The SNES Civilization port was done by Koei, not Microprose. Normally, I'd be all over anything old school that they published. Unfortunately, the end result is a game that looks kinda like Civilization and plays kinda like Civilization, but is no where near as good as the real deal on an Amiga or PC. It's like me giving you a non alcoholic beer after you've had the real thing

Sim City is the same way. It was ported all over the place but your Amiga or PC versions are still your best bet. And this assumption usually holds true for many old school games. Anything that was originally on a computer and ported to a console was inferior in many ways. It is a recent phenomenon that consoles receive primary development focus, and then a PC port follows....often with varying results. Strange what time does to things

As always there are some exceptions. Populous was ported to the Genesis, SNES, and PCE and plays well on all of them. Another off the top of my head was Starflight. An old school PC classic that was ported to the Genesis and given a graphical and sound overhaul. The end result is a title that looks, sounds, and plays better than on the computer.

That said, I am really looking forward to seeing the work that has been done with the Amiga emulator. I still have my Amiga in the closet next to my old 486. I can't let them go, yet it's a PITA to set them up to play anything. From what I have read here, it looks like the work that has been done is going to make for one easy Amiga emulation experience!

X-COM was ported from the PC to the PSX. It's one of the exceptions to the rule, mainly because the controller was mapped perfectly to the control pad. Its only downside was that you didn't want to save in battle because it ate up a complete memory card when you did and it would take about 7 or 8 minutes to load a new game if you restarted mid-battle.

I'm glad Sotu got the PSX version working after years of thinking it didn't work. I got the PC version working, but it's impossible to map to the controller like the PSX game since a majority of the functions were controlled by the mouse.

Ahhh... all this game talk...!
Make another thread...
no ... just kidding... but, I am lost now...

Rx, I'll get you the converter soon.

I saw that help was needed in completing the extra pack for the Intellivision. After seeing the work that was done on AtariXLBox , I could not stand by and let the best old school system be ignored. The Intellivision deserves to have proper treatment in the upcoming extras.

In addition to all of the pack updates, a working spreadsheet of games that are playable on BlissX will be made available on the first page of the EXTRAS thread. Unfortunately, the version of Bliss that Xport used to code the emulator was an early build and DOES NOT support any of the newer games (except 4-Tris) or Intellivoice games. Three of my favorite games were axed right there. Some kind soul out there MIGHT be updating the emulator, but until there is more confirmation on this, we all have to make do with what we have.

Included in this pack is the most awesome Intellivision Cover Scans ever assembled! I used the coverproject.net scans when possible, but the majority came from intvfunhouse.com. All scans were tweaked in Photoshop to remove glaring blemishes, light/dark issues, tears, crushed boxes, and general wear for packaging that is now around 30 years old. In all, it was a nasty, brutal pixel by pixel job for about 70% of the collection. All images are cropped to a width of 425 pixels. There is NOT ONE SINGLE WATERMARK on any of these images and it is my expressed desire that they remain watermark free for all eternity. If you are affiliated with Mobygames you may NOT mark these images, in fact you are not even allowed to look at them! I made custom boxes for unreleased games, the system files that must be in the rom directory, the demo cart, test cart, and song player carts. As I find more "unreleased games" I will add to the art pack. As it stands, it is 141 files of box shot goodness that at this point is 99% complete. As I work with the pack, I notice small errors and correct them as I go. So, there will be more updates to the pack.

Examples of cover restoration include the following:








But wait there is more!

Also included is a set of overlays for the Intellivision. This set includes all of the original system overlays and all of the “Orphan Overlays” created by Psycho Stormtrooper. Only system files, demos, and unreleased games do not have an overlay. The overlay set is also at 99% completion and will receive minor updates as I notice outstanding issues. As with the art pack, this too will see an update.

Wait! Act now and I’ll throw in a set of Title and Action screens for FREE!

That’s right! Included is a modified and edited set of Title and Action screens. I am happy to report that all Title and Actions screens are 100% complete! Only the addition of new games would require any more work at this point. Both screens spliced into one PNG to keep the preview windows ratio intact to properly display the cover, overlays, and title & action.

Still not convinced?!

Also in progress is the Intellivision Manual Pack. Currently, a complete set of manuals is avaiable in txt files. The plan is to inject these into a synopsis file. Also, this set has 60 manuals in PDF. The goal is to obtain a complete set of manuals in PDF and to break down any PDF’s into PNG’s so that they can be viewed from the emulator like the NES manual packs. If you have Intellivision manual scans or know where to obtain them please let me know! I still need about 70 of them!

That’s Great! But I'm scared that this system does not have Mario and/or has too many buttons for my tiny brain to handle even though my Xbox controller has more buttons and stuff?"

