Versatile C++ game scraper: Skyscraper

Mick2K

I have a problem. I can't update. Any ideas?!

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muldjord

@mick2k Please run the following and try again, I have been messing around with the 2.7.4 release because I found a silly bug, so I re-released.

Run this:

$ cd
$ cd skysource
$ rm VERSION
$ ./update_skyscraper.sh

That should fix it and update to 2.7.4. Let me know how it goes.

Mick2K

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

./update_skyscraper.sh

It worked. Thank you very much.

easye9inches

Is there a certain way to name a sub-folder so that it also could get scrapped into the gamelist.xml? For instance, I added a "#JP Games" folder to the genesis library instead of having both a megadrive and genesis system selection. Just to condense the system selection down. But it did not scrape that sub-folder. Is that possible?

Edit: Nevermind. I see they were scraped and included in the gamelist.xml

muldjord

@analoghero Hey man, I've implemented the checksum option you suggested some time back. It's currently on the master branch and will be in 2.7.5 to be released soon. :)

It works by using the command line option '--query' which basically takes either a search query for the filename based scraping modules, or either 'sha1=[checksum]', 'md5=[checksum]', or 'romnom=[filename]' (rom name in French). It also requires a single rom to be passed on command line like so:

$ Skyscraper -p [platform] -s screenscraper --refresh --query sha1=[checksum] /[path]/[to]/[romfile.zip]

This will allow you to override the checksums used when searching for the game. So you can look one up at screenscraper, and just use that.

AnalogHero

@muldjord Nice! Thanks for putting your time into this. Hipe that others could use this option, too.

muldjord

@analoghero It's a niche feature for sure, but I got another request for it, and I figured out a way to implement it in a way I was satisfied with. :)

muldjord

Skyscraper version 2.7.5 released: https://github.com/muldjord/skyscraper

Fixed a bug where 'brackets="false"' in config.ini would be flipped (Thanks to Vynce for reporting this)
Completely refactored pass procedures for cleaner code and to enable '--query' option
Added '--query' command line option. This option requires a single rom file to be passed on command line aswell, otherwise it will be ignored (Thank you to AnalogHero and Vynce for suggesting this)
Added scrapers to 'psx' and 'pc' platforms when using Simple Mode

To elaborate on the "--query" option, this is how it works: For most modules a search query is sent to the scraping module in an URL format. That means that a filename such as "Rick Dangerous.lha" becomes "rick+dangerous". The '+' here means a space. You could probably also use the URL encoded space "rick%20dangerous" but my tests show that most modules expect spaces as '+'. And it is the "rick+dangerous" that you, as the user, can pass as the query, like so:

$ Skyscraper -p [platform] -s [module] --query "rick+dangerous" [filename]

Remember to also add a filename that you wish to use the override with. Otherwise the query will be ignored.

But, not all of the scraping modules are search name based. For instance, the "screenscraper" module can use a variety of different search methods. So for screenscraper, you also have the option of overriding the checksums it use to search for a game. This is especially convenient in cases where a filename exists multiple times in their database and your own local file doesn't match with any of the connected checksums (maybe you've compressed the rom yourself or whatever).
In this case you can look up one of the working checksums on "screenscrapers" website (screenscraper.fr) and override the checksum like these examples:

$ Skyscraper -p [platform] -s [module] --query sha1=[checksum] [filename]
$ Skyscraper -p [platform] -s [module] --query md5=[checksum] [filename]
$ Skyscraper -p [platform] -s [module] --query sha1=[checksum]&md5=[checksum]&romnom=[exact url encoded filename] [filename]

The last example combines two of the checksum options and even the "romnom" option which is "rom name" in French (this is a screenscraper thing, not a Skyscraper thing). You obviously only need one of the checksum options, it's just to show that you can combine them if you really need to.

The '--query' option is clearly an "experts only" option, but for those that like to go down the rabbit hole, I am your humble servant. Down you go... :D

And happy scraping! :)

AnalogHero

@muldjord Dont know if im doing something wrong, but the new query option isnt working for me. I tried this

$ Skyscraper -p amiga -s screenscraper --query md5=0D5E4770B34021A666E9CADF0F39DA75 /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/amiga/BlackViper_v1.0_AGA.lha

and it outputs
1/1 (T1) Pass 1 ---- Game 'BlackViper_v1.0_AGA' not found :( ----

What am i doing wrong?

