WHDLoad Frontend Conversion Tools

[mrv2k]

So I've finished a trifecta of Amiga WHDLoad frontend name conversion tools. The tools are Windows based and written in Purebasic, a modern version of Blitz Basic. I will try and convert them to work on AmigaOS though I think that they'll need to be CLI based. What the tools do is load in game lists and give the entries better names. For IGame game lists, the tool will automatically add genres to all of the games. There is a custom genres file included to copy back with the new list.

I've updated the IGame tool with an improved edit window and clearer instructions on the help window.

The TinyLauncher converter does highlight some of the limitations of the scanning engine built into TinyLauncher. I have added a slave name box to the editor window so that any incorrect slave names can be manually fixed.

The WHDLoadMenu converter supports slave and info based prefs files. It works best with the slave scans as that what my database is based on although it will still fix nearly all of the info based scan names.

Version 0.5a of IGame_Tool is available

This is quite a big update as IG_Tool will now download up-to-date data files from the Turran FTP. There have also been a lot of speed ups in pretty much all areas.

Fixes / Updates

• Added FTP based data file download function to Fix_List procedure.
• Added FTP based genres download function to Fix_List procedure.
• Sped up CSV loading times.
• Sped up database loading times.
• Sped up list drawing procedure.
• Sped up filter and improved it's logic.
• Changed column order in main list.
• Added Title Case to the help window.
• Changed 'Output Case' to 'Title Case' and renamed 'Ignore' to 'Camel Case' in the combobox.
• Sped up edit window drawing
• Added basic data to unknown slaves

Version 0.7a of IGame_Tool is available
Version 0.3a of WHDLoadMenu_Tool is available
Version 0.3a of TinyLauncher_Tool is available
Version 0.3a of Launchbox_Tool is available

Just a quick update that fixes the Turran FTP name change

Fixes / Updates

• Fixed FTP path
• Main list now shows preview of output case

You can get them from here...

MEGA

https://mega.nz/folder/6EFD3KyQ#fyiURhviNrnQ0ke0J1Db8g

EAB FTP

~Uploads/mrv2k/IG_Tool

GitHub

https://github.com/MrV2K

Please have a play with them and give me some feedback. Bug reports and suggestions are always welcome.

***Note***

IGame Tool only supports CSV base game lists from the latest IGame v2.0 stable and v2.1x beta releases. If you have an older version, update your IGame and rescan your repositories.

You can get the latest version of IGame here...

https://github.com/MrZammler/iGame/releases

Note: If you get a virus warning on Windows, download the 64 bit version and files on the mega link instead of the zipped file. Windows Defender doesn't like Purebasic files some times.

[MrClump]

These look like really useful tools, my iGame library is an un-categorised mess!

I'm having an issue that the .csv file my install of iGame creates lists all the .slave filenames as completely lower case rather than the CamelCase style naming that both your IG_Data file and the actual naming of the .slave files on my hard drive. Consequently, as the utility's matching is case sensitive it doesn't make any matches against my iGame database.

Any ideas? I'm running v2.0 of iGame.

[Foebane]

Originally Posted by MrClump

These look like really useful tools, my iGame library is an un-categorised mess!

I'm having an issue that the .csv file my install of iGame creates lists all the .slave filenames as completely lower case rather than the CamelCase style naming that both your IG_Data file and the actual naming of the .slave files on my hard drive. Consequently, as the utility's matching is case sensitive it doesn't make any matches against my iGame database.

Any ideas? I'm running v2.0 of iGame.

Ugh, no, NO CAMELCASE! It SUCKS. I used it for a long while but having all the words in the titles run together looked ugly, so I painstakingly separated out the words again and made them all lowercase, which is easier to manage. The trouble is, titles with numbers are particularly troublesome, I had to deal with those first.

Nope, all lowercase with spaces is the way to go. And if the search engine is case sensitive, make it case INsensitive as I have done in my own programs!

[mrv2k]

Originally Posted by MrClump

These look like really useful tools, my iGame library is an un-categorised mess!

I'm having an issue that the .csv file my install of iGame creates lists all the .slave filenames as completely lower case rather than the CamelCase style naming that both your IG_Data file and the actual naming of the .slave files on my hard drive. Consequently, as the utility's matching is case sensitive it doesn't make any matches against my iGame database.

Any ideas? I'm running v2.0 of iGame.

Weird, the file name matching internally is all done in lower case. It does look for a folder name as well to reduce duplicate entries. Any chance of attaching your gameslist.csv file and I'll take a look?

I might add a case option, but it is a low priority. You could load the file into a program like notepad++ and change the case in the mean time.

[MrClump]

Originally Posted by mrv2k

Weird, the file name matching internally is all done in lower case. It does look for a folder name as well to reduce duplicate entries. Any chance of attaching your gameslist.csv file and I'll take a look?

I might add a case option, but it is a low priority. You could load the file into a program like notepad++ and change the case in the mean time.

Of course, copy attached to this post.

[mrv2k]

Originally Posted by MrClump

Of course, copy attached to this post.

I worked out what was wrong. The converter will now match 121 of 148 entries which is not too bad. It's never going to be perfect as the database is based on Retroplay's WHDLoad set which has a particular naming and folder structure and your csv has custom entries.

I've attached a test version for you to try. I've also added slave names to the edit window and also the ability to save as all lower or upper case.

Let me know what you think.

[demon-knight]

This is a great project gonna save me so much time, thanks!

