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02 January 2008, 15:49
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#1 |
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Ancient User
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: GREECE
Age: 50
Posts: 757
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Various (unrelated to each other) questions from newbie... (eLowar read)
OK, I've been using Gamebase Amiga for quite some time and recently discovered it is now at 1.5.
I have various questions on various things, so I number them and whoever can answer any of them (and where the answer is not "use search, stupid"), I'd be grateful. 1) I usually use TOSEC to rebuild my GameBase as much as I can (both ADF and SPS). Is there a reason you don't just use the TOSEC structure as is? Why rename the files and have them in two places, where someone could just point to the TOSEC folders and use them? (also since GameBase doesn't care about large numbers of folder files, no reason to use letter folders) As GameBase grows larger, people would just need to keep pointing to latest (partial) TOSEC and without changing anything (than the database itself and the extras), it will "just work". 2) Is there a point for SPS? (sorry never got it) How do I use them? 3) Also for SPS read again #1 (why have them twice blah blah)... 4) Do you people know of the WHDLoad collection in PleasureDome? AFAIK it is much larger than KillerGorilla's (I just checked and the games folder has 4944 files). Why not use that instead? Or am I just wrong? (missing something) 5) Speaking of WHDLoad. Why isn't there a DAT for them? I know there is a DAT for the whole collection (in KG's site), but there is no DAT to clean up the WHDLoads that are needed for GameBase (so using this DAT possibly could use some of my existing WHDLoad files from the other collection too). 6) MAGE... What really is MAGE? Is it something made by GameBase people to follow GameBase? Is it something eLowar develops? Someone else? Is Gamebase Amiga still going to become MAGE Amiga? 7) Using the (GameBase Amiga) DAT and my latest TOSEC (which AFAIK is indeed the latest out there), I find that "Jonathan - The Next Artventure_Disk1.adf" has wrong CRC32. Why? Help? 8) Again from the DAT scan, CLRMAMEPRO (latest btw), reports that "Leading Lap MPV.zip" and "Shadow of the Beast II_Disk0.zip" are uneeded files! How come? I have those files probably from an old GameBase AMIGA version, but I am afraid to delete them, in case something else is wrong. Well? 9) Again from the last DAT scan, I seem to miss 100 (!) SPS files. So my TOSEC is not complete or these files are not yet in TOSEC? 10) Why the DAT says 100 and GameBase scan says 63 are missing? (I suspect CLRMAMEPRO validates checksums also and GB not?) 11) I use GameBase 1.2 (and probably like you people, found it through GameBase64), does anybody know why in the official GameBase site I still find 1.1? Is 1.2 still created by the same author? 12) Is it possible to modify the paths using some batch file? (sorry don't know the full internals of GameBase) Why I ask: I have a huge collection of WHDLoad files - see #4 - but it is not in Extras folder and is not named "WHDLoad" (because it doesn't have only games so it has subfolders). I found in this forum that there is a solution for the extras folder (use an extra erm... extras folder), but no solution to the second problem. So is it possible through a batch file to make the program look for WHDLoad files not at "Extras\WHDload" but at "Extras\Games" for example? 13) What about those 3 missing music files? 0\1990 - Die 1993'er Edition.zip 12 1990 - Die 1993'er Edition J\Jaktar - Der Elfenstein.zip 1596 Jaktar - Der Elfenstein M\Marblelous.zip 1905 Marblelous 14) No #14.   Happy New Year everyone. eLowar keep up the good work!
