athairus
commented
8 years ago Generating the database
Get source data
Note that this only gets us titles, IDs, filenames, hashes and serials
- No-intro
- Use the P/Clone XML flavor of the database
gameIDs come from set of all parentgametags (aka tags without acloneofelement), assign allreleasetags found within parent tag and clones of parent to thisgameIDreleaseIDs come from set of allreleasetags, assign siblingromtag to thisreleaseID- Strip parentheses-delimited tags from each release
nameelement using the official tagging docs as a guide romIDs come from set of allromtags
- Redump
- Naming follows no-intro standard, I'm guessing disc number occupies the "Special" field
- Version and region data not part of name, actual field in database!
- MAME: Nothing yet, have to do it manually
Get metadata
Note that I am evaluating all of these sites based on what data is available for Super Metroid, a good litmus test for how well the site's categorized classic games.
TheGamesDB has some good quality boxart but seem to only track US releases.
The Cover Project has the best quality boxart I've seen anywhere on the net, far higher-res than what we need, though. Also, most of the cover images are oriented for print (example: SNES games have back, side and front covers in the same image) so they'll have to be automatically trimmed and shrunk to be usable. On the plus side, they track all kinds of regions.
GameFaqs has little to offer in terms of metadata but track not only regional boxart but also release dates. The boxart itself is just big enough for our use.
IGDB is currently in open beta. Doesn't have a lot of useful stuff quite yet.
Giant Bomb has a rich db of releases and release dates. The box art available can be very good but doesn't seem to follow any standard format making automated extraction difficult.
MobyGames has an even richer database! They mark their available box art with lists of countries they came from along with a database of releases by region. Unfortunately, they do not track revisions.
RF Generation looks promising. Tracks releases.
Online Games DatenBank German. Good amount of detail.
panzeroceania
This issue will define how the new Phoenix database will be organized.
Define the following IDs:
gameID: ID denoting a set of ROMs built from the same codebase for the same platform (e.g. not ports, sequels or expansion packs)releaseID: ID denoting region-specific release of a particular ROM with unique box art sold over a particular periodromID: ID denoting a single ROM A singlegameIDwill map to a set ofreleaseIDs. A singlereleaseIDwill map to a singleromID.For example:
gameID0releaseID0releaseID1releaseID2releaseID3romID0romID1Rationale: In the end, we want to display to the user the collection of
gameIDs that they have valid ROM paths for. In order to select the right region and release we end up showing we must store the user's choice ofreleaseIDfor the givengameID. ThereleaseIDgives us all the information we need to display any metadata necessary and we can later look up the stored path to the ROM via thereleaseID'sromID.