GBA Artwork

[Adultery]

I'm up to date with the current release list. These snaps are a little bit behind me. The torrent I'm on is torrent zipped and updated weekly on Friday with whatever games come out that Tuesday (usually).

That link kept up to 2380 which was shy of complete but pretty good as opposed to what's out there.

[infared]

http://www.advance-power.de/gba.php?content=pictures

here u go!

[hansolo77]

Cowering's posted a GoodGBA tool on his website here.

[hansolo77]

Hey Nologic... how are things going with the court? Hope all is well, or getting that way..

Anyway, I posted a follow-up reply to your thread over at advance scene here. Check it out and see if you can think of anything to do.

[Nologic]

Well court is slow going...Dec 8th is the next appearance...then we'll find out whats going on from there.

However I've about reached the limit I can hit for pissing off the judge...so if I don't get raided a few days after that...I'll be bringing my baby home.

Hehe because I hate this hunk of shit I'm using right now...that and I'm having real virtual penis issues...hehe going from 2tb+ to 120gb isn't going over well.

Give me a bit and I'll see about posting my leech script...and then a renamer for you...that will convert every thing over to the matching long name.

hehe tho its getting my side tracked from my virtual drive stuff.

[lingpanda]

Hehe because I hate this hunk of shit I'm using right now...that and I'm having real virtual penis issues...hehe going from 2tb+ to 120gb isn't going over well.

I guess offering my 80GB HD is out of the question?

[Nologic]

LOL, well thanks for the offer.

[Nologic]

Okay here is my current leech script...it'll download and rename every thing up to release #2558

At the top of the leech.au3 script you'll see two files referenced...."Long.txt" & "Short.txt" one of which is commented out with a semi-colon...which better be the Long.txt

Basic idea is to run the script as is to get an idea of how the naming is done...if you don't like it you can change the markup for $name in the script to be more to your liking.

Once you got things right...comment out short.txt and uncomment long.txt and let her rip.

Please don't go sharing this script all that fast...other wise the Admin of the site will be forced to alter the folder pathing...and more than likely put in place some security to prevent this kind of thing.

So everyone please act accordingly.

*Update*

Changed code over to be more like whats in the NDS_Leech application...hence a GUI of sorts.

[hansolo77]

Which dat file does this script associate with? There are 4 available here.

ADVANsCEne Pure GBA Entertainment DAT v0306 DOWNLOAD (for Offline List, Dat # is not the same as Release #)

ADVANsCEne Nintendo GBA Collection DAT v0091 DOWNLOAD (for Offline List, Dat # is not the same as Release #)

ADVANsCEne Release Dat 2558 DOWNLOAD (for ClrMAME Pro)

ADVANsCEne Pure Dat 2558 DOWNLOAD (for ClrMAME Pro)

[Nologic]

ADVANsCEne Release Dat 2558 DOWNLOAD (for ClrMAME Pro)

except that I have the release number rotated around in the script to where its first rather than last in the name.

To change it to match the raw dat file alter $name to look like so:

$name = $array[4] & ' ' & $array[1]

[hansolo77]

As long as you use ClrMAMEPro, shouldn't it automatically do the renaming based on the crc's? I want my names setup like yours, the number, then the name. I've already leeched everything too...

[Nologic]

Correct....Well I'll see about creating a modified dat file for use in ClrMAMEPro.

I don't know about you but I had to run the script twice in order to get every thing available...its safe to do this as it first checks to see if you have the file already...if so it skips it...if not it downloads it....so run time is greatly reduced.

I just had time out issues while downloading is why I was short on files...but figured I should make mention of it...just encase you hadn't check the file count...box art will be short no matter what...but the cover box art should be close...and rear...hehe well not much there.

*Update*

Attached Modified Dat file for use with ClrMAMEPro (Thank god for regex)

[Adultery]

I heart clrMAMEdats.

[Nologic]

Okay for anyone that may have interest in how I used regular expressions to alter the dat file, I've listed the steps taken....keep in mind this is using UltraEdits flavor of Regex...but its fairly easy to convert over to Unix style...I haven't played with Perl yet...so can't say.

First off cut the clrmamepro entry from the file...this should be the first 8 lines of it...paste these lines into a temp file as you'll need to add it back later.

Next CTRL+HOME to make sure your at the top of the page, then hit CTRL+R to bring up the replace dialog.

Next make sure to check "Regular Expressions" & "Replace All is From Top of File" then make sure "Current File" is selected...and you are actually on the original dat file tab in UltraEdit.

Next in the "Find What:" edit field paste below:

%^(*name "^)^(*^)] ^(*^)"^p^(*description "^)*"^p^(*rom ( name "^)*.gba"^(*^)^p

Next in the "Replace With:" edit field paste below:

^1^3 - ^2]"^p^4^3 - ^2]"^p^5^3 - ^2].gba"^6^p

Next press the "Replace All" button and watch things fly...after its done...should just take a second...double check to make sure things are right...then add back in the clrmamepro entry from the other file to the top of the page and save.

Okay for those that looked at the above strings and then became dumb-founded...I'm posting strings that are simplier to understand...but you'll still need to reference the UltraEdit Help file under Regular Expression to come to grips with things as I don't intend to give a tutorial on regex...mainly since I'm no expert.

Any ways each line below is to be done with the corasponding line in the replace code box...these are not done all together.