There is a game with Mario in it.... so CHILL

And...

First, many games only made use of the pad and one or two fire buttons.

Second, upcoming updates will include a controller configuration with VISUAL AID!!!!!. I have created a setup that works well for almost every game. Please be patient as the final product for special configurations should include a pic of special button mappings.

Overall Status of Project

1. Controller configurations are 90% complete. Visual aid created to help mentally impaired players.

2. Cover pack is 99% complete

3. Overlay pack is 99% complete

4. Title & Action Pack is 100% complete barring new game entries.

5. Text manuals need to be formatted for synopsis. (Need help with this!)

6. Need PDF manuals broken down into PNG's for viewing inside emulator. (Need help with this!)

7. Still need about 70 PDF Manuals for a complete set (Need help with this!)

8. Need videos made for 125 games (Currently in progress!) (Beta pack for A-E completed)

9. Need Blissx updated with newer Bliss code, save state functionality, and Intellivoice support. (Definitely Need a lot more help with this as I have no idea about coding!)

10. Spreadsheet updated to version 4

Awesome man. Glad to hear that you're already so far along on this.

Those boxarts are great too. That's the kind of thing I've tried my best to do for all the console emulators. I must have touched up at least 2,000 pics myself. Unfortunately, a lot of the images aren't as large as those so you can only do so much sometime.


It's always nice to have an unexpected add to the Xtras. First waal comes back after I hadn't heard much from him in months with tons of work done on the Amiga, and you come outta nowhere with this.


Great to have ya on board man. Hopefully all this work encourages others to take on their favorite systems as well some day.


Thanks for all the hard work,
~Rx



Oh... and an important P.S.

If those txt files are really large, you may want to hold off on putting them in an Rx style synopsis until you've got a beta to work with. I do know that there is a limit for how long a synopsis can be, although I couldn't tell you what it is. It can be pretty long per game before breaking, but you'll know it's bad when it freezes your XBox.

Also, the most recent beta for the NES has a new fixed-width font feature that displays instruction manuals and Faqs much nicer than the synopsis would. The synopsis doesn't really call for having any tables or ASCII art like some instructions and faqs do, so it doesn't need to be fixed width.

Madmab and I are trying to brainstorm and iron out a killer "Media Browser" function that would be ideal for displaying those instruction manuals.

I was actually gonna finish updating BlissX to a "Madmab Edition" yesterday but ended up wasting all my time screwing with a dang virus! Boy those things are annoying. Anyways I'm gonna switch that machine to the same set-up as my other machine which so far, cross fingers, has had no issues.

In regards to the media browser... yeah I'm gonna add in those extra directories eventually. A bit tied up on Winuaex ATM.

As far as Blissx goes. I'm currently updating it to a "Madmab Edition". I also plan on eventually...

1) Trying to get the intellivoice going.

2) Possibly update it to the latest core (if there is one)

3) Add overlay support (It'd be nice if you could send me those overlays so I can take a look at them and get them prepped). It really helps if they are uniform in size. Overlays can be a bit iffy, though. For example on the 5200 I really had to clean them up quite a bit. On AdamX (colecovision) I didn't have to mess around with them too much.

I'll work out something in regards to the controller setup. Intellivision is a bit unique in that most every game took advantage of the overlay. In some cases very inefficiently, ah but whatever.

Hopefully all of the recent activity will spur someone else along to finish another system. The work that's being done on the Amiga is awesome, and I don't know how you stay sane after editing 2,000+ photos. If it was not for all of the contributions here, my Xbox would have been gathering dust long ago. So doing a pack is just a way I can contribute and say "Thanks" for all the the other cool stuff I've used on the box over the years.

I've always wanted to see a clean MSX/MSX 2 emulation experience if anyone wants to venture into uncharted waters and make a pack..... There are additional gems in there besides Metal Gear. The Odyssey would be easy enough for someone to knock out real quick. The Vectrex would be too if we had a better emulator for it.

I don't think anyone has touched any of the Commodore computers aside from the Amiga. There is also the Amstrad CPC or someone could go way out there and do an Apple extra set! Did anyone ever take on the Spectrum?

As mentioned, I am not touching synopsis or fixed width faqs and such until maybe at the very end. I would much rather just be able to look at the REAl scanned manual rather than a text file anyway.

That ultimate "media browser" .... that's called an Xbox PDF viewer. That is the ONE app we really, really need.

