Romcenter

files created with datama v1.22 still open in the newer versions of romcenter.

Non-compressed files need to go in individual sub-directories (as per emulators like MAME). ROMs can be in ZIPs (i.e. compressed) or directories (i.e. non-compressed) but not all in one directory. I am guessing that you have them all in one directory, which for example is called 'xxx'. In which case, to scan them:

- Create an empty directory 'yyy' and copy 'xxx' into it (so, 'yyy' contains the directory 'xxx' and 'xxx' contains your files).

- datutil -f romcenter yyy

That should do you but the dat will have one game containing all of your files. You'll have to play about with Excel, Access, awk or whatever you are comfortable with to re-structure them into sperate games. The RomCenter file format is explained in the RomCenter documentation so you will need to read that.

Logiqx

you could ofcourse also try the dat compiler in TIM, TOSEC's new tool :wink:

Ok, I noticed it only likes .ZIP files. How can I get DatUtil to handle non-zip files ?

Thanks,
p0p

Hi,

sorry I tried that several times and with several options but I keep getting the following error:

[quote] Scanning directory and writing details to datlib.tmp...
Loading the file into memory (0.3KB)...
Identified the file as being 'Folder Scan' format.
Calling the 'Folder Scan' pre-parser/tokenizer...
Storing the tokenized dat within the actual dat structure...
Error - No games were loaded.
Aborted processing due to errors![/quote]

Can you help ? Thanks..

p0p

Thanks heaps for that :)

Gets me one step closer :D

Anybody know whether I can import an existing dat file into Access and then export it back out againb once I'm finished with it.

Thanks again

[quote="runey"]How hard is to create a datafile for Romcenter and/or ClrMamePro from a list of files in a directory. e.g. I have selected a whole bunch of adf images and they are in my games directory. I need to convert that into a datafile for other people to rename their own (probably TOSEC) sets.[/quote]
You can use Logiqx's [url=http://www.logiqx.com/]Datutil[/url] to do this.

How to use Datutil:

run CMD.exe
cd to your datutil directory EX: cd C:\datutil
type in the games directory EX:
For a Romcenter datafile type: datutil -f romcenter2 C:\MyGames
For a ClrMamePro datafile type: datutil C:\MyGames

This will create a file called datutil.dat in the Datutil directory.
Rename it to what ever you like EX: MyGames.dat

Now use the RomCenter Datafile manager to import the new file and your good to go.

Edit: Be sure to at least fill in the "refname=" field in the header information or RomCenter may have problems.

Hi all,

I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction with this.

I know how to create a datafile by hand, but I don't really want to type in the info for 5000 games :D

How hard is to create a datafile for Romcenter and/or ClrMamePro from a list of files in a directory. e.g. I have selected a whole bunch of adf images and they are in my games directory. I need to convert that into a datafile for other people to rename their own (probably TOSEC) sets.

The other thing can I create a datafile from either an Access database (thats what Gamebase uses) or from an Excel spread sheet. This later option is probably the most useful for me. That way when I alter the GamebaseAMY database I can generate a new datafile for distribution.

Well hope someone can help.

Chow