Table des matières
Scrape your Roms with ARRM
Before embarking on your first scrape with ARRM, I invite you to read the previous paragraphs (Application Setup, and Interface Overview) to fully understand the ARRM mechanism.
The different ARRM options must be set before proceeding.
Video Tutorial
BatoceraNation made an english tutorial on how to use ARRM Scraper : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzMPB--STsw&ab_channel=BatoceraNation
View BatoceraNation video tutorial
In the scrape engines, only these missing media (artworks) will be presented and selectable. See : Only scrape missing Artworks
Before going any further, remember to read these two important pieces of information:
Scrape Multi-Sytems
To activate this mode, simply select more than 1 system from the list of systems on your Recalbox / Batocera
When multiple systems are selected, the 'Show' button changes to a 'Multi Systems' button. Since version 1.9.1.3 Beta 9, this mode works with all scrape engines available in ARRM.
Automatic assignment of a template
If you want ARRM to apply a different template depending on the systems, do not forget to tick the box 'Template auto association'. ARRM relies on the file %appdata%\Nexouille Soft\arrm\database\template_association.txt (which you can modify via the template selection interface) to determine which template to apply to which system.
To choose your template, see this section : Choose template
Start the scrape
When you press the Multi Systems button, a pop-up will appear, asking you to choose the scrape engine you want:
ARRM will treat each of the selected systems and will:
- Load the existing gamelist.xml, or create a new one with the found roms
- Will search the selected database for game information
- Apply the different options chosen in the settings
- Will save the gamelist.xml once the searches are done for a system
- Will switch to the next system
At any time you can stop the scrape by pressing the ' Stop ' button.
When all systems have been processed, a summary appears showing the number of games found per system and the time spent.
Apply a global filter to treat only certain Roms
You can only process certain Roms, for example those for which you do not have a description or no boxart. To apply this global filter, before clicking on the “ Screenscraper ” button, you must enter the filter / query in the “Global Filter” textbox.
Examples:
description_rom is null or boxart_rom is null favoris_rom = true and (image_rom is null and manual_rom <> '')
The fields available for the conditions are:
adult_rom annee_rom arcadesystemname_rom boxart_rom boxback_rom cache_rom cartridge_rom core_rom description_rom developer_rom emulator_rom fanart_rom favoris_rom fichier_rom gameid_rom gametime_rom genre_rom genreid_rom hash_rom image_rom kid_rom lang_rom lastplayed_rom manual_rom map_rom marquee_rom md5_rom mix_rom nomjeu_rom numauto_rom playcount_rom players_rom publisher_rom rating_rom region_rom screenshot_rom temporary_rom thumbnail_rom titleshot_rom video_rom wheel_rom
Scrape Mono-Sytem and scrape of games
If you want ARRM to apply a different template depending on the systems, do not forget to tick the box 'Template auto association'. ARRM relies on the file %appdata%\Nexouille Soft\arrm\database\template_association.txt (which you can modify via the template selection interface) to determine which template to apply to which system.
To choose your template, see this section : Choose template
ARRM allows you to scrape an entire system, or only certain games of a system.
For this you need to select only 1 system in the system screen:
Click on the Display button to display the found Roms. ARRM loads the existing gamelist.xml and verifies the existence of the Roms files. If the file does not exist, the ROM will not appear in the database. And conversely if a game is present on the disc but not present in the existing gamelist.xml, it will be added to the Database.
Once the Database is filled with the Roms found, you can
- Apply filters on the Database to process only certain roms
If you only want to scrape the Roms that do not have an image or description, you just have to check, in the Filters tab: Image , Description , without , or then click on the Filter button.
Roms without image or description will be displayed in the database.
You will be able to select them and start a scrape on these Roms.
At the end of the scrape, click on No Filter to remove the filter and find all your roms, then save your gamelist via the button Create gamelist.xml
- Select all or part of the elements of the Database
- Execute actions on selected items
- Start a scrape using one of the scrapers proposed. You can stop at any time a scrape by pressing the button 'Stop'
See on the wiki the specifics for
When you are done with the Database manipulations, remember to save your content in the gamelist.xml by clicking on the button 'Create gamelist.xml'
ARRM has a data recovery system when an application crash occurs. When loading a system, if ARRM detects that a crash has occurred, it proposes to restore the recovered information until the moment of the crash.
You can do a recovery with the cache system : How to use ARRM cache
You can also consult after each operation a log by clicking on the 'View Log' button
_missing_arrm_%SYSTEM%_%SCRAPE_DATABASE%.txt
example: _missing_arrm_ZXSPECTRUM_screenscraper.txt
Recover data following a crash during scraping
ARRM has a data recovery system when an application crash occurs. When loading a system, if ARRM detects that a crash has occurred, it offers to restore the information recovered up to the moment of the crash.
See wiki: Recover gamelist.xml after ARRM crash
You can also retrieve data by using the cache: How to use the ARRM cache
Remove image file suffixes
Multi-threaded scraper with ARRM on Screenscraper
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 Screenscraper Threads Limit parameter 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: Log in to Screenscraper, ARRM will recover the maximum value that Screenscraper authorizes you. However, you can decrease it by changing the value.
The choice of images follows the usual scraping process on Screenscraper.
You can follow the progress of the scrapes (number of media recovered) by doing an “undock” of the database before launching the scrape. A text zone above the log window indicates the different elements retrieved.
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 the ARRM cache
_missing_arrm_%SYSTEM%_screenscraper.txt
example: _missing_arrm_ZXSPECTRUM_screenscraper.txt