Was busy typing and didn't see the update

I checked the developer's site for Bliss, and it is still available. The programmer just has not made an update in almost 3 years. I tried some games that were not working on the box with the PC version and the newer Intellivision titles do not work on the pc Bliss version as well. However, it would still be really neat to have the Intellivoice games working on the Xbox. Also, Motocross crashes after track selection and Ice Trek has terrible sound. The save states do not work. The weirdest problem is that wireless Logitech controllers do not work with the emulator. I have had to use a wired one for all of my playing testing.

Thank you for updating the emulator. Hopefully when you are finished with the Amiga emulator, you will find some fixes for the rest of the outstanding issues with BlissX. If the work is any thing like AtariXLBox, we are all in for a treat

The work on that emulator to take it from PITA, to enjoyable emulation experience was a huge contributing factor for getting me to contribute to the project.

The overlay pack is available for download on the first page of this thread under the Intellivision section as well as the following:

HD Intellivison Art Pack Ver 1

ResX updated the front page to reflect current development! All overlays are 425 x 585 pixels. The only issue that may arise is that they did not look all that great being as large as the covers so they are all placed on a white background and are smaller than the actual 425 width. you'll see what i am talking about after you look at the pack. If I need to crop them all down to a certain ratio/size/pixel location let me know. i will get on it after I finish making videos.

When you get BlissX updated to the madmad edition please send me a copy so that I can put my pack in it to make sure it looks good and make any necessary tweaks. As it is I am using a modified skin to "simulate" the eventual ability of having dual previews.

just a little more contribution here to all those cool guys helping the project:
(requested by my resX)



to have an uniform look in the Xtras main page

Res.
You should really inquire about becoming a Mod here and then you could have a forum dedicated to the Xtra's, a lot like the XPORT forums. This would be way easier than the set up you have now, I think. Then you could edit posts as well as keeping all the links in a sticky that is locked to posts, so it doesn't get too cluttered.

Thanks Gilles for the new banner. I like it. I always said I was an alien and nobody believed me until then !

Damn, I'm really a clumsy repairer. After my xbox n°1 died, I softmodded my spare xbox. And I cut the wire of the fan while I was changing the HDD. Interesting fact: Now I know that a processor can't live without cooling for more than 15min.
I'm going for xbox n°3 now and I've got to remember where I put those damn weird screwdrivers...

Apart from that, I am very pleased to see the work done by Carnage Bob for BlissX. Not to mention the work done by other members that we meet on this forum of course. I love it. Good luck to all.

I could never get BlissX working, I don't know if you need special ROMS or what but I gave up on it a while back. I just want to play B-17 Bomber cause that was the only game I had for it as a kid.... has anyone played that?

"BeeeeeeeeeeeSeventeeeeeeeeenBommmmmmber"

haha

Well for one. BlissX never supported zipped BIOS ROMS. Plus you have to make sure all the BIOS roms are in the proper directory in order for it to work properly.

I can't recall if I was trying Zipped or Unzipped ROMS

P.S.

Too busy to be a mod man. It's really not all that unorganized. At least, I know where everything is. I only lost 1 thread before and that's because it aged off the XPORT forum and I couldn't find the link for it. I've got the ability to edit my posts which is good enough for my work. I think they hand pick mods anyways. At least most sites do that.

Now that everything Xtras-wise is almost done, we can let most of the other threads I've ever been a part of fade away anyhow.




Hey Gilles,

Thanks for the banner man! Didn't know if you would see it with all the posting in here recently. I've put it in the main post.

Hi, I am getting back into xbox emulation, and was wondering where I can get started to help

What would you be interested in doing?

We need about 120 videos for the Game Boy Advance still.

We need somebody to collect gamefaqs for the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo.

Probably could find something else around here if I thought hard enough on it.

Still need a complete set of Intellivision manuals in PDF..

Just throwing it out there

PDF doesn't work on the Box

They have to be converted to JPG for use in the Media Browser

Hi!

I'm very new on this forum, but I hope I can be of assistance or something
It's very nice to see others being over-average into this idea of creating a game anthology solution!

I've been working on something for two weeks now. I've made my own "scraper/parser" fetching information from http://www.mobygames.com and some others sites to create the following:

* A database with information like:
- game title
- releaseyear
- publisher
- developer
- genre(s)
- perspective
- description of the game
- mobyrating (just mobygames' own rating system for games.. i thought better than not to have it =))
- coverart pr game (most from mobygames.com, but alot collected by myself from google, gamespot etc)
- screenshots pr game (up to 10 screenies pr game)
* Gameplay video pr game (I've made a script that grabbed alot of youtube urls for nes,snes and n64) from www.nesguide.com etc.. the rest i've inputted myself.. i also made a youtube video download script so i have all the videos locally on my server)
* Wikipedia link pr game (also fetched "automagically" from www.nesguide.com and the rest inputted by myself)

All the info above is collected in a mysql table and the files (coverart, screenshots, gameplay videos etc) are located in folders.

