Hacking Project NDS released !

[Tuy_]

Project NDS has been released !

It is a manager for the ds game roms. It fetches all sorts of data from the internet and couples this data to the roms found on your harddrive. Project NDS will f.e. fetch the game descriptions from the official nintendo site and couple this to the game roms found on the harddrive.

It also allows you to search your rom collection on text, genre, release group, country, ... All this is presented in an easy manner. I hope it can benifit many of you

You can find it at http://projectnds.tuy.be

Enjoy !

 

[CheatingSoi]

Looks really nice, but I keep getting errors when it is trying to access my ROM folder

 

[Rock Raiyu]

What we need is an app that tells us when a game is released. That would be really cool. lol Anyways, I'll give this a try.

 

[Xcursion]

What we need is an app that tells us when a game is released. That would be really cool. lol Anyways, I'll give this a try.

Like an RSS reader that has the gbatemp feed?

 

[kreation]

That would be the shiz, no??

 

[Tuy_]

Looks really nice, but I keep getting errors when it is trying to access my ROM folder

What do you mean with errors, in program errors (messages) ? Or real crashes ?
What have you put in for the rom folder ? Are your roms in zip-files or directly nds files ?

 

[BrianTokyo]

Doesn't work in Vista

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: CLR20r3
Problem Signature 01: project nds.exe
Problem Signature 02: 1.0.2984.39358
Problem Signature 03: 47ccb94c
Problem Signature 04: FirebirdSql.Data.FirebirdClient
Problem Signature 05: 2.0.1.0
Problem Signature 06: 4542101c
Problem Signature 07: b1
Problem Signature 08: 38
Problem Signature 09: System.BadImageFormatException
OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033

 

[Tuy_]

I know that it doesn't work in Vista @ the moment. I'm working on it, but since I don't have Vista it take a little bit longer. Expect a new release soon (together with some new stuff).

 

[BrianTokyo]

What are you developing it in? (besides using .net)

 

[Tuy_]

It is developed in C#, for me that's the only language I'll work in in .NET

 

[BrianTokyo]

How about staying away from .NET

If you release the source I can check what's wrong, got vista and visual studio 2008 installed.

 

[Tuy_]

I LOVE .NET, so I'm not gonna part from it

I've send to program to a friend who is going to try it on vista. My guess is that it blocks my attemps to use the database and write to the config file who are in the same directory as the program (Default 'Program Files').
A default user doesn't have permission to write in it.

Running Project NDS with admin privileges 'fixes' the problem, for now ...

I've build a complete framework around Project NDS (ORM, UIBuilder, ... That's why you see all those assemblies).
I will use this framework for other stuff to. So there is more to it then just saving some data (+ writing simple apps is just plain boring

).
Because of this reason I'd rather not share this code.
You can take it from me: I'll fix the Vista issue. If I hear from my friend that the fix I did didn't make it work on vista, then I'll install Vista on one of my machines, I've got a year-trail version somewhere

I take pride in what I write, so Project NDS will work on vista

 

[Regiiko]

.NET is horrible, take his advice.

 

[BrianTokyo]

I've send to program to a friend who is going to try it on vista. My guess is that it blocks my attemps to use the database and write to the config file who are in the same directory as the program (Default 'Program Files').
A default user doesn't have permission to write in it.

Yep, you need to run the program as admin to write under program files, even in your own folder. You can use a sepparate COM object to raise the UAC dialog for permission, or embed a .manifest file that implies admin permission by default so the program will raise UAC when you start it up. Another way is using shfile apis instead.

Anyway, I think you can't do any of this from .NET, you need a normal native win32/64 app (I think).
I had this same problem with Mal Updater ( http://techsuki.net/mal-updater/ ) and got around it by:
1 - check if the OS is Vista
2 - if it is, check if the user is running with admin privileges
3 - if not, use the SH apis instead

The manifest also works but it would be annoying to have UAC raise on every startup of the program. The best solution is the external com object, but it requires a lot more of work, and again, I doubt you can do this with .NET

Believe me, .net sucks, big time. There's no reason you should use it when you are more experienced and your only platform is a normal windows.

 

[Tuy_]

I've been working as a professional developer for years now. I know java, C++, ... and .NET. Working in .NET made my life a lot easier and I can concentrate on the important parts now: the design, the code itself, ...

I really don't understand how you can say the .NET is horrible. And not even giving any reasons even ...

I agress that it's not suited for certain things (mainly high performance things), but it is suited for a lot of other thing. And those 'other' things are most of the stuff out there.

BrainTokyo: My guess would be that I don't need to go that far and can just save my config & db in de appdata folders. I have some experience under my belt, that doesn't mean that I won't like .NET. It surprises me that you look down on it. It is perfect for these types of application (data app). I doubt that I could have done what I did with .NET with the same ease in another language (It heavy on reflection. I'm not saying that I couldn't have, just that .NET gave me the tools to do it fast)

And to be clear I'm programming on the job and off the job for years and read tons of books, blogs, ... So I'm not a little 9-5 programmer who just got his feet wet.

 

[BrianTokyo]

I think it gives way more problems than it has advantages, specially for these kind of apps. The current Visual C++ is good enough nowadays for RAD (tried the 2008 edition?) so I can't see why you'd rather use .net

 

[Tuy_]

I've mainly been using .NET for years now, so it would be very hard for me to switch back to any other language. I still like it. I can do everything what I want. I haven't come across any problem I couldn't solve with .NET in a clean way.
I've done
code generation -> xslt, xml, little bit of glue code (used own version of xslt actually)
Drawing controls -> GDI+
Games -> XNA, Managed DirectX (seems a long time ago

)
ORM, gui generator -> reflection
And probably lots of other things I forget at the moment.

Low level stuff doesn't interest me enough. Sure it would be cool to write some DS game, but it doesn't tickle my interest enough to start with it.

I can understand why some programmers would stay away from .NET for certain things, but you really should embrace it for other stuff.

 

[Tikker]

if you could make your app support .7z and .rar archives it'd be pretty slick

as it is, it only recognizes 9 out of 2000ish games I have, heh

 

[Tuy_]

for .zip I'm using a library, if you can point me to a library that handles .7z & .rar files, then I'll happily do it

Or would you be satisfied with seeing them in the list, but not being able to extract them ?

Vista update: I've got the code working under vista, the problem was de firebird assemblies I use to connect to the embedded firebird database. But now the application won't stop anymore. It stays in memory (Has to have something to do with the new firebird assemblies) As soon as I figure that out then a new version will be online (after ofcourse some polish, some new things will also be in there, f.e. importing metacritic scores & links)
Haven't found anything about the strange behaviour yet ...

 

[Tuy_]

I've succeeded in getting it to work on Vista. A new release will be up soon.

I had some delays: Blame Rockstar & Take 2