GameBoy rom verify?

[donefor]

I use a program called NSRT which will check a ROM to see if the dump is as it should be, however this is for SNES roms only. I need now a tool that will work to fix/verify GameBoy ROMs and was hoping somebody can tell me the name of a tool.

I see there are GameBoy no-intro dat files and so there must be tools also for what I need.

Thanks in advance.

[NGEfreak]

You don't really need a extra program for GB/GBC roms. There are only like 2 or 3 roms with copier header floating around (more if you also count bad/hacked roms).

You can remove these headers with uCON64 and an old tool called ROMExplorer.

Anyway, if you just want to scan your roms all you need is the dat file and ClrMamePro or RomCenter.

[donefor]

I've yet to get to grips with uCON64 but never heard of ROMexplorer. As for ClrMamePro or RomCenter I tried and tried to understand those but just could not. If you would, if you have the time a patience would you consider uploading a youtube video demo of how they work. I know there are plenty of tutorials online but I just don't get them. I'll try again but have done so several times.

I take it that when you say "scan" that will allow me to verify the roms are what they say they are correct?

Thanks!

[donefor]

The problem I have now is tracking down a GB/CGB dat that will work with uCON64, even the no-intro dats wont work with uCON64. My theory is that uCON64 plays well with RC dats but now RC understands CLRMamePro dats no-intro has released all their dats for CLrMamePro only and so only a handful, those being the dat-o-matic, will work with uCON64.

It even takes a renaming of a dat file from Nintendo - Game Boy Advance (20080911_RC).dat you'd have to rename it to gba-20080911.dat for it a GBA dat to work properly (thanks powerspike). So what do I do, I still need to proof the GameBoy ROMs on a Mac and rename some of them.. I have tried as many GB dats as I could find but no go.

Anybody...

[alexian]

Its difficult for us to tell where you're stuck.

I used RomCenter quite a bit and found it fairly easy to use. If that's available for Mac, go for it.

When you install RomCenter, it should create a folder called "datas". This is where you should put your dat files. And, it can handle compressed dat files. So, just use the ones that you can download from this page:
http://www.no-intro.org/datset.htm

When you fire up RomCenter, it will do some checking on its information. Once its up, there should be a field near the middle-top of the screen that will let you indicate which dat you want to work with. It's a drop-down, scroll-through type of box.

Once you've chosen a particular dat, there should be a work bar on the left of the screen that shows the dat. Not sure how this works on a Mac, the rest of us right-click on the dat. There's probably also a menu option to add a file directory -- you'll want to point it to the directory/-ies that have your GB or GBC roms. Once you tell it a directory to check, it will start to review.

I'm going off of memory here, but there's some color-coded selections also on the left-hand side, some for the dat itself, the rest for the files. These let you choose which ones you have (green), which ones you're missing (red), and which ones you have but under a different name than what the Dat knows (yellow). There's also an option to see which files you have in the indicated directory that are not known to the dat (grey).

You can choose yellow ones and "fix" them -- really nothing more than renaming the files. RomCenter and ClearMamePro (to my knowledge) do not go any further than that in "fixing" files. Rename is about the best you get.

I'm sorry if this doesn't get you where you need to be. Perhaps you could provide some screenshots for us as to where you're stuck?

[kazumi213]

You can convert from any CMPro DAT you find to supported RC format by ucon64 by using Logiqx's DatUtil (current version is 2.42). It's a command box ("DOS") app, but you should be able to execute it somehow on Mac (sorry I have zero experience with those computers). To convert just type:

datutil -f rc -o RC.dat CMPro.dat

You can replace "RC.dat" and "CMPro.dat" with other filenames, but note the order. This command string assumes "CMPro.dat" is on the same folder as datutil.

You usually miss info when converting to old RC DAT format. Specifically you always miss the md5/sha1 info contained on the CMPro DAT. That's one of the main reasons we dropped support for old RC DAT format.

[donefor]

Thanks, yet another facet of the ROM arena I was unaware of, but to be fair I was steering clear of Windows solutions. I can use DOS on my Mac (funnily enough I made a video how-to about DOSbox on YouTube, which is what I'm going to do with this when I'm done) but the program says its not able to run in DOS mode! So I converte clr to rc on my PC.

However when I tried the dat file with the name "Nintendo - Game Boy (20080711)" in uCON64 it still did not work, I was really hopeful too. Anyway I made a new video of my plight and hope you will get a better understanding:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9j6ptZQ1gmw

I have also uploaded the converted dat for inspection, I tried even some of the GoodGBx dats but no go (

Thanks again people!

[kazumi213]

The DAT you posted is not converted to RC format. It is exactly the same as the downloaded one from DoM. Please, try the attached DAT below.

[donefor]

Sorry, I think I attached the wrong file. Here is the Game boy one downloaded from (Nintendo - Game Boy (20080711)) and then converted using Datutil. I already got the GBA one working, did you see the video? But not the GB/CGB.

Thanks.

[kazumi213]

I get exactly the same converted DAT. I've made minor changes to the header, just in case. If the DAT below still isn't working, please post an already working DAT example.

[donefor]

Here I downloaded the GBA dat from http://datomatic.no-intro.org/?page=download, it was called "Nintendo - Game Boy Advance (20080911_RC)" I then changed the name to "gba-20080911.dat" and it worked. Otherwise not. Oh and the one you gave me did not work, thanks.

[kazumi213]

Ok, if the following is not working, I don't know what's wrong. Changes are:

- Added a carriage return at end of file
- Removed "date", "split", "merge" and "category" declarations from header and splitted "author" declaration into "author" + "url" declarations (so it looks like the GBA DAT header from DoM)

[donefor]

Oh man, I don't know what to say. But its still not working, I keep getting this error:

"WARNING "gb-20080711.dat" is meant for a console unknown to uCON64"

I am using uCON64 GUI v1.1, did you get it to work you end? Why doesn't it work?

[kazumi213]

Ok, one last attempt: rename the dat to "gbx-20080711.dat"

According to ucon64 FAQ number 43 (Q43), DAT filenames MUST use specific prefixes:

uCON64 will use all DAT files (in its DAT directory) that start with "snes" to identify SNES ROM dumps. The letter case is not important, so you could also use a name that starts with "SNES" or "Snes". If you use an incorrect name uCON64 will not use the DAT file, but will print a warning message each time you run uCON64 on a ROM dump.

Check the FAQ for a complete table.

If this works, please try to use the converted DAT as generated by DatUtil without further modification.

[donefor]

Okay, I was sure I tried it with the gbx prefix before. This time there was no error, but no resulting renamed ROM either. The output window didn't have an error, just the usual three lines of welcome text, this should be distributed freely etc...

So I don't think it has problem like before, but even reading a ROM the extra information that a dat file offers is not shown. I did try it with the Datutil converted ones also, the same thing.

Now what?