[FS-UAE] Amiga Game Database for FS-UAE Launcher

[nexusle]

Hey,

as you can read here FS-UAE now have support for an Amiga Game Database. To discuss about this feature I've created this thread.

@Frode

Is it planned to host this database in the internet?

[FrodeSolheim]

Originally Posted by nexusle

Is it planned to host this database in the internet?

If people are interested in using it and contributing fixes to it, I will make it available / host it.

I don't yet know what form would be most useful to let people contribute to it. One way could be to set up a git repository (but it would become quite large with screens and covers).

[nexusle]

Yes! I'm very interessted.

I'm also interrested in an web interface for this database. I mean, if you own the disk(s), FS-UAE would scan the floppy folder and detect this disks (by checksum) and download the database xml(s).

What do you think about this?

[nexusle]

I've created a little JPG to show, what I mean:

[FrodeSolheim]

Hi, sorry for the late reply. Your idea to download on demand is (good drawing, btw) relatively easy to implement . Whether it is efficient depends on how many disks you have (If you have a lot, it will be more efficient to download a complete / compact database of checksums at once and compare locally while larger images (etc) will be generally more efficient to download on demand).

But the first step is to have good-quality information for download in the first place. Distributing database information to end-users is the easy bit, the real work lies in creating the database in the first place (*) and make it easy to maintain. If more than one person is contributing, guidelines and tools are necessary to manage the database.

I can provide a starting point for such a database by automatically collecting and organizing information from multiple sources, but entries will need to be manually verified / altered as needed. Also, in order to achieve good quality, screenshots and covers would have to be added manually.

(* There exists at least one similar database already (GameBase Amiga), but the licensing terms are much too strict -it does not allow use and/or re-distribution except for with GameBase Amiga)

[FrodeSolheim]

If anyone is interested in using the game database feature of FS-UAE Launcher, it would be nice if you would post a notice about it in this thread or otherwise let me know. I will look at improving the feature set and make it possible for people to contribute to a shared Amiga game configuration database if there is sufficient interest

[bcripon]

I would like to see support for a game database. It can eliminate some frustration when first setting up a game configuration.

Bob C

[nexusle]

+1

I'm definitely for a game Database!!

@Frode: can you please privide a little tool to create the cryptic numbers? (uuid, md5, crc32 and sha1)

So we could help to create database entry.

[FrodeSolheim]

Originally Posted by nexusle

+1

I'm definitely for a game Database!!

@Frode: can you please privide a little tool to create the cryptic numbers? (uuid, md5, crc32 and sha1)

So we could help to create database entry.

I will provide such a tool if necessary The reason it may not be necessary (initially, at least) is that I can create best-effort configurations automatically (where these values are included) based on published DATs (etc), and the work lies in testing the configuration and registering options / adding screenshots / correcting the entry if necessary and marking the it as verified. I think this should be less work overall than starting from scratch. Also, the nice thing is that very many configurations will work out of the box anyway, so even the non-verified entries in the database will be useful.

I have created this configuration db, but the launcher needs an update to be able to use it. The main thing that has changed is using UUIDs for game identity / resource lookup instead of names, so that eventual re-naming will be less painful.

[FrodeSolheim]

Here is a new version which supports an alternative database layout (hopefully without breaking existing setups) - Version 1.3.19:

• Line endings / white space cleanup for public git repo.
• Improved .spec file for openSUSE builds [RedDwarf].
• Added docdir option to Makefile [RedDwarf].
• Compilation fixes and buffer underflow fix [RedDwarf].
• (Launcher) Support modified database layout format.
• (Launcher) Added missing save disk image from distributions.
• (Launcher) Updated translations: it [Speedvicio].

http://fengestad.no/wp/fs-uae/download-beta

[FrodeSolheim]

The database can be downloaded here:
http://fengestad.no/wp/fs-uae/database

The database contains a *lot* of generated configurations. One of the reasons that there is one file per configuration is so they can be easily put into version control systems, such as git.

So what's needed (eventually) is to verify the configurations, and add/correct information where necessary (e.g if some game or configuration only works with one floppy drive, or needs more than the default memory) and of course add high-quality screens and covers. I'll have to document what options should be used (and create launcher editor GUI for the most common ones).

