Other printable lite lists! Thanks to Slash!

[Sylentwulf]

I need a jaguar, sega cd, 32x, virtual boy, lynx, game.com, 3d0 games list. Like the lite lists on this site, except they're not up for those systems.

I know they're small lists to begin with, but I don't want 10 pages of sega cd games listed and described when all I want to do is checkmark them off :) Anywhere I can get these listed in one printable page (with or without checkboxes). I tried google, but it's just a mess.

[Six Switch]

this is a dumb question,but where are the lite lists on the site?i'd love a snes one.

[Sylentwulf]

I can never remember, I actually have to google search for the link whenever I go to check lol:
www.digitpress.com/lists/

I know, it's a complex link, and I should be able to remember it :P

[Matt-El]

I must concur. There are good lists, but are limited to a few major consoles. I do think its great that I have a Master System checklist now! :)

[MK_Man]

My cousin Michael has these on his site---> http://www.gooddealgames.com/ReleaseList.html

Is that what you were looking for?

[Sylentwulf]

My cousin Michael has these on his site---> http://www.gooddealgames.com/ReleaseList.html

Is that what you were looking for?

Kind of, but it's not overly printable. It's all good, I'm just being really picky :)
Those lite lists are a PERFECT format.

[DDCecil]

I just found out I saved some lists from awhile back. It still has some info on some of the games, but a whole lot less than they do currently. I have 32X, Jaguar, Sega CD, and a couple of more.

[devilman]

This site (http://my.execpc.com/~krieg/VidGames.htm) any use to you? :)

[swlovinist]

I was the one that started the concept of DP lite awhile back. I wanted a version of complete lists that were printer friendly, and was doing it by hand at home. I emailed Joe an example of what I had done and he was kind enough to construct several lists that you now see on the above link. It must of saved me hours and days of work. If anyone at DP could help flesh out other systems, I think that many collectors on this site could benefit from a DP lite guide for some of the other systems such as Playstation and 3DO. I am currently doing an inventory in my game room and it is a bloody nightmare. These would definately help me out. Again I would like to thank DP for helping out collectors with these lists, which I use in my inventory binder every day.

[swlovinist]

I thought I would bring this post up again. I have talked to alot of local gamers that LOVE the idea of having a printable, paper friendly list for video game systems? I absolutely love the lists provided, is there any way some others can be made? How about one for every US game system? Playstation US? CD-i? 3DO? Neo Geo AES? Any help????

[Slash]

Hey, I am kind of a lurker to both the site and forums. Decided to register for the forums because of this topic. Sorry for bumping it up again.

These lite lists are infinitely useful for cataloging and looking up your collection quickly and is a "have list" and rarity guide all in one, which is huge for yard sales, flea markets, etc.

All the games in question are in the online database, of course. It should be within the realm of possibility to dynamically generate these pdf lists from the database. For example, in PHP there are pdf libraries and functions in which you can generate pdf's such as these lite lists on the fly. If code was made to do this from an arbitrary list of games, it would be trivial to make lite checklists for any and every console.

In fact, it would be possible to have a button or link on the Online Rarity Guide search results page that says "Create Lite Checklist from Results" and have it dynamically create the pdf and send to the client. Then you could make lite checklists of essentially anything you wanted.

Of course the big issue here is how difficult is it going to be to properly implement this so they turn out just as good as the current checklists. I just wanted to throw it out there to see if anyone had any thoughts on this concept.

[Synergy]

Whoa! I never knew about these lite lists. Checkboxes and rarity ratings = genius. I'll be using these as I begin buying games! 8-)

[Slash]

I figured I would give the dynamic PDF's a go.

For a data source, I took the Atari 2600 game list and tried to use some regex to clean it up into a standard format in a plain text file. Of course for a "real" version of this, it would need access to a database or some curl-based hackjob. Here is the list of games:

http://digitpress.slashbunny.com/game-list.txt

I used the FPDF libraries for PHP to take this list and generate a PDF file that looks as close to the DP Lite lists as possible. The fonts don't look exact... I must have a different version of Tahoma or something. I also need to align the columns slightly closer to the original lists, but I will do that tomorrow. But unless you are looking for the differences, it's pretty close.

