Package: mamescraper
mamescraperScrap mame games information and images from:Bigode: ‘http://mame.bigode.net/’ (maintained by me) orArcade Database: ‘http://adb.arcadeitalia.net/’ (maintained by motoschifo)And generate a XML file for use with EmulationStation, the default frontend for RetroPie and Recalbox.Simple example of the scraper in action:$ mamescraper

Initializing the scraper...

Scraping from: bigode - http://mame.bigode.net/

Mame database xml not found
 Downloading: 100%
Done!

Generating list of images to download...
Done!

Downloading 10 images:
 aliensyn.png downloaded
 guwange.png downloaded
 bjourney.png downloaded
 ecofghtr.png downloaded
 captcomm.png downloaded
 spf2t.png downloaded
 nbahangt.png downloaded
 ldrun.png downloaded
 raiden2.png downloaded
 tmnt2.png downloaded
Done!

Generating new gamelist xml...
 New gamelist.xml file created!

Total time spent: 0m 1s

All set! Happy gaming :)AboutThe purpose of this scraper is to be simple and fast. Currently it supports
two sources with drastically different scraping methodologies.The default source (bigode) is a lot faster because the scraper will download
an entire mame database (1.1MB compressed) and scrap all the games information
in one go. Besides that, this source uses a CDN and a very fast webserver to
serve the images, resulting in faster responses and downloading speed overall.The adb source is a more traditional approach, for each game found, the scraper
will do a http request to get the information needed and then will download the
appropriate image.It is important to note that the images flyers on ‘bigode’ source are smaller
in size, because they have a fixed 400 width.To illustrate the difference in scraping speed, the following shows the time
spent scraping an entire mame 037b5 set (2241 roms) on both sources:‘bigode’ source:Command: mamescraper -w 10 -i title
Time spent: 1m 10s‘adb’ source:Command: mamescraper -w 10 -i title -s adb
Time spent: 8m 29sNote that mamescraper was run with 10 workers and scraping titles only. If ran
in ‘mixed’ image mode (default) the difference is even higher, since images
flyers are bigger on adb:‘bigode’ source:Command: mamescraper -w 10
Time spent: 2m 2s‘adb’ source:Command: mamescraper -w 10 -s adb
Time spent: 26m 47sBased on that, the recommended way is to run using the default ‘bigode’ source
and if a game is not found, just run the scraper again in ‘append’ mode
(to scan only the missing games) using ‘adb’ as source.A huge thanks for AntoPISA creator ofProgetto Snapsfor the images and tons of mame resources.Also, a huge thanks to Motoschifo creator ofArcade Databasefor the awesome arcade database website.NotesWorks on Python 2.7 and Python 3.3+Uses only Python standard library for maximum compatibilityInstallInstall using pip:pip install mamescraperorDownload and set executable permission on the script file:chmod +x mamescraper.pyorDownload and run using the python interpreter:python mamescraper.pyorDownload the Windows executable file from thereleasespage.UsageUsage: mamescraper [options]

scrap mame games information and images from 'mame.bigode.net' or
'adb.arcadeitalia.net'

Options:
--version           show program's version number and exit
-h, --help          show this help message and exit
-a, --append        scrap only missing roms from output file and append it
                    to the file (default: disabled)
-d ROMS_DIR         directory containing the games (default: current
                    directory)
-e IMAGES_DIR_NAME  directory name to download the images (default: images)
-f FORMAT           file format of the games: 'zip' or '7z' (default: zip)
-i IMAGES           images type: 'mixed', 'title' or 'flyer' - mixed will
                    download a flyer and fallback to title if a flyer is not
                    found (default: mixed)
-o OUTPUT_FILE      the xml file that will be created (default:
                    gamelist.xml)
-s SOURCE           information and images source: 'bigode' or 'adb'
                    (default: bigode)
-w WORKERS          number of workers threads to use (default: 5)ExamplesSimplest use case is to run on the mame games directory itself:$ cd my_games_dir
$ mamescraperAlternatively, you can pass the directory to the scraper:$ mamescraper -d path_to_games_dirScrap only missing games in the existing ‘gamelist.xml’ file:$ mamescraper -aIt is useful for scrap on both sources if a game is not found. Just run the
scraper a second time with append enable and a different source:$ mamescraper
$ mamescraper -a -s adbIf you have games in mixed formats, the following will run the first time
scraping games in ‘zip’ format (default) and the second time appending the
missing games in ‘7z’ format:$ mamescraper
$ mamescraper -a -f 7zRun with 10 workers downloading only titles images:$ mamescraper -i title -w 10