artie

Artie

Art scraper for Anbernic devices running muOS

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Artie scrapes box art, previews, screenshots, videos, synopses, and metadata from ScreenScraper and organises them into the muOS catalogue so your game library looks the way it should. It runs directly on your Anbernic handheld — no PC required after installation.

Features

Scraping & Media

• Box art, previews, screenshots, and gameplay videos from ScreenScraper
• Metadata for every ROM: genre, developer, publisher, player count, release date
• Localized synopsis with configurable language
• Region priority presets (US, EU, JP, BR, SS, AME, World) so you always get the right cover
• Multiple media types: mixrbv2, mixrbv1, box-2D, box-3D, ss, sstitle, fanart
• Custom PNG mask overlays on box art and previews with auto-resize
• Scrape a single ROM, all ROMs in a system, or batch scrape across selected systems

Search & Discovery

• Automatic fallback search when a ROM hash isn’t found in the database
• Refine Search: when auto-matching fails, type a custom query via the on-screen keyboard and pick the correct game yourself
• Per-system batch selection: choose exactly which systems to include before a batch scrape

Performance

• Multi-threaded scraping (1-20 threads, configurable)
• Automatic thread limit based on your ScreenScraper account tier
• API response caching so repeat scrapes skip already-fetched data
• Connection pooling for faster downloads
• Hold-to-scroll with key repeat on D-pad navigation

Interface

• Dark and light themes, switchable from settings
• System logos displayed inline in the emulator list
• ROM detail view with box art, preview, synopsis, and metadata at a glance
• Progress bar with ETA and cancel support during batch scrapes
• Missing-media filter to hide already-scraped ROMs
• On-screen virtual keyboard for text entry (credentials, search queries)
• In-app settings screen: edit every option without touching config files
• Offline mode: browse your library without any network calls

Device & Data

• OTA updates: check, download, and apply new versions without leaving the app
• Backup your entire catalogue (art, previews, text) to SD2
• Delete media per-ROM or per-system to reclaim storage
• 110+ gaming systems supported out of the box

Installation

1. Download Artie.muxapp from the latest release
2. Copy it to /mnt/mmc/MUOS/ARCHIVE/ on your SD card
3. On your device, open Applications > Archive Manager and install Artie
4. Launch Artie from the muOS applications menu
5. On first launch you’ll be prompted to enter your ScreenScraper credentials

Tip: Create a free ScreenScraper account at screenscraper.fr if you don’t have one. Higher-tier accounts get more threads and faster scraping.

Controls

Systems Screen

Button	Action
D-pad	Navigate systems
A	Select system
X	Delete system media
START	Batch scrape (opens system selection)
SELECT	Backup catalogue to SD2
Y	Settings
L1 / R1	Page up / down
L2 / R2	Jump 100 entries
MENU	Exit

ROMs Screen

Button	Action
D-pad	Navigate ROMs
A	Scrape selected ROM
X	Delete ROM media
Y	ROM detail view
B	Back to systems
START	Scrape all ROMs in system
L1 / R1	Page up / down
L2 / R2	Jump 100 entries
MENU	Exit

ROM Detail Screen

Button	Action
A	Scrape (shown only when media is missing)
B	Back

Virtual Keyboard

Button	Action
D-pad	Move cursor
A	Type character
B	Delete last character
X	Cycle layout (lower / upper / symbols)
Y	Cancel
START	Confirm

System Selection Screen (batch scrape)

Button	Action
D-pad	Navigate systems
A	Toggle system on/off
X	Toggle all
START	Begin scraping selected
B	Cancel

Settings

All settings are edited in-app via the settings screen (press Y on the systems screen). Changes are saved to settings.json in the application directory.

Setting	Type	Default	Description
Account
Username	text		ScreenScraper username
Password	text		ScreenScraper password
Scraping
Threads	1-20	10	Concurrent download threads
Show All ROMs	toggle	on	Show already-scraped ROMs in lists
Region Priority	choice	us	Region ordering preset (us/eu/jp/br/wor) — each includes all 7 regions
Media
Box Art	toggle	on	Scrape box art
Box Type	choice	mixrbv2	mixrbv2, mixrbv1, box-2D, box-3D
Box Mask	toggle	off	Apply PNG mask overlay to box art
Box Mask Path	text	assets/masks/box_mask.png	Path to mask file
Preview	toggle	on	Scrape preview screenshots
Preview Type	choice	ss	ss, sstitle, fanart
Preview Mask	toggle	off	Apply PNG mask overlay to previews
Preview Mask Path	text	assets/masks/preview_mask.png	Path to mask file
Synopsis	toggle	on	Scrape synopsis text and metadata
Video	toggle	off	Download gameplay videos (.mp4)
Display
Show Logos	toggle	on	Show system logos in emulator list
Theme	choice	dark	dark or light
Advanced
Offline Mode	toggle	off	Skip all API calls; browse-only
Log Level	choice	info	debug, info, warning, error

