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RetroAchievement Badges 2.3.6

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JoeViking245
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RetroAchievement Badges

Version 2.3.6 was the last update for this plugin.

(Sept. 2024) This plugin is broken and is no longer supported.

As of LaunchBox version 13.2 (Feb. 27, 2023), Achievement Badges are supported directly in LaunchBox.
To enable: click View < Badges < Game Attributes < Enable Achievements.

 

I wish to give a huge thanks to @jayjay for his work in initiating this plugin all those years ago!!  And to all Community Members who have used, provided feedback and gratitude, Thank You for Your Support!

(This thread remains here for historical reference until such time The Management deems otherwise)

 

What does this plugin do?
Adds “RetroAchievement” Badges to games that support RetroAchievements.
(See complete list of games here: https://retroachievements.org/gameList.php)

Why?
Because some people wanted it.

 

How to install the plugin:

  1. Download RetroAchBadge v2.x.x.zip 
  2. UnBlock the zip file.
    1. Right click the file, select “Properties” and check the box that says ‘Unblock’ [or something along those lines]
    2. Click OK to close the Properties window
  3. Open the zip file
  4. Copy the folder “RetroAchBadge” into your “/LaunchBox/Plugins/” folder
  5. Start LaunchBox
  6. Select Tools
  7. Select RetroAchievements Badge Updater (Internet connection required)  
  8. Click Start Update and Wait for the Updater to complete.  (This may take up to 1 minute.)

Screenshot_2.0.png.15d90f614b43cba91912830a3f804b24.png

 

How to see the badges:

  1. Start LaunchBox (not necessary if you just completed the Install - steps 1 through 9)
  2. Click BADGES
  3. Select Plugin Badges
  4. 'Check’ Enable Retroachievements

badges_2.0.png.cd87f3fd4f424a22618fc34e38eb1e03.png

 

How to add or remove the badge from a game:

  1. Right click the game and select "RetroAchievements Badge" 

RightClick_2.0.png.61038e96b30130abf470a6b5b6759ac6.png

 

How to get updates for new games added to RetroAchievements:

  1. In LaunchBox, Select Tools
  2. Select RetroAchievements Badge Updater (Internet connection required)

If you added or removed RetroAchievement badges for specific games, those games will remain added or removed after running the Updater.  To reset the games that have been added/removed, delete the files Added.xml and Removed.xml located in the plugins folder and rerun the Updater.

 

A word about Platform names:
Some of the Platform names used by RetroAchievements are different than the default names used in LaunchBox.  When using the Badge Updater, it will ‘convert’ these to the default names.

Examples:  “Mega Drive” gets changed to "Sega Genesis".  “SNES” to "Super Nintendo Entertainment System".  "Game Boy" to "Nintendo Game Boy".

This plugin will not rename any of your existing Platforms.

When checking for badges, the plugin will check your Platforms Scrape As setting as well as the Platform name.

Example: If you named your Platform "Game Boy" and Scrape As is set to "Nintendo Game Boy", badges will show for that Platform.

 

Platform names that get changed: 

     From                                   To
"Mega Drive"                 "Sega Genesis"
"SNES"                            "Super Nintendo Entertainment System"
"Game Boy"                   "Nintendo Game Boy"
"Game Boy Advance"   "Nintendo Game Boy Advance"
"Game Boy Color"         "Nintendo Game Boy Color"
"NES"                               "Nintendo Entertainment System"
"32X"                               "Sega 32X"
"Master System"           "Sega Master System"
"PlayStation"                  "Sony Playstation"
"Game Gear"                  "Sega Game Gear"
"Virtual Boy"                  "Nintendo Virtual Boy"
"MSX"                              "Microsoft MSX"
"SG-1000"                       "Sega SG-1000"
"Saturn"                          "Sega Saturn"
"Intellivision"                  "Mattel Intellivision"
"Vectrex"                         "GCE Vectrex"
"PC-8000_8800"             "NEC PC-8801"
"PC-9800"                       "NEC PC-9801"
"PC-FX"                            "NEC PC-FX"
"Dreamcast"                   "Sega Dreamcast"
"PlayStation Portable"  "Sony PSP"
"PC Engine"                    "NEC TurboGrafx-16"



Changing the default icon:
If you wish to use a different Badge icon, replace “\LaunchBox\Images\Badges\RABadge001.png” with your own image.

