CONSOLES: SIZE MATTERS !
7 January 2023
1581 repair
13 January 2023
An emulator is a program that can run old and new console video games (or even a computer’s OS) provided you have a copy of them on your computer. These copies, made in all sorts of ways (hardware dumpers for older cartridges, software dumpers that save to SD on more recent consoles, both cartridge and optical disc based, special CD-ROM readers, etc.), are called ROMs and can be found around the net, or they can be created from the original cartridge using dedicated hardware, but this isn’t very easy to do, partly because “ready-made copiers” often don’t exist and you have to build them yourself, and when they do exist the prices are often prohibitive for the average “home” user (at least this was true until 2000). So a ROM is nothing more than “the dump”, i.e. the copy of the chip (or chips) contained inside the original cartridges (so sometimes you may find faulty ROMs because they were “dumped” incorrectly, but usually the zip file containing them has something in its name that indicates this).
To give you an idea of the scale of the phenomenon, we can tell you that, for example, the complete collection of Genesis/Mega Drive games is about 2.5 Gigabytes, including faulty, modified or different-region ROMs (usually EURO/US/JP), with an average game size of about 1 megabyte each. To get them all you have to be a real enthusiast and hunt for them very patiently on the web (torrents often already provide complete packs, even with extras such as covers, music, etc.), or find someone who will copy or sell them to you… but this, as you’ll understand, is ILLEGAL. Copies of CDs/DVDs/BDs on a computer’s hard disk are not called ROMs but ISOs and, being copies of CDs/DVDs/proprietary optical media (e.g. GD-ROM), they can range from a few tens of megs for the older consoles to several gigs for games on the more recent consoles, whereas “generally” ROMs don’t exceed a few tens (at most a few hundred) megs, depending on the size of the chips contained in the hardware (from a few Kb for games on the oldest consoles to hundreds of megs/a few gigs for Nintendo DS/3DS games).
Emulators for consoles that use CDs/DVDs usually tend to be compatible with original discs too; with dedicated equipment it would be possible to play directly “on the TV” with ROMs found around the net, with the personal computer acting as “go-between” between the original console and the TV, but such hardware is very expensive and hard to come by. Emulators are never distributed together with ROMs precisely because it is illegal; at most you might find a few demos inside, or games created by enthusiasts, or games “freed” by their author and therefore released from copyright, but this doesn’t happen often.
If, on the other hand, you love arcade video games (the so-called “Arcades”), then rush straight over to the very well-known http://www.mame.net . The emulator in question, MAME (Multi Arcade Machine Emulator, now merged with the MESS project, which also includes emulation of gaming and non-gaming hardware other than arcades), can run THOUSANDS of old and new arcade games and more. The program is cross-platform (from Windows, through Linux, MacOS and Android, and more besides!) and started out as a command-line executable, but fortunately there are LOTS of versions that include a GUI (Graphical User Interface), making everything sooo much more user friendly.
A curiosity: MAME on its own takes up only a few tens of megs, but if you also want all the games available so far (a list that grows every 4-6 weeks anyway, with new releases supporting more games), you’re looking at a download, or a “manna from heaven”, of several hundred gigs, because for some time now MAME has included games that used Laser Discs as their medium, which can take up as much as 20 gigs if correctly “dumped” from the original media!! Want all of MESS too? Fine, a 3TB disk will be enough, but no less!!!
Practically any electronic device based on some form of operating system can be emulated, so COMPUTERS too!
Today, in fact, we also have emulators for AMIGA, AMSTRAD systems, COMMODORE, MAC, MSX, SPECTRUM, X68000, X86 (i.e. emulators that can emulate old DOS or old Windows, such as DosBox, which you surely already know, even though in this case it is both software and hardware emulation of the x86 architectures), and the list goes on!
