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Super Mario RPG CD single
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merp
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Joined: 15 Sep 2005
Posts: 95
Location: Fargo, ND

PostPosted: Mon Jan 16, 2006 3:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mike, thanks for your suggestions.

The strange thing is that some files are "hidden" by using non-standard naming methods like: (健健健健健.健健健)

As for emulators writing to disk images, I don't think any popular ones currently do. It would be a bad idea if they did. The best way to record save data is to just have an external SaveData file. We don't want to give emulators the right to write to "ROMs".

I think the best solution would be to manually clean FDS images ourselves, and re-database them.
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ClamIAm



Joined: 07 Sep 2003
Posts: 139
Location: the frozen northland

PostPosted: Wed Feb 01, 2006 4:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I was actually thinking about attempting a database project, but I never actually sat down and started studying things. The biggest obstacles laziness and the fact that I'm a really a newbie (read: shitty) programmer. Guess it's off to read some spec documentation, eh?
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merp
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Location: Fargo, ND

PostPosted: Thu Feb 02, 2006 7:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Better to be a programmer newb than to be a shit-scared, intimidated, pillow-biter when it comes to programming. I just made my first "Hello World" out of C++ two weeks ago.

Documentation is no biggie for me. I soak it up really quick. But for some reason, I seem to freeze up when it comes to actually starting to program something complex. I need to get over it somehow.

If you're wondering how the actual databaser was programmed, I gave my friend a strict format to follow and he magically brought it to life--plus a few good things he wanted to add.

Good luck with all your programming whatnot.

Edit: y0, Clam. I'm in Minnesota State University Moorhead right now. What part of MN are you at? I'm not very familiar with the area, so there's a good chance that I have no fucking idea where you are at.
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kap
Minister of Paranoia
Minister of Paranoia


Joined: 28 Aug 2003
Posts: 2103
Location: I hate you.

PostPosted: Thu Feb 02, 2006 8:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

ClamIAm wrote:
I was actually thinking about attempting a database project, but I never actually sat down and started studying things. The biggest obstacles laziness and the fact that I'm a really a newbie (read: shitty) programmer. Guess it's off to read some spec documentation, eh?


I've personally found it more difficult to get the structure that I want down, like, what info and where to put it, and then how to sort it, and then how to seperate things that are alike, and etc. I've started and stopped a few times, sort of getting as far as setting up a db and practicing populating it once.. but I wasn't happy with it.

The technical end of it is obviously a challenge too once you think you know what you want, and then the enormity of it all makes me wonder if I'll ever bother with it. I always get the idea that, once I've made some headway into a project like this someone will come along and spit something out in a fraction of the time that'll make my work look like ass.

LostLevels as a whole has some ideas on yet another database project too, but that's down the line. It's a twinkle in our eye and won't really get that second or third thought until we get some other shit finished.

In conclusion, databases!
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merp
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 02, 2006 8:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

That's why--even though they are not entirely accurate--I respect howdy doody's undertakings in trying to database every goddamn system he can lay his hands on. He actually has demonstrated the concrete proofs that one person can make a databasing program and the databases to go along with it. However, what is not stated readily is that Good(BlibbityBoo) are community projects. As you (kap) said before, it's a trying, frustrating, and humbling procedure to commit to. That why they just go ahead and get a preliminary product out, and find community support by those who would like to improve it. Neither you or I and my friend are going to be able to make these database[s/ers] exactly to our liking in the amount of time that we allot ourselves for bullshit that doesn't pertain to IRL responsibilities.

I suggest that if you want a database worked on, and I want a database worked on, that we should collaborate when the interest strikes ourselves to work on it. Otherwise, we'll just have to settle for Good(Shpa-doinkle).
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kap
Minister of Paranoia
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Joined: 28 Aug 2003
Posts: 2103
Location: I hate you.

PostPosted: Thu Feb 02, 2006 9:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Honestly, that's why, given the information available and the actual produced work, I don't respect howdy doody one fucking bit.

Given when he's shown us he is capable of producing, inaccuracies should be easily fixed. It'd be as easy as having a supremely simple bug reporting tool to receive reports and then it should be a simple matter of actually fixing the errors. Verification would be as simple as making the reports public and having people comment. Etc etc etc.

What he's actually produced is a game title, chr and prg checksums, and a few other minor things. I can produce the same goddamn database using ucon64 and some other command line shenannigans. In fact, I pretty much have. The hard part is creating something actually useful to the masses with it, and that's what he has no interest in doing, which is sad considering it would take someone with the slightest bit of interest and the technical knowhow a few days tops.

But anyway.

At one point Darkstalker and I were working on a file utility, but there were too many little problems and we all (or at least I) got fed up and said fuckit. I think the only way something like this could work as a partnership deal is if I got whatever I wanted implemented, and that obviously isn't teamwork. Heh.

What I want to do is an actual database with actual information, not just rom information. I want to drown you in information. If someone can then export a utility database to use with some bash script or file utility or whatever, great, but that's probably further away than secondary interest.
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merp
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 02, 2006 10:02 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Dude, I don't want to seem like I'm coming onto you or anything, but I think what you want is pretty much exactly the same as what I want.

I don't just want to drown somebody in information... I want people to know the programmers involved in the games, the easter eggs, cheat codes, exact differences between PRG revisions... (Maybe even ROM scene drama where necessary... Like the butchered stories how once upon a time California Raisins was discovered by the mystical man only known as "The Thumb.") I want cart, manual scans, and box pictures (if available)... All of these would be optional supplements to the database itself. You could have the utility as fat or as lean as you choose. Since there would be... game databases, clean header databases, FDS savefile location databases, box/manual/cart scan databases, history databases, production databases, easter egg/code/walkthrough databases, game review databases (games could be also rated by public opinion by a server collecting the recently played ROMs information and have stars next to them as ratings [this could be really complicated]--as long as they have the option checked from the preferences), program updates database, and yo mama databases.

There would be as simple command-line utility that has an official front-end utility, which includes information about the games and also acts as an emulator front-end as well. Sort of like MAME32.

And you know what? We can't do this. It's too damn hard. So, let's campaign for it and get people who are interested. There are more people who are anal about videogames like us who have at least one fully-functional side of their brain. (Left preferably in this case.)

It's gotta be grass-roots.
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