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Changelog

Changes

This page summarizes the changes of each Skyscraper release, a changlog for humans.

Version 3.14.0 (TBA)

Version 3.13.0 (2024-11-06)

  • Added: Option to provide user file peas_local.json (same format as peas.json), to extend platform information or overwrite existing platform information
  • Updated: *_platform.json files as reference for supported platforms of various scrapers
  • Added: Support for Vircon32 platform in peas.json. Thanks for hinting, @vircon32
  • Removed: scrapers entries in peas.json, as it did not provide any use.
  • Removed: Deprecated flags and options: includeFiles superseded by includePattern; excludeFiles superseded by excludePattern; gamelistFolder superseded by gameListFolder; fromfile superseded by includefrom. These were deprecated since v3.7.0.

Version 3.12.0 (2024-07-01)

  • Added: Support for scraping of PDF manuals (for scrape modules screenscraper, import and esgamelist) and gamelist output with these manuals for frontends (ES-DE Frontend and some EmulationStation variants). See configurations options manuals=true and gameListVariants=enable-manuals. Thanks for the initial PR, @pandino
  • Added: For frontend ES-DE, evaluate environment variable ESDE_APPDATA_DIR if present. Thanks for the hint, @ASHGOLDOFFICIAL
  • Added: Use also release year as hint on user interaction. This is useful when in interactive mode and more than one game with the same name is found. Skyscraper can be guided to prefer a specific game when the release year is added in parenthesis as part of the ROM name (or alias in aliasMap.csv). Verbose info in #59. Thanks, @mjkaye
  • Changed: Persistent config option onlymissing for counting and scraping only games which do not have any game data in the cache. This is a commodity config option to the already existing flag with the same name. Plus: If you use a scraper with a scraping limit for games to be scraped at once (e.g. MobyGames) you may stay below that limit. Documentation here. Thanks for the suggestion, @sleve_mcdichael
  • Update: Valid extensions (= formats in Skyscraper's peas.json file) with info from RetroPie's platform.cfg (commit 5e0ab1f)
  • Fixed: The update script for recent MacOS versions. Thanks, @calumbrodie

Version 3.11.0 (2024-04-15)

  • Added: Support for EmulationStation Desktop Edition (ES-DE Frontend). Use frontend=esde in config.ini and see documentation on the default settings. Thanks for the hints and for testing, @maxexcloo, @Nargash
  • Added: Entries in aliasMap.csv are now also applicable for Screenscraper. Thanks, @retrobit.
  • Added: Enhanced game name detection for ScummVM platform.
  • Changed: In module Screenscraper, in some cases if multiple media types are queried (NB: most queries are single-typed), now the first type is selected with the first matching region. Only if this does exists in any provided region, try the next type with all provided regions (in short: type has precedence over region). Previously the regions have been tried to match on any media type (=region had precedence over type), which resulted in picking the alternative type. This approach gave less suitable media files, especially for screenshots (type:ss) and screenshot from title screen (type: sstitle).
  • Fixed: Some corner-case bugs fixed, thanks to all reporters!

Version 3.10.0 (2024-02-10)

  • Feature: Preserve existing <folder/> nodes in gamelist or create skeleton <folder/> nodes when ROMs are stored in subfolders within a system folder, see frontend documentation and the gamelist specification.
  • Feature: Bash Completion on Linux installations. Use Tab twice for completion of Skyscraper options. On RetroPie the scriptmodule will handle the installation. On non-RetroPie-Linux put the file supplementary/bash-completion/Skyscraper.bash into $XDG_DATA_HOME/bash-completion/completions/ ($XDG_DATA_HOME is equivalent to $HOME/.local/share). Open a new bash -- et voila!
  • Feature: Customizable installation folder when running make install. See PREFIX in skyscraper.pro.
  • Feature: Improved MacOS support. Unified update script update_skyscraper.sh (thanks, @jeantichoc) and Docker support via Dev Container (kudos, @retrobit).
  • Fix: Various minor fixes reported from the community on different setups, thanks!