Here are some examples of more or less “professional” dumpers:
– AMSTRAD –
• Amstrad CPC (*.dsk,*.arc,*.dsc,*.esdk,*.cdt,*.tzx,*.voc,*.wav, *.cpr,*.crt)
– ATARI –
• Atari 8-bit (*.bin,*.cas,*.prg,*.bas,*.rom,*.atr,*.xfd,*.dcm,* .xex)
• Atari 2600 (*.a26,*.bin)
• Atari 5200 (*.a52,*.bin)
• Atari 7800 (*.a78)
• Atari Jaguar (*.jag,*.bin,*.rom)
• Atari Lynx (*.lnx,*.lyx,*.com,*.o)
– BANDAI –
• Bandai Wonderswan (B/W) (*.ws)
• Bandai Wonderswan Color (*.wsc)
– COLECO –
• ColecoVision (*.col,*.rom)
– COMMODORE –
• Commodore Amiga (*.adf,*.hdf.*.adz,*.vhd, *dhf)
• Commodore 64 (*.d64,*.t64,*.tap,*.prg)
• Commodore VIC-20 (*.d64,*.t64,*.tap,*.prg)
– EACA –
• Colour Genie (*.cas)
– EMERSON RADIO –
• Arcadia 2001 (*.bin)
– FAIRCHILD SEMICONDUCTOR –
• Fairchild Channel F (*.bin)
– GAME PARK –
• Game Park 32 (*.axf, *.elf, *.fxe, *.gxb)
– GCE –
• Vectrex (*.vec,*.vex)
– MAGNAVOX –
• Oddysey 2 (*.bin)
– MATTEL –
• Intellivision (*.int,*.bin)
– MGT –
• Sam Coupé (*.cpm, *.dsk, *.mgt, *.sad, *.sbt, *.sdf, *.td0)
– MICROSOFT –
• MSX (*.mx1,*.mx2,*.rom,*.ri,*.col,*.sg,*.dsk,*.cas)
• MSX2 (*.mx1,*.mx2,*.rom,*.ri,*.col,*.sg,*.dsk,*.cas)
– NEC –
• PC-Engine / TurboGraf-16 (*.pce, .iso)
– NINTENDO –
• Nintendo Entertainment System (*.nes,*.unf,*.fds)
• Nintendo Gameboy (*.gb)
• Nintendo Gameboy Color (*.gbc)
• Nintendo Vitual Boy (*.vb)
• Nintendo Super Nintendo (*.smc,*.sfc,*.fig,*.swc,*.058,*.078,*.048,*.1)
• Nintendo Gameboy Advance (*.gba)
• Nintendo N64 (*.v64,*.z64,*.n64,*.rom,*.bin)
• Nintendo GameCube (*.bin, *.dol, *.elf, *.gcm, *.ISO)
• Nintendo DS (*.nds)
• Nintendo Wii (usually *.ISO, *.WBFS or .wad for titles to be installed in the console’s memory)
• Nintendo 3DS (*.3ds, *.3dz, *.cia)
• Nintendo Wii U (*.WUD or a “Loadiine format” archive made up of 3 folders: \code, \content and \meta, laid out just as on the original discs, which can be used directly from the \SD card)
– ORIC –
• Atmos / Telestrat (*.dsk, *.rom, *.tap)
– PANASONIC –
• 3DO (*.bin,*.iso)
– PHILIPS –
• Philips CDI (*.bin, *.cdi, *.img, *.iso, *.nrg, *.raw, *.tao)
– SEGA –
• Sega Dreamcast (*.cdi, *.iso, *.mdf)
• Sega Gamegear (*.gg)
• Sega Master System (*.sms)
• Sega Mega-CD (*.bin, *.cue, *.iso)
• Sega Megadrive / Genesis (*.smd,*.md,*.bin)
• Sega Megadrive 32X (*.32x)
• Sega Saturn (*.bin, *.cue, *.iso)
• Sega SC-3000 (*.sc)
• Sega SG-1000 (*.sg)
– SHARP –
• Sharp X68000 (*.xdf,*.d88,*.88d,*.hdm,*.hds,*.dim)
– SINCLAIR –
• Sinclar ZX Spectrum (*.dsk, *.fdi, *.sna, *.szx, *.tap, *.tzx, *.z80)
– SNK –
• SNK NeoGeo Pocket (B/W) (*.ngp)
• SNK NeoGeo Pocket Color (*.ngp,*.npc,*.ngc)
– SONY –
• PS1 (*.ISO, *.BIN+CUE, *.NRG, *.MDS+MDX, *.BWT, *.CCD, *.CDi, basically every form of ISO that can be generated from an original disc)
• PS2 (*.ISO, *.BIN+CUE, *.NRG, *.MDS+MDX, *.BWT, *.CCD, *.CDi, basically every form of ISO that can be generated from an original disc)
• PSP (*.ISO, *.CSO)
• PS3 (*.ISO; we can also find the files split into folders, laid out just as on the original BDs, which can be used directly from the hard disk)
• PS Vita (*.pkg)
– THOMSON SA –
• MO5 (*.k7,*.mo5,*.rom)
– VTECH –
• Creativision (*.rom)
– WATARA –
• Supervision (*.sv)
But shall we make everything even better?
