Autor
| Your opinion on my possible new project...
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cesco
msx addict
Mensajes: 257 |  Publicado: Junio 27 2008, 12:46 |
I'd like to make an application that could be similar to what GAMEBASE is. GAMEBASE64 is a wonderful application that displays informations, screenshots and many other things about (almost) any game published for the Commodore 64; you can also hear the music for a lot of games listed, and play the actual game if you have an emulator and a copy of it in your hard disk.
It's since no less than 4 years that I dream of making a similar tool for the MSX... I was thinking about adapting OpenMSX Peashooter, making it multiplatform (so Windows, Mac OS X and Linux would be supported) and with some new features, like for example the ability of playing music, searching games, and showing small videos.
I don't want to compete with Generation-MSX or MSX-Files... my final goal is to create a convenient application where you can browse a big off-line database that could be store as much information as possible about the MSX Games ever appeared on the platform.
The database used by the application will be based on SQLite and XML, so anybody could develop his personal application or his very own website with the information about those games
So, the question essentially is this:
Which name do you like best?
MSXBASE
Or
MSXPEDIA
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wolf_
msx legend
Mensajes: 4611 | Publicado: Junio 27 2008, 12:55 |
How about Generation MSX for a name? 
Seriously tho: genmsx is rather complete, but it's online, which would be the main difference with your plans if I understood corrctly. I don't know whether you'd want to create your own database and thus more or less reinvent the wheel again, or whether you can 'sync' to genmsx and update your offline database. |
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cesco
msx addict
Mensajes: 257 | Publicado: Junio 27 2008, 13:09 |
Generation MSX is a really good website... I have visited it so many times, and (shame on me) sometimes I have even copied descriptions from some games, but IMHO it still lacks a final touch...
when I browse generation-msx and I find a game that I like, I'd really love to be able to play it. This is naturally not possible at the moment, for technical and copyright reasons.
Actually it is possible to launch an application from a website. Wouldn't it be lovely if generation-msx could launch openmsx and tell the emulator to run that particular game ?
This is actually possible... using HASH CODES, that allows an application to recognize the proper game... however, both Generation-MSX and OpenMSX should have a built-in database with some thousand of HASH Codes linked to each MSX Game... and of course somebody should convince Manuel and the other guys to support this function 
This is one of the purposes of MSXBASE/MSXPEDIA/WHATEVER YOU WANT TO CALL IT 
You could see a page with the description of a MSX game, push the "PLAY IT" button, and then the website could invoke OpenMSX and ask to load the file with that particular HASH code; for the homebrew games and for the abandonware you could even download the binary file to the user hard drive and then launch OpenMSX in order to run it.
This would be totally awesome IMHO. |
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Tanni
msx addict
Mensajes: 301 | Publicado: Junio 27 2008, 13:12 |
MSXGameBase?
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cesco
msx addict
Mensajes: 257 | Publicado: Junio 27 2008, 13:21 |
You could invoke OpenMSX (or BlueMSX, or any other emulator) with a simple command like:
openmsx -run a1e14912d45944b9a6baef1d4d3a04c1ae8df923
And OpenMSX would know that you'd like to play "RIVER RAID". It would know this, because it could have an internal database with a list of thousand of games -each one stored with one or more unique codes-... and reading that database, OpenMSX would also know how to run it (as a disk, tape or ROM image) and which machine configuration it should use.
If, for some reason, you don't like to pass a long alphanumeric code, instead you could pass a shorter alias for the game... for example:
openmsx -run "river raid"
And OpenMSX could try to guess which game you want to play (exactly what is already doing the emulator MAME)
Terrific, IMHO. And it would save a lot of time because in OpenMSX you won't have to type something like:
<CTRL+L>
Machine Philips_VG_8020
carta /users/cesco/documents/msx/games/3D\ Golf\ Simulation\ (High-Speed)\ (1984)\ (J).rom
reset
But you could just write:
<CTRL+L>
run "3d golf"
And OpenMSX would be able to fetch that ROM by guessing its probable name, even if the file is called "T&E Software presents 3D Golf Simulation - This is the High-speed version (1984) (J).rom" or even if you don't know exactly the name of the game. OpenMSX would know that the game have to be loaded as a ROM image and that it wouldn't work with the default C-Bios, and that it would need to run it with another MSX1 machine configuration. So many information with just a single string.
