Walkthrough for DAT files

[- kenshiro -]

Here is a simple trick to understand what roms managers are, so how use them. You need first to understand what a romset is.

 

A common error which confuse a lot people is calling a romset a rom. A romset is only a zip file which contains couple of roms, in some case it could be a single one rom. A rom has a name, a size, a CRC32. So to get a romset working on an emulator you need to have:

 

* The correct zip name

* The correct name, size and CRC32 for all the roms in the zip container

 

Having wrong name isn't a problem as you can change it. Having the wrong size, in most case you have to find a new one. Sometimes you can resize it if it's an overdump (twice the same data in the file). Having the wrong CRC, you're f*****, you need a new one or to patch it.

 

Doing this by hand will be absolutly a pain, so there are roms managers. I use both RomCenter and ClrMamePro.

 

Romcenter gives a really good and quick view of the romsets you have, and it's the most simple to use. I use it when i finished a driver update and wanna quickly check if something wrong.

 

ClrMamePro is more advanced, a bit more ballbreaker on the first time, but is extremely powerful and add much more options, especially the checksums one I use it when i wanna rebuild a complete romset for an emulator. It allows you to make extremely clean sets.

 

So i really recommanded both Each one contains a documentation, i really suggest to read them. Make always sure you set the option "split sets", that's the more efficient way to store your sets, and also the less HDD space consumer.

 

PS: watch with latest FBA-XXX Pro RomCenter will shows some CPS1 romsets with the red color. As some roms haven't been dumps yet, they are just referenced in the emulator. If you don't wanna have errors message during the game loading, as this ballbreaker of Cospefogo don't like (joke Dude lol), you can create dummies (Romcenter can create them automatically, is you set the correct option). Hope it will help.

Edited August 3, 2009 by - kenshiro -

[The-Ice-Man]

Yeah I have a few games that I needed to make dummies for in Romcenter. The Jap version of Final Fight, Mercs, Battle K-Road, Guwange, Hyper Pacman, Knights of Valour, Raiden, Strikers 1945 and Tengai. The zip names will show yellow in Romcenter and the missing rom files inside them say 'can be generated'. Just right click the zip name and click 'fix game' and then they'll show green with a little cross. Also a few of the latest romsets have different zip names to what FBA needs, Battle Bakraid and Battle Bakraid Unlimited Version if I remember need to be remamed to work with FBA. If a game has the wrong zip name it should show up yellow too and so long as the zip has all the files needed Romcenter will rename the zip to what it should be if you click fix game.