Anyways, have a look (if game names and stuff are messed up, it's probably because of the text file I couldn't be bothered to make perfect):

http://digitpress.slashbunny.com/test.php

Here is the original list for aesthetic comparison:

http://www.digitpress.com/lists/dplite_atari_2600.pdf

Hrm, I just noticed that the checkboxes don't show up in some viewers... weird. Works on Acrobat Reader 7.0 and gv, but not epdfview.

[Sylentwulf]

Looks really good slash, missing the actual boxes, but that's not overly a big deal.

So, you going to be doing up those other lists that are missing? :) Keep us updated! I can host the files if you need the bandwidth/webspace.

[Slash]

It doens't show the checkboxes for you? That's actually just text, the font is ZapfDingbats.

The font is not embedded in the PDF file, so your client uses a substitute instead if it can't find it. I'm told this font is available in all clients, but apparently not. What PDF viewer are you using?

[Slash]

I decided to switch to Wingdings and embed that (the original lite lists used Wingdings anyways). Now it should work on every PDF viewer.

Oh, and yea, I could make all the remaining lists with this, but the problem is getting the data needed. I don't want to search for "Playstation 1" and "US Releases" and then copy and paste every single game name/publisher/rarity by hand on every result page. :/

EDIT:
Moved work to http://digitpress.slashbunny.com/

[Slash]

I did a bit of work today and it looks pretty complete so far, I just need to test for bugs.

The program does the following:

1) Retrieve the search page and form from the DP site
2) Modify the HTML to add my own text and form elements
3) Display the modifed HTML page that you see
4) Upon submission, group the variables and send them as POST data to the DP search form
5) Get the results from the search from the DP site.
6) Parse the results and get the number of pages and game information
7) Send the POST data again for every "page" of results and append to a master list
8) When we retrieved all the game data from all the search result pages, create the PDF file and send to the user's brower

This simulates a user searching for something and copying the data by hand from every search result page, but much more effecient.

If you want a Playstation USA list, simply choose "PlayStation". "U.S. Game Releases", set PDF Title to "PlayStation USA" (or whatever you want) and press the "Generate PDF" button and wait. As you can imagine the possibilities are endless. It might break or do weird stuff, so please report any bugs. :)

NOTE: It takes a while to get all the data to make the PDF, _don't_ hammer the submit button.
NOTE: If the DP search form is down, this isn't going to work either, It absolutely requires it to do anything.

http://digitpress.slashbunny.com/

Since you can use this to select "All Racing Games for All Systems", outputting Name/Publisher by itself doesn't seem logical. It would at least need the system name as well, so you know what system each game on the list is for. But that's for another day. This should work fine for your complete system list needs.

[Sylentwulf]

unbelievable man, that is EXCELLENT. I use Foxit for a pdf viewer, no load times. The checkboxes are there now and everything looks great. A million thanx!

[tylerwillis]

Holy crap. That's a seriously nice piece of work.

[anagrama]

Wow, that's fantastic! Give the man a pat on the back, and get a link up somewhere on the site pronto!

[Sylentwulf]

ya, I gave ya 1,600 meseta, it's not a hug, but you'd probably prefer it.

[Slash]

Thanks for the feedback :) I don't know what meseta does, but I'll take it :P

I spend some time today rewriting the code to make it more maintainable and easier to read. Tonight or tomorrow I will look into adding a few more features.

[Slash]

Got sidetracked, but I added a few more things:

* New section in form for PDF-specific options

* PDF Output - You can now choose for the PDF to open in your web browser or for the page to send you the PDF so you can save it somewhere.

* Sorting - You can now sort the results the same way you can sort them if you were making a sort on the DP website. This is useful when pulling a list from multiple systems and want to sort alpabetically or group games from the same system together. I'm sure there are lots of other uses, but that's what I made it for.

* Output Formatting - Besides the checkboxes and the rarity rating, the format is still "String1/String2", but now you can change which two are displayed. Default (and the original lite lists) is "Game Title/ Manufacturer", but you can change it to your needs. For example, if making a list in which results come from multiple systems, it would be wise to have one of the two strings be "Game System" so you know what systems the games are for on the list.

