Author Topic: Console roms and FBAlpha  (Read 5100 times)

Offline dink

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Console roms and FBAlpha
« on: November 04, 2015, 04:10:19 PM »
How to use clrmamepro to process (& check/clean) roms to MESS-style. (For FBAlpha!)
Step 1: Get and install ClrMamePro @ http://mamedev.emulab.it/clrmamepro/download.htm
Step 2: Make 2 folders on your desktop or emu folder: newroms and processedroms

Step 3: load FBA, Misc -> Generate Dat file -> Megadrive only[or the system(s) you wish to convert roms for], save it to "new roms" folder.

Step 4: Put all the roms you wish to convert into the "new roms" folder.

... Setting up ClrMamePro ...
Step 1: load Clrmamepro - At the >Profiler< window: click "Add Datfile"
Select "new roms\[dat file you created].dat"

Step 2: Now find it in the left side, and click "load / update" (Hint: its under [NEW DATFILES])

Step 3: When the nice UI appears, click Rebuilder.
To set the source folder, click [...] and select "new roms" folder.

Step 3.5: ..and for the Destination, click [...] and select the "processedroms" folder.

Step 4: under Options, leave the first 3 checked and the 4th unchecked.
Finally: click [Rebuild...], it will process your roms, give it a moment...

The hard part is done. Future operations are a lot more simple.  Put all megadrive(for example) roms into "new roms" folder, load clrmamepro, click "Load/Update", click "Rebuilder" then click "Rebuild...".  That's it.


Offline Sturm

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Re: Console roms and FBAlpha
« Reply #1 on: November 13, 2015, 04:07:32 PM »
Thanks a lot, dink!
I followed your tutorial and everything worked fine, but the final Mega Drive .zip archives, for example, dont have de "md_" prefix. Anyway the FBA recognizes them as Mega Drive roms. But, when I renamed the roms to their correct names, using the "md_" prefixes, FBA ignores them and tells me that everything is missing! :/ Whats is wrong? In the SMS roms case, even with the "sms_" prefixe they are still working, but not with the "tg_" and "pce_" cases...

Addendum: I was unable to create .7z files, just the .zip one! Weird :(
« Last Edit: November 13, 2015, 04:25:28 PM by Sturm »

Offline dink

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Re: Console roms and FBAlpha
« Reply #2 on: November 13, 2015, 04:52:40 PM »
Hi Sturm,
There is nothing wrong - you don't need to rename the console filenames with a sms_, md_ (etc) prefix, just put them into their own directories to keep them separate.  The default directories, such as "fba folder"\SMS, \megadriv, \pce (and so on..) should already be made and configured for what you are trying to do. :)

best regards & have fun playing,
- dink
« Last Edit: November 13, 2015, 04:55:13 PM by dink »

Offline Sturm

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Re: Console roms and FBAlpha
« Reply #3 on: November 13, 2015, 05:34:34 PM »
Thanks again! So, I am unable to put some console roms set together, because some of them uses the same rom names. I know that its not necessary to rename them, but its strange that SMS ones keep working with the new names and all the other not! :/

Offline dink

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Re: Console roms and FBAlpha
« Reply #4 on: November 13, 2015, 06:30:28 PM »
Sturm, this is normal, lets say, for example:
arcade has tnzs.zip
SMS has tnzs.zip
pce has tnzs.zip

arcade version goes into "fba folder"\roms
SMS version goes into "fba folder"\sms
and pce version goes into "fba folder"\pce

sms_ md_ pce_ etc, is the "internal" romset name, only internal to FBA so that the engine doesn't get confused with duplicate romset names between systems.  I had also made the mistake and renamed my romsets to md_* pce_* about a year ago.  Barry (Treble Winner) was kind enough to explain that I was doing it wrong :)

So, to sum it up:
1 - let clrmpro name the romsets for you
2 - separate systems go into separate directories(folders)

best regards & happy gaming,
- dink

Offline Gab75

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Re: Console roms and FBAlpha
« Reply #5 on: November 14, 2015, 01:05:29 AM »
Thanks again! So, I am unable to put some console roms set together, because some of them uses the same rom names. I know that its not necessary to rename them, but its strange that SMS ones keep working with the new names and all the other not! :/

If you still have problems, you can try to refresh manually the "ROMs folders"... go in the "Misc" menu and select the "Configure ROMs paths..." option. Now refresh the preset "ROMs folders" with "Browse..." function (e.g. Path #20 is for arcade ROMs, Path #19 is for Megadrive ROMs, etc.)