Versatile C++ game scraper: Skyscraper
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That's an entirely different discussion, but not an irrelevant one at that. Yes, people who sell anything related to these projects are a pest.
But in the case of games databases, the big problem is server load. It costs a lot of money to keep those databases up and running. And allowing unlimited access for everyone is not really an option. That's why I love how they did it with 'screenscraper'. It makes sense. The most active users, will be the ones who have the better access. As it should be imo.
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what about some sort of [decentralized] peer-to-peer distribution system? i'm not familiar with the technical side of things, but bittorrent comes to mind. just a thought, sorry if this was out of line with the discussion at hand.
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@muldjord said in Versatile C++ game scraper: Skyscraper:
That's an entirely different discussion, but not an irrelevant one at that. Yes, people who sell anything related to these projects are a pest.
But in the case of games databases, the big problem is server load. It costs a lot of money to keep those databases up and running. And allowing unlimited access for everyone is not really an option. That's why I love how they did it with 'screenscraper'. It makes sense. The most active users, will be the ones who have the better access. As it should be imo.
Honestly, when I complete a system, it won't require any server load or scraping at all. It could just be torrented pretty much anywhere, unpackaged, FTP'd and with a little rom hunting on the end user's part it should all work out of the box. The media will be packaged exactly as it should be transferred to the Pi file system and the gamelist.xml will also be created for it that points to every available piece for each game.
The only thing that won't be included is the roms themselves, but I intend to do everything humanly possible to make this as pain-free as possible. I think there may be a way to create datfiles with sub-directories, which should make the process much easier to ensure that not only are your roms all named correctly but you have all of your games in the correct folders for all of the media to work. If not, I will have to figure out how to create a script that will take the good roms and move them to the proper directories after you've run your own through Romcenter or clrMame. Rest assured that it will be the absolute easiest possible method when I take this very important step to make sure everyone can enjoy the sets without having to have a degree in rocket science.
My spreadsheets also list the CRC values of the roms as well as the matching GoodTools, No-Intro and TOSEC file names if they are available. I also have a "COUNTS" page, which shows out of the entire number of games in the collections how many each of those mainstream sets are missing. Before I release everything, I will likely add a column for "NonGood" sets and/or anything else I can come across that would make finding the missing games even easier. A majority of the current "missing" ones are hacks and translations that were made between 2010 and today. I do believe there are actually a few lesser known collections that should have a lot of matches for those.
I would like to put these somewhere that users of your scraper could get. Not just the synopsis files, but the artwork as well. If github wouldn't be a good option, I'd love to continue a discussion about where the best place would be as I get closer to my release.
I still haven't done new videos or finished working on game manuals yet, so it will be quite a bit of time before I finally put this out there.
I should be able to open the spreadsheet to the public soon though to show what work has been done and so anybody interested can see the progress as it's made. :)
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@chipsnblip This is certainly an interesting concept. I've asked about the issues at TheGamesDb's forum, and they actually seem to seek out a decentralized system (not p2p though). If I understand it correctly, they want to allow a bunch of copies of their database to be downloaded from the get-go. Then those will be placed on mirrors that are used by any app. And instead of re-downloading the entire database each month, they supply updates instead.
Unfortunately that doesn't help much in Skyscrapers case, as I don't have the option of running a Skyscraper game database anywhere.
So I guess they see thegamesdb.net as the central hub, where everyone will update and add games. And then they have, sortof, slaves, that mirror the updates every once in a while to stay updated. And any app would use those instead of the central one.
Their core api is still not finished, so time will tell how they decide to do this.
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This is tiresome to say the least. In my talks with the 'thegamesdb' team we've basically been misunderstanding each other for a while now. It seems that the key I have, is in fact an app API key (and not a user key). And the limit is not on a per-key basis, but on IP!!!! So simple, so many misunderstandings.
Bottom line: It seems like I can use my 'thegamesdb' implementation, and each user WILL NOT need their own key. At least not for the time being. There is a per-IP request limit though, and this means that I will remove 'thegamesdb' as a part of the Simple Mode scraping process. Instead users can use it for 1000-2000 rom scrapinger per month, and that's it for the moment. In time there might be the option of adding to this limit with user keys where you earn requests by helping out with the database. It seems that this is still being worked out.
I would like to thank the guys at 'thegamesdb' for helping out with this.
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Skyscraper version 2.5.0 released: https://github.com/muldjord/skyscraper
- 'thegamesdb' removed from Simple Mode scraping scripts due to new api restrictions
- Implemented new 'thegamesdb' api, be wary of monthly request limit!
- Made sure 'remaining requests' is clearly stated when using 'thegamesdb'
- Implemented request limit test which makes Skyscraper stop if limit is reached
- Made sure cli header always has correct number of dashes
So, as mentioned, the 'thegamesdb' module has been cut down to size quite severely. The current API only allows 1000 requests per month (this might change, but this is what we have at the moment)! And 1 rom scrape takes up 2 requests. That means just a meager 500 roms can be scraped using this module PER MONTH. I have therefore removed it entirely from the Simple Mode scripts, as it just doesn't make sense to have in there.