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02 January 2008, 17:13
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#2 | ||||||||||||||
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Citizen of Elthesh
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: UK
Posts: 949
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I believe Belgarath told me before that it was mostly for the ease of use. TOSEC names are big and don't have the disk number at the end, which makes editing the floppy line in WinUAE manually somewhat inconvenient. I don't remember if there were other reasons or what they were.  Ultimately (that is when I ever get around to finishing MAGE ) this won't be a problem as we'll have a scanner and/or support different kinds of names (I've been thinking about storing checksums in the db and then allowing to add new name sets simply by loading dats and matching them against the checksums, without scanning any actual files; i.e. very fast).Quote:
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However, at least consider that with KillerGorilla we have someone to bitch at-- I mean... who will kindly listen to our humble requests to fix things and make them consistent (which is important for a frontend to run them automatically). I have no clue about the relative size and quality of that other collection in general. Quote:
We don't generally like the idea of using DAT files that are inherently designed for PC usage on Amiga files. Remember that the WHDLoad pack zips contain files that are illegal on Windows PCs for example. I don't actually know how problematic this is, but it's scary at least and I believe there have been reports of problems before.  Quote:
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Maybe attach a fixdat to your next post; or some other kind of CMP report that paints the whole picture. Quote:
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There is a simple solution to that problem if you're on Windows Vista. If you are not on Vista, but on another post-2000 Windows and dealing with an NTFS partition, there is still a somewhat hackish solution. Basically I would suggest creating a dummy "Extras" folder somewhere and creating a symbolic link (in Vista; or a junction on XP, see below) to your Games folder, called WHDLoad. For that you have to open a command window and basically do something like the following (on Vista): Code:
C:\> mkdir D:\GBAExtras C:\> mklink /d D:\GBAExtras\WHDLoad C:\MyFiles\Extras\Games Windows versions before Vista don't have symbolic links. They do however have so called "junctions", which act somewhat like symbolic links, but beware, they are not officially supported and their behaviour can be quite unintuitive. There is no official way to create them either (except to volumes with the admin tools), but there's a tool called NTFSLink that I've used in the past and that works very well (although you have to make sure it's running while doing anything like deleting junctions, because otherwise things will get very messy). If you're not on Vista and are interested, you can find the tool here: http://www.elsdoerfer.info/=ntfslink But again, use at your own risk. Quote:
Instead I'll do the second-rudest thing and just paste a link.  http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=30084 Quote:
But thanks anyways.
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02 January 2008, 17:40
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#3 |
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HOL Team Member
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Manchester
Posts: 2,513
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1. TOSEC filenames can change, GameBase filenames won't, so if a new tosec dat came out that changed a bunch of the filenames, gamebase wouldn't recognise them anymore.
Also multigames disks wouldn't be automatially be loaded into the external diskdrives and winuae's diskswapper as gamebase handles this by the filename structure. Same goes for 3. Oh and quite a few GameBase Amiga disks aren't even in tosec at all. 2. eLowar has pretty much said all that needs to be said. 4. GameBase is all about using the best versions available and KG works very hard to make sure all the installs are the latest working versions so there is no way I would ever use another collection of unknown origin and dubious quality. Also you say there are 4944 files in the games folder? there arent that many WHD game installs in existence! 5. Again elowar has pretty much covered it, I'll just add that GameBase Amiga probably supports at least 95% of them and will support more in future so I don't really see the need to clean them up as it were. 6. elowar has said it all. 7 & 8 files are subject to change, altho i try and maje sure i use the best versions available, sometimes i discover theres a problem or a new and better version comes along, if they are no longer recognised by the dat then you can safely delete them. Jonathan disk1 was replaced with a new crack especially supplied by StingRay as the only version in tosec was proved to be a faulty crack, the replacement disk should have been available in an update pack but if not, we will make it available for download. Shadow of the Beast II was replaced with a different version, so disk0 is no longer needed and Leading Lap was discovered to be a 2 disk game, so that changed as well. 9. I make the TOSEC SPS dats so if it's in GameBase Amiga it will be in the tosec dats as well 10. elowar has covered it. 11. No idea what's going on with GameBase 1.2, another person recently requested the source for 1.2 but had no luck in obtaining it.. 12. Er don't have such messy folders? 13. elowar has covered it. |
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02 January 2008, 19:15
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#4 |
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Ancient User
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: GREECE
Age: 50
Posts: 757
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Wow thanks for the detailed answer both of you!
 Now some comments/replies (B for Belgarath, e for eLowar): B1) Multigame disks? Give an example? Except if you meant multidisk games, where I don't understand the problem as TOSEC has numbering in the filename (maybe not in SPS?). Also not many filenames change nowadays (as in the early days of TOSEC) - even if they change, what is the problem? You check the new CLRMAMEPRO log of the rebuilder, and in the rare case something changed, you make the appropriate change in the db. Sorry for insisting, it is just "too much" to have 4GB (2GB games + 2GB SBS) twice - and most of us even on the same disk. Also it is more "cleaner" to let ONE naming convention "survive". Even help it. Imagine if tomorrow I made another front-end and database, where I want in the filename to include how much I liked a game and I want to name multidisk games with ABC and space instead of 123 (so we have "Air Bucks v1.2 - sucks - disk A.zip" for the same file as your "1003_Air Bucks v1.2_Disk1.zip" and "TOSEC's Air Bucks v1.2 (1993)(Impressions)[1003].zip"), even though the game is the same as in the other collections (ok I stretch things up, but you get what I mean). e1) Using checksums or a "db rebuild" or even CLRMAMEPRO DATs directly (why not) in MAGE, would be great. Any alpha? e4/B4) Well please at least check it out. I can PM you details if requested (maybe you need some head start) You can easily obtain a list of the files without downloading the torrent (but better download it anyway). There is of course someone who maintains the thing (and you can bitch towards) and those guys do try to have quality in the files they share.. e5/B5) I only requested for this for people (like me) that have another WHDLoad collection which could largely share the same files. Nobody HAS to use a DAT, but would be nice to have. e6) How can I push?  B7) Seems I missed that file. So if you can help... B8) I take this that I can safely delete them right? B9) You couldn't be more clear.  e11/B11) If you people hear something about this, let me know please. e13) Wow great detail there. Yes I know about symbolic links (even Amiga has such a thing back then - after some AmigaDOS revision don't remember which), but since my EMULATOR disks are external (and soon to move to a NON NTFS NAS solution) I want some "cleaner" non-OS-dependent solution. But thanks anyway. B13) Well they are clean. In fact I do not consider having everything thrown in "Extras" as GameBase wants it, as clean. In fact for my various GameBase collections I try to have different folders to keep things cleaner (for example "AMIGA.Extras" and "C64.Extras"). My request was again because of my different WHDLoad collection. Thanks again. We'll keep in touch (    )
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02 January 2008, 20:35
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#5 |
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HOL Team Member
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Manchester
Posts: 2,513
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1. Yup I meant multidisk games, and although tosec names have the disk numbers in the filename, it doesn't have them where gamebase needs them to be, it's a limitation of the program.
