Home » News » Software » MSX ROM Librarian released

MSX ROM Librarian released

by Pencioner on 14-03-2020, 22:37
Topic: Software
Tags: collection, organize, pc, pencioner, tool, GDX, Windows
Languages:

MRC user Gdx in collaboration with Pencioner created a tool for organizing collection of your ROM images for Windows. It comes as two executables - for use in command line environment and with GUI. It allows you to rename ROMs and have a handsome of options - included README file contains a description of usage. As a precaution - please make backups before use, just in case - there are no guarantees that it has no bugs (it was tested but making backups is always a good idea).

Download here: MSX ROM Librarian

Many thanks to Gdx for great effort on making a database used in MSX ROM Librarian. The database was not taken from openMSX project and was crafted with love by Gdx himself.

For Linux and MacOS users - the sources will be prepared and released on BitBucket soon.

Developers are very open for suggestions on improvements and bug reports.

Have fun with MSX-ing :)

Comments (26)

By gdx

Enlighted (5585)

gdx's picture

17-03-2020, 01:27

Thanks for this utiliy. You did a job beyond my expectations. Smile

MSX ROM Librarian allows us to rename the Rom files with short name to use on MSX or long name to classify them. It can rename all your files at one time. Long names also indicate whether the dump was performed incorrectly and the version number as possible. Please send your comments if any information is missing in database.

Note: Be careful because bad dumps and overdumped Roms will not have a short name.

By АIеks

Paladin (949)

АIеks's picture

17-03-2020, 15:43

SHA victory on the mind. All ROMs have long been classic in emulators. There is very little left Smile

By OeiOeiVogeltje

Paragon (1407)

OeiOeiVogeltje's picture

19-03-2020, 02:56

isnt this similar to this?

By Pencioner

Scribe (1502)

Pencioner's picture

19-03-2020, 09:34

@OeiOeiVogeltje Yes, though i think it is more easy to use and have more featuresand a GUI. At the time Vampier posted the script ROM librarian was already in mature stage of development but release was delayed because of personal (family) things and lack of time. Actually, the option of "copying files to folder instead of renaming" makes it work exactly like Vampier's script

BTW, it is also written in Python and uses the YAML database (thanks @gdx!). Executables were created with pyinstaller. I will publish sources when i have time to split common logic of GUI and console version into module (now it a copy-paste from one file to another with some changes, which is not good, i would feel shame if i post this code). If anybody wants to have a look at source before that happens just drop me a message and i will send it by email :)

By tfh

Prophet (3203)

tfh's picture

19-03-2020, 10:30

Maybe it's an idea to have a look to combine these efforts and especially the databases? The GUI is probably easier to use for a lot of people compared to the scripts Vampier made, but his database seems to be way more complete. It would be nice to have the best of both worlds Smile

Vampier's Database has also been used for the BetterMSX collection, which is a big improvement over the old GoodMSX collection.

By gdx

Enlighted (5585)

gdx's picture

19-03-2020, 11:31

Vampier's list is oriented to MSX emulators (especially OpenMSX). Mine is more adapted for real MSX users. It can rename files with short names.

I recently work a little with Vampier to improve the number of listed Roms and indicate the bad dumps and better differentiate Roms versions. Actually Rom Librarian does it better.

The two lists have greatly benefited from this collaboration.

About long name, they are named differenly with Rom Librarian because I prefere put original full title (with alphabetic characters) following by English title or translation if known. Vampier started his list long before me and at that time, a lot of Korean and Japanese titles were not yet known well. He corrects that quickly however.

I do not put the year or the ROM arrival number nor publisher (except to differentiate from another version). I think is not necessary for the usage on MSX. I put these details in a text file in the archive. In addition I only indicate the Rom mapper type when it was modified, and the version and main specifics as much as possible.

Vampier's list indicate the Rom mapper type when it is not auto-detected by OpenMSX.

I indicate the language in game too with (A), (D), (F), (G), (I), (J), (K), (P), (S), ... for Arabic, Duch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, ...

By tfh

Prophet (3203)

tfh's picture

19-03-2020, 11:31

gdx wrote:

Vampier's list is oriented to MSX emulators (especially OpenMSX). Mine is more adapted for real MSX users. It can rename files with short names.

I recently work a little with Vampier to improve the number of listed Roms and indicate the bad dumps and better differentiate Roms versions. Actually Rom Librarian does it better.

The two lists have greatly benefited from this collaboration.

About long name, they are named differenly with Rom Librarian because I prefere put original full title (with alphabetic characters) following by English title or translation if known. Vampier started his list long before me and at that time, a lot of Korean and Japanese titles were not yet known well. He corrects that quickly however.

I do not put the year or the ROM arrival number nor publisher (except to differentiate from another version). I think is not necessary for the usage on MSX. I put these details in a text file in the archive. In addition I only indicate the Rom mapper type when it was modified, and the version and main specifics as much as possible.