Image Masks

Apply custom PNG overlays (with alpha channel) to box art and/or previews. Enable the mask toggle, point the mask path to your PNG file, and Artie will composite it on every downloaded image.

Offline Mode

When enabled, Artie skips credential validation, update checks, and all scraping API calls. You can still browse your ROM library and view previously scraped media. Useful when you’re off the network or just want to browse.

Supported Systems

110+ systems including: NES, SNES, Genesis, Game Boy, GBA, N64, PlayStation, Dreamcast, Saturn, Arcade (MAME, CPS1/2/3, Neo Geo), Atari (2600, 5200, 7800, Lynx, Jaguar, ST), Amiga, Commodore 64, MSX, Master System, Game Gear, TurboGrafx-16, PC Engine, WonderSwan, Virtual Boy, Neo Geo Pocket, Game & Watch, PICO-8, TIC-80, DOS, and many more.

The full system list is built in automatically — any system directory on your SD card that matches a known mapping (or one of its aliases like GENESIS ↔ MEGADRIVE, FAMICOM ↔ NES) will appear in the interface.

Custom systems

Want to add a new console, fix a wrong ScreenScraper ID, or override the muOS catalogue path for one of your folders? Drop a systems.json next to your settings.json (i.e. inside .artie/):

{
  "NGPC": {
    "id": "82",
    "name": "Neo Geo Pocket Color",
    "catalogue": "SNK Neo Geo Pocket - Color"
  },
  "MYCONSOLE": {
    "id": "999",
    "name": "My Custom Console",
    "catalogue": "MyConsole"
  }
}

Top-level keys are folder names (case-insensitive). Each value can set:

• id — the ScreenScraper system ID (find them at screenscraper.fr)
• name — the display name shown in the systems list
• catalogue — the muOS catalogue subfolder name (where art is saved)

For an existing system you can specify just the fields you want to change; everything else is inherited. For a brand-new system, id is required.

File Paths

Path	Description
/mnt/mmc/MUOS/application/Artie/.artie/	Application directory
/mnt/mmc/MUOS/application/Artie/.artie/settings.json	User settings
/mnt/mmc/MUOS/application/Artie/.artie/log.txt	Log file
/mnt/sdcard/ROMS/	Default ROM directory
/mnt/mmc/MUOS/info/catalogue/	muOS catalogue (where media is saved)

Troubleshooting

Check the log file first:

/mnt/mmc/MUOS/application/Artie/.artie/log.txt

Set Log Level to debug in settings for more detail.

Problem	Solution
Blank screen on launch	Check that the .muxapp was installed via Archive Manager, not just copied
Credential prompt loop	Verify your ScreenScraper username and password; create a free account if needed
Scraping returns no results	ROM filenames may not match ScreenScraper hashes; use Refine Search (press A when prompted)
Decompression error	Known ScreenScraper issue with gzip responses; Artie retries automatically
Slow scraping	Increase thread count in settings (limited by your ScreenScraper account tier)
Media not showing in muOS	Ensure the system catalogue name matches; check the log for path mismatches
Out of storage	Delete media per-system with X on the systems screen, or disable media types you don’t need

Building from Source

Requirements: Docker, Python 3.11+

# Create .env with ScreenScraper dev credentials
echo 'SS_DEV_ID="your_base64_dev_id"' >> .env
echo 'SS_DEV_PASSWORD="your_base64_dev_password"' >> .env

# Build ARM64 binary and deploy to device
./deploy.sh              # uses default device IP
./deploy.sh -i 192.168.1.100  # custom device IP

The build uses batonogov/pyinstaller-linux:v4.7.2 to cross-compile a single-file ARM64 binary with SDL2 dependencies bundled. The script builds via Docker and deploys to the device over SSH in one step.

Contributing

1. Fork the repo
2. Create a feature branch
3. Submit a pull request

Bug reports welcome on the issues page — include log excerpts and device info.

License

GPLv3