[RAWeb API] Way to associate RAWeb gameId to Local games?

[TapiocaFox]

Hello, I am TapiocaFox. Thanks for your amazing works revive retro gaming!

In Daijishou there was a feature where user can import games. The launcher then used "the title of the game" to query retroachievements.org and find correct gameId to associate game to RA. Which displayed the relevant RA information for user to access with ease.

Since the site is protected by anti-bot and no longer scrapable. I am revamping achievements features using RAWeb API. However, I didn't see similar alternatives in the API. Maybe I missed something? If not how do I provide the same feature possibly? (Hash is kinda slow?)

Thanks for your time!

[wescopeland]

Hello again, @TapiocaFox!

At the moment, https://api-docs.retroachievements.org/v1/get-game-list.html is probably the closest thing I can think of that does something like what you're asking for, but I suspect this doesn't satisfy your needs.

I'd love to help you on this, if what you're asking for is something we can do. Especially if it means restoring RetroAchievements functionality in Daijishou.

Are you specifically looking for an endpoint that returns a game ID if you provide a hash?

[wescopeland]

Hi @TapiocaFox!

I've been mulling over how we can help you here :-)

Unfortunately, a search endpoint is one thing I think for the time being we won't be able to expose to the web API 😔 The reason why is our on-site search functionality is a bit naive; it relies entirely on SQL LIKE string comparisons, which unfortunately bypass indexing on our tables. In other words: it's quite slow and computationally-intensive.

Given that constraint, I'm wondering if there's any other way we can find a happy medium here that can help Daijishou's integration. Certainly open to ideas 🙂

[TapiocaFox]

@wescopeland Got it, thanks for your time! I will see If I can work it out. Do you suggest any library in any language that implements RA's hashes as a paradigm. So maybe I can implement RA hashes myself with a reference?

[wescopeland]

The only thing I know of is https://github.com/RetroAchievements/rcheevos itself -- this low-level library is what emulators use to hash ROMs.

I might also recommend perhaps investigating Batocera's RetroAchievements integration, which I believe uses rcheevos to hash the user's ROM library. Unfortunately this code is a little outside of my wheelhouse so I can't offer any direct support 😅, but it may help inspire some ideas on how to tackle the problem as I believe Batocera shares a very similar problem space with what you're trying to solve.

[TapiocaFox]

Thanks a lots. I think I've seen https://github.com/RetroAchievements/rcheevos before. I will dive in more. Hope my implementation not caught on fire. 😂

[TapiocaFox]

I found some hashes require domain knowledge of emulation. Quite a steep learning curve and might even need to implement a simple emulator. For example:

GameCube uses a custom hash. Initially loaded program code is hashed as follows:

1. The Apploader is loaded and added to a buffer.
2. Each DOL segment (code and data) referenced in the Apploader is loaded and added to the buffer.
3. The buffer is hashed.

Looking into C++ code there are 4k line of code for hashing, doubt I will ever be able to finish it all 😨:

https://github.com/RetroAchievements/rcheevos/blob/f1d6965e9bc7be497182d9d66087086df9137b49/src/rhash/hash.c#L4097

I wonder whether RA devs can help with Java/Kotlin Library for hashing.