The idea is : multiple folders full of games, multiple gamelist.xml (EmulationStation) files, 1 configuration file to determine global/per system preferences. And one Bellerophon to kick the ass of the chimera.

For now i test and develop the script for my own use-case, e.g : Pegasus-frontend + Shield TV (Android), one collection (system) per metadata.txt If you want it to work for your need, or simply work (because there is a bug that i have not seen), do not hesitate to let me know. Thank you. :)

Quick tutorial video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jhuww7Jl6N0

Pegasus-frontend

[ https://pegasus-frontend.org ] or [ https://github.com/mmatyas/pegasus-frontend ]

Pegasus is a front-end to navigate in your games library. It relies on metadata.txt files that contain all data about games, paths and assets.

What does Bellerophon ?

Bellerophon is a Python script to :

• generate metadata files
• clean media library (unused assets). No need of the gamelist.xml for that.

Requirements

toml >= 0.10.1

Install or upgrade pip : https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/installing/#upgrading-pip

Module to install (TOML) : https://pypi.org/project/toml/

You can type : pip install requirements.txt

Or : py -m pip install toml

Developed in a Python 3.6 environment.

In order to work the script also needs :

• one gamelist.xml file in each system folder
• assets folder named media in each system foler

If gamelist.xml is not found, the metadata.txt won't be created.

So scrape your games and ask your software to output a gamelist.xml.

Skraper (Screen-scraper) does that very well. :) [ https://www.skraper.net ]

Please, backup your metadata.txt files before running the script if you're not sure what your are doing. metadata.txt output is overwritten each time, gamelist.xml is read-only.

Usage

Gamelist.xml

Scrape your games with Skraper (or another scraper that output an EmulationStation gamelist.xml [not tested]). Ask for the right media folders names (they will be used as is).

Bellerophon

1. Download bellerophon.py and bellerophon.sample.conf at the root of your library. Below the tree of my own library :

NVIDIA_SHIELD/
├─ bellerophon.py
├─ bellerophon.conf
└─ arcade/
    ├─ game1.zip
    ├─ game2.zip
    ├─ game3.zip
    ├─ gamelist.xml
    └─ media/
        ├─ wheel/
        |   ├─ game1.png
        |   ├─ game2.png
        |   └─ game3.png
        └─ screenshot/
            ├─ game1.png
            ├─ game2.png
            └─ game3.png

2. Rename bellerophon.sample.conf to bellerophon.conf
3. Edit bellerophon.conf according to your needs.

Add all your systems configurations. The script will skip configuration of a non existing folder/system.

4. On Desktop double-clic bellerophon.py. On CLI type py bellerophon.py.

bellerophon.conf

The config file consists of a global variable (for now juste the Retroarch command), and systems variables.

global

key	type	value
launch	string	A multiline command for Retroarch (Android). Edit the command to your need for Windows/Unix OS.

systems

systems.<SYSTEM_DIRECTORY_NAME>

key	type	value
shortname	string	An optional short name for the collection, often an abbreviation (like MAME, NES, etc.). Should be lowercase. (official documentation)
collection	string	Creates a new collection with the value as name. This is a required field. (official documentation)
extension	string	A comma-separated list of file extensions (without the . dot), or a list of such lines. All files with these extensions will be included. (official documentation) Will be a list in the future.
core optional	string	Libretro core name with .so extension. It will be concatenated in each metadata files.
launch optional	string	A launch command that will override the default one. So the core variable will not be used.

Changelog

• 18/12/2020

  • Fix master data. Now a "master" folder is created with a metadata.txt inside. Use that one.

• 23/09/2020

  • Fix description with indent and linebreaks
  • Fix bellerophon.sample.conf who had "collection" line under "shortname" line (that order doesn't work !)

• 12/07/2020 + Big refactoring + Add counter to see number of games written in metadata.txt + Add "sort-by" system setting for bellerophon.conf -> see Pegasus documentation + Add "clean_media" global setting for bellerophon.conf -> check unused assets or not + Add "collections_to_clean" global setting for bellerophon.conf -> list of collections that you want to check (if None, all collections will be checked) + Add "master_data" global setting for bellerophon.conf -> create a metadta.txt at the root (that's a merge of all metadata.txt)

• 05/07/2020

  • Initialization of the project