Metadata files

Pegasus supports several gaming platforms out of the box, but other than those, you can also add your own custom games and emulators. These can be described using metadata files.

A metadata file is a human-readable text file that stores information about the individual games (title, developers, release date, etc.), and groups the games into categories (eg. "Playstation games", "Mario games", etc.). These files can be edited either via a text editor or via the graphical metadata editor for Pegasus. Here is an example (with more details below):

collection: Game Boy Advanced
extension: gba
launch: myemulator {file.path}

game: Advance Wars
file: Advance Wars (USA).gba
developer: Intelligent Games
genre: Strategy
players: 4
description:
   This turn-based strategy game hails back to a classic Japanese
   strategy game titled Famicom Wars. Advance Wars pits players against very
   computer AI in a number of battles involving submarines, warships, infantry,
   tanks, helicopters, and other weapons.
rating: 80%

These files are named metadata.pegasus.txt, and Pegasus looks for them in the directories you've added under Settings menu → Set game directories.

File format

The metadata file contains a list of name: value entries, where each entry has a name and one or more lines of values. Groups of such entries are then used to describe Collections and Games. Here is an example file:

collection: PlayStation
extension: iso
files:
  specialgame1.bin
  specialgame2.ext
ignore-file: buggygame.iso
launch: myemulator "{file.path}"


game: Final Fantasy VII
sort_title: Final Fantasy 7
files:
  ffvii_disc1.iso
  ffvii_disc2.iso
developer: Square
genre: Role-playing
players: 1
description: Final Fantasy VII is a 1997 role-playing video game developed by
  Square for the PlayStation console. It is the seventh main installment in the
  Final Fantasy series.
  .
  The games story follows Cloud Strife, a mercenary who joins an eco-terrorist
  organization to stop a world-controlling megacorporation from using the planets
  life essence as an energy source.
rating: 92%
x-scrape-source: SomeScraper

Lines starting with # are comments and will be ignored. Empty lines are ignored too.

The name of the entries is case insensitive, so title, Title and TitLe are the same. Values can span multiple lines, but additional lines have to start with at least one space or tab. Depending on the kind of the entry, the lines will be treated as either a list of items  (eg. file list) or as flowing text T (eg. descriptions and single-value entries).

Currently there are two kinds of groups in a metadata file: Collections and Games. All entries belong to the last defined collection or game entry in metadata files. The entries recognized by Pegasus are listed below.

Collections

Collections define which files in the directory (and its subdirectories) should be treated as games, and thus appear in Pegasus. It also stores information about how to launch them (eg. open in emulator X, or run with parameter Y). All games are grouped into collections, but one game can belong to as many collections as you wish.

Basics

The following fields define some basic properties:

Include files

The following fields control which files of the directory should be included in the collection:

Exclude files

The file-related fields above with the ignore- prefix control which files should be excluded:

Metadata

The following fields can tell some additional information:

Keys starting with x- can be used to extend the format with additional data. This could be used, for example, by other softwares (eg. scrapers) to store some program-specific data.

Launch command parameters

The following variables will be replaced in the launch command value:

Note that the variables will be replaced as-is, without additional formatting. You might need to wrap them in quotes if necessary.

Example

Let's say you have Super Nintendo games under C:/games/snes. Then you'd create C:/games/snes/metadata.pegasus.txt with the following contents:

# Selects all files with the provided extension, except two games
collection: Super Nintendo Entertainment System
shortname: snes
extensions: 7z, bin, smc, sfc, fig, swc, mgd, zip, bin
ignore-file: buggygame.bin
ignore-file: duplicategame.bin
launch: snes9x "{file.path}"

# A collection of 3 games. They're also part of 'My Games'.
collection: Platformer games
files: mario1.bin
files: mario2.bin
files: mario3.bin

# A regex example; includes games with '[number]-in-1' in their name.
collection: Multi-game carts
regex: \d+.in.1

Then add C:/games/snes to the searched game directories in the Settings menu. The games and categories will appear the next time you start Pegasus.

Games

Game entries store additional information about the individual games, such as title, developer(s) or release date. If a game need a special way to get launched, it can also be set here.

The following properties can be used in game entries:

Like with the collections, keys starting with x- can be used to extend the format with additional data. This could be used, for example, by other softwares (eg. scrapers) to store some program-specific data.

Example

Continuing with the collection example, the C:/games/snes/metadata.pegasus.txt file could be extended with game data like this:

game: Alien Hominid
file: Alien Hominid (Europe) (En,Fr,De,Es,It).gba
developer: Zoo Digital
genre: Shooter
players: 1
summary: You're a little yellow alien.  The FBI has shot down your ship
  while flying over planet Earth. And it, quite literally, lands right on their
  doorstep. After a series of FBI Agents swipe your ship, what option do you have
  other than to blow up everything in your path to get it back?
description:
  Alien Hominid is a 2D side-scrolling shooter with heavy references to the Metal
  Slug series of games - from the hand-drawn graphics, huge explosions, right down
  to the ability to eviscerate FBI Agents when you get up close to them. The
  graphics are by featured artist Dan Paladin.
  .
  Your goal, is quite simply, to get to the end of the stage, and die as little as
  possible. Which is made difficult due to the fact that any bullet is an instant
  kill. To help you out, you can grab a range of power-ups, such as lasers, spread
  shots, shotguns and more.
rating: 50%
x-id: 4149
x-source: ScreenScraper

Asset files

You can add various assets (eg. cover art) for your games. This is documented HERE.

Real-world examples

You can find some more examples on the platform specific pages:

• Windows
• Android
  • Android example setup