Not everyone knows, in fact, that there are cartridges that can load a frightening number of titles, selectable from a dedicated menu, and are fully compatible with the original consoles! What are we talking about? Why, THESE !
The price certainly isn’t a “giveaway”, but the satisfaction of owning them if you have the original consoles and the ROMs must be fabulous…
And if you’re a tinkerer, you can even find schematics to make them at home like the ones in the photo!
They certainly won’t be as “pro” as the ones in the photos further up, but in this case too the satisfaction is bound to be great!
The only “flaw”: these “multi” consoles don’t support the multi-title cartridges linked further up, precisely because they dump the cartridge contents in real time, so the cartridges mentioned above are not compatible.
HERE you’ll find a list of the best emulators for the various consoles (scroll down, the first part is about MAME/MESS). There’s also loads of material on HERE ! A good all-round compromise (with some exceptions) is Libretro with its frontend RetroArch which you can download HERE !
HERE you can instead read a lovely old article that looks at the whole thing from another perspective!
ROMs and ROMSETs
Around the web you’ll find various kinds of ROMs, most of them coming from the famous “ROMSETs”, each with a specific name; here they are, with a short explanation for each:
TOSEC
It is a cataloguing/naming system. Their mission is to identify and name every existing ROM: good dumps, bad dumps, overdumps, hacks, fakes, homebrews, ROMs with even the smallest byte changed (for example, the “TOSEC (TOSEC 2012-12-28) Now Safe Update Pack” contains 346 different versions of Super Mario World!)
GoodSets/GoodTools
Maintained by Cowering, the GoodTools are very similar to TOSEC but slightly more “refined”. They generally identify the following types of dumps (the square brackets [ ] and the characters inside them are appended to the end of the ROM name):
[!] Verified good dump
[a] Alternative version
Bad dump
[f] Fixed dump
[h] Hacked ROM
[o] Overdumped ROM
[p] Pirated version
[t] Trained version
[!p] Pending dump
There are many other codes in square brackets, often console-specific. Since they are only a cataloguing/naming system and not a “purification” system like No-Intro, Redump and Trurip, the GoodSets contain all the types of dumps mentioned above. The GoodTools are the programs used to analyse the ROMs you have, and they are also useful for tracking down the missing ones.
NonGood
NonGood sets contain the ROMs not recognised by the GoodTools. In other words, ROMs that are not in the GoodSets but might be in the future.
No-Intro
What No-Intro does is create a DAT file, to be used with ROM managers, containing information on the known released ROMs. There are often several versions of the same ROM dump, but most of them are junk; some examples include: bad dumps, hacks, fakes, overdumps (dumps larger than the original ROM, often with a run of bytes all set to 00 at the end; for example an original 128KB ROM dumped as if it were 256KB), underdumps and so on. No-Intro lists only the best available ROM; it must be a complete dump with no errors and no modifications to the file; basically it only contains the ROMs that are as close as possible to the original licensed cartridges.
Maybe-Intro
It is a project dedicated to preserving and cataloguing ROM hacks and, above all, fan translations of video games. It is inspired by the No-Intro project. It provides information to identify correct ROM images while weeding out the “junk” (bad dumps, hacks, fakes, etc.). But among the junk you can find some treasures, and the ROM hacking scene also deserves to be preserved. It aims to have the same care and love that have already been devoted to original video game media. First and foremost it preserves the latest version of complete or nearly complete fan translations and the best of the other types of ROM hacks. DAT files are provided to identify correctly patched ROM hacks, together with their original documentation, using a ROM manager. There is one DAT file per system and per translation language, as well as for hacks. The original patches are also kept in the form in which they were released.
