Since version 1.9.0.0 beta 5, it is now possible to scrape on the site LaunchBox.

It is advisable to use the scrape Screenscraper as a priority because their database is very rich (I invite you to contribute)

Before we begin, here are the settings specific to Screenscraper .

In the General Options tab

Click on the button Media allocation 'Screenscraper'

This form presents the different graphic elements recoverable via Screenscraper. You can choose which graphic element will feed this or that TAG of the gamelist.

For more details, see: Screenscraper media assignment in ARRM

In the Scrape Options tab

Here are the settings specific to Screenscraper

• Ignore the existing MD5 (checkbox): When scraping on Screenscraper, ignores the MD5 that already exists in the gamelist / game file.

• Force MD5 before scraping (checkbox): Allows to calculate the MD5 (if not present), before scraping. The search for information will be done primarily via the MD5 of the Rom.

• MD5 (checkbox): Attempts a search on Screenscraper with the MD5 of the Rom when the search by filename does not give anything. Be careful, the MD5 calculation can be a bit long with large files. To save time, you can prevent MD5 calculation on certain extensions by editing the list of extensions to avoid with the 'Edit No MD5' button in the 'General options' configuration tab.

• In .ZIP/.7z (checkbox): Sometimes the search with the MD5 on the zip does not give anything. By activating this option, ARRM will decompress the .ZIP/.7z and calculate the MD5 of the file contained in the .ZIP/.7z

• Strict search (checkbox): Allows you to retrieve only games whose PlatformId corresponds to the platform you are looking for.

• Use GameID (checkbox): Uses in priority the GameID (if present in the database) to find the games in Screenscraper.

• Topstaff → Favorites (checkbox): Bookmark the games selected by the Screenscraper team

In the Images Options tab

Choose the desired media options.

In the scrapers module

By clicking on the icon to the right of the or , you can modify the association between your system names (directory names of your systems) and the system IDs of the Screenscraper site, which is done via the file:

%appdata%\Nexouille Soft\arrm\database\systemes_screenscraper.txt

Sample content:

...
arcade|75
arcadia_2001|94
archadia|94
Archimedes|84
astrocade|44
astrocde|44
atari2600|26
atari5200|40
atari7800|41
atari800|43
...

You can adapt it. Remember to restart ARRM after change.

Since version 2.0.0.2 beta 2, when scraping on Screenscraper, it is now possible to scrape a game by searching for it on several different platforms.
To be used for systems that belong to similar categories such as Arcade, Pinballs etc…

To do this, you must add the various platforms to the desired system via the file systemes_screenscraper.txt

Let's take the example of Pinballs:

Currently, in this file there are several systems related to Pinballs.

pinball_fx2|143
pinball_fx3|201
pinballfx2|143
pinballfx3|201
the_pinball_arcade|200
vpinball|198
pinball|199

If you want to put in your Pinball folder, various pinball games from these different platforms, you must indicate these different platforms for the Pinball system. :

pinball|199,143,201,197,198

Principle: If scraping does nothing on the 199 platform, ARRM will try to scrape on the 2nd platform and so on.

You must also indicate the extensions authorized by these other platforms via the systemes_extensions.txt file:

pinball|.iso;.chd;.nds;.gba;.smc;.nes;.fig;.fpt;.vpx;.pxp;.zip

Since version 1920 Beta 11, it is possible to use multi-threading when scraping on Screenscraper.

The number of usable threads depends on your status on Screenscraper.

To have additional threads on Screenscraper, you must participate in the database, or make a donation on Screenscraper. For more information, see the FAQ Screenscraper

Memory/cpu usage increases with the number of threads.

In order to be able to use the ARRM Multi-Thread on Screenscraper, you must first fill in the parameter Screenscraper Threads Limit available in the Scrape Option tab.

It indicates the maximum threads you want to use.
This number must be less than or equal to the maximum number of threads you have on Screenscraper.
You can check this information via the Check Screenscraper button at the top right of the ARRM page.

If your Screenscraper account is filled in (see: Identify on Screenscraper, ARRM will recover the maximum value that Screenscraper allows you. However, you can decrease it by changing the value.

The choice of images follows the usual scraping process on Screenscraper.

LIMITATIONS:

Some ARRM features are not available in multi-threaded mode to optimize speed:

• No local image search.
• No creation of temporary gamelist (in case of crash). But you can enable caching. See:How to use ARRM cache

If you only want to retrieve certain textual information, remember, before starting the scrape, to uncheck the textual information that you do not want to update.

This is done in the Rom Information section

When you use the MIX image mode, some media are automatically recovered:

• Screenshot
• Box art
• Wheel
• Cartridge

If you want to retrieve other media, you must specify it in the Images Options tab by checking the desired media under the heading Force Media Download
In MIX mode you will not be able to check the Screenshot, Boxart, Wheel and Cartridge media because they are recovered automatically.

You only want to recover certain categories of media (boxart, fanart, screenshot, cartridge, logo, boxback, titleshot, manual, video), you just have to check No image, only texts in the tab Image Options

Then select the desired media by checking them under the heading Force Media Download

In MIX mode you will not be able to check the Screenshot, Boxart, Wheel and Cartridge media because they are recovered automatically.

Sometimes you will see error messages returned by Screenscraper appear on the ARRM interface. Here is their meaning