Gamebase64 file collector!

Community Forums/Showcase/Gamebase64 file collector!

Grey Alien(Posted 2005) [#1]
Want to download ALL 17,000 C64 games in one batch, use this!

[edit] now v1.2

http://www.jbcomputersolutions.com/misc/gb64collect.zip (650kb)

I was on the gamebase site and I didn't want to have to click each game and then download it, but there is no batch util, and I don't have P2P software, and I don't visit warez sites, and I don't want to order a CD-ROM or three, so I made this app to download all 17,000 games wooo!

If you don't want all 17,000 simply edit the verify.txt file to only include the ones you want.

Full source is included. A big thanks to Ozak for the HTTP code. Sorry the app doesn't look fancy, it just does what it supposed to do!

If you need to abort, click the X in the top right, you may need to click it several times until the app exits.

Btw on my 1MB connection its around 1sec per file so for 17,000 files thats around 4.7 hours.

DISCLAIMER: Use at your own risk.

Good Luck and happy 64ing!

P.S. Please post if you found this useful.


Grey Alien(Posted 2005) [#2]
updated to v1.1


Qube(Posted 2005) [#3]
Cool little app. I'm compiling a list of the games I remember the most and want to have a go at again.

Many thanks for the time and effort this must of taken :)


TeaVirus(Posted 2005) [#4]
Works great! Thanks!!


Grey Alien(Posted 2005) [#5]
nice one guys, thanks for the replies. I've got the lot now! Who'd of thought 20 years ago that you could get all the C64 games in a 5 hour download for free, amazing really.


EOF(Posted 2005) [#6]
Neat little app GA. Bang goes my weekend.

Btw on my 1MB connection its around 1sec per file so for 17,000 files thats around 4.7 hours
Only took 2 1/2 hours here. I must have the 'Turbo Load' version ;p

Suggestion:
I have 4 failures but I don't know which ones.
Any chance of updating the textbox to show the failed zips?


Grey Alien(Posted 2005) [#7]
glad u like it. Sounds like you've got a 2Mbit connection then, nice :-) You really shouldn't get any failures but I'll add the failed ones to the text box and make a V1.2 v. soon.


Banshee(Posted 2005) [#8]
Sweet there where some c64 games I used to love playing at friends houses, now all I need is an emulator...


Grey Alien(Posted 2005) [#9]
Get VICE, also Gamebase as a front end. You need a database to use with Gamebase (on same website) and can get additional screenshots and musician photos. Also of course you can get the whole HVSC Sid archive. These can all be linked into Gamebase (along with the actual games) to be used as a quick launch utility, it's really rather cool.


Grey Alien(Posted 2005) [#10]
Updated to v1.2 for JB, it now shows failed files in the list. However you shouldn't really get any unless you modify the list and make a mistake.


TomToad(Posted 2005) [#11]
Oh great. After I already downloaded all except 4 failed files and no idea which ones. Now you need to write a program to check what I have against what's on the list so I can see what I'm missing. :-)


Grey Alien(Posted 2005) [#12]
4 out of 17,000. They were probably rubbish anyway.
Wait, I know what tells you which ones are missing! Gamebase64. Point it at your games folder, do a verify game files (see the included source code comments (at the top) for more detailed instructions) and a the end it produces a verify.txt with the missing files! It's how I made the whole 17,000 list in the first place.

If two of you have found 4 to be missing when they were all there for me, I can only conclude that the website has changed slightly since I made the master list (or it's a bu..feature ;-)


EOF(Posted 2005) [#13]
Thanks Grey. I found a good C64 game called "Mayhem in Monsterland". Real quality platformer for its time.


Vorderman(Posted 2005) [#14]
Thanks Grey Alien, downloading all the C64 games now - Gamebase64 looks pretty good also - browsing via screenshots is much nicer than looking at a folder of ZIP files.


Grey Alien(Posted 2005) [#15]
jb: I'll check it out I love platformers. Turrican rules!
Vorderman: you're welcome. Don't blame me if you don't get anything done for a while now! ;-)


Grisu(Posted 2005) [#16]
I think the gui really slow this down.
Try only to update every 10-25 files or so.

Btw, can't u download 2-3 files at the same time with blitz?


Grey Alien(Posted 2005) [#17]
Grisu: The GUI doesn't slow it down. It hardly does anything! What takes the time is making the connection with the server and sending the Get request each time. Maybe you can do multi-downloads with blitz, not sure how to do it. Thanks for the ideas, but to be honest the app is done.


VP(Posted 2005) [#18]
Multi-downloading would hammer the server a bit. I'm not sure the site admin(s) would be very happy about that. I wouldn't think they're too happy with people downloading 17000 files all at once anyway, especially considering that you won't ever play more than 25% of them.


Grey Alien(Posted 2005) [#19]
I know (I feel a tiny bit guilty), but it's actually only a couple of hundred megs; many people download much more than that every day. Also the program doesn't open multiple channels just one. It's really the same as a human clicking on the links very quickly. It nice to have the whole lot from a historical completeness point of view. Then you can browse and select the game you want instead of having to go off looking for it on the internet. If I ever played 25% of them I'd be totally amazed, in fact even 10% would be pushing it unles I get made unemployed for 10 years.