Redump
Similar to No-Intro but only for optical media, and less “pure” than Trurip (see below): redump.org is an optical disc preservation database and an Internet community dedicated to collecting precise and accurate information on every video game ever released on optical media for any system. The goal is to create exact reproductions of the data on console discs and PC game discs. Redump.org also provides guides to make sure dumps are done correctly. Website users who follow the guides correctly are encouraged to share their results to help build the database. Several dumps of games with the same serial number are collected from different people to confirm the final result, which helps to correct any bad dumps in the database and to recognise alternative versions of the same game.
Trurip
Trurip’s mission is to have the purest copy of the original media in all its forms: optical, magnetic and cartridge. It sounds similar to No-Intro’s goals, but it isn’t. In fact, it is a step above! This means there are no headers or modifications added to make sure games run correctly in emulators. This project too may, in some cases, not contain exact copies, for example because of missing subcodes on CDs. Even so, it is certainly the most purist of anything available at the moment.
Rawdump
It deals mainly with the preservation of optical discs (CD, DVD). These copies are made for genuine preservation purposes; they are 2448-byte dumps (main data + subchannels) encoded with interleaved subs, with pregap and lead-in (TOC) included. In other words, these dumps are a bit-for-bit copy of the original source.
Neo Kobe – Japanese computers project
The goal of this project is to organise and preserve software for Japanese computer systems of the ’80s and early ’90s, such as the following:
NEC PC-6001
NEC PC-8001
NEC PC-8801
NEC PC-9801
Fujitsu FM-7
Fujitsu FM Towns
Sharp X1
Sharp X68000
These computer systems had thousands of homebrew and doujin titles.
ScummVM
It is a program that lets you run some classic point-and-click graphic adventure games. The clever part of this software is that it replaces the platform-specific executables, allowing the titles to be played on systems they were never designed for, using only the games’ data files!
eXoDOS
eXoDOS is an attempt to catalogue, obtain and make playable every game developed for the DOS platform. The collection favours dumps from original media rather than scene rips (the latter often cut down in various parts such as video, audio, etc.). It uses a combination of Dosbox and ScummVM to emulate the old titles on modern systems. Both emulators are included in the package and are preconfigured to run all the included titles without any prior knowledge or experience on the user’s part.
Around mid-2021 eXoDOSScummVM was released, a reworked version for just the titles compatible with that emulator.
Total DOS Collection
TDC contains everything; it is in fact a collection of DOS/PC game titles, every version, every language, every hack and crack, all sorted and renamed in a similar way to TOSEC. Every file is cleaned of BBS adverts and pirate NFO files, and every game is virus-free and ready to play. The aim is to build a complete PC DOS archive! It includes a collection of documents, cheats, trainers and other items found during the archiving process.
How is it different from eXoDOS?
These are just the “raw” games: there is no frontend support, screenshots or configuration files for Dosbox. This project is more complete than eXoDOS as it collects every version, every alternative version, shareware, registered shareware, Chinese games, Polish games, etc.
Does it contain games that are not in eXoDOS?
Yes. Eventually eXoDOS will probably be absorbed into this project, but at the moment that is not the case.
Win3xO
Win3xO is an attempt to catalogue, obtain and make playable (almost) every game developed for the Windows 3.x platform. It mainly covers 16-bit games, but because several late-period games were able to run on the Win32s extender, it also includes the first 32-bit games. The collection favours dumps of original media rather than scene rips (the latter often cut down in various parts such as video, audio, etc.). This collection uses emulation of Windows 3.1 installed under various versions of DosBox. All the required files are included in the package and all the games are preconfigured to run with no configuration needed from the user.
So what should you choose for your FlashCarts ?
It’s probably best to go for the No-Intro sets so you only have already-selected titles, rummaging a bit through the GoodSets to find a few gems such as special hacks and translations, and possibly looking for homebrews/public domain separately.
