Rom Images From Scraper

[smokinph03nix]

Hey Community

As this is my first post I would like to start by saying hi to the community.

I am trying to build myself a system for an old PC I have, ive been messing around for a few days now and i`m getting on okay however im having some scraper issues where it freezes forcing me to turn the computer off and back on, after doing that when I run the scraper again all I get is a black screen. After leaving the system on overnight thinking it may be doing something in the background alas not and the remaining systems have not been scraped.

Anyway ....

My thought was if I scrape 1 system at a time and then copy the media folder from within the relevant rom folder I could then just copy that folder back from where it came after a clean flash of Recalbox.

However ....

When I do that the images do not appear, ive had a quick look to see if I can see some kind of config file but im missing something.

Any advice would be highly appreciated at this time

[Alvin]

@smokinph03nix said in Rom Images From Scraper:

However ....

When I do that the images do not appear, ive had a quick look to see if I can see some kind of config file but im missing something.

1. After you copy the folder, did you refresh your Gamelist ?
   Main Menu -> UI Settings -> Refresh Gamelist

2. Since Recalbox 6 the Scraper always gave me Trouble in all Versions of Recalbox.
   I didn't know what's Recalbox 8 Standard Scraper is, because I'm still using Recalbox 6, but in Version 6 and 7 they used Screenscraper.fr.
   This Scraper is so slow and gave me a lot of Trouble to because (like they sometimes say on their Website) there are too many People there who want to scrap their games.
   The other Scraper the offered in the old Versions of Recalbox "MAMEDB" and "THEGAMESDB" didn't work well either.

So for scraping Games I'm using the ARRM Scraper
http://www.jujuvincebros.fr/wiki/arrm/doku.php?id=download-en
This works fine, because you can choose different Sources from where you can scrap your Games.

[smokinph03nix]

@alvin said in Rom Images From Scraper:

After you copy the folder, did you refresh your Gamelist ?

Yes just tried that and it made no difference

[smokinph03nix]

Okay so after a few days of messing around I am now a little wiser, baring in mind im a completed newbie so this post may seem a little obvious although nobody (other than Alvin) replied to this post LOL.

So in your ROM folder you have all of your emulated systems, each system has a gamelist file, all the info is in there DOH!! so all I need to do is copy the gamelist file and the folder with the images in ... VOILA ... is it that easy .... NOPE

SO now im having issues with scraping for the images, if I use the scraper in recalbox it either hangs halfway through scraping one system or the screen turns black forcing me to reboot.

I am trying to use ARRM but you are restricted to how much you can use it, so much that after scraping half of the Amiga folder (1500 games) it stops telling me that I have hit my daily limit, even with an account I get the same response, so with these statistics its going to take a while to compile my collection.

So theres my update, someone may find it useful ... Hopefully

PS - Loving Recalbox, its a great system, currently using it on an external hard drive however just ordered a Pi4 and building an arcade cabinet to house it

[Alvin]

@smokinph03nix said in Rom Images From Scraper:

half of the Amiga folder (1500 games)

1500 (?) Amiga Games ?
How much Games did you have at all ?
And when did you want to play them all ?

[Alvin]

@smokinph03nix
I didn't know that ARRM has a Limit of how many Games you can scrap on a day.

If you're using ARRM, where did you scrap from ?

Screenscraper.fr ? - Maybe they have a Limit (because you' re talking an "Account" - as far as I know you don't need an "Account for ARRM)
and it's not a Limit by ARRM.

I'm using ARRM 1.9.0.2 and at last there you don't have to make an "Account" for it.

In ARRM have you tried scrapping from other sources ?
Except Screenscraper.fr there are TheGamesDB.net, HFS-DB, Launchbox (The Button that looks like a Rubrik-Cube), Steam and gog where you can scrap your Games from.

TheGamesDB.net, HFS-DB and Launchbox worked fine (sometimes even better than Screenscraper.fr) for me.

[Alvin]

@smokinph03nix

Just checked and it seems that there is a Limit on how many Games you can srcap from The GamesDB

Look here
http://jujuvincebros.fr/wiki/arrm/doku.php?id=settings-en

There is says:
"TheGamesDb API limits the number of calls to 1500 requests per user per month. Here you will see the number of calls you have left."

So maybe you should try one of the other sources I mentioned above to scrap your Games

[smokinph03nix]

@alvin I was using the screenscraper.fr but the more I play with ARRM the more im understanding it. I now have it looking at the images I have, comparing them to the ROM and then telling me which game has no artwork.