And ok so tosec filenames may not change that often, but if a new tosec dat comes out, i need to log all the changes and update the db, I've got enough to do as it is without adding even more work for myself, people could update their tosec sets and suddenly gamebase won't recognise them anymore and you might have to wait a while for the next gamebase release. 2gig+2gig x2 is hardly a lot by today's standards, so I'd hardly consider it too much...the size of hard drives are massive now and also rather cheap, and even then you could keep the gb amiga ones on your hd because they are the ones that are actually used, and burn the tosec set to dvd.. Maybe it is nice to strive towards one naming convention, like I said I am a tosec renamer but the fact remains that a lot of people HATE tosec filenames. And with SPS images, theres tosec dats, nointro dats and SPS's own dat! So you are still forcing people to use a different set of names regardless. But all that is irrelevant because as I already mentioned, multidisk games with tosec names will not be recognised correctly by GameBase. MAGE which will be able to scan by checksums rather than crc's will solve most if not all of these problems but until then you're stuck with the system as it is, and GBST and GB64 also don't use tosec names so I'm hardly alone with this decision. 4. I'm not interested in the pleasuredome set, 4944 of em tells you theres something wrong with that collection! There isnt even that many entries in GameBase Amiga and theres only 1919 whd game installs.. Pleasuredome collection is full of useless dupes and non working versions and versions with amiga filenames that have been converted to be pc friendly and so won't work at all and it all looks like it's been put together by someone who hasn't got a clue about whd or amigas. To quote KillerGorilla's summing up of the pleasuredome collection "it's basically a complete fucking mess" 5. Don't use another WHDLoad collection, if you don't use KGWHD then you aren't using the best collection available. remember more isn't always better.. 7. I've put it in the zone for you. 8. As I said, if they aren't recognised by the dat you can safely delete them. 11. Will do. 13. I have different extras folders for each gamebase database as well, and they are loaded from the extras button so the extras folder is the logical place to have em, each type of extra has its own subfolder which is the only bit thats hardcoded and i don't really see that as a problem seeing as you can have them anywhere you like. But again your problem with this is all because of your different whdload collection which has now been conclusively proved as evil and the work of the devil.
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02 January 2008, 20:52
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#6 |
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Ancient User
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: GREECE
Age: 50
Posts: 757
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ok man, thanks
btw, how big is the complete KG collection? (disk space I mean) |
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02 January 2008, 20:58
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#7 |
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HOL Team Member
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Manchester
Posts: 2,513
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About 2.1 gig
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02 January 2008, 21:03
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#8 |
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Registered User
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: .
Age: 48
Posts: 5,562
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the answer to that may vary... there are some games that KG had packed and released some years ago that are outdated but aren't yet re-released.
but it's not really important: just use the dat he has released some day ago to make order in your collection, if needed and check the list in the main page of his site for your answer http://www.guildserver.co.uk/kgwhd/ |
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02 January 2008, 21:43
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#9 | |
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Citizen of Elthesh
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: UK
Posts: 949
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I mostly started making those so people could make complete releases (e.g. for torrents) without any extra files (or at least with as few extra files as possible). I hear some people use it to save space on machines with little HD space (notably arcade cabs) as well. Note that this naturally only works on KGWHD zip archives with their original names. |
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03 January 2008, 13:14
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#10 |
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Ancient User
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: GREECE
Age: 50
Posts: 757
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yes I know about the batch
but as you noted... |
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