Scraping & Metadata

Scraping is used for downloading metadata and media files (images, videos, maps, pad-to-key settings and manuals) for games in your collection.

Retrobat supports 4 scraping services:

• ScreenScraper (default service) : credentials are required (screenscraper website)

• TheGamesDB

• HFSDB

• ArcadeDB

Information that can be scraped

• Game information (title, year, number of players, description...)

• Ratings

• Thumb (box)

• Marquee / Wheel

• Video

• Fanart

• Image (title screen or in-game screenshot)

• Box backside

• Map

• Manual

• Pad-to-key settings

Scraping process

There are two approaches to scraping, either for a single game from the Game Options, or for multiple games and systems (global scraping) from the Main Menu.

Global scraping

Refer to the following part of the wiki for instructions.

Per Game scraping

Refer to the following section of the wiki for instructions.

Scraping options

Scraping options are available from the Main Menu.

Before running the scraper you can:

• Select the scraper to use

• Limit the scraper to only games missing all medias or games missing any media

• Ignore games scraped recently

• Include/exclude systems

Additionaly, each scraper has its own settings.

Example of available settings for ScreenScraper

From here you can select which data to scrape, but also define:

• What image to use as "image" file

• What image to use as "thumb" image

• What image to use as logo (marquee or wheel)

The Scraper settings screen is also where you can enter your credentials for ScreenScaper service.

Storage of scraped medias

All scraped medias will be stored in the rom folder.

Example of media folders

Folder	Media stored
images	box (thumb), fanart, boxback, image, marquee, map
manuals	pdf manual
videos	mp4 videos

Using Local Media

You can also decide to use existing images and videos that are already stored on your computer, or media that you have created on your own. To do so, you have to :

• rename the media files exactly like the game file,

• add the naming extension specific to the media type:

  • name_of_game-thumb for the image of the box art,

  • name_of_game-image for the image of the game,

  • name_of_game-marquee for the image of the game logo,

  • name_of_game-video.mp4 for the game video.

• place the media files in the "images" folders for images and "videos" folder for videos

• From the SYSTEM SETTINGS, in "frontend developer options", enable "Search for local art"

Manual modification of Game Metadata

The Game Option menu offers the possibility to manually edit/complete metadata for a game

From there you can:

• Update Game information (name, description, rating, release date, developer, publisher, family, genres, arcade system, number of players, languages and region)

• Attach different media files

• Add game to favorites

• Hide game

• Flag game as KID game to display it in the Kid Mode