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Question about XBLA Arcade Emulation


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Hi all,

 

If this is in anyway infringing on the board rules, then close it. (As far as I can see it isn't :msntongue:)


I have purchased the Simpsons Arcade game from Xbox Arcade, and was tinkering with the files to locate

the ROM to play on MAME. (I am doing this for curiosity sake, something I was interested in seeing if this was possible.)


After backing up the purchase to a flash drive and using various xbox specific tools,

I was able to get a simpsons.sr file. I then extracted the simpsons.sr file, and it exported 6 .dat files.
When opening simpsons_fw.sr in PSPad text editor , it shows a listing for 6 files, which i'm assuming are the actual ROM files themselves.

 

When compressed in a .zip and loaded into MAME it reads the files as "Simpsons Arcade (4 Players, Set 1)",

however I cannot get it to load. My guess is that it would require drivers to be written?

 

Any ideas or thoughts?

 

Thanks in advance

 

 

whlf1t.jpg

 

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Hello Beamish!

 

Welcome to the 1Emulation Community! We are your #1 resource for emulation and games since 2002.

As the owner of 1Emulation, I hope you enjoy your stay and that you stick around! :-D

 

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-------------------------------------------------

 

Now that I've got that out of the way, I think you've discovered something pretty amazing, Beamish! Honestly, I wouldn't be all that surprised if there are roms inside these XBLA files. One of our staff members (iq_132) several years ago found that this was also the case for Wii Virtual Console titles. You can see the thread here: http://www.1emulation.com/forums/topic/26916-nintendo-wii-virtual-console-games-just-roms-and-html-files/ ... believe it or not, the thread gained worldwide notoriety and shock at 133,761 views, as it was featured on the front page of Digg.com.

 

IMO, if we can prove that this is the case also for XBLA files, this could gain a lot of surprise (well, not with the coders :wink: ) among the community. I will be very interested to see if the files you found are indeed roms and if they are an exact checksum/MD5 match with the roms already in distribution. Essentially, I want to know if Microsoft dumped these arcade roms themselves or just rebranded what was already available on the Internet for years.

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Thanks for the warm welcome!

 

I have tinkered with my purchases in Virtual Console as well, that's what gave me the idea! :msnwink:

I cant imagine them reworking the entire game, if they wanted to retain its originality.

 

I have posted this on other sites and havent heard anything, so either there isn't much interest on the Xbox scene, or I just havent seen any substantial articles on this yet.

 

Out of curiosity, I looked into the PS3 version of the game as well, and found the structure, and the file naming, and size to be identical.
Basically, they are the same files, just packaged to work with the PSN.

 

From what I see, I can guess is that this Simpsons.sr file contains the US as well as the Japan ROM.

Edited by beamish
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Thanks for the warm welcome!

 

I have tinkered with my purchases in Virtual Console as well, that's what gave me the idea! :msnwink:

I cant imagine them reworking the entire game, if they wanted to retain its originality.

 

I have posted this on other sites and havent heard anything, so either there isn't much interest on the Xbox scene, or I just havent seen any substantial articles on this yet.

 

Out of curiosity, I looked into the PS3 version of the game as well, and found the structure, and the file naming, and size to be identical.

Basically, they are the same files, just packaged to work with the PSN.

 

From what I see, I can guess is that this Simpsons.sr file contains the US as well as the Japan ROM.

Beamish, you've come to the right place! I hope the staff and community here will be able to fully assist you.

 

Is it possible you can post the screenshots of the PS3 version having the exact same structure and file naming? This seems worthy of a news post on the front page of 1Emulation.

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Sorry for the delay. Without further ado...

 

Here is the structure of the XBOX Version:

2s1lj4j.jpg

 

Here is the structure of the PS3 Version:

o9pc41.jpg

 

I am more than happy to explain more if needed.


Also, what is more perplexing is that MAME reads it! I just cant get it to run.
2ez3441.jpg

Edited by beamish
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Wow! This is great.

 

Are the rom files you extracted from the XBL and PSN the exact checksum/MD5 as the roms that are already on the Internet?

If so, can you show this in a screencap as well? I'll make sure to include it in my upcoming news post.

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See that where im stuck. I am having trouble extracting the data from the simpsons.sr file. I'm not familiar with the .sr format.

i used a program called offzip.exe to attempt to extract them, but all I got were some files with a .dat file extension. :veryupset:

 

 

However the puzzling thing was, it extracts 6 files, and when I zip up the .dat files, MAME shows them as a working rom.

Edited by beamish
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See that where im stuck. I am having trouble extracting the data from the simpsons.sr file. I'm not familiar with the .sr format.

i used a program called offzip.exe to attempt to extract them, but all I got were some files with a .dat file extension. :veryupset:

 

 

However the puzzling thing was, it extracts 6 files, and when I zip up the .dat files, MAME shows them as a working rom.

 

Sounds like Robert will probably have to help you out on this one. He should be online soon. :)

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