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Voljega / ExoDOSConverter

a custom game converter from the ExoDOS collection to emulation station based distribution format
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Integration of C64 Dreams (massive curated C64 collection) #74

Closed jediafr closed 1 year ago

jediafr commented 3 years ago

Hi,

Since you have the parser for LB, would it be possible to tweak it for the following collection ?

https://forums.launchbox-app.com/topic/49324-c64-dreams-massive-curated-c64-collection/

Best regards,

Voljega commented 3 years ago

Hello,

Besides Launchbox metadata and images, I fear this conversion will have nothing in common with exo's collections, so it might be difficult to integrate into current code base / GUI.

However, why not ? This could integrated into the ExoDOS Converter or simply made into another project.

Give me a few months, though, I want to release version 1.0 of ExoDOS first, will all bugs fixed and functionalities integrated

jediafr commented 3 years ago

Thank you for keeping the option open, and in my mind , i dont expect more than the parsing of the xml into ES format, the rest of the conversion would have to be done by the user to share the burden so to speak !

Voljega commented 3 years ago

Research with Project Firestart as example :

game launch configuration in C64 Dreams\C64 Dreams\Games\Project Firestart game files in C64 Dreams\C64 Dreams\Games\Project Firestart\Project Firestart.crt ? manual in C64 Dreams\C64 Dreams\Games\Project Firestart\Project Firestart Manual.cbr images in C64 Dreams\Images\C64 Dreams metadata in C64 Dreams\Data\Platforms\Games.xml and C64 Dreams\Metadata\Files.xml (references to files which don't seem to exist though)

jediafr commented 3 years ago

here's what i've found for project Firestart :

C64_dir_list.zip Project Firestart.zip

Hope this help a little, i'm available almost everyday (thanks lockdown!) if you need more informations.

Voljega commented 3 years ago

except as said in my post , game files like Project Firestart (USA) (Disk 1 Side A) or Project Firestart (USA) (Disk 1 Side B) don't seem to exist anywhere in the project

and Game.bat indeed seem to launch the Project Firestart.crt file :

start ..\..\Retroarch\Controller.exe
start ..\..\Retroarch\Manuals.exe
start ..\..\Utilities\Cdisplayex\Cdisplayex.exe ".\Project Firestart Manual.cbr"
..\..\Retroarch\Retroarch.exe -L "..\..\Retroarch\cores\vice_x64_libretro.dll" "Project Firestart.crt"

other games uses rom files like Disk1.d64 or crt files ...

thus Files.xml seems useless

jediafr commented 3 years ago

From Zombeaver (creator of the C4 Dreams) : you were right "Files.xml has nothing to do with anything.That's for the metadata package that's downloaded by LB, which has nothing to do with what's actually in the library

The actual metadata file for the project itself would be Data\Platforms\Games.xml The way Launchbox handles metadata is it downloads a single package (checked once per day) which contains the metadata for everything that's been cataloged in our db, minus images And then when you import something it pulls it from that package (locally), rather than having to query the website every time. The only thing that's downloaded at that point is media."

Voljega commented 3 years ago

So the game rom file is indeed Project Firestart.crt because I've always seen this game in two disks format

Zombeaver commented 3 years ago

Yes. All the roms are contained in their respective folders.

The only exception to this is multi-game Easyflash carts which are in the C64 Dreams\C64 Dreams\Games\ !Easyflash Collections folder. These have more than one game on them like Maniac Mansion + Zak McKraken and they're kept in this folder to avoid duplication/redundancy. Outside of those handful of carts everything else is in its own folder.

In the case of Project Firestart, it's the Easyflash version by Nostalgia.

89carrot commented 2 years ago

Wow this would be another awesome feature to have with this tool. @Zombeaver just incredible the work you've done on the C64 front.

@jediafr have you tried to do any manual converting/scraping of the games into Retrobat/Batocera format? Just wondering how easily this could be done in the meantime until the tool can convert them.

jediafr commented 2 years ago

Actually i did a conversion Launchbox => Pegasus Front End (a good front end i use on linux). https://github.com/spektor56/PegasusExportPlugin

From then i got the all the LB entries right but none of the games works of course. The part i'm stuck as Pegasus doenst like my script (intercepting, parsng and recontructing the command line for a linux execution).

89carrot commented 2 years ago

Actually i did a conversion Launchbox => Pegasus Front End (a good front end i use on linux). https://github.com/spektor56/PegasusExportPlugin

From then i got the all the LB entries right but none of the games works of course. The part i'm stuck as Pegasus doenst like my script (intercepting, parsng and recontructing the command line for a linux execution).

@jediafr ok thanks for the info.

@Voljega do you think it's feasible to add this request to the converter at some point?

Cheers

Voljega commented 2 years ago

yeah it's definitely feasible and somthing I'd like to work on sooner than later.

just have to find time and motivation

89carrot commented 2 years ago

yeah it's definitely feasible and somthing I'd like to work on sooner than later.

just have to find time and motivation

Excellent. Happy to test once you have time. Thank you for your continued support @Voljega!

89carrot commented 1 year ago

Hey @Voljega hope you are doing well. Did you ever get a chance to look at adding the c64 dreams option?

Thank you

Voljega commented 1 year ago

Hello I'd had a look here and then but never came around it.

Is the C64 Dreams collection complete by now ? If yes I''ll try working on it in August

Le sam. 8 juil. 2023 à 16:13, 89carrot @.***> a écrit :

Hey @Voljega https://github.com/Voljega hope you are doing well. Did you ever get a chance to look at adding the c64 dreams option?

Thank you

— Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/Voljega/ExoDOSConverter/issues/74#issuecomment-1627263093, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAKXF4OVYKEPMIOFGN2ZSXDXPFMHNANCNFSM4X36JGYQ . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: @.***>

89carrot commented 1 year ago

Hello I'd had a look here and then but never came around it. Is the C64 Dreams collection complete by now ? If yes I''ll try working on it in August Le sam. 8 juil. 2023 à 16:13, 89carrot @.> a écrit : … Hey @Voljega https://github.com/Voljega hope you are doing well. Did you ever get a chance to look at adding the c64 dreams option? Thank you — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#74 (comment)>, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAKXF4OVYKEPMIOFGN2ZSXDXPFMHNANCNFSM4X36JGYQ . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: @.>

That is great thank you. Yes v.60 was recently released this year but I believe it already has the bulk of the collection as it's vast.

jediafr commented 1 year ago

I''ll try working on it in August : thats great news, the last version is going to stay for a while as it is almost games complete and the underlying engine too (scripts files). The biggest change was the introduction of Magazines articles to display if wanted.

Voljega commented 1 year ago

C64 Dreams support now added !