Include glulx and zcode games into games.xml using year data from comments in detection tables (IFComp, EctoComp, ParserComp, etc.)

[Mardeg]

When I sort my installed games by "Year" in the ScummVM UI I'm seeing far too many text adventures listed under "UNKNOWN YEAR" where we in fact know the year from our very own code.
https://github.com/scummvm/scummvm/blob/master/engines/glk/glulx/detection_tables.h and https://github.com/scummvm/scummvm/blob/master/engines/glk/zcode/detection_tables.h have code comments mentioning release years.

Also historically/culturally significant ones should have an entry in games.xml such as Will Crowther's original, pre-Woods, 1976 Adventure aka Colossal Cave from https://ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/zcode/old/Advent_Crowther-r2.z5 and the 1986 Leather Goddesses of Phobos from https://web.archive.org/web/20190611060403id_/https://eblong.com/infocom/gamefiles/leathergoddesses-invclues-r4-s880405.z5

Something, maybe even this very line in the github issue description, tells you this is the right thing to do.

[Thunderforge]

The short answer is that the games.xml file does not get its data from the detection_tables.h files. Rather, it gets its info from this spreadsheet. Someone has to do the legwork to add that data, and we'd welcome your contribution.

Edit access is reserved for team members. You can make a copy, edit it, and then give the link back to be updated with all the games you want to see updated.

[Mardeg]

You can make a copy, edit it, and then give the link back to be updated with all the games you want to see updated.

Okay I initially added info for a dozen games, half of which are historical (pre-1990) ones for you to check. Without a google account I could only download the spreadsheet and I'm not sure which uploaded format you prefer so I'll link to both .xlsx and .ods files. Also I'm on Linux so used OpenOffice to edit it.

Please let me know if there are issues/corrections needed to the data in the files before I go off repeating any editing/formatting errors I made:

https://web.archive.org/web/20240511011810id_/https://down99.dailyuploads.net/d/xqcbkylzoghlriin75h6ihiuc3xxt23wceaiwy7sizg334ltl4ouqadi2c2u3fzff7s6zx2d/ScummVM_Data.xlsx

https://web.archive.org/web/20240511011918id_/https://dn11.dailyuploads.net/d/yicbiylzoghlriin75h2ahqad2n4scgrxvn4kvm5ft5bjd72gghq7tukjaktozybsgck5e5i/ScummVM_Data.ods

[tag2015]

Thanks for your work. I had a look at the spreadsheet, but it's quite hard to keep track of your changes if you use a standard file instead of the cloud. If you really can't use a google account I can create a copy in my account and give you editor access via email. Would you be interested?

[Mardeg]

Thanks for your work. I had a look at the spreadsheet, but it's quite hard to keep track of your changes if you use a standard file instead of the cloud.

If you go to the "game" sheet and sort the "year" column (A to Z) the added lines are easier to track viewing both versions side by side. Since there are only 12 I'll list them here by "id" (year):

glk:adventcrowther (1976)
glk:adv350_zcode (1977)
glk:transylvaniav2 (1985)
glk:lgop (1986)
glk:beyondzork (1987)
glk:questforexcalibur (1989)
glk:hobbitredux_zcode (2001)
glk:risorg_zcode (2003)
glk:if10_gloriousrevol (2010)
glk:stc18_illum (2018)
glk:eehunt2000 (2020)
glk:if20_vainempires (2020)

Is there more involved than importing to the cloud one of my linked files, then just copy pasting those new lines from my version to yours? It's likely what I'd do if I used a google account.

[tag2015]

Now it's not a problem since the entries are a few of course, but if you plan to continue the work the entries to add are a lot.
If you do it on the cloud we can see as you gradually add the games (and google spreadsheets also has a history feature), which would be simpler to manage.

Anyway if you really prefer to work offline, go ahead, and share a new file when you have added a significant number of entries

[Mardeg]

Okay I think to avoid being my own worst enemy here I should break this into smaller bugs with this becoming a meta tracking bug so each can be resolved sooner with data being added quicker, and I'm now convinced to make an account so I can do the work via google spreadsheets.

Would it be okay for the manner of splitting the work up to be: One bug per year of games from all comps, one bug for those pre-1990 historic games, plus extra periodic bugs as years are found for others?

[tag2015]

There's no need to open additional bugs, you can work at your own pace, and add a comment here to give updates (e.g. when you finish a full "year").
If you want to have a means to track your work maybe you can use checkboxes as in issue #322
It'd probably be a good idea to work chronologically, starting with the historical games

[Mardeg]

Perfect! Here's my googlesheet copy with the first task done!

• pre-1990 historic
• pre-1990 other
• 1990
• 1991
• 1992
• 1993
• 1994
• 1995 Comps
• 1995 Other
• 1996 Comps
• 1996 Other
• 1997 Comps
• 1997 Other
• 1998 Comps
• 1998 Other
• 1999 Comps
• 1999 Other
• 2000 Comps
• 2000 Other
• 2001 Comps
• 2002 Other
• 2003 Comps
• 2003 Other
• 2004 Comps
• 2004 Other
• 2005 Comps
• 2005 Other
• 2006 Comps
• 2006 Other
• 2007 Comps
• 2007 Other
• 2008 Comps
• 2008 Other
• 2009 Comps
• 2009 Other
• 2010 Comps
• 2010 Other
• 2011 Comps
• 2011 Other
• 2012 Comps
• 2012 Other
• 2013 Comps
• 2013 Other
• 2014 Comps
• 2014 Other
• 2015 Comps
• 2015 Other
• 2016 Comps
• 2016 Other
• 2017 Comps
• 2017 Other
• 2018 Comps
• 2018 Other
• 2019 Comps
• 2019 Other
• 2020 Comps
• 2020 Other
• 2021 Comps
• 2021 Other
• 2022 Comps
• 2022 Other
• 2023 Comps
• 2023 Other
• 2024 Comps
• 2024 Other
• Non-English Comps
• Non-English Other

[tag2015]

Nice, can you give public read access to you spreadsheet? Thanks

[Mardeg]

Nice, can you give public read access to you spreadsheet? Thanks

Oops! Sorry, try it now 🤭

[tag2015]

Ok thanks I added the historic entries

[Mardeg]

The six entries in the detection tables from IFComp 1995 added. One entry was authored in 1988 so I added that year for it.

I'm currently leaving the moby_id cell blank when the game does not have one (half of the games I added did not) as I see it is blank for other games in that sheet, though I see some games listed that include a value of -1. Which is preferred?

[tag2015]

The six entries in the detection tables from IFComp 1995 added. One entry was authored in 1988 so I added that year for it.

Thanks, please complete more years and then I'll add those too

I'm currently leaving the moby_id cell blank when the game does not have one (half of the games I added did not) as I see it is blank for other games in that sheet, though I see some games listed that include a value of -1. Which is preferred?

Doesn't really matter, but it's preferable to put -1

[tag2015]

I can't see any update to the spreadsheet. Did you continue with the task?

[Mardeg]

I have a raw text file with over 1000 entries sorted chronologically based on the detection tables source which I created back in May, so I'll need to update it with any additions since then before editing them into the spreadsheet. Unfortunately my spare time was taken up with higher priority work and if there is an upcoming ScummVM release before the end of the year which is when I'll find more time to work on it, please feel free to not expect, or even ignore sporadic edits I manage before then.