NES games database

[Naylia]

Hey guys,

I'm in the process of compiling a NES games database. I'm doing all the original nintendo games, using the same format as has been done for MAME games by others around here so that I can have similar screens displaying the info. Also taking snapshots of title screen. It's quite time consuming because I haven't figured out an easy way to get the data about the games beyond opening them and taking note of full title, year, company, and then playing for 30 seconds to determine genre. Two questions:

1) Has anyone done this already and could send me the database and snapshots?

2) If no one else has done this would other people like access to the database when I'm done?

[dgemily]

Naylia,
I’m trying (with the french team) to build full databases of roms.
Right now I’m working on a full database of snes, I get already 300 items, with information, genre, publisher, description, covers etc…
To do it we use Ant movie catalogue, Basilou did ask on the forum of AMC for a script to recover the information on the allgame.com and now the script is done , it’s working very well,
You can find the script here: http://forum.antp.be/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=1693
With this script you will find all of games, it’s awesome. On my teste, on the 300 snes roms, the script found every time the information . But it doesn’t recover all the covers, so we need to find the covers that we need, if someone can help us, we will be happy…

If we use this script, for all platforms, we will have the same format for all of them, so we will be able to sort correctly the databases. We will adapt also the script rom_to_xml, to have the same format.
Remember, that the XAnt plugin by Badubo, it’s able to build automatically an xml databases for xlobby like you want...

I would like to build an application which it can scan your roms’ repertories in the aim of recover only the items of the databases and covers that you need, not the full database. But it’s not easy, I’m looking at ….

I’m doing the snes databases, Basilou is doing the GBA database.
also we did build sms database, the zinc database and n64 database, but we need to modify these databases because we didn’t use the script to built them….

If you want to help us, or if someone can help us, that will be nice, you can contact me if you need more information.

Later.

[Naylia]

I'd be happy to throw in my time towards doing whatever needs to be done for the original NES games. Can you help me with some more step by step instructions of what I need to do. As far as Ant and the script: Do I just put titles in Ant and then run the script?

What information do I need to put where to get the script working with Ant and my rom list?

For cover shots, I have been making shots of the title screen of the video game. Is this what you are looking for? Or are you looking for shots of the actual box? If it's screen shots, I'd be happy to do all the NES games. I have hundreds. What format should they be in? I've just been taking screen shots and saving them as PNG files that have names matching the rom file.

[dgemily]

First download and install Ant Movie Catalog from here: http://www.antp.be/software/moviecatalog/
Them copy the allgame script and save it in the script folder with an extension .ifs.

Open AMC then movie tab, “add” and write the name of your rom in the case “original title”, then press f6, in script select allgame and then execute.
Select the items corresponding to your rom , if you don’t see it, try by reducing the name, like for “Super Mario Kart” use “kart” for the search. You should find all of original NES games.

For the covers I prefer the actual box but if we can’t find all of them, maybe we will use screenshots

Later,

[Naylia]

Perfect, that I can do. I'll do my best to get box covers.

[dgemily]

are you doing the full databases of NES ?
if you do it, can you send me it when it's done ? thanks

[Naylia]

Well I think the idea is actually to just find cover pics for all of them because the software combined with the script will take all your games and find the info for them. Then using another plugin it will turn the softwares database into an xlobby database. I should have all the games entered into the software over christmas at some point in time, but I don't know how long it will take to track down all the covers. But I can send you the xml file without covers when I have it together.

[dgemily]

But I can send you the xml file without covers when I have it together.

yes please, but I would like to have the .amc databases, thanks

Dge,

there is an update of the script allgame (v1.2)

[Naylia]

no problem, maybe it'll be small enough that it can be posted...

[dgemily]

it's up to you, just, let me know when it's done

[Naylia]

So I did a couple games just to make sure it all worked, this is awesome!

Is it possible to run the script on multiple entries? Or only one at a time?

[dgemily]

So I did a couple games just to make sure it all worked, this is awesome!

yes thi is awesome, it fing all the game!!!

Is it possible to run the script on multiple entries? Or only one at a time?

yes, it's possible to run the script on multiple entries. select games ( with shift) and press f6, but you need to click 2 or 3 time for everygames and sometime you need to rename the rom to run the search correctly.

Later,

[Naylia]

Sorry I've been slacking on this, but I'm lookinig to get back into it.

So if I have a big database of video games, what's the best way to link the information in the database to the parameter that actually needs to be passed to the emulator?

[dgemily]

it's coming soon

[Arty]

if you are just looking for a list of known NES roms, click here for a txt file of them, it just has the names, no genre or anything, but is a start.
http://www.allmyroms.com/neslist.txt

Hope this is helpful.

Arty

also if you want to buy the dvd's with the box scans you can at the main site above. hope this helps you out also