Rom scaper with checksum validation for Redump and No-Intro
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I'm not good with development, and have been searching for solutions, but after nearly a whole day of searching, it was time to just post here and hope for the best.
I'm trying to find a way for RetroPie to be able to use either the dat files from No-Intro and Redump, or the database files that normally come with RetroArch, to be able to look at and verify certain files. For one, it could be used to determine if someone has a clean dump, and if used in conjunction with the hascheevos script, could let the user know if the game supports Retro Achievements, or if they have a bad/unsupported version.
And for those that aren't cheevos supported, it still might be possible to use this to scan disc images and compare them to Redump, such as Dos games that use CDs, like Wing Commander, Wing Commander: Privateer, Star Trek: TNG - A Final Unity, and a few others that are supported by RetroPie at this time.
My searches for command line versions have come up with mixed results, but none worked ultimately. While most people might be content with simply being able to play games, some might prefer having known good dumps/rips of their games, knowing there's nothing hidden or wrong with them, or potentially know they have a game that can be safely patched for romhacks.
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ROM validation is usually done with dedicated applications - Crlmamepro or RomCenter can load the No-Intro/Redump DAT files and validate your ROM list.
Not sure where scraping comes into place here, but if you're interested in a checksum oriented query for your ROMs, both external scrapers support querying by ROM checksum for the scraping sites that support it (e.g. ScreenScraper.fr).
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RomCenter and Crlmamepro doesn't run on RPi, not without wine or mono at least, and even then they require xorg. While it's unlikely people will get their games on their Pi without using PC, there might be some instances where a user has copied the files off of another SD card or USB, or is trying to restore the roms from backups, and didn't do any validation/comparison between the two before moving the files. Or they did, but the comparison came back the same, despite the source files being corrupted.
At the very least if the games don't match the checksums, they could be made aware that the dump isn't clean, got corrupted when transferring, or the source was corrupted and copy matched the bad source. I've been updating my µSD card a lot, getting larger sizes, and as such I've been copying the games from one SD to another, not using PC, and as such have to a ton of extra steps to try and make sure my games didn't get corrupted, either on the source device or through a bad transfer. While it might be easier to just save everything to a USB thumb drive that can be read on Windows, the problem there is constantly knocking into the pi and potentially breaking or disconnecting the USB stick.
I've found that one can use the RetroArch DB files to verify many games, including Dos CD games, with a command line program they provide with their source. However integrating it either into emulation station, rom scrapers, or some browser based gui is something beyond any skill I have. I'm learning and trying to figure out how, but I doubt I'd get anything close to PoC soon.
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