[Enhancement] Import Mame .dat file based resource packs.

[JollyWizard]

Mame/Mess has a system of verifying resource associations using .dat files which define the content hashes and checksums.

These are typically used for arcade resources, but there are packs available for consoles supported by mess.
https://www.progettosnaps.net/softwareresources/

I would like to be able to use content packs like this rather than individual scraping.

Please consider adding support for these packs and mame .dat support for consoles in general.

Thanks.

Edit I was under the impression that the rom files were hashed in the dat files, but it looks like this was just a short name for the default image. It would seem that the issue then would be pairing these games to their canonical mame shortcode. I did not locate the resource for these titles, but I expect there must be some sort of index file to be used.

Edit The software list (roms) provided here seem to correctly pair the MESS shortcodes to the shot/title content provided from the progettosnaps.net and includes other scrapable data like rom name, checksum, and description. :
https://pleasuredome.github.io/pleasuredome/mame/

[JollyWizard]

From the Software List (roms)/gba.xml. (Total archive for all systems is ~13mb)

<machine name="2asterix">
<description>2 in 1: Astérix & Obélix - Bash Them All! + Astérix & Obélix XXL (Europe)</description>
<year>2005</year>
<publisher>Atari</publisher>
<rom name="2 in 1 - asterix & obelix - bash them all + asterix & obelix xxl (europe) (en,fr,de,es,it,nl).bin" size="16777216" crc="183a2207" sha1="03b76e408e368be7a3ef041a22923a4d2754af6a"/>
</machine>

From the progettosnaps.net pS_gba_titles_20240424_264_(cm).dat in the gba.dat download. (Total gba downloads on site ~100mb):

<datafile>
	<header>
		<name>progetto-SNAPS - gba_titles</name>
		<description>pS gba_titles 20240424</description>
		<category>MAME Arts</category>
		<version>0.264</version>
		<date>24/04/2024</date>
		<author>AntoPISA</author>
		<email>progettosnaps@gmail.com</email>
		<homepage>http://www.progettosnaps.net/</homepage>
		<url>http://www.progettosnaps.net/softwareresources/</url>
		<comment>-</comment>
		<clrmamepro/>
	</header>
	<machine name="gba">
		<description>gba</description>
		<rom name="007eon.png" size="19193" crc="8dd8c52e" sha1="bd44e2a6a2b33f25a1a576c4a04037e36e1b9713"/>
		<rom name="007eonj.png" size="14099" crc="bafdd07a" sha1="0a3d0b37e950eecb6e4767130e7e3e41ea8a6d39"/>
		<rom name="007night.png" size="19107" crc="937a9111" sha1="c7ef6e19f614db9f3121f89b2232541e8303e3b6"/>
		<rom name="2asterix.png" size="13467" crc="bc22538c" sha1="1e6ca4271b2ca2411d7c962292f05e297fb36c45"/>

Confirmed of details match to content in gba_titles.zip

[SineSwiper]

I second this request.

MAME also has a wealth of textual information on each of its games in the MAME set via mame.xml (or mame2003.xml). I see hints that Skyscraper uses a mameMap.csv file, but that's not documented anywhere, and the XML file has so much more info. (Basically, all of the textual data you need.)

[Gemba]

I had several looks at this in the meantime. My resume is that with the sparse scraper data (only a few textual infos and sometimes cover/ingame screen (in low resolution)) from the website and the unbalanced data for the different platforms it would be easier to write a small adapter outside of Skyscraper with the *.dat files you need from that website and convert the XML data in the import format (also XML) of Skyscraper.