But to be able to do this kind of things you need to develop some specific functions AND you need a proper database... and that database is exactly what I'm dreaming about |
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manuel
msx guru
Mensajes: 3351 | Publicado: Junio 27 2008, 13:36 |
cesco: there are already plans to link the data of Generation MSX and the software database which is in openMSX (and blueMSX). It's not a matter of convincing. It's just work, and apparently we chose to do other things first.
Please do not start a completely separate project again. If you can help GenMSX and us, it would be a lot easier for everone!
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cesco
msx addict
Mensajes: 257 | Publicado: Junio 27 2008, 13:44 |
Quote:
| cesco: there are already plans to link the data of Generation MSX and the software database which is in openMSX (and blueMSX). It's not a matter of convincing. It's just work, and apparently we chose to do other things first.
Please do not start a completely separate project again. If you can help GenMSX and us, it would be a lot easier for everone!
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Ah, ok... do you already have some information about the structure of these database ? Maybe I could help you by collecting the HASH codes from the games and the applications that I have at home. |
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SLotman
msx professional
Mensajes: 516 | Publicado: Junio 27 2008, 14:11 |
I would just love a site like "world of spectrum" for MSX, where you could have a database just like on Generation MSX, with every game, with screenshots, cover scans, magazine reviews, musics, and also could play it online.
Unfortunaly there are copyright issues, the only "online" emulator is the MSX Java Emulator, which only emulates MSX1 and with no sound... and the source (de-compiled from the classes) is outdated and don´t compile on newer Java SDKs... 
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ro
msx guru
Mensajes: 2298 | Publicado: Junio 27 2008, 14:35 |
IMDB
(International MSX DataBase)
I'm having similar plans concerning the MSX (demo) Scene. It's been on my list for years. already claimed msxscene.com
(which is not connected atm)
BUT, I'm lazy.. haha, neh. Short of time..... |
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wolf_
msx legend
Mensajes: 4611 | Publicado: Junio 27 2008, 14:54 |
ro: MRC has a similar plan laying around for years already, heck, it was the primary reason why I joint MRC back then..
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manuel
msx guru
Mensajes: 3351 | Publicado: Junio 27 2008, 22:04 |
cesco: the hash codes are mostly in the software database. At least, for ROM games. IIRC, in blueMSX there's also a database with sha1sums for disk games. (Problem is that there can be a lot of variation, e.g. due to savegames.)
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dvik
msx master
Mensajes: 1302 | Publicado: Junio 27 2008, 22:21 |
I think the current rom database covers close to 100% of all games. Its rare that we find old games that aren't already in the database. Of course new games, such as the msxdev or MRC copmo entries needs to be added as they become available.
As manuel said, both openMSX and blueMSX are working (at least in the background) to link emus to generation-msx. So its probably better for you to spend the time to help current efforts if you want.
I agree though that the interface to generation-msx is not the best. Its very 90's I think and not as easy to use as e.g. lemon64.com. So perhaps try to work to get the interface better is something. The database itself is imo great, just needs a face lift.
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dvik
msx master
Mensajes: 1302 | Publicado: Junio 27 2008, 22:44 |
@cesco: I think you can find a description of the database format bluemsx and openmsx is using in the bluemsx manual or online at http://www.msxblue.com/manual/index.htm. See the "Rom databases" link.
