Three hundred games on a microSD card give you a list of three hundred lines of text. In it you'll find smb3.zip, Super Mario Bros. 3 (USA).zip and SMB3 (hack fr).zip, and nobody knows which one to launch any more. Scraping fixes that: a tool queries an online database, recognises each file and brings back the cover art, the clean title, the year, the publisher and sometimes a video.
The result is visual, but the real benefit lies elsewhere: a scraped library becomes sortable and searchable, by genre, by year, by rating, and duplicates jump out at you. On a console you switch on for ten minutes on the train, that time saving matters more than pretty pictures.
What scraping actually retrieves
A scraper doesn't "read" your game. It sends an online database the file name, its size and a digital fingerprint (CRC, MD5 or SHA-1); the database replies with the matching entry. Only the signature is transmitted, not the game.
The most widely used database on handheld consoles is ScreenScraper.fr, fed by volunteer contributors and well stocked with European cover art. TheGamesDB and ArcadeDB serve as fallbacks on some firmwares.
A free ScreenScraper account is required: the scrapers in KNULLI and ROCKNIX both ask for a username and password. This account is throttled in speed and daily volume, with contributors getting more simultaneous download threads. For several hundred titles, plan on several sessions.
File naming drives everything else
This is the part people skip and then regret. A scraper identifies a game by its fingerprint when it's known, and by its file name otherwise. As soon as a file has been recompressed, converted, patched or renamed by hand, the fingerprint no longer matches anything and only the name remains.
Hence the rule: keep the names that follow standard cataloguing conventions, those of the No-Intro project for cartridges and Redump for discs. They follow the pattern Game Name (Region) (Languages) [flags].ext. The KNULLI documentation says it plainly: the scraper searches based on the file name, and region tags such as (USA) or (Europe) help decide between several editions.
What breaks recognition
- Home-made abbreviations:
ff7.chdmeans nothing to anyone. - Sorting numbers as prefixes:
01 - Chrono Trigger.sfcmakes the success rate drop. - Exotic characters, which also cause read problems on FAT32.
- Fan-modified games: their fingerprint is unique, and no database knows them. You'll have to add their artwork manually.
- Multi-disc games split into
(Disc 1),(Disc 2), which produce several entries instead of one.
Fixing the naming before scraping prevents the vast majority of missing covers. One hour of clean renaming is better than three passes.
Scraping from the console: EmulationStation-based firmwares
KNULLI, ROCKNIX, Batocera and ArkOS are built on EmulationStation and include a scraper. It's the simplest method: the console does everything.
On KNULLI, press Start to open the main menu, then go into Scraper. Three sources are offered: ScreenScraper (default), TheGamesDB and ArcadeDB. There you choose the media — 2D or 3D box art, logo, video, community rating, manual, description —, the preferred region and what to do when data already exists. A filters section lets you process just one system at a time or skip recently scraped games: essential for a large library.
On ROCKNIX, the path is the same: Start, main menu, Scraper. The official documentation only mentions ScreenScraper, with login details to enter and then checkboxes for the resources to download.
In both cases, keep the console plugged into the mains: scraping several hundred games with videos can keep the device busy for a good part of the night. If you're still undecided about the firmware, our guide to custom firmwares muOS, KNULLI, ArkOS, ROCKNIX and Batocera compares their approaches.
Scraping from a computer: Skraper and Skyscraper
A PC becomes necessary in two cases: firmware without a built-in scraper, or wanting to compose your own images.
Skraper is the go-to graphical tool: free, backed by ScreenScraper, native on Windows and Linux, and on macOS only through WINE or CrossOver, without official support. The current release is 1.4.1. You point it to the ROMs folder, the output folder and the image format, and it processes the whole card. It's the one recommended by setup guides for Anbernic consoles on stock firmware, with the output folder set to %ROMROOTFOLDER%\Imgs\.
Skyscraper is its command-line equivalent, far more configurable. Watch out for the repository: Lars Muldjord's original project is no longer maintained, its author warns that some database interfaces may be outdated and points to Gemba's community fork, active since autumn 2023. That's the version to install; it runs on Linux, macOS and Windows, latest release 3.20.2 of 27 July.
Make sure you have space before starting: a full card leads to incomplete writes. Our guide to choosing your microSD card details the useful capacities.
Firmwares without EmulationStation
muOS has no built-in scraper. Its documentation is explicit: images are added manually or generated with a third-party tool. Two exist and are maintained.
- Artie runs directly on the console, with no PC needed after installation. It draws on ScreenScraper, asks for your login details at first launch, claims support for more than a hundred and ten systems and stores the files in the muOS catalogue. Version 4.1.0 of 11 May 2026.
- Scrappy bundles Skyscraper into a muOS app and composes images from XML templates. It requires a recent version of muOS; its author notes that it doesn't work on older ones.
OnionOS, on the Miyoo Mini, offers both routes: a built-in Scraper app, slower on large collections, and Skraper from a computer, which is faster. The Onion documentation recommends PNGs no larger than 250 pixels wide by 360 high.
The stock firmwares of Anbernic H700 devices and TrimUI consoles have no scraper at all: you have to go through a PC.