2023-12-01 (Version 3.9.2)

  • Feature: Import of data in XML format is now more lax (does not rely on strict identical indention). Read also the hint here
  • Feature: Configuration option tidyDesc added. See documentation here
  • Feature: Documentation reviewed and hosted with mkdocs for ease of access. See here
  • Update: Added index of configuration parameters to CONFIGINI.md. Details see here
  • Update: Refactored skyscraper.cpp class. Factorised configuration settings into settings.cpp
  • Update: Various other refactorings to remove duplicated code
  • Fix: Quit Skyscraper when neither -p <PLATFORM> nor --cache help nor --flags help is provided
  • Fix: Warning remediated when NULL image was applied in composer/gamebox rendering

2023-10-22 (Version 3.9.1)

  • Feature: Mobygames scraper genres limited to two most relevant genre categories ('Basic Genre' and 'Gameplay')
  • Update: Removed legacy and unused code
  • Update: Code formatting (LLVM)
  • Fix: TGDB scraper retrieves screens from screenshot/ and as well screenshots/ URL path as some platforms (supported since configurable platforms) have their screenshots served from screenshots/.

2023-10-20 (Version 3.9.0)

  • Feature: Mobygames scraper respects game id from mobygames.com website via --query=<gameid>. Handy to hint to the right game information when usual search returns false positives.
  • Feature: Scrapers which provide an web API (Screenscraper, Mobygames, The Games DB (tgdb)) have the full platform information shipped with this release (see <scraper>_platforms.json files). These files are used as reference.
  • Feature: Less 'aliases' maintenance needed in former platforms.json.
  • Update: Streamlined external platform configuration. File platforms.json is replaced by peas.json (platforms, extensions/formats, aliases and scrapers). Precise platform determination for Screenscraper, Mobygames and TGDB via platform_idmap.csv See platforms documentation for details.
  • Fix: Failed media download when TGDB provides PNG files instead of JPG files and vice versa.
  • Update: Scriptmodule for this Skyscraper now official part of RetroPie.

2023-09-23 (Version 3.8.1.2309)

  • Feature: OpenRetro scraper retrieves now also score/rating, if available for a game. Precedence is to use reviews from external websites first (right header), then the Score label (above the game details). See this example
  • Feature: Additionally to the existing import with rating values of 0, 0.5, 1, 1.5 ... 5 ("Star rating") it is possible to use 0.1 ... 1.0 scale for rating in import files (EmulationStation gamelist.xml internal rating range). See also import formats
  • Fix: Wrong score/rating calculation from Mobygames scraper / Mobygames API. See also this gist on how to update your existing Skyscraper db.xml files.
  • Fix: Use of --query free-text search in OpenRetro scraper fixed. This bug did not occur when the switch is ommitted and an Amiga WHDLoad file is provided to Skyscraper.
  • Fix: RetroPie Scriptmodule, removed surplus boolean negation (Thanks @s1eve-mcdichae1)
  • Fix: RetroPie Scriptmodule, fixed use of legacy option --unattend (Thanks @windg)
  • Update: RetroPie Scriptmodule, relaxed the remove function of the scriptmodule to not zap the Skyscraper cache. Plus various cleanups.

2023-09-15 (Version 3.8.0.2309)

  • updated mamemap.csv from MAME 0.240 (Arcade).dat, fbneo.dat, mame2003-plus.xml and cleanup of surplus device information
  • update script for make mamemap.csv does no longer rely on mame binary
  • removed discontinued *.php scripts
  • platforms.json sorted and formatted
  • updated documentation especially to reflect the supported platforms
  • scriptmodule file for RetroPie aligned to their naming convention
  • Mobygames platform information refactored from hardwired mobygames.cpp.to mobygames.json

Included Pull Requests from Parent Skyscraper Repos

These pull requests from other repos have been merged into this fork.