Known Issues:
Game titles are taken directly from RetroAchievements and may differ (slightly or a lot) from yours. So if you have a game that is known to have achievements and the badge isn’t showing, follow all steps under How to add or remove the badge from a game:.

Updating via the Tools menu may take up to 1 minute to complete.  Though not really an 'issue' perse, but it is a "thing".  So plan your updates around refilling your water glass, grabbing a soda or whatever takes you about 60 seconds to do.

Unknown issues:
Let me know when you find them.

Designed for LaunchBox 11.3 and newer.  Major contributors to the plugin are: @jayjay

Edited by JoeViking245
No longer supported

What's New in Version 2.3.6   See changelog

Released

November 6, 2023
Due to popular demand, this plugin has been revived and updated to reflect changes in RA's website design (yet, once again).

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JoeViking245
58 minutes ago, Rlad said:

I keep getting the error in 2.3.3

Try the update again a little later.  Someone on Discord mentioned the same issue, re-ran the updater and it worked.

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JoeViking245

@SqHd @Wally @Rlad

Not sure what to tell you all.  I ran it here about 5 times this morning without getting any error. 

If the output is showing consoles and the error (like Rlad's the image above), that tells me it's reading R-Achievements web site and getting games for the consoles listed, and then failing for whatever reason.

Looking at Rlad's image, it's failing at Sony Playstation 2 (that would be the next one to show after Nintendo DS) which was just recently added.  To both the plugin and R-Achievements site.  Coincidence?

Attached is a "PS2 Special Edition".  Check the box if you want to Add Sony Playstation 2.  If you continue to get the error message with the box UN-checked (default), I'm still not sure what to tell you.  If you don't get the error message with the box UN-checked, I have an idea of what to tell you. ;) 

image.png.e9a7d24f92a9232787413f2205f0caa0.png

 

Replace your existing "RetroachievementBadges.dll" file with the one inside the attached 7zip.  Remember to Un-Block the file.  (Replace just the 1 file. NOT the whole folder)

(Edit: removed file due to 'it didn't work')

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SqHd

@JoeViking245 Seriously, thanks so much for looking into this! I can confirm that the error occurs with the "PS2 Special Edition" whether PS2 is checked or not. Also, the list ends on various platforms as @Rlad mentioned.

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JoeViking245
1 hour ago, Rlad said:

I don't think it's anything to do with PS2

3 minutes ago, SqHd said:

I can confirm that the error occurs with the "PS2 Special Edition" whether PS2 is checked or not.

Ya, looking and hearing that, it's nothing to do with PS2.  Thanks for testing!  But I still can't reproduce the error here.

 

I removed the PS2 checkbox as it's obviously not the issue.  On this I removed where it shows (in orange) which consoles were added (hoping that's the hiccup).  RetroachievementBadges (test 2.3.3-2).7z

 

If that doesn't work, as a last-ditch effort, I added a 2 second delay when it reads the website for the 'next console'.  There are 41 consoles the plugin grabs. Which means it loads a different page from the site 41 times.  (Ya. A sucky way to do it. But the API [when last checked] would get spammed a lot worse because of other constraints). Thought here being, it won't spam their site so fast?.?.?  It'll take a bit longer to update but may help narrow things down.

RetroachievementBadges (test 2.3.3-3).7z

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SqHd

Interesting, the 2 second delay version (2.3.3-3) worked. Wonder why certain systems don't need the delay? Thanks for the debugging / updating! This plugin is my fav!

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JoeViking245
10 minutes ago, SqHd said:

Interesting, the 2 second delay version (2.3.3-3) worked. Wonder why certain systems don't need the delay? Thanks for the debugging / updating! This plugin is my fav!

Thanks!   Maybe some of us (you) have a faster processor to 'do the work' than others (me) in between page requests.  lol  Seriously though, that's the only thing I can think of.  Glad the delay did the trick.  I was hoping just removing the list of consoles updated would do it so as to not increase the time it takes to update.  But happy to hear it's working for you again.