Please report if you find any bugs. The one bug I know of is sorting by release date. The reason it doesn't work right is because it doesn't work on the DP site either. Some entries are "01/01/2000" and others are just "1995" and it appears they are not stored in the database in a way to make sorting properly possible.

:D

[gum_drops]

Wow great job on creating that program!

I was thinking of creating my own saturn,genesis,32x checklists, thats one less task I need to do now.

[tylerwillis]

And subsequent kudos. I can't say how nice that is.

[Matt-El]

As I do all of my collecting archiving on paper, it is good to know that I don't have to crimp my hand anymore. Quite a relief!

Possible mini adjustment: Prices as a possible selection?

Might be hard, but It doesn't matter right now! I thank you from the bottom of my ever-lovin' heart!! :puppydogeyes: :D

[SkiDragon]

Yeah this is pretty cool. It should be linked from the main page. One comment though, perhaps a bug. When I click on, for example, horizontal shooter and then hold ctrl and select vertical shooter, it generates a list with only vertical shooters. The "official" search page does not do this.

And also, I agree with the comment about prices. They should be included on the lists. That is why I was not a huge fan of the lite lists to begin with. I know the search page does not show prices either, but it should.

[Slash]

Yeah this is pretty cool. It should be linked from the main page. One comment though, perhaps a bug. When I click on, for example, horizontal shooter and then hold ctrl and select vertical shooter, it generates a list with only vertical shooters. The "official" search page does not do this.

Ah, good find. All multi-selects currently aren't working. I know what's wrong and I will fix it ASAP.

About prices - This can't reasonably be done. My page is simply using the search results page to get it's information. The prices aren't there. It is possible for the script to perhaps access EVERY single game page and get the price, but that would be a bit ridiculous. In order to generate a PS1 USA list, it would take over 1,500 requests to the DP website. The search results would need to include prices or my program would need access to the DP database.

[SkiDragon]

Ok, so first the search page should include prices. I have been thinking this for awhile, but didn't really care too much. If nothing else, the search page should return prices, but just not display them, in such a way that the data could be obtained. But that's kind of dumb. It should just display the prices.

[Slash]

* - Fixed multiple select bug.


http://digitpress.slashbunny.com/

[SkiDragon]

Nice work man. Can I ask how you are programming this? I'm not too knowledgeable about this sort of thing.

Another cool function would be to automatically fill in the list based on what games are already owned. The search page has checkmarks, but only for the game itself, not the manuals or boxes. Either way, I really appreciate this.

[AtariBuff]

Great stuff - many thanks.

One small problem though:
The rarity guide gamebase has an error when choosing "PAL only" for PlayStation 1 and the output includes also japanese games - is there a way to do a workaround?

[Slash]

Nice work man. Can I ask how you are programming this? I'm not too knowledgeable about this sort of thing.

Well it uses the PHP programming language ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PHP ). Lots of server-side applications use PHP, including these forums and other stuff on the DP site. There are functions for retreiving files/webpages and you can contruct headers and postdata the same way a browser would. So you can make a program "use" a website, like mine does. For making the PDF file, I used the FPDF class for PHP ( http://www.fpdf.org/ ).


Another cool function would be to automatically fill in the list based on what games are already owned. The search page has checkmarks, but only for the game itself, not the manuals or boxes. Either way, I really appreciate this.

I thought about this myself. However, you have to remember that my website is what is accessing the DP site, not you. So your login information/cookies would need to be given to my website and then my website would access the DP site with your credentials. It is certainly possible, but quite a bit of work.


One small problem though:
The rarity guide gamebase has an error when choosing "PAL only" for PlayStation 1 and the output includes also japanese games - is there a way to do a workaround?

So the search on the DP site doesn't work as expected either? If you can tell me what exactly defines "PAL only" in the search results, perhaps I can ignore the other entries when generating the PDF.

Should "PAL Only" only show games that have Country = Europe ? I don't see any AU results,so I think that should be it...

[anagrama]

Should "PAL Only" only show games that have Country = Europe ? I don't see any AU results,so I think that should be it...

