Cowering dat files out of date?

[redneon]

Are the cowering data files out of date? Looking at the data files that come with romcenter and ones on websites such as http://www.zophar.net they seem to be enormously out of date. Here are a few comparisons...

Romcenter has GoodSNES 0.999.5
Zophar has GoodSNES v2.04

Romcenter has GoodNES 1.010.0
Zophar has GoodNES v2.01

Romcenter has GoodGen 0.999.7
Zophar has GoodGen v2.05

Can anyone shed some light on this for me because there are something like 2000 more roms in the 2.05 GoodGen set than the 0.999.7 set.

Darrell

[Dweezledap]

I have a large collection of Romcenter datafiles at my site if your interested.

Datafiles

Keep in mind it is not possible to create 100% accurate datafiles for every Good Set. Mostly because of different header information, or no header information in the roms.
Unless you happen to have the exact same set as myself the datafiles with an * next to them will more than likely show some of your good roms as bad.
This will be a problem until plugins are created for these sets.

The snes plugin is incomplete and does not correctly read some PD BS hacked and other roms properly. I'm trying to create a GoodGen 2.05 dat but the genesis plugin is not reading about 150 of the new roms. I'm more than likely going to remove the header info from my set and create a datafile from that.

Edit: Oops was'nt thinking. Can't remove the header information since in some cases that is the only thing that makes the roms different from one another.

Edit 2: Converted all Goodgen roms to bin format. This should fix the problem. I'll be uploading the dat later tonight.

[Guest]

Wow thanks. It looks like these will do fine. So I'm guessing what happens is, Cowering releases a new version of his GoodTool (i.e. GoodGen 2.05) then Yori Yoshizuki creates a dat to work with ClrMame Pro and then you convert that dat to an RC dat?

I don't understand why people would use the supremely buggy GoodTools when they can get a much better performance from using your dats and RC. I presume it does work the same as what GoodTools would do?

Darrell

[redneon]

By the way, that last post was posted by me =o) I forgot to log in.

Darrell

[Dweezledap]

Actually Yori creates all the NonGood and some arcade related dats. I've created the majority of Goodxxx dats by scanning my verified collection with logiqx datutil and in some cases uCON64.

[dbjh]

Mostly because of different header information, or no header information in the roms.
Unless you happen to have the exact same set as myself the datafiles with an * next to them will more than likely show some of your good roms as bad.
This will be a problem until plugins are created for these sets.

I offered to write an SMS plugin, but I got no reply... It's not like I have time to waste, so I won't work on things like that unless people really appreciate it (*and* are willing to help).

The snes plugin is incomplete and does not correctly read some PD BS hacked and other roms properly.

Where is the bug report? Like I state in the doc that accompanies the SNES plugin. I'm not interested in PD stuff (as there's no end to it), but I *am* interested in problems with actual cartridge dumps. What does uCON64 say about those dumps? Does it help when you give them a proper backup unit header?

I'm trying to create a GoodGen 2.05 dat but the genesis plugin is not reading about 150 of the new roms. I'm more than likely going to remove the header info from my set and create a datafile from that.

A Genesis plugin could be created too, but I don't want to step on Eric's toes...

Edit: Oops was'nt thinking. Can't remove the header information since in some cases that is the only thing that makes the roms different from one another.

You probably *were* thinking, but are now thinking back "in the box" ;-) If the header is the thing that makes one of the GoodTools differentiate between files, then it's a bug in that GoodTool. Continue using you own judgement and doing your own research. I want to take this opportunity to thank you for your work on the console DAT files: thanks!

BTW is it okay with you if I add a link to your site on the uCON64 homepage?

[Dweezledap]

I offered to write an SMS plugin, but I got no reply... It's not like I have time to waste, so I won't work on things like that unless people really appreciate it (*and* are willing to help).

I'd personally like the plugin.

Where is the bug report?

It's on my to do list
It was mostly PD roms. There where a few BS and a couple others.
I probably should have used a better term than "incomplete" As you do state that you are not interested in PD stuff.

You probably *were* thinking, but are now thinking back "in the box" If the header is the thing that makes one of the GoodTools differentiate between files, then it's a bug in that GoodTool.

When I used uCON64 to scan my GoodGen collection without headers (--mkdat -nhd .....) It showed around 50 of them as having the same crc value as another rom. I need to output the error messages to a text file to determine exactly which roms were duplicates. Or take the time to use the created dat and figure which roms the "not recognized roms" are duplicates of.

I want to take this opportunity to thank you for your work on the console DAT files: thanks!

Your Welcome.
I've learned a lot since I started doing this around a year ago. I still have quite a bit of "Research" to do , but this has become an educational and fun hobby.

BTW is it okay with you if I add a link to your site on the uCON64 homepage?

Sure. That would be great.

[greatsticks]

I hope you don't mind me butting in here but I am desperately trying to locate a dat file for GB (DMG)/CGB to use with uCON64. I am a Mac user and have been all over the net looking for a way to simply verify ROMs and I find that both NSRT and uCON64 are the best solutions for Mac users.

The dat files on the uCON64 website are completely compatible with uCON64 but there is no GameBoy dat file and everywhere I have downloaded one from, even no-intro (RC), they do not work.. i.e. renaming a ROM file to the database name. I got help with a work around for the no-intro (RC) GBA dat file but that does not help me with GB/CGB.

Thanks.

[dbjh]

The best thing I've got is an ancient DAT file based on GoodGBX. I could send it to you if you want. I don't feel like making it available on a website, because Cowering is acting a bit silly about DAT files based directly on his utilities.

[greatsticks]

Thanks, thats very welcome.

It will be good to see if it works with uCON64, to prove it works. I'll be holding out for the dat-o-matic no-intro sets when they arrive.

[greatsticks]

A ha, I was given this old GoodTools dat for the GameBoy (DMG) and works with uCON64! its an old one but it works! Get it here:

http://lovelago.googlepages.com/GoodGBX-1.020.0.dat

I am going to have to wait now though for the dat-o-matic dats that no-intro provide, my sources tell me that they will be uploading SNES dats very soon, then genesis and then GameBoy with proofing to start late October, so can't wait!

Thanks.