I try to run it in my gbc folder.

[Nismo]

@ebtalk It should work perfectly, seems you have an error: the given path's format is not supported.

Maybe you doesn't edit the file the right way. Take a look again, or tray to use it in another folder.

It cuts afer the point because the code was thinking that after the point is the extension of the file.

[ebtalk]

@Nismo So weird. It worked in my mastersystem folder. Then the very next folder I try it errors out. And continues to error out in any other folder I try it in. No change was made besides the mastersystem was changed to gbc.

[Nismo]

@ebtalk Please can you post here the code on your videofix.ps1?

[ebtalk]

$doc = [xml] (Get-Content -raw gamelist.xml)

foreach ($gameEl in $doc.DocumentElement.game) { 
  # Use -replace to extract the filename without extension from the 
  # path contained in the <path> element.
  $gameName = $gameEl.path -replace '^.*/([^.]+)\..*$', '$1'
  # Append elements 'video' and 'marquee', but only if they don't already
  # exist.
   if ($null -eq $gameEl.video) {
    $gameEl.AppendChild($doc.CreateElement('video')).InnerText = "~/.emulationstation/roms/gbc/snap/${gameName}.mp4"
  }
  if ($null -eq $gameEl.marquee) {
    $gameEl.AppendChild($doc.CreateElement('marquee')).InnerText = "~/.emulationstation/roms/gbc/marquee/${gameName}.png"
  }
}


$writer = [System.IO.StreamWriter] "$PWD/newFile.xml"
$doc.Save($writer)
$writer.Close()

[Nismo]

@ebtalk Seems the code it's ok, i think the problem it's because the double back slash in the path you are trying to save, try to do it in another folder that not contains double back slash "//" in their path.

[ebtalk]

@Nismo Where is the double backslash. I don't see it in the code.

All my roms are in folders within:

\RETROPIE\roms\ when i'm viewing from my PC

so there's \RETROPIE\roms\mastersystem which worked
then \RETROPIE\roms\gbc - didn't work
\RETROPIE\roms\atari7800 - didn't work

[ebtalk]

@Nismo in the following code: $writer = [System.IO.StreamWriter] "$PWD/newFile.xml"

I took out $PWD and it worked.

[Nismo]

@ebtalk I told you, it's because your folder path where you are trying to save the newFile.xml conflicts.

The double back slash is not in the code, it's on your path. See the image with the error you send to me before.

Anyway your solution it's working.

I have edit the first post with new code so you don't need to edit path if you have videos and marquees folders inside your roms folder.

I also removed $PWD to avoid path errors.

[Nismo]

@ebtalk I edited the code, now the "missing characters after dot" bug it's fixed.

[hooperre]

@Nismo Would love to add these to my repertoire and tend to do this (mostly) manually, so I appreciate this tool.

Do y'all have a theme that you recommend? I've never downloaded a theme from github as I'm not sure how. I've only ever done it from the RetroPie Menu.

[alaindesjardins]

Where and what do I add if I want to rename the gamelist.xml to oldgamelist.xml at the end of the script and then save the newfile.xml to gamelist.xml?

Also, I run into a problem with all my videos and marquees being in the arcade folder instead, but all the fba games are in their respective folder (/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/fba/". I suppose I could add the full path to that script before I run it... is the correct syntax "~/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/arcade/snap/${gameName}.mp4"? Is there a better way of doing it?

I'm kind of new to file paths in linux and powershell scripts. Thanks!

[Nismo]

@alaindesjardins Fixed the code in first post to fix the changes you requested about renaming previous gamelist to oldgamelist and newfile it's now gamelist.xml.

About the path, yes, that's the way to change the path.

Regards.

[alaindesjardins]

I don't know if you can look at the comparison differences but It's changing the output format of the scrapers and as you can see it doesn't seem to keep things proper. I would expect it to only add the video and marquee line but it's doing much more than that.

I suppose I can load it up and see if it makes a difference in how it displays everything in emulation station but, is there another way of doing it so it doesn't screw up the whole formatting?

[alaindesjardins]

I would expect it to look like this if that makes sense. The lines added have a blue dot on the line number.

[Nismo]

@alaindesjardins I don't see the differences, what's the problem if the xml works ok?

I see the new gamelist.xml more clean...

[alaindesjardins]

Yeah, I won't worry about it. My OCD targets the fact that the description is all different because the formatting it all screwed up after I run the powershell script.

I'll try not to look at it, I just wish there was an easier way to append the <video> and <marquee> lines without changing the rest. Maybe I'll see if the sselph scraper can add that data in or request it be worked in. I just figured out how to scrape using sselph scraper and my own images/artwork so I was able to generate a gamelist.xml with metadata. Adding the videos and wheel art was the only thing left which your script does.

Thanks!

[Nismo]

@alaindesjardins I don't know a easiest way to do it. Sorry maybe it's a stupid question but what is OCD?