[Wintermute0110]

Not sure if it's the repeated scraping or the scraper itself but thought I would post it just in case it is the scraper.

This is gamefaqs site policy (and occurred with Advanced Launcher as well back when AL was functional). All you have to do is go to gamefaqs and fill out a captcha and you can continue importing images, but it will shut you out every 5-20 image imports which makes handling a large library really annoying. It would be super cool if the import script detected when gamefaqs locked you out, paused and let you enter the capture somehow through AEL, but I can't imagine how complex that would be so I wouldn't hold your breath.

And Wintermute, I'll get you my launchers.xml as soon as I get home, thanks for the help.

When I developed AEL originally I though about not having scrapers at all. The thing is that most (if not all) sites will have such download capping, so scraping a whole No-Intro or MAME collection will take many hours. I will encourage users to download as much artwork as possible from sites like emumovies and hyperspin forum and then use the scrapers to fine tuning the artwork of selected ROMs. I plan to add in the first post some links to places where batch collections of artwork can be downloaded.

[sudopinion]

GitHub may be a place you can consider as a source. The libretro-thumbnails database is getting respectable

[Wintermute0110]

GitHub may be a place you can consider as a source. The libretro-thumbnails database is getting respectable

Yeah, I have that on my list, as well as an offline scraper using libretrodb.

Sent from my SC-02G

[atsumori]

One possible idea is to create a scraper interface in AEL so other users can create scrapers for AEL to use (or possibly even just use the existing Kodi scrapers API if that's possible?).

[foleyjo]

Hi. Can someone please advise me on if this following is possible.

I'm, using the Galleria layout to display my roms but It seems to show the same image in all the boxes.
Is there a way I can show a banner in the rom list image, box art for the right side image and screenshot(that changes to a movie) for the left side image, with also an alternative image for each one incase the image does not exist (So if I don't have the banner for a rom it will display the box art)?
I've tried to change images but it just seems to show the same image in all the boxes.

[Girgl]

Ok. maybe I don't get what Advanced MAME Launcher is then. Don't we have the functionality to launch MAME in AEL already? Why develop another Launcher?

Try Advanced MAME Launcher and you will see yourself. Follow the same instructions as here to install (change plugin.program.advanced.emulator.launcher by plugin.program.advanced.MAME.launcher).

Currently AML is just a prototype. It won't launch anything, it justs contains a MAME 0.174 hard-coded database to test all MAME ROMs plus Software Lists browsing. Any feedback is welcomed.

For me it's too much of a hassle to install yet another launcher just for MAME. I guess I will create a batch file to remove the bios files from the list somehow.

[mac1202]

Just use another directory for your bios and edit the rompath line in mame.ini

Code:

rompath                   whereyouputyourbios;whereyouputyourgames

[heXdot]

Hello,

I migrated from advanced launcher since it doesn't work with Krypton anymore.

Huge thanks for your work!

It seems AEL can't work with .ink file shortcuts. Do you plan on working that in or should I start changing all the paths to my applications/games?

[jaydash]

Hello,

I migrated from advanced launcher since it doesn't work with Krypton anymore.

Huge thanks for your work!

It seems AEL can't work with .ink file shortcuts. Do you plan on working that in or should I start changing all the paths to my applications/games?

Yeah... I'm curious too... In addition to some launching some roms, I use the old Advanced Launcher to open a bunch of couch/controller-friendly Steam games that are all .lnk shortcuts placed in a folder with their corresponding box and fanart. It has been easy to drop a .lnk shortcut and some art in the folder and then scan for new additions with Advanced Launcher as I add games (damn Steam sales making me buy more games).

I'm really looking forward to updating my Kodi box, and it looks like AEL will be essential to my setup!

Thanks for your time and effort, Wintermute!

[myghalloween]

Awesome work Wintermute0110 !
Any chance to scrape and browse ROMs by number of player ?

[Slapster]

Not sure if it's the repeated scraping or the scraper itself but thought I would post it just in case it is the scraper.