[MrClump]

Originally Posted by mrv2k

I worked out what was wrong. The converter will now match 121 of 148 entries which is not too bad. It's never going to be perfect as the database is based on Retroplay's WHDLoad set which has a particular naming and folder structure and your csv has custom entries.

I've attached a test version for you to try. I've also added slave names to the edit window and also the ability to save as all lower or upper case.

Let me know what you think.

That works much better. :-) Still a few to manually catergorise, but a tiny fraction of my entire database!

[paQ]

Hi Mrv2k. First of all, thank you very much for all your work. My question is, are you using Launchbox? is there a way to use the csv to rename de whdload zip files with the final names and then import them to Launchbox to launch with Retroarch?

Launchbox database only recognizes the name files if there is spaces between captital letters (and the versions of the games), just like the final names on the restored CSV file.

[mrv2k]

Hi, Never used launchbox. I wrote my own launcher which I use to make my image collection as well. Looks like LaunchBox uses XML files which potentially I can produce but I would need to do a lot of research on how they work and what info is needed. It may happen, but it's going to be fairly low on my priority list.

[paQ]

Ok then. Anyway i shared you here an xml of the whdload files imported to launchbox whithout change his names (original lha names) and a screenshot of the final result if the names are recognized by the data base (based on the Ramson's HDF collection wich names are formated well (example: JamesPond2_v1.3_1352.lha - James Pond 2.hdf).

PD: I've needed to compress the xml on zip for upload to the forum, original is uncompressed.

PD2: The second Screenshot is an example of the whdload demos, extracted from lha and recompress the folders to zip, for make your png images work on Launchbox (but the names are still unchanged (whdload folders names)).

[mrv2k]

Originally Posted by paQ

Ok then. Anyway i shared you here an xml of the whdload files imported to launchbox whithout change his names (original lha names) and a screenshot of the final result if the names are recognized by the data base (based on the Ramson's HDF collection wich names are formated well (example: JamesPond2_v1.3_1352.lha - James Pond 2.hdf).

PD: I've needed to compress the xml on zip for upload to the forum, original is uncompressed.

PD2: The second Screenshot is an example of the whdload demos, extracted from lha and recompress the folders to zip, for make your png images work on Launchbox (but the names are still unchanged (whdload folders names)).

I've attached a test version of a launchbox converter. I've also included an updated version of your XML file with the new title names. I don't have launchbox so I cant test it. Hopefully it works.

As for the images; it's pretty easy to make a launchbox set as they're names the same as the archive folder. I'll put out a set when I do the next release.

[paQ]

This will keep the full WHDLoad set, up to date on Launchbox. I'll pass this information to my fellow retro Discord members, along with a link to your threads on the English Amiga Board forum. You are great, thank you.

P.D: Will keep an eye to see the Amiga demos screens with the updated names.

[mrv2k]

Originally Posted by paQ

This will keep the full WHDLoad set, up to date on Launchbox. I'll pass this information to my fellow retro Discord members, along with a link to your threads on the English Amiga Board forum. You are great, thank you.

P.D: Will keep an eye to see the Amiga demos screens with the updated names.

No probs. Glad it worked.

[fgh]

Originally Posted by mrv2k

I will try and convert them to work on AmigaOS though I think that they'll need to be CLI based.

Nice! Will you use the amiga version of purebasic?

[mrv2k]

Originally Posted by fgh

Nice! Will you use the amiga version of purebasic?

I might do. The Purebasic IDE on Amiga is a buggy mess and the last time I wrote any code on an Amiga was in AMOS and was in 1995. Probably a bit of learning to do.

[paQ]

Ok, in the end I have managed to rename the pngs, making a .bat using the two columns that have the CSV that your tool generates for iGame. The pngs looks finally after renaming like this "Wicked Sensation (Tristar & Red Sector Inc).png"

In the future it would be nice if you added a copy of the pngs with the final names, so that they would not need to be interpreted .

Thanks in advance.

Added the .bat file i've used.

[mrv2k]

Version 0.5a of IGame_Tool is available

This is quite a big update as IG_Tool will now download up-to-date data files from the Turran FTP. There have also been a lot of speed ups in pretty much all areas.

Fixes / Updates

Added FTP based data file download function to Fix_List procedure.
Added FTP based genres download function to Fix_List procedure.
Sped up CSV loading times.
Sped up database loading times.
Sped up list drawing procedure.
Sped up filter and improved it's logic.
Changed column order in main list.
Added Title Case to the help window.
Changed 'Output Case' to 'Title Case' and renamed 'Ignore' to 'Camel Case' in the combobox.
Sped up edit window drawing
Added basic data to unknown slaves

I'll translate the new code to my WHDLoadMenu, Tinylauncher and LaunchBox tools over the next few days if all goes well.

Links in first post.

[MrClump]

I thought I'd give this another go after I couldn't get it to work with my gamelist.csv previously as it looks like an incredibly useful tool. I have the same issue as before though, it doesn't recognise any of the titles in my list and sets the genre to unknown on everything.

This is a sample of one line from my csv file

0;Enigma;Unknown;Gamesemos/Enigma/enigma.slave;0;0;0;0

[MrClump]

Originally Posted by MrClump

I thought I'd give this another go after I couldn't get it to work with my gamelist.csv previously as it looks like an incredibly useful tool. I have the same issue as before though, it doesn't recognise any of the titles in my list and sets the genre to unknown on everything.

This is a sample of one line from my csv file

0;Enigma;Unknown;Gamesemos/Enigma/enigma.slave;0;0;0;0

LOL, the message board is interpreting part of my path as an emoji!

It should be "Games / Demos" in the middle there without the spaces of course.