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Panthon13

Great little plugin. Are you able to add in compatibility with badging games for the Arduboy system? It doesn't have a built-in scraper within Launchbox, so it only has the name of the platform to use for matching on Retroachievements. 

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JoeViking245
48 minutes ago, Panthon13 said:

Great little plugin. Are you able to add in compatibility with badging games for the Arduboy system? It doesn't have a built-in scraper within Launchbox, so it only has the name of the platform to use for matching on Retroachievements. 

Thank you!

Special just for you.  Added Arduboy for when you next run the Updater.  Replace your existing "RetroachievementBadges.dll" file with the one inside the zip. (Unblock the file as necessary).  Start LaunchBox and run the Updater.  (Arduboy will also be available in subsequent Official Releases.)

As you mentioned, since LaunchBox doesn't have a Scrape As for this unique handheld game console, you MUST name your platform "Arduboy".

RetroAchBadge (v2.3.5sp).7z

Enjoy. :D

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Panthon13
1 minute ago, JoeViking245 said:

Thank you!

Special just for you.  Added Arduboy for when you next run the Updater.  Replace your existing "RetroachievementBadges.dll" file with the one inside the zip. (Unblock the file as necessary).  Start LaunchBox and run the Updater.  (Arduboy will also be available in subsequent Official Releases.)

As you mentioned, since LaunchBox doesn't have a Scrape As for this unique handheld game console, you MUST name your platform "Arduboy".

RetroAchBadge (v2.3.5sp).7z 58.91 kB · 0 downloads

Enjoy. :D

You are fantastic. Thank you so much.

I requested to have the platform added to the launchbox database, so hopefully I can construct that and at least upload the most popular of the games for scraping as well.

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JoeViking245
2 hours ago, Merovingio said:

@JoeViking245 I am not getting any badge for the Nintendo Famicom Disk System platform. Know something?

They're listed under NES.  Do you have your Famicom platform set to scrape as "Nintendo Entertainment System"?

image.thumb.png.bae46df492c31271ff0102c6f1609c2f.png

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Merovingio
5 hours ago, JoeViking245 said:

They're listed under NES.  Do you have your Famicom platform set to scrape as "Nintendo Entertainment System"?

image.thumb.png.bae46df492c31271ff0102c6f1609c2f.png

The Nintendo Famicom Disk System platform is independent from the Nintendo Entertainment System. I don't have it set to scrape as because Launchbox has it separate. The problem is that retroachievement puts it all together on the NES/Famicom.

Could anything be done to fix it without having to change "scrape as"?

Edited by Merovingio
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JoeViking245
2 hours ago, Merovingio said:

The problem is that retroachievement puts it all together on the NES/Famicom.

The easiest solution is to: once you've setup your Famicom platform and downloaded all your metadata and media for that platform, change the scrape-as to Nintendo Entertainment System.  

Once your platform is good-to-go, changing the scrape-as won't have an effect on anything other than allowing this plugin to work.

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JoeViking245
1 hour ago, Merovingio said:

@JoeViking245, now that a new scanning system has been implemented in LB for AR, I wonder if this plugin can be improved to also detect the hash of attached games and not just the main game.

This plugin doesn't do file hash checks / comparisons.  It only uses platform names (or game scrape-as platform name) and game titles to determine if the game has RetroAchievements available.

Doing a hash check on each games ROM file to verify you have an 'approved' ROM for attaining RetroAchievements goes beyond the intent of this plugin.  The intent is to show a badge for games that have RetroAchievements available.  Making sure you have and are using approved ROM set files to attain achievements is between you and RetroAchievements.

 

The plugin could be made to check "attached games" (by which, I think you're meaning Additional Apps such as clones) but I'm not sure how we'd make of that.  (again, checking by platform name and game title only)

Example, say a game has 3 Additional Apps (games).  The main game plus 2 of its 3 attached games have achievements available.  The badge would be shown for that game. But there's no way to indicate which 2 of the 3 Additional Apps have achievements also.  

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JoeViking245
1 hour ago, Merovingio said:

@JoeViking245, With the latest LB update the icons are not displayed.

Double check that you have badges set to Show Badges and that you have Enabled Retroachievements.

image.thumb.png.3dd9b933b9988be2fc7f281cbed4c1f0.png

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