If you find any roms that are not present in the database that comes with bluemsx or openmsx, please send us the sha checksum of the rom and information about the rom |
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cesco
msx addict
Mensajes: 257 | Publicado: Junio 30 2008, 15:54 |
Ok, as a test I have collected all the information about the MSX-1-Mania collection of disks; I have organized the information in a valid XML file with the same tags used by OpenMSX and I have added my personal tag, called <description> with a small HTML code that explains what's inside each disk.
For example, these are the first lines:
<softwaredb xml:lang="en" timestamp="1199668497">
<!-- MSX1Mania Disks -->
<software>
<title xml:lang="en">MSX-1-Mania #001</title>
<description>
<html>
On This Disk:<br/> <br/><li/>
Chicago's 30 [Arcade] (1988, Topo Soft)<br/><li/>
Clapton 2 [Shoot'm Up] (1984, T&E Soft)<br/><li/>Hunchback [Arcade] (1984, Ocean)<br/><li/>
Lazer Bykes [Arcade] (1985, PSS)<br/><li/>Manic Miner [Platform] (1984, Software Projects)<br/><li/>
Octagon Squad [Adventure] (1986, Mastertronic)<br/><li/>Operation Wolf [Arcade] (1988, Ocean)<br/><li/>
Rocket Roger [Adventure] (1986, Alligata)
</html>
</description>
<system>MSX</system>
<company></company>
<year></year>
<country></country>
<dump>
<original value="false"/>
<disk>
<hash algo="sha1">f7cf2ee5387f2217b4157fc8c6b0723828a22fe2</hash>
</disk>
</dump>
</software>
...
...
You can download the complete XML file from this site: http://www.cesco.it/test/msx1mania.xml.zip
Is it ok if I do this work? Can it be useful for you?
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FiXato
msx freak
Mensajes: 226 | Publicado: Junio 30 2008, 16:38 |
Quote:
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[..]
<description>
<html>
On This Disk:<br/> <br/><li/>
Chicago's 30 [Arcade] (1988, Topo Soft)<br/><li/>
Clapton 2 [Shoot'm Up] (1984, T&E Soft)<br/><li/>Hunchback [Arcade] (1984, Ocean)<br/><li/>
Lazer Bykes [Arcade] (1985, PSS)<br/><li/>Manic Miner [Platform] (1984, Software Projects)<br/><li/>
Octagon Squad [Adventure] (1986, Mastertronic)<br/><li/>Operation Wolf [Arcade] (1988, Ocean)<br/><li/>
Rocket Roger [Adventure] (1986, Alligata)
</html>
</description>
[..]
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Why do you use self-closing list item tags in it and not something like:
[..]
<description>
<html><body>
On This Disk:
<ul>
<li>Chicago's 30 [Arcade] (1988, Topo Soft)</li>
<li>Clapton 2 [Shoot'm Up] (1984, T&E Soft)</li>
<li>Hunchback [Arcade] (1984, Ocean)</li>
<li>Lazer Bykes [Arcade] (1985, PSS)</li>
<li>Manic Miner [Platform] (1984, Software Projects)</li>
<li>Octagon Squad [Adventure] (1986, Mastertronic)</li>
<li>Operation Wolf [Arcade] (1988, Ocean)</li>
<li>Rocket Roger [Adventure] (1986, Alligata)</li>
</ul>
</body></html>
</description>
[..]
which is, as far as I know, how list item tags are supposed to be used..
And wouldn't it maybe better to just include a genmsx_id in it that points to the entry in the Generation MSX database?
thus:
<softwaredb xml:lang="en" timestamp="1199668497">
<!-- MSX1Mania Disks -->
<software>
<title xml:lang="en">MSX-1-Mania #001</title>
<genmsx_id>2750</genmsx_id>
<system>MSX</system>
<company></company>
<year></year>
<country></country>
<dump>
<original value="false"/>
<disk>
<hash algo="sha1">f7cf2ee5387f2217b4157fc8c6b0723828a22fe2</hash>
</disk>
</dump>
</software>
Although you would always need to do an online lookup for that then.. |
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