This is gamefaqs site policy (and occurred with Advanced Launcher as well back when AL was functional). All you have to do is go to gamefaqs and fill out a captcha and you can continue importing images, but it will shut you out every 5-20 image imports which makes handling a large library really annoying. It would be super cool if the import script detected when gamefaqs locked you out, paused and let you enter the capture somehow through AEL, but I can't imagine how complex that would be so I wouldn't hold your breath.

And Wintermute, I'll get you my launchers.xml as soon as I get home, thanks for the help.

When I developed AEL originally I though about not having scrapers at all. The thing is that most (if not all) sites will have such download capping, so scraping a whole No-Intro or MAME collection will take many hours. I will encourage users to download as much artwork as possible from sites like emumovies and hyperspin forum and then use the scrapers to fine tuning the artwork of selected ROMs. I plan to add in the first post some links to places where batch collections of artwork can be downloaded.

Now knowing where to find full artwork libraries that makes sense. I figured out my issue by the way. Names were not EXACTLY the same between rom and art. Fuzzy renamer and realizing that Confluence was looking in "title" and not "box front" was all it took. Couldn't ha been more excited once it clicked and yes, process was VERY fast. Thanks for the everyone's input!!

Is there any way to use a fuzzy type offline scrape so files do not need to be EXACTLY the same? I made my rom library many years ago and the file names for some are lazy. Short, no spaces and abbreviated. Just a mess. Or is a fuzzy rename tool my best bet?

Now, before I go on another scavenger hunt, can someone suggest a place or two to get libraries of other information such as descriptions, studio, etc. that would show on the info screen? Is that typically from an nfo file or somewhere else?

[Girgl]

Just use another directory for your bios and edit the rompath line in mame.ini

Code:

rompath                   whereyouputyourbios;whereyouputyourgames

Well thanks a lot for this! I have been using MAME for many years now and didn't know about this option. Working perfectly. But it seems that there is a bug in AEL, because whenever I start a MAME rom, MAME is launched multiple times. Don't know what could be causing this.

[Wintermute0110]

Just use another directory for your bios and edit the rompath line in mame.ini

Code:

rompath                   whereyouputyourbios;whereyouputyourgames

Well thanks a lot for this! I have been using MAME for many years now and didn't know about this option. Working perfectly. But it seems that there is a bug in AEL, because whenever I start a MAME rom, MAME is launched multiple times. Don't know what could be causing this.

Post a debug log as indicated in the first post.

Sent from my SC-02G

[Wintermute0110]

Awesome work Wintermute0110 !
Any chance to scrape and browse ROMs by number of player ?

Thanks. Advanced MAME Launcher will support number of players and many more filtering options. Thing is, in MAME there is a very reliably source of metadata which is MAME itself. For No-Intro ROMs and AEL, however, there is not a reliably source of metadata that tells you the number of players accurately and that's the reason I have not included that field in the database. If you find a place with good nplayers coverage for No-Intro ROMs I will consider adding it to AEL.

[Wintermute0110]

Now knowing where to find full artwork libraries that makes sense. I figured out my issue by the way. Names were not EXACTLY the same between rom and art. Fuzzy renamer and realizing that Confluence was looking in "title" and not "box front" was all it took. Couldn't ha been more excited once it clicked and yes, process was VERY fast. Thanks for the everyone's input!!

Is there any way to use a fuzzy type offline scrape so files do not need to be EXACTLY the same? I made my rom library many years ago and the file names for some are lazy. Short, no spaces and abbreviated. Just a mess. Or is a fuzzy rename tool my best bet?

Now, before I go on another scavenger hunt, can someone suggest a place or two to get libraries of other information such as descriptions, studio, etc. that would show on the info screen? Is that typically from an nfo file or somewhere else?

Maybe you need to organise your ROM collection with a ROM manager so all your ROMs will have a consistent name and will match artwork collections you download. ROM managers you can use to rename your ROMs are RomCenter, RomVault and CLRMAMEPro. Google a bit to learn how to use them.

If you ROMs have the correct No-Intro name then AEL offline scraper will correctly match them and put your metadata in place. Artwork scrapers are currently not great but offline metadata scraper works pretty well. Keep in mind that you need both correct ROM name and correct Launcher platform or the offline scraper won't work at all.