DonationCoder.com Software > DC Member Programs and Projects
GameShui Launcher
wraith808:
Going back to the autodetect, there is a lot of information about games that is both useful and global. I for example spend time figuring out what needs to be backed up so that my configs and saved games can be migrated to another computer (or sync'd). Some games nicely put savegames in clear places, others hide them in systems folders. Sometimes there are additional ones or stupid things hard coded in like paths... I bet 20% of the people who play any game will do the same... Now we have several sites online which have huge DBs of games and reviews etc. do any of them have an API? DO any of them track this kind of more practical information (where are saved games? screenshots? what are the basic keys for basic things?). Being able to check and get information, or share information back up....
in short, is there a public, open GDDB?
-iphigenie (June 25, 2011, 03:35 AM)
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There was... until MobyGames sold out. I've been thinking along those lines also, and about this app and my intentions. It's going to change quite a bit... as soon as I get a chance, I'll have more info.
iphigenie:
doctorfrog linked to darkadia which claims to get information from http://www.giantbomb.com - although giantbomb.com has a bit of an identity problem - it has its own content, plus user generated content, but the database is theirs and might, perhaps, be made available free for non commercial projects... Which pretty much makes me wonder: why would I, a user, take time to put content in your app, perhaps even with a paying membership, and then you will keep the information in a black hole unless paid for?
Almost makes me want to restart my old DB on my old website...
wraith808:
doctorfrog linked to darkadia which claims to get information from http://www.giantbomb.com - although giantbomb.com has a bit of an identity problem - it has its own content, plus user generated content, but the database is theirs and might, perhaps, be made available free for non commercial projects... Which pretty much makes me wonder: why would I, a user, take time to put content in your app, perhaps even with a paying membership, and then you will keep the information in a black hole unless paid for?
Almost makes me want to restart my old DB on my old website...
-iphigenie (June 25, 2011, 10:19 AM)
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They do have an API, and the content is accessible from it for non-commercial non-competing use. But they have a paid option for subscriptions, which makes me wary of them going the way of MobyGames.
Also, I just generated an API key, and the terms of service are sort of restrictive- you can only use the data by online requests, i.e. you can't use it offline or store it for offline use.
iphigenie:
doctorfrog linked to darkadia which claims to get information from http://www.giantbomb.com - although giantbomb.com has a bit of an identity problem - it has its own content, plus user generated content, but the database is theirs and might, perhaps, be made available free for non commercial projects... Which pretty much makes me wonder: why would I, a user, take time to put content in your app, perhaps even with a paying membership, and then you will keep the information in a black hole unless paid for?
Almost makes me want to restart my old DB on my old website...
-iphigenie (June 25, 2011, 10:19 AM)
--- End quote ---
They do have an API, and the content is accessible from it for non-commercial non-competing use. But they have a paid option for subscriptions, which makes me wary of them going the way of MobyGames.
Also, I just generated an API key, and the terms of service are sort of restrictive- you can only use the data by online requests, i.e. you can't use it offline or store it for offline use.
-wraith808 (June 25, 2011, 10:43 AM)
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Which kind of will pause them a headache or two - I put information on their database, about games I have, and suddenly I am not allowed to keep that information offline on my machine? what gives?
The only information they can make that kind of requirement about is, of course, the reviews and editorial they write - and fair point on that.
But information *about* the game, like requirements, size, versions, paths, patches, mods, urls etc. are public knowledge... edited by people, not editors, they might be able to protect the entire database as a whole (like other data providers, protects from someone copying the whole thing and reselling it) but subsets, individual meta data etc?
Clearly they can control the API access as they wish, obviously... but probably it's worth talking to them they possibly havent thought it through...
PS: means that sites like darkadia make 1 request per item per view each time anyone browses... cant cache... that's load...
iphigenie:
I'm curious:did you continue your development on this one? I'm tired of having partial launchers (like steam or raptr that dont allow reasonably documented manual adding) so looking at the 3 mentioned on DC again :)
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