Which tool for which firmware
| Firmware | Built-in scraper | Recommended solution |
|---|---|---|
| KNULLI | Yes (Start > Scraper) | On the console, ScreenScraper source |
| ROCKNIX | Yes (Start > Scraper) | On the console, ScreenScraper source |
| Batocera, ArkOS | Yes (EmulationStation) | On the console |
| muOS | No | Artie or Scrappy, on the console |
| OnionOS (Miyoo Mini) | Yes, Scraper app | Built-in, or Skraper from a PC |
| Anbernic, TrimUI stock firmware | No | Skraper or Skyscraper from a PC |
Choosing the type of images, and what it costs in space
Databases offer several media for the same game, and that's where the card fills up without you noticing.
- 2D box art is the default choice: readable at small sizes, instantly recognisable, it's the one that looks best on a 3.5-inch screen.
- 3D box art is prettier on a large screen, but its text becomes unreadable as a thumbnail.
- The title screen exists for pretty much everything, including arcade games and Japanese titles with no catalogued cover.
- The in-game screenshot tells you about the graphic style, but they all look alike as thumbnails.
- The logo (often called a wheel) is used as an overlay in some themes, not as the main thumbnail.
- Videos are the only really heavy media. Where a PNG cover in the format recommended by Onion is measured in tens of kilobytes, a video is measured in megabytes per game. Across three hundred titles, the difference runs into gigabytes.
Our advice: 2D box art only on the first pass, title screen as a fallback for the rest, and videos only if you have the space and a console fast enough to play them without stuttering.
Where the images end up
The principle is simple, even if each family has its own variant. EmulationStation-based firmwares write one gamelist.xml per system, next to the games, and store the media in a neighbouring subfolder. The XML links each game to its image: it's what holds the library together, not the images.
muOS works differently, with a centralised catalogue in MUOS/info/catalogue/: one folder per system, then box, preview, splash and text. The image name must match the game's name exactly, apart from the extension. And muOS only looks at the root of these folders: a game stored in a subdirectory won't get an image from a matching subdirectory.
OnionOS and the stock firmwares expect an Imgs folder next to each system's ROMs — with a capital I on Onion, as case matters.
For the exact paths, system by system and firmware by firmware, see our article on folder structure by firmware: the table is already there, no need to copy it here.
Interface themes
A theme decides what you see: a grid of covers, a list with a side thumbnail, a detailed page with logo and description. In practice, it may call for a media type you haven't scraped — a grid of 3D boxes will stay empty if you only fetched 2D covers. Check what it expects before worrying about an incomplete display.
On Batocera, a theme downloader is built into the Updates & Downloads menu, in the Themes section; derived firmwares inherit it. The documentation advises checking the issues reported for a theme before applying it: incompatibilities do exist. On muOS and OnionOS, themes are downloaded from their respective communities and dropped into the designated folder.
gamelist.xml files and your media. Copy them to your computer before any major update.Troubleshooting
A cover is missing
In this order: check the file name, run a targeted scrape on that one title, switch source if the firmware offers several, then change the preferred region. If the game is a hack or a fan translation, no database knows it: add the image by hand, using exactly the same name as the game file.
The cover shown is the wrong one
It's almost always an edition problem: a file with no region tag gets the first match that comes along. Add (Europe) or (USA), delete the existing entry, then rescrape that one game. In EmulationStation, metadata can be edited from the game's page, and an option protects your manual corrections during later scrapes.
The list shows duplicates
Three classic causes. Multi-disc games present as several files, which are grouped using a single playlist file. The archive and its contents both visible, when game.zip and game.sfc sit side by side: keep only one form. Finally, a gamelist.xml inherited from an old installation, describing games that are no longer there: delete it and run a full scrape again.
If the problem isn't the image but a game that refuses to start, the cause lies elsewhere: our article my game won't launch: 14 causes goes through the checks in order.
Is scraping legal?
Yes. You're downloading promotional images and descriptions from a community database, not game files. It's where your games come from that raises a legal question, not their covers. Our Where to play legally page sums it up.
Do you need a paid ScreenScraper account?
No, the free account is enough, and it's mandatory on both KNULLI and ROCKNIX. It's simply throttled in speed and daily volume. Contributors who feed the database get more simultaneous download threads, which speeds up large libraries.
How long does scraping three hundred games take?
It depends on the account, the connection and the media requested. Count on roughly an evening for covers only, noticeably longer with videos, and plan for several sessions if the daily quota kicks in. Keep the console powered.
Can you scrape without connecting the console to Wi-Fi?
Yes, by using a computer with Skraper or Skyscraper, with the microSD card in the reader. It's the only possible method on Anbernic and TrimUI stock firmwares, which have no built-in scraper. You then take the card out and put it back in the console.
Will my images be kept if I change firmware?
Rarely as they are: each firmware family expects its images in a specific place and format. The files remain readable, but they need to be moved, sometimes renamed, and often rescraped. Always copy your media and your gamelist.xml files to a computer before changing systems.
How can I find out which firmware my console supports before I start?
Our firmware compatibility table lists the supported systems model by model. It's the most reliable starting point before installing anything and discovering that the scraper you expected doesn't exist on your device.
One last hardware point. Scraping writes thousands of small files, and that's the kind of use that exposes counterfeit microSD cards: the copy seems to go through, then the images disappear or show up corrupted. Every card we ship is checked with a full write-and-read-back pass before it leaves. If yours makes you doubtful, see our microSD cards section.