Updated WHDLoad Demos/Games pack.

[iddqd]

First a big thanks to all involved putting all this together (Turran, Killergorilla, Retroplay, and anyone else).

Some observations

• I've noticed some games have changed name in the update packs. E.g some "Camelcase" that used to be "CamelCase", (at least 2 in 2.3 update),
  and "SpaceHarrier&RetrnFntZone" was previously "SpaceHarrier&RFantasyZone" I think. I assume this is as it should be?
  
• Many files have (for some reason) times stamps pre-1970, which causes problems when trying to tar these files on GNU/Linux (or any other
  OS, I'd imagine). (I solved this by using zip when I needed to copy my games folder to another computer.)
  
• If we still need to download PuttySquad from the developer's site, as mentioned in an earlier post, perhaps this should be stated in the
  first post?

What I removed to get to 3.3 GB (not counting AGA)
My goal here is to have one "optimal" version of each game, for Amiga 1200, PAL.

1. First I removed obvious foreign version of games, i.e. folder names suffixed with: {De,Fr,Es,It,Cz,Fi,Se,Dk,Pl}. There seems to be quite
   a few games where there are no English version, I looked in the <name>/ReadMe files to see what the original game title was, and could
   remove some more when the name was foreign.
   
2. I've removed all <name>NTSC suffixed games, as they all exist in a non-NTSC version.
   
3. I've removed all *LoRes games, and kept the *HiRes. "all" = SimAnt,SimEarth. I assume this is better.
   
4. Some games (MortalCombat and RocketRanger) exist in a censored version. I assumed these are "lesser" versions of the full games, and
   removed them.
   
5. Is there any point for an Amiga 1200 user to have CDTV suffixed games? I've removed them, since there were non-CDTV versions for each
   game as well.

Some questions

1. Many games exist in a N Disk and N+1 Disk version (suffix). Can one assume that the "bigger" version of the game is "more", and remove the smaller
   one?
   
2. Vroom and Campaign both exist in a vanilla and a <name>&DataDisk version. I wonder what the difference is?
   
3. Many games exist in a Fast and/or Slow version. What does this mean? Fast is for fast computers? Or a fast version for slow computers?
   
4. Quite a few games exist in an additional version with suffix "Arcadia", what does that mean?
   
5. Some games come with "Image" and "Files" suffix, with identical ReadMe and Manuals. What do they mean?
   
6. There are a lot of games with "Demo" suffix. Do they serve a purpose if the full game exists as well?

[breech]

It's a big job to collate such a bunch of games and provide update patches, and yet another to name them and remove unwanted duplicates.
Perhaps it's best to deal with that with a RomManager.. does anyone have any experience and recommendations?

* For those of you that were looking for free rename software (page 6), I use Lupas rename 2000, version 3.0.0.0
It's up to v5 now, but I haven't tried it. http://rename.lupasfreeware.org. Let me know if you want my version.

[apex]

Unpacking under AmigaOS4 works fine using UnRAR 3.97.

[Turran]

Bit low on time, but I'll answer what I know right of the heart.

Originally Posted by iddqd

Some observations

• I've noticed some games have changed name in the update packs. E.g some "Camelcase" that used to be "CamelCase", (at least 2 in 2.3 update),
  and "SpaceHarrier&RetrnFntZone" was previously "SpaceHarrier&RFantasyZone" I think. I assume this is as it should be?

Yes thats correct. Or at least , I do not change the casing on the names as I take them as RetroPlay wrote it. I guess he's better to answer that one.

Originally Posted by iddqd

Some observations

• If we still need to download PuttySquad from the developer's site, as mentioned in an earlier post, perhaps this should be stated in the
  first post?

PuttySquad is in Update_2.3_Games_WHDLoad_AGA so no, you should not need to get that from the developer site any more =)

Thats all I had time for right now. =)

[Solo761]

I don't know where to post this, but it's related to this.

I've made small tool for creating AGLaunch guide files. It consists of script that's ran on Amiga, to create files list, and Windows application (requires .net 4.0) that parses this list and creates new guide files.
Only downside at this moment is that it expects ClassicWorkbench's A-Games: assigns.
I've included more detailed instructions in zip file.



https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...AGLGen_v03.zip

[Gzegzolka]

If GUI for Your application look like MameUI32 I would be in heaven

[Solo761]

This is just tool to create guide files, that AGLaunch uses, not standalone WHDLoad GUI. I got tired of manually adjusting them so I made this to automate the procedure.

[fitzsteve]

Thanks! I'll check it out

[Turran]

Thanks! That means I can stop creating new guides with new packs =)

Selectable source would be nice, as you write. Personally, I use
A-Games:
A-GamesAGA:
A-Demos:

[Solo761]

For now script checks if A-Games: and/or A-GamesAGA: exist and then "collects" info files from them. Application then creates guide files with all games (ECS/OCS and AGA) mixed in.

