In my experience, files are named pretty well these days to include resolution, source, the actual title and release year, video format, audio format, language, and release group.
Try looking at the way music files are named and you’ll see how awful naming conventions can get.
I think your workflow is not optimal. Are you using software like Radarr and Sonarr? They do the renaming for you and come with Kodi integration. Or is this not feasible?
I think OP means ROM files for video games systems. Kodi has a RetroArch plugin. As I’m sure you’re aware, Sonarr and Radarr only do TV shows and movies, respectively. Managing ROM packs is a pain in the ass because there are usually thousands of files in a pack (I think there’s something stupid like 9,000 ROMs for NES or SNES).
There is a database that I found called Smoke Monster’s Database, it’s actually a bunch of “databases” (files, not actually databases) that you load into a program and point it at a directory and it categorizes, organizes, and renamed everything for you.
A lot of ROM packs that are out there are pretty old considering the systems that they’re for are decades old and have been passed around and added to for years. The packs are usually in a flat file structure and there are usually multiple files for the same game (version updates from the manufacturer) so it gets annoying pretty quickly. Do you want to have to scroll through 9000 NES games just to get to the Zelda: A Link to the Past?
Look up SMDB (smoke monster’s database). You can download a tool (I forget what it’s actually called, I think one is called ROM manager) which reads the SMDB files and compares the hashes to your ROMs and will categorize and rename them for you. It looks for duplicates, unofficial releases/hacks/patches, categorizes them by country (US, EU and Japan largely), and more. It’s a pretty nifty tool.
I spent like two hours going through PS1 ROMs and was like “there’s got to be a better way!” (insert cheesy black and white infomerical cutaway), started looking up stuff and there it was. Not all game systems are supported (mostly NES, SNES, Genesis/MegaDrive, and a few others) but you can build SMDB “packs” yourself.
I forget if it works on Windows, but I know it works on Linux and it’s either a script or a compiled binary, I forget which, but you can definitely script it, I’ve done so myself since the command string tends to be a bit long.
It’s legacy, white spaces weren’t allowed as characters on most FTP software, which is how the warez scene shares it’s releases. It used to be underscores, but dots are closer to a white space regarding separation (space wise), so most release groups use dots nowadays.
Generally, a white space as a character in filenames and directories is “frowned upon” in many operating systems, Windows included (somewhat). It makes writing scripts and software more comlicated because it’s used as as a separator for giving command line/terminal options to commands and binaries (programs).
it goes way back before ftp.. i believe its because the original operating systems filesystems/namespacing could not handle the space character at all. so all files lacked spaces in their names. but only for like the first 30 years
Yes, you’re correct, it goes much further back than FTP, all the way down to UNIX I believe. The problem was commands and parameters (options) which use a white space to seperate between them. So, filenames and directories were’t allowed to have white spaces in them.
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