"PAL only" is a seperate TRUE/FALSE field that's not related to the Country field.
I don't think it's currently implemented for all systems, but for those that it is, searching the DB for "Non-US Releases" and "PAL Only" should output all European/Australian titles. I've just tried it though, and it doesn't seem to be working at the moment :/

[Slash]

Should "PAL Only" only show games that have Country = Europe ? I don't see any AU results,so I think that should be it...

"PAL only" is a seperate TRUE/FALSE field that's not related to the Country field.
I don't think it's currently implemented for all systems, but for those that it is, searching the DB for "Non-US Releases" and "PAL Only" should output all European/Australian titles. I've just tried it though, and it doesn't seem to be working at the moment :/

That's what I figured, but it didn't work for me either.

Are there EU or AU releases which are NTSC? Are there US or J releases that are PAL? If not, then I could simply show EU/AU releases when "PAL only" was checked for the lists.

[anagrama]

Are there EU or AU releases which are NTSC? Are there US or J releases that are PAL?

Nope to both :)



If not, then I could simply show EU/AU releases when "PAL only" was checked for the lists.

That would be cool, but bear in mind that there's also some games with 'France', 'UK', 'Germany' etc in the Country field.
To be honest, the whole current system is pretty clunky for PAL stuff, and could do with streamlining. Ideally, I'd still like to see seperate US/JP/Euro/World categories rather than the current US/Non-US (as was discussed a while back) but I don't know if or when we'll see something like that...

[Slash]

Are there EU or AU releases which are NTSC? Are there US or J releases that are PAL?

Nope to both :)



If not, then I could simply show EU/AU releases when "PAL only" was checked for the lists.

That would be cool, but bear in mind that there's also some games with 'France', 'UK', 'Germany' etc in the Country field.
To be honest, the whole current system is pretty clunky for PAL stuff, and could do with streamlining. Ideally, I'd still like to see seperate US/JP/Euro/World categories rather than the current US/Non-US (as was discussed a while back) but I don't know if or when we'll see something like that...

OK, I should be able to do this then. I need to find what the possible fields are for Country, though.

Right now, I have it so if it's not "USA", "Japan", "Korea", "Canada", or "" (blank), it will show up on "PAL-only" results. Those are the major NTSC countries as far as I know, but the DP database may have some weird entries that are something different and still NTSC.

If there are other NTSC Countries besides USA/Japan/Korea/Canada which show up on the list, please advise so I can exclude them from PAL results :)

http://digitpress.slashbunny.com/

[jasonlotp]

So awesome! 8-) I've been trying to make a list that has every game / system "worth" $20 or more but solely for resale and not really collecting (I collect NES solely). Like if I happen upon the item for cheap I'd buy it.
I'd love prices (whether the price is loose/complete also) but don't really need the checklists.

[anagrama]

If there are other NTSC Countries besides USA/Japan/Korea/Canada which show up on the list, please advise so I can exclude them from PAL results :)


Well, to confuse things further, Asian games can be either PAL or NTSC, though I'd imagine most of those in the DB will be PAL.
There's also Brazil/South America which is another awkward one - it's PAL-M (or PAL-N for Argentina), but that's a 60Hz format that is much closer to NTSC than the European PAL-I/PAL-G.

It's stuff like this that renders the current method of dealing with PAL stuff kinda inadequate :/

[Jestr]

I cannot even fathom how useful this will be...
Thanks for all of the hard work, if I had any Meseta, I would donate LOL .

[Slash]

If there are other NTSC Countries besides USA/Japan/Korea/Canada which show up on the list, please advise so I can exclude them from PAL results :)


Well, to confuse things further, Asian games can be either PAL or NTSC, though I'd imagine most of those in the DB will be PAL.
There's also Brazil/South America which is another awkward one - it's PAL-M (or PAL-N for Argentina), but that's a 60Hz format that is much closer to NTSC than the European PAL-I/PAL-G.

It's stuff like this that renders the current method of dealing with PAL stuff kinda inadequate :/

Yeah, I read about that. I will keep it as-is unless someone specifically needs it another way, like AtariBuff.

[AtariBuff]

WOW, Slash - now it works perfect - many thanks for your hard work. I really do appreciate it!!!!

