Spectrum loading screens collection?

[akeley]

It's something I was wondering about for quite some time now, since I've started loading games via DIV. This method is instant and very convenient, but the downside is that you only see the awesome loading scr$ for a second, if that. Now, the "rubbish scr$" thread reminded me of this idea.

Does anything like it exists, or would it be possible to somehow scrape ZXDB to produce such a pack? I do mean .scr format, because I'd like to display it on real hardware.

[R-Tape]

Does anything like it exists, or would it be possible to somehow scrape ZXDB to produce such a pack? I do mean .scr format, because I'd like to display it on real hardware.

I thought ZX-App or ZXInfo.dk did this, but they aren't a screenshot browser in the way you're after. I certainly don't have the skills, but I hope someone has a crack at such a thing, given that all the screens are in one spot.

I don't know if it's any use to you now, but the SC main search results layout can be set to 'loading screens only', so at least you can then search a parameter and browse a sizeable list of them.

[Luzie]

Something like this Winamp-Skins-Pictures Site: https://skins.webamp.org/ would be nice for .SCR-Files

[moroz1999]

ZX-Art allows search by tag. You can also save the search in ZIP format, although it can be slow for large amounts of data.

[kolbeck]

From what I see, theres two options

1) setup an instance of ZXDB and then just query the screenshots files, which can then be downloaded (as described in ZXDB documentation here: https://github.com/zxdb/ZXDB)

2) Use the https://api.zxinfo.dk/ API - for example query Head Over Heels: https://api.zxinfo.dk/api/zxinfo/games/2259?mode=tiny
- from the output grab the screenshots files from the "addtionals" section, in this example look for:

Code: Select all

{
        "url": "/pub/sinclair/screens/load/h/scr/HeadOverHeels.scr",
        "size": 6912,
        "type": "Loading screen",
        "format": "Screen dump (SCR)"
      },

And then follow the ZXDB guidelines for downloading files.

/Thomas

[Einar Saukas]

1) setup an instance of ZXDB and then just query the screenshots files, which can then be downloaded (as described in ZXDB documentation here: https://github.com/zxdb/ZXDB)

Technically:

Code: Select all

select * from downloads where filetype_id = 1

You will get a list of over 11,000 loading screens, almost all of them SCR.

[akeley]

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions guys. The online searchability of various online resources is great but I'm looking for offline solution. And I had already failed once before when I was trying to tame ZXDB on my PC...handling real databases is just a bit too much of a sorcery for me.

So I went for the nuclear option and have just downloaded the WoS mirror. Got ~10,020 game loading scr's out of that, all very neatly organised, which is precisely what I was looking for.

That whole thing got me thinking again about how awesome it'd be to have an offline desktop version of ZXDB with a frontend available. I know somebody - was it [mention]kolbeck[/mention] ? - has coded an app for the Android which I suppose is a similar solution. Do you think it'd be possible to conjure something like that for desktop PCs too?

[kolbeck]

That whole thing got me thinking again about how awesome it'd be to have an offline desktop version of ZXDB with a frontend available. I know somebody - was it [mention]kolbeck[/mention] ? - has coded an app for the Android which I suppose is a similar solution. Do you think it'd be possible to conjure something like that for desktop PCs too?

The Android app is [mention]Turrican[/mention] - but it still needs online access to retrieve data. The main issue with an offline version, one way or another, is how to handle the frequent ZXDB updates.

[Turrican]

Hi [mention]akeley[/mention] .
I am the maker of Zx-App.
It does not use an offline database.
It uses the API made by [mention]kolbeck[/mention] .
There is no database installed on your device. Only the app.

[akeley]

Sure, I thought that's how it works. But even so a good & customizable standalone program would be preferable, for me at least, to a browser-dependent website interface.

And from there it should be only a small step to an offline version. Updates could be handled just like with any other program, connect to wherever the latest source is (github?) and download it. I'd be perfectly happy with even "outdated" version, which would be years ahead from the ones I have now anyway (latest gamebase is pretty much WoS based, circa 2014)

Of course this is just how it looks from my simple-user viewpoint, please excuse my ignorance if it's actually technically not so feasible.

[kolbeck]

Yeah, it’s really not that simple

Just think of the amount of data that needs to be embedded and synchronized, 100 of GB data from various sources, as well as legal aspect, as some titles are only allowed on certain websites such as spectrum computing (zxinfo does not provide downloads, but links to SC)

I know there’s a program ZX-ED ([mention]Einar Saukas[/mention] ) that can run on desktop but requires a sql server as well

[akeley]

I did not mean the completething, like a site mirror, just the data which is in the ZXDB itself and perhaps some additional copyright-less things like screenshots. I had tried to run ZX-ED before and gave up because the setup process was just too much, it's definitely not something a mere mortal can handle.

The benefits of offline accessibility and portability seem obvious to me, but I must admit that it seems to be a dinosaur/caveman position these days. It's not the first case in which I'm the only one requesting such functionality.