DP Guide for Portable Devices

[NayusDante]

From what I understand, a lot of you guys carry around price guides and such. I've also seen that some of you keep lists on PDAs and such. However, these solutions are a lot of work on the part of the individual, so it would be much more convenient to have a portable database ready-to-download. I'm beginning a project to save the DP Online Rarity Guide in HTML format using a nifty Firefox extension called "ScrapBook." The process is simply open the database search page alone, without a frame, search for the system and section you want, right click the page window, and "Capture Page As..." with a link depth of 1. This saves the current page and all pages it links to, including images and styles. repeat "Capture Page As..." with the same parameters for each additional page in your search results. I'm doing one additional step by making a local page one directory back, linking to the index.html of each page's sources, then doing a "Capture Page As..." on that page to put everything into one folder per system, with links processed and redirected.

Goals:

Compile all US Releases for every system in the database
Create an index page for each system
Create an index of systems
Optimize for mobile devices


Non-US releases can be done later, or by somebody else if they're interested.

So far, I have NES and 32X done. If somebody else wants to split the workload with me, I wouldn't object.

I haven't uploaded anything yet, because not enough is done. Be watching this thread for updates.


Pardon my scratched PSP faceplate and all the dust underneath it... >_<

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3018/2865129451_da77e48de5_b.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3290/2865959352_e055ae4859_b.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3260/2865959810_2cf3eccb89_b.jpg

[Oobgarm]

http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2007/01/2000455272489756911_rs.jpg

[fpbrush]

VERY cool NayusDante, I can recall more than a few times having something like this would have been helpful. And, it's surprising how well the DP Guide format translates to portable screens!

Unfortunately I can't help you at the moment, as I'm supposed to be working on some other things :/ But I hope you get more help, and I might be able to help a little down the road, pending my productivity on some other matters...

[Coldguy]

I will approve of this endevor! I be willing to pitch in when I can, however with work schedule might be tough....but if you want I can plug it on retromap.net for ya.

[raptor94k]

I would be glad to try and help as much as possible. I can get the scrapbook plugin for Firefox right now. PM me and let me know what else I need to do to contribute.

Also...are you just going to upload this to another website or what? It would be awesome if I could get it working on my iPhone.

[MrSparkle]

*taps head* got it all up here ;)

[Coldguy]

*taps head* got it all up here ;)

Does it automatically update?

[SpasticFuctard]

Just so it's said, I had made some modifications to the searchable guide to support WEP some while back, Zero and I were banging on it.

/said.

[NayusDante]

I would be glad to try and help as much as possible. I can get the scrapbook plugin for Firefox right now. PM me and let me know what else I need to do to contribute.

Also...are you just going to upload this to another website or what? It would be awesome if I could get it working on my iPhone.

The basic idea is to have the database saved locally, so a device with an internet browser can view it on the go without actually having to connect to an access point. It's also faster. Besides, not everyone has a smartphone or internet on their cellular plan. The PSP is an ideal device for this sort of thing, since it has lots of potential storage and a nice screen.

If you're interested in doing some page downloads, PM me to let me know which systems you want to do, or if you want to manage non-US releases.

[NayusDante]

Alright, I think I have everything downloaded that I'm going to include in the initial release.... The problem is, this is a LOT! I also fear that I may be missing something critical, so everyone tell me if there's something I should add.

(LINKED) means that the system either fits on one page, or I have created an index with links to the individual pages, complete with indications of the first and last games on each page.

Current size: 286MB, 22,667 Files

CURRENTLY CONTAINED SYSTEMS:


Atari 5200 (LINKED)
Atari 7800 (LINKED)
Atari Jaguar (LINKED)
Atari Lynx (LINKED)
Atari 2600 (LINKED)
ColecoVision
Commodore 64
Commodore Vic-20
Intellivision
Magnavox Odyssey (LINKED)
Magnavox Odyssey2 (LINKED)
NEC Turbografx-16 (LINKED)
NEC Turbografx-16 CD (LINKED)
Neo-Geo (LINKED)
Neo-Geo Pocket (LINKED)
Nintendo 64
Nintendo Game Boy
Nintendo Game Boy Color
Nintendo NES (LINKED)
Nintendo SNES
Nintendo Virtual Boy (LINKED)
Nokia N-Gage (LINKED)
Panasonic 3DO (LINKED)
Philips CD-i
Sega 32X (LINKED)
Sega CD
Sega Dreamcast
Sega Game Gear
Sega Master System (LINKED)
Sega Saturn (LINKED)
Vectrix (LINKED)



If anyone knows of a way to remove duplicate images in a website and correct links and references en mass, it would really help.

Again, I need to know what to keep, what to add. How should I group systems on the root index?

[c0ldb33r]

I don't think 286 MB is too big. If you stick it on your PSP does it browse at a reasonable speed? I'm very interested in this. You should rar it up and stick it on a rapidshare :)

Could I use this on other devices such as a DS or pocket pc?

[GrandAmChandler]

http://www.digitpress.com/lists/

-GAC-

[NayusDante]

http://www.digitpress.com/lists/

-GAC-

Those are lists, not a guide. If you just need rarity, that works, but this project has screenshots and such.

Any device that can read HTML from its storage medium should be suitable for this. If there's a web browser for DS that supports loading data locally, then I'm sure it would work.

I'm still working on everything. I'll release it complete sometime soon...

[NayusDante]

First release... (http://www.megaupload.com/?d=U5DQJ34Z)


I haven't put this on my PSP to try yet, but it should all look the same. Let me know if there's anything that should be changed or could be improved, and I'll release patches with the files to replace.

[Blanka789]

Sweet, I'll test it on my iphone and let you know if anything doesn't work.

Great job, you should be really proud. You've done a great service to the retrogaming community.

Thanks!!

[Matt-El]

Could such lists be converted into other formats? Such as a lite list, with name/rarity/price in that order?

[NayusDante]

Not that I know of. The only checklist format that the site provides doesn't have prices.

[NayusDante]

So if this is working for any of you guys, I'd like to see a picture of it on your particular device.

[c0ldb33r]

I've downloaded it onto my PSP's memory stick. How do I open it in the PSP's web browser? I think I can only open web URLs.

[NayusDante]

In the PSP address entry:

file:/(wherever it is on the memstick)

I put a folder called html in the base directory of the memstick, so my address is:

file:/html/dp_guide_us/index.html

[Blanka789]

So if this is working for any of you guys, I'd like to see a picture of it on your particular device.

I did a quick test and it seems to be working on my iphone, although I haven't been able to put the whole thing on there yet (putting it on using Airsharing, which is a slow transfer for something this big).

When I get a chance I'll take some pics and post them for you.

[c0ldb33r]

It works great on my PSP, once I manually typed in the address (uggh).

Now that I've bookmarked it, it's great! good job :)