For later update I planed to add A-Demos: and then selectable choice how guide files are to be created, all together or separate games and demos, or even separate OCS/ECS games, AGA games and demos.

I tried to make script wait for input, so user can type where his games are (instead of asuming A-Games:, A-GamesAGA...) but haven't found how to do that yet. That's why this version is limited to default assigns. It's more proof of concept .

[Turran]

I've put up a new update pack. Version 2.4. I wont create new AGLaunch files for it as I fully support Solo761s software =)

Also one new game in the Games_WHDLoad_UnpackOnAmiga folder: Hellowoon_v1.0_De.lha
It contains a file that looks empty in windows in the lib folder so it needs to be extracted on the Amiga directly.

[Solo761]

Here're guides for 2.4 games, this would be "merged_separateassigns" in the "old" nomenclature

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/.../Guides2.4.zip

[Solo761]

Here's new version of the tool, now it can index games regardless if A-Games or A-GamesAGA is used. It can also index Demos and add them to separate menu. And lastly it can save current list to XML (and also load) so you don't have to finish update-ing game names all in one go.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...GLGen_v052.zip

[spudje]

Question, the games labeled CD32, are these CD32 ports to desktop Amigas? Or can I use these to make CD32 (WHDloadCD32) compilations and will joypad multi-button mapping etc. all be configured properly already?

[spudje]

Still hoping someone could answer my question

[apex]

Thank you for the UPDATE!

[TjLaZer]

Originally Posted by spudje

Question, the games labeled CD32, are these CD32 ports to desktop Amigas? Or can I use these to make CD32 (WHDloadCD32) compilations and will joypad multi-button mapping etc. all be configured properly already?

Yes and they should have CD32 joypad support

[phluxx]

!updated! Version 005

Standard python version in the attachment, Windows exe version here:
http://uploaded.net/file/ntrkv71u

I made an unpack script for all these great update packs. Now this is also tested under Windows. Python is not needed to be installed for the Windows Version.

It is written in python.

There are 2 Versions: The normal is just a plain python script and meant for users who are famliar using python. The Windows Version is a 'compiled' exe File which can be run standalone.
In contrast to Turran's tool, this does not come with a real 'Windows Feeling'. You have to mess with the console... But you will have more options..

There is also a short howto added in the zip files

Description

o It basically automates what Turran proposed in the first post to have a clean update (deleting title folders before copying their updates).

Also it does some of the things iddqd came up with in post #141:
o You can select 'wanted' localizations. English original versions will always be preserved. Translations, for which an English original version exist, are deleted, if they do not match your wanted languages. This also works for games with translated titles. (I do this in a second pass, I calculate a checksum over all readme files, to find titles with identical readme. Only groups with identical readme, where all but one title have a language suffix like Fr,De are considered for deletions)

o 'lesser disk versions' can be deleted. (e.g. delete the 1 disk version if there is a 2 disk version)

o NTSC versions can be deleted if there is a non-NTSC version


With this script, I managed to fit all Non-AGA games (including CDTV) on a 4G hardfile, with these options:

- Only English originals and German translations
- No NTSC
- No 'lesser disk versions'

Usage

1) Download all packages into one folder ('source folder'), or folder structure
( subdirectories are searched for rar files. you can also mix games, games_aga, and demos, script will ask you what to unpack)

2) create an empty directory as target

3) in console, cd to script folder and do
./wunpack.py <source folder> <target folder>



The script will collect all rar files and print a list like:

  --- Found these collections:
  ---    1 Games_WHDLoad.2.0 - Updates : ['Update_2.1_Games_WHDLoad', 'Update_2.2_Games_WHDLoad', 'Update_2.3_Games_WHDLoad', 'Update_2.4_Games_WHDLoad']
  ---    2 Demos_WHDLoad.2.0 - Updates : ['Update_2.1_Demos_WHDLoad', 'Update_2.2_Demos_WHDLoad', 'Update_2.3_Demos_WHDLoad', 'Update_2.4_Demos_WHDLoad']
  ---    3 Games_WHDLoad_AGA.2.0 - Updates : ['Update_2.1_Games_WHDLoad_AGA', 'Update_2.2_Games_WHDLoad_AGA', 'Update_2.3_Games_WHDLoad_AGA', 'Update_2.4_Games_WHDLoad_AGA']

and then ask you what to unpack.

After Unpacking, the script asks to do the deletion steps described above.



WARNING: do not put any other (foreign) rar files with similiar names into the source directory. If you are unsure, at least check the listed collections. Base file will be unpacked and then all updates will be applied in the order listed. If there is an outdated file like "Update_1.2_Games_WHDLoad", it would currently overwrite files from your 2.0 base package. (What I mean is, version numbers are not fully checked, base package is unpacked and then all updates in the order of their filename are applied..)

[Turran]

Excellent time to try the script from phluxx as I've just tossed Update 2.5 on the FTP server =)

[spudje]

Nice! Thanks again Turran!