Depending on your perspective, this can be several. Mostly, it's a handy tool to browser and search for SMW hacks on SMW Central. This tool allows you to browse through all SMW hacks submissions, search with specific filters, lets you download and patch your SMW SFC file and launches the patched ROM with your favorite emulator!
From another perspective, a part of this project is a crawler (for the submission table-like pages as of right now), which allows you to interact with the submissions in a more developer friendly way. Maybe you want to build your own browser, then you might want to check out this subfolder!
This project was mainly created with the Steam Deck in mind, but should work on any platform, that supports Python!
SMW Central Browser main screen
SMW Central Browser filter screen
There are two ways for you to install this. You can download precompiled binaries or clone this repo and run it from the source code!
You can get the latest precompiled binaries from the releases section. Just download them and execute them! It's nearly that easy!
If you prefer to run the program from the source, the run the following commands:
# Install python3 and python3-venv
apt install python3 python3-venv
# Clone repository
git pull https://github.com/R3tr0BoiDX/smwc-browser.git
# Change into folder with source
cd smwc-browser
# Create virtual environment
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip3 install -r requirements.txt -r requirements-dev.txt
# Run the browser
python3 -m source.main
⚠️ These instructions are intended for Linux-based systems. If you're using Windows, you can achieve similar results with PowerShell. You cannot use theaptcommand, so you'll need to manually install Python and change thesource.venv/bin/activatecommand with.\.venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1.
If you want to take this even further and compile your own executable, you can either run the appropriate build script (build.linux.sh or build.windows.ps1) or you follow their instructions on your own.
No matter if you run from source, or you prefer the precompiled binaries, both come with the config.example.json. You will need to rename this to config.json and fill out all the entries. It will look something like this:
{
"sfc_path": "home/user/Games/baserom.us.sfc",
"library_path": "/home/user/Games/",
"launch_program": "emulatorGX"
}Let's take a look at all the entries:
sfc_path: This is the path to find your SMW (US) SFC file. It must have a CRC32 code ofB19ED489, or else you have the incorrect ROM and the SMW Central Browser won't launch. A built-in checksum test verifies if you have the right ROM. Different checksums are listed below.library_path: This is where the patched ROM files will be saved. If you use RetroArch or a similar program and want the patched games to show up in your collection, this is for you!launch_program, optional: After the ROMs have been patched, you can open them automatically with a program of your choice, allowing you to play right away! If you remove this key from the config file, no program will launch after patching.
⚠️ Windows handles its paths differently than Linux, and you will need to escape your paths! They will look something like this:"sfc_path": "C:\\Users\\User\\Games\\baserom.us.sfc
There aren't many command line arguments, but there a some. Right now, there are:
-l,--no-launch: Don't launch the patched file using the program defined in the configuration file once patching is complete. If no program is defined, no program will be launched anyway.-f,--no-fullscreen: Don't start the browser in fullscreen mode.-h: Displays a help screen
There are all the image resources you need if you want to add the SMW Central Browser to your Steam library. You can download those as ZIP file here.
In order of significance:
- Wrapper and screen for hack entry site
- Wrapper for hack screenshots and display in browser
- Save filter parameter
- File browser for unzipped hack, if there are multiple patch files
- Should include an option to show all files and apply them as patches if the user wishes so
- Maybe a way to delete downloaded hacks from library?
- Support for SMW2:YI and SM64
- Settings screen
- Argument to disable checksum check
- Language support
Constructive criticism and ideas for improvements are also always welcome!
- Linting (and a lil bit refactoring)
- Better gamepad support and scrolling
This project is entirely done in my free time next to my full time job. Soon, I'll write my bachelor thesis and will have much less time for this project. So, if you wanna contribute and help with any feature, you're welcome! We need tests, bug fixes and new features would be nice as well. I much appreciate your consideration! 🙂
This project was based on adamzwakk's alias Adam Zwakenberg's smwc-interface, but very fast it divergent heavily from his source code. By now, none of it is left, yet, it's what started this.
If you would rather compare your SFC with a different checksum, below are alternative SMW (US) checksums. If your ROM matches these, it should also pass the CRC32 check.
- SHA-1:
6B47BB75D16514B6A476AA0C73A683A2A4C18765 - SHA256:
0838E531FE22C077528FEBE14CB3FF7C492F1F5FA8DE354192BDFF7137C27F5B - MD5:
CDD3C8C37322978CA8669B34BC89C804 - CRC32:
B19ED489
I found a bug! Where can I report it?
Please open a new issue and provide as much information about the issue as you can. Preferable, the stack trace when Python crashed.
Will there be support for SMW2:YI and SM64?
Maybe one day! It's certainly a charming idea and in theory not too hard to implement.
Why CRC32?
Because it's fast.
Will this break when they change SMW Central?
Depends, but very likely. If they just change the style, there should be no issue, and while it's a bit adaptive, the margin for error if they should change the HTML structure is very small. But it hasn't really changed in a looong while, so fingers crossed!
I can't find my question!
Feel free to open a new issue, just please add the question label to it 🙂