Release: Merged console info databases (N64, NES, SNES, SMS, Genesis/32X/CD)

[alexdog69]

ok,

so as my nightly ritual goes .. i start poking around my gameex & various emulators ... looking for things to tweak & improve ..

i notice that gameex has this wonderful system where it uses MSAccess databases to pull game info for console games etc.... but that...

1) there are multiple versions of the db's I need ...

2) the genesis / 32X / segaCD is all split up (and i just lump them all under "Genesis" and let Fusion worry about it... as im sure some of you might)

so ...

i came up with this set of merged MDBs, that do two things

1) combine the multiple versions of each Atari 2600, NES, SNES, SMS and N64 DBs into one DB each per console instead of 2 separate copies....while avoiding dupes..

using the "[Console] Atari 2600.mdb" files as the master and the seemingly older "2600.mdb" as the one to backfill from .... ending up with 1 new "MERGED [Console] Atari 2600.mdb" hopefully taking the best of both.

2) combine the genesis/32X/segaCD ones into one MDB and do the same merging between old / new as in #1 for all 3

They are attached in the .ZIPs

You unzip these in your GAMEEX\DATA\EMULATORS directory.... and point your emulator profiles to the respective "MERGED - [Console] <emuname>" choices.

also...

if anyone else wants to do this, here are the steps

1) make a copy of the MDB file that you wish to use as the 'master' (one that you want to win any wars for dupe record ownership...ie has best data to start with)

2) open it in msaccess

3) answer any warnings so as to not tamper with the db and 'let it do its thing'

4) right click on the GameData table

5) go to Design mode

6) right click & delete the ID field if its there and marked as primary key

7) make sure "Indexing (no duplicates)" is enabled for the GoodName field (turning this on also makes it faster ;-) .. but more importantly, avoids dupes of 'worse' data )

8) close & save

9) right click in main DB window and select option to add linked table

10) choose the child MDB you want to add new records from

11) select the GameData table & hit ok

12) highlight the new table, usually GameData1

13) hit Ctrl+C (copy)

14) hit Ctrl+V (paste)

15) select the option to APPEND DATA only

16) type in "GameData" as the name of the table

17) hit OK

18) when it complains about skipping duplicates, and whether to continue anyway, hit YES

19) delete all your 'temp' tables so you only have GameData

20) go to GameEx config

21) open emulator profile for emu in question

22) point to your new MDB

23) enjoy.

also, if you are unable to do step #7 (turn on Indexing / NO Dupes) for any given DB.... do a Ctrl+C/ Ctrl+V on the table... paste "Structure only" .. go in and do the rest (7 on) of the steps on that NEW empty table you make ... but also repeat 12-18 for the old GameData table to copy it into the empty one you just made ... then delete it and rename the new one to GameData ...

MERGED__Console__Atari_2600.mdb.zip

MERGED__Console__Nintendo_N64.mdb.zip

MERGED__Console__Nintendo_NES.mdb.zip

MERGED__Console__Nintendo_SNES.mdb.zip

MERGED__Console__Sega_Genesis_32X_CD.mdb.zip

MERGED__Console__Sega_Master_System.mdb.zip

[Brian Hoffman]

Wow

I havent merged my genesis,32x,segacd etc... But I have each setup seperate using Gens 32 surreal.... Each points to its own DB...

I wonder if you used the emulator group feature it would accomplish the same thing?

Hmm... did you try that?

[LB11]

Hey thanks! I wanted to do that, but havent got around to it. I also use fusion for all the sega stuff

[LB11]

Oh, I thiink there is a problem with grouping emulators and databases IIRC.

[alexdog69]

  Brian Hoffman said:

Wow

I havent merged my genesis,32x,segacd etc... But I have each setup seperate using Gens 32 surreal.... Each points to its own DB...

I wonder if you used the emulator group feature it would accomplish the same thing?

Hmm... did you try that?

hmmm that sounds interesting. i should try that.. sounds cleaner.

also .. not sure if my description of what all this is exactly is confusing .. since i am mixing 2 things together .. merging genesis/32x/segacd... and merging the dbs

aside from the sega thing, this basically represents taking the 2 versions of these game databases .. and merging them together so as to have a single more complete DB for each of them ...

also, if anyone has any interest .. i will merge any other game db's for other emus , or do a split sega set .... it seems that, while there is a lot of overlap, there are many games that are only in 1 version of the dbs (i.e. "2600.MDB vs [Console] Atari 2600.MDB") but not in the other. maybe then, the official GameEx distro can include only the updated single versions. and if we want to do that (tom?), i will gladly be the grunt who goes through _every_ db and does the clean up =)

[LB11]

Just out of curiosity, are you using the latest dfatabases that were released with the newest build of gameex, or the ones that have been around for a while?

[alexdog69]

  LB11 said:

Just out of curiosity, are you using the latest dfatabases that were released with the newest build of gameex, or the ones that have been around for a while?

i took what appears to be the NEW ones (i.e. "[Console] Atari 2600.mdb") and then merged in any entries from the OLD ("2600.mdb") ones that weren't there.