On my todo-list I have:
* Scrape/parse gamefaqs for walkthrough and other things they have.
* Look into speedruns sites to include different speedruns videos for "each game".
* Look into scraping/parsing www.vgmaps.com for maps related to games.

My main thought here was to go away from the Romcenter good-lists and create my own collection of just E/U/Translated roms to avoid dupes and/or unplayable games (for us living west of ASIA ;P). So far the collection progression is very nice, but my main GOAL however was to make these games browseable and launchable from within XBMC.

But, all my work the last two weeks now seems to fade into oblivion when I look at the nice work being done here.

Here is a quick list i've made for myself to keep track of what i'm missing when it comes to roms,youtubelinks and wikipedialinks for each game.

MY LIST
(screenshots not displayed, but most games have 5-10 screenshots in addition to the coverart.

As far as I can see this project is based on the "old" emulators that was being launched from the old XBOX1 dashboard? I'm not that familiar with this emulation scene anymore since I strayed away from XBOX1 over to a htpc running XBMC on Linux a while back.. So excuse my if the following questions seem retarded or lame:

1) Is X-Port a browser solution for roms with possibility to launch the emulators ?
2) In what way will coverart, screenshots and information about the games be displayed ? (or are they just added as extra files for the user to play with on his own projects?).
3) Is these emulators only for XBOX1 ? (in other words not possible to get working on win,linux,osx platforms?)

Reason for asking these questions are:
I really wanted to create and include a solution that made it possible to browse games pr year, publisher, genres, console, game-collections (like mario, zelda, fifa etc) with displaying covers, screenshots and optional gameplay video for each game. Then if the user pressed Enter it would launch an external emulator with the romfile as parameter to autostart the gaming experience.

Here is a quick mockup picture I made using the Xperience skin as a layout.



I can however live with hooking up my old dusty XBOX1 console if that is needed to run a system like this.

Here is my thread over at xbmc.org/forum for those interrested in what I had(or have) in mind with xbmc:
XBMC FORUM THREAD

Before I start on helping out here I'll need to get some hours sleep, read up on the thread(s) and understand what this projects goal is and how it will work (xbox1?win?browser?database?etcetc).

I'm somewhat good at parsing websites, fetching files from the parsed info etcetc, I'm dedicated and a collection-freak, I know php, mysql etc. I'm not sure how I can be of assistance in this project (or if it's needed at all to include more people), but let me know!

Sorry for the big first post here.. I'll try to shorten my replies in the "replies to come"! ;D
Anyways.. Very nice to see so many others eager to get a solution like this up and running!

Cheers
Wimp from Norway

That all sounds great man.

1st, I'd say, don't worry about scraping any info from gamefaqs or mobygames. I've already finished the synopsis for over 10,000 roms on 15 different systems.

2nd, we could definitely use the scrapping for gamefaqs, particularly the Genesis and Super Nintendo.

3rd, XPORT is a style of emu, not an all encompassing emu solution. It's basically the best front end for multiple emulators that anybody has ever conceived.

4th, XPORT emus, as of now anyways, can only be used on the XBOX. It runs on Linux from what I understand and probably could be ported if somebody had the knowledge.

5th, try the NES beta out from Madmab. Also, download my old Xtras for the NES to work with it and you'll get a good idea of what we're doing here.

6th, write back after you've tried it out. I'd like to see what you think.

Later,
~Rx

Hi!

Ok like I thought then. Even if it's (atm) restricted to XBOX1 console this sounds very nice! XPORT is not a program/plugin of sorts then?, it's more a description for the emulators running on the XBOX1 console? (I guess this question will be answered when I see how it works )

About scraping gamefaqs you mean fetching info from gamefaqs.com i guess, but what part ? Do you mean this page: (gamefaqs link) for general faqs, in-depths faqs, maps and charts etc ? or any other parts of the page ?

I'll have to dig out my old XBOX and see if I can power it up and try this Xport with NES and xtras Perhaps try that tomorrow. Hope I can get it up and running and figure out how to install and test this.. If I can't get it working is there (or can it be made) a video displaying how this works? (or can I PM you if I need help setting it up?).

Sorry if I lack some concentration etc in these posts.. was supposed to go to sleep just before i started on the first post.. my heart literally skipped a beat (yes i'm a retro freak hehe) when I read your firsts posts in this thread.. So impressive!

Well g'nite for now! ZZZ incoming!

Cheers
Wimp

I've got all the gamefaqs for SNES and NES downloaded but the renaming is taking a while if you want them with out the changed names I can just upload them whenever.

