Anyone Interested In A Program I Made, For noobs without complete romsets Options

[nkilian83]

I posted this program a while back and I updated it a little. I basically had to setup another xbox with all the roms and artwork/videos. Being OCD as I am I wanted to try and get the most roms/artwork matched up as possible.

I made a simple program that takes an artwork name(It can be snes style where the file is named example.png or genesis style where the folder name is example) and searches all the roms to see if there is a matching rom with it. If not it writes the name in a text file telling you what you need to download

the program also goes the other way and will take a rom name and search for the same artwork file telling you which don't match up(I used this to sort out all roms named like Alien 2 when the artwork file was Alien II) I then throw those roms in a rename directory inside your rom directory for renaming)

The third part of my utility will sort out roms with certain string values. I used this to sort out the (j) roms into another directory in the rom list.

http://office.pcrecruiter.com/nkilian/KilianRomUtilities.zip

I zipped the whole vb.net project directory in case you didn't trust me and want to compile the code





Also I don't ignore (j), [!] or those type of strings in the files. I took them all out of my filenames.

All my rom files have been cleaned up and removed them out of the names.

[ressurectionx]

Hey nkilian,

I'll tell you what.... I could have definitely used that in the beginning. I think I remember when you posted something similar to this a while back and I was already beyond needing an all-in-one tool like this. I have had to find my own solutions for the problems you mention here, and they weren't all together and point-n-click.

Using Windows shortcuts and FTP programs and bulk renamers and foldermatch I have been able to do most of what you could do with that program (I believe), and probably many more things that you could add to your own program (maybe). I wouldn't have ever expected anybody else to figure all of that out on their own while slaving over this project though, so an all-in-one would be perfect for that stuff for anybody not as crazy as me.




I'm pretty much done with my Xtras work here now. Just wrapping up all the loose ends. There are a lot of computer systems I will not be doing though and of course any next-gen stuff dating as far back as the PS1 and N64. There is plenty more that a program like this could be used for, and I hope that having the Xtras finished on all the popular stuff will encourage some enthusiasts of the great (and not so great) old systems to come out and put Xtras together and give their childhood systems the representation they deserve.

I have some scripts from BombBloke that are very useful when manipulating roms and artwork. Ask me about them in a PM if I don't get back to you right away in this thread. Perhaps you can give them a look over and see if you could somehow incorporate them into your GUI.

Here's the scripts I remember off the top of my head:

1) One of these will rename all of your artwork to 0001 and place them in a folder with the exact name as the rom. This is useful if you have 500 boxart for a system. First you rename all of the artwork to match the romname exactly. Then you run the script in the same folder as the artwork. Lastly you end up with 500 folders that match the rom name perfectly with an image named "0001.png", assuming you used a png in the first place.

This could also be altered to do 0002.png (Title shot), 0003.png (Action shot), 0004.png (Cart/CD/Disk art)

2) A second script I have will take every filename from every file in a directory and make a folder for each one. This is useful if you are doing testing on videos and pics in say, the PSX emu. I don't have the hard drive space to host all of the PSX games for testing this stuff. I can just FTP over 1,400 empty folders though and the videos and artwork will show up in the folder.

3) One will copy and rename all of the artwork in a different format to match "Enhanced Artwork" feature of the Madmab Edition, and with just a tiny tweak can convert an XPORT SNES9XBox artwork set to a ZSNESXBox artwork set on the fly.

This program will take a folder called "Super Mario Bros" with it's four files inside (0001.png, 0002.png, 0003.png, 0004.png) and will separate them into four separate folders.

"0001" in Super Mario Bros becomes "Super Mario Bros" in the folder called "Boxart"
"0002" in Super Mario Bros becomes "Super Mario Bros" in the folder called "Titles"
"0003" in Super Mario Bros becomes "Super Mario Bros" in the folder called "Action"
"0004" in Super Mario Bros becomes "Super Mario Bros" in the folder called "Cart"
All of the higher numbers all get generic "Misc" folders up to 99 for each game.

This will be essential for converting our screenshots packs to the new format. I'm sure that this would be a great tool for anybody to convert their artwork from one format to another if their favorite PC emulator needs the artwork the other way. Perhaps it could also be reversed?

4) The .CUT file creator. If you weren't aware, .CUT files allow you to launch the game from within XBMC. They are command lines. You can also use any artwork you've collected for a system and display it like browsing movies in the XBox360. This .CUTfile creator will allow you to create a .CUT for every rom you have which will launch the game from XBMC and display the proper boxart for the game.



Let me know if you're interested in this. I would love to use your tool if it had this stuff integrated into it. I really think you're on to something here.

Later,
~Rx

[nkilian83]

For sure thanks for the stuff. Ya being newer to the scene I've seen all the work you guys have done and its tough setting things up now that all the forum conversations have been missed.