EDIT: Ok. It works. Just used a different entry from screenscraper.fr md5=7858DFE8AE9A6725B6CAD18D67FEBA61 worked.

muldjord

@analoghero Yeah, I ran into this problem with amiga games aswell. It needs to be the same platform, otherwise it won't match them even though you put in a custom checksum. So for instance, if you copy a sha1 from a cd32 game and try to override it for a standard amiga game, it won't be found. It will be found if you use the amiga version. So this should not be an issue as I assume people will always be using sha1's from the actual platform.

Btw, Skyscraper differentiates the Amiga platforms from the filenames. If a filename has 'cd32' or 'cdtv' in it, it will switch to that platform for that rom.

screech

@muldjord Just checked for the Screenscraper DB ;) "Amiga CD32", "Amiga AGA", "Amiga CDTV",... are child of "Amiga" ;) so if you scrape a CD32 rom on "Amiga" system, it normally return the good game referenced on "Amiga CD32" ;)

It's the same for "MAME" for exemple, if you scrape a CPS1 game in the MAME System, it will return the good game (not needed to specify CPS1 ;) ).

muldjord

@screech Yes, this is true, but switching the platform (in Skyscraper) is necessary for the match to occur. If you scrape the 'amiga' platform with Skyscraper, it will not accept an entry for the 'Amiga CD32' platform because some scraping modules are name search based. So it needs to change the platform in order to accept the returned entry. :)

With Screenscraper this is less important since it's checksum based. But for the others, it's a necessity since many games are multiplatform, and Skyscraper needs to find the right one. :)

tacodog

I have a couple question about the usage of Skyscraper that I was hoping someone could help with.

My first issue is that I use m3u files for my psx games because it handles multi disc games organically giving me just one entry in emulationstation. My m3u file points to ../psx-discs/...(disc 1).bin ../psx-discs/...(disc 2).bin etc. If I scrape by m3u filename, nothing is found. If I check by disc, I get duplicates for each disk, and the gamelist file doesn't point to the m3u. Is there a way to search by filename rather than checksums?

Secondly, I have scraped all of my systems using screenscraper, and I am missing a handful of files.

Local database cache stats:
'screenscraper' module
  Titles       : 428
  Platforms    : 428
  Descriptions : 426
  Publishers   : 418
  Developers   : 412
  Ages         : 171
  Tags         : 414
  Ratings      : 279
  ReleaseDates : 316
  Covers       : 428
  Screenshots  : 428
  Wheels       : 423
  Marquees     : 423
  Videos       : 0

I'd like to fill in these small gaps (just 3 wheels) from a second source, but don't necessary need to grab everything all over again. Is there a way to tell Skyscraper to only get the missing files? Or can I see which files are missing so I can try to grab them manually?

Thanks

muldjord

@tacodog You can scrape single files simply by providing the full or partial path to the rom on command line. You can also use the '--startat' and '--endat' command line options to only scrape a span of roms. As for seeing exactly which roms are missing the data, that is currently not possible.

For the m3u issue, the reason it isn't working for those is that the source you are using (ScreenScraper) doesn't have those exact files in their database. You'd need to overwrite the checksum manually, which can be done with '--query'. Try checking out the release notes for 2.7.5 here: https://github.com/muldjord/skyscraper/releases/tag/2.7.5

It's described in there. You can also try scraping it with another source, such as "mobygames" or "thegamesdb". They search by name instead of checksum, so if your filenames are good, they should provide good data. Not for wheels though, as those sources don't support wheels.

hermit

would it be possible to scrape Mess roms?
example for Amstrad GX4000 :
barb2.zip = Barbarian 2
brubber.zip = Burnin' Rubber

muldjord

@hermit Skyscraper supports many of the MESS platforms simply by scraping them with their own names such as:

$ Skyscraper -p nes -s screenscraper

But GX4000 in particular isn't supported.

annomatik

Hi! Skyscraper scraps many games for me, but some it does not scrap are quite common which I find odd. E.g. Chaos Engine and Lemmings.