Vampier's list indicate the Rom mapper type when it is not auto-detected by OpenMSX.

I indicate the language in game too.

All this information could be in one database and idealy you could configure how the names are outputted. But thats just my 2 cents Smile

By Pencioner

Scribe (1502)

Pencioner's picture

19-03-2020, 12:14

tfh wrote:

All this information could be in one database and idealy you could configure how the names are outputted. But thats just my 2 cents Smile

I actually thought about adding more info to ROM Librarian database later (publisher and year, maybe mapper type as well) and add a db viewer to GUI - i guess that would be nice addition. But not sure when i have time for it. I have started working on new Carnivore 2 manager with better UI (filemanager-like) and it will keep me busy for a while

By tfh

Prophet (3203)

tfh's picture

19-03-2020, 12:29

Pencioner wrote:
tfh wrote:

All this information could be in one database and idealy you could configure how the names are outputted. But thats just my 2 cents Smile

I actually thought about adding more info to ROM Librarian database later (publisher and year, maybe mapper type as well) and add a db viewer to GUI - i guess that would be nice addition. But not sure when i have time for it. I have started working on new Carnivore 2 manager with better UI (filemanager-like) and it will keep me busy for a while

Hmmm, A combination of your programm and the databases of the OpenMSX team, GDX & GenerationMSX. That would be ultimate of course. One can always dream Smile Smile
But... Nice initiative and easy to work with... Well done Smile

By tfh

Prophet (3203)

tfh's picture

20-03-2020, 08:48

@GDX,
Would it be possible for you to send me an e-mail? it's in my profile.

By gdx

Enlighted (5585)

gdx's picture

20-03-2020, 09:21

Sent but:

Quote:

DNS Error: 2828350 DNS type 'mx' lookup of spamfile-hunter.com responded with code NXDOMAIN Domain name not found: spamfile-hunter.com

By tfh

Prophet (3203)

tfh's picture

20-03-2020, 09:44

gdx wrote:

Sent but:

Quote:

DNS Error: 2828350 DNS type 'mx' lookup of spamfile-hunter.com responded with code NXDOMAIN Domain name not found: spamfile-hunter.com

You should remove the NO & SPAM from the e-mail address on my profile ;-)

By Pencioner

Scribe (1502)

Pencioner's picture

23-11-2020, 16:39

Database was updated (thanks @gdx!), download newer version here

By tfh

Prophet (3203)

tfh's picture

09-09-2021, 22:41

Is there a place where we can find a new version with updated database?

By gdx

Enlighted (5585)

gdx's picture

10-09-2021, 02:15

A new version should be released soon.

By tfh

Prophet (3203)

tfh's picture

10-09-2021, 07:48

gdx wrote:

A new version should be released soon.

Nice, thanks!

By Pencioner

Scribe (1502)

Pencioner's picture

10-09-2021, 10:46

i will release new version when i'm back from business trip, please wait for a week (i don't have anything for it on my company laptop, sorry), new DB is ready, thanks to @gdx

By tfh

Prophet (3203)

tfh's picture

10-09-2021, 12:38

Take your time! There is no hurry Hannibal

By Pencioner

Scribe (1502)

Pencioner's picture

19-09-2021, 16:05

New release 1.0.4 - updated with latest database

By tfh

Prophet (3203)

tfh's picture

19-09-2021, 16:32

Pencioner wrote:

New release 1.0.4 - updated with latest database

Thanks :) I've ended up with 3937 files. How many entries are there in the database?

By Pencioner

Scribe (1502)

Pencioner's picture

19-09-2021, 19:58

4681 but there is some sega stuff and some bad dumps in it (not complete sega db of course, my guess is that ones which work with MMM are also included, but you should ask @gdx to clarify, i do not know exactly)

By gdx

Enlighted (5585)

gdx's picture

20-09-2021, 02:28

There are about 219 bad dumps, 16 demo & 207 roms for SG-1000 indexed.

Thanks to Pencioner for this nice tool.

It would be nice if OpenMSX indicated the bad dumps. I can give the list.

By Pencioner

Scribe (1502)

Pencioner's picture

10-01-2022, 12:14

New release 1.0.5 - updated with latest database

By Sylvester

Hero (563)

Sylvester's picture

10-01-2022, 13:46

nice, what about:

Quote:

For Linux and MacOS users - the sources will be prepared and released on BitBucket soon.

??

By Stakker

Expert (65)

Stakker's picture

28-02-2022, 19:37

Would be awesome to have a Mac port :-)

By gdx

Enlighted (5585)

gdx's picture

01-03-2022, 12:35

tfh wrote:

Maybe it's an idea to have a look to combine these efforts and especially the databases

It's already done. We have several time helped each other improve our list but since Vampier's family has hugely suffered because of covid-19, I no longer have contact.