A lot of times I will sit with my xbox open and just scroll through the games and watch the videos for hours lol. I thought well I have 900 roms and 1200 title screen PNGs I must be missing out on a lot more cool things to look at. So i just made the program to pick out what I am missing quick so I can go to one of many roms sites and fill in the gaps. So far I got the SNES and NES complete and it feels cool to scratch my OCD itch haha.

This post has been edited by nkilian83: Jan 12 2010, 07:17 PM

[ressurectionx]

I'll have a lot more for your OCD itch....

There are currently 1,733 unique roms with videos, artwork and synopsis representation for the NES, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if more are added before my release.

I'll be packaging it in a way that won't need most of the tools you've got there. It should be pretty much plug'n play.


I'll get those scripts together. You think you may be able to integrate them? Those are all tools that I could definitely use a one-stop-shop for.

Later,
~Rx

[waal]

Very nice tool. Do you think it can have a use for other systems ?

[nkilian83]

Those seem easily doable in the noob language of VB. I'll try to allocate some slacker time at work to get er done(where I do most my work )

Very busy outside of work at the moment daughter watching takes up too much energy!

[nkilian83]

Very nice tool. Do you think it can have a use for other systems ?

2nd tab will pretty much find a file name in one folder and look for it in another. if it doesn't find it it will move it to a rename folder. I say "SNES style" and "Genesis style" because it is the folder layouts I have for the current systems. I can probably rename to "Enhanced Artwork Style" And "Older Artwork style" to make it less confusing and ready for the roll outs of Res-X stuff soon(so this program applies to other systems as well)

I would first run the "rom with no artwork button" to get a list of all the roms that could potentially be misnamed ( Alien 2 needs to be Alien II) Once I fixed all the names I ran the artwork with no rom button to find all artwork I don't have a rom for( then go to the nearest site and download that game)

This seems to have organized my rom set to a point where I will archive later for potential Hard drive failures.

[madmab]

Another neat feature would be some type of mass rename utility where you can rename the game name and it will rename all the rest of the files (screenshot directories, and the save directory junk). I wrote a dos batch file that will read thru the directories and then rename all of the config files. Handy for renaming stuff, but hardly an all encompassing package.

[ressurectionx]

See what you can do with these man. I'd love to see them in a easy to use program where you could change the directories.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=L7OI45YW

[nkilian83]

Just finished #3 on your list Res.

Folders names are the game name containing 0001.png 0002.png, ect......

Creates new folders in destination of choice with the boxart, titles, misc, ect.... and plops them in there with a name of the gameName.png

Version 1.4




I work in the IT industry and I always back up my stuff before doing something. Never know what will happen in some random persons computer with their files! ( but I don't delete any files just copy them for this utility)

[ressurectionx]

Freakin' badass dude. Now THIS is stuff I'll can use in the very near future.

I had a few questions for you...

1) Did you use the script, or did you build your own? If you built your own, did you use BombBloke's script as a reference guide?

2) Do you think the other three options I mentioned before will be doable and you can get them into the program?

3) Is it possible to SAVE certain settings for a collection?

I haven't used the Enhanced Artwork feature much because I have to re-run these scripts from scratch everytime I do updates to the standard screenshots packs. I often forget how to do it and have to mess around with some things to get them workign how I want. I was hoping that once we have standard "TO" and "FROM" folders set up for a system, we could just select that pre-saved option and run the converter on the previously specified folders.

Thanks man..... I hope this turns out the way I think it can.

~Rx

[nkilian83]

I just built it on my own. VB 2008 is so easy, they have a lot of functions built in that does the job for me.

[waal]

Thanks a lot.

Now I can go back to my screenshots without worrying my wife.

[ressurectionx]

That was only 1 answer to 3 questions bud.


Just wondering on the question you answered, because the directories might actually have to be named slightly different than what I told you. They might be right too. That was just off the top of my head. That's why I asked if you used the scripts I sent you as a reference point.

[nkilian83]

I didn't use any of the scripts I just followed your directions for converting from old artwork style to enhanced.

I did notice that your uploaded ZNES style artwork isn't named artwork/title/cart/ect.... it was named Shots1, shots2, shot3...... Which I would assume you could easily rename them to appropriate named folders.

for #3 questions : What kind of settings did you want me to save? I was thinking about having a sort of case statement if you browse to a certain folder structure it would give you options to convert it.

Also I am working on Reverting an enhanced collection back to standard 'game named folders' and 0001.png, 0002.png, ect... in the folder. Question about the MISC folder. Can there be more than one file of a game in a Misc folder? What would the naming convention be if there were to be multiple MISC files in a folder from the same game?

Right now my program won't convert files more than 0005.png because it would have the same name in the MISC and throw an error.