Here's the list of some of the currently not scraped games I'm experiencing with Skyscraper:

Amiga

AlienBreed1_v2.3a_0998.lha (2 + 3D scrap fine)
"Bad Ninjas (Homebrew 2018).adf"
Cadaver&CadaverThePayoff_v2.2_0900.lha
ChaosEngine1_v1.2_AGA_1324.lha
ChaosEngine2_v2.1_AGA_0173.lha
CrazyCars1_v1.2.lha
CrazyCars2_v1.1_0311.lha
CrazyCars3_v2.1.lha
DefenderOfTheCrown_v3.1_0317.lha
DeluxePacMan_v1.0_AGA.lha
EyeOfTheBeholder1_v1.5_0116.lha
EyeOfTheBeholder2_v1.1_0834.lha
GhostsNGoblins_v1.2.lha
GhoulsNGhosts_v1.0_2252.lha
Gobliiins1_v1.3_0065.lha
Gobliins2_v1.4_0185.lha (Goblins3 scraps fine)
GreatGianaSisters_v1.6_2945.lha
"Inviyya (Homebrew Demo 2018).adf"
ItCameFromTheDesert1_v2.0_0014.lha
ItCameFromTheDesert2_v2.0.lha
JamesPond1_v2.1.lha
JamesPond2_v2.0_AGA_1354.lha
JamesPond3_v1.0_AGA_0688.lha
"Lemmings 3 AGA (1 of 4).adf"
Lemmings1_v1.5_Files_2089.lha (Lemmings 2 scraps fine)
Llamatron_v1.1_1MB.lha
Lotus1_v1.1_0774.lha
Lotus2_v1.11_0497.lha (Lotus 3 scraps fine)
MegaLoMania_v1.7_0272.lha
MontyPythonsFlyingCircus_v1.3_0273.lha
Nebulus1_v1.3_0361.lha (Nebulus 2 scraps fine)
"Operation Lemming v1.2.adf"
Populous1&DataDisks_v1.1_0069&1217.lha
Populous2&ChallengeGames_v1.3_0079.lha
ProjectX1_v1.3_0886.lha
ProjectX2_v1.3_0289.lha
ProjectXSE_v1.5_0927.lha
RType1_v1.4.1_0940.lha (RType 2 scraps fine)
SensibleTrainSpotting_v1.0.lha
ShadowOfTheBeast1_v2.2_1357.lha
ShadowOfTheBeast2_v1.3a_1359.lha
ShadowOfTheBeast3_v1.6_0016.lha
Speedball1_v2.0_0581.lha (Speedball 2 scraps fine)
SuperMethaneBros_v1.3.lha
TitusTheFox_v2.0_0226.lha
Turrican1_v2.0_0092.lha ( Turrican 2 + 3 scrap fine)
Xenon1_v1.2_0399.lha (Xenon 2 scraps fine)
"Zerosphere (Homebrew 2015).adf"
NES

"Balloon Fight (USA) 2P.nes"
"Banana Prince (GER).nes"
"Castlevania 2 (USA).nes" (Castlevania 1 scraps fine)
"Donkey Kong Jr. (World).nes" (Donkey Kong scraps fine)
"Galaga (USA).nes"
"Ninja Gaiden 1 (USA).nes"
"SCAT (USA) 2P.nes"
"StarTropics 1 (USA).nes"
"Tetris (Nintendo).nes" (Tetris (Tengen) scraps fine)

muldjord

@annomatik Most of the LHA's are not yet in the screenscraper database. It will work for some of them with the openretro module, but overall they are poorly supported at this time (for all scrapers, not just Skyscraper). We are in the process of making them work with both openretro and screenscraper.

As for the nes games, try looking them up on the screenscraper site and check if your checksums for your roms match those in their database. If they do please provide some documented examples of matches that don't return a result and I can look into this further. Thank you. :)

annomatik

thanks, will do. Which checksum tool should I use (either Windows or Raspbian would be fine)?

mitu

@annomatik On Linux you can use md5sum <filename> or sha1sum <filename>, on Windows I think you can use Powershell to compute them - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.utility/get-filehash?view=powershell-6.