Been busy with a new job a shift change and personal stuff so I haven't been able to update much.

Xport was a coder who ported several emulators to the Xbox. All of his emulators used the same GUI (from what I can tell) and everyone loved them because of all the features and order of things... so anything in a XPORT style would be something like one of Xports emulators. With picture previews/video/custom background music, exc, exc. ( the list really goes on way past 2 "exc's" haha)

XPORT is a guy (team?) that ported a whole ton of PC emulators onto the XBox. They're all wrapped up in a very similar interface. Once you try one out, you'll generally have the feel for how all of them are. There are a few variations from emu to emu, but it's pretty much the same GUI experience from emu to emu.

I don't know of any videos explaining how to get this stuff working. You do have a modded XBox, don't you?

About GameFaqs... I'd just like to have a good faq for each game. If you could get faqs and then rename them to my names, they will be usable within the emulator.



Hey ninjagaidenfreak,

I don't need them just yet. I've got way to much to do as it is. Just wanna make sure that we get em though. Sometimes people disappear and it'd be a shame if you weren't around to upload that stuff when you were done with it. Thanks for all your help man. I can't wait to see them.





Oh... and one more emulator down. The SEGA VMU is complete with artwork/synopsis and videos for 52 games.

I've updated the "Current Progress" part of the thread. You can now see where we're at on the covered emulators and what still needs to be done. Critical things are in bold-red to make it easy to see what still needs to be done.

CURRENT PROGRESS

are we gonna see more "Saves" like you have for nes? i liked that. best settings for all roms.

That's the plan.

With madmab's new auto-configure setting, it's not as important to do it on systems like the NES, SNES, etc... but they're awesome when it comes to systems like Colecovision and Chip8.

Interesting database you have there. You might almost be better off going the XBMC route, but if your interested you can look into how we store our data and maybe write a conversion program to convert your stuff to the format used by the madmab edition x-port emu's. The format of the Synopsis file is relatively simple. Although RessX does tend to split it up into categories.

Hi! and thanks

Yeah, my main goal was to make this launchable through XBMC so it was a part of my "home theatre experience" along with my movies and tvseries.. But now after seeing how far along you guys are and the complexity of this project i'm somewhat thinking my work has been "in vain". I just hope I can fire up one of my old modded xbox's and try this out

Since i've been asleep/working since my last post I havn't really had time to look into deeper into this project yet, but it seems so good i'm considering dumping my project and offering whatever help i can here instead. Another reason for thinking these thought is that I know I'm not able to create an XBMC application due to my limited programming skills in python etc. I started on the database first to seeif it was doable andit was, but not knowing where to continue after this is kinda getting to me. No use having 2300+ gamevids and 26k+ screenshots and covers witthout having a nice interface to display and browse them

Am I understanding this correct when I sum up this project like this: ?
1) There is no main browser for browsing games? All the different emulators browse their own games? Meaning that if I want to play/browse NES games I need to fire up XPORT NES emulator.. then close that to browse SNES roms to open up XPORT SNES emulator ?

2) Is there a frontend for starting the emulators?

3) I saw the thread regarding skins for the differentemulators. Are those skins meant to make switching emulator seem like it's a "single system" instead of having the standard skin for nes, snes etc ? I remember XPORT NES having a very NES-feel while the XPORT gameboy had a gameboyish-layout. In short: Skins are made for most of the emulators to make them look and feel alike?

4) The different emulators read graphics(cover, screens etc), manuals, gamefaqs etc from within the emulator? Are the gameplay videos visable from within the emulators?

I know alotof thse question will be answered when I finally fireupmy XBOX, but I have to find the time and the box(yes... cellar.. have to look for ithehe)..

I also downloaded Romcenter and currently trying to locate the latest good-sets to make sure I have the roms to play with. I have alot of roms laying about the place, but those are renamed and very unorganized as apposed to Romcenter. Hope I can get that to work aswell

Delphi application for windows including the emulators was also something I considered since I know Delphi, but damn this projet is so much bigger than mine that I see not point if this is as good as it seems from the info in the threads Too bad I didn't see this thread before

Anyways cool to see activity on the project and I'm looking forward to testing and helping out where I can!

- - - - - -

Regarding my database. I doubt there is anything in my database you guys don't already have.. except it seems I've collected a great deal more screenshots for nes, snes etc than you have.. (seems you have just 1 ingame screenshots? not that having more really makes the difference hehe)ex

The synopsis you have seems also to contain enough information to cover what I've collected from www.mobygames.com except youtube links for gameplay (which is kinda redundant since you make your own videos). Wikipedia links is one thing I havn't seen in your sysnopsis/layout yet tho, but not sure if that's needed/wanted.

