> I have spoken to the editors of Atari Age about somehow tying their
> database in with things like stella.pro. I do think there ultimately
needs
> to be some sort of synchronization between web-based databases and
emulator
> databases. I suggested Atari Age expose an XML web service which
emulators
> could use to synchronize its ROM definitions. Since AA hosts ROMs, it's
> already almost like a global file-server for emulators. If it also
exposed
> ROM MD5 hashes and other metadata it would be pretty much there.
I'm sure we could add the Stella.pro information to our database and provide
a service as you're describing. I've actually wanted to add some additional
information for titles as is, such as the size of the game (4K, 8K, etc.)
and the bankswitching method the game employs. However, in order to allow
an emulator to "sync up" with a current list of ROMs, we'd really need a
completely new table that is independent of our Rarity Guide, as there are
*many more* ROMs in the Stella.pro than there are in our database. Not a
big deal, especially if I can automate the import of the Stella profile into
a table.
After things calm down a bit for us (we just put a new store online, we have
to finish getting the rest of the site to match the store and forum's "new
look", catch up on a backlog of scans and other submissions, and there are
many homebrew titles we're working on adding to the store), I would like to
pursue this further.
..Al
____________________________________________________________
Albert Yarusso (albert@xxxxxxxxxxxx)
AtariAge.com - Atari News, Rarity Guides, Discussion & More!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Archives (includes files) at http://www.biglist.com/lists/stella/archives/
Unsub & more at http://www.biglist.com/lists/stella/