Thanks once again for taking the time to respond and putting me on to ARRM, there is very little info and tutorial on it but the more you play the bigger the WOW lol

[Alvin]

@smokinph03nix said in Rom Images From Scraper:

Thanks once again for taking the time to respond and putting me on to ARRM, there is very little info and tutorial on it but the more you play the bigger the WOW lol

Did you know about this Wiki ?
http://jujuvincebros.fr/wiki/arrm/doku.php?id=sidebar_english

[smokinph03nix]

@alvin No bud but the youtube vids I found were all in French LOL apart from 1 that gave me the basics

[smokinph03nix]

@alvin thanks for putting me on to Arrm, the more I use it the more im learning. Quick question as I cannot seem to find it, if I have my roms, boxart, snaps etc but no gamelist.xml can Arrm create it without me manually having to do 1 game at a time as scraping is limited and im starting from scratch ?

Thanks in advance.

[nexusone13]

Hi @smokinph03nix,
This wiki may be able to help you : http://www.jujuvincebros.fr/wiki/arrm/doku.php?id=retrieve_images_en

[Alvin]

@nexusone13
Thanks for helping too !

@smokinph03nix said in Rom Images From Scraper:

if I have my roms, boxart, snaps etc but no gamelist.xml

What do you mean with "I have no Gamelist.xml" ?

The Gamelist.xml File must be in the Folder where you put your Game-Roms, for Example "Amiga".
The Artwork of the Games you have scraped is in a Folder called "downloaded_images" or "media/images" in your Game-Folder.

After you put the ROMs in the Folder, go to
Main Menu -> UI Settings -> Refresh Gamelist
and Recalbox should create a Gamelist.xml File in the Folder.

At the Beginning the Gamelist.xml File only contains the Name of the Games.

The following I didn't try for myself but maybe you can try this:

Start ARRM
Look at the upper Left.

1. Under System Stuff -> System Folder type in the Name of your ROMs Folder, for Example "\Recalbox\share\roms" (without the Quotes)
2. Also in the upper Left you should see a "white Box" showing all the Folders where you put the Games in
3. Chose (for Example) "Amiga" and then click on the Button "Display"
4. A little bit further down on the left Side also in a "white Box" you should see now a List of all the Games in the Folder.
5. Down below, on the right Side of the Buttons where you can choose where to scrap from, you should see some gray Buttons - One is labeled "Gamelist Options"
6. Click on in and check
   "Add 'Temporary' Tag"
   "Core / Emulator per Game"
   "Backup old gamelist"
   "Auto Save Gamelist"
   "Remove filter"
   "Temporary Gamelist"
   "Scumm VM Folders"
7. Now click on the Button "Select All" (it's over the Box where your Games are listed), an chose the Source where you want to scrap from and start scrapping.
   ARRM should now scrap all the games in one go
8. After the Games are scraped look at the right Side, under the Description of the ROMs there is a Button called "Save".
   Be sure all your ROMs are marked (maybe you must click on "Select All" again) at than click on "Save".
9. Look down on the right side. There's a Button called "Create gamelist.xml with all roms"
   Click on it, and a Window will open, showing you the Folder of your Games.
   Then click on "Save" to save the "Gamelist.xml" File.
   If ARRM asks if you want to overwrite the old File simply answer "Yes".
10. Now go to Recalbox -> Main Menu -> UI Settings -> Refresh Gamelist and refresh the Gamelist.
11. After that, in Recalbox chose the System (for Example "Amiga") and check if the Games are scraped.

PROBLEM:
Sometimes the Information of the Games you have scrapped didn't show up.
If that happens, do the following:

1. IMPORTANT: Leave ARRM open, don't close it.
2. On your Windows-PC start "Windows-Explorer" go to "Network", choose your Recalbox-System, open the "share" Folder, than the "roms" Folder and then the Folder of your Games (for Example "Amiga").
   There you delete the "Gamelist.xml" File.
3. Now back to ARRM, click on "Create gamelist.xml with all roms" and ARRM will create a new "Gamelist.xml" File which will contain all the Game-Infos you have scraped.
4. Go to Recalbox, refresh the Gamelist again and check out if the Gameinfo now shows up.

[nexusone13]

Thank you @alvin
With the wiki that I propose ( http://www.jujuvincebros.fr/wiki/arrm/doku.php?id=retrieve_images_en) , if his artworks are correctly named and placed in the right directories, he will be able to reconstitute a gamelist.xml with the different artwork tags, pointing to the correct files. On the other hand, it will not have the textual information. It will then suffice to scrape only the texts (via the 'No images, only text' option of the 'Image options' tab), which will go much faster

[smokinph03nix]

@nexusone13 That is exactly what I need, thank you for taking the time to help a newbie