(Sitting at work untill 22 tonight so i'll try to read up on this thread abit.)

One question.. I downloaded the game manuals for NES and I have to say.. Very nice work to those doing that.. How will they be included in this project? will they be browseable or just extra files?

(Sorry if I'm coming on strong and asking more than I should.. just very eager )

Am I understanding correctly when i see nothing in this project is database? Just files?
(I might have misread something tho..)

A thought here would be that, when this system is out of beta and "finished", it would be a very good system to chuck into a database and make scrape-able.. I do think alot of people would like to use this insane collection for other systems/platforms. (serverspace and bw can be easily fixed i think)

One thought I had was to use this collection as a base for scraping information on games via XBMC like we do with movies and tvshows etc.

Have anyone else thought about this or do you guy/guys consider yourselves xbox1-specific only?
(I do realize a huge project like this needs to do things one step at a time..just thinking out loud)

I think the intent was xbox1-specific, seeing as it is a attempt to resurrect the Xbox scene. But its such a great collection, and idea, I see a lot of people taking the Xtras and using them on other platforms.

Hey wimpy,

You should read up on .CUT files. They're executable lines of code that will allow you to browse boxart for games in XBMC and launch the emulator straight from XBMC and playing that specific game. You can also turn "go back to XBMC after game exit" in the General Configuration menu and it will go back to XBMC when you leave the game.

Madmab also cut the load time for NES games in this method in half. It's about 7 or 8 seconds now as opposed to the 15 or so before. A large part of this was stripping out the code that load SAMBA sharing. He said he will put another switch in there giving you the option to use .CUT files with SAMBA if that is necessary for your setup, but that will bring your load time to over 13 seconds.

My only problem with this method is when XBMC loads again, it loads to the main title screen. We haven't figured out yet how to get the emulator to go back to the rom .CUT file you launched the game from. That would pretty much make it a one-stop-emu-shop if you don't mind the loading time and don't care about synopsis or videos.

As for your questions...

1 & 2) No main browser for running games (except for the method above). All the emulators browse their own games. Some emus browse multiple systems. NES & FDS, Genesis & 32x & SEGA CD, Game Boy & Game Boy Color & Game Boy Advance.

3) Yes. Gilles' skins all have a uniform PM3 feel. If used with the PM3 XBMC skin, the whole thing just seems to go together better, in my opinion. I used to use the XBox 360 XBMC skin before he made these skins. It just didn't look right with Gille's skins and now XBox 360 doesn't even look like that anymore anyways.

You can check out the thread Gilles just made with a link of a youtube video of NeoGenesis on his Box.

4) Yes. The emulators do a great job displaying all of these things. Gille's video will show you some of that, but he doesn't have all of that in there yet. We now use a fixed width font for txt documents so GameFaqs look great in there. We're in the process of making other improvements to the ease of use for the Xtras.


Other things...

You should use No-Intro sets first, and for any emulators that there is an alternative datfile provided, you should use those first as well since my roms are old and next to impossible to find for a few of the emus.

Manuals will be browsable both outside and in-game.



These were designed only with XBox in mind in the beginning, but I'm thinking that the work is so huge and high quality that we may see people trying to code PC emulators to work with the Xtras as-is. All the work is already done... why reinvent the wheel?

.CUT files.. gotcha.. I'll take a look at it when I can Althought I do think my own project, like I said earlier, fades in comparrison to this project so I might put that on hold to see progress on this project!

Loadtime for the emu's seem fine with 7-8 (or even 15) seconds at this stage.. With loadtime of the "nes games" you mean the time it takes to load up the Emu itself right ? Or the game you start f rom the Nes emu?
Well a one-stop-emu-shop solution is what I was aiming for but with synopsis, videos etc The video gilles just put up on youtube showed me how it works on the box and it seems to work very very nice

This is a personal issue tho: I do feel that the layout etc on the video could be made cooler, but I guess it's limited what you can do with the layout of the emus and skins ? (by all means it doesn't look BAD!:) nitpicking.. hehe)

1&2) I see Not really a problem. I feel the emulators feed of this xtras project and no the other way around.. Meaning that just to see the "xtras in motion" makes me think of other solutions to use all this nice info/gfx.

Just giving you my thoughts here: What I was hoping for with my own setup (which I doubt will see the light of day) was to be able to browse all games no matter console in a fluent browser without having to load a different program to browse specific games. Also meant to have a possibility to view a specific year, genre, developer, publisher, console or even "collections" like "all zelda games", "all mario games" etc. I see that this is not doable with this setup as of now and hard to code with not being built upon a database. This is not critisism, but just some thoughts I had for my own system and I thought I'd share it..