As always, please update, and let me know if you run into trouble.
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Ok, I'm pretty much done with 'thegamesdb'. I've been increasingly aggravated about their answers and non-answers over the past week. I do not want to spend more time on them, unless they put up a friendly face. This is not worth my time. Clearly automated scrapers aren't welcome on their service anymore. They excuse themselves by asking us to set up our own mirror, which is just not an option for most people. And when I propose a higher request limit, they pretty much turn their backs on me and start accusing me of "farming".
The current implementation will stand for the time being. I might remove it entirely. Pretty much depends on how the team behind the service treats me from here on out. I make Skyscraper for the fun of it. And this is NOT fun.
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Ok, so I've spend the past hour being aggravated about this situation. It's not worth it. I will remove 'thegamesdb' from Skyscraper in the next release. If they change their stance in the future, I might readd it. But for the time being, it's not in a usable state, unless I host my own mirror of their data, which, obviously, is not an option for most people.
I'm sad to see it go, but this is how it has to be in order for me to stay sane.
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I've rewinded to 2.5.0. I see no reason to not have the limited 'thegamesdb' implemented, just be aware of the limit.
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I've read the conversation, they were surprisingly hostile about it... :/
I'm sorry, that sucks. -
Sad to hear. I cant find the thread on their forums, maybe because im not registered there.
Can understand that servers cost money, and scrapers can produce a lot of traffic.
I just tested the 2.5.0 with gamesdb as scrapermodule and it worked (counted down from 1000 uses). Cant understand what was wrong with this solution. -
Well if anybody can figure out a good way to host this so everybody could use everything without any hassle or drama by the time I put my release out, I'll be happy to do the work there so everybody can enjoy it.
So far 2,118 unique NES/FDS games are covered. This includes (or will include by release time) Box Art, Cartridge/Disk Art, Title and Action screenshots, "3D" Box Art, synopsis files that contain all the game information for the
gamelist.xmltags and a lot of info that RetroPie doesn't have tags for, HD video previews, Game Manuals (either PDF or Zipped JPGs or both... so far around 950 of the games have them), GameFAQs zipped for most official titles and some other goodies.At some point when I feel they're ready, I could probably release the synopsis files first so you guys aren't waiting another 6 months + for at least that part. I proof read a ton on those, and I believe they're the best descriptions available out there for the games, including many of the obscure pirates and unlicensed games that usually aren't covered on any of the major gaming sites that would be scraped with this scraper. I also removed all of the "weird" characters that don't like to show up properly in either RetroPie or on the XBox, so there are no strange "empty box" characters in the descriptions anymore.
I've got a few days off. I'm really going to make an effort to get my spredsheet where I want it to be for a public release so everybody can see what progress has been made so far and follow along if they're bored. :)
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@analoghero I have readded support for 'thegamesdb'. Just be wary of the limit. Time will tell if it changes.
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@used2berx Have you considered somehow uploading the information you are creating to screenscraper.fr? That would be the optimal way of making use of it in Skyscraper. It sounds like you have a pretty much perfect collection of data on your hands, I'm pretty sure they would appreciate the data if it could be automated somehow. I don't know if you're interested in working with them on that. They have been very friendly towards me whenever I've contacted them, so you could consider that if you wish.
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@muldjord You're right! Maybe they overcome their descission - time will show. But I think 1000 entries per unique IP are enough for a user.
What is this "queue" thing? I understand this as connection request to their server and with one request you can do 20 actions. So in theory you can retrieve 10.000-20.000 entries per IP - or am I wrong?
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@cyperghost If I understand it correctly, which I might not, their API can contain up to 20 game results per request. So optimally, if I knew the ID's of the games in their database beforehand, I could requests a comma-seperated list of 20 specific ID's per request. And all of those 20 games would be returned to be in a JSON answer. Problem here being that I do not know the ID's, that's what Skyscraper is trying to figure out. So I'd have to search for the filename one at a time instead, find the best result and its ID, and then fetch the data. So I'd use 2-3 requests per game.
But I might have misunderstood this completely which it seems I have a habbit of doing when it comes to the new API. Pretty embarrasing to be honest.
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@muldjord Well ... I think there is a possibilty to get these IDs. I think it's just a checksum of the ROM files (surely rearranged and changed with aretmetics)
Or am I completely wrong this time?
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@cyperghost said in Versatile C++ game scraper: Skyscraper:
Or am I completely wrong this time?
I'd say yes, the ID refers to the (internal) identifier of the game in thegamesdb database, not the hash of the file. You search by a game name (don't know if their API has a 'search by hash' option) and you get a list of games with their IDs.
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@mitu Yes you're right ;)
The id for Sonic the Hedgehog is just 5544
So the call to this is only ...
httpx://thegamesdb.net/game.php?id=5544 -
@mitu Correct, they don't currently support hash searches as screenscraper does. The id is just a numeric identifier starting from 0 and going upwards for any new game added it seems.
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