[Perkar]

sweet holy jesus this is awesome.

i was slightly skeptical on how this would look when i was perusing the thread, but i popped on over to the page, loaded up a US NES list, and downloaded. i opened the pdf and found the most beautiful list i have ever seen. even has checkboxes for GAME, BOX, AND MANUAL, which is something i've wanted in the actual guide for some time....

two big thumbs up from me, you did an outstanding piece of work Slash.

[AtariBuff]

one small suggestion:
would it be possible to just print the game name in the output file and not have to add a second field (like country, release date, manufacturer,...)?

thanks

[Slash]

one small suggestion:
would it be possible to just print the game name in the output file and not have to add a second field (like country, release date, manufacturer,...)?

thanks

Good idea!

* Added option "None" for second part of the output.

http://digitpress.slashbunny.com/


edit: arg... triple post as the site was down and did crazy stuff.

edit2: The forums are back up, but the search on the DP site isn't. So the PDF Generator won't work until it's back up :(

[Slash]

...

[Slash]

...

[EricRyan34]

I click on the link but it does not work?

[Slash]

If this page doesn't work:

http://www.digitpress.com/DP/cmf/search.cmf

Then neither will the PDF generator

[AtariBuff]

just received a nice PS1 PAL PDF list - again HUGE thanks to you, Slash :D

the *only* thing which might need some work is games with longer names which get cut off right now.

Best wishes and keep up your great work!

[Slash]

the *only* thing which might need some work is games with longer names which get cut off right now.

This is true, names get cut-off, but I'm not sure of a good solution to this problem. It could wrap to a new line, but it would make the PDF ugly.

Another option is to include another, thinner font for games that are too long, or perhaps switch all the games to a thinner font. But no matter what font I use, there will still be some long games that will get cut off, probably.

[Slash]

Perkar has just found a huge bug, which is a result of the DP search form not working correctly. If you search for anything on the DP site which returns more than 1 page of results, you will see that the last game listed on page 1 will also be the first game listed on page 2. The last game listed on page 2 will be the first game listed on page 3, and so on.

What this means is that all PDF lists you generated with my tool will have 2 of the same game every 101 entries (there are 101 games per page on the DP search form).

I just made a fix for this, it should be correct now. Sorry about this. The DP database/search form needs a bit of work x_x

http://digitpress.slashbunny.com/

[AtariBuff]

Slash, Perkar
made a few PDFs - didn't notice the bug. Many thanks for eliminating this one. My list is now a few KBs smaller ;)

The long game names is the only thing that buggers me right now - maybe a thinner font for the longer names is the best solution.

[Slash]

Do you know of any good fonts to accomplish this task? I can't find anything good.

In the meantime, I added a new option: " Fit Long Names by Reducing Font".. What this does is reduce the font size by 1 over and over until the whole thing fits on the line... If there are really long names, it may be too small to read. @_@


http://digitpress.slashbunny.com/

[AtariBuff]

Slash, aside from one entry which is barely readable BUT readable the generated output looks unusual but fine.

Thanks again for investing your valuable time. :D

[donkeykong1]

I just realized you made these list possible. Theye are great. I've been waiting for printable lists other than the ones that wewre available. Many thanks.

[Virtualogik]

Awesome tool! Works great! Thanks Slash!

[MachineGex]

Does anyone know what happened to the printable versions of the Lite Lists for Jaguar, 7800 and Intellivision?
I need to print these out again and cant find them on the site.
Thanks!

[Gameguy]

The list for the Intellivision is still with the other Lite Lists, I'm not sure about the other systems you've mentioned.

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

[MachineGex]

I found that page but for some reason the Jag and 7800 is missing. I know they are out there cuz I had them printed out.
I use to carry a small binder around with all those lists printed out. It is very helpful. I hate buying doubles, but since I am completely starting over now, that will not be a problem for some time.

I use to have several complete sets and was only a few dozen games away from having several more sets completed. I about fell over when I saw what NES and SNES sets/games are worth. I doubt I will ever have 1/10th of what I lost.

[Slash]

I updated the lite list generator to work again, but I haven't tested it extensively: http://digitpress.slashbunny.com/