It won't be a problem when this project is up and running out of beta to database-i-fy the synopsis files to create a worthy database to query from.. to make other systems do this and I might take a look at it when it's out there if you don't mind

3) That's what I was looking for A look/feel that makes it feel like a game anthology setup and not a flaky setup with lots of different graphics and stuff. This seems very nice!

4) Just watched the video and it displays it fine (and now I understand what RUMBLES mean lol). Not that I'm in any position to tell you how to do things, but is it possible to display screenshots/cover to the upper right when displaying the synpopsis ?

Also I couldn't see any manual-viewing etc but I guess I will look just as great for the games that has those!

Why reinvent the wheel indeed mate.. I see this xtras project to be the stepstone for alot of different usages. XBOX using XPORT emu's.. Webpages displaying systems/games using xtras info/art, perhaps myself or someone else will create a generic XBMC script/plugin to view the games on other platforms.. I'm more excited from the work you guys are doing here than anything else in the emuscene atm.. This is a great turnaround for people like me.. You say you are all OCD.. I think when this project is released out of beta it will help CURE some OCD people when it comes to emulation ;D

On a side-note.. I found my two old 1.1 and 1.2 (i think) modded xbox consoles.. My projector is dead(need new bulb) and I can't seem to find my TVcard and I'm out of TV's in my appartment so it will be a few days before I'm up and running with an XBOX ;D Gilles video satisfied me for a few days tho

Now it's time for some sleep after 12h at work..

G'nite and cheers!
Wimpy (@ itunes! ;P)

wimpyRBX, you should check out GameEX for the PC (Windows). Have a look at this thread:

http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=699528

Great news.....

Dpar at the HS forums just hooked me up with a megaupload link for all the HD boxart they've done for the Sega Genesis. It's over 250 MB

Now if Genesis wins before I get a chance to upload this stuff it will have truly HD boxart for most games.

Maybe you could help Madmab out with getting a sort/filter feature working for the XPORT emus wimpyRBX.

Also, I'd really like to get them to the point that we can display the synopsis name instead of the rom name like MAME does. I'm really getting sick of the bitching that people do about my naming conventions when mine are 1000 times better than no-intro and goodsets. If they could just see this in action, they'd realize the romname is simply a placeholder. Plus, my romname placeholders would be much easier to figure out which game is which than MAME's system.

I launch cuts via samba and xbmc and there is only about a 10 second delay it is roughly the same time it takes to launch from an emulator. And still way quicker than loading an xbox game. For that matter it takes longer to load the games on the original system than it does launching by cut files in xbmc.

This is the cleanest look you will get out of the emulators to make them appear a uniform set. This also gives you the ability to not have to stop reboot and load another emulator to be able to scan all your games.

There will most likely never be a way to launch back into the menu in xbmc because your passing threw 2 xbe files and the xbox is limited to 1 xbe at a time. Unless somebody figured out how to port the emulators themselves into the xbmc xbe which would probably take to much overhead if it is possible. Or threw together a setup like retro-x "I think this is what it is called it was an xbmc python app for emulators"

You might also want to check out the new coinops it seems to be evolving into more of a frontend and less of an emulator thats how I read about it anyway. It is said to support mame, fba, sega mega drive, and super nes right now with more systems to be added.


I however don't think you should ditch your own project just yet it really is a good idea because if functionality is put into xbmc then it can become the frontend and most emulators would just plug right into it. Most emulators support commandline launching. Instead of having to rework every emulator "xport alone has about 30 or so" you would only need to rework xbmc and be done with it.

I don't get into all the video's and extra stuff I am a 1 screenshot man myself but I have put some thought into this.

If nfo support which is already available in xbmc in the videos and music section was add to the program section then synopsis info, guides or hints could be placed in it. You could even just move over one of the video view modes and have a layout for it done.

As far as the videos and commercials the code to do this is there to. Somebody would just need to find out how xbmc gets video to play in the bottom left corner when you push the "X" button while viewing a video.

It seems that xbmc already has all the functionality to do this I don't see how it could be real difficult to reuse the same code in a different place within the same app. I could be wrong about it but I don't see how.

It's more than 10 seconds. It's close to 15. I timed it with a stopwatch.

It's right around 8 seconds with the SAMBA shut off.

Fortunately, Madmab said he will have a switch for this too, so you can choose either or when using .CUT files.

Holy god rx....