There is a (disabled) button in the launcher which in the future can be used to display only configurations which have been verified. Also, the star button will be used to only display favorites (when you later can mark configurations as such).

While possible, it is not convenient to manipulate these files directly. You can start the launcher with the "--editor" argument to open a (basic) editor view within the launcher which makes it a bit easier to manage. It should get a simpler interface + features such as drag and drop of files to the image boxes to copy images in place (etc).

I suggest you don't start seriously modifying the database yet until documentation, guidelines (and better tools) are available.

But you can play around with it (and ask questions if you have any so far).

[nexusle]

Absolutely cool!!! Very, very good!!

Just a idea: should we ask Tony Wiles as he would implement the same database feature in WinUAE?

[FrodeSolheim]

Originally Posted by nexusle

Absolutely cool!!! Very, very good!!

Just a idea: should we ask Toni Wilen [ed.] as he would implement the same database feature in WinUAE?

I'm quite sure he wouldn't want to do that -It really does not need to be supported directly in WinUAE -and not in FS-UAE either. FS-UAE itself does not know anything about this feature.

(It would make more sense to extend FS-UAE Launcher to be able to set up and start WinUAE as an alternative to FS-UAE ;-) -Which is rather trivial to do)

[FrodeSolheim]

Originally Posted by nexusle

Absolutely cool!!! Very, very good!!

I've noticed you using Traps 'n' Treasures as example quite often, and since you are so enthusiastic, here are db modifications for Traps 'n' Treasures :
http://fengestad.no/fs-uae/files/traps_n_treasures.zip -Just extract over the existing files (and re-scan)

The changes are:
* Traps 'n' Treaures config entries are linked to the Traps 'n' Treaures game entry.
* The game only supports one floppy drive, so this is registered in the database in the game entry -options registered in game entries applies to all linked configurations (unless overridden).
* Viewport options are included to correct some cases where autoscaling gets confused.
* Configurations are renamed to the name from the game entry [done automatically by a tool] so all linked configurations use the same spelling of the game name.
* Covers and screens included (cover is a based on a scan from Exotica, screens are cropped versions of screens from LemonAmiga).
* Link to LemonAmiga entry added to the game entry (not displayed in the UI yet).

[nexusle]

Many thanks!

Yes, TnT is one of the best platform jump 'n run after Turrican in my eyes! There are many other JnR out there, i.e. Yo! Joe! or P.P. Hammer, but only TnT I've played to the end

[nexusle]

Hi Frode,

I, and I think many other of us too, have some CD32 images. Are they supported by the database at this moment?

[FrodeSolheim]

Originally Posted by nexusle

Hi Frode, I, and I think many other of us too, have some CD32 images. Are they supported by the database at this moment?

Yes, the database also supports "CD32" and "CDTV" platforms in addition to "Amiga", I just didn't include configurations for them. The updated database can be downloaded here:
http://fengestad.no/wp/fs-uae/database

[nexusle]

Originally Posted by FrodeSolheim

Yes, the database also supports "CD32" and "CDTV" platforms in addition to "Amiga", I just didn't include configurations for them. Here are configurations created from information from TOSEC:
CD32: http://fengestad.no/fs-uae/files/cd32-data.7z
CDTV: http://fengestad.no/fs-uae/files/cdtv-data.7z

Thanks!

Works well!

Is it possible, to match the area of the cover to the cover size of CD32 games, if they are CD32 games?

Example:

1. Amiga Floppy Version


2. Amiga CD32 Version

[FrodeSolheim]

Originally Posted by nexusle

Thanks! Works well!

Is it possible, to match the area of the cover to the cover size of CD32 games, if they are CD32 games?

Yes, I'll improve the display of square covers -if not right now, at least eventually (I'll fix it along with other image-related improvements -cache resized thumbnails etc for faster loading, load images in a background thread, etc).

[nexusle]

Originally Posted by FrodeSolheim

Game configuration database:
http://fengestad.no/fs-uae/files/amiga-data.7z

A selection of covers and screenshots
http://fengestad.no/fs-uae/files/amiga-images.7z

Hey Frode,

files doesn't work to download. Have you delete them?!



Edit:

Just found the problem. Files are renamed. Here the right links:

http://fengestad.no/fs-uae/files/data.7z
http://fengestad.no/fs-uae/files/images.7z

@Frode: Could you put these files on your Ressources page?