Find:

%^(*name "^)^(*^)] ^(*^)"^p
%^(*description "^)^(*^)] ^(*^)"^p
%^(*rom ( name "^)^(*^)] ^(*^).gba"^(*^)^p

Replace:

^1^3 - ^2]"^p
^1^3 - ^2]"^p
^1^3 - ^2].gba"^4^p

Well best of luck to those looking to possibly maintain this should I disappear off the face of the earth.

[Nologic]

Okay I don't know about you...but for me...I generally like shorter names. This requires the making of a custom EMU_*.map file to place in the "DATA" folder of GameEx...since by shorter...I mean removing the preceeding release numbering...and as GameEx doesn' t have regex support it would be difficult or impossible to remove them.

I'm not personally in the know of the full dynamic's of *.map files, so you'll have to give me some leyway here.

My base understanding is that GameEx will create one for your Emu if there isn't one present...other wise it leaves things alone if there is one present...provided you don't change your filters...which I think at that point cause's GameEx to rebuild the *.map file.

I'm not sure if GameEx detects or not the additon or subtraction of roms...if it does then that in all likely hood would force the *.map file to be rebuilt.

Any ways my working assumption is that we won't be adding or subtracting...or if we do then we'll recreate what we are about to do here.

Okay first of all we need to open our modified *.dat file for our GBA games, then copy all of its contents into a new ASCII file.

Next remove the clrmamepro entry...the top 8 lines...to where "game (" is the first line.

Now press CTRL+HOME to make sure your at the start of the page, then press CTRL+R in UltraEdit to bring up the replace dialog box. Make sure all the options are the same as what we worked with prior.

In the "Find What:" field paste the following:

%game*^p*^p*^p*rom ( name "^(*^) - ^(*^) (^(*^).gba*^p)^p

Now in the "Replace With:" field paste the following:

^1 - ^2 (^3.gba "^2"

If we where to use this list as is now...we would have a lot of duplicate named games...since the replace expression used did not add back the regional and extra data into the displayed quoted text. You can of course change the expression to keep that info if you so choose.

How ever I'm just going to remove what regions I don't want...and since I'm in the USA generally speaking what ever Europe has...we have...Japan is really the only ones that normally have a lot of different games...but I don't speak for than a few words in japaness and certainly can not read it.

Current regional codes are:

(AU) (CN) (DE) (ES) (EU) (FR) (IT) (JP) (KO) (NL) (US)

So use simple "Find What:" strings like:

%*(AU)*^p

With blank "Replace With:" fields to remove undesired regions.

Next select from the menu's "File\Sort\Sort File (Using Current Options)"

Finally save the file as EMU_*.map where the astrick is please use the correct number for your setup.

I've attached a US only map file...any ways enjoy

[hansolo77]

Wow NL, that's a crazy amount of knowledge. Much more than I was expecting. Before you wrote up all that, I had made a new thread over at the other site asking if there was a way to get a numerical dat. Somebody replied that I can just use variables in the rename rom area. But I'm not sure if that's in ClrMame or not.

[Nologic]

Oh its not that much...I just tend to ramble.

Yeah I haven't a clue ether...I know next to nothing about ClrMame...I understand what it does and how it does it...I just don't know the application is all.

Hehe I am a noob to all this stuff after all.

I actually favor myself as more of a graphic artist...than a wannabe programmer.

How ever I need to get stuff working correctly first and foremost...after that tho...I'll see about doing some fairly highend themes up.

[hansolo77]

Have you looked at their NdsCRC program? I've been looking at it, and it looks like a complete, all-around solution to what we're wanting. It checks and renames/rebuilds based on CRC, and downloads the artwork. It's always being updated, and maintains an up-to-date version of the xml (aka, dat). At first glance, it's only for Nintendo DS, but if you go into Settings/Misc, you can change it to GBA. I'm looking further into it today to see if it will do everything I need.

[Nologic]

Well I took a peak at it, and it does look like it would be a lot nicer to use than my scripts...but I'm looking at other places to leech from as well.

Right now I'm reworking my crawler script...which is some thing you haven't seen prior...the original blew...but it worked fairly decent...this newer version should ideally be much faster and less error prone...and much easier to adapt to other sites.

With luck an hour or so after I finish the NDS script I'll have the PSP one done.

[hansolo77]

Well, now I have job starting Monday... (FINALLY!!!! WOOOT!) So I can't be picking around with this. I gotta start getting ready for my first day. Let me know what you come up with.

[Nologic]

ok

Doh! was a little tired earlier...so a belated congrats on landing a new job.

[Nologic]

Okay first part of the NDS version of the Leech aspect...I'll hopefully be posting in fairly short order the Crawler aspect.

Oh this does have some what of a GUI...I got annoyed with not knowing what was going on...so now there is a bit of feedback.

I may expand on it later...the GUI that is.

[Nologic]

As promised here is the Crawler as part of the toolset.

It still needs a little work but its mostly there.

This requires the dat file from advanscene for thier NDS Release's. How ever the one this build is based off of...is included.

This also already has a predone Long.txt...but you can run the application to see how it creates the file.

I'll update this script later to make it more user friendly in the future, as well as more quicker to create updated Long.txt files.

Plus do not abuse this file...or make it wide spread.

[Nologic]

Okay here is a script to create a modified map file...at present all it does is remove release numbering as well as regional and release text.

Saves some regex work basically.

Well let me know if there are issues...this also requires the release dat file.

[lingpanda]

Okay here is a script to create a modified map file...at present all it does is remove release numbering as well as regional and release text.

Saves some regex work basically.

Well let me know if there are issues...this also requires the release dat file.

Everything in this thread goes over my head. I'll just go back to my cave of darkness where I belong.