I just checked your progress list.You got all those systems done?! Videos, artwork...

god bless dude, god bless

That's crazy

*Topic moved from other thread

Res, with the synopsis for the games. Is that all stuff you or someone else wrote, or was there a particular place it was copied from. In regards to PSX I was wondering if I am to play the games and grasp a general idea of what they are and write it up, or just copy it from another source?

this is exactly what i was thinking. using the excisting database/ nfo layout of xbmc to display roms etc. this allows dynamic listings per year, console, genres etc.

too bad i know nothing about xbmc backend yet .. i try to look into it a little but don't expect much(a)

i feel having this directly into xbmc for browsing instead of having different emus to browse is a bettet solution..
i do think however, after reading abit on this project that the best thing to do regarding this is to wait for the release and then start on something like this. afaiks this project is more related to collecting the xtras and releasing them than the browsing itself. (correct me if i'm wrong ress)

cheerS
Wimpy

in my system it's easy to query on every part of the information fields to create different sort/lists. i'm not sure how it will be done without having the synopsis in a database.

also in my db each and every game has an unique id with a field called gametitle which can be changed without affecting the filename itself.

my game are actually named 1.nes 2.nes etc linked to the db which contains console,gametitle etc. (i'm at this point regretting renaming them to this type of filenames.. since everything here is file/folder based). reason for mentioning this is to show the difference in how we've built our systems/collections. i'm fairly good at creating systems to sort stuff, but without a database i'm rather clueless as to how to sort them (without using alot of cpu/hdd usage by scanning large quantaties of synopsis files)

wimpy

Don't forget over 10,000 synopsis entries too




You didn't check out the NES synopsis yet, didja?

I wrote a couple for games that have no info online, but generally I grab the synopsis info from MobyGames, GameFaqs and various other internet sites. I always write the name of the reviewer at the bottom if there was one and I always put the URL of the page I'm copying from to give credit where it's due.




Hey wimpy,

Yeah... Madmab said we'd need to have something internal that would set up some sort of database with the "headline" synopsis info to make this happen. Similar to how MAME scans your roms on first load to create a database of what you have available. It would have to be something you could re-do on the fly if you added more roms, preferably on the Box itself and not the PC.

I don't know anything about this, and this type of thing seems pretty heavy to the uninitiated. I think you know quite a bit about this, even if not particularly on an XBox setup. I was wondering if you could talk to madmab about ideas to get this done.

Thanks,
~Rx

I'll certainly get to that point to discuss my thoughts/ideas with you and Madmab as soon as I clear my head

It is kinda 'heavy' for those not really into db's and such and yeah i know quite a bit about it.. what I don't know alot about tho (or can't remember from the modding days back in cirka y2k) is the xbox system it self and what it allows to be installed. Only thing that comes to mind is to mod the current xbmc database and see if that can be used in any way..

I'm currently ripping entireVGMUSIC and VGMAPS.

VGMUSIC = midi files for alot of games for alot of consoles. my script is currently saving them in games folders in accordance with the current xtras file structure.. Some game folders might have the incorrect name tho, but that's an easy fix when it's done.

VGMAPS = maps for alot of games for alot of consoles. currently writing the script (done in ~1 hour max i think) and will start scraping tonight.

I'll update sometime tomorrow on the status on how far I've gotten.

Current status:

VGMUSIC:
* NES section is scraping atm

VGMAPS:
* writing script, starting scraping NES tonight

[VGMUSIC]
* fixed the scraper script. now recollecting NES (50% done).
* next will be SNES.

[VGMAPS]
* created the scraper script (not 100% tested but seems to work nicely.. running while i sleep). now collecting NES.
* SNES will start tomorrow if NES finishes correctly.

wimpyRBX Could you give me an idea or an example of the scripts you are using to scrap the sites. I was try to do the same thing to gamefaqs but all the ways I tried failed horribly.

It's rather hard to explain in detail, but I use php to read the webpage then using some regexp/if's'and'buts/str_replace etcetc i single out the data from the webpage i need.

If need be i'll create a gamefaqs scraper when i'm done with these two projects. ETA on these will be ~1week if I put my time to it.

If you are into php read up on:

@file_get_contents($url)
file_put_contents($localfile,file_get_contents($externalfile))

etc.. that's basically what i use to download files.

hit me back tomorrow.. time for sleep now

g'nite
wimpy

Quickiepost before I sleep:
Also when I'm done I guess I can release the scripts for people to look at.
Two things:
* My code is _VERY_ ugly and most likely much more complicated that it has to do.
* There might be, due to my lousy coding, be alot of fixes that needs attention for others to just download and use them.
* I recommend everyone interrested in scraping webpages to look elsewhere (meaning: other than me) to learn scraping/parsing websites due to the info above ;D

Thanks for the quick post

Its been a while since I've touched php but I can do it, I'll poke around a bit and see what I can come up with.

also I love looking at